Photography, fetish and the Modern
The relationship of African art and early Modern movements like Expressionism, Cubism and Dada are well recognised, but where does photography fit in? It was the conduit for much African imagery […]
A Photo a Day…
Introducing a new blog over at On This Date In Photography which does just that…provides a leaf from each day of the historical calendar of photographic events, people, images, places and technology. It’s […]
Happy Anniversary, Family of Man
This year, 2015, is an apt moment to remember an important exhibition, first seen 60 years ago, and still going… Recently, I have been reading John Williams, the Sydney photographer […]
In loving memory of Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015).
Originally posted on Catherine Edelman Gallery:
It is with profound sadness that we report the passing of Mary Ellen Mark – one of the greatest photographers of our time. Our heart…
Deakin’s crowdfunding success
Originally posted on The Research Whisperer:
After the heist, by Jonathan O’Donnell on Flickr Over the last two months, I’ve been watching Deakin University’s venture into crowdfunding research. It has…
Wild rails and nervous nystagmus
*The research for this blog post contributed to a paper The Liminal Wilderness of Railway Margins that I delivered on June 27 2013 at Cultures of the Suburbs. The ‘Cultures of the Suburbs International Research […]
Subjective/Objective
The question of subjectivity in photography, the supposedly ‘objective’ medium, arose again this week. Is this a conundrum peculiar to digital imaging? The case in point is Paul Hansen, Sweden, […]
Learning about Surfers from Las Vegas
I’ve been posting about the way re(peat)-photography permits access to another’s seeing, while Greg Neville and I have been working on a such a project for Melbourne. What if the […]
A secret is out!
Re- photography is hot. The change in the medium to digital has made accessing archives of film and paper seem more urgent or attractive. I have posted before about Mark […]
Silver Eyes: see for yourself!
Consider a claret glass; a transparent container whose spherical surfaces clumsily distort what we see through them. Fill it with water and instantly it becomes a lens in which we […]
…and through father’s eye
(James) Brian McArdle has come up incidentally in some recent email exchanges with a public gallery director/photography historian, interested in my father’s work because Brian was editor of Walkabout magazine through […]
In another’s head
What is it like to look through another’s eyes? There’s current interest in the photography of Mark Strizic (see past post) as a documenter of 1960s Melbourne. Fifty years ago […]
From the corner of your eye?…
Here’s an interactive exercise to try. Take a look at the diagram. You will recognise that it is a checkerboard pattern with severe pincushion distortion, like the lens test result […]
Evanescent
Featherlight is from a new series I will show during the upcoming (this Friday) Castlemaine State Festival 15-24 March 2013. These renew my childhood delight and fascination with the projected image. For […]
Nude Ascendant
February 15, 2013 was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the revolutionary 1913 Armory Show arts fair which brought Modern art to New York. Francis Naumann Fine Art marks […]
Everything?
The advent of photography and how our burgeoning, and now ubiquitous, use of the medium has changed, well, everything, is the theme of essays in Photography Changes Everything recently published by the Smithsonian Institute. […]
Suffer Breitz’ children
Robert Nelson in his comprehensive February 13 review of Candice Breitz’ exhibition The Character at ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne (until March 11) is fairly well disposed to what might be quite […]
Another First Photo
It’s probably rare for children these days not to have made a photograph, or a great many of them if they have access to a phone camera, before the […]
Call for artists: self-portraits and death, mortality, identity and the self.
PhD candidate Rebecca Louise at Deakin University issues this Call Out: Photographers are invited to apply to be included in an upcoming photographic exhibition, TRACES to be held in Melbourne. Inspired by […]
Perspective blown up
Jeff Wall‘s display lightboxes contain some weird perspective. The celebrated Canadian is showing at NGV at Melbourne’s Fed Square (till March 17, 2013). I regret was not well enough to attend the […]
James McArdle: Camera/Eye 