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
Dating from mid 90’s, Richard Billingham‘s project Ray’s a Laugh is still a reference to me and I always show it to students whenever we address the art of documenting intimate stories and domestic environments. Ray’s a Laugh is a project about Richard’s father Ray and his mother Liz and their life indoors. If what Billingham…
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As Nihilsentimentalgia’s early readers know well, at the core of this platform is an interest for the idea of phototherapy and, consequently, different approaches to the idea of self. Throughout the years, I’ve done my experiments using photography as a personal therapeutic tool and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really work for…
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David Nebreda’s work changed my life. It’s no mystery. I remember the first time I encountered his photographs (or they encountered me): it was in a sort of catalog – David Nebreda: Autorretratos (2002) -, that followed one of the author’s rare solo exhibitions, curated by Javier Panera, during the celebrations of the European Capital…
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In the lecture showed above (TED, 2009) photographer Taryn Simon talks about the quest for hidden truths. She starts by explaining how the majority of her work “is, in fact, not photographic. It involves a campaign of letter writing, research and phone calls to access my subjects”. She then goes on to explain how, unexpectedly,…
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© Giovanni Troilo, J. keeps his gun hidden in a box in the woods of Bois du Cazier. This is more secure than keeping them at home since he regularly gets visits from the police., from the series The Dark Heart of Europe, 2014. © Giovanni Troilo, Gas supply tubes run along the houses built…
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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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What follows are excerpts from a very interesting article by Thomas Susanka, published in “Paradoxes of Authenticity”, pp.95-113, edited by Julia Straub and published by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, 2012 In the context of the following paper, as Susanka clarifies, ‘authenticity’ should be understood “as one strategy to achieve verification and hence persuasion, namely by demonstrating…
Read More© Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh, la verità non esiste (the truth does not exist), 2005 © Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh, I won’t change the world If a man die it is because death has first possessed his imagination. But if he refuse death– no greater evil can befall him unless it be the death of love meet…
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 