© Ziyah Gafic

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the conflict in Bosnia that eventually became the worst genocide Europe since World War II. While journalists who covered the conflict and historians are now reexamining the bloody conflict and its lessons, the events of 20 years ago are not yet relegated to history. “How could they be, when there hasn’t been catharsis or absolution?” says Ziyah Gafic, a Bosnian photographer.

Gafic, who was 12 years old when Serbs attacked Bosnia in a grab for power in the former Soviet satellite, has been working with the International Commission on Missing Persons to photograph the eyeglasses, snapshots, keys and other personal belongings of victims of ethnic cleansing. The items have been collected from mass graves and are being used as tools to identify some of the 30,000 missing Bosnians. Gafic’s goal is not only to help reunite these objects with the victims’ families, but to document and remember the genocide.

“We so desperately hoped lessons learned in Bosnia will help prevent or solve faster other conflicts, but how foolish was that?” Gafic says. “Just looking at Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Libya, makes ‘never again’ quite a cynical statement.”

Related Article: Ziyah Gafic: A Forensic Documentary of Genocide

"1:18pm, Silverlake Drive," 2012. © Alex Prager, Courtesy of the Artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery.

Alex Prager‘s latest exhibit “Compulsion,” which opens April 5 at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City, continues to explore the cinematic esthetic she is known for. Like much of her early work, there are detailed and dramatic photos that look as if they were taken on a movie set. But now her “characters” are at a distance or sometimes even missing from the frame, allowing each viewer to determine his or her own version of the events taking place in the photo. Inspired by the grisly scenes captured by tabloid favorites Weegee and Enrique Metinides, the cinema-style photos in “Compulsion” feel almost invasive; as if we are all spectators of a crime we were too late or unwilling to prevent. Further playing on the role of the viewer, each of Prager’s “scenes” are paired with a closely cropped photo of a woman’s eye.

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All photos © Alex MacNaughton. Above: Justin O’Grady, age 21.

Alex MacNaughton decided to create his new book London Tattoos (Prestel), because he felt previous books on tattoos were overly stylized and told readers very little about the people who wore the artwork. “Quite often the people bearing the tattoos couldn’t be recognized as individuals,” MacNaughton says. London Tattoos on the other hand, was shot and presented in a clean, minimalist style, and the first photograph of each subject presented in the book is pulled back, showing them in their everyday clothing, which often hides their elaborate body art. MacNaughton also includes several details showing the tattoos close-up, and short quotes from subjects about their tattoos, what they mean to them, and what they think about the culture surrounding tattoos, provide further background. (more…)

All photographs © Jim Alinder/Courtesy University of Texas Press. Above: Winter house.

Jim Alinder photographed houses designed by West Coast modernist architect Hank Schubart for Houses Made of Wood and Light, a new book from University of Texas Press that looks at Schubart’s life and work—in particular his contribution to British Columbia’s Salt Spring Island, where he built more than 230 residential, commercial, educational and religious projects. Schubart’s work was defined by his ability to integrate a structure’s design into the natural landscape, and by his use of wood and glass. (more…)

All Photos © Kevin Cooley.

Skyward  is Kevin Cooley’s new video installation project portraying Los Angeles’ manufactured landscape and its relationship to the natural world. Presented as a projection on the ceiling, the work is a metaphysical gaze skyward – past the gridlock of street-level to the pristine blue sky promising freedom and limitless possibility.

Shot entirely in L.A. County, the work is comprised of hundreds of individual shots, presented in one continuous sequence. Cooley explains the visual narrative: ”We begin downtown near Bunker Hill and make stops through various parts of the city. Flurries of overlapping flight paths, of birds, helicopters and more, are punctuated by the brief appearance of iconic southern California structural elements such as freeway interchanges and rows of palm trees and we discover interdependent ecosystems largely overlooked in everyday life.” Cooley’s installation is on view  at YOUNGPROJECTS, a contemporary gallery for moving images, until March 9, 2012. (more…)