Hot off the desk! Just finished two new research articles for the January 15 deadline. These articles offer insights into two major photography exhibitions of the 1950s that have shaped the history of postwar photography - The Family of Man and Photokina 1956.
Read moreWall text for the exhibition "History of the Photo Club 'Riga'"
My contribution to the exhibition History of the Photo Club "Riga" at the Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia (August 31 - October 22, 2017). The exhibition marks the 55th anniversary of the club which had an immense role in the development of creative photography in Latvia in the 1960s.
Read moreTalk about Brazilian photographer José Oiticica Filho in Galeria MaPA, São Paulo, Brazil
This summer, I had the honor to contribute to a conference dedicated to the Brazilian photographer José Oiticica Filho (Rio de Janeiro, 1906–1964). The conference took place on August 22, 2017, and coincided with an exhibition of his work in Galeria MaPA, São Paulo, July 11 - August 31, 2017. I was invited by art historian and curator Marly Porto.
Read moreI'm co-organizing a conference "Revolution in the Margins, 1917-2017: Modern and Contemporary Art from Eastern, Central, and South Eastern Europe"
I'm co-organizing a graduate student conference "Revolution in the Margins, 1917-2017: Modern and Contemporary Art from Eastern, Central, and South Eastern Europe" on Friday, October 13, 2017, from 9:30am to 7:00pm in the Skylight Room (9100) at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Read moreInterview for Revista Zum, a Brazilian photography magazine
An interview with me published in the Brazilian photography magazine Revista Zum on July 17, 2017. In Portuguese.
Read moreI'm excited to present my research on Brazilian postwar photography
I'm excited to present my research on Brazilian postwar photography. My paper, "Bandeirante photographers in global context: Brazilian participation in FIAP, 1950–1965" is included in the program of the conference In Black and White: Photography, Race, and the Modern Impulse in Brazil at Midcentury.The conference takes place at the Martin E. Segal Theater, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (365 Fifth Avenue), May 3, 2017.
Read moreMy article "Rules of the Photographers' Universe" in Photoresearcher
I'm honored to see my latest research article, "Rules of the Photographers' Universe," published in the April 2017 issue of Photoresarcher, a prestigious European photography magazine.
Read moreThrilled to speak at the conference "Art, Institutions, and Internationalism: 1933–1966"
I am thrilled to present the findings of my on-going research in paper "The Misunderstood 'Universal Language' of Photography: The Fourth FIAP Biennial, 1956" at the conference Art, Institutions, and Internationalism: 1933–1966. The conference takes place at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, March 7, 2017.
Read moreI'm presenting my latest research at the CAA 2017, New York City
I am very excited to present my latest research at the CAA 2017 in New York City. I am presenting my paper, The “Cosmopolitan Art”: The FIAP Yearbooks of Photography, 1954–60 at the session "Photography in Print" at the Gramercy A/West (2nd Floor), New York Hilton Midtown, Friday, February 17, 2017, 10:30am–12:00 noon.
Read moreKorean contemporary art in the US - judging a competition, Part II
I had the honor to speak on behalf of the jury of the AHL 2016 Visual Art Award at the AHL Foundation's 13th Annual Benefit Gala & Awards Ceremony, New York City, October 22, 2016. The work of the jury was not easy because all submissions were of high quality. The prizes went to the artists whose work stood out the most - artists who had the most convincing voice and the most articulate vision.
Read moreThe Selfie: More and Less than a Self-Portrait, an invited talk at the New School
In the invited talk “The Selfie: More and Less than a Self-Portrait” I will argue that the selfie is neither a low-brow offspring of the noble tradition of self-portrait in art, nor a democratic and popular version of self-portraiture in general. Instead, I will emphasize the specific conditions of making and viewing selfies as part of a live stream of updates on platforms such as Instagram.
Read moreWhy every self-portrait is not a selfie, but every selfie is a photograph
This article, commissioned by Riga Photography Biennial 2016, focuses on the role of technologies in defining and understanding the selfie. I examine the difference between the way datasets of selfies are being constructed for research and comparison, and how selfies are consumed and experienced in their natural habitat, the live flow of images on Instagram.
Read moreJudging the #artdatathon at the Museum of Modern Art
On February 20, 2016, I was invited to serve as one of the judges of Untitled: Art Datathon at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Art Datathon was a two-day workshop dedicated to creating data analysis and visualization projects based on the dataset describing the collection of MoMA.
Read moreDefining competitive photography
In this article, I introduce a term competitive photography and define its historical emergence in the international juried exhibitions of photography in the 1950s. I believe that this term, competitive photography. brings into focus a large segment of photographic practices, contemporary and historical alike, which so far has escaped the attention of scholars.
Read moreClash of theories: New Objectivity versus Subjective Photography
In an interesting historical turn, what was meant to be non-art, became the very epitome of art (as exemplified by Albert Renger-Patzsch’s followers), whereas the most artistic photography of the 1950s (Otto Steinert’s Subjective Photography) turned out to be a dead end, at least from the perspective of today's art history.
Read moreMaking sense of the selfie
This article belongs to a series of related articles and book chapters that I have written since the late 2014 and early 2015 about photography in social media and selfies in particular. All these writings are based on research project Selfiecity that I co-authored with Lev Manovich, Moritz Stefaner, Mehrdad Yazdani, Dominikus Baur, Daniel Goddemeyer, Nadav Hochman, and Jay Chow.
Read moreArt of the masses: From Kodak Brownie to Instagram
This article touches upon some of the inherent complexities of understanding the selfie. Seeking for valid methods of theorizing and contextualizing the selfie, this article attempts to combine insights from the perspectives of history of photography and art history, digital humanities, and software studies.
Read moreGood photography is a game of rules
There’s two kinds of photography, one that follows the rules and one that does not. When you follow the rules, you get good photography. When you break the rules, you might either get good art or waste the resources. After years of studying photography that breaks the rules, I’m turning to photography that follows the rules.
Read moreGisèle Freund about women photographers
Gisèle Freund in 1954 wrote that "Women are interested in things more than in their relations to each other. They are not easily attracted by political or current events, but they distinguish themselves in portraits, children’s photographs, and they know how to capture with subtlety every expression of everyday life." From today’s perspective, it may sound outrageously “anti-feminist” and patronizing. But what if she was right?
Read moreKorean contemporary art in the US - judging a competition
Judging the 2015 Contemporary Visual Art Competition for Korean artists working in the US, organized by the AHL Foundation. The foundation awards generous prizes and helps the artists to promote their work by organizing a group exhibition at the Art Mora Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.
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