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
About a year and a half ago, I was invited by Recyclart – thru Vincen Beekman – to write about one of their community projects. It was a bit of an ethical dilemma, but I accepted, though I kept thinking Why am I looking at these images? The paragraph bellow, from the text published –…
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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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A portrait of me taken by my 5 years old niece forced me into this theme. As I stared into the photograph I wondered “do I really look like that”? The question is as simple as it is complex. I’m aware that the word “really” in this sentence is just a figure of speech, so…
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© Brendan George Ko, Nine eleven (Detection), from the series We Soon Be Night, 2011-13. © Brendan George Ko, Hoodlumz (New Tribe), from the series We Soon Be Night, 2011-13. © Brendan George Ko, United, from the series We Soon Be Night, 2011-13. © Brendan George Ko, Product Placement (Malthusian Catastrophe), from the series We…
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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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My love for the Hyères Festival is known. I’ve written about it and have featured a great deal of the authors shortlisted each year. The judging panel has been responsible for issuing a statement about what they want to see in contemporary photography and it has been bold and exciting, for Hyères always awards an…
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© António Pedrosa, Untitled, from the series Iraq Slum. Antonio Pedrosa is a portuguese photographer whose work has been highly recognized, both by his national peers as well as by international entities, such as Hasselblad. In my opinion, prizes do draw attention to the award-winning authors’ work, and they do guarantee quality, but everything else…
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© Binh Danh, Iridescence of Life No. 22. Chlorophyll print on nasturtium leaf, butterfly specimen, & resin, 2008 © Binh Danh, Iridescence of Life No. 5. Chlorophyll print on nasturtium leaf, butterfly specimen, & resin, 2008 In Michigan Quarterly Review (Volume XLIII, Issue 4, 2004), John Schafer writes about Binh Danh’s intertexual images before going…
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© Antoine D’Agata, Mexico, Nuevo Laredo, 2000. For different reasons, I see quite a lot of photographs and bodies of work on a daily basis. What rarely happens, is being surprised by the work of an established photographer, whom I didn’t know. Today was one of those days. While reading about the voyeur and in…
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© Christian Berthelot, Leanne, born April 8, 2014 at 8:31 a.m. 1.745 kg. 13 seconds of life. From the Cesar series. © Christian Berthelot, Liza, born Feb. 26, 2013 at 8:45 a.m. 3.2 kg. 3 seconds of life. From the Cesar series. © Christian Berthelot, Mael, born Dec. 13, 2013 at 4:52 p.m. 2.8 kg.…
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I Professional Photographer editor Grant Scott popped the question and it stayed with me, not only because it is a very catchy headline for an article, as the author notes, but because his reflection resonated with me. As I understand it, Scott’s main issue with the Düsseldorf School relates to its heritage not its conquests.…
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© Stephen Dupont, from Papua New Guinea Portraits and Diaries © Stephen Dupont, from Papua New Guinea Portraits and Diaries © Stephen Dupont, from Papua New Guinea Portraits and Diaries excerpts from Adolf Loos‘ manifesto Ornament and Crime (1908). In the womb the human embryo passes through all the development stages of the animal kingdom.…
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© Victoria Will, tintype portraits at Sundance film festival. There is no denying that alternative photographic processes are fashionable these days. I’m sure there are people reflecting upon this at the very moment, writing articles and giving conferences on the very same issue. As for me, due to an investigation regarding ‘authenticity’, I got to…
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When the New York Times reviewed Jimmy Nelson’s work “Before they pass away” the writer Andrew Katz called his body of work “Portraits of the Authentics“. The concept of authenticity, in the art world, is nothing but a word. It serves the rhetoric of what’s original, genuine, singular, unique, and so on. We got used…
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© Andrei Liankevich, all photographs from the series Goodbye, Motherland, 2011 The “Goodbye, Motherland” project explores the attitude to WWII in Belarus. Belarus has only one ideology – war ideology. Belarus Independence Day is the day when the capital was freed from the Nazi occupation. The main streets in the capital are named after war…
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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© Bart Heynen, Veerle Baetens © Bart Heynen, Elodie Ouedraogo © Bart Heynen, Johan Heldenbergh © Bart Heynen, Lauren Versnick © Bart Heynen, Stany Crets More about the Waterlanders here
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© Kevin Barton, Untitled (above and below), from the series Family © Kevin Barton, Untitled (above and below), from the series Mormon Missionaries © Kevin Barton, Untitled (above and below), from the series Summer Camp More of Kevin’s work here
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© Sofia Silva, Driving into a car crash, 2013 “What then of Ballard the author – is he drawn into Vaughan’s project in a way that makes him a literary and ethical reactionary? To say so would ignore how Vaughan’s idea and its totalizing impulse seems to be offered us, as much as not, as…
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This post introduces another invited scribe for this blog: Rodrigo H.. Though it’s not his first post as a newcomer, he has made a singular contribution to accompany his visual work, which is entitled to its own post. From here on Rodrigo will wonder adrift amidst his affair with curiosity and the places it leads…
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 