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
The following post has been created by author Robin Cracknell. A recent post, ‘Photographs of animals and fake news‘, made me sigh. Why do we buy into this relentless stream of memes-masquerading-as-truth? When did we become so gullible? And why do we use these photographs as badges to advertise ourselves as somehow more virtuous, more…
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Animal lovers aren’t a particular type of human beings. Any deviation from this assessment would be, I think, discriminatory. Patterns tend to arise when, in an effort to synthesize, we shorten the analysis phase. Populism gallops this wave: people behave more like irrational animals – reacting and acting on instincts – and less like the…
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Some years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about going to visit animals in enclosed spaces and as my friend was arguing for his position, he stated: how else can I see them? Somehow, I’ve never forgotten his argument, so maybe there’s something to it. At fist, it seems just a very…
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Dogs have had a constant presence in my life. Their relevance in one’s life can have huge proportions as does their presence in art. They’re not only present in portraits, partnering their fellow humans, but also often portrayed by themselves. Sometimes they turn into brands, sometimes they turn into pop objects, often they serve decorative…
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Yesterday, after watching the documentary about the work of Sebastião Salgado I found myself trying to give an answer to the question then asked: does it matter if we cry? I think it does, the same way I think that actions need to be taken even when consequences are unknown, the same way I think…
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© Sebastião Salgado, part of Mondrel Media press kit. © Sebastião Salgado, part of Mondrel Media press kit. The Salt of the Earth (‘Le sel de la terre’/’O sal da terra’) is a documentary by WIM WENDERS and JULIANO RIBEIRO SALGADO about the brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. Sebastião’s work for the past 40 years or…
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© Patrick Hogan, Behind the Garden Wall, from the project Solitary, Half Mad. © Patrick Hogan, Animal In The Dark #1, from the project Solitary, Half Mad. excerpt of a conversation between Patrick Hogan and Stephen Tierney, published in The Interior Prospect. ST – Having grown up myself in the Tipperary countryside I remember many…
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© Clayton Cotterell, from the series Arrangements © Clayton Cotterell, from the series No Surrender
Read More© Vincent Delbrouck, all photographs from the series as dust alights
Read More© Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, from Animal Love © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, tearsheet from Animal Love © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, from Animal Love © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, from Animal Love © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, from Second Life © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch © Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch, from Pretty Ugly More…
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Miguel Suarez, Chicken-Killing Performance, Alberta, Canada, 2013. More about it here How does the animal function as a kind of tool for allowing humans to think through their own identities? It seems that a lot of artists you’re writing about are trying to envision a very far-out point in the dispersal of fixed identities, to…
Read MoreFrom time to time I revisit Gus van Sant’s movie Elephant. I think of it as a brilliant artwork, definitely his best. The characters, the composition, the poignancy of the argument… though he mastered them all what really captivated me was the animal theme and the symbolism behind its use. I remember reading an…
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“A man is an animal first of all. And then he is a Social animal, Political animal and so on. I am an Art animal, that’s why, spectator, I need your physical and psychological efforts to make sense.” Oleg Kulik © Oleg Kulik, Mad Dog Performance (photographs), 1994 © Oleg Kulik, I bite America and…
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© Terike Haapoja, Anatomy of Landscape, Durational images, 2 parts, 2008 Glass, plywood, live plants, light, electronic, water, 150 cm x 90 cm x 20 cm When one stands before a landscape, two lines of thought appear. One treats the landscape as a framed fragment of our field of vision, distanced plane of forms and…
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photo caption (above) © Christian Boltanski, Odessa Monument, 1991. Four gelatin silver prints, lights and wiring “Since the late 1960s, Christian Boltanski (b. 1944, Paris) has worked with photographs collected from ordinary and often ephemeral sources, endowing the commonplace with significance. Rather than taking original photographs to use in his installations, he often finds and…
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photo caption (above) © Tinkebell, Saving a Broiler, installation © Tinkebell, Brutus with Idiot, photo printed as a poster, made in collaboration with Mirjam Muller, with special thanks to the idiots © Tinkebell, Her name is Sarah, performance (the animal is used as a commodity article: as part of an individuals carefully build image and…
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© Traer Scott, Ostrich and Wild Boars, from the series Natural History © Traer Scott, Hunting Dogs, from the series Natural History Natural History is a series of completely candid, in-camera single exposure images which bring together both the living and the dead, creating allegorical narratives of our troubled co-existence with nature. Ghost-like reflections of…
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photo caption (above) © Chris Toalson, Penguins, from the series Dioramas, 2007 © Chris Toalson, Mourning Doves, from the series Dioramas, 2007 © Chris Toalson, Alaskan Brown Bear, from the series Simulations, 2008 “My photographic thesis, True West, calls into question the seeming American fascination with the American West. The current state of the West…
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© Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir, Untitled, from the project the light of day, 2010-2011© Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir, Untitled, from the project the light of day, 2010-2011 © Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir, Untitled, from the project the light of day, 2010-2011 More of her work here
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© Erwan Frotin, Pain à Pieds Bleus, from the series Sketch, 2006 © Erwan Frotin, Perdreau Fantôme, from the series Sketch, 2006 “Patiently elaborated images emerge, shapes and colours, dissonant or incongruous at first glance, astonish and confuse the viewer.” Marco Costantini, @ Still life as a chimera More of Erwan’s work here
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 