Dec. 29: Week in Photography

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MOST POWERFUL PHOTO FROM YOU

Josué Rivas

After carefully considering the images submitted for the very first JPG Photo Review, we selected Josué Rivas’s image as the best representation of the theme: community. His image depicts an Akicita (Warrior) Honoring Ceremony at unceded Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Territory near Fort Yates, North Dakota, 2017.

Chris Bensch, the chief curator at the Strong National Museum of Play, speaks with BuzzFeed News about the 2019 inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

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A LOOK INSIDE FOTOGRAFISKA NEW YORK 📸

The long-awaited Fotografiska museum finally opened in New York and is looking to alter the way that photography is shared with the world. With locations in London and Stockholm, the six-story New York space is currently hosting exhibitions by Ellen von Unwerth, Tawny Chatmon, Helene Schmitz, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, and Adi Nes. It is also planning on holding events, has no intentions of building a permanent collection, and has a rule against white walls. BuzzFeed News spoke with the director of exhibitions, Amanda Hajjar, earlier this month about what to expect.

Can you tell me about the design of the space?

Amanda Hajjar: We don’t want to do white walls — that’s our one rule. We like color, we like graphics. You can see the low lighting, so we want it to feel a bit warmer, away from the white cube model and getting more adventurous with the design. We’re stepping away from that traditional linear hang even, and trying to make it immersive, and to make people feel— we really want people to step into the space and feel something.

We’ll do openings, but they may not be your traditional 6-8 p.m. on Thursdays with wine, like in the galleries. We may be doing things like parties, panel discussions, comedy, performance, poetry. We’re trying to integrate the programming into the exhibitions and have that as a source of inspiration for some of these events.

We’re looking for what kind of energy a person brings, and that’s why I think that it’s so key to have the photographers involved in the curation process, because their personality is part of the work. It’s their perspective, so that should also be part of the exhibition, and sometimes that can get left out or lost, and we very much want to include it. That’s the goal.

Ellen von Unwerth

You know, with Ellen, she has an amazing energy. She’s so dynamic, she’s fun, and she loves to show beauty and passion, and that’s what really comes through in this exhibition.

With Tawny Chatmon, she actually paints on top of her photographs, and her work is about redefining the museum experience for black children, celebrating black beauty, black childhood. She’s all about the future, looking at her children, celebrating them and wanting them to go forth and say, “this is what a museum can look like for you.” Our tag underneath the header here is that our children inherit what we don’t resolve, so she’s really trying to think about, Well, if I don’t change this, who will?

Tawny Chapman

Why are you choosing to not have a permanent collection?

AH: It’s just not part of our model, and it’s because what we’re doing here is not about us, it’s about the photographers. We would never want to place a claim on photography, that we think that this piece over that one is important enough to collect, that’s not our job. What we’re trying to do is provide a platform for the photographers and have the shows that they want to have.

We want it to be relevant — we’re drawing inspiration from what’s going on in photography right now, what does that look like. We go to other museums, we go to gallery shows, but we also want to expand our horizon a little bit broader and look to what’s going on at music festivals, what’s on the cover of New York magazine right now, things like that are also just as important.

Adi Nes

In an art-saturated city, do you have an intended audience?

AH: For me, what I would love is to see people who have never been in museums come here, and appeal to a broad audience. I want Fotografiska New York to be a comfortable place where people feel welcome, and they’re not so scared or intimidated, or they don’t think the art is accessible. We want people to come and feel warmth and ask questions and take docent tours and hang out upstairs and have a drink, and then you can walk around in the galleries with your drink, music will be playing. It will feel lively.

Can you tell us about any upcoming shows that you’re excited about?

AH: I’m not sure I can say what they are yet! The second round is really good, which goes up in March, and the shows in September are what I’m so stoked about. We are planning about 20 or 25 shows over the course of the year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

For our last newsletter of the decade, we are taking a simple approach. We'll be back next year with more photography news and inside info. For now, a roundup of roundups.

THE MOST POWERFUL PHOTOS OF 2019

AP Photo / Mulugeta Ayene

This year was marked by incredible images of inspiration, tragedy, and perseverance. These are the pictures that defined 2019.

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THE MOST POWERFUL PHOTOS OF THE DECADE

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

The 2010s were defined by mass political upheaval, breakthroughs in science in technology, gun violence across the country, and a slew of natural disasters.

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"Happy New Year from the BuzzFeed News photo crew. See you next week! —Gabriel and Kate

“Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” — Susan Sontag