This portfolio appears in VICE Magazine’s 2019 Photo Issue. With this issue we wanted to celebrate the absurd, the lighthearted, and the humorous. It’s important to take a break from the real world. As much as we need to be informed, engaged, and aware, we also need to laugh. We wanted to champion the people making art with a sense of humor. In today’s climate, there’s something nicely subversive about that. You can read more about our theme in the letter from our editor.
Check out an interactive version of the issue here, and why not subscribe to the magazine while you’re at it?
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If you’re a fan of photography, then you probably know about the fantastic Brooklyn-based artist Jason Fulford. His work has graced the walls of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Fraenkel Gallery, and SF Camerawork to name a few. He’s also had a number of photobooks published, including The Mushroom Collector and Hotel Oracle. In 2000, Fulford and Leanne Shapton started J&L Books to publish the work of contemporary artists like Darin Mickey and Gregory Halpern.
Fulford often finds inspiration in sequencing everyday life and it’s his playful arrangements in both his personal work and his work as an editor that made us want to include him in this year’s photo issue. The images he submitted for this edition are all handpicked from his archive. The photos remind us to slow down and look for absurdity in commonplace situations, whether that manifests itself as a frog sculpture covered in dirt on the side of a road or an unfortunate billboard placement.
