Category Archives: Uncategorized

Highlights from the Archives

“Always happy” (10.07.2007). Exploring the relationship between photography and authority. The GDR authorities insisted that their citizens should always be depicted smiling. Read more… “The right background: new freedoms” (11.09.07). The need to choose the ‘right’ visual background reveals the … Continue reading

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You-knee-tea Day

…as some of my friends call it, or ‘Unity Day’ if you prefer its official name, is an annual event taking place in Hyde Park, Leeds. According to the organisers’ website, it is “a day of celebration for the local … Continue reading

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The terror of mundane theatricality

The entrance hall of the Museum of the Revolution © Philippe Chancel We know all about terror in the West. It is imprinted well deep in our bones and histories. We have inflicted it to all the ‘new’ lands, to … Continue reading

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art & culture

London streets Couple of months ago a friend asked me, what is culture? Few days later on, he offered a cold beer and asked me again. I hesitated to reply both times. I think that he was wondering about those … Continue reading

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the fork

Andre Kertesz, Fork, 1928 A photograph of a fork by Andre Kertesz (Paris, 1928). A fork and a plate are transformed, from two simple and overlooked items of everyday life into a new reality – a mysterious experience, a formal … Continue reading

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‘Candidate with a cane’

A news photograph of F.D. Roosevelt, circulated in 1928, four years before he was first elected as a president, shows a well-dressed man in a confident posture. It is visually demonstrating his ‘good standing’ to the electorate. But otherwise, it … Continue reading

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Fundamentalisms

There is one video – linked in my last post – that keeps coming back in my mind. I am talking about that tv clip showing how the sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro got attacked by a representative of a religious group, who … Continue reading

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chocolate Jesus

nude02_by_christos_stavrou_crpx1_535.jpg Untitled photograph (nude 2) by Christos Stavrou © 2008 I wish I could send you a chocolate Jesus, maybe that abandoned one which they failed to exhibit last year in New York… But in the end, I guess you’ll be … Continue reading

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About a kiss and a bullet (authenticity & social relations)

the kiss doisneau_hotelkiss_498.jpg How does it feel to know that one of the most romantic images ever made was staged? The famous ‘Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville’ by Robert Doisneau, captured in Paris in 1950, was no other but a … Continue reading

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At twelve

Sally_Man_attwelve_p38_500.jpg “In the early fall, I drank coffee with several generations of the Conner family, the close air of their kitchen settling across my shoulders like a shawl. I explained what I was doing and, as so often happened, their … Continue reading

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