The Many Splendored Thing

Love is strange, particularly if shot by Alec Soth. Recently I’ve been revisiting his book ‘Niagara’, which deals with honeymooning couples in a motel near the famous falls. What Soth uncovers is something vulnerable, sad and almost desperate. The people in his pictures are young but necessarily in love. It feels more going through the …

Eighties Italy

Charles H Traub, head of the photography department at SVA in New York, spent the eighties documenting Italian street style in Rome, Naples and Florence. It was time well spent to judge by the images in his book ‘La Dolce Vita : Vibrant, Colorful Photos of Italy in the 1980’s’. There’s a wry humor at …

Skins

Mark Asnin gained notoriety in photojournalistic circles for his wonderful book ‘Uncle Charlie’ which shows the gradual harrowing deterioration of a man diagnosed with schizophrenia. I also like his images of American skinheads that graphically capture the raw physicality of this unthinking sub cult.

Excerpts from Silver Meadow.

Todd Hido is famous for his depiction of eerie unpopulated homes and weirdly haunted landscapes. The lanes in his suburban neighborhoods feel like they lead to one of the circles of hell. Nothing good can come of this world. What are strangely absent are people, who make only occasional visits to his photographs. This all …