Essay

Artist Civil Service

A quick off-schedule note to share an essay published today.

Mar 6, 2025 • Zachary Ayotte

Sènami Donoumassou

When I first encountered the work of Beninois artist Sènami Donoumassou, all I did was look.

Jul 15, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

Stefan Heinrichs

In the winter of 2012, I sent a short, two-line email to a German photographer named Stefan Heinrichs.

Jul 2, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

When I learned last week that Richard Serra had died, I was oddly stunned by the realization that, for a short span, he and I had been alive at the same…

Apr 1, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

Michael Mann's Heat

A small note: This was written for a film series based on Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism—in case you are wondering why I wrote about a movie from…

Mar 9, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

Uncommon Fictions

Fiction and nonfiction are categories not often applied to photography, but on the heels of reading Janet Malcolm’s The Silent Woman I find myself…

Feb 1, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

Photographing the Bend

Let’s begin in the evening, on a sidewalk in Manhattan, outside the Marquis theatre, with a young Meryl Streep.

Jan 15, 2024 • Zachary Ayotte

Tim Hetherington

The opening scene in Which Way to the Frontline?, the documentary about Tim Hetherington’s life as a photographer, is a tight shot of Hetherington in an…

Sep 15, 2023 • Zachary Ayotte

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