digressions: a blog

As you may know, April’s Modern Painters is the photography issue. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the magazine. The writing is generally vague, uninspired, and “backstory” heavy (“This artist works in painting. His father was a painter. Let me tell you about a well-known historical fact regarding painting”). They also redesigned the magazine recently to make it look like a blog and it subsequently hurts to look at. With that said, there are usually gems, including the amazing photo of Hiroshi Sugimoto on the cover, shot by the artist himself. When you flip to the article, however, it’s hard not to fall asleep immediately.

Why is it that art magazines like Modern Painters, and to a lesser extent Art Forum, when highlighting photography, choose to show artists that are old news and obsessed with modernism? This describes all of the featured photographers in this issue: Sophie Ristelhueber, James Welling, and Hiroshi Sugimoto. I actually enjoy the work of all three of these artists a lot, it just adds to the notion that current photographers are the most boring, nerdy, and old-school practitioners in the contemporary art world. That bums me out.

With that said, Vince Aletti highlights 5 “lesser known” photographers, which thankfully make the issue a little more interesting and diverse. I learned of some new gems! Look at the full slideshow here.

© Mohamed Bourouissa

© Ken Kitano

© Dietmar Busse

© Viviane Sassen

© Bruce Wrighton