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Alternate History: Robert Capa on D-Day (38)

On June 6, 2018, the aptly named website Artsy.net published “Photographer Robert Capa Risked It All to Capture D-Day — then Nearly All His Images Were Lost,” by Haley Weiss, under its “Visual Culture” rubric. It consists, in its entirety, of a rehash of the Capa D-Day myth, simply rewritten from one or more of the standard versions that our research project has thoroughly refuted. […]

Latent Image (1968)

This article, the first in a series of columns written for the Village Voice between 1968 and 1973, appeared exactly 50 years ago, in the June 20, 1968 issue of that alt-weekly newspaper, which had already become the model for the emerging national and, indeed, international “alternative press.” With it I hung out my shingle as a photography critic, a rubric that I thereby inaugurated and under which flag I still sail. […]

Guest Post 26: Frank Cost’s Instant Photobook Project (b)

The constraint of time imposed by the self-imposed necessity of finishing the book on the same day makes it impossible to look too deeply into the images or second-guess my choices. I also have no time to bring anyone else into the selection or sequencing process. The first opportunity I have to study the details in the images is after I receive the first printed copy of the book in the mail. In every case I have been delighted by aspects of the images or coincidental relationships that I never observed at the time the exposures were made, nor even when I assembled the book. […]

Guest Post 26: Frank Cost’s Instant Photobook Project (a)

When I reviewed the images on the camera monitor, I found myself wanting to show other people the results of my solitary photo session. Then I had an idea. Why not try to use all the new technology to create and publish a book of these self-portraits that same day? What better way to demonstrate the capabilities of Internet-enabled digital print to the Xerox customers? […]

Spring Fever: Ends and Odds 2018

Copyright law covers the actions and creations of humans, and only humans. Claim otherwise and all those cat videos become performance art, whose performers — like Maru the box lover, or Henri, the existential French cat — deserve not just special treatment for their cooperation but the lion’s share of the royalties they earn for product endorsements and such. […]