Category: Photography

From the gritty realism of the miners’ strike and anti-racist protests to the subversive art of staged portraits and image-text works, Tate Britain’s latest show, The 80s: Photographing Britain, attempts to bring to life a decade shaped by Thatcher-era turbulence, revealing the stark divisions within photography throughout the process. Yet, with nearly 350 images from over 70 photographers, Mark Durden asks if Tate Britain has taken on an impossible challenge?

It was so wonderful to return to New Orleans this past December and celebrate all things photographic during PhotoNOLA. Today we share some of the highlights of the events, and discuss the Portfolio Reviews from both sides of the table. I was a reviewer and Lenscratch Editor, Karen Bullock was a reviewee and had a chance to chat with some of the participants about their experience.

Photojournalist Angus Mordant, whose images have been published in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, said he feared the merger would “create a monopoly that only stands to hurt photographers.” Mordant, who has not shot on assignment for Getty Images, echoed the criticism that the company has paid notoriously low rates over the years.

The rise of artificial intelligence has likely played a role in the merger; the combined assets of Shutterstock and Getty are a treasure trove of training data for AI companies

Every year we compile a list of Staff Favorites. We try to avoid “Best Of” lists as appreciation for the arts is so subjective and eveyone has a different opinion. The wide variety of selections featured today speaks to books, exhibitions, and artists (and a few recipes) that have resonated with our amazing staff.

We Are Here is admirably diverse, and many of the pictures are great. Highlights include the lush, wacky, fashion-forward work that Feng Li has been making on the streets of Chengdu, China; Romuald Hazoumè’s cheeky sculptural typologies of laden bike riders in Benin; the oneiric pictures of 1990s Saint Petersburg by Alexey Titarenko; a collection of era-defining 1990s Japanese street-style pictures that Shoichi Aoki shot for his magazine FRUiTS; and exuberant pictures of children’s play in gritty 1970s New York by graffiti documentarian Martha Cooper, which elaborate on earlier projects by Helen Levitt and Arthur Leipzig. Yet the exhibition is also dogged by a nagging question: Is twenty-first-century street photography hopelessly outmoded?

Despite their persistent erasure, Japanese women have been involved in photography since its arrival in the country in the late 1850s

Western photojournalism played and still plays a major role in the continued misrepresentation of Africa. It doesn’t matter at all whether photojournalists went or go to Africa with the best of intentions (as they typically do); what matters is that many of them appear to be oblivious of the issue at hand.

For a moment I was terrified. Then I remembered my camera. Looking through my telephoto lens, I saw exactly where I needed to be. Palms sweaty, heavy camera bags slung over my shoulder, I pushed through the crowd and entered a small clearing just in time to find an athlete bent down on one prosthetic knee. His girlfriend looked surprised and delighted. I watched every emotion wash over her face. I focused my lens and clicked the shutter. I got the shot.