Kritik & Essays

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Writings by Michael Asselin and Stephanie Cristello, an essay on Joanna Piotrowska, recent works by Onyedika Chuke and Neil Winokur, and more, in the latest issue of OsmosOSMOS Magazine is "an art magazine about the use and abuse of photography," explains founder and editor Cay Sophie Rabinowitz (formerly of Parkett and Fantom). The magazine is divided into thematic sections--some traditional, such as "Portfolio," "Stories" and "Reportage"--and others more idiosyncratic, such as "Eye of the Beholder," where gallerists discuss the talents they showcase; and "Means to an End," on the side effects of nonartistic image production. This issue of OSMOS Magazine features recent works by New York-based Onyedika Chuke; an essay on the Polish artist Joanna Piotrowska; a reportage by Michael Asselin; Chicago-based art critic Stephanie Cristello on Kay Rosen's videos from the 1990s; and a portfolio by New York-based photographer Neil Winokur.

OSMOS Magazine is "an art magazine about the use and abuse of photography," explains founder and editor Cay Sophie Rabinowitz (formerly of Parkett and Fantom).<BR><BR>The magazine is divided into thematic sections-some traditional, such as "Portfolio," "Stories" and "Reportage"-and others more idiosyncratic, such as "Eye of the Beholder," where gallerists discuss the talents they showcase, and "Means to an End," on the side effects of non-artistic image production.<BR><BR>This issue features Camaroonian artist Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, photographers Erik Magigan Heck and Ina Jang, a conversation with Penny Slinger and essays on Sarah Charlesworth's "Unwriting." The cover is by Joanna Piotrowska.

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This superb collection of essays illuminates the film portrayal of violence, masculinity, and power in a postcolonial context, showing how the cinema challenges, normalizes, or contests these major issues. Taking an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, drawing from literature, sociology, and media studies, the essays shed light on films about societal violence in postcolonial cultures, whether it be terrorism, suicide bombings, the underworld, organized crime, or mob violence. The contributors to Spectacles of Blood look at the dynamics of the representation of these issues as cinematic plots and techniques, drawing attention to the affective value of the films in generating and foregrounding the feelings invoked by the onscreen violence, and the impact of these emotions on the formation of national and cosmopolitan identity. International in scope, covering films from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, these essays enrich both literary studies and social studies with a nuanced borrowing and intermixing of their primary texts and modes of interpretation.<BR>

American photographers documented and defined the twentieth century in a remarkable array of images, the style and content of which evolved dramatically over the course of the century. In Disappearing Witness, photographer and art historian Gretchen Garner chronicles this transformation, from the introduction of the 35-millimeter camera in the 1920s to the digital photography of today. Accompanied by over 125 key works in the history of photography--fine-art, documentary, and editorial--her thoughtful and enlightening discussion traces American photography's aesthetic, commercial, and technological changes, as the medium's primary role of spontaneous witness gradually gave way to contrived arrangement and artistic invention.Garner discusses direct witness as the dominant paradigm for American photographers from the 1920s to the 1960s. During these decades, photographers saw their medium primarily as a vehicle for truthful description and sometimes as a weapon against social injustice. In the 1960s, however, photographic practice and its cultural significance shifted to reflect more personal, idiosyncratic, and staged visions of reality--a trend, Garner notes, that has intensified with digital photography. The major portion of the book is devoted to post-1960s work, exploring how the changes have affected portraiture, documentary, landscape, still life, fashion, and the new genre of self-imagery. In documenting this transformation in American photography, Disappearing Witness forcefully rethinks the history of photography itself.