"What you're working on these days?" people often ask, adding "I haven't heard from your for a while." To answer this question at least partly, here I quickly summarize some of my work from 2017 and outline some projects that are coming up in 2018. Happy and productive New Year!
Read moreTwo new research articles about photography in the 1950s
Hot off the desk! Just finished two new research articles for the January 15 deadline. These articles offer insights into two major photography exhibitions of the 1950s that have shaped the history of postwar photography - The Family of Man and Photokina 1956.
Read moreTalk about Brazilian photographer José Oiticica Filho in Galeria MaPA, São Paulo, Brazil
This summer, I had the honor to contribute to a conference dedicated to the Brazilian photographer José Oiticica Filho (Rio de Janeiro, 1906–1964). The conference took place on August 22, 2017, and coincided with an exhibition of his work in Galeria MaPA, São Paulo, July 11 - August 31, 2017. I was invited by art historian and curator Marly Porto.
Read moreDefining competitive photography
In this article, I introduce a term competitive photography and define its historical emergence in the international juried exhibitions of photography in the 1950s. I believe that this term, competitive photography. brings into focus a large segment of photographic practices, contemporary and historical alike, which so far has escaped the attention of scholars.
Read moreClash of theories: New Objectivity versus Subjective Photography
In an interesting historical turn, what was meant to be non-art, became the very epitome of art (as exemplified by Albert Renger-Patzsch’s followers), whereas the most artistic photography of the 1950s (Otto Steinert’s Subjective Photography) turned out to be a dead end, at least from the perspective of today's art history.
Read moreGood photography is a game of rules
There’s two kinds of photography, one that follows the rules and one that does not. When you follow the rules, you get good photography. When you break the rules, you might either get good art or waste the resources. After years of studying photography that breaks the rules, I’m turning to photography that follows the rules.
Read moreGisèle Freund about women photographers
Gisèle Freund in 1954 wrote that "Women are interested in things more than in their relations to each other. They are not easily attracted by political or current events, but they distinguish themselves in portraits, children’s photographs, and they know how to capture with subtlety every expression of everyday life." From today’s perspective, it may sound outrageously “anti-feminist” and patronizing. But what if she was right?
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