Two deer stare, stunned, their ears perked nervously straight up. Their sweet brown eyes have turned zombie white, caught in a camera flash rather than the headlights of a speeding Ford F-150 barreling down a dirty back road at night. One looks like she’s about to bolt, her body tensed in the tall grasses in … Continue reading
Nightlife photography should be kinda bad. Technical perfection is for shut-ins with a studio or all those photographers making photographs of photographs. Nightlife photos should be out of focus and crappily framed. Heads should be lopped right off dancing bodies, fixating instead on torsos bumping and grinding into each other (and the photographer). Flashes of … Continue reading
Trump is the master of the image. I know—I’m not the only one to point it out. LA Review of Books’ Gideon Jacobs did it before, whose perfectly titled essay “Trump l’Oeil” grabbed me, up until he used the word “ontology” in an essay about Donald Trump. But at this point, isn’t it a cliché … Continue reading
Nobody can convince me that ASMA’s dolls don’t come alive and skitter all over SculptureCenter at night. That these little featureless skeletal femme creatures don’t pop up when the doors lock to tinker with the accessories placed around them—playing cards while lounging in the nude, tinkling the keys of their piano used as a momentary … Continue reading
At my first stop during a recent Tribeca gallery stroll, I was nearly knocked out by workmen hoisting a humungous heavy steel beam down the stairs of Andrew Kreps Gallery’s location in the piss-soaked Cortlandt Alley. Barely missing a good, hard conk to the noggin was nowhere near as frightening as being trapped, alone, in … Continue reading
I’ve never been a rabid fan of Elton John. As a child, I wanted to hear Jeremy Irons’s queen Scar sing about revenge more than Elton caterwaul about feeling the lion love tonight. As an adult, I rolled my eyes in exhausted disappointment when I saw outlaw country mystery man Orville Peck collaborating with the … Continue reading
At some point in college—or maybe grad school, I sought out Peter Hujar’s only published photobook Portraits in Life and Death at New York University’s Bobst Library. I wanted to pour over black and white photographs of filth elders like a pensive portrait of Divine, sans wig and forehead-reaching liquid eyeliner, curled up in a … Continue reading
As promised (threatened?) at the conclusion of the first installment of gallery-hopping conversations, ever-dedicated cofounder Emily Colucci and Swanson Kuball gallerist Laura Swanson braved the frigid cold and icy winter winds to wander the mercifully shorter blocks of Tribeca to discover what the hell was going on down there. Come along as we reflect on … Continue reading
Thanksgiving Day. The turkey is cooked without being dried out like an avian husk. Marshmallows melt into a slimy sugary goop on the sweet potato casserole. Crispy onions wilt on top of the green beans. Cranberry sauce slides out of the can with a thick thwack. Your polite guests help bring these steaming dishes to … Continue reading
“Florida is beyond the earthly; it’s spiritual,” comedian Tim Dillon reflected in a recent Patreon episode. “You cannot get rid of the idea of Florida.” He’s right. Florida is a place, sure, but even more so, it’s an idea. Many ideas, really: alligators lounging on golf courses; palm trees swaying in the beach breezes; Tennessee … Continue reading