John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Monte Dutton: The Intangibles

Good historical fiction is also good social history. That's one of the reasons that I use books like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, a classic tale about the coming of colonialism to what is now Nigeria, in my teaching. Monte Dutton has just published The Intangibles, an historical novel about... Read more →

Photography Changes Everything: A Review, Part 2

I see photography as one of the most democratic mediums of the contemporary world... since the advent of Kodak and the Brownie camera, photography has been a potential medium of the masses. Quite untrained, I was able, with a little direction, to use the medium to express my view of... Read more →

Photography Changes Everything: A Review, Part 1

"10% of all photos ever taken were shot in 2011." --Fortune magazine, 24 September 2012 * * * We live in revolutionary times. Disruptive technologies and new means of communication are transforming the visual universe in which we live. The changes are most apparent in our personal lives, but they... Read more →

Robert Frank's "The Americans," at the Photo Book Club

The Photo Book Club is a fantastic new online venture that's been put together by Wayne Ford, a designer and art director (at the Observer, among other places), and Matt Johnston, a photographer, teacher, and social media manager. Today, they've published a short essay that I've written, looking at the... Read more →

Review: John Raeburn, "Ben Shahn's American Scene: Photographs, 1938"

In 1938, Ben Shahn traveled the back roads of central Ohio, hoping to discover the "average American." He was on a three-month assignment for Roy Stryker's legendary photo documentary project, which was a unit of the federal government's Farm Security Administration [FSA]. He'd worked as a photographer for Stryker on... Read more →

Review: "Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950"

South African photography is hot -- at least, in the United States. This summer, not one but two New York museums have mounted major exhibitions of works by South African photographers. A monumental David Goldblatt exhibition is on view at the Jewish Museum, while a smaller Zwelethu Mthethwa show is... Read more →

Review: "Hard Luck Blues: Roots Music Photographs from the Great Depression"

In the 1930s and '40s, photographers employed by the federal government's now-legendary Farm Security Administration [FSA] created the most significant and, perhaps, most beautiful of all American photo archives. The FSA's Historical Unit, which was established to document and promote the Roosevelt administration's New Deal policies, far transcended its narrow... Read more →