Journal
Writing on photography, art history, and the ideas that move between them.
Not always timely. Not always about my own work.
A running record for anyone who wants to think alongside it.
2026
Fashion Photography Never Agreed
William Klein introduced Frank Horvat to fashion, then spent a decade mocking it.
The Ethics Are Sound.
The Uniform Is Optional.
Why does sustainable fashion seem to have one aesthetic?
The argument has many (and a long history).
Made to Last,
Until It Didn't Sell
Brand borrowed Grandfather’s logic.
(They left out an important part.)
What Gets Left Behind:
HVSFW, El Anatsui, and the Case for Deadstock
Four years of arguing with a runway.
The record is what stays.
How Aaron Siskind Turned De Kooning's Gesture Into a Photograph
Aaron Siskind's camera fed lines back into de Kooning's Woman paintings.
Aaron Siskind Waited a Decade to Continue a
Conversation With Franz Kline
A decade after Franz Kline passed, Siskind picked the visual conversation back up.
When the Color Is Accurate and Something Still Looks Off
The measurement described what was recorded. The observation described what was seen. Those are two different questions, and both answers were correct. What was missing was a shared language.
Thirty Years the Frame, and Now the Picture
She built his costumes for years before he built her a robot.
PR from his painting show at Morrison Gallery called him the only artist to find success in both music and film. The bigger story is less about being first and more about the good company that Rob Zombie is keeping.
He Didn't Plan a Marketing System.
He Just Answered the Question in Front of Him.
Marcus Sheridan wrote a blog post at his kitchen table in 45 minutes. It's generated over $35 million. He didn't know that when he wrote it, and that's the whole point.
Handing over every photo from a shoot feels generous. It's usually the opposite.
Make the Habit, Not the Project
Picasso wasn't planning Synthetic Cubism when he started gluing paper to canvas. He was just in the habit of making things. That's the difference between a photographer and a director, and it's the whole argument.
Kodak Lowered the Skill Floor.
Artists Raised the Ceiling.
Kodak lowered photography's skill floor in 1888. The Pictorialists responded by raising the ceiling so high a snapshot camera could never touch it.
Joe Walsh, Todd Andrews, and the Bass Line That Made Me Rethink
David LaChapelle's Influences
A 1981 album credits Todd Andrews by name for its sleeve photo. He vanishes from the record after that.
Figuring out why changed how I think about what actually shapes an artist like David LaChapelle.
David Hockney wrote a book about the optical history of painting, called Secret Knowledge. The people calling his joiners 'unprecedented' this week clearly didn't read it.
Napoleon Dressed Pauline as Venus.
It Was Propaganda. What Are We Calling It Now?
At the 2026 Met Gala, fashion borrowed the visual grammar of classical antiquity. Art history suggests that borrowing is never politically neutral.
The Photograph Belongs to Eve Arnold.
The Veto Belonged to Marilyn Monroe.
Eve Arnold authored that 1955 photograph.
Monroe's real power was the veto she held over her contact sheets
(not the book she was holding).
Andy Warhol Explained the Swift Wedding Sixty Years Before It Happened
Andy Warhol solved the "26-to-1 goodwill ratio" in the Swift wedding coverage back in 1962, with fifty repeated silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe. Full argument in the article below.
Why Gerhard Richter Keeps Getting Written About:
It’s Not Just The Length of His Career
Two Kinds of Important:
Why Edward Steichen Keeps Getting Written About
He invented fashion photography, ran aerial reconnaissance in World War I, and curated the most attended photography exhibition ever staged. None of that is actually why he's in the history books.
The Press Release Says "Neither Could Have Done This Alone."
That Claim Deserves Scrutiny.
Axiom Space and Prada say neither company could have built the lunar spacesuit's cooling garment alone. The Bauhaus made the same claim in 1919 and left a detailed record. This one does not.
Diane Arbus Called Her the Best in the World.
Critics Called Her "Cheesecake.”
Diane Arbus called Bunny Yeager the world's greatest pinup photographer. Cindy Sherman cited her as a major influence. The Warhol Museum built a Sherman exhibition and never mentioned her name.
What Avedon’s White Background Strips Away,
and What It Can’t
Avedon's white background didn't remove the coal miner's signifiers. It swapped occupational signs for the celebrity register he built at Harper's Bazaar. Arnold Newman ran the opposite experiment with a piano lid.
The Critic Who Said LaChapelle Doesn't Belong Next to Warhol Was Half Right
David LaChapelle keeps comparing himself to Andy Warhol. The two are doing opposite things. The photographer whose method actually matches his has never been mentioned in the same sentence as him.
Mark Seliger Built a Studio Inside the Oscars for Eleven Years. I Miss It Already.
For eleven years, Mark Seliger built a portrait studio inside the Vanity Fair Oscars party. It vanished in 2025 and 2026, and nobody explained why.
Calivas Isn't Updating Ana Mendieta. She's Refusing Her.
Jenny Calivas's buried self-portraits get compared to Ana Mendieta in every review. The comparison gets the work backwards.
Karl Lagerfeld's Sketches Are a Legacy.
His iPods Are Just Stuff He Kept.
Sotheby's sells Karl Lagerfeld's sketches and 200 iPods as equal evidence of genius.
Collecting isn't creating.
LinkedIn Was Never Built to Help You.
It Was Built to Match You.
LinkedIn ran a five-year experiment on 20 million users to prove it can tune "People You May Know" toward better outcomes. It just doesn't tune it that way for you. Here's why the algorithm, and the dismiss button next to it, were never built to work for you.
Your Image Is Yours. Meta's Muse Forgot the Case That Proved It.
It's been true for 164 years: a photograph belongs to the person who made it. Zuckerberg wrote in 2004 that he doesn't live by that rule. Muse proved it again last week.
Muse Is Trying to Take Apart 150 Years of Photography History
Every defense of Meta's Muse Image feature eventually reaches for the same claim: photography has always taken images of people who never agreed to it. That's true. It's also not the flattering precedent people think it is.
Muse wants what isn’t Meta’s to take, and it’s hiding behind bad history to get it.
Certifications Are a Starting Point. Peer Review Is Proof.
No online certification has ever rejected a photographer. Magnum Photos rejects most.
Hine, Lange, and Rothstein Already Answered Florida’s AI Headshot Question
Florida’s AI photo law never passed. The rule that actually applies is a century old tradition.
You’re Not Buying a Headshot.
You’re Buying an AI Composite.
You uploaded your face. What came back isn’t a photo of it.
Bertillon Sold It as Science.
Meta Is Selling It as Convenience.
Bertillon pitched science. Meta pitched convenience.
Neither mentioned the terms.