Todo tiene su tiempo

La Mirada (the gaze) presents nine outside their country almost unknown Latin American artist-photographers. The works of the last 20 years range from straight photography to the staged image. This title describes not only gaze of the camera directed towards a specific subject, but also the artistic attitude and mental approach of the nine artists and their diverse views on photography.

With Torero, Ruven Afanador juxtaposes the incredible beauty of young bullfighters and old-world Latin traditions with a couture-inspired vision of the opulent costumes and the ritualistic elements of the matador culture, and narcissism, an integral aspect of fashion photography. Afanador opens the door to the famously closed society of bullfighters, offering his elegant, private view of the young matadors raised in a centuries-old Latin tradition, capturing their balletic beauty, and their distinctly erotic aura. Through these iconic portraits, Afanador also gorgeously documents the...

As I recall discovering this book of photographs, I remember the sense of beauty and mystery that remains undiminished almost seventy years after its original publication. On a formal plane, one can easily understand how Man Ray manipulated the optics of the camera, juxtaposing near and far, object against object, space against object, and tactile against transparent. It is also apparent how he deliberately manipulated the process of photographic printmaking, using unusual tones of black, white, and gray to transform content into spaces, forms and surfaces. However, it is not simply how Man...

Nadar, whose real name was Felix Tournachon (1820-1910), was a conspicuous, even astonishing presence in nineteenth-century France. Engaging and quick-witted, he invented himself over and over as a bohemian writer, a journalist, a romantic utopian, a caricaturist, a portrait photographer, a balloonist, an entrepreneur, a prophet of aeronautics. The name "Nadar" was on everyone's lips. Today, it is Nadar's photography that is remembered. His sitters, who were often his friends, included the great men and women of his time: Dumas, Rossini, Baudelaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Daumier, Berlioz, George...