Carl Chiarenza’s images, though nominally two-dimensional, suggest other things, sometimes beings but more often scapes — deep, complex, convoluted spaces through which the viewer’s eye seeks to wander, drawn almost irresistibly into the intricate folds of this purely illusory terrain. […]
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Something about the mythologized Capa induces normally sensible people to stop using their eyes to actually see what’s in his pictures and describe that straightforwardly. Instead, they see the myth, press the hyperbole button, and away we go. […] So AI has already begun to infiltrate the field of photo history. I suspect the full onslaught of AI degradation lies not far ahead. And it ain’t pretty. For the moment, I’ll just make this prediction regarding Capa D-Day-related AI slop: Après ça, le déluge. […] In short, photographs carry an implicit documentary value and evidentiary function that lens culture everywhere certifies. Which is why what the VII Foundation, the Associated Press, and World Press Photo have achieved in their collective efforts on the making of “Napalm Girl” matters, deeply, regardless of their flaws. […] Michals embraced the theatrical frame and the directorial mode; for him the viewfinder is a proscenium, models are dramatis personae. Another benchmark of his work is its exploration of the forbidden. A third is his insistence on stretching the boundaries of what a photograph is allowed to be. A fourth is the profoundly sacral essence of his seemingly profane and deeply disturbing vision. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |