https://youtu.be/k71kMCpGtt0?si=RZafvMibrTPPueHn Stylist of the female image Among the pantheon of modern fashion photographers stand two American talents turned legends: Richard Avedon (1923–2009) and Irving Penn (1917–2009). Among their many...
Paris-Photo: All the Shades of Man Ray at the Grand Palais
What is a collection? “The collection is a work of art that is offered up for viewing. At first, we advance as though in a forest, not knowing where we are, with no points of reference. But we meet people along the way with whom we enter into...
Can you feel the love tonight? Elton John sells part of his collection of photos
https://youtu.be/UHw0EDH6rl4?si=AJsuozn83Uz6dsPb The biggest selling single in the history of music Conventional wisdom dictates that people who excel in one area are excluded from any other kind of talent. Take Elton John, the pop singer who...
Jeff Wall at the Beyeler Foundation: photographs as monuments
https://youtu.be/cucsu8EMJ6k?si=tOD37TZHBwCoANT2 Between painting and cinema In the 1970s, when photography had yet to be seen as a “noble” art, he invented a new kind of artwork. The Canadian photographer Jeff Wall (born in 1946)...
Brancusi in Romania, back to his roots. A sharp exhibition
https://youtu.be/pgsp_dXITcA Timisoara For a long time Timișoara wasn’t a name that was familiar to the ears of the international crowd. Then in December 1989 the multicultural Romanian city became synonymous with horror when a mass grave was...
Paris: the photographic autobiography of Juergen Teller in 700 images at the Grand Palais
Art is not beauty It shouldn’t be believed, as young children are often told, that art is simply what is beautiful. If that was the case, neither Rembrandt nor Cezanne, nor Schiele for instance (See here the report about Michelangelo and his...
Paris Photo: disasters of war, memories of segregation and the grace of young models
Poor war hero The first thing that draws you in is his steady, clear gaze. In this image his face is tilted to the side because his head rests on a pillow. Then you notice his shaved head, marked at the top by a bloody swelling. In...
Paris Photo: the principles of valuing photography, from Le Gray to Serrano
Letizia Battaglia The setting of prices Each field of artistic creation is governed, in market terms, by unique rules. So the principles that dictate the setting of prices in photography have nothing to do with the market for paintings, for...
Wolfgang Tillmans at Moma in New York: an opening of total art
https://youtu.be/qtk20JhAhbg The experience For a long time photography was considered to be a secondary mode of expression. But we might say that in the early 21st century not only is this kind of consideration obsolete, but also that the...
The Book of Veles: It’s not a photojournalism masterpiece, it’s a masterpiece of fake news
https://youtu.be/i7NMTCqpnEA Magnum There can be no doubt that the photographer Jonas Bendiksen (born in 1977) is nothing if not audacious. This Norwegian member of Magnum, the press agency founded during the postwar period by names...
The week of Paris Photo: from the obsessional snapshots of an “origine du monde” to the amorous confessions of Juergen Teller
https://youtu.be/WxPCbbmzXOM The Art Basel of photography “Paris Photo is to photography what Art Basel is to contemporary art. You can find the whole world there.” The largest fair in the world dedicated to photography is taking place...
Les Rencontres d’Arles: The American ideal of sexuality is rooted in the American ideal of masculinity
Major Phenomena We didn’t expect to go to Arles in Provence to learn that society is being rocked by major phenomena relating to gender or the perceptions of black men and women. Around Arles While these subjects have already been covered...