Year in Review, 2023
Recap of the year, popular posts and going forward.
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This was my first year on Substack, and it was phenomenal. I transferred In the Flash from the now-defunct Bulletin in December 2022. A year ago, I had 10,000 subscribers, and at the end of this year, there are more than 17,000 of you reading the newsletter. Mind-blown, so thank you to everyone who is tuning in, sharing, recommending, and commenting.
Here are my most popular posts of 2023
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When a Fashion Week Image Goes Viral (the power of women's pain and social media)
When this photo went viral, I wrote a post about it and it became the most-read post of 2023.
The reality of the photo extends beyond the runway into every woman’s closet. Women unwittingly continue the centuries-old tradition that "beauty is pain" when we buy expensive shoes only to classify them according to the number of blocks they can be worn without causing blisters.
The Problem of AI Photography is Not the Medium, It's the Message (the unresolved potential of new technology)
This post generated the most discussion and reposts and was the subject of a podcast, Critical Media Studies. I will be writing more about AI in 2024.
AI as an art form can move forward when we stop imitating, and use the technology on its own merits, with ideas and concepts unique to the medium. It’s too early to know with certainty what those may be, but as it evolves, so will the artists using it, learning to create entire worlds with just words.
A Somewhat Serious Guide to Photography Do’s and Don’ts (unlearning photography rules)
A post that was the most fun to write. Do’s and Don’ts, Part 2, coming up first week of January 2024.
DON’T. Artsy artist statements — Many artist statements exhibit the subtle art of using an overabundance of words to mean absolutely nothing. Dualities are a popular device used to cower the viewer into giving the work significance — space and non-space, the conscious and subconscious, exterior and interior, hyper-reality and non-reality, object and non-object. My mind sinks into both stupor and non-stupor as it struggles to decipher and un-decipher the meaning and non-meaning of such artspeak.
Why I keep Photographing Peeing Dogs (the Dutch Old masters and personal vision)
This one snuck up there, and I’m glad. I combined musings on personal vision with peeing dogs, and the gamble worked out.
What art school didn’t teach me is that personal vision should not be a burden but a path full of joy and happy discoveries. It took me a decade, a Dutch painting, and a peeing dog to find that out for myself.
A Search for Vulnerability in Photography (losing myself through the camera)
The most personal post I’ve written last year. Sharing these early self-portraits came laden with anxiety, but doing so helped me shed those remaining goblins of self-doubt and fear.
Over the next year, I took thousands of photos of myself, learning how to photograph in the process. In essence, my career in photography has been the byproduct of narcissism.
What Does it Mean to be a Feminist Photographer in 2023 (and why I disliked Barbie)
I went a bit hard on this one, but Barbie deserved it.
“Celebration” framed as a goal, reduces any ideas to moral kitsch and renders the art inoffensive — a desired sentiment of our cultural landscape where even museums are putting up trigger warnings. When both artists and publications slap the “celebratory” label on anything and everything with the theme of being a woman and a hint of joy, feminism in art begins to resemble a commercial slogan.
The Cautionary Tale of Black and White Photography, Part 1 (unpacking my distrust of monochrome)
Trigger warning: This post is not for the faint of heart. A few weeks ago, a young man approached me in a coffeeshop to tell me that this post hurt his soul and he had to rethink his B&W practice. Part 2 is coming in 2024.
My gripe with B&W photography is that it is slathered on photos like ketchup, the universal art sauce for bland ingredients. Defenders of it discuss minimizing distractions, focusing the composition, and maintaining visual consistency. All of these, while valid, are inadvertent confessions of using B&W as a quick fix to an otherwise wonky photo.
I will finish up the year with a couple of more posts and then I will see you all in 2024!
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