More about São Trindade’s work Dead Inside can be seen here. More about São Trindade’s book Bad Liver and a Broken Heart can be seen here.
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Margarida Gouveia
image caption (above): © Margarida Gouveia, Beautiful People #1, poster for Propeller #3 – Propaganda, 2019. More of Margarida’s recent work can be seen here. These black-and-white photographs constitute an imaginary that calls to mind scientific and forensic photography. They are imbued with a sense of strangeness and of a hygienic and strictly functional world in…
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Soraya Vasconcelos
image caption (above): © Soraya Vasconcelos, untitled, digital c-print, 122×163 cm, 2007. More of Soraya’s recent work can be seen here. Models of “territories” are constructed with organic matter and inorganic material: paint, pigments, varnishes, wax, plaster… There is a process of constructionIs it possible to formulate a general theory of artistic collaboration? And…
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The art plunge, vice news and infotainment
photo caption (above): Chine, Shenzhen, 2017, Scene #1350 © Alex Majoli / Magnum Photos Les employés d’un institut de beauté participent à une réunion de motivation avant de commencer leur travail. When is enough, enough? Vice is obviously no reference when it comes to dignifying the use of photographs in the media, but still I…
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Paulo Arraiano
image caption (above): © Paulo Arraiano, Swiping Reality, 2016, Acrylic On Canvas, 180 x 150 cm. More of Paulo’s work can be seen here. Excerpt from Miguel Moore‘s FOLD/FAULT. More here. In the fast-paced frenzy that drives our contemporary societies, where thoughts and impulses are beamed by way of artificial satellites and express the paramount need to…
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Ramona Guntert
For quite some time I made very simple posts showcasing artwork from authors who used photography in a way that somehow interested me. Back to the old ways here are some images from Ramona Guntert‘s work. Some words from the author about her own work here. excerpt from a conversation between Ramona Guntert…
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A woman and a bird – part III of III (text)
Photo caption: Amanda Feilding and Birdie Propeller‘s crew is responsible for introducing me to Helen MacDonald‘s H is for Hawk. When we started working together they’d frequently talk about the book and stress out how I would love it. I never doubted I would, but kept wondering what associations led them all to feel so…
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A woman and a bird – part II of III (images and introduction)
Photo caption: Nagika taking a shit while staring at the sun I moved to the region where I currently live in the Summer of 2016. It’s quiet here and silence becomes truly special. From that moment on, I’ve learnt to love birds. I think that started one night when a owl (Athene noctua) began to…
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A woman and a bird – part I of III (images only)
Photo caption: Helen MacDonald and her first ever hawk, a kestrel called Amy. Photo taken by her father (source: twitter). I’ve been preparing a text about the cheesy category in nature photography, particularly regarding photographs of birds. For now, some of the images that have been accompanying this reflection while I try to deviate from…
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Where have all the graveyards gone?
Still from HyperNormalisation showing journalist Daniel Pearl. This is mostly a critic of Adam Curtis‘ work for the show Mezzanine XXI, performed by Massive Attack, although their curating act is equally up for critics. I went to their concert a few days ago, in Lisbon, and was ill impressed (to say the least). I knew…
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Art is Not Propaganda, an editorial
Here is the editorial I’ve written for Propeller #3, about Propaganda. This editorial introduces a series of great essays, namely: Fire Inside, by Pete Brook, Propaganda and photography at the front door, by Teresa Mendes Flores, and Shooting in the name of (and now you do what they told ya): Photojournalism – keeping the status…
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From Icon to Splendor – about Valter Ventura’s ‘Light and Darkness’
The following text is a short and edited version of the essay written about Valter Ventura‘s exhibition Light and Darkness, (“Compêndio de observações fotográficas: luz e cegueira”), produced specifically for the Lisbon Municipal Photographic Archive. The full original version was published in the respective catalog. Several mythological narratives account for the gods’ will to punish…
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From Africa to Sweden to Brazil: the problem with cultural appropriation (in the age of social networking)
caption: unknown author, at Stockholm Pride Festival In the past few weeks several events concerning cultural appropriation have motivated public discussions. I’ll be focusing on three: Gucci’s blackface jumper, Amanda Lind‘s dreadlocks and Donata Meirelles birthday photograph with two black women wearing traditional Bahian outfits. The fact that I’m appropriating these events in order to talk about cultural…
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Propaganda, “degenerate art” and hyperphotography
Propaganda has been a recurrent theme in my life since June 2018 when we, at Propeller, decided that should be the theme for the following edition, which will finally be out on february 20th. I’m also working on the theme with undergraduate students in the context of a larger project about media and photography’s relation…
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Brent Stirton’s ‘AIDS in Ukraine’ and the recurrent theme of ethics (warning: violent images)
caption: © Brent Stirton, A young Aids affected child in the home of his HIV+ drug addicted mother in their poverty stricken village on the first day of school, Donetsk, Ukraine, 1 September 2011. I know, I know… what can I possibly have to say about this that I haven’t before? Not much. Ethics in…
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Every trace of death is benettoniful
caption: Oliviero Toscani for Benetton, 1992. In 1982 the Mafia killing of Benedetto Grado in Palermo, Italy, was captured by Franco Zecchi. Ten years later the image was featured in Benetton’s spring/summer 1992 campaign. Various publications refused to publish the image and the dead man’s daughter claimed she would sue, asking: “How does my father’s…
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Ruth Van Beek and the need to wonder
caption: © Ruth van Beek, The Situation Room (Two figures), 2018. When I regard van Beek‘s collages I immediately know they were made by a woman. There’s a feminine sensibility at play, an heritage of affective labour that is put to work. This idea of a visual heritage is not a reference to a nostalgic…
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[no hablo espanol] O sistema de ensino superior ruiu
caption: Anatomy Museum in the University of Edinburgh Medical School, Teviot Place. Photo by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, 1898. [no hablo espanol] dá nome a uma categoria de posts do Nihil que passarão a ser escritos na Língua-mãe e se desviarão da orientação temática da casa: a Fotografia. Não sou professora no ensino superior há muito…
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All photographs look alike and I blame digital design
caption: image illustrating an article @ Time.com, entitled TIME’s 25 Best Photobooks of 2018. The first sentence of the article reads: “As an antidote to your unyielding Instagram feed, consider the photobook.” I’ve been thinking about photography’s relationship with digital design in the twenty-first century. After some considerations and discussions with colleagues and students I…
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Zero accountability in the art scene (anything goes)
caption: Exhibition View. Novo Banco Foto at Museu Colecção Berardo, 2016. Mónica de Miranda. Photography David Rato. The Novo Banco Photo prize has become one of the key moments of the year in Portugal for the consecration of an artistic practice. […] The artists selected for this exhibition are: Félix Mula, Mozambique; Mónica de Miranda, Angola and…
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The uncanny power of a portrait
caption: © Pierre Gonnord, “Ali” 148 x 125 cm. Color photograph under plexiglass, framed. I’ve had this portrait hovering in my desktop since November. From then on, I kept avoiding identifying the author and seeing further work, already suspecting my enthusiasm would be cut to shreds. It was and it wasn’t. I’m clearly not…
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Photography and psychoanalysis as overlapping fields?
Searching the web for author Glorija Lizde (b. 1991, Croatia), whose work Persona(L) I came to know in December due to Parallel Review, I was surprised to find a particular essay accompanying her project F20.5 (2016-2018). That particular text, published at Hulu-Split, is an excerpt from Ana Peraica‘s Culture of the Selfie: Self-Representation in Contemporary Visual Culture. But before…
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Photography, you slut!
Right before the year comes to an end, every online platform rushes to publish their best-of lists. Excited, editors exchange reviews and debate on their conclusions. The most this, the most that, the best photographs, best exhibitions, best books… It’s guaranteed that the photography market will be alive and kicking for another year. As for…
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My dog died a dying death
It’s a new year and I’m back at Nihilsentimentalgia with the usual suspects: photography and death. No surprises there. My oldest dog, Ghost, died last week. To be fair, I killed him. As I made the choice I thought I’d have to assist him in his last breath. That decision led to the creation of…
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‘My Visual Demon and Sci-fi Trump’, by Li Lorian (Ten years of Nihilsentimentalgia)
I’ve been following Nihilsentimentalgia for the past six years or so. I visit the blog every two or three months and read an entry or two. It’s an open but stable relationship. It seemed that every time I read the blog there are texts exactly matching the issues I currently grapple with, like a creepy…
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I’m haunted by images and I’m taking a break (beware these images are shocking)
I’ve started this post two months ago and since then Nihilsentimentalgia has been as slow as it gets. I’ve been wondering whether this blog should take a break. Being its tenth year, I thought I’d be motivated to write with a certain cadence, but the opposite has happened. I’m feeling overwhelmed by images and I’m…
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Ewa Kuryluk’s love letters
My understanding of one history of art is just not there. There are many reasons for that and no need to address any of them. Now I find myself discovering Ewa Kuryluk’s work (via books and internet) and I fail to make sense of this late encounter. Why not sooner? I arrived at Kuryluk’s work…
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Alex Kisilevich – third time’s a charm (Nihilsentimentalgia’s Early Years)
While updating some info on Nihil’s early posts I came across a post featuring an image by Alex Kisilevich. It seemed weird to have a post with a single image and as I went looking for more, I found not only that I made a second post a year after that but, and that’s the…
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We’re all just a shot away…
I first cross paths with Jordan Baumgarten‘s Good Sick at bjp online and one of the photographs stroke me, not for the best of reasons. I kept thinking about it. As I went back to have a proper look at the project, I came across Pete Brook’s writing on that same work and that finally…
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Igor Morales: ‘nãooriginais’ (featuring Propeller’s open call for edition #2 – fiction)
nãooriginais Igor’s statement nãooriginais proposes a quasi-purist exercise of photography (realism), to the point of expanding Duchamp’s proposal of readymades – taking into account that his work is fundamentally photographic, analyzing through photography as a trait of a real and the pragmatic of the index of R.Barthes – and to make the image of the…
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Philip LePage: ‘Still…’ (featuring Propeller’s open call for edition #2 – fiction)
STILL… Philip’s statement The girl has a question for the boy: “How much do you love me?” He thinks for a moment, then quietly replies, “As much as a train whistle in the night.” She waits in silence for him to go on. Obviously there has to be a story there. – Murakami Haruki, Feb…
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Dante Busquets: ‘Sateluco’ (featuring Propeller’s open call for edition #2 – fiction)
SATELUCO Dante’s statement A self-referential photographic analysis of middle-class suburban Mexico City, based on past relationships with people and urban space, that seeks to establish a visual dialogue with them in the present day. I examine social stratification of the Mexican culture in Sateluco. This project, which received the acquisition prize of the XII Photography…
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