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).

The publication can be purchased at local bookshops, via the website of Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, and at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Members of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein can buy the book at n.b.k. for the special price of 15.00 Euro.