Judy Linn by Hilton Als

BOMB 53 Fall 1995
Issue 53 053  Fall 1995
Judy Linn 01

In her photographic work, Judy Linn records the ineffable. Her images of people, places, objects are seen through the skein of democratization. Good photographs generally deny verbalization; verbalization generally leads to sarcasm—a tone that Judy Linn’s work does not affect. To say that Judy Linn’s photographs are not literary would be a falsehood; to try and characterize what kind of literature Judy Linn’s photographs are would be a deliberate falsehood.

That the mind goes blank while standing in front of a Judy Linn image hints at one of the truths her photographs contain; to say that the mind becomes filled with words as one tries to describe what happens in a Judy Linn photograph is a truth as well. Linn’s photographs effect the mind overall. In her photographs, one sees an automobile as just an automobile. Simultaneously, one asks oneself: Am I an automobile, too?


—Hilton Als

Judy Linn 02
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Bill Owens by Larry Sultan
One Minute by Felix Huber
33 Huber Body

“Fotoprojecktion” of a highway and the surrounding industrial area, One Minute by Felix Stephan Huber. 

Frankfurt by Angela Neúke
Angela Neuke, Frankfurt, 1969.

Photograph of police restraining rowdy onlookers during a prize giving to President Sengh of Senegal in 1969, Frankfurt by Angela Neúke.

Three Photographs by Boris Smelov
Boris Smelov 02

Three black and white photographs by Boris Smelov from the Leningrad portfolio.

Originally published in

BOMB 53, Fall 1995

Featuring interviews with Jo Baer, June Jordan, Kelly Reichardt, Abel Ferrara, Catherine Murphy, Mac Wellman, Lucie Brock-Broido, Wayne Wang, and Roy Hargrove.

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Issue 53 053  Fall 1995