We asked Nicholas Nixon to tell us about a picture that means something to him, and why. Nicholas Nixon: Persistence of Vision is on view through April 22 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
I have had a wonderful print of Diane Arbus’s Sword Swallower, printed by Neil Selkirk, hanging over my desk since 1975, when I was lucky enough to trade a few of my own pictures for it. I love it as much now, maybe more, than I did then.
Why, you might ask. Well, first of all, everything in it is beautiful: the picture, the subject, the space of the tent wall, and the print itself. It is an offering and a sacrifice at the same time. Her voluptuousness and gesture are affirming life while the swords make clear the possibility of the quick end we all fear.
I am not a practicing Christian, but the cross-like form of her arms and torso always suggest to me the presence of something bigger than I know, something even sacred. I feel very small, and glad to be part of whatever it is.
Nicholas Nixon
We asked Nicholas Nixon to tell us about a picture...
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W.M. Hunt
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Roxana Marcoci
MoMA's senior photography curator talks about her cross-disciplinary approach to curatorial work, Wolfgang Tillmans, An-My Lê, and more.
Christopher Rauschenberg
Charles Harbutt, Blind Boy, New York City, 1961. C...
Idris Kahn: New Photographs
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Eva Respini
When Eva Respini left the Museum of Modern Art in ...
Best of 2016
Formed in 1963 by 11 photographers who recognized the necessity of “a forum to address the underrepresentation of African Americans in their field,” the Kamoinge Workshop gave its members a sense of solidarity and support in a period when black Americans were the frequent subject of mainstream media coverage but rarely its author.