In his new series Cosmotypes, Granville Carroll uses a cameraless photographic process as a metaphor for "reclaiming power from nothingness."

As humans often do, Granville Carroll frequently ponders the origins of the universe. “I imagine the power needed,” he writes, “to make something out of nothing.”

Carroll makes collodion plates on surfaces including glass, metal, and acrylic to mirror the creation of the cosmos. These "Cosmotypes" – dark, abstract, and prone to technical chance – reflect the mystery of what lies above and beyond and what might have come before it. For Carroll, these cameraless images are not just creation story meditations, but ruminations on control, oppositional forces, and his own cultural, spiritual, and personal journey. “I set my gaze,” writes Carroll, “on the expanse of space, marveling at the vibratory dance of light and darkness.”

A longtime fan of Carroll’s work, I caught wind of Cosmotypes in December 2020 when he shared an early image from the series on Instagram and had to learn more. A few months later, we connected to discuss its present and historic implications and the flourishing expanse of cosmological photography.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Granville Carroll

PostedApril 8, 2021

AuthorJon Feinstein

Categoriesinterviews, Artists, Portfolio

TagsGranville Carroll, cosmological photography, cameraless photography, alternative process photography, alt-process photography, Afrofuturism, African cosmology, new photography, silver eye silver list, contemporary photography, photographic practice

Buku Sarkar’s “Containment Diaries” is a dark, revealing window into the photographer’s illness, crisis, and physical and emotional distress.

“I couldn’t get out of bed today, which is nothing new. I just couldn’t lift my neck from the pillow. I felt like I’d had a concussion. Electric sparks run up my spine. I can’t feel the tremors today. But when you are in the presence of others, you feel you must perform. So I do it, for the sake of my parents. Then perhaps every day has been a performance.”

When Buku Sarkar moved from New York City to New Delhi in 2013, she began suffering from a chronic undiagnosed medical condition. Her hands tremored, her body exhausted. She lost her balance, and frequently lost consciousness. She lived in constant pain for years, rarely leaving the house. When she did venture out, for a wedding or another family gathering, she had to rest for at least a day to harness the strength to avoid collapsing.

After keeping the condition – which she still suffers from today – quiet for years, and amidst quarantine adding an additional layer of distress, Sarkar began documenting it in a series of dark, revealing self-portraits titled “Containment Diaries.” Soaked in low light, often blurred by long exposures, Sarkar’s visual diary takes the viewer through her painful journey of nightmares, fear, panic, and tremors, with no visual end in sight. For Sarkar, it’s a letter to her family, friends, and the outside world – a means to communicate something she withheld for years. “It’s a way of way of showing you,” writes Sarkar, “how I really was when you never saw me, when I was alone in my apartment, surrounded by a beautiful garden I rarely entered.”

I spoke with Sarkar to learn more about her journey.

Editors note: Buku Sarkar is currently having a print sale on her website. If you are moved by her story and you’d like to support her work during this challenging time, check it out.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Buku Sarkar

PostedMarch 29, 2021

AuthorJon Feinstein

Categoriesinterviews, Artists, Galleries, Portfolio

TagsBuku Sarkar, photography and illness, contemporary self-portraiture, new photography, photography and mental health, photography as visual diary, Containment Diaries, quarantine photography

Sterile, Wounds Need Air, 2020. © Camilla Jerome

Camilla Jerome has lived with multiple chronic illnesses, most of which were un- or misdiagnosed, for 15 years. At 30 years old, that’s half of her lifespan. For nearly a decade, she’s used photography and video to process and better understand these experiences.

“It’s all in your head” or “It’s not that bad” and other dismissive phrases are familiar to the RISD MFA candidate. This kind of medical gaslighting has been reported on with greater frequency, but the trouble persists. To comfort herself, Camilla Jerome has cultivated numerous creative projects that convey both her struggles with institutionalized medicine and the personal victory she finds in trusting her pain response.

I am particularly moved by the image Sterile. Though the title refers to Jerome’s experimental attenuated bleach wash that renders the print’s surface brittle and vulnerable, it abstractly calls up the social and personal struggles and alienation many women navigate related to reproductive health. The image is part of her series Wounds Need Air – a quiet, gut-punch paean to survival.

Following our conversation during Filter Photo Festival’s early February virtual student portfolio review, Camilla and I reconnected to discuss her work and the experiences that inform it. We dig deeper into her thesis work, talking about making invisible disabilities visible, and the necessity of self-advocacy.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Camilla Jerome

PostedMarch 23, 2021

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, interviews, Portfolio

TagsCamilla Anne Jerome, photography and mental health, self-portraiture, process-based photography, photographers working with video, Wounds Need Air series, photography and self-care, Roula Seikaly, new photography, interviews with photographers, photographer conversations, Camilla Jerome

Stacy Mehrfar’s new photo book, The Moon Belongs to Everyone, is an abstract allegory for suspended identity.

The Moon Belongs To Everyone, published by GOST books takes an unexpected and highly metaphoric approach to immigration, diaspora, and cultural dislocation. Weaving through cold, blistering landscapes, found still lifes and deep dark, forest scenes, Mehrfar visualizes the experience of feeling out of place and the desire to belong and connect while mourning the loss of one’s roots.

The series responds to Mehrfar’s move, at the age of 30, from New York City to Sydney, Australia. An Iranian-Jewish woman who grew up in Long Island, she felt disrupted and out of place having never imagined living anywhere outside of New York. In search of connection, she also began interviewing and photographing other immigrants with similar experiences, ultimately making images that fall somewhere in between traditional portraiture and candid scenes – an apt metaphor for the cultural in-between.

When Mehrfar returned “home,” to New York City a few years ago, her feelings didn’t resolve - they got more complicated and her sense of rootlessness continued to splinter. Volleying detached portraits with shivering landscapes, she exacerbates this discomfort, the sensation of going in and out and never feeling at home.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Stacy Mehrfar

PostedMarch 15, 2021

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Galleries, interviews, Portfolio, Photobooks, Publications

TagsStacy Mehrfar, Diaspora Studies, GOST books, Jewish photographers, Jewish-Iranian photographers, Jewish-American photographers, Contemporary Landscape Photography, Contemporary Portraiture, new photography, contemporary photography, detached landscape

Alex Christopher Williams’ new photobook Black Like Paul explores the complexities of race, masculinity, and what it means to pass as white.

A child of interracial marriage, Alex Christopher Williams stands astride two worlds - one white, one Black - each framed by race as a social, economic, and cultural construct.

Williams passes for white. Though the definition has expanded to include ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, and gender, from a genealogical perspective, passing describes biracial people who identify with or are perceived as belonging to a different racial group based on their appearance. Across the vast and violent span of American history, passing was a survival technique that granted some Black people access to education, employment, and relative safety before the law.

Black, Like Paul, Williams soon-to-be released book produced by Kris Graves Projects’ new imprint Monolith Editions, focuses on the photographer’s experience of navigating racial hybridity. Williams strives to understand his father Paul’s experiences as a Black man, and by extension, that of many men in his immediate and ancestral family and community. Looking at the book, readers may momentarily stand in Williams’ shoes, looking into a world that is familiar in some ways, and unknowable in others.

We recently spoke about going unnoticed in a world that regularly degrades the bodies of Black men and boys, and using photography to access heritage that is challenging to inhabit.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Alex Christopher Williams.

PostedFebruary 25, 2021

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, Art News, Photobooks, Portfolio, Publications

TagsAlex Christopher Williams, Kris Graves Projects, Monolith Editions, Roula Seikaly, Humble Arts Foundation, photography about race, Black Like Paul, contemporary photography, Atlanta photographers, Race in America

Cosmological Photography as a Symbol of Power, Balance, and Origin Stories

These Self-Portraits Document an Artist's Experience Living With Chronic Illness

Visualizing the Discomfort in Unseen Disabilities

A Lunar Metaphor for Migration, Diaspora, and Disorientation

Navigating The Nuances of Passing As White