Lurking in Robert E. Jackson's collection of more than eleven thousand American snapshots are some of the most peculiar photographs of ordinary people posing for the camera in their Halloween "best." Culled from anonymous family photographs found in auctions and other carefully selected archives, Jackson's eye for the curious and absurd remains unrivaled. "I am interested in the dark side of snapshots, " says Jackson, " and what they tell us about our deepest fears and motivations. There is a voyeuristic side to collecting which searching for Halloween photos brings out. It is the hidden which attracts."

So behold 13 of Jackson's unsettling Halloween gems. See more on his Instagram feed, or learn more about his practice in an interview we conducted earlier this year.

PostedOctober 28, 2015

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesPortfolio

TagsRobert E. Jackson, Vernacular Photography, Snapshots, halloween snapshots, snapshot photography, photos of people in halloween costumes, weird photography

Keith, 2015 ©Kris Graves                                                                 … — Keith, 2015 ©Kris Graves Ferratti, 2015 © Kris Graves

Kris Graves’ latest series, The Testament Project uses portraiture, video interviews and anonymously submitted written testimonials to explore the varied experience of contemporary Black masculinity in America. Graves examines various media driven stereotypes in an effort to uncover their deep roots of institutionalized racism. For Graves, and many of the men he’s photographed and interviewed, these ideas transcend class and geography, and are a constant reminder that despite significant progress, our nation has much to overcome.

PostedOctober 22, 2015

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

TagsKris Graves, Testament Project, Race in America, Video Work, New Portraiture, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Kris Graves Glowan, Kris Graves Testament

Alexander Binder is a wizard creator of imaginary worlds. Growing up in Germany’s Black Forest in the 1980’s, his pre-internet (and pre-Kanye West) childhood and limited athletic abilities sparked a love for old fairytales, comic books and fantasy literature, as well as science fiction and horror movies. Over the years, these obsessions accumulated into a mental archive of psychedelic stories and imagery, which have had a major influence on his photographic practice for more than a decade. Binder’s upcoming book with Tangerine Press, Kristall ohne Liebe, meaning "The Crystal without Love,” uses various mystical symbols to draw an ongoing tension between competing forces of darkness and light. From a distance, this might sound like the perfect recipe for a late 1990’s mall-goth picture book, but it’s executed with a sensitivity that is smart, thoughtful and aesthetically riveting. And it's even stranger when viewed while listening to Black Sabbath’s N.I.B.

PostedAugust 7, 2015

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio, Publications

TagsAlexander Binder, German Photographers, Occult Photography, psychedelic photography, spiritual photography, toy camera photography, spirit photography, Jon Feinstein, Humble Arts Foundation, Tangerine Press, photobooks of 2015, photobook

This body of work uses the sky as a subject in explorations of light, space and time. In the images, space is simplified and flattened at times, and emphasized and expanded at others. Much like the sky itself, the viewer's understanding of the work is constantly in flux.

PostedMarch 14, 2014

AuthorEditors

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

TagsKyle Seis