BEST OF THE NET 2023; Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2018;
(cited in BAE 2015, 2016, 2020, 2022); PUSHCART poetry finalist
By Lou Jones
ARTIST STATEMENT For the past few years I have been photographing the continent of Africa country by country. We are using the “universal language” of photography to illustrate contemporary Africa. Western media has for hundreds of years intentionally only told the story of poverty, pestilence & conict with negative images of children with ies on… Read more »
By Rania Matar
Artist’s Note: Where Do I Go? As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon still suffers its consequences. After years of brutal Civil War, corrupt governments, months of Covid-19 lockdown; the 2020 Port of Beirut explosions further plunged Lebanon into the abyss and total economic meltdown, with shortages of cash, gas,… Read more »
By Lou Jones
Reviving the momentum of www.panAFRICAproject.org before COVID19, my team returned recently to Kenya, the fifteenth country in this overly ambitious project. Using the “universal language” of photography, the mission is to counter the negative, neocolonial misconceptions promulgated by western media. We document country by country, modern, contemporary Africa to provide a visual compendium for usage by institutions,… Read more »
By William Betcher
“Ghosts: War Artifacts” – reinterprets historical photographic portraits to portray the emotions and damage of war. Using images from the American Civil War, I remove the metal mattes from the original 1860’s memorial cases to reveal the vivid patina of oxidation. I then print them as transparencies which are mounted on 24”x30” acrylic, reminiscent of… Read more »
By Bob Avakian
Located In the town of Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard is a small fishing village called Menemsha. It is homeport to local fisherman, some of whom are from families that have fished there for generations. During the summer months, Menemsha is intensely busy. Residents and tourists come to walk the boardwalks, get freshly cooked seafood and… Read more »
By Binh Danh
Artist Statement: My work investigates my Vietnamese-Cambodian heritage and our collective memory of wars in Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos. The themes of mortality, memory, history, landscape, justice, evidence, and spirituality encompass the work. My technique incorporates my invention of the chlorophyll process, in which photographic images appear embedded in leaves through the action of… Read more »
By Lou Jones
Artist Statement at first I was scared the pandemic was supposedly killing old poor black men in East Boston more than anywhere in the USA I was looking for the grim reaper outside my door every morning But I realized this was not going away soon & would be an amazing point in history It… Read more »
By Hakim Raquib
On morning of the Summer Solstice, 2019 I photographed a “Gathering” of a Diverse group of Believers and devotees of the Orisha faith, who came together to pay homage to the Ancestors of the African diaspora. They all wore white in honor. The event was held at Carson Beach, South Boston, MA. It was… Read more »
By Danielle M Dean
Statement An Island can be a refuge, evoking feelings of escape and solitude, beauty and abundance. For over fifteen years, I have lived and worked on San Juan Island, a seven-mile stretch of land in the Salish Sea. I get suited up for long periods in the cold waters. Setting my eyes directly on the… Read more »
By William Betcher
Artist Statement Why were these broken toy soldiers from the 1930’s and 60’s not thrown away? Because they must have been important to the boys who played with and damaged them. And because they have stories to tell. The 3” tall metal toys originally were mass produced, but each soldier has become unique, humanized by… Read more »
By Charter Weeks
“The Prosperity Gospel” is a project done in collaboration with the writer, Keith Flynn, documenting the effects of the Great Recession on the individual lives of people living in Appalachia, within a 75 mile radius of Asheville, North Carolina. We have been in homeless camps, tobacco sheds, dirt racetracks, gun shops and Baptist churches. I… Read more »
By Lou Jones
Click each photo to view larger Several years ago, I noticed that the media coverage of Africa cast such a negative face on the continent – poverty, pestilence, and conflict — that it resulted in a form of neocolonialism. panAFRICAproject was born out of my need to cast a different light on the subject, using… Read more »
By Alison Shaw
Click an image to enlarge Artist’s Statement: Having Martha’s Vineyard as my primary subject matter for more than 40 years certainly comes with many rewards, but also with its share of challenges. In the years that I’ve spent photographing these 100 square miles, I’ve constantly had to push myself to see the island anew. Sometimes… Read more »
By Christopher James
By Christopher James
Everyone has a story about that moment, the one often experienced alone… even when in the company of others, the instant when one of your life-strands is forever changed.
By Richard Ross
Juvenile in Justice is a project to document the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them.
By William Betcher
Artist Statement Anthem, a collection of fine art photography, explores a small freshwater pond in Fortunes Rocks, Maine, from the first appearance of water lily leaves in the spring to flowers’ lush spread, to the approach of winter, when a few pads are transiently visible beneath a thin coating of ice. Ranging from realistic to… Read more »
By Bob Avakian
Artist Statement I photograph the landscape during the twilight hours and at night using long exposures to capture my surroundings and create an image different from what the eye perceives. By directing my attention to convey the quiet and solitude of the night, I believe that I am able to experience the moment with a… Read more »
By Lou Jones
Click each photo to see a larger view panAFRICAproject Since 2012, Lou Jones Studio has embarked upon an ambitious long-term project to document positive aspects of everyday life across the African continent, an extended photo essay that reveals Africa’s immense beauty and vitality. Much of Western visualization of Africa has focused primarily on poverty, conflict,… Read more »
By Neal Rantoul
Click each photo to see a larger view Artist Statement I have been photographing the wheat fields in the southeastern corner of Washington for almost twenty years. It is my longest running project and forms a foundation for work made over my career. I was schooled in the discipline of photography initially formed in the… Read more »
By Craig Scoffone
Most photographers use natural light to create their work, at least to some extent. But few artists turn their cameras to create portraits of the sun itself.
By Meg Birnbaum
This portfolio presents a wistful visual record of this American tradition that has changed little over the past century.
By Karin Rosenthal
My desire to photograph nudes was born of the water, of a passion for being in and meditating upon still waters.
By Dominic Chavez
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — In Kroo Bay, a slum located in the heart of Freetown, mounds of raw sewage seep into pools of stagnant water.
By Eli Reed
Click an image to view larger Artist Statement: I have always looked for and found the humanity in everyone. The flesh and spirit are nothing without the soul seeking the completion and redemption of life on this small planet. I have always been a fan of what UNICEF, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, and… Read more »
By Fran Forman
My artistic process is an act of intuition, investigation, and the amalgam of seemingly random objects.
By David Fokos
From decades of work, I came to understand that because our emotional responses are based in time, if I want to express the emotion I felt (as opposed to the emotion felt by the subject, or a generalized abstract emotion) at the time the photograph was made, that I must also encode the element of time within the image.
By Lou Jones
Click thumbnails to enlarge Artist’s Statement The twenty-seven inmates I photographed act as a metaphor for our criminal justice system. The Final Exposure project actually started for me at about age 15 when I argued the issues of the death penalty with my father. Six years of my life have been devoted to documenting the… Read more »
By Keith Moul
Keith Moul has published his poems widely for more than 40 years; his photos more recently. He has two chapbooks: The Grammar of Mind (2010) by Blue & Yellow Dog Press and Beautiful Agitation (2012) by Red Ochre Press. He also writes poems to accompany his photos.
By Pippi Ellison
I am endlessly fascinated by water: the surface, the depth, the flow and power to transform, the special places where the unseen becomes seen.
By Wilson Hunt, Jr
The images from the Caribbean Festival in Boston were suggested by a desire to view and capture the color and celebratory nature of the event. However, expressions of thoughtfulness or distraction were as compelling to shoot as the joy and color and liveliness of the marchers. There was beauty to be shared. My paintings and… Read more »
By David Weinberg
Heading Home is an organization trying to end homelessness in the Boston area by providing permanent housing solutions. I began volunteering in 1996 and got to know many of the men, women, and families that they serve by spending time in one of their Cambridge facilities. As a photographer, I realized that I could help… Read more »
By William Betcher
These images are a selection of the work that I have done on a Maine pond over the last 4 years, ranging from the first appearance of lily leaves in early May to lilies frozen just below the surface in late November. I call these macro (close-in) shots “pond glyphs,” since the decaying leaves show tracks reminiscent of ancient writing.
By Amie Tannenbaum
Primarily known as a natural light photographer, AMIE G. TANNENBAUM specializes in extreme macro / close-up camera techniques to capture abstract photoart and to create “color impressions” — those images which result when sunlight shining through studio stained glass windows produces a myriad of vivid colorations that penetrate through, reflect on, and illuminate textured glass,… Read more »
By Alison Shaw
At the remote tip of Cape Cod lies a vast terrain of rolling sand dunes, scrub oak and pine, bogs and marshes. I chose a square format, the simplest possible shape – in each picture I split the frame into two equal parts, placing the horizon in the center of the frame, thus forming a… Read more »
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