Aperture / Parsons Artist Talk: Tod Seelie

Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Photography at Parsons The New School for Design, is pleased to present an artist talk with Tod Seelie. Embracing the subcultures of New York City and Los Angeles, Seelie’s work offers a raw glimpse into the underground ethos and often unknown fragments of these familiar cities. A world traveler, Seelie is attracted to the strangeness of situations, photographing a variety of people and happenings such as illegal, secretive parties in abandoned spaces; brutal DIY punk shows; the final voyage of Swoon’s Swimming Cities; and Bike Kill’s New York chapter. Alan Feuer from the New York Times writes, “Mr. Seelie has brought his camera—and, with it, his audience—into some of the city’s most unusual and arresting (at times, literally) happenings, while remaining true to the disturbing or evanescent nature of those happenings.”

Tod Seelie has photographed in twenty-five countries on five different continents. His work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Stern magazine,TIME magazine, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone,Spin, Juxtapoz, Thrasher, Vice, Der Spiegel, andARTnews, among others. His images also appear in the feature films Perfect Sense (2011) and Empire Me (2011). Seelie has exhibited work in solo and group shows around the world and at MASS MoCA and the Philadelphia Art Alliance. He published his first book, BRIGHT NIGHTS: Photographs of Another New York, in 2013. It was selected as one of the best photography books of the year by the New York Times, TIME magazine, and American Photo.

Image: Tod Seelie, Firework Run, 2012