There is an undeniable allure to places where human ambition collides with the formidable power of nature, creating a landscape at once magnificent and unsettling. It is a sensation I have often felt when encountering the vast, silent giants of infrastructure, each echoing a unique story of ingenuity, necessity, and inevitable consequence. The profound resonance…
There is a peculiar alchemy that happens when a place, steeped in layers of history and forgotten stories, finds its visual chronicler. It is a process I understand intimately, one that echoes through my own ongoing work, “Echoes of the Past,” where I grapple with the visible and invisible threads connecting memory to the mundane…
There’s an undeniable intangible pull to the past, as Melissa DeWitt so eloquently puts it in her editor’s letter for Hotshoe Issue 213: To Be Young. This particular issue, arriving at a time when my own creative flow has shifted from constant shooting to a more introspective engagement with the medium – filled with hours…
In “I’ll Let You Be in My Dreams If I Can Be in Yours,” published by the always intriguing MACK Books in September of last year, the photographic partnership of Carolyn Drake and Andres Gonzalez unfolds a captivating visual dialogue that gracefully sidesteps the well-trodden paths of conventional documentary photography. This 144-page volume is the…
As I ease back into the rhythm of writing, I’m reflecting on a book that truly captivated me during my recent respite: Václav Jirásek’s “Cars.” Now, I’ll admit, I’m no car person. My relationship with cars is purely functional, they get me from A to B, comfortably and safely. I appreciate a smooth drive and…
Reuben Radding’s “Heavenly Arms,” published by Red Hook Editions, is a book that resists easy categorization. It’s a collection born from a decade of wandering city streets, a search for what Radding calls “the musicality of American life, the scent of human connection and conflict.” And in its sprawling, often enigmatic tapestry of images, it…
Diana Markosian’s “Father”, presented by Aperture, has settled within me like a quiet ache, a profound meditation on the fractured landscape of family, the enduring weight of loss, and the fragile, often stumbling journey towards reconnection. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon with it, the spring sunshine warming my back as my wife…
Fred Ritchin’s “The Synthetic Eye: Photography Transformed in the Age of AI” is, without a doubt, a fascinating and deeply unsettling read. As a photographer and artist (no laughing), I find myself grappling with the very questions Ritchin poses, particularly as someone who holds a deep-seated suspicion of AI’s ability to create lifelike images. My…
Lukas Felzmann’s Across Ground, a two-volume stunner from Lars Müller Publishers, isn’t the kind of photobook you just flip through in a fifteen minute sit down like some. It asks you to slow down, breathe, and properly look. It’s an antidote to the noise of modern life, a reminder to appreciate the quiet poetry tucked…