The Easel

17th March 2026

Catherine Opie Documenting Marginalised Voices NPG

Miranda Carroll | Artlyst | 9th March 2026

Admits Opie, “I had such a hard time fitting into the world as a girl”. That interest in identity has carried through into her art career that features photographic portraits of herself and friends, including some in the “leather and dyke scene”.  She is not trying to sensationalize or promote a “radical lifestyle”. Instead, she wants to represent, in a “painterly” way, a group who, she argues, are rarely seen in historical portraiture. “Doesn’t everyone have the right to actually be acknowledged in this world?

‘Negatives are photographic truths’: the collector who fled Russia with a haul of second world war images

Kate Connoly | The Guardian | 14th March 2026

Bondar, a Ukrainian photographer, sees war photography in especially broad terms. Besides including the work of professional photographers, it contains many images taken by less heralded photographers. Not having been manipulated, these represent a “collective memory” of terrible events. His WW2 images, assembled over more than a decade, are often conspicuous for their humanity, a “counterpoint” to conventional narratives of wartime heroism. Bondar’s website is here.

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