Nadir #15 - Jo Ractliffe, 1987-88
Jo Ractliffe has long been one of my favourite photographers. Her more recent photographic projects like As Terras do Fim do Mundo and The Borderlands were hugely inspirational projects for me with their stark explorations of the landscape and the memories they hide. Yet, there is something about this image from Nadir, one of her very first artistic projects, that catches my imagination and refuses to let it go.
Read MoreHow are we still having this debate? How is it that in the year 2014 after photography has been exhibited in every major gallery from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Venice Biennale in... um... Venice that this arts journalist is still wondering if photography has arrived as 'art'. How is it that even though we live in the uber post-modern present where someone's bed covered in bodily secretions and a pair of slippers is considered art, we are still discussing whether a photograph can be art? What is so un-art about photography?
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Macho Nne #25 - Cyrus Kabiru. Photographer Ashley Walters. Image courtesy of SMAC Gallery.
Kenyan based artist, Cyrus Kabiru, is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of Africa’s leading practitioners of Afrofuturism. The individualistic Kabiru creates intricately sculptural artworks from recycled materials he finds throughout his hometown of Nairobi. Through his use of found materials Kabiru creates a dialogue between his life story and the thriving African city in which he lives allowing him to assert his identity in the present as well as explore his dreams of the future.
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