viz.

Nico in 1990 and 2010, France; Irina Werning

This week, I want to draw attention to Irene Werning's Back to the Future project (website probably not safe for work; there is a small amount of nudity), in which the artist meticulously reconstructs images from her subjects' pasts. The results are always impressive, often funny, and sometimes touching in their illustration of how much and how little changes with the passage of time.

The Anime Within, Elena Dorfman

The image above is from a photo essay on the Mother Jones website. The essay, entitled "The Anime Within," was disappointing to me, and while I don't want to malign Dorfman's project, especially since I am glad to see cosplay getting attention in a publication that might not normally address it, I do want to critique some of the messages that these images send.

Lefteris Pitarakis Via New York Times

Since protests began one week ago across Egypt, the media has published many photographs of iconoclasm against images of President Mubarak, or images depicting the scale of the protests in Cairo.  I'd like to raise the question of how representative images from this week are using one-point and two-point perspective, and how that perspective informs our sense of the unfolding events.

Image Credit: "Smashed Glass" by Jessica Alpern

Guest blogger and Austin-based photographer Jessica Alpern discusses her recent work, Useless, in which she offers new visions of everyday objects.  As she explains, "This collection is a look at common object, made or found, that no longer serve their purpose due to damage, defect or the inevitability of time."  More from the artist after the jump.

Image Credit: Ellen DeGeneres, Kauai, Hawaii, 1997, photographed by Annie Leibovitz via NPR

At the end of October, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. opened “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” The new exhibition features gay and lesbian artists and portraits of prominent figures in the gay community.

October is breast cancer awareness month, so you may be seeing pink ribbons and products more frequently. While the pink ribbon is a powerful symbol of breast cancer awareness, "pinkwashing" (exploiting consumer grief or guilt to sell products, such as pink hair dryers or nail polish, with minimal donations to breast cancer organizations) has been the target of much critique, in part because it allows consumers to feel that consumption of material goods is a solution to a widespread health problem. The SCAR project, which takes and exhibits photographs of young breast cancer survivors, offers a different visual argument for cancer awareness. Depending on your office environment, the images after the jump may be NSFW.

Image Credit: Retrolicious via Bioephemera

Inspired by Elizabeth’s close reading earlier this week, I thought I’d attempt to make sense of my attraction to the digital image above, which has been adorning my desktop for the past month or so. Pictured are Japanese inventor Yasutaro Mitsui and his steel humanoid, circa 1932. Why is this duo so appealing—and arresting? A few speculations after the jump.

Image Credit: Laura Kalman, Cystic Acne, Back (2009)

Via Bioephemera

In a post earlier this week, Cate discusses “Freeze! Revisted,” an art project that literalizes our consumption of violence. In response to the “sensual suicide” of mod-pixie models sucking on gun-shaped popsicles, I offer these blinged-out (and beautiful?) representations of diseased female bodies.

Image Credit: "Freeze! Revisited" by Florian Jennet and Valentin Beinroth via todayandtomorrow.net

H/T to Ben Koch

Since the 1950s, the pop art movement has been challenging our ideas about mass-produced images and objects.  Particularly by manipulating context, pop artists identify and exploit cultural trends.  In a recent exhibition, two German artists explored the intersections of art, violence, and mistaken identities.

I recently posted a new page to the theory section of viz. that explores the photographic theory of Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida.