N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A,
a blog about photography by Sofia Silva
Photography is not about reality. The fact that, when using a camera, what we see on film or screen somehow resembles circumstances we may have witnessed, has been complicating the relationship between photography and reality for almost 200 years. Mimese can explain part of the confusion, but not all. When illustrating a scene with photo-realism…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Most of us will agree on one thing: this year’s WWP winning photograph is not their typical choice. But that’s it! The consequences of this choice are as multilayered as the photograph itself. One of the first persons to speak openly about why this photograph “should not have won such a prize” was the chairman of the…
Read More
Somehow Max Pinckers‘ work has never excited me much. I though it was too neat, too contrived, too pretty, too arranged, too controlled… After coming across a feature of Magnum Photos Now about Finding Your Documentary Photography Style and reading the words he chose to describe his approach to documentary photography, I went back to some…
Read More© Alex and Felix, Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais “Everybody, it seems, is writing about Dave Hickey, but nobody’s really concentrating on the 74-year-old maverick art critic’s thorny, profound ideas about beauty. That is understandable. After decades of lambasting the academic side of the art world for institutionalizing mediocrity, and after…
Read More
@ Alexander Gehring, Untitled, from the series Messages from the Darkroom @ Alexander Gehring, Untitled, from the series Messages from the Darkroom The photographic series Messages from the Darkroom investigates the connection between photography and the occult. Based on historical photographs published by early twentieth century parapsychologist Dr. Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Messages from the Darkroom…
Read More
N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 