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| Mark Steinmetz, still from "Lecture by Mark Steinmetz" at the California College of the Arts |
The Reading Shortlist is an occasional post with an eclectic listing of recommended sites, readings, and links. A recommendation does not necessarily suggest an agreement with the contents of the post. For previous shortlists, please visit the site links page.
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Laurence Butet-Roch, Meta-narrative: Fred Ritchin on the future of photojournalism, British Journal of Photography. Ritchin is mad, but in the kind of way that makes you believe that in a hundred years when people look back that he will have been the obvious genius in the room.
A Camera Strapped to the Back of a Real Eagle is Just...Wow. Title self-explanatory.
David Campbell, Abundant photography: the misleading metaphor of the image flood. Campbell attacks the conventional ideas of image overproduction and overaccess to images today.
Jörg Colberg, Matthew Swarts and Beth, Conscientious Photo Magazine. Colberg doing what he does best - stirring the pot. Provocative comments arguing for an inherently selfish nature to all portraiture and for the limitations of portraiture to reveal anything more than a cartoonish sense of the subject.
David Gonzalez, Photographing the Majesty of the Common, The New York Times Lens Blog. A biographical sketch of Abelardo Morell as a new retrospective of his work opens at the Getty.
Nicholas Jeeves, The Serious and the Smirk: The Smile in Portraiture, The Public Domain Review. The lack of smiles in contemporary fine art portraiture isn't a new thing. Not at all.
Manik Katyal, Simon Baker: 'Europe's No Longer the Home of Photography,' Emaho Magazine. A series of short takes from Baker that give a general sense of how the curator of photography and international art at the Tate sees contemporary photography.
John Edwin Mason, Déjà Vu All Over Again: James Estrin & "The Tsunami of Vernacular Photographs." Related to the ideas in Campbell's piece, above, this older post by Mason points out Estrin ignores history in his comments on the "tsunami" of contemporary images.
James Panero, Art's Willing Executioner: Peter Schjeldahl's 'Let's See,' The New York Sun. Panero pummels Schjeldahl, the long time art critic of the New Yorker, for ignoring his own sense of good taste due to economic pressures, for bedding with gallery owners, and for supporting the aesthetic visions of fascists and Nazis. Yikes.
Lecture by Mark Steinmetz. Classic-contemporary photographer's photographer gives a lecture at the California College of the Arts.
Various, Is the age of the critic over?, The Guardian. An article that's been in my reading queue for, apparently, over two years based on the article date. Five critics debate the current state of criticism, focusing largely on the impact of the Internet in allowing a wider base of and platform for more voices in criticism. Whether that's a good thing, they discuss.