Snap snap!

My photography collection + Paul Mpagi Sepuya at Bortolami

There’s a special thrill to visiting an exhibition of an artist whose work you have in your collection. A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya is the first thing I see when I enter our apartment. A photograph of the artist taking his own photograph, his signature, hangs directly across the front door.

Sepuya makes photographs about photography. I think that’s why I like them so much. He peels back the curtain, sometimes in a literal sense, and invites the viewer into his studio and process. What would typically be a slip in the veil, the presence of a tripod or studio light, are the subjects of Sepuya’s photographs. He makes the invisible visible. As Selena Parnon wrote in her excellent review of the exhibition at Bortolami, Sepuya “breaks the fourth wall.”

Midway through the exhibition, the realization hit: Sepuya was also taking photographs in the gallery space we were standing in. This represented another type of thrill—as if we were on set and a part of the photographs we were looking at. I took a photo, carefully lining up the composition so it lined up with the one Sepuya took. I could imagine him standing where I was and doing the same.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya
TRANCE
10 Jan – 1 Mar 2025
Bortolami, New York City

In this newsletter:

• Our small but growing photography collection

• SNAP auction in Toronto

• A throwback to a previous post about collecting photography—from edition sizes to the difference between “image” and “photograph”

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Photographs currently in our collection:

Tommy Kha, Window of the World, Savannah 2018 [IG/Website]

Nan Goldin, Swan-like embrace, Paris, 2001, 2021 [IG/Website]

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, FISH HOUSE MIRROR (_1080411), 2019 [IG/Website]

Elise Rasmussen, My Mountain (Did you know blue had no name?), 2018 [IG/Website]

Alex Kisilevich, Hobby, 2021 [IG/Website]

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Get your tickets—SNAP Auction to benefit Aids Committee of Toronto

For the last two years, I’ve been honoured to sit on the SNAP curatorial committee. SNAP is an annual auction and main fundraiser for the Aids Committee of Toronto—an organization that does valuable and essential work in Toronto.

Formed by a small group of community activists during the summer of 1983, ACT was a response to the hysteria surrounding an unknown illness. Since then, ACT has grown to be Canada’s largest HIV service organization. I am honoured to play a small role in a storied institution that does such meaningful work.

SNAP takes place on Friday, March 21, 2025. Anyone is welcome to buy tickets and attend! It’s a fun time—there’s live music, performances, an OPEN BAR, and, of course, the chance to bid on some amazing photographs. You’ll find me there with my paddle firmly held in the air.

You can view the lots here.

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How to Buy a Photo

I un-paywalled a post from three years ago (yes, I have been on Substack for a while) on collecting photography. It’s a comprehensive guide to starting your photography collection—or any type of print edition, for that matter.

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I would love to know if you collect photography and, if so, who do you collect and where did you buy it?