One afternoon in 1983, Masahisa Fukase sat tacking the contours of his face with pins. Outside, Japan was busy performing miracles. Its cities had, not all too long ago, been flattened, its industries crippled. Yet here it was outside his window, rising from the ashes – a global economic superpower. A year before, Fukase had finally exhausted…
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An art show entitled Deconstructing Borders can today no longer slink by unnoticed. Its very syntax is potent; thick and heavy with political, economic and moral significance. Regardless of whichever side one inhabits in this divisive, contemporary debate, the concept of the border is a loaded one. Two months into 2017 and it’s the buzzword…
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The Deutsche Börse photography prize has, in recent years, been the recipient of much criticism (and some controversy.) Rewarding artists that “push the medium’s boundaries,” the prize’s contentious remit has provoked many onlookers to question whether it even constitutes as a “photography” prize in the first place. Back in 2010, critic Sean O’Hagan set the tone by asking where “straight…
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Originally appeared on the Open Eye Gallery blog, 12/10/2015 In a striking series of diptychs, Sonal Kantaria traces a poetic path out into the horizon, bridging the plains of Australia with distant, Indian shores. A highly personal project, Traces turns to the landscape itself to find it laced delicately with dreams and hopes. Yet without…
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Originally appeared on FACT A few months ago, a journalist fired an irony-laden observation out into the Twittersphere, casually noted one morning whilst sipping his coffee: “There’s a guy in this coffee shop sitting at a table, not on his phone, not on a laptop, just drinking coffee, like a psychopath.” This freshly-caffeinated dose of wit carries…
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Originally appeared on the Open Eye Gallery’s blog, 04/09/2015 There’s a quote by Booker T. Washington that trails Richard Ross’s work closely. It’s the epigraph to his Juvenile in Justicebook and states fiercely, “The study of art that does not result in making the strong less willing to oppress the weak means little.” Winner of…
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Originally written for Open Eye Gallery, 20/04/2015 With its delightfully obscure title, Yuki Onodera’s first body of work certainly doesn’t offer much insight into what each photograph actually is. In 1991, the young photographer entered her series You Are Running. I’m Waiting with Ears Like Dumbo’s to the very first New Cosmos Photography Award in Japan. Praised…
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