‘Portrait Mode’ presents a new essay by artist, photographer, writer, and filmmaker Moyra Davey. In aphoristic texts paired with her own photographs, Davey interweaves accounts of her experiences as a photographer with reflections on canonical practitioners and theorists of the medium. With a particular focus on framing, light, contingency, and temporality, she considers the work of photographers who have challenged conventions of (self-)portraiture and representation, connecting their approaches to contemporary queer and feminist protagonists of the genre. Designed by Santiago da Silva, the bilingual publication includes the first-ever German translation of Davey’s writing.

Moyra Davey (*1958 in Toronto) lives and works in New York. Her work has been shown internationally, including at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2023); Museum of Modern Art, New York (solo, 2022); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2022); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (solo, 2020); documenta, Kassel / Athens (2017); Mumok, Vienna (solo, 2014). Davey received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 and the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2018. Recent books include ‘Index Cards: Selected Essays’ (New Directions, 2020), and ‘The Shabbiness of Beauty’ (Mack, 2021). – Publisher’s blurb.