“The photos not only capture the accidental Mondrian-like effect of relegation of the maintenance of building envelopes to individual tenants, they also reveal a Dorian-Gray’s-like picture of the inefficiencies of neo-liberalism and the cumulative effects of decades of rising economic inequality and shirking of collective investment in an important component of the infrastructure that enables and sustains us.”
“When we view the pictures, we are drawn into a region of borders, boundaries, and limits. When asked about this idea behind his photography, Oladele calls it the unique African way of looking.”
Ellen Harvey’s paintings from the New York Beautification Project become a testament to the strange beauty of the ephemeral, even in the way everything decays or gets covered over with time, becoming a part of the shifting layers of history, of the life of the city.
We are grateful to share a selection of stories from the project.
“In this place, there is one main road, called Main Road. There are no sidewalks and the drivers on Main Road are fast, having navigated its bends and dips for a lifetime.” – A collection of Leah Frances’ beautiful photographs and reflections on her stay in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland.
“I deciphered the occasional splash of graffiti: alongside youthful declarations of love and football were vague revolutionary slogans: “Freedom is a Right”, “Liberty”, and “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
“Imaginary one-to-one conversations with these ghosts, so to speak, allow me to invest in the possibility that within this divided nation, we might, one day, understand and respect each other.” Beautiful photographs from Leah Frances
The story of the remarkable Changing New York project in the context of Berenice Abbott’s career, by Bonnie Yochelson
“How do visual representations of the past, or lack thereof, affect our perception of history? To what extent is our experience and understanding of the present shaped by a more intimate knowledge of past events?”
Commuter Motions is a photographic series that attempts to frame the intangible spirit of our urban environment through the capture of a commute.
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