the literate lens

photography, writing and the spaces between

Author Archives: sarahjcoleman

Sad news and a new book

It is with profound sadness that The Literate Lens shares with its readership the recent passing of its founder, Sarah Coleman. Sarah passed away on December 3rd after a tenacious … Continue reading

December 8, 2017 · 11 Comments

Past Due: An Interview with Kerry Mansfield

Most of us have a few of them knocking around: those old, worn books that we can’t let go of, despite knowing we’ll never read them again. Maybe your college … Continue reading

October 16, 2017 · 2 Comments

Life in the Face of Death: A Tour with Nancy Borowick

“I’ve scrapbooked a fence in Brooklyn,” Nancy Borowick said with a laugh. It was Sunday, the second weekend of Photoville 2017, and the photographer was leading a walking tour of … Continue reading

October 4, 2017 · 4 Comments

How the New York Times puts words and images together

Ah, Photoville, I look forward to you every year. Balmy waterfront, Brooklyn hipsters, shipping containers with all kinds of interesting photo exhibits. Panels and workshops; nighttime shows in the beer … Continue reading

September 22, 2017 · 1 Comment

Inside-Out: An interview with Manjari Sharma and Irina Rozovsky

Last spring, when she got the email from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, photographer Manjari Sharma was surprised. Was the Met really putting on a show of camera-phone art and … Continue reading

August 19, 2017 · 2 Comments

Putting Photography in Context: An interview with Mark Alice Durant

Mark Alice Durant writes beautifully about photography. Photographs are “skins of light…the ghosts of our ancestors,” he writes, but while photography “pilfers luminescence,” it is “handcuffed to time.” Taking a … Continue reading

July 18, 2017 · 4 Comments

Unpretentious: Elsa Dorfman’s sunny photography

Elsa Dorfman is not your average portrait photographer. For one thing, since 1980 she has worked exclusively on an enormous Polaroid 20×24 camera, one of only five such machines that … Continue reading

May 31, 2017 · 1 Comment

Bad Girl: An Interview with Marcia Resnick

One of the pleasures of attending AIPAD: The Photography Show in New York a few weeks ago was the chance to see work by the artist Marcia Resnick in two … Continue reading

April 19, 2017 · 2 Comments

Josef Albers and Nan Goldin, an Unlikely Duo

What do Josef Albers and Nan Goldin have in common? Not much, it would seem. Albers, who was one of the principal forces behind the famed German art school the … Continue reading

March 27, 2017 · 1 Comment