Photobooks of the Year 2020/Welcome to the Castle

“Earlier this year, there were some high-profile twitterstorms, in which particular left-identifying figures were ‘called out’ and condemned. What these figures had said was sometimes objectionable; but nevertheless, the way in which they were personally vilified and hounded left a horrible residue: the stench of bad conscience and witch-hunting moralism”         This […]

Robert Clayton’s Estate: An Overlooked Book of British Brilliance

  “The conservative government was in power with reports of David Cameron and his infidelities with swine breaking the news Murdoch-owned dailies”   Estate by Robert Clayton was published in 2015 and I am in no way trying to declare any different, but 2015 was a very different year for Britain. It was the year […]

Ryan Debolski: Remember My Whatsapp Number Bro

“In contrast to the concrete metaphors in the urban architecture and the materiality of construction, the bodies and flesh of the workers on the beach refer to something humane: of the flesh, tactile and intimate, something that is deeply lacking in these isolated lives.”

Peter Mitchell: Early Sunday Morning, Signs & Reasons

  “I have assumed this focus on the found vernacular to be American in nature. However, the details of national ownership is missing apart from the rise of American modernism or the focus on its anti-thesis, namely quaint small town America advertising often hand painted and rough”   It is somehow impossible not to mention […]

Samuel Fosso Autoportrait SIX SIX SIX

"Our point of view of the self is hidden and although personal subjectivity is widely considered to be the foundation of image-making at present, we have deluded ourselves for a great number of years suggesting that photography could ever be anything more than the self exposed through images of the exterior."   The greatest gift [...]

Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957/2020

  “It would be easy for me to say that this book is published at the right moment and that it correlates a simple reminder about the inhuman conditions of the past…”   It is June 9th, 2020 and as I sit here penning this “review” of Gordon Parks perhaps sadly non-anachronistic and oddly prescient […]

Khadija Saye: In this Space…

“Through connections to her family, dual religions, rituals and historic re-interpretations she staged herself in performative postures, using dress and ritualistic objects to perform specific rites or ceremonies for the camera.”

Thomas Sauvin: In Opposition, The Mirror Lies

  We confuse ourselves with our recognition of our portrait in a mirror. The hand that brushes away the hairs from the forehead, the sweet sticky perspiration that pins the lock to the crown is read in reverse and yet, this reversal is apathetic to the self that it stares back at. The eyes glare […]

Americans Parade – an interview with George Georgiou

“Every image poses the question of American identity not just from the standpoint of our present reality, but from the playbook of iconic images – most of them from the twentieth century – that make up the history of American photography.”

Artist Kara Walker – ‘I’m an Unreliable Narrator’ (2019)

Fons Americanus is a 13-metre tall working fountain inspired by the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. Created by artist Kara Walker for the 2019 Hyundai Commission, it is one of the most ambitious installations in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall to date. Rather than a celebration of the British Empire, Walker’s fountain explores […]