Issue no. 172
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ARNO RAFAEL MINKKINEN: INSIDE THE MIND OF MY CAMERA
Many photographers have indulged in extensive experimentation in self-portraiture (Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, Claude Cahun, to name three), but few with the single-minded vision, consistency and idiosyncrasy of the Finnish-American Arno Rafael Minkkinen, whose long creative trajectory investigates the relationship between the body and nature. Beginning in 1971, and still going strong today, Minkkinen pushes beyond traditional forms of the self-portrait through a daring, singular approach imbued with mystical and metaphorical undertones.
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XIDONG LUO: MIRRORED VISIONS
Another notable self-portraitist, this fine art photographer draws inspiration and aesthetic direction from Chinese philosophy, particularly the concept of “something visible but untouch- able, beautiful but unattainable.” Her lush, organic images subtly yet firmly connect her feminine energy with the natural world.
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ANNE FISHBEIN: ON THE WAY HOME
Between 1990 and 2000, Anne Fishbein trav- eled numerous times to the city of Yaroslavl, located 170 miles northeast of Moscow, to doc- ument through formal yet candid portraits a rural people and culture that, for all intents and purposes, remained frozen in time. Her compas- sionate images speak to a unversal truth: “People may be different culturally or politically, but we’re also all the same.”
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MATT BLACK: HIDDEN AMERICA
The Magnum photographer has long documented economically challenged communities across the United States. His latest book—one of two devoted to the same subject—was seven years in the making, and challenges the widespread view that inequality and poverty are anamolous to American life, rather than being structurally built in. He dis- cusses the reasons why in this revealing interview.
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MANAL ABU-SHAHEEN: BEIRUT
Motivated by what she perceived as a lack of history (and understanding) regarding the urban landscape of Beirut, Lebanon, Manal Abu-Shaheen set out to explore cultural, political and other relationships between symbols on billboards and the built environment. “I aim to evoke the experience of walking through the city: disorientation, an impossibility to understand what has, and is, happening to this place.”
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SPOTLIGHT: TERRY REED—PORTFOLIO CONTEST WINNER
“It’s curious how ambiguity works in a photograph.”
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SINGLE IMAGE SPOTLIGHTS:
HAL KAHN
SCOTT FOWLER
CHUCK LaCHANCE
JERRY RANCH -
DEPARTMENTS
ALL THE KING’S MEN
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MORE SPOTLIGHTS
WILLIAM BULLARD
DENNIS LUCKENBILL
LAURIE BLANKSMA
MONIKA CHABICOVSKY
MARJORIE GURD