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Three Artists, Immersed In Far-Flung Residencies, Offer Unique Takes on Human Truths at New York’s International Center of Photography

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A new group exhibition at New York’s International Center of Photography showcases the work of three photographers produced during far-flung residencies. One journeyed to the islands of Guadeloupe, another to the borderlands of France, and the other to New Orleans. Each distinctly disparate project receives its own section, but the show has an overall cohesion. Although all three artists used different methodology and approaches, a throughline resounds; in his own way each was gracefully, soulfully reflecting the human condition and spirit.

“Immersion” is on view until January 8, 2024, and documents Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan’s sojourns. “I think all of us are intuitive in terms of the way that we work,” Halpern said. “I was trying to respond to the feeling of the place.” Overall, the experience is a celebration of resilience, but it can also unflinchingly explore some hard truths.

Vasantha Yogananthan, Untitled from “Mystery Street,” (2022). © Vasantha Yogananthan

Yoganthanan delivered colorful childhood Louisiana reveries. Halpern reflected on the reverberations of the colonial period and the slave trade in Guadeloupe. Meeks’s somber and oddly beautiful, mostly black-and-white series delves into immigrant crossings (made during his own personal crossroads). He captures displacement and human desperation in landscapes and still lifes without portraying people. Some of his images are so abstract they look like the surface of the moon.

One of Meeks’s abstract takes on landscapes in an Installation view, “Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan,” International Center of Photography, New York, September 29, 2023–January 8, 2024. Image: © Jeenah Moon for ICP.

Meeks explained, “As photographers, as much as we read the world, I think we’re also projecting. I was always projecting my own state of mind.”

Immersion is also the name of the French-American Photography Commission that sponsored the residencies created by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès and presented in collaboration with ICP and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. At the heart of the project is unbridled creativity. “It’s very open,” said Laurent Pejoux, the director of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès at last week’s busy vernissage. “They’re totally free to choose the subject. We don’t want to impose the project to the photographer. La liberté is an important notion in France. That’s why we support projects like this where the liberty was total.”

Halpern recreated a defaced bust of Christopher Columbus in this installation view, “Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan,” International Center of Photography, New York, September 29, 2023–January 8, 2024. Photo: © Jeenah Moon for ICP.

Each of the photographers also included a sculptural element to their project. Halpern recreated a defaced bust of Christopher Columbus and included flickering video screens depicting an invasion of cruise-ship tourists, Yogananthan gathered his images into an elegant, large-scale 3-D assemblage, while Meeks powerfully punctuated his section with rusted barbed wire and makeshift campfire grills sourced from the borderlands’ camps. We caught up with each on the evening of the opening for a brief walkthrough.

Vasantha Yogananthan

“Mystery Street”

Installation view, “Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan,” International Center of Photography, New York, September 29, 2023–January 8, 2024. Image: © Jeenah Moon for ICP.

New Orleans is a subtle character in your series. The images don’t scream that locale. There’s no crawfish clichés here.

I wanted to approach the city as a fictional space. I like that the pictures are very fragmentary. They don’t really show the landscape. For someone who knows New Orleans, maybe you feel the city—the colors, the light, the atmosphere. The project is about childhood. It can be from any place or anywhere in the world.

What was your process?

I picked the summertime to go because school was over and the children would be free all day long. There was a lot of boredom, as the days are longer. At first I was thinking that the project would be about playing. And then I got more interested about what happens before and after game time—these moments where the children are together it seems at first that nothing is happening, but maybe this is where everything is happening. After weeks being immersed with one group of kids, it almost felt dystopian, where the adults have left and the children are running the city and they’re free to do whatever they’d like to do. I really like that idea, of them owning the space.

Vasantha Yogananthan, Untitled from “Mystery Street” (2022). © Vasantha Yogananthan.

One image that is very striking is the child with the hula hoops on the stairs.

Yeah, this picture was shot in a summer camp. For five weeks I would go there in the morning and stay all day long. Most days, nothing worth photographing would happen. One has to be very patient in observing kids. At some point, if you’re patient enough, and if you’re kind, and if you care, something is going to happen. Henri Cartier-Bresson coined ‘the decisive moment,’ meaning, ‘Hey, I was there, like, at the exact right time, right place, and I clicked a picture that kind of summarized what the place is about.’ My feeling was the opposite, because I was there for five weeks in the summer camp and made maybe five good pictures happen. Meaning that most of the time, nothing happens. The photographer, by just being there—and most of the time not taking any pictures—is taking in a lot of information.

Gregory Halpern

“Let The Sun Beheaded Be”

Gregory Halpern, Untitled from “Let the Sun Beheaded Be” (2019). © Gregory Halpern

What drew you to the island in the first place?

As a 10-year-old, I went on a vacation to Guadeloupe. What I remembered was the total isolation from the place itself as a tourist. I’m fascinated by the idea of not doing that with this project and thinking about how this is a place of both tourism but also extreme pain, in terms of its history and its relationship to colonialism and the slave trade. I did a lot of research. I thought people would be very resistant to me as a white American, but they were incredibly welcoming. I talked about the thing that isn’t talked about. Tourists come here and don’t interact with the local culture. When the elephant in the room gets addressed, then people are very happy to talk to you as an outsider. People were like, ‘Oh, that’s so interesting that you want to talk about the actual culture and history and what it’s like to be here, not just as a tourist.’ In 1815, Napoleon abolished slavery, but then reneged on it, and in 1848 it was officially undone.

Can you tell me about the video component?

Tourists will come off of these cruise boats and they basically flood the main city, Pointe-à-Pitre, for like, three hours. They basically go and they photograph the locals who are selling vegetables and fruits, and then they get back on the boat. And to me it was like this guy, he’s photographing this woman. He’s sneaking up because she doesn’t want her photo taken. She’s holding up a bowl to protect her face. For me, it’s all about politics and battle and colonialism. And it’s also kind of about me, like a self-portrait, because I’m basically a tourist and outsider.

Raymond Meeks

“The Inhabitants”

Raymond Meeks, Untitled from “The Inhabitants” (2022). © Raymond Meeks

This was a very complex journey for you.

Calais is the center of the refugee crisis in Europe. By the time I arrived, I found myself in a state of displacement. All of my stuff was going into storage, and a relationship of ten years had ended and I didn’t have a home. So going to France kind of put me in a state of searching and of longing and wanting to create a sense of place, some sense of home. I think it put me on a level of searching for discovery and empathy and a compassion for what that experience is. I was in southern France for three months; I was in northern France for three months. So it’s just trying to imagine these borderlands. I’m making pictures and then I’m bringing them back and I’m crafting a story. I’m trying to understand what the work is trying to convey, what the work wants to be, what it wants to speak of.

There’s such brutalist imagery, like the cement with rebar poking through. It’s a rough landscape, but also beautiful. Nature seems to prevail. A lot of these structures look ancient. This work is about refugees, but none are depicted.

I had planned on doing portraits. I volunteered with an organization called Care4Calais that provided basic needs to refugees who were holding in Calais. And by doing so I became friends with quite a few of them. At that point I realized I didn’t want to do portraits. Because as I was interacting with them I realized I’m looking at them as a subject, not engaging with them as a human being. And I’m missing out on so much by thinking about what a picture of them might bring to my project. And that just felt exploitative to me. So I decided just to be present and to sort of try to carry the essence of their stories with me as I make pictures.

The installation of your show is so beautiful, from the excavation elements of found objects to the framing and how some photos are broken into grid-like quadrants.

With the sponsorship of Hermès, I had ultimate possibilities. I could have large silver gelatin prints made and the best framing, which would be a dream. Like, all this was a possibility for me. But that possibility also created a lot of confusion. I realized I don’t need to buy anything. Coming from this experience where, where human beings are just trying to make do with the things that are left behind, that they find, that are handed down to them—I just thought, like, I don’t want to consume more things. The constraint was that I will make use of what I have, I will make use of the wood, I will make everything myself. It became part of petitioning or prayer or like a meditation—and also just being deeply engaged in the creative process.

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One of Photography’s Earliest Inventors Had an Ingenious Trick to Stop His Images From Over-Developing, Scholars Say

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A pioneer of photography may have used urine to create his historical images.

That was one of the revelations a group of conservation experts from Brazil, Portugal, and the U.S. took away upon re-examining a series of what are believed to be among the oldest surviving photographic artifacts in the Americas, all created by the 19th-century artist, adventurer, and inventor Hercule Florence.

A man of French-Italian-Monegasque origin who settled in Brazil, Florence was one of the first to permanently fix images onto paper using chemicals. His innovations in this area preceded those of Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot, two scientists widely credited with developing photographic technology, but came after the ground-breaking innovations of Nicéphore Niépce.

Unlike those two scientists, who were internationally heralded in their time, Florence went comparatively unrecognized for his work. Fortunately, his achievements are getting an even greater shine now.

Working out of the HERCULES Laboratory at the University of Évora in Portugal, the researchers recently applied a number of analytical techniques to three surviving graphic prints made by Florence: a decorative border for a masonic diploma and two design templates made for pharmacy labels. All three objects are nearly two centuries old.

Photomicrography revealed that the paper Florence used to create the images was similar to that found in previous experiments of his. X-ray fluorescence, meanwhile, showed that silver nitrate or silver chloride was used for the diploma design and gold chloride was used for pharmacy labels. These materials proved crucial in the inventor’s quest to not only capture light, but to record it permanently.

The early studies of Thomas Wedgwood and others likely led Florence to use papers coated with light-sensitive chemicals. On top of these he placed blackened pieces of glass with designs etched into them.

This process created a positive image, but he still needed a way to stop the picture from continuing to darken when exposed to light. For this solution, he experimented with some unconventional materials.

Through a technique called ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, the researchers identified a greater amount of protein in the pharmacy labels—a finding that suggests the presence of urine. In other words, to stop his pictures from developing, Florence peed on them.

For the conservation experts, the finding speaks to the ingenuity of the 19th-century scientist, who worked without the resources of his European contemporaries.

“What Hercule Florence accomplished is really a prehistory of photography,” said Art Kaplan, an associate scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, who co-led the research effort with António Candeias of the HERCULES Laboratory. “He was one step ahead, employing certain elements that were commonly used in the photographic process.”

The analyzed photographs, Kaplan added, “are believed to be the only survivors of that time period.”

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Looking for an Art Excursion in New York This Summer? Here Are Four Perfect Itineraries That Combine Nature and Culture

Four Perfect New York Excursions That Combine Nature and Culture

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This summer, nature is in full bloom at four major art institutions around New York City: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Cloisters, the New York Botanical Garden, and Storm King Art Center (north of the city). Just as important as the shows themselves are your activities before and after. Here’s our cheat sheet to navigating your way around them as you savor the dual experiences. Don’t forget your walking shoes!

Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Visitors look at a painting during a preview of “Van Gogh’s Cypresses” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 15, 2023, in New York City. Photo: Wang Fan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images.

Planning a visit to the highly anticipated Vincent van Gogh “Cypresses” exhibition at the Met (through August 27)? You are, of course, going to need your strength. First, duck into Bluestone Lane (1085 Fifth Avenue at 90th Street)—an Upper East Side favorite—for bracingly strong coffee. Placing your order under the grand stone archway of the historic Church of the Heavenly Rest isn’t a shabby way to start your day.

Now that you’re rejuvenated, walk south along iconic Fifth Avenue toward the Met (1000 Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 83rd Streets), where nearly 40 of the daring Post-Impressionist’s paintings await, including masterpieces like Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night. It’s Van Gogh’s first exhibition to focus on cypress trees, those enigmatic evergreens that figure prominently in his oeuvre.

Vincent van Gogh, <em>Cypresses</em> (1889). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Vincent van Gogh, Cypresses (1889). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After taking in his arboreal brushstrokes, step out the back of the museum for the real thing. Central Park is famed for its idyllic landscapes and sylvan strolls. The Ramble, a short walk west (between 73rd Street and 78th Street), offers 38 acres of winding paths, not to mention excellent birdwatching. The Great Lawn, meanwhile, provides grassy patches to rest your weary feet or roll out a picnic lunch. The lawn also holds any number of summer concerts this summer.

Should all that imbibing of nature inspire quaffing of another kind, trek back toward civilization, across Fifth Avenue, for the quintessential post-Met romp: the Carlyle Hotel. Inside, the historic and luxurious Bemelmans Bar—where whimsical murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the Madeline children’s books, adorn the walls—offers an array of refreshing beverages, from dirty martinis to Shirley Temples.

Met Cloisters
Garden Tours

View of Cuxa Cloister (ca. 1130–40), currently located in the Cloisters. Courtesy of the Cloisters.

Located at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, the Cloisters—governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art—has been a must-see for locals and visitors since opening to the public in 1938. Open year round with free admission, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., reassembled from fragments the oil heir acquired from American artist George Grey Barnard, who in in the early 1900s began collecting medieval art and architectural fragments from European monasteries and churches that were being demolished.

The richness of medieval Europe is on full display. Many of the works are world-famous, like the incredibly preserved late 15th-century Unicorn Tapestries, with their dense, vibrant millefleurs, and the 12th-century Cloisters Cross. Another gem of the collection is the Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–20), in which medieval illuminators in Tours, France, made watercolor illustrations of numerous flower species with remarkable attention to detail.

Page from the Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–1515), attributed to Master of Claude de France, showing St. Peter's Keys (Primula veris) with a butterfly.

Page from the Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–15), attributed to Master of Claude de France, showing St. Peter’s Keys (Primula veris) with a butterfly. Courtesy of the Cloisters.

Visitors are also advised to seek out some quality time with the namesake cloisters, meditative gardens located in various corners of the museum; their therapeutic value is the stuff of legend. A horticultural staff maintains the gardens and gives daily educational tours, too.

Fort Tryon Park itself is worth the trip. The space is rich in history, serving as a battleground in the Revolutionary War, and boasts eight miles of pathways, as well as plenty of lawn space for picnics. Heather Garden, Manhattan’s biggest, contains over 500 varieties of plants, while Linden Terrace offers unobstructed and spectacular views of the Hudson River.

New York Botanical Garden
Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony G. Patterson. Photoo: Frank Ishman. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Ebony G. Patterson. Photo: Frank Ishman. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Before heading inside the New York Botanical Garden at 2900 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, it would be wise to make a pitstop at La Masa, a modern Colombian bakery at 726 Lydig Avenue on the garden’s east side. Here you can power up on gourmet empanadas and, of course, perfectly roasted coffee.

Now for the main event, where the contemporary artist Ebony G. Patterson has transformed the garden—one of the largest of its kind in the world, boasting over a million living plants—into a stunning medley of art and nature. Flowers, fabric, glass, and other materials combine to create lush, otherworldly environments.

The sprawling site-specific exhibition (through October 2) is the result of the Jamaican-born artist’s yearlong residency at the garden, making her the first visual artist to embed within the institution. Be sure to check out the Herbarium, where Patterson has installed the centerpiece of the exhibition, a monumental glass and stone peacock.

After a day of soaking in all that art and nature, you don’t even need to leave the garden to revive. Make your way to the northwestern corner to the scenic Hudson Garden Grill, which is conveniently nestled among the 40 acres of the Ross Conifer Arboretum. The menu emphasizes locally sourced recipes and ethically produced ingredients straight from Hudson Valley farms.

Storm King Art Center
Ugo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

Visitors gather around Menashe Kadishman's artwork </em>Suspended</em> at Storm King Art Center in New York on May 21, 2023. (Photo by Li Rui/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Visitors gather around Menashe Kadishman’s artwork Suspended at Storm King Art Center in New York on May 21, 2023. Photo: Li Rui/Xinhua via Getty Images.

Storm King has just opened for the summer season, and not a moment too soon. The 500-acre open-air museum contains perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the U.S.—and it’s located only an hour’s drive north of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley, at 1 Museum Road in New Windsor. Although it was originally devoted to Hudson River School painting, Storm King soon began placing large-scale sculptures directly into its landscape, turning it into a world-class sculpture park.

This summer, Storm King has added three contemporary sculptors to its roster (through November 13). New York-based Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone has installed the sun (2018) and the moon (2021), two large circular sculptures fashioned out of cast-bronze tree branches. RA Walden, meanwhile, has reimagined the electron configuration of the six most common elements—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—as crop circles on a hillside. And Beatriz Cortez has sculpted, by hand, volcano-like forms with undulating surfaces that echo the surrounding landscape.

the sun (2018) and the moon (2021), Ugo Rondinone. Courtesy of Storm King.

Ugo Rondinone, the sun (2018) and the moon (2021). Courtesy of Storm King Art Center.

As long as you’re near the art center of Beacon (just across the Hudson River), why not take a small detour to Dia Beacon? Housed in a former Nabisco box-printing factory at 3 Beekman Street, the museum’s collection includes major works by artists—particularly land artists—such as Richard Serra, Nancy Holt, and Robert Smithson.

Should you need to stay a night or two before heading back to the city, Beacon is the place to do it. Look no further than the Roundhouse Hotel, at 2 East Main Street. The property was originally a textile manufacturer and one of the first factories in Beacon. Its restaurant, too, is a must, inspired by the agricultural richness of the Hudson Valley, highlighting local farms, wineries, and distilleries. Plus, all the tables have waterfall and creek views through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Check back for additional Artnet Summer Itineraries for Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.—coming this month.

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Four Perfect New York Excursions That Combine Nature and Culture

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This summer, nature is in full flower at four major art institutions around New York City: Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Cloisters, the New York Botanical Garden, and Storm King Art Center north of the city. Just as important as the shows themselves are your activities before and after. Here’s our cheat sheet to navigating your way around them as you savor the dual experiences. Don’t forget your walking shoes!

Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Now that you’re rejuvenated, walk south along iconic Fifth Avenue toward the Met (1000 Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 83rd Streets), where nearly 40 of the daring Post-Impressionist’s paintings await, including masterpieces like Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night. It’s the first exhibition to focus on cypress trees, those enigmatic evergreens that figure prominently in Van Gogh’s oeuvre.

Vincent van Gogh, Cypresses (1889). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After taking in his arboreal brushstrokes, step out the back of the museum for the real thing. Central Park is famed for its idyllic landscapes and sylvan strolls. The Ramble, a short walk west (between 73rd Street and 78th Street), offers 38 acres of winding paths, not to mention excellent birdwatching. The Great Lawn, meanwhile, offers grassy patches to rest your weary feet or roll out a picnic lunch. The lawn also holds any number of summer concerts this summer.

Should all that imbibing of nature inspire quaffing of another kind, trek back toward civilization, across Fifth Avenue, for the quintessential post-Met romp: the Carlyle Hotel. Inside the historic and luxurious Bemelmans Bar—where whimsical murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the Madeline children’s books, adorn the walls—offers an array of refreshing beverages, from dirty martinis to Shirley Temples.

Met Cloisters
Garden Tours

View of Cuxa Cloister (ca. 1130–40), currently located in the Cloisters. Courtesy of the Cloisters.

Located at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, the Cloisters—governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art—has been a must-see for locals and visitors since opening to the public in 1938. Open year round with free admission, it was founded by oil heir John D. Rockefeller, Jr., reassembled from fragments he acquired from American artist George Grey Barnard, who in in the early 1900s began collecting medieval art and architectural fragments from European monasteries and churches that were being demolished.

The richness of medieval Europe is on full display. Many of the works are world-famous, like the incredibly preserved late 15th-century Unicorn Tapestries, with their dense, vibrant millefleurs, and the 12th-century Cloisters Cross. Another gem of the collection is the Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–20), for which medieval illuminators in Tours, France, made watercolor illustrations of numerous flower species with remarkable attention to detail.

Page from the Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–15), attributed to Master of Claude de France, showing St. Peter’s Keys (Primula veris) with a butterfly. Courtesy of the Cloisters.

Visitors are also well-advised to seek out some quality time with the namesake cloisters, meditative gardens located in various corners of the museum; their therapeutic value is the stuff of legend. A horticultural staff maintains the gardens and gives daily educational tours, too.

New York Botanical Garden
Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony G. Patterson. Photo: Frank Ishman. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Storm King Art Center
Ugo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

Visitors gather around Menashe Kadishman’s artwork Suspended at Storm King Art Center in New York on May 21, 2023. Photo: Li Rui/Xinhua via Getty Images.

Ugo Rondinone, the sun (2018) and the moon (2021). Courtesy of Storm King Art Center.

Should you need to stay a night or two before heading back to the city, Beacon is the place to do it. Look no further than the Roundhouse Hotel, at 2 East Main Street. The property was originally a textile manufacturer and one of the first factories in Beacon. Its restaurant, too, is a must, inspired by the agricultural richness of the Hudson Valley, highlighting local farms, wineries, and distilleries. All the tables have waterfall and creek views through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Check back for additional Artnet Summer Itineraries for Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.—coming this month.

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Artnet Auctions’s ‘Signature Works’ Sale Traces Commercial Photography’s Ascent to Fine Art, With Works by Annie Leibovitz and Steve McCurry

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Artnet’s current auction, Signature Works, features career-defining photographs by influential and daring creators, spanning from classic shots by Helmut Newton to Zanele Muholi’s bold, contemporary work.

The sale also features iconic photographs that originate from the commercial photography industry, including images by Horst P. Horst, Annie Leibovitz, and Steve McCurry that were originally produced for print publications. We spoke to Artnet’s Head of Photographs, Susanna Wenniger, about how these works represent profound artistic accomplishments while simultaneously satisfying a commercial practice—as well as contributed to artists’ long-standing fight for photography to be considered fine art, which has been ongoing since the medium’s inception in the early 1800s.

**Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset (1939)**

Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset (1939). Est. $30,000–$50,000.

One of the earliest and most important fashion photographers in history, Horst P. Horst created distinctly modern photographs that drew inspiration from the Surrealist movement. Mainbocher Corset (1939) is Horst’s most famous work, and it was the last photograph he took in Paris before World War II. Seen from the waist up and obscured in dramatic shadow, Horst’s model resembles a classical sculpture.

The image was initially published in French Vogue in December 1939. There are two versions of the image: one with a loosened corset and the other tightened. The latter is shown here and was the version that appeared in Vogue, as the original image with the loose corset was deemed too provocative for the time. The print in our sale is a rare, large platinum palladium print from a small edition of 10. It stands out as one of the most important fashion images ever made, and it is even directly referenced in Madonna’s 1990 music video for her song Vogue.

**Annie Leibovitz, Kate Moss (1999)**

Annie Leibovitz, Kate Moss (1999). Est. $20,000–$30,000.

As her first foray into photographing high fashion, Annie Leibovitz was approached by Anna Wintour in 1998 to shoot a spread for American Vogue on Sean Combs—then known as Puff Daddy—and Kate Moss in Paris. “I could never be a bona fide fashion photographer,” stated Leibovitz in an interview with the New York Times. Rather, through her elaborate costumes and set designs, Leibovitz considers herself a “conceptual artist using photography.”

Leibovitz captured this image of Moss wearing an intricate headdress from fall 1999 Christian Dior couture that appropriated designs from the Hindu god Vishnu. While the accompanying article in Vogue focuses on Puff Daddy’s taste for all things luxury, this arresting image of Moss stands out as the artistic highlight of the shoot. Moss dons bejeweled earrings and a head covering while staring powerfully at the lens. A decade after its initial publication, this timeless image was jointly selected by Moss and James Danziger for the Kate Moss Portfolio, published in an edition of 30.

**Annie Leibovitz, Keith Haring, New York (1986)**

Annie Leibovitz, Keith Haring, New York (1986). Est. $40,000–$60,000.

Annie Leibovitz’s practice as a self-described conceptual artist is epitomized through her unconventional photographs of fellow artists, such as her iconic celebration of Keith Haring, pictured here. Leibovitz was commissioned by a Floridian magazine to capture images of the pioneering artist Keith Haring in 1986. Although the images were not published, since the magazine folded shortly after, the collaboration between Haring and Leibovitz is a testament to the important relationship between editorial and fine art. Once Leibovitz provided an all-white living room of thrifted furniture, Haring painted an array of black graffiti in his characteristic style all over the walls, sofa, and finally himself. His first time painting his body, Haring initially whitewashed just his torso. “When he came out of the dressing room he was wearing white painters’ pants,” stated Leibovitz, “but it just seemed obvious to both of us at that point that he should paint the rest of him.” Although initially intended for commercial purposes, Leibovitz’s image is a powerful conceptual portrait of one of the most important 20th-century artists, and offers lasting insight into both Haring’s and Leibovitz’s minds as creators.

**Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan (1984)**

Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan (1984). Est. $12,000–$18,000.

One of the most immediately recognizable photographic portraits of all time, Steve McCurry captured this mesmerizing shot while on assignment in Afghanistan for National Geographic. Much like how Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother humanized the Great Depression, McCurry’s image offered an important representation of the toll on humanity caused by the conflict in Afghanistan.

This image is a powerful example of how a photographic image can initially serve a functional purpose but then transcend its original intentions. The June 1985 cover of National Geographic has a Mona Lisa-esque intensity both from its compositional mystique and art historical prominence.

Signature Works is now open for bidding on Artnet until May 24. Browse the sale and place your bids.

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This Year’s Photography Show by AIPAD Casts a Wide Net From Historic Images to NFTs—Here Are Some of the Highlights

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The Association of International Photography Art Dealers, commonly known as AIPAD, represents over 80 leading photography galleries from around the world, and for over 40 years has been dedicated to fostering and promoting the scholarship, exhibition, and market of fine art photography. Presented by AIPAD, the Photography Show returns for its 42nd edition in New York this month, running March 31 through April 2, 2023, at Center415. Earlier this year, AIPAD announced the appointment of Lydia Melamed Johnson as the new executive director. Of the forthcoming fair, Melamed Johnson said, “We’ve had an incredible response so far for the 2023 show, and I’m looking forward to being able to build on what we accomplished last year, including growing to welcome back guest exhibitors and publishers as we did at the Piers.”

An early initiative introduced by Melamed Johnson is the Associate Membership, an introductory membership that provides accessibility and support for emerging galleries that are less than five years old, which is currently the age of operation needed for full AIPAD membership. These associate members will be showing for the first time this year, alongside a roster of prestigious AIPAD gallery members. Together, 44 galleries will come together—from local to international—to present both new and historic museum-quality photography in addition to a range of new media, including photo-based art and NFTs.

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Case #1 (2022). Courtesy of Assembly, Houston.

One gallery that will be highlighting NFTs is Assembly, Houston, which will show the work of Rodrigo Valenzuela as both photographic prints and digital NFTs. Recognized for his images of collected industrial and mechanical objects against hazy backgrounds, through the presentation of Valenzuela’s work the gallery will assist collectors new to acquiring NFTs.

Estate of James Bidgood, Hanging Off Bed (Bobby Kendall), (mid-to-late 1960s/printed later). Courtesy of CLAMP, New York.

James Bidgood, Hanging Off Bed (Bobby Kendall) (mid-to-late 1960s/printed later). © Estate of James Bidgood. Courtesy of CLAMP, New York.

Other highlights of the forthcoming show include New York gallery Clamp‘s curated exhibition of queer portraiture, dated from the early 20th century through today, and Yancey Richardson’s presentation of Larry Sultan’s Pictures from Home, which will also be on view at the gallery and coinciding with the Broadway play Pictures from Home starring Nathan Lane. Visitors to the fair will also be able to discover some of the world’s most recognizable images, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson’s iconic Rue Mouggetard, Paris (1954) at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard, Paris (1954) © Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery, London.

Complementing the range of gallery presentations will be a special exhibition, “Highlights from the Archive: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of MUUS Collection.” Centered on collecting a “quintessentially American photography archive from the 20th century,” the MUUS Collection exhibition will highlight the work of five photographers, André de Dienes, Fred W. McDarrah, Deborah Turbeville, Rosalind Fox Solomon, and Alfred Wertheimer. Tracing the similarities and distinctions between each photographer’s approach to portraiture, the show will bring together both iconic and lesser-known images, highlighting both the scope of the archive and showcasing these inimitable artists’ work.

Niv Rozenberg, Chrysler (day) (2019). Courtesy of Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris.

As the longest-running exhibition dedicated to photography, the Photography Show presented by AIPAD is a yearly highlight for photography collectors and enthusiasts alike. With a full slate of new programming and exhibitors, the 2023 edition is not to be missed.

The Photography Show presented by AIPAD will be on view March 31–April 2, 2023, at Center415, New York.

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Four Artists Have Been Shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. See How Their Works Unpack Themes of Identity and Power

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Photographs tend to flatten—in multiple senses of the word—the subjects they depict. But do they have to?

The medium’s capacity for complex, multidimensional depiction is front of mind for Bieke Depoorter, Samuel Fosso, Arthur Jafa, and Frida Orupabo—the four artists nominated for this year’s prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023. Their work is on view now in a show at the Photographers’ Gallery in London.

Now in its 27th iteration, the annual £30,000 ($36,000) prize recognizes outstanding photographic artworks or exhibitions presented in the preceding year. The winner, who will be announced in a ceremony set for May 11, will join an impressive list of previous recipients, including Deana Lawson (who won in 2022), Susan Meiselas (2019), Trevor Paglen (2016), and Paul Graham (2009). This year’s runners-up will each receive £5,000 ($6,000).

Depoorter, a Belgian artist whose work often probes the power dynamics between photographer and subject, was chosen for her 2022 show “A Chance Encounter” at C/O Berlin. Among the two projects she presented there was Michael (2015-present), an installation that explores the inner life of a man Depoorter met on the streets of Portland, Oregon in 2015.

Last year’s career-spanning survey of Fosso at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris qualified him for the Deutsche Börse prize. For five decades now, the influential African photographer has turned his camera on himself, donning elaborate costumes for coded self-portraits that reflect on the performance of identity.

A series of piecework photo-sculptures represents the contributions of Orupabo, who was nominated for her exhibition “I have seen a million pictures of my face and still I have no idea” at Switzerland’s Fotomuseum Winterthur. Using imagery culled from both colonial archives and contemporary picture-sharing platforms, the Norwegian Nigerian artist creates collages of black female bodies that are both dense and fragmented.

Jafa, who rounds out the group of shortlisted creators, similarly draws from disparate sources for his own library of pictures, though how that material manifests in his work varies widely. The American artist’s 2022 exhibition “Live Evil” at LUMA in Arles, France featured photographs, sculptures, and large-scale installations, as well as signature films like The White Album (2018).

Arthur Jafa, Bloods II (2020). © Arthur Jafa. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery.

This year’s four shortlisted artists were selected by a jury of five industry experts: Anne-Marie Beckmann, director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation; Natalie Herschdorfer, director of the Photo Elysee in Switzerland; Mahtab Hussain, an artist based in Britain; Thyago Nogueria, head of contemporary photography at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Brazil; and Brett Rogers, director of the Photographers’ Gallery.

“Our shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023 exemplifies photography’s resounding power and resonance right now,” said Rogers in a statement. “Each artist addresses subjects which drive forward debate about the nature of the medium, and the role it plays in history and society.”

See more pictures from the 2023 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize nominees below.

Frida Orupabo, A lil help (2021). Photo: © Frida Orupabo, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nordenhake.

Samuel Fosso, Autoportrait (1976). Photo: © Samuel Fosso, courtesy of the artist and JM Patras.

Bieke Depoorter, We walked together, Portland, Oregon, USA (2015). Photo: © Bieke Depoorter/Magnum Photos, courtesy of the artist.

Samuel Fosso, Self-Portrait (Angela Davis) (2008). Photo: © Samuel Fossoc courtesy of the artist and JM Patras.

Arthur Jafa, Ex-Slave Gordon 1863 (2017). Photo: Andrea Rossetti, © Arthur Jafa, courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery.

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7 Questions for Francisco Tavoni on Finding Inspiration in Nightclubs and the Studio Accident That Changed His Photography Practice

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Originally from Venezuela, Australia-based artist Francisco Tavoni (b. 1986) is a photographer whose experimental and vibrantly colored images work to address identity and the ego, and frequently engage with ideas surrounding existentialism. Over the course of his artistic career, Tavoni has undertaken extensive travels around the world, exploring the myriad ways in which societies and cultures affect how people see themselves and others—and seeking out “authenticity in identity.”

Tavoni employs a unique photographic method, involving variously filtering his lenses and printing on cotton rag sheets, that lends the images a distinctly tactile element. Combined with his use of atmospheric undulating of color, the works are immersive, contemplative forays into the subconscious and ideas of self. For those looking to see his work in person, and this May his work will be shown at ATM Gallery in New York. We caught up with the artist to find out more about his practice and inspirations.

Installation view of recent works at Franscisco Tavoni's studio.

Installation view of recent works at Francisco Tavoni’s studio.

Tell us about your journey as an artist. Where did you start?

I used to work in fashion for 10 years. I co-founded a clothing label in Australia and during that time did photography on the side. Then I studied photography, started a photographic studio, and assisted other photographers. Collaborating with other artists and spending those years in the creative industries together gave me the tools to have structure and flow, to understand lighting and colors. Then one day, while experimenting with lights and fabrics, an accident happened. That was the breaking point that led me to what I do today.

How would you describe your creative process? Do you work with a fully formed idea or is it more intuitive?

I write ideas and meditate on them for a few days. I try to look within, at what I like or what has influenced me in the past. In that way, my process is very intuitive. I choose specific people that I share a special personal bond with, who understand what I’m doing—I begin with people. I think about how certain things are timeless: good in the past and still relevant today. I try to imagine how we will see these things in the future.

Francisco Tavoni, Estado Meditativo 1 (2023). Courtesy of the artist.

Can you talk a bit about how you make your work from a technical perspective? How has your method evolved?

I work with colored lens filters, see-through silks with patterned layers, and colored strobe lights. Then it’s a process of luminous inversion that I stumbled upon. Light turns to dark and cold becomes warmth. I’ve recently started to do more portraiture—the work itself showed me that it made the most visual sense for the ideas of identity that I was working with. I use new lens filters and new fabrics so that I get a different result each time.

Where do you most commonly find inspiration? Are there other artists, historical or contemporary, that have influenced you the most?

Lately, I’ve found a lot of inspiration in underground dance clubs and some of the people that go there. It’s a subculture of beautiful creatures. The custom chunky aluminum frames on my works were inspired by some of those industrial nightclub’s aesthetics.

There are many artists that I admire, like Thomas Ruff, Izumi Kato, and Klara Hosnedlová. They inspire me to make better work every day and to continue to evolve my work—but I wouldn’t necessarily say that my work is inspired by theirs directly. I find inspiration in solitude and stillness.

Francisco Tavoni, Estado Meditativo 2 (2023). Courtesy of the artist.

What do you want viewers’ experience of your work to be like? What do you want them to take away with them?

My desire is that viewers will recognize that identity does not have to be (and in fact isn’t) rooted in social conditioning. The work is about peeling those layers of identity and ego to reveal the true core of who we are at a soul level. Social structures and systems—culture, language, nationality—are all forms of ego and they don’t define what we are, and I want the work to help set the viewer free from those norms and escape the matrix.

What are you working on now? Are there any ideas you want to explore that you haven’t yet?

I’m working on the next series. What I can say at the moment is that there will be more storytelling, mainly about experiences that made me challenge my identity. I’m also experimenting with different mediums like paint, video, and performance.

If you were not an artist, what would you be?

There are certain things that I learned from an old mentor about inner work and psychic abilities. Some of these tools help me integrate into different cultural situations and to be at ease with myself. I think these tools can benefit everyone, so I think I would be teaching people about those skills.

Francisco Tavoni, Despertar y Entender (2023). Courtesy of the artist.

Learn more about Francisco Tavoni’s work here.

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Victor Burgin’s ‘Photopath’ Unlocked Multi-Dimensionality in Photography 50 Years Ago. Now, the Work Is Resurfacing in New York

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“A path along the floor, of proportions 1×21 units, photographed. Photographs printed to actual size of objects and prints attached to floor so that images are perfectly congruent with their objects.”

So read a set of simple, if ambiguous, instructions that Victor Burgin wrote on a single index card in 1967. When followed, the prompt yields a line of photographs that are exactingly printed to mimic the floor on which they’re installed—so much so, in fact, that it’s easy to miss them altogether.

This was Photopath (1967-69), an era-defining work of mid-century photo-conceptualism that still mystifies today, even if—or, indeed, because—it leaves its viewers with more questions than answers. Photopath is the subject of both a new book and a show. The latter, a dedicated exhibition at Cristin Tierney Gallery that opens today, marks the first time in more than 50 years that the influential artwork will be installed in New York.

Victor Burgin, typed instruction for Photopath, 1967. Courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York.

Burgin, now 81, wasn’t a photographer when he created Photopath 51 years ago. He didn’t own, or even really know how to use, a camera. What the technology represented to him was a means to an end—or, more accurately, the “solution to a problem,” he said in a recent interview.

The British-born artist was getting his graduate degree at Yale in the late ‘60s and was hyper-conscious, as many young artists are, of his place in the iterative evolution of artistic ideas and movements—that process where a generation of makers responds to the one that preceded it, and in doing so, establishes a new set of issues for the successive generation to take up.

“We felt, back then, that our generation had to find the problem. Once you found the problem, then you knew what your artistic problem was; it was solving that,” Burgin said.

On the artist’s mind were the slightly older mid-century minimalists—Donald Judd, Carl Andre, and his then-teacher at Yale, Robert Morris—whose formally rigorous work often resisted close examination and instead gestured outward, to the spaces in which it was installed. But Burgin was after something more elusive, something even non-material.

“It struck me then that maybe I found the problem,” he said, recalling it in the form of a question: “What could I do in a gallery that would not add anything significant to the space yet would direct the viewer’s attention to [their] being there?” It was into this context that Photopath was born.

Victor Burgin, Photopath (1967-69), installation view, Nottingham, 1967. Courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York.

The artwork was one of several index cards that Burgin wrote after he had returned to the U.K. Creating instructions for hypothetical artworks satisfied his desire “to do away with the object” in his work, but the cards, too, felt unfulfilled; he needed to enact the prompts to complete them.

So he did. Photopath was first realized on the scarred wooden floor of a friend’s apartment in Nottingham in 1967, then again at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1969 and at the Guggenheim in 1971.

Though the piece was conceived as a kind of sculpture—or an anti-sculpture, perhaps—its impact, in retrospect, feels emphatically photographic. Like few artworks before it, Photopath exploited the medium’s uncanny ability to nestle in between image and object, illusion and idea. If the artwork doesn’t compel its viewers to consider these ideas intellectually, it at least makes one feel them through interaction. Do you treat it like a sculpture or a picture? Or is it not an artwork at all and instead just another stretch of floor? Do you step on Photopath’s prints or walk around them?

“It is hard to imagine an act of photography more straightforward and uncompromising than Photopath,” writer and curator David Campany explained in his recent book on the artwork and its legacy, published last October by MACK.

“It aims to fulfill the basic potential of the medium, which is to copy and to put itself forward as a stand-in or substitute. Yet,” Campany went on, “in meeting this expectation so literally, it somehow estranges itself.”

Victor Burgin with Francette Pacteau photographing the brick floor at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 1984. © Andrew Nairne / Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. Courtesy of Victor Burgin and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York.

To date, Photopath has only been installed a handful of times, the most recent instance of which came in 2012 at the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph, 1964-1977” exhibition, when it was laid upon the polished wood boards of the museum’s Renzo Piano-designed atrium. After the run of the show, Burgin’s prints were discarded, leaving a dark, ghostly silhouette on the sun-soaked floor. He had, in a sense, created another type of photograph.

“I thought, ‘That’s just perfect.’ It really returns [the artwork] to the origin of photography,” Burgin said, noting that the show felt like a fitting conclusion for the artwork. He thought that would be the final time Photopath would be shown.

But that changed last year when Campany approached the artist with the idea of writing his short book about the artwork—a piece of writing that blends analytic art theory and personal experience, often to lyrical effect. What Campany identified in Burgin’s artwork was a kind of foresight for how photographic technology is used today.

David Campany, Victor Burgin’s Photopath, 2022. Courtesy of MACK.

“[J]ust as Vermeer had pursued an important technical development in the picturing of three-dimensional space, so too had Burgin anticipated aspects of representation that are just as pervasive: the replication of surfaces, and the uncertain space between images and their mental impressions. Fake leaves on plastic plants. Laminated tabletops imitating stone or wood. Synthetic clothing pretending to be denim or leather.”

“Photographic ‘skins’ are everywhere in contemporary life,” Campany concluded. “They are not pictures, at least not in the conventional sense, but are a fact of our contemporary material, visual, and virtual experience.”

“Victor Burgin: Photopath” is on view now through March 4, 2023 at Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York. Victor Burgin’s Photopath by David Campany is available now through MACK.

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An African Photography Biennale Makes a Case for Mali as a Creative Hub—But the Global Art World’s Bad Habits May Hold It Back

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During last month’s edition of Bamako Encounters–African Biennale of Photography, as dusk arrived following a captivating artist talk by revered Nigerian photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi, southern winds carrying Saharan dust settled over Mali’s capital and clouds of bats took flight between the trees across a lavender-hued sky.

Pioneering photographers such as Seydou Keita, Abdhourahmane Sakaly, and (of course) Malick Sidibe loom large here. And at such moments, even an untrained eye can understand how Bamako is an image-maker’s paradise, and a seemingly perfect setting for a photography biennale. The city’s endlessly compelling, starkly geometric architecture—angular and curved, Sahelian, colonial, and contemporary—is magnificently illuminated by the light.

In early December 2022, dozens of artists from across the world convened for the 13th edition of the Bamako Encounters, which runs until early February 2023. It is titled “On Multiplicity, Difference, Becoming, and Heritage,” a theme that invites the audience to consider moving past understandings of the world that focus on singularity and essentialism, creating room for movement, change, and malleability. Mali is a country with diverse geologies and geographies, inevitably yielding varying ways of living and cultures. This biennale thus explores a universally applicable theme in a place where liminal spaces are ever present.

Highlights

Spread across seven key sites, including the National Museum of Mali and a disused train station that formerly connected Bamako to Dakar, a standout feature from this edition of the biennale is its substantial inclusion of artists from across the African Diaspora.

Still from Leave The Edges, Baff Akoto, 2020

Still from Baff Akoto, Leave The Edges (2020).

One of the noteworthy works from the biennale, Leave the Edges (2020), which won the biennale’s Grand Prix/Seydou Keita award, came from artist-filmmaker Baff Akoto, who was raised between Accra and London. The work explores African and Diasporic spiritualities, and how they have mutated and transformed across time and in different spaces, as a metaphor for a wider conversation around cultural exchange.

An exceptional and meditative piece, employing tender cinematography, subtle lighting, and mesmerizing soundscapes, Leave the Edges is a poetic movement film melding performance art and commemorations of slave rebellions in Guadeloupe.

Installation view of works by Anna Binta Diallo, both 2022. Photo by Photp by Tobi Onabolu.

Meanwhile at the National Museum, Anna Binta Diallo’s futuristic looking work explores the historical roots of folklore and storytelling. Employing a variety of maps, prints, and images superimposed onto outlines of human forms, Diallo invites us to consider what it means for humanity to exist in symbiosis with the natural environment. Concurrently, she explores concerns such as migration, identity, and memory.

Installation view of works by Anna Binta Diallo, both 2022. Photp by Tobi Onabolu.

Sofia Yala works in the same vein, but on a more personal level within the setting of her own family, questioning the notion of the body as an archive. Yala’s work involves screenprinting her grandfather’s archives—whether private notes, I.D. documents, or work contracts—onto photographs taken by Yala in domestic spaces. Through the process, she is able to uncover deeper layers of identity—a poignant exercise in the context of reconnecting with the artist’s Angolan heritage.

Installation view of works by Marie-Claire Messouma, all 2022. Photo by Tobi Onabolu.

Over at the former train station, sub-themes of magic, the ethereal, and eternity emanate through more conceptual and abstract works. Marie-Claire Messouma’s mystical, melismatic photography aims to spark a conversation about humanity and the cosmos, mixing textile sculptures, ceramics, and other materials, and evoking the feminine.

Similarly, in Fairouz El Tom’s work, the artist questions where the “I” ends and the “you” begins within the discourse of human ontology, prompting vital discussions around the interconnectedness of humanity—or, perhaps, the lack thereof, in this age of uncertainty.

Installation view of works by Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, all 2019. Photo by Tobi Onabolu.

In Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo’s haunting works, we are invited to reflect on the legacies of human violence and the enduring trauma that comes from it. Drawing on his own past and personal experiences, Hlatshwayo has converted the tavern where he grew up—a site of intense trauma—into his studio, demonstrating a tangibly curative element within his practice.

Who Is It For?

With a high-profile curatorial team attached to the biennale under the artistic direction of superstar curator Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Bamako Encounters is a triumph for the artists, and undoubtedly an impressive notch on any exhibition C.V. Yet the hyper-conceptual nature of “On Multiplicity, Difference, Becoming, and Heritage,” married with sub-par scenography that often attempts to emulate the white cube model, also creates a disconnection between organizers and audiences, prompting questions, the most pressing of which is: “who is this really for?”

The well-curated, robust program of artist talks and conversations was predominantly attended by the artists themselves, alongside other industry practitioners, once again creating the all-too-familiar echo chambers that the art world is known for. The same problem is felt with the text-heavy, exclusive language of art that accompanies this exhibition, often using insular vocabulary that very few people outside of the industry even understand.

In recent times, the scrutiny of these echo chambers, and the industry at large, have become well popularized by the likes of the Instagram-based account @freeze_magazine. Such critiques often touch on how the art world perpetuates harmful capitalist tendencies, whose victims include both humans and the environment; the flaws and hypocrisy of institutional spaces; and general elitism. And at points, the 13th edition of Bamako Encounters might be guilty of all three offenses, even if to only a fraction of the degree of the Venice Biennale or other biennials in the Global North, or the market at large.

Installation view of works by Adama Delphine Fawund, all 2020. Photo by Tobi Onabolu.

“If the art only exists within institutional spaces it makes you wonder who is it really for and how is it functioning?” exhibiting artist Adama Delphine Fawundu told Artnet News, reflecting on these challenges. “I think most artists are making work that deals with subject matter that actually interrogates the institution. Therefore, what’s important about this biennale is the way that it’s documented, through the books and the text. Fifty years from now, what will people be saying about today? And if the work is not being documented at least for the future, then the biennale has to be interacting with people. How do you take it outside of the museum or the gallery space, and actually engage with real people that we see around? Because this is what we’re actually concerned about.”

And although this edition of Bamako Encounters has a central theme that relates so directly to contemporary realities in Mali, access to these conversations is largely limited to industry practitioners and socio-economic elites, many of whom were flown in specifically for the opening weekend (inevitably producing excessive quantities of carbon emissions just for the biennale to take place). In African contexts, the debate around the most effective modes of presentation and sharing critical artistic work with new audiences continues to bubble.

Nevertheless, perhaps the biennale’s biggest strength was that it became this meeting point for important, unfiltered conversations between artists and practitioners who may never have met otherwise. Indeed, amidst an onslaught of almost-farcical organizational errors, including missing baggage and overbooked hotels, the artists rallied together, evoking the power of the collective through their inter-generational and cross-cultural collaborations and exchanges. With the sheer number of artists present for this event greatly outnumbering overbearing know-it-all curators, hard-to-please institutional overlords, and opportunistic dealers, Bamako provided the platform for real connections to emerge between its exhibiting artists.

And so, despite underlying political uncertainty in Mali, fears of a global recession, and the overarching problems of the global art system, the 13th edition of Bamako Encounters emerges as a success, albeit with a plethora of concerns left to consider.

The 13th Edition of Bamako Encounters, African Biennale of Photography, is on view at venues throughout Bamako, through February 8, 2023.

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Vasantha Yogananthan

“Mystery Street”

Gregory Halpern

“Let The Sun Beheaded Be”

Raymond Meeks

“The Inhabitants”

Metropolitan Museum of Art“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Met CloistersGarden Tours

New York Botanical GardenEbony G. Patterson

Storm King Art CenterUgo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

Metropolitan Museum of Art“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Met CloistersGarden Tours

New York Botanical GardenEbony G. Patterson

Storm King Art CenterUgo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset (1939)

Annie Leibovitz, Kate Moss (1999)

Annie Leibovitz, Keith Haring, New York (1986)

Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan (1984)

Highlights

Who Is It For?

Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Met Cloisters
Garden Tours

New York Botanical Garden
Ebony G. Patterson

Storm King Art Center
Ugo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

Met Cloisters
Garden Tours

New York Botanical Garden
Ebony G. Patterson

Storm King Art Center
Ugo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez

**Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset (1939)**

**Annie Leibovitz, Kate Moss (1999)**

**Annie Leibovitz, Keith Haring, New York (1986)**

**Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan (1984)**