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Barbara Confino
Barbara Confino

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Published in Perceptions in Passing

·Jul 17

The Opiate of the Masses

I am at Bachkovo, the 11th century Bulgarian monastery on the outskirts of Plovdiv. A friend has taken me there, someone I met by chance as I meet most people when I travel. Struck by the drama: the pools of light, the gestures, the icons, the incense, the bearded priest…

Religion

2 min read

The Opiate of the Masses
The Opiate of the Masses

Published in Riffing on Women Writers: Conversations and Digressions

·Jun 8

Just Mercy

Eileen Manion and Barbara Confino talk about the state of justice in America — Eileen: Was Martin Luther King right when he said the arc is tending toward justice? He was correct in saying it’s long. Longer than my lifetime, for sure. Reading Just Mercy, I’m happy that there are people like Bryan Stevenson in the United States. …

Justice

8 min read

Just Mercy
Just Mercy

Published in NewYorkPhotoReview

·May 16

Bay Ridge and the American Dream

A Neighborhood WalkAbout — with thanks to Justin Brannan and Bay Ridge Cares Like a fallen woman in an old time movie, Bay Ridge has a Past. In fact, it has several, each one superimposed over the last. Norwegians followed by Greeks, then Italians, now Arabs, the groups passing through leave tangible traces, their…

4 min read

Bay Ridge and the American Dream
Bay Ridge and the American Dream

Published in NewYorkPhotoReview

·Mar 29

The Dream of Reason

A short meditation on Pieter de Hooch’s The Card Players — Of all painting styles that of the Dutch Golden Age can legitimately be said to luxuriate in the celebration of ‘stuff’. More detailed, loving descriptions of worldly goods can hardly be found anywhere. And yet…parallel with this earthbound, tactile embrace of things lies the Dream of Reason, as it is…

Dutch Golden Age

3 min read

The Dream of Reason
The Dream of Reason

Published in NewYorkPhotoReview

·Feb 25

Cosmic Forces and Earthly Powers

A short meditation on a painting by van Ruisdael — Looking at this seemingly modest landscape by van Ruisdael, I am struck by how profoundly it embodies some of the most closely held values of this hard-working, God-fearing, modest people, and how much of those same values were conveyed by design. Its relatively symmetrical, center weighted composition emphasizes the stability…

Dutch Painting

3 min read

Cosmic Forces and Earthly Powers
Cosmic Forces and Earthly Powers

Published in NewYorkPhotoReview

·Nov 20, 2021

A Fight for Existence

The Forgotten Indians of Mexico — Photographs by Ximena Natera The Yuman people in Baja California carry 12,000 years of history; they have adapted and survived the Spanish colonization and the evangelization that followed, the post revolutionary development, and the construction of the “Mexican Nation Project”, built on the erasure of indigenous identity. They continue that struggle today.

Documentary Photography

3 min read

A Fight for Existence
A Fight for Existence

Published in Riffing on Women Writers: Conversations and Digressions

·Oct 27, 2021

A Short History Of Hate

When I was a kid, the Irish were my enemy. They would come tearing down the hill from their Catholic school, shouting: “Christ Killer, Christ Killer” and attack, leaving me bloodied and furious. After one such attack when I had been encircled by the neighboring clan and beaten quite badly…

Hate

3 min read

A Short History Of Hate
A Short History Of Hate

Published in Riffing on Women Writers: Conversations and Digressions

·Aug 28, 2021

The Slow & Devious Process of Change

­­­A Lament for the Women of Afghanistan — The bearded men, the automatic rifles, the swagger and ­­­strut of ownership — It’s all back. And the women, they know it is back. They know that once again they are history’s refuse, the trash that is left behind. Nobody is air-lifting them to safety. No rescue in sight. So…

Social Change

4 min read

The Slow & Devious 
Process of Change
The Slow & Devious 
Process of Change

Published in Riffing on Women Writers: Conversations and Digressions

·Jun 7, 2021

Jane Austen in China

Barbara Confino — I had been in China for months. The dust, the endless construction, the horizon filled with cranes, the streets filled with crowds, the signs written in a language whose meaning I could not fathom, all of it began to overwhelm me. In the midst of this I stumble upon two…

3 min read

Jane Austen in China
Jane Austen in China

Published in NewYorkPhotoReview

·Jun 2, 2021

Animal Sentience

A Meditation on the Photographs of Jutta Hof — There it is, should you need it, proof positive of animal sentience. Jutta Hof’s bonobo covers its eyes, inclining its head in a classic posture of grief, pain, confusion, and dismay. Exactly the same attitude W. Eugene Smith caught so beautifully in one of his Country Midwife pictures. More than…

Animals

3 min read

Animal Sentience
Animal Sentience
Barbara Confino

Barbara Confino

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