Traveling in Difficult Truths Toward Elusive Mercy: An Interview with Steve Almond
“Literature is one way to remember that everybody else is suffering and that your imagination has to take in their suffering and their motives. If you really grant everybody mercy, you will get to the bottom of the truth.”—Steve Almond, in our interview on storytelling.
The Means of Production: An Interview with Evan Baden Changing the equation on book publishing with DIY
“Having all the equipment means there’s nothing that’s farmed out—I do everything. That makes it quite financially feasible.”—Evan Baden, on his DIY book press.
Capitalizing on Connection A Review of Work Pray Code by Carolyn Chen
Carolyn Chen argues in her new book Work Pray Code that Silicon Valley, one of the most vocally secular places in the world, has made their work into religion.
An Iconic Photographer’s Third Act A review of Stephen Shore's impressionistic memoir, Modern Instances
Stephen Shore’s new book Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography is an impressionistic memoir of anecdotes, reflections and influences by the iconic photographer and photographic educator.
Creativity on Demand: An Interview with Dina Litovsky
“I have to be creative on demand, because if I mess up an assignment then I’m probably not going to get a callback. That editor, or that publication, is not going to hire me again. And that is a very stark reality of photography, right? You have to be at your optimal all the time.”—Dina Litovsky, on being creative on demand.
What Do You Think Is Art? A review of Ellen Winner’s book How Art Works
In the new book How Art Works, Ellen Winner walks us through the foundations of how we think about art, touching on questions, research, and theory.
Olafur Eliasson’s Art of Playful Seriousness A review of the Tate Modern exhibition Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life
From now until 5 January 2020 at the Tate Modern: a mid-career survey of the works of Olafur Eliasson: life-size encounters that engage and confound the senses to trigger what can only be called “experiences.”
Creative Potential A Review of Becoming Creative: Insights from Musicians in a Diverse World by Juniper Hill
In Becoming Creative, Juniper Hill speaks to musicians in Los Angeles, Cape Town and Helsinki about their personal histories, experiences, and viewpoints to trace patterns of creation.
A Nude by Any Other Name
The female nude: a genre of photography that is heavily tried and ambiguously true. Women photographers have tried to reclaim authorship of the female experience through their work, but is it possible to be naked without being nude?
Not Working: An Interview with Josh Cohen
“When you give yourself over to the inactive state, you’re also giving yourself over to an internal roaming. Without that, there really isn’t a capacity for surprise, for discovery, for actually learning something new about yourself or the world.”—Josh Cohen, in our interview about his new book Not Working.