The Easel

23rd September 2025

Seydou Keïta’s Revelatory Portraits of Malian Life

Kobby Ankomah Graham | Aperture | 15th August 2025

Keïta’s photography tells deep stories. Some portraits have figures posing on motor bikes, symbolising modernity in newly independent 1960’s Mali. Malian eyes would likely pick out the textiles though, that displayed not just traditional designs but also influences from French colonial fashions. In his meticulous images, “individuals claim space within a rapidly shifting society. Keïta crafted a distinctive modernist photographic language anchored in the Malian arts of textile.”

Cropped, Chopped, and Silhouetted: Taking Celebrity at Face Value

Cara Shatzman | MOMA | 17th September 2025

Images are the fuel of celebrity culture. Whether it’s social media influencers, film stars or (increasingly) politicians, images are manipulated to flatter or to convey an idea. Archives of Hollywood studio photos show just how “ruthless” this process could be, with exaggerated images of femininity placed next to exaggeratedly masculine figures. One curator likens these images to the Pictures Generation artists who famously explored the gap between image and reality. Says another curator “celebrities are products”.

16th September 2025

Stephen Shore’s ‘Early Work,’ with Pictures He Shot at Age 13, Is Anything but Amateur

Emmanuel Iduma | Art in America | 5th September 2025

Shore was hugely precocious, photographing New York street scenes when he was 13 and, only a year later, selling some of those images to MoMA. With his instinct for composition, he understood very early that “a camera doesn’t point, it frames”. While still a teenager he spent several years at Warhol’s Factory before moving into then unfashionable colour photography. Even in his 20’s his signature style was clear – “an attentiveness to the American surface”.

Man Ray and the dreams of objects

Staff | Kolapse | 7th September 2025

Man Ray was always chasing the next new idea. In 1921 he placed objects on or near light sensitive paper and then exposed them to light. Voila, the rayogram was created! It led to a decade of experimentation and a dalliance with the surrealists who loved anything that resembled dream imagery. Perhaps the reason the linked piece has such a ‘try hard’ tone is that, with hindsight, the rayogram has proven to be more whimsical historical footnote than enduring idea.

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