Artist Talk : Teju Cole

The Contemporary Dayton is proud to present the work of photographer, curator, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard, and former photography critic of The New York Times Magazine, Teju Cole. Culled from his ceaseless travels around the world, Blind Spot consists of a cycle of 34 photographs paired with Cole’s insightful prose. With photos from locations including Zürich, Tripoli, Lagos, Seoul, Ypsilanti, Ubud, Brooklyn, and São Paulo, Cole’s main focus is not on the extravagant landscapes themselves, but rather on finding the enigma of the mundane in each place. While each photograph is named by place, the short text interlinked with each may describe the specific moment or place of the image or may connect to a pathway into Cole’s memory. However, each is considered as much as the image to which it is paired, a 1:1 ratio, which makes Blind Spot a literary as much as a photographic project.

The exhibition is on loan from Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM and is organized by The Co as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. The exhibition is accompanied by the publication, Blind Spot, available at The CoSHOP.