Infidelity, true love, old flames, and tragedy. You can find it all in Love Songs: Photography and Intimacy, a visual exhibition on love “conceived as a mixtape of songs gifted to a lover.” Until September 11, you can visit the show at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City which features the work of sixteen internationally-recognised photographers from very different backgrounds like Nobuyoshi Araki, Lin Zhipeng, Clifford Prince King, Sally Mann, Collier Schorr, Nan Goldin, Motoyuki Daifu, and Fouad Elkoury.
Originally organised by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris, the exhibition in NYC was put together by curator and writer Sara Raza. This unique collective show provides a fresh lens to relationships by examining love through a myriad of points of view. As the museum puts it, Love Songs brings together “the leading photographers of our time that explore love, desire and intimacy in all their most complex and contradictory ways.” From the heart-breaking series by Nobuyoshi Araki where he portrays his wife’s final months to the more carefree pictures of an ideal Paris honeymoon by René Groebli, to the documentation of a fifteen-year relationship by Hervé Guibert or one of RongRong&inri’s earliest series recounting how the duo ended up together.
Lin Zhipeng (No. 223) demonstrates the experimentation with the color red, which is found throughout his collection titled Photographed Colors of Love (2005-2021). The cherries, the bathwater, the flower petals, the bedsheets, and a subject’s lips all show the embodiment of romance. Furthermore, Zhipeng uses this to tell the story of exploring sexuality in China free of taboo and scrutinisation.
In Leigh Ledare’s Double Bind (2010), he photographs his ex-wife in a country cabin. He, then, had her current partner replicate his photographs, which resulted in multiple, similar shots of his ex-wife. Double Bind depicts the perception of the same woman from different men who share different relationships with her. It also illustrates the mature and healthy relationship between a couple and one of their past partners.
Winter Journey (1989-1990) is an example of how backstory details like time of photo play a significant part in attributing to a deeper meaning to the collection. Nobuyoshi Araki documented his wife’s final months before her death at forty-two years old. The series follows as the ecstasy of Araki’s love transforms into pure tragedy. Also, Winter Journey was one of the projects that inspired the curation of Love Songs: Photography and Intimacy.
Lin Zhipeng (No. 223) demonstrates the experimentation with the color red, which is found throughout his collection titled Photographed Colors of Love (2005-2021). The cherries, the bathwater, the flower petals, the bedsheets, and a subject’s lips all show the embodiment of romance. Furthermore, Zhipeng uses this to tell the story of exploring sexuality in China free of taboo and scrutinisation.
In Leigh Ledare’s Double Bind (2010), he photographs his ex-wife in a country cabin. He, then, had her current partner replicate his photographs, which resulted in multiple, similar shots of his ex-wife. Double Bind depicts the perception of the same woman from different men who share different relationships with her. It also illustrates the mature and healthy relationship between a couple and one of their past partners.
Winter Journey (1989-1990) is an example of how backstory details like time of photo play a significant part in attributing to a deeper meaning to the collection. Nobuyoshi Araki documented his wife’s final months before her death at forty-two years old. The series follows as the ecstasy of Araki’s love transforms into pure tragedy. Also, Winter Journey was one of the projects that inspired the curation of Love Songs: Photography and Intimacy.
Nobuyoshi Araki, Sentimental Journey, 1971. Collection MEP, Paris. Gift from Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. © Nobuyoshi Araki, Courtesy of Taka Ishii Gallery.
Clifford Prince King, Conditions, 2018. © Clifford Prince King, Courtesy STARS, Los Angeles.
Collier Schorr, Angel Zinovieff (Posing not hiding), 2022. © Collier Schorr, Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.
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Aikaterini Gegisian, Handbook of the Spontaneous Other (Blue 4), 2019 © Aikaterini Gegisian.
Collier Schorr, Angel Zinovieff (Felt, Fingers, Socks), 2021. © Collier Schorr, Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.
Clifford Prince King, Lovers in a Field, 2019. © Clifford Prince King, Courtesy STARS, Los Angeles.
René Groebli, from The Eye of Love, 1952. Collection MEP, Paris. © René Groebli, courtesy Galerie Esther Woerdehoff.