Photography

Adam Harrison Levy|Essays

William Klein: Contacts

William Klein: Buicks, 2 tiered, New York, 1955, Howard Greenberg GalleryWilliam Klein made a rare appearance in New York recently to promote his latest book, Contacts. American by birth, he has lived most of his life in Paris. He is now …

Mark Lamster|Essays

How the West Was Lost

My reviews of two new photography books.

William Drenttel|Slideshows

The Obama Victory

"Obama Dog Team 2008," photograph by Manuel Guerzoni, Miami, FL  Last night was breathtaking. I kept thinking in sentences that began, "In my lifetime..." "Yes we can." This simple refrain, repeated for emphasis, is the basis …

William Drenttel|Projects

Polling Place Photo Project on November 4, 2008

The New York Times, politics page, January 2008A little more than a week before the November 2006 U.S. midterm elections, Design Observer and AIGA launched an online initiative in citizen journalism — voters across the country were asked …

Michelle Hauser|Essays

Folk Photos

Girl Double Exposed, 1940s, 3 1/2 x 3 14/15 in. Photography’s inception in 1839 planted seeds that not only germinated into a new art form in the hands of professional photographers, but also quickly took root within the general …

Michael Bierut|Essays

Would It Kill You To Smile?

Thoughts on the enduring influence of bershon, "how you feel when you’re 13 and your parents make you wear a Christmas sweatshirt and then pose for a family picture."

Rick Poynor|Essays

Lost America: The Flamingo Motor Hotel

I found this old photo in a box at the back of my attic. It shows a motel in Flagstaff, Arizona where I stayed for a couple of nights in May 1978. I was 20, it was my first visit to the US, and for three weeks I had been touring around on …

William Drenttel|Projects

Polling Place Photo Project on Super Tuesday

The New York Times, politics page, January 2008Voting on Tuesday, February 5, in the U.S. presidential primaries? We hope you will contribute a photograph to the Polling Place Photo Project.Primaries or caucuses will be held for one or …

William Drenttel|Essays

Polling Place Photo Project 2008

The New York Times, politics page, January 2008A little more than a week before the November 2006 U.S. midterm elections, Design Observer and AIGA launched an online initiative in citizen journalism — voters across the country were asked …

Tom Vanderbilt|Essays

Discipline and Design

"Communications office bunker below the Imperial Palace, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam," photograph by Richard Ross, Architecture of Authority, 2007Looking to get a travel visa, I recently made my way to the Permanent Mission of the Socialist …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

Burma (Myanmar), 1989

William Drenttel, passport, 1989According to Wikipedia: 8888 Uprising was a national peaceful revolution demanding democracy that started on August 8, 1988, in Burma (now Myanmar), when university students started the initial …

Lorraine Wild|Slideshows

Wallace Berman's Photographs

Photograph by Wallace Berman, "Shirley Berman," Larkspur 1960The mystery of Wallace Berman's photographs revolves around the degree to which they were — or were not — set up. Was Berman attempting to create a narrative, or was …