With a series of filmed conversations between artists, curators, and writers, artnet is offering the chance to discover different approaches to the methods and possibilities of photography.
In this video, the New York photographer, installation artist, performance artist, and critic Martha Rosler speaks with writer and educator Stephanie Schwartz, discussing everything from her early work on the subject of the Bowery, the ethical responsibilities of photographers, the paucity of critics in the US, and the overall critical reception of her work.
Focusing on the public sphere and landscapes of everyday life, Rosler’s works explore contemporary issues with an eye toward the female experience. Using a variety of media, she is well known for her work in photography, frequently setting up a contrast between women’s domestic lives and scenes of war, repression, and politics. Her first solo exhibition at MoMA was “Meta-Monumental Garage Sale,” a large-scale version of the classic American garage sale (its first iteration, “Monumental Garage Sale,” appeared in 1973 in the student gallery at UC San Diego). Roslers’s most recent book, Culture Class (Sternberg Press, 2012), is a collection of essays written between 2010 and 2012, including a three-part series originally published in the online journal e-flux.
Stephanie Schwartz, Rosler’s interlocutor, is currently finishing a study on Walker Evans’s 1933 Cuba portfolio, as well as a study of Paul Strand’s films and their seminal place in the history of photographic modernism, a project for which she was awarded an Ansel Adams Research Fellowship from the Center for Creative Photography in 2012.
artnet is pleased to partner with Paris Photo, which began celebrating its 18th edition on November 13 at the Grand Palais and concluded on November 16.