Eli Nixon: Private Investigator
Intrinsic to the value of photography since the 19th century is the belief in the realism of the medium and the camera as a truth-device. Since the mid 20th century, it has been argued by critics such as Alan Trachtenberg, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag that the photograph only records the surface appearance of people and events; the complex meanings and truths implied by a photo are created constructs associated with the viewer’s sensory and memory experiences. Photographs describe not “reality”, but an individual perspective seen and documented.Susan Sontag explains in her classic book On Photography, "The photographer was thought to be an ...Read more
filed under: photography
tags: Eli Nixon archive mystery crime police private eye forensic photography anthropology film documentary
Ordinarily Strange Photos of Dave Jordano
Prairelands, Dave Jordano's series of photographs depicts the American heartland, specifically rural Illinoise, as it is, and not necessarily as the pastoral landscape we might imagine. His images of yards, homes and people create a melancholic portrait of the midwest through it's inherrent juxtaposition of the unexpected. I am particularly drawn to the depictions of collections people surround themselves with to create their personalized environments. Not only are they telling of the people who own them, but there is something else, something majestic about the way a modest midwestern home is adorned. Maybe it's just that I myself am a midwestern girl and can sentimentally go back home in J...Read more
filed under: photography
tags: Dave Jordano landscape documentary photography of rural Illinios