Smart phones and social media make it possible for anyone to become a celebrity—if only in their own minds and in those of their best “friends.” But while the book on celebrity culture is yet to be written, the photos have already been made. Annie Leibovitz, the photographer whose work for Rolling Stone (1970 to 1983) elevated the genre to an art form, will … Read the full Story >>
Horace Poolaw, of the Kiowa tribe, took thousands of photos of his multitribal community around Anadarko, Oklahoma, between the 1920s and 1950s. A selection of his images appears in a new volume, For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw (Yale 2014), which accompanies the National Museum of the American Indian’s exhibition of the same name, which opens next week. Info Spanning … Read the full Story >>
Currently on view at Japan Society, When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan, features a diverse array of hand tools—planes, axes, saws—and joinery techniques that have been used to build Japan’s wooden architectural masterpieces for hundreds of years—from temples and shrines to bridges. In the press release, gallery director Yukie Kamiya says, “This year is the 50th anniversary of the landmark building … Read the full Story >>
Independent photojournalist David Butow sensed a dark undercurrent in the American political psyche while covering the early days of the Trump campaign back in 2016. As he followed events in the upper Midwest rustbelt and rural towns, he concluded that the ever-changing narrative of the highly unpredictable candidate signaled dramatic times to come. So he moved to Washington, D.C. for an immersive experience … Read the full Story >>
Digital image-making and -sharing platforms, the ubiquity of social media and the camera in every pocket has radically altered today’s visual culture. With Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change, continuing through May 7, the International Center of Photography delves into the ways in which the immediacy of events alters individual perception of the world and, in a larger sense, speeds up the … Read the full Story >>
Not only can a blog increase your online presence, it's also the perfect opportunity to give your audience more background on you as a professional photographer and a person. Behind-the-scenes shots and fun stories help clients get a better sense of who you are and what it would be like to work with you. To some photographers, blogging comes naturally: The content flows like … Read the full Story >>
Amy Elkins exchanged letters with prisoners on death row, and she interspersed those letters with images created in an effort to capture the interior landscapes evoked in these correspondences: imagined seascapes; re-creations of items described by prisoners; a prison lunch tray purchased on eBay. She created color portraits of inmates by pixelating and obscuring their faces according to the amount of time each individual … Read the full Story >>
The noted video journalist and TV documentary maker Travis Fox was an early adopter of drone aerial photography, and has since gone on to teach City University of New York's first drone journalism course at the CUNY Newmark Journalism School. His new book, Remains to be Seen (Daylight 2020) explores a disappearing but still tangible American landscape. Amid abandoned industrial sites, amusement parks, and shuttered … Read the full Story >>
This week PPD will be devoting itself to looking back at the year in photography, pulling together images and stories featured in previous posts and adding some new ones. Today we look at a few of the trends in photography from 2015, from the top images on Flickr and the cameras they were made with to a list of the best and most popular … Read the full Story >>
The artistry of Milton Glaser is surely key to the mark he has left on our ways of looking at, and thinking about, the world we live in. In his seven decades behind a pencil, Milton looked/thought twice about more subjects than there is space here to mention. But just considering a few ideas that made New York Magazine completely unique when it broke … Read the full Story >>
The exhibition Cine São José: 35 Years of Estúdio Campana, opening this week at Friedman Benda’s LA outpost, was planned before Fernando Campana passed away last fall, but it’s become an homage to him, and to the legacy of Estúdio Campana. For over 35 years, the brothers Fernando and Humberto pushed the boundaries of furniture design by combining unlikely, often found materials, … Read the full Story >>
Listen, I have never had any hero in my life or in photography. I just travel, I look and everything influences me…. For 40 years I have been traveling. I never stay in one country more than three months. Why? Because I was interested in seeing, and if I stay longer I become blind.—Josef Koudelka The Czech photographer Josef Koudelka (b. 1938) perhaps invented the road trip … Read the full Story >>
Starting with Francis Frith (1822-1898), soon after the introduction of the daguerreotype in 1849, photography, antiquity and tourism became so interlinked as to shape Western ideas about non-Western cultures. Because of the tremendous public fascination with Egypt following the Napoleonic wars, the Valley of the Kings became the site of the first experiments in mass tourism, and photography was a major factor in the … Read the full Story >>
Smartphones are a staple of modern life and are changing how we see the world and show it to others. The devices are responsible for more than 90 percent of all the photographs that were made in 2023, but compare the camera roll of a 60-year-old with that of a 13-year-old, and you'll find some surprising differences. In research published in the Journal of … Read the full Story >>
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) was a visionary French architect who, among other things, devised the structural system that made it possible for Gustav Eiffel’s Statue of Liberty to sport a skin of self-oxidizing copper. His approach to materials was: understand the properties and the form will ensue. Many years later, this idea was popularized by Louis Sullivan, who coined the phrase, “Form Follows Function”—a … Read the full Story >>
Peter Hujar was a leading figure of the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and ’80s—a period of highly experimental art, theater, music and club culture. He is most well known for his sensitive portraits of New York City’s avant-garde artists, musicians, writers, and performers, featuring personalities such as Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, Fran Lebowitz, David Wojnarowicz, Andy Warhol, Candy Darling, and … Read the full Story >>
A graphic novel, The Women Who Changed Art Forever, just out from Laurence King Publishing, offers a fresh perspective on four trailblazers of feminist art: Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Ana Mendieta and the Guerilla Girls. Written by Valentina Grande, an art historian, and illustrated by Eva Rossetti, the book tells the story of how each of these artists have drawn from the strengths … Read the full Story >>
While having opposable thumbs sets us apart from the animal kingdom, the ability to hold a shard of charcoal, or any other mark-making stick, and draw, makes us human. For most artists, drawing is often the bridge from procrastination to expression—the quickest shift from being fogged in to being focused. Above: Francesco Clemente, “5-22-2020”, courtesy of Levy Gorvy. In the invitational exhibition currently … Read the full Story >>
Drawing in Battery Park City Parks has begun for the season! Organized by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, this long-running series is a city favorite. Free classes in figure drawing with a live model, as well as nature drawings take place weekly, with all materials provided. Figure Al Fresco Many people are challenged when trying to draw the human figure. The Battery … Read the full Story >>
Colorama: [Formerly] The World’s Largest Photographs George Eastman House announced today that a reproduction of a Colorama image is being installed adjacent to its new Thomas Tischer Visitor Center, which will open to the public on Saturday, October 10. An image of the Taj Mahal, made by Don Marvin in June 1964 was installed in Grand Central Terminal from June 2 to July 9, 1986. Billed … Read the full Story >>
