The Masking Machine (Feathered) © M Eifler

In late 2017, which feels like a digital lifetime ago, I spoke with author Alicia Eler about her debut book The Selfie Generation. Our conversation culminated with a question about the selfie as an aesthetic and communicative form that still knows no boundaries. Eler’s cogent observation came to mind when looking at the work of M Eifler, aka BlinkPopShift.

Eifler, a Bay Area multidisciplinary artist and XR (extended reality) designer pushes the boundaries of selfies through applied technology. Using a landmark detection algorithm, the artist repeatedly subjects these humble self-portraits to intense editing and manipulation until the algorithm can no longer detect their face.

The series Masking Machine (2018), recently featured in Recoding CripTech at SOMArts in San Francisco, activates questions about identity, self-representation, and mechanical intervention and authorship that date to photography’s early years. I spoke with Eifler about the motivation and method behind this unique series.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with M Eifler

PostedMarch 26, 2020

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

TagsM. Eifler, Roula Seikaly, selfies, Selfie Generation, new photography

Thought Series #2571 1998 © Bill Jacobson

Artist, writer and curator, Odette England asked more than 200 photographers, artists, and writers to respond to Winter Garden Photograph, Roland Barthes’ mythical image of his recently deceased mother when she was five years old. It was an image Barthes wrote extensively about in his book Camera Lucida but refused to reproduce, somehow building on its memory and mythology.

England’s resulting publication, Keeper of The Hearth, published by Schilt Publishing on the 40th anniversary of Barthes’ book, might be the best photobook of 2020– we’re betting on it.

Humble’s Senior Editor Roula Seikaly spoke with England (and a special guest!) about her motivation behind the book.

PostedMarch 17, 2020

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesPhotobooks, Artists, Portfolio

TagsRoula Seikaly, Odette England, Roland Barthes, Keeper of the Hearth, Winter Garden Photograph, Best photography books of 2020, photobooks

In his recent series, Dwelling, Matthew Cronin scans and warps 1970s JC Penny catalog photographs to create a sense of uneasiness on the construction of domestic scenes.

In 2018, Matthew Cronin came across an archive of large-format 1970s JC Penny catalog transparencies. Like much commercial photography then and now, these slick, elaborately lit commercial interior shots created a stylized illusion of domesticity to sell beds, sofas, and other household items.

Drawn to their peculiar, dated fantasies, Cronin scans, layers and subtly manipulates each image to subvert their narratives. Fake shadows appear where they shouldn’t and don’t where they should. Patterns mysteriously bleed from the fabric into other surfaces and formerly “inviting” interiors now hover in purgatory - somewhere between comfort and terror. Digital specters are clear and constant reminders that we are seeing their strings.

Having spent time with his work when I selected it for PhotNola’s “Currents” exhibition at the Odgen Museum of Southern Art last December, I reached out to Cronin to learn more about the artist and his work.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Matthew Cronin

PostedMarch 12, 2020

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesExhibitions, Artists, Portfolio

TagsMatthew Cronin, Fake News, Photographic Truth, new photography, post photography, jc penny catalogs, found photography, appropriation, photographic manipulation, digital manipulation, PhotoNola 2019

I can’t remember when or where I saw Jennifer Georgescu’s work for the first time. Since that auspicious moment, her image of a moth held over an infant’s eyes has bounced around my mind, appearing in dreams and nightmares alike. In that image, and across the project Mother Series, Georgescu captures dualities that define childhood and motherhood: vulnerability, strength, joy, exhaustion, the potency of identity as it forms during childhood and its temporary loss during early motherhood.

Through lush and highly choreographed vignettes, Georgescu works through her experience of raising two children to better understand both the universal and deeply personal aspects of parenthood. This work is a visual feast, and best seen in person.

If you can, check out Georgescu’s work in the group exhibitions Trust the Story (Baldwin Photographic Gallery at Middle Tennessee State University) or the Joyce Elaine Grant Exhibition (Texas Woman’s College) and Oceanside Museum of Art Auction Exhibition, and her solo installation at the Cornel/Henry Art Gallery (San Diego).

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Jennifer Georgescu

PostedMarch 5, 2020

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

TagsJennifer Georgescu, Photography and motherhood, womenphotograph, photographic tableaux, photography and art history, photographer interviews

Black Virgin Mary, 2018 © Adrian Octavius Walker

In 2018, photographer Adrian Octavius Walker completed We Matter, a series of portraits of Black men wearing various colors of velvet durags. The portraits are soft, stylized and empowering, breaking the stereotypes of Black masculinity often presented in popular media with bold, poppy and pastel colors.

“Black Virgin Mary,” an image from the series, was recently included in The National Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and exhibition American Portraiture Today, on display through August 20th, 2020, among the work of more than 40 artists and photographers whose work addresses race, police brutality, immigration, and citizenship.

Photographer Quinn Russell Brown, who also has a piece in the exhibition – a portrait of Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson – speaks with the St. Louis-born, now Chicago-based artist about the higher meaning of a durag, the perspective that comes from personal experience, and the difference between photographing Black subjects and making work about Blackness.

Quinn Russell Brown in conversation with Adrian Octavius Walker

PostedFebruary 27, 2020

AuthorQuinn Russell Brown

CategoriesExhibitions, Artists, Portfolio

Tagsdurag, Adrian Octavius Walker, Quinn Russell Brown, National Portrait Gallery winners, Black Virgin Mary, black lives matter, contemporary portraiture, new portrait photography

M. Eifler Makes Selfies for the Eyes, Ears and Fingertips

200+ Photographers, Artists and Writers Respond to Roland Barthes' Winter Garden Photograph

Subverting The Cold, Domestic Glow of 1970s JC Penny Catalog Photos

Jennifer Georgescu's Dark, Yet Joyous Portrait of Motherhood

“We Matter”: Photographer Adrian Octavius Walker on Black Male Beauty