We’re a pretty satisfied bunch, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t covetous. Sometimes we see things out there that we just must have. Cool Things We Want is an archive of those earthly desires.

Scholar and renowned photography critic Kaja Silverman is in town at the end of April for the Capture Photography Festival, and her new book, The Three-Personed Picture, or the History of Photography, Part II, is on our must-have reading list.

This tome is the second in a series of three volumes, after 2015’s The Miracle of Anthology, or The History of Photography, Part I. The first book focused on photography in the 19th century, beginning with the camera obscura and framed within Silverman’s contemporary and forward-thinking idea that photography is a fluid, analogous medium. (This concept was also the inspiration for this year’s feature exhibit, The Blue Hour.) The follow-up is a continuation of the comprehensive collection, but this time Silverman is concentrating on the idea of the ‘pictorial’ and the progression of photography into a form of personal expression.

Sure, the subject matter is a bit of a mind-bender, but it’s one that we feels deserves our attention and brain energy, not least of all because of our love of art and photography. We also think it’s an especially pertinent topic given how image-obsessed our society has become.

Fortunately, Silverman is giving a talk at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver on April 29th. We’ll definitely be taking the opportunity to hear her in-person so we can absorb her ideas and ask questions about the future of photography…plus snag a signed copy of The Three-Personed Picture to add to our library!

The Polygon Gallery

Neighbourhood: North Vancouver

101 Carrie Cates Court

604-986-1351

WEBSITE