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kenschles

Ken Schles is the author of Invisible City (1988; reprint 2015 and 2016), The Geometry of Innocence (2001), A New History of Photography: The World Outside and the Pictures In Our Heads (2007), Oculus (2011) and Night Walk (2015 and 2016). His work has been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Prize, exhibited by The Museum of Modern Art, noted by the New York Times Book Review, cited in histories of the medium (Parr/Badger, Auer & Auer, 10x10 American Photobooks) and issued by some of the foremost publishers of our time (Steidl, Hatje Cantz, Twelvetrees Press). They're considered “intellectual milestones in photography” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “hellishly brilliant” (The New Yorker). Ken Schles’ work is included in private and public collections such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Rijksmuseum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo d"Arte Contemporanea (MACRO) Testaccio Museum, and more than 100 other museum and library collections world-wide. 
 Ken Schles is a NYFA Fellow. http://www.kenschles.com
kenschles has written 43 posts for seeing images, seeing things

Ken Schles – Invisible City

Originally posted on PhotoBook Journal:
Copyright 2014 Ken Schles Photographer: Ken Schles (born & resides in Brooklyn, NY) Publisher: Steidl (Germany) Excerpts: Lewis Mumford, George Orwell, Jorges Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Jean Baudrillard Text: English Hardcover book with dust jacket, sewn binding, four-color lithography, printed in Germany Photobook designer: Ken Schles and Jack Woody Notes: This is a new…

Images Imagine Us As We Imagine Images

Essay for the Noorderlicht blog: “But I can’t help but connect Agee’s idea that sight “constantly formed by, and as constantly form(s)” the mind to Heidegger’s idea that language speaks us as we speak language, because now I must also conclude that images imagine us as we imagine images.” Read full post

10×10 America Photobooks (repost)

(FOAM Blog repost #10) 10×10 American Photobooks by Ken Schles   How to describe the current state of American photobooks? How to talk about its diversity, fecundity and complexity? The goal of 10×10 American Photobooks, a pop-up reading room with an extended publication surveying three hundred of the most significant photobooks from the last twenty-five years … Continue reading

The Scale of Reality (repost)

(FOAM Blog repost #9) The Scale of Reality by Ken Schles I can’t help but think the way I see the world is the way the world is. But I know that the world as it appears to me (and fills my senses) is subjective: I perceive it in relation to the way I observe it. … Continue reading

Emergence (repost)

(FOAM Blog repost #8) Images and Emergence by Ken Schles A broadly adopted technology will produce unanticipated effects and outcomes outside its primary function. A car may get us from one place to another, but this simple task of transportation brings with it many unintended consequences. Roads, necessitated by cars and trucks, transformed the very structure … Continue reading

Representation and Its Double (repost)

(FOAM Blog repost #7) Representation and Its Double by Ken Schles   We abstract the world in order to know it better. Perhaps this sounds counterintuitive, but to understand something one needs to separate oneself from it. The distance we create from the world when we abstract it—when we codify it and model it and … Continue reading

We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want To Die (repost)

(Update 2/23/2016) I’ve been thinking about the passing  of Umberto Eco last week. His writings were an inspiration. In 2010 I wrote a piece quoting his essay on the nature of lists. It’s effortless for me to connect his discussion on the nature of lists to the act of photography itself. “Umberto Eco says we like lists because we don’t want to die; because it … Continue reading

In Splendid Isolation (repost)

(FOAM Blog reprint #4) In Splendid Isolation by Ken Schles I just got my copy of the new issue of FOAM magazine, “Ref.” “The summer issue of Foam Magazine reflects deeply on relationships between photography and reference. Ref. presents eight portfolios which [sic] refer each in their own way to other photos, a specific visual … Continue reading

The Look of Love (repost)

(FOAM Blog repost #3) The Look of Love: On Sharing Intimacies and the Limits of Intention by Ken Schles   About six weeks ago both my aged parents died. They had a dual funeral. Their coffins were lowered side by side, simultaneously into their grave. After hearing of this, more than one person has asked … Continue reading

A Call From The Wilderness (repost)

FOAM Blog repost #2 A Call from the Wilderness, or What Gets Lost and What Gets Created by Ken Schles   Far from it for me to second-guess policy concerning the Eurozone’s economic crisis or make statements on Dutch economic policy or policies that affect regional arts funding in provincial areas. I am not Dutch … Continue reading