Crazy About Arles
When did we stop loving photography? Never! That impactful year has left behind only desires: the desire to meet again, to hug each other, to kiss, to patch up the past. Photography is a wonderful, and safe, “carrier”: only that it’s there to infect us with emotions; to share with those who love it, those […]
The Orient Express, a Railway Legend
Some 130 years after its first voyage, the Orient Express is still a source of fascination. Archival images revealed in the exhibition “Orient Express & Cie” at the Rencontres d’Arles festival, immerse us in the atmosphere of these incredible journeys reserved for a clientele in search of adventure and exoticism.
10 Exhibitions to See at the 2021 Rencontres d’Arles Festival
The 2021 edition of the prestigious annual photography event, which opens today, features thirty-five exhibitions. Blind highlights a few of the ones you won’t want to miss if you’re attending the festival.
Diana Markosian’s Spellbinding Portrait of a Family, Drama, and Love
In “Santa Barbara,” Diana Markosian explores her mother’s life-changing decision to move to Southern California after the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
Abbas Kiarostami, the Photographer
Spotlighting the importance of photography in his work, Centre Pompidou in Paris devotes a vast retrospective to Abbas Kiarostami, a major figure in the new wave of Iranian cinema.
Ernst A. Heiniger: A Pioneer of Swiss Photography
An avant-garde photographer and a documentary filmmaker at Walt Disney’s, Ernst A. Heiniger has fallen into obscurity. Mounting a major retrospective, the Swiss Photo Foundation in Winterthur is paying tribute to the artist.
My Two Dads: Intimate Portraits of Gay Fatherhood in America
In a new book, Bart Heynen creates a tender portrait of fatherhood liberated from the strictures of cisheteronormative archetypes.
Between Reality and Fiction, Crossed Existences at the Hangar in Brussels
The Hangar, Brussels’ center for photography, presents the work of French artist Véronique Ellena and eight Belgian photographers around the theme “Look At My Story.” There is often but a thin line between fiction and reality, as we will see below.
Paris Rises
Durev Gallery surveys 75 years of photography in Paris in the exhibition “La ville s’éveille” [The City Rises].
From the River Wild to the River Suburban
The flow of water, time and human behaviour in Chloe Dewe Mathews’ “Thames Log”.
Taiwan: Behind the Mirror
With its incredibly extensive inaugural exhibition, the new National Center for Photography and Images of Taipei demonstrates in 600 photographs how the island with its turbulent history has claimed ownership of its own image.
The Magic of Colonial Era Photography
Sarah Waiswa reinterprets the archive; how words and pictures can make people appear or disappear.
The Magazine Pushing the Boundaries of Gay Photography
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! is back in a celebration of Pride, bringing together 10 photographers from around the world reimagining the possibilities of homoerotic art.
Trailblazing Publisher Katharine Graham’s Career in Photographs
A new show at the New York Historical Society showcases the former Washington Post editor’s ascent from the newsroom to Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball.
An Intimate Portrait of Lee Alexander McQueen by His Longtime Collaborator
For 13 years, Ann Ray documented the extraordinary career of British iconoclast Alexander McQueen and never gave a single photo away.
Michael Schmidt: A New German Perspective
The Jeu de Paume museum, in Paris, pays tribute to one of the most influential German photographers of the 20th century through a major retrospective, the first of its kind in France.
Sara Cwynar’s Multilayered Exploration of Beauty and Consumerism
In her book Glass Life, Sara Cwynar presents a feminist-inflected investigation of color, culture theory, and image-driven consumer culture.
Portraits by a Young Boy Who Later Became the Taliban’s Official Photographer
At just 11 years old, Khalid Hadi photographed 10,000 survivors of the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War.
Humanizing the United States’ Opioid Crisis
In New York, the Bronx Documentary Center’s latest exhibition reminds us that drug use is not an individual’s moral failing.
Best Regards, Gisèle Freund
They are the successors of Nadar, Karl Blossfeldt, Walter Benjamin. Their images continue to enrich the world history of photography and our own impatient eyes. Blind shares the memories of some magical encounters with these virtuosos of the camera, soloists in black & white or in color, artists faithful to conventional photography or bewitched by digital technologies. Today: Gisèle Freund and the emergence of literary space.
Extraordinary Voyages: Transportation in All Shapes and Sizes
Éditions Louis Vuitton and Atelier EXB take us on a journey around the world in fifty true stories and onboard as many means of transportation. The book teems with vintage photographs.
Three Ways of Looking at Russian Youth
What is it like being ten, twenty, or thirty in Russia? Blind has picked three young-generation, not to say new wave, photographers, who take on subjects such as national history, the disparities between rural and big-city cultures, as well as partying.
Neil Leifer: The Wonders of Sport
Former editor-in-chief of L’Equipe Magazine, now a gallery owner specialized in sports photography, Jean-Denis Walter writes a regular column for Blind. This fourth installment is dedicated to one of his most illustrious unknowns.
Revisiting “Minamata,” W. Eugene Smith’s Final Photo Series
The new film Minamata starring Johnny Depp explores the final chapter of Smith’s career. Here, his ex-wife Aileen Mioko Smith recounts their extraordinary work.
Stories of Trauma, Survival and Healing in the Dominican Community in America
Emily Sujay Sanchez uses the camera as a therapeutic tool to overcome the challenges she faces as a first generation Dominican American woman.
Joel Meyerowitz Revisits His 1983 Classic “Wild Flowers”
For nearly 60 years, Joel Meyerowitz has been drawn to the flower in its many splendored forms. Here he looks back at its role in his storied career.
Dawoud Bey: Inner Life
Newly released Street Portraits brings together Dawoud Bey’s portraits of African Americans taken between 1988 and 1991 in various towns around the US.
Exploring Race and Masculinity in the United States
In his first book, Black Like Paul, Alex Christopher Williams presents an intimate portrait of intimacy and vulnerability through the lens of race and gender.
A Portrait of the New York Art Scene Just Before the Advent of AIDS
A new book and exhibition revisit downtown New York in 1981 and capture the face of a lost generation just before the pandemic struck.
Mexican Hotel Offers Shelter Against Domestic Violence
Photographer Gaia Squarci has documented her encounter with a Mexican woman who pressed charges against her ex-husband for rape. A poignant multimedia story.
Desert Storm: Kuwait’s Architectural Heritage
French photographer Jérome Poulalier documented the endangered heritage of this unsung country of the Persian Gulf.
Marc Riboud, Bearing Witness to the World
The retrospective exhibition of Marc Riboud’s work at the Guimet Museum in Paris reopened on May 19 and the accompanying catalog remains available. Here is a look back at the career of this globetrotting reporter from the days of black and white, whose work spans nearly six decades.
Chester Higgins, The Indelible Spirit
A new exhibition at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery, in New York, charts the early course of Chester Higgins’s journey from the late 1960s through the 1990s, with a selection of images that highlight his career.
Commuting Under the Divine Light
In his new book entitled Roosevelt Station, New York photographer David Rothenberg captures his subjects – commuters, airport-bound travelers, panhandlers, missionaries, and others – awash in the radiant, cathedral-like light of Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street train station’s concourse. These otherwise candid, rush-hour images assume an otherworldly theatrical guise.
The Innovative Achievements of Women Behind the Lens
A new exhibition brings together 100 works made over the past two centuries to explore the ways women have shaped the development of photography.
Five Essential Tools for Landscape Photography
Photography accessories are tools that a lot of photographers tend to overlook. In many cases, however, they allow you to optimize your images and help you get better aquainted with your equipment so you can be more effective when it’s time to start shooting. Here are five essential accessories for landscape photography that are easy to take with you everywhere you go.
Portrait vs Landscape: Which Orientation to Choose?
The orientation of your image: portrait vs landscape (or vertical and horizontal) are the two main framing formats in photography. While their very names indicate how they are most often used, knowing how to orient your camera to highlight an element, accentuate a line or give more energy to an image is not always that easy. Here are some tips to help you make up your mind and choose between landscape vs portrait.
Rivka Katvan: Timeless New York
The photographer Rivka S. Katvan has made a name for herself by capturing backstage Broadway. But it’s not just actors she photographs: her street shots reveal New York City’s lively poetry.
Imogen Cunningham: a Lifetime of Active Involvement
The publication of a book on Imogen Cunningham, which brings together nearly 200 of her photos, including previously unpublished ones, is an opportunity to rediscover the journey of this pioneer, feminist, pacifist and artist who was impossible to pigeonhole.
New Bern: The Portrait of a Small American Town
Over a period of fifteen years, Michael von Graffenried documented the daily life of New Bern, North Carolina. This long-term project, published this spring with Steidl, is on view May 19–20 at the newly opened Espace MVG in Paris.
After Us the Deluge: Images of Sinking Land
Dutch photographer Kadir van Lohuizen, a member of NOOR Images, has traveled around the world, meeting people who are already suffering the consequences of sea level rise. He publishes After Us the Deluge: The Human Consequences of Rising Sea Levels, an extensive, superbly documented photography project.
The Crack, a Shadow From the Past
It’s a search that began as a child who weekly left her home in the urban metropolis of Cairo; the weekly visit to my father’s home where my paternal grandparents lived. Every weekend I made the trek, filled with anticipation and idealism about my life there. This is my story. Between two homes. Between the past and present creating a crack in the memory of my memory.
Newly Discovered Images Shed Light on the “Green Ticket” Roundup of 1941
The Shoah Memorial in Paris has acquired a series of recently discovered photographs which show in detail the first mass arrest of Jews in Paris, organized during World War II by the French police at the initiative of the German authorities.
Six Pictures: Out West With Lora Webb Nichols
The editor of a remarkable — and remarkably beautiful — book explains how a photographer captured daily life in a small Wyoming town in a way few of us have ever seen.
Atget’s Paris in Sepia
The name Eugène Atget is synonymous with the Paris of yesteryear, the world of small trades and picturesque streets. The photographer’s oeuvre now is the core of a collaborative project that includes a book published by Atelier EXB, entitled Voir Paris and an exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.
