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
Caption (image above): ‘One Love, One Heart #5’, linocut printing on fabric with embroidery over digitized photographs (by Sofia Silva). More about Jennifer West‘s work here. Rita Gonzalez, author of Jennifer West: Across Time and Through Media (excerpts): West came out of DIY media scenes in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s, where e robust…
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Caption (image above): lumen/chemigram (by Sofia Silva) More about William Miller‘s work here. William Miller about Ruined Polaroids: “With its first use I realized the camera wasn’t functioning properly. It sometimes spills out 2 pictures at a time and the film often gets stuck in the gears, exposing and mangling the images in unpredictable…
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Caption (image above): image of filter used for anthotype work (by Sofia Silva) More about Katie Kalkstein‘s work here. … More about Tina Rowe‘s work here. Tina Rowe: “This work in the baldest terms comes from a series of negatives that were found in a bin with other items related to photography. It seems…
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caption: © Elizaveta Porodina, portrait of Lily D. Moore, for Radical Beauty Project. I came across this project through a very complimentary review in the Guardian. The Radical Beauty Project is about “challenging opinions”, questioning perceptions about beauty. It brings together people with down’s syndrome and “40 renowned fashion and art photographers”. In creative director…
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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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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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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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The first group of images featured below is part of a project entitled What’s love got to do with it. Here’s Paula Riff‘s statement about that project: I believe in love but it comes and goes. Like the falling of leaves, love often falls gently to the ground; at least that’s my experience. Marbling paper…
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All that is to know about Aleksandra Vajd’s project “Friends of friends are friends” (featured below) can be find in a text by Laura Amann, here. I see, I smell, I feel and hear these photographs reaching me. In Laura Amann’s words: The abstract nature requires us to focus on the process, materiality and technique.…
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What’s wrong with a purple sun? It’s been challenging to write about Belgian photographer Sanne de Wilde‘s The Island of the Colorblind. I mentioned the project here once before, but at the time the book was about to be published (by Hannibal Publishers) and I waited for further information, for there was a lot about the…
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Here is a selection of Akihiko Miyoshi’s profound, complex and beautifully coloured work. Photography’s impulse to depict in its most utilitarian tendencies (for example photo-journalism as art) creates, to use the artist Jeff Wall’s words, the “most problematic kind of photograph” which anchored itself through social validity. This to me is an insufficient condition for…
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Most people have a very special layer around their bodies (non-scientifically described as a second-skin) that protects them from the outside menaces. I’m sure if we dove into a biological take on this subject, there would be a lot to talk about. However, this second-skin I’m referring to is not that kind of verifiable layer.…
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There’s something about a photograph of a corner that intrinsically relates to the essence of photography. Although I don’t pretend to know what that essence is, it’s clear to me that it somehow has to do with how we, as subjects, come to understand ourselves as beings. In that sense, it relates to memory and,…
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I’m just another lover of the art of moving pictures, so the Oscars, being about the movie industry, are usually not a place to look for references. Yet, I’m always aware, and I end up finding one or two things worth watching (usually the documentaries). This year, things couldn’t be weirder. Not only is Moonlight an originally brave movie,…
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It’s a question students often ask: who’s your favourite photographer? I don’t have one, nor do I have a favourite director, a favourite musician, a favourite writer and so on. It varies. Having said that, what students usually want when posing that question is to understand what kind of photographs I like, so I usually…
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One Paula Riebschläger writes about photographer Arnaud Ele‘s work: Far away from orchestrated photo shoots, Ele’s pictures are filled with authenticity expressed in pictures of dreamy landscapes and intimate portraits. He graduated from film school in Geneva and was recently commissioned by Urban Outfitters to create an ad campaign. Although, Ele is already a successful…
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For the past 4 years, in collaboration with two colleagues – Luis Pavão & Paula Lourenço -, I’ve been teaching Alternative Processes in Photography. One of the courses we used to teach was dedicated to Color Printing Processes, which I particularly enjoyed. About two years ago I decided to tattoo the color scheme on my…
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Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique,…
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© Stacey Page, Charlotte. © Stacey Page, Paula, 2011. © Stacey Page, Todd, 2011. Embroidered photographs have been a trend for some time now and Nihilsentimentalgia has featured examples of such work, like Maurizio Anzeri, Melissa Zexter, Julie Cockburn or David Catá. It so happens that the technique keeps coming up and their makers are…
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© Peng & Chen , from the series Face-kini © Peng & Chen , from the series Face-kini In China, it’s the height of the tourist season for Qingdao’s famed beaches. But while many of the town’s visitors want to enjoy the sand and water, they’re not so wild about sunbathing. So they often resort…
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What follows is a selection of photographs from this year shortlisted photographers for one of the most coherent photo-festivals in Europe: Hyères. As is made very clear by the following selection, this prize is also an elegy to the long lasting love affair between photography ans sculpture, with a particular emphasis on the fusion between…
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movie poster Spike Jonze’s new movie “Her” is a must see! First and foremost because it is an original script, both in the sense that it is new and also in the sense that it is unique, thought-provoking. Because the work is Spike’s own vision of the sort of relationships human will develop with machines…
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© Melissa Zexter, Brooklyn Bus Map, from Maps and Memories. Gelatin Silver Print + thread. © Melissa Zexter, Color Eye Chart, from Maps and Memories. Gelatin Silver Print + thread. © Melissa Zexter, Cardinal, from Embroidered Portraits. Gelatin Silver Print + thread. © Melissa Zexter, Leopard, from Embroidered Portraits. Gelatin Silver Print + thread. ©…
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© Clayton Cotterell, from the series Arrangements © Clayton Cotterell, from the series No Surrender
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it reads: We are looking for the sky in between the leafs. Text by Boris. it reads: Here, the sun gives us no light, only new shadows. Different ways to face the darkness. Text by Boris. it reads: People insist on coming to meet our gaze, invading it. Text by Boris. © Nuno Venâncio, from…
Read More© Vincent Delbrouck, all photographs from the series as dust alights
Read More© Henry Hargreaves, in collaboration with chef/stylist Caitlin Levin, from the series Mark Rice-Ko. © Henry Hargreaves, in collaboration with chef/stylist Caitlin Levin, from the series Mark Rice-Ko. © Sarah Anne Ward, in collaboration with food stylist Heather Meldrom, Pollock-rice krispie treats © Sarah Anne Ward, in collaboration with food stylist Heather Meldrom, Mondrian-jello jigglers …
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© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 © Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 © Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 “Back in January I was preparing for a screen printing artist in residency at the Frans Masereel Centre in Kasterlee, Belgium and wanted to go there with a new portrait project…
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…
Read More© Laurie Kang, Untitled, C-print, 2013 © Laurie Kang, Untitled form (Sufficiency), Chromogenic paper, clamp, nail, 2012 © Laurie Kang, Untitled Forms (Sufficiency) Chromogenic paper, nail, clamp and C-print, nail, clamp, 2013 © Laurie Kang, Psychogeographic Waterfall, C-prints, 16″ x 20″, 2011 © Laurie Kang, Confused archive, 2013 © Laurie Kang, Natural Image (Unknown duration,…
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© Filippo Minelli, from Contradictions, ongoing. Project realized (until now) between Cambodia, Vietnam, Mali, China, Italy. © Filippo Minelli, all from the project Silence/Shapes, 2010-ongoing “I started the ongoing series Silence/Shapes in early 2010 to give a physical shape to silence. To realize my idea I chose the chemicals used to create smoke bombs, a…
Read More© Ricardo Baltazer, all Untitled, from the series Touching from a Distance, 2012 Ricardo’s project Touching from a Distance was shot in Essen, Germany, in 2012. All images are blow-ups of snapshots he took while paving the streets. Inevitably, they refer to the distance between the author and the subject portrayed, as they speak about…
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