Author Archives: Renske van Leeuwen

About Renske van Leeuwen

Intern Collections at the International Center of Photography, New York and MA student Film & Photographic Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

The Female Body and the Voyeuristic Male Gaze

Chim (David Seymour), [Bernard Berenson, at the age of 90, looking at sculpture in the Borghese Gallery, Rome, Italy], 1955 (1122.2002) Much of the way we can understand photography of the body must be related to the male gaze. The … Continue reading

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Castro Street Fair, San Francisco, 1980

Paul Fusco, San Francisco, California, 1980 (7.1981) Paul Fusco, San Francisco, California, 1980 (8.1981) Paul Fusco, San Francisco, California, 1980 (14.1981) Paul Fusco, San Francisco, California, 1980 (17.1981) Paul Fusco, San Francisco, California, 1980 (18.1981) The Castro Street Fair is … Continue reading

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The Forest of Fontainebleau

The first known photographic image of the forest of Fontainebleau (French: Forêt de Fontainebleau, or Forêt de Bière, meaning “forest of heather”—lying sixty kilometers southeast of Paris) is a daguerreotype by an anonymous photographer from around 1845, which can be … Continue reading

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Sherrie Levine: Re-photographed Photographs of Reproductions of Photographs

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of conceptual artists—including Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Sherrie Levine—known as the Pictures generation, began using photography and appropriation techniques to examine the strategies and codes of visual representation. In 1981, … Continue reading

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The Photographer’s Eye or the Eye of the Camera?

John Loengard, Cartier-Bresson takes pictures in his Paris apartment, 1987 (239.1987) When we see a photograph of a photographer at work, questions can be raised about the relationship between the photographer, his camera, and the referent. Especially when the eyes … Continue reading

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Part Photograph, Part Painting, Part Etching, Part Sculpture

From its beginnings in 1839, photography was seen as an alternative to traditional painted portraiture. Clients who were photographed knew that their image would be considered true to life. But photography had a major disadvantage with respect to painting: it … Continue reading

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Monocular Vision and Absurd Perspectives

John Pfahl, Australian Pines, Fort DeSoto, Florida, 1977 (416.1984) From 1974 to 1978, American photographer John Pfahl (b. 1939) worked on a series of unmanipulated color photographs on the theme of The  Altered Landscape. The series consists of landscape photographs … Continue reading

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W. Eugene Smith’s Germ-Free Animals

W. Eugene Smith, [Man in protective helmet and rubber gloves holding mouse, Laboratories of Bacteriology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana], 1949 (1519.2005) The American photojournalist William Eugene Smith (1918-1978) is, amid other things, known for his major photo-essays … Continue reading

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Vitaly Butyrin’s Poetic Photomontages

 Vitaly Butyrin, Legend, 1976 (1096.1986) The Lithuanian photographer Vitaly Butyrin (b. 1947) is considered one of the world’s leading science-fiction photographers. His works are graphic transformations of reality with montage. He creates a composite photograph by cutting—frequently joining ten or … Continue reading

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