LOOK3 Pick: Nick Nichols

Michael “Nick” Nichols’ years of work for National Geographic have taken him around the globe, providing an up-close look at some of the few corners of the world that remain untouched by human civilization. His recent work in the Serengeti uses state-of-the-art advances in photo technology to investigate lions, documenting their world and their behaviors […]

LOOK3 Pick: Martha Rosler

Though Photoshopping and digital retouching have become common practices in both journalistic and creative photography, Martha Rosler’s recent work foregrounds the process, creating deliberately artificial digital collages that create jarring juxtapositions of familiar imagery. Her 1960’s collages combined imagery from the Vietnam War with domestic images from advertising, and her recent work continues that same theme, […]

ARTS Pick: “Some Other Places We Missed”

Window to the soul In a project that mixes art with outreach to the incarcerated, Virginia-based artist Mark Strandquist asked prisoners “If you had a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out onto?” Answers were collected, those sites were photographed, and prints were given to the prisoners to hang […]

Film review: This is the End

This is the End is so devoid of good ideas, smarts or laughs that it’s hard to understand just what its purpose is. I can only conclude it’s to get the six leads together who appear on the poster—James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson—and let them riff. And, boy, […]

LOOK3 Pick: Susan Meiselas

The stories of factory workers are always relevant, but they’ve been prominent in the public consciousness recently with April’s horrific factory collapse in India, one of the deadliest industrial accidents in history. There’s a very different story on display in “160 Actions to Make a Jacket,” Susan Meiselas’ in-depth portrait of garment factory workers in Rochester, […]

Film review: After Earth

Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan made a movie together. See, they’re both into patterns. After all, in a recent interview in New York Magazine, Smith said, “I’m a student of patterns.” Shyamalan made a movie, Signs, about crop circles (which, really, are patterns). And finally, they’re both in a holding pattern of making shit movies, so it should be no surprise they combined their talents for After Earth.

Album reviews: Daughter, Dido, Xenia Dunford

The first full-length album from London-based band Daughter is a sonic and emotional feast. “Lifeforms” encapsulates the album’s sound, tone and content, with echoing, reverb-heavy guitars, singer Elena Tonra’s husky, lilting vocals, and her metaphorical lyrics about cleaning up after your dead. The ebullient “Human” focuses on recognizing self-worth despite our shortcomings.

Film Review: Fast & Furious 6 is big, dumb summertime fun

Wow. Where does one begin? The insipid dialogue? Paul Walker’s non-presence? A plot that makes almost no sense? Stunts that defy the laws of physics? Nah. Let’s start here: I can’t believe how much fun I had watching Fast & Furious 6. Don’t get me wrong. It’s so absurd and stupid that it doesn’t really […]