To Withdraw From Orientalist Photography: Leonardo Magrelli’s Pairidaeza and the Iranian Terrain
In the wake of a terminated nuclear deal and a nation left demonized once more—we find an appropriate home for Leonardo Magrelli’s endeavor to photograph Iran “under a different, detached and less propagandistic light.” Traditional photographic projects undertaken by the West are often concerned with the extravagant architecture of mosques and palaces—sites ripe for the […]
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Moral Photography by James Lewicki
In the 21st century, two major interrelated technological factors have greatly changed how we take photos and how we engage with photography. The first major change was the advent of increasingly affordable digital technology allowing more photos to be taken more often by more people, and cheaper than ever before. I should also mention digital editing technology, which changed the level of control a photographer could exercise over a photo once it is taken. However, this improvement is overstated by those unfamiliar with analog editing technology. It is more an improvement in access than in capacity.
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Aesthetics and Experience by William Lalonde
Aesthetics, like language, have outgrown their original primary role as a mediator of subjectivity and instead have become subjectivity itself. Rather than lived experience dictating aesthetics, aesthetics now dictate lived experiences. Our current state of contemporary photography can sometimes feel like every potentiality has been tried, and sometimes the best inspiration comes from digging through […]
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Kim McCarthy Excavates the Familial and National Past of the North
Irreverence for what is lost is rarely so succinctly expressed as in the art of Kim McCarthy. Of the North is a documentary starring the people, forests, lakes, and rocks that characterize Northern Ontario. The following piece surmises the essence of McCarthy’s series: embodied here is a introduction to the media, styles, and themes ensconced […]
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From Suburban Ennui to Western Gothic – Through the Sardonic Lens of Sam Rupsa
Sam Rupsa lets the ordinary be ordinary, and there’s something so strange about it. In all of Rupsa’s photographs, there shines anticlimax, redundancy, thwarted fantasy, mock sublime, and desaturated nostalgia. From southern California and currently based in Denver, CO, Rupsa’s mixture of tropical nights, suburban ennui, and western gothic seems eclectic, but his wry, sardonic […]
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Katabasis: Marianna Tedeschini’s Descent
In Marianna Tedeschini’s “Katabasis,” we descend into an underworld of frozen emergences, disrupted reflections, and landscapes caught between life and death. “Katabsasis” takes us on a quest through landscapes teeming with uncanny essence—is it life? is it death? Familiar, yet haunting presences animate these seemingly lifeless scenarios we encounter. Whatever lurks within the trees and whispers in the tall grass, this subterranean energy repeatedly thwarts our expectations, disturbs perceptions, and even makes us laugh at times.
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Pastel Melancholy with Violeta Parisi
Violeta Parisi is a nineteen-year-old photographer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She became interested in photography when she was quite young, which prompted her to begin taking photography courses and purchase her first camera. Parisi explains that after getting a handle on digital photography, she shifted her gaze to film photography. By using a variety of […]
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Subtopia by Adrian Saker: A Diagnostic of Birmingham’s Bizarre Mundanity
Adrian Saker considered himself a photographer for many years. After a time, his interest waned. Hoping to refocus his passion, Saker turned his lens on the neighbours and streets that populate his daily life. The clarity of the resulting vision is great enough to implicate itself as an expression of Saker’s fundamental creative impulses. The […]
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An Expression of Flair with Sergei Sviatchenko
Vulgaris had the pleasure to interview Sergei Sviatchenko, a Ukrainian-born collager, photographer, painter, filmmaker, and fashion designer who now calls Denmark his home. A provocateur in the world of contemporary art, Sviatchenko’s collages and paintings have been exhibited in Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, England, Canada, and the United States, and featured in magazines like Dazed […]
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People In The Dunes by Andrejs Strokins
Andrejs Strokins is a fine art, journalistic, commercial, and documentary photographer living and working in Latvia. Despite initially dreaming of becoming an architect, Strokins made his way to photography after falling in love with the lifestyle associated with art. He worked for a while as a photographer for a news agency, but found himself too […]
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