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
One of my earliest posts featured a couple of photographs by Malerie Marder and ten years later I am very surprised to go through her work and see that she has been seriously addressing intimacy, not only thematically, as core object of her compositions, but also in what the photographic camera, as a technological medium, does, within…
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In chapter XI (Courtly love as anamorphosis) of Lacan‘s Seminar VII (The Ethics of Psychoanalysis), Lacan suggests the term “extimacy” (extimité) to talk about the “intimate exteriority” that is at the core of the Thing. The Thing (das Ding) is a concept that Lacan develops from Freud to identify a primordial element that has been lost and…
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As is becoming ever more often, another student’s work sets ground @ Nihilsentimentalgia. Carlos was my student for the past year and the selection of work featured here, about his family, caught my attention. These images are part of a larger project about Carlos’ grandmother, Engrácia, with 84 years old, who lives with her husband, Alexandre, 81,…
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The other day, while being guided through an exhibition by its own curator, I asked him why a particular work was being showcased as a slideshow when the author in question is exceptional at photographic printing processes. The answer was clear: “I really don’t care about the materiality of the work”. It shouldn’t come as…
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This conversation took place in July 2014, over the virtual space of Lisbon and Brazil. The original, portuguese version, of this conversation, can be seen HERE. Sofia: This conversation is driven by your recent book featuring the work done in Azores. I have a few questions about the images, but I’ll pose them later on. For…
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© Adrain Chesser, Juliann (left) and Julia (right), from the series I Have Something to Tell You. excerpt of Adrian’s statement: When I tested positive for HIV and was diagnosed with AIDS, I had an extreme physical reaction whenever I thought about having to tell my friends and family. Looking at this reaction more closely,…
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© Adam Lach, Wroclaw 10.03.2013 Poland. Roma girl, Karolina. Karolina escaped from her parents home (from different part of Poland) because of big love to Alex, one of the slums inhabitant. © Adam Lach, Wroclaw 27.03.2012 Poland Florica family in their barack. From left: Aleksander (mental handicapped after car crash), Adam, Florica, Elvecian, Bunia (mental…
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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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© Sanne Sannes, The face of love, 1965 © Sanne Sannes, Untitled, 1962-65 Can love restore the ‘primitive-ego’? is obviously not a question I have the answer for but, nonetheless, it is one that is worth revisiting now and then. It’s not difficult to understand that ‘falling in love’ is an event that messes with…
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LUIS BUÑUEL: L’Age d’Or (1930)
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© Ochi Reyes, all photographs from the series Mother “I have gone through the traces my mother left behind since she passed away almost a year ago now: her clothes, her shopping lists, the notes she wrote on her medication, her unfinished pieces of sewing and her photographs. In this search I have been using…
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More of his work can be seen here
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© Benoit Paillé, A stranger: Quebec Rainbow gathering 2009: Isabelle 22 years old © Benoit Paillé, Rainbow Gathering Mexico, Palenque chiapas Jungle, 2010 Maya ancestor, VDJ, music lover, peace man, © Benoit Paillé, After taking LSD. I light up a candle in the middle of the wood and during the exposure, i make a meditation…
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ARTHUR PENN: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) excerpts from:The Origin of the Work of Art, by Martin Heidegger: “The opposition of world and earth is strife. We would, to be sure, all too easily falsify the essence of the strife were we to conflate that essence with discord and dispute, and to know it, therefore, only…
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JEAN-LUC GODARD: Le Petit Soldat (1963) excerpts from: Being Singular Plural, by Jean-Luc Nancy, Stanford University Press, 2000, pp.10-81: “As a consequence, gaining access to the origin, entering into meaning, comes down to exposing oneself to this truth. What this means is that we do not gain access to the origin: access is refused by…
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from Eugene Richard‘s series War is Personal Days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Tomas Young, then a 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., made a decision repeated by many other Americans around the country: He was going to enlist in the military in hopes of getting even with the enemies who had helped…
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© Julie Schachter, Powder Obscura Camera & Absolution (20), 2009 © Julie Schachter, Not out of the woods yet © Julie Schachter, Who’s Who 1980 Book on Tripod more of Julie’s work here
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© Will Jennings, Untitled, from the series Tumbling Blocks, 2011 “As an intuitive response to the sudden death of my mother last summer I walked down the Suffolk coast, reconsidering the landscape of my childhood through the eyes of an adult, mourner and artist. Concrete cubes sporadically emerged along the route, sole man-made interjections in…
Read More© Gonçalo Figueiredo, Lourenço © Gonçalo Figueiredo, Rita Tavares (left) and Lara Brandão (right), from the series The Protest, 12/2009 © Gonçalo Figueiredo, Ricardo Baltazar (left) and Gonçalo Figueiredo (right), from the series The Protest, 12/2009 These portraits are part of a series made back in the Winter of 2009 and it depicts a group…
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© Miguel Godinho, Untitled, from the series Esta é a minha família (This is my family), 2011 © Miguel Godinho, 38 years old (left) + 40 years old (right), from the series 16-06-1950, 2008 © Miguel Godinho, Untitled, from the series Family, 2005 © Miguel Godinho, Untitled (left + right), from the series Entre nós…
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 