by Nihil

Experimental work and printing techniques (part X)

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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by Nihil

Experimental work and printing techniques (part VI)

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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by Nihil Fashion

The press loves this, but who else does?

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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art by Nihil materiality Mixed Media Portugal

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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by Nihil

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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Portugal

Colour #4: Paula Riff

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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Portugal

Colour #3: Aleksandra Vajd

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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Portugal

Colour #2: Sanne de Wilde

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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Portugal

Colour #1: Akihiko Miyoshi

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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Portugal

Disconnecting from your body

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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Portugal

Photographing Corners

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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Portugal

A different kind of moonlight

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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Portugal

How authenticity came to be mistaken for spontaneity

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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Uncategorized

≡ True color thinking ≡

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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Uncategorized

⁞ L’Hasard Photographique ⁞

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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Uncategorized

٠ Balaclavas hit the beach ٠

© 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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Uncategorized

٠ 21st century food styling ٠

© 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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Belgium color

٠ Mark (he is) King (maybe) ٠

© 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…

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