Brian Wallis

Latest Stories

Anthony Barboza, Kamoinge Members, 1973

The Belated Celebration of the Kamoinge Workshop

In the 1970s, a group of photographers made poetic, affirmative representations of Black life. But why did most museums fail to recognize or validate their efforts?
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Avedon with Carmel Snow and Marie-Louise Bousquet, Dior Showroom, ca. 1946

Who Was Richard Avedon?

Avedon transformed notions of style, celebrity, and photography itself. A new book by Philip Gefter argues for his place among the most important artists of the twentieth century.

Dorothea Lange and the Afterlife of Photographs

A new exhibition reveals how Lange’s concern for the dispossessed has never been more relevant.
Gregory Halpern, detail from Omaha Sketchbook, 2019

A Chronicle of Midwestern Masculinity

Gregory Halpern’s newest photobook is a nuanced portrait of golden-hour Omaha.

Okwui Enwezor Pioneered a New Kind of Global Exhibition

Through ambitious shows staged around the world, the curator raised the profile of African art and photography.

Peter d’Agostino Wields the Film Still Like a Scalpel

An artist considers the psychological ramifications of media images.

Bruce Jackson: On the Inside

When a folklorist set out to document life in American prisons, he found the enduring segregation of the Old South.

The Sound of Defiance

How can listening to images reveal the visual histories of the African diaspora?
Cover of Richard Avedon and James Baldwin’s Nothing Personal (New York: Atheneum, 1964)

Vision & Justice Online: Nothing Personal

Was Richard Avedon and James Baldwin’s collaborative photobook a luxury object or a ruthless indictment of American culture?

Hilla Becher (1934–2015)

Brian Wallis remembers the work and life Hilla Becher.

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Aperture 254

Aperture Releases “Counter Histories,” Produced with Magnum Foundation Spring Issue Presents Photographers Who Uncover Personal and Political Histories (New York—March 6, 2024) What creative possibilities are offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records? This spring, Aperture magazine presents “Counter Histories,” an issue produced in collaboration with Magnum Foundation and informed by their…