Jonathan Blaustein has written hundreds of published articles over the last 14 years.
He was a photography critic for the New York Times Lens blog for six years, and spent 11 years as a weekly columnist for the influential photo blog, A Photo Editor.
He has written essays about international artists such as Alejandro Cartagena, Clement Verger, Katherine Longly, and Stephen Starkman.
In early 2023, he founded the culture and lifestyle blog Sunshine and Olly, and is currently finishing his first novel.
You can read some of his interview, travel, and art criticism pieces here:
Visiting the Reservation Dogs for HuffPost
Wild West City article and photo essay for HuffPost
Martin Parr for the New York Times
Bill Owens for the New York Times
Ragnar Axelsson for the New York Times
Gay Block's \"Rescuers\" for the New York Times
Safi Alia Shabaik for the New York Times
Andy Richter for the New York Times
Migration Stories for the New York Times
Nathan Farb for the New York Times
Cig Harvey for the New York Times
Walker Evans for the New York Times
Beth Dubber for the New York Times
Lee Friedlander for the New York Times
Pamela Gentile for the New York Times
Mahtab Hussain for the New York Times
Elliott Erwitt for the New York Times
Robert Shults \"Death and Decay\" for the New York Times
Ron Haviv for the New York Times
Lida Suchy for the New York Times
Jack London for the New York Times
Mustafah Abdulaziz for the New York Times
Fred Lyon for the New York Times
The Beatles for the New York Times
Anthony Hernandez for the New York Times
\"California and the West\" for the New York Times
Danny Lyon for the New York Times
Young Houston Curators for the New York Times
Kenneth Josephson for the New York Times
Stephen Shore for the New York Times
Federico Vespignani for the New York Times
\"In the Air: Visualizing What We Breathe\" for the New York Times
Tiina Itkonen for the New York Times
Jamey Stillings for the New York Times
Louis Stettner for the New York Times
Yvette Marie Dostatni for The New Yorker
Harry Gruyaert for The NY Times
Sharia Sharmin for The NY Times
Colleen Mullins for The NY Times
Kristin Bedford for The NY Times
Narayan Mahon for The NY Times
Thomas Alleman for The NY Times
Edward Burtynsky for The NY Times
Ansel Adams profile for The NY Times
Dr. Jock Cobb profile for The NY Times
Ray K. Metzker profile for The NY Times
Enrique Martinez Celaya for Hyperallergic
Robert Shults profile for The NY Times
Alma Lavenson profile for The NY Times
Interview with Edward Burtynsky
Interview with Alec Soth Part 1
Interview with Alec Soth Part 2
Interview with curator Katherine Ware
Kate Breakey at the Witliff Collections
Or click below to access an archive: APhotoEditor.com
Party City is the Devil
2016-19
The world is drowning in garbage.
We all know its true.
Whether clogging our landfills, or choking fish in the sea, our addiction to things in Late Capitalist America is leading to the potential extinction of nearly everything.
In 2016, I decided to use party supplies as a metaphor for the absurdist, runaway overconsumption that is depleting the world's resources, and changing its climate.
With their candy colors and chemical nature, these paper and plastic playthings are the perfect symbol for taking what we want from the Earth, rather than what we need.
Party City is the world's biggest party supply conglomerate, so I shopped there for 1.5 years, buying objects to make into temporary sculptures in my studio.
All the images were made using natural light only, and contain things that used to be natural resources.
Trees, plants, and oil are converted into plastic spoons, scary masks, diabetes-inducing candy, and paper streamers.
Party City exists to sell trinkets and objects that end up in the trash the day they're used. It's an entirely disposable culture, and one I wanted to put under a microscope with my current work.
(In the case of the recent global news story, Party City helped drained the world of helium, which they give away for free with each mylar balloon they sell.)
Every day, the news gets worse, with respect to the future of our planet.
I'm hoping these colorful, dynamic-yet-dystopic images will help bring attention the climate change, as they present a sense of cheery foreboding and underlying chaos that is difficult to miss.
Recycled
2013-16
Sometimes I buy things and throw them away.
Paper towels. Party favors. Tiny flashlights.
Things like that.
Here in the First World, we do it all the time. Our cultural artifacts are disposable.
Sure, we recycle our glass bottles and tin cans, but that's about it. If your DVD player breaks, you simply chuck it in the trash. (We're good at breaking things, but not so good at fixing them.)
I'm also something of a pack rat.
You can only imagine the accumulation of useless crap that faced me, as I chose to move out of my studio after eight years.
Piles were everywhere. An over-stuffed garbage bag leaned in the middle of the room, like a local drunk. The waste paper basket next to my computer sat, unemptied, for almost a year.
Rubbish. Junk.
Call it what you will, it was occupying the majority of my workspace. The truth is I left the studio because I couldn't afford it anymore. Too much cash for how little I used it. But the light was so beautiful. That's where I made my best work. It hurt a lot to give that up, I assure you.
The resulting photographs represent two parallel processes: my desire to maximize the value of my otherwise worthless goods, and my need to squeeze one last bit of glory from that gorgeous light, before it was gone forever. In the end, the project was more emotional than I had anticipated. Fortunately, it made me feel much better about having to leave.
MINE
2011-2012
Everything you see in these photographs is MINE.
My farm. My property. My nature.
I own it.
After examining food in my last project, \"The Value of a Dollar,\" this time around, I wanted to focus on territory.
The Earth itself.
So I mined my own natural resources for a year, here on my land in Northern New Mexico, and removed the artifacts to my studio. Then, I fabricated the animals and objects into sculptures to be photographed. Products. Commodities.
This series of photographs is envisioned as the first wave of products offered by the Blaustein Mining Company, my corporate alter ego.
As such, MINE is ongoing. The images are direct representations of dual processes: my creative practice, and the capitalistic behavior through which we extract what we wish from the Earth for our own material gain.
The Value of a Dollar
2008-2010
The over-consumption of food, and of the resources used to raise, grow, and produce it, is a critical issue in contemporary society.
Photography, my chosen method of expression, contributes mightily to the problem. Millions, if not billions of advertising dollars are spent annually to photograph food and obfuscate reality.
Fast food conglomerates are certainly the worst culprits, but everywhere we see glamorized versions of what we eat.
Food is clearly a potent symbol of wealth, power, health, and globalization for the 21st Century.
Its value is determined by the price of oil, its transnational transport contributes to Global Warming, its ingredients entice America into obesity, and its production processes animals into floss and mush.
The photographs in this project attempt to strip back the artifice; to depict food items as they were sold, (minus packaging,) without styling, retouching, or artificial light. Each image represents one dollar's worth of food purchased from various markets in New Mexico.
The subjects exist as equivalent amounts of commodity, and nothing more. The resulting images allow for a meditation on the power and seductive nature of the photographic medium itself.
RECENT PRESS
-- Jonathan's exhibition, \"Party City is the Devil\" will be on display at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, 9/6/19-11/10/19. It was recently featured on New Mexico KRQE's evening news here.
He was also interviewed live on New Mexico Living, a morning TV show, and you
can see the video clip here.
--In July 2018, \"Party City is the Devil\" was featured on PDN for their photo of the day section.
--I was interviewed about \"The Value of a Dollar\" by Hakim Bellamy on the PBS arts program COLORES! You can view the episode here.
--The food website MOLD reviewed my work in the 2015 exhibition \"The Economy of Food,\" at the Bronx River Art Center.
--Artslant reviewed \"Art for a Silent Planet: Blaustein, Elder and Long\" at the Harwood Museum of Art.
--Here's a great write-up about \"Art for a Silent Planet\" in the Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo.
--\"MINE,\" debuted online in the New York Times Lens Blog in May of 2012. You can view the article here.
--I did an extensive interview about MINE with Rob Haggart, of A Photo Editor.
--\"The Value of a Dollar,\" has been viewed by millions of people in more than 140 countries. It was first published by the New York Times on the Lens Blog. From there, the story was re-published on blogs and tumblr pages around the world.
--I spoke with Kai Rysdall of Public Radio's \"Marketplace\" in November of 2010. You can listen to the interview with Kai, or read a transcript.
Jonathan Blaustein is an artist, writer, editor, and freelance journalist based in Taos, New Mexico.
He received his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, in 2004, where he also studied Art History and Conceptual Art.
Jonathan's work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, and is held in prominent collections, including the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the State of New Mexico.
He wrote for the New York Times Lens Blog for six years, and was a weekly columnist at A Photo Editor from 2011-23.
Previous online bylines include The New Yorker, Vice, Hyperallergic, The Washington Post, and HuffPost.
As an educator, Jonathan taught at UNM-Taos for 12 years, including as Interim Chair of the Fine Arts Department in 2015-16. He also taught at-risk teens for a decade, in a pilot program for the college.
Along with his wife, Jessie Kaufman, he ran the Antidote Photo Retreat from 2017-22.
Jonathan's first monograph, \"Extinction Party,\" was published in 2020, and chosen as one of the books of the year by BuzzFeed News.
He currently edits photography books for private clients, and publishes Sunshine and Olly, a lifestyle and culture blog based in Taos.
Education
Pratt Institute, MFA in Photography with honors, 2004
University of New Mexico, Post Baccalaureate: Photography, 1997-99
Duke University, cum laude, B.A. History, major in Economics, 1996
Awards
Nominee, Prix Pictet \"Space\"
Nominee, Prix Pictet \"Consumption\"
2011 NM Art in Public Places Purchase Award Nominee
2010 Eliot Porter Award
\"Honorable Mention,\" CENTER Project Competition, 2010
Santa Fe Prize Nominee, 2009
Critical Mass Finalist, 2009
\"Honorable Mention,\" International Exhibition, Center for Fine Art Photography, 2009 Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement, Pratt Institute, 2004
Solo Exhibitions
\"Extinction Party,\" Obscura Gallery, Santa Fe, 2020
\"Party City is the Devil,\" Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, 2019
\"The Value of a Dollar,\" Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen, Germany, 2019
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, 2014
Picture Society @ Space Gallery, Denver, 2012
NM Arts Centennial Project Space, Santa Fe, 2012
The Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft Collins, CO, 2011
photographic, Taos, 2006
Art Alliance, Red Bank, NJ, 2006
Steuben East Gallery, Brooklyn, 2004
Ilan Dei, Los Angeles, 2001
Ebb Tide, San Francisco, 2000
Group Exhibitions
2025
\"The History of Photography,\" The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
\"We Love LA\" Los Angeles Center of Photography, LA
2024-25
\"The Art of Food,\" Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow Poland
2018
\"Marble Hill Camera Club,\" NYC
2017
\"Backyard Biennial,\" NYC
\"Taos Artists in Public Spaces,\" Taos Town Hall, Taos, NM
2016
\"Faculty Exhibition,\" Atrium Gallery, Taos, NM
2015
\"Axle Indoors,\" Peters Projects, Santa Fe
2014
\"Manger Sur Mur,\" Liege, Belgium
\"Art for a Silent Planet: Blaustein, Elder, and Long,\" Harwood Museum of Art, Taos
2013
\"See Food,\" Houston Center of Photography
\"From Rembrandt to Pollock to Atget: Celebrating a Collection,\" UNM Art Museum, ABQ
Review Santa Fe Alumni Exhibition, Santa Fe
\"In Query,\" Space Gallery, Denver
\"Exposure,\" Format Festival, Derby, UK
Benefit Auction, Houston Center for Photography, Houston
2012
\"Taos Contemporary,\" Center for Visual Art, Metro College, Denver
Review Santa Fe Alumni Exhibition, Santa Fe
\"Market Value,\" GF Contemporary, Santa Fe
\"Reconsidering the Photographic Masterpiece,\" UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque
2011
MOPA Benefit Auction, MOPA, San Diego
\"NewMexirado,\" The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos
\"New Directions,\" Wallspace Gallery, Seattle
\"New Directions, Wallspace Gallery, Santa Barbara
2010
\"Holiday Show,\" Zane Bennett Gallery, Santa Fe
\"Some Cool Photographs,\" photographic, Taos
\"LOOKbetween photo festival,\" Charlottesville, VA
\"Portfolio Review,\" Review Santa Fe 2010, Santa Fe
\"Photography 2010,\" Zane Bennett Gallery, Santa Fe
\"Zane Bennett Gallery,\" Art Chicago, Chicago
\"Yokohama Photo Fesitval,\" Yokohama, Japan
2009
\"Zane Bennett Gallery,\" Art Miami 2009, Miami
\"Slideluck Potshow,\" New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe
\"2009 International Exhibition,\" The Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins
\"Ersatz Group Exhibition,\" San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco
\"Portfolio Reviews,\" Review Santa Fe 2009
\"CCA Photo Auction,\" Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
\"Open Project Photography,\" Zane Bennett Gallery, Santa Fe
\"Miniatures 2009,\" Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos
2008
\"Biennial Southwest 08,\" curated by Dr. Stephanie Hanor, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque
\"A Russian Night in Taos,\" Taos Art Museum,
Taos \"Miniatures 2008,\" Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos
2007
\"Iconographic,\" Stables Gallery, Taos
\"A Russian Night in Taos,\" Taos Art Museum,
Taos \"Turquoise Ball,\" Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos
2006
\"Miniatures 2006,\" Millicent Rogers Museum,
Taos \"Valle Vidal Benefit Exhibit,\" Taos Country Club, Taos
\"Taos Open,\" Taos
\"Chrysalis Darkroom Show,\" Western Sky, Taos
\"The Spring Show,\" photographic, Taos
\"The Winter Show,\" photographic, Taos
2005
\"Inaugural Show,\" photographic, Taos
2004
\"Heather Marx Gallery,\" AAF Contemporary Art Fair, NYC
\"The Pratt Show,\" Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC
\"MFA Show,\" Pratt Manhattan, NYC
\"Summer in Winter,\" BQE33, Brooklyn
\"Face to Face,\" curated by Allen Frame, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn
\"The Grand Group Show,\" Danny Simmons Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn
2003
\"The Future is Now,\" BQE33, Brooklyn
\"Edge,\" Gensler, San Francisco
\"Summer Show,\" South Hall, Brooklyn
\"Photo03,\" BQE33, Brooklyn
\"The Project Room,\" Heather Marx Gallery, San Francisco San Francisco International Art Exposition, San Francisco
2002
One Night Stand in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
\"The Project Room,\" Heather Marx Gallery, San Francisco
\"Photography 2002,\" Color Arts, San Francisco
2001
\"Holiday Show,\" Den, San Francisco
\"Photography,\" Den, San Francisco
\"The Fall of Dot.communism,\" Studio Z gallery, San Francisco
2000
\"Improper Nouns,\" Gallery Luscombe, San Francisco
\"Small Works,\" Gallery Luscombe, San Francisco
\"Photography 2000,\" Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco
\"Day of the Dead,\" Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco
\"My Own Private Monsters,\" Balazo/Mission Badlands Gallery, San Francisco
\"Its a Battle,\" Balazo/Mission Badlands Gallery, San Francisco
City Art Gallery, San Francisco
Collections
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Albuquerque Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Cass Calder Smith, Architect
Collection Dancing Bear (W.M. Hunt,) New York
Gil Presti, Campoli Presti Gallery, London/Paris
Fidelity Investments
Hall Capital Partners, San Francisco
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos
Library of Congress, Washington DC
Marsha Morton, Art Historian, Pratt Institute
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
The Public Collection of the State of New Mexico
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque
Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA
Selected Publications
The Washington Post, 04/20
The Santa Fe New Mexican, 04/20
Taos News, 09/12.19
\"Stories from the Camera,\" UNM Press, 2015
\"Fraction of a Second\" exhibition catalog, 2015
\"Pasatiempo,\" Santa Fe New Mexican, 03.15
\"Tempo,\" Taos News, 01.15
\"Consumption,\" Prix Pictet Monograph, 2014
\"Pasatiempo,\" Santa Fe New Mexican, 02.14
\"Tempo,\" Taos News, 02.14
fotoMAGAZIN, 06.13
Format '13 Catalog, 2012
\"In Query\" Catalog, 2013 Albuquerque Journal, 09.12
NY Times Lens Blog, 06.12
Digital Photo Pro Magazine, December 2011
Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, Summer 2011
\"LENS blog,\" The New York Times, 10.08.10
\"The Edge of Empire,\" Creative Edge, The Taos News, 05.13.10
\"Issue 11,\" Fraction Magazine, 02.10
\"Issue 2,\" Unless You Will, 12.09
\"Creative Edge,\" The Taos News, 10.15.09
\"Critical Reflections, THE Magazine, April, 2009
\"Never Ending,\" Prattfolio, Spring 2009
\"Jonathan Blaustein,\" Creative Edge, The Taos News, 02.05.09
\"Conceptuality,\" Creative Edge, The Taos News, 11.26.08
\"A very 'different' approach to Southwestern art,\" Arts IQ, 10.16.08
\"Biennial Southwest,\" Sunday Arts Section, Albuquerque Journal: 10.19.08
Biennial Southwest Exhibition Catalog, 2008
\"Local Color Art Exhibition,\" The Taos News, 01.03.08
\"Picturing Life,\" The Taos News,\" 09.20.07
\"Underneath the Underneath,\" The Taos News, 08.09.07
\"Creative Edge,\" The Taos News, 07.27.06
\"Photo Gallery Features \"Spring Show,\" The Taos News, 04.22.06
\"In the Arts,\" Atlanticville, Long Branch, NJ, 03.02.06
\"Photo Gallery Has \"Winter Show,\" The Taos News, 12.29.05
\"Creative Edge,\" The Taos News, 10.6.05
\"Brooklyn Artist Who Prefers to Show Others Works,\" New York Times, 2.8.04
Best of College Photography, 1999
Public Lectures
\"The 21st Century Hustle,\" Filter Photo Festival, Chicago, 2015
\"The 21st Century Hustle,\"Santa Fe U of Art & Design, 2015
\"Photographing Ideas,\"Medium Festival of Photography, San Diego,
2014 Review Santa Fe, 2013 Picture Society @ Space Gallery, Denver, CO, 2012
Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2011
CENTER, Santa Fe, 2010
Artist Salon with Norman Mauskopf and Meghan Tomeo,\"photo-eye, Santa Fe, 2009
Artist Talk with Holly Roberts, Zane Bennett Gallery, Santa Fe, 2009
Biennial Southwest 08 Panel Discussion, Albuquerque Museum, 2008
Senior Photography, School of Visual Arts, New York, 2004
Summer Photography, International Center of Photography New York, 2004
Extinction Party is my first photo book, published by Yoffy Press in Atlanta. It was published in March 2020. It's sold out with the publisher, but I have personal copies available, so drop me a line.
It was featured in the Washington Post, and you can see the article here.
In September 2022, I visited Wild West City, a theme park in Northern New Jersey, for HuffPost. The story was ultimately published in April 2023. Here's the link.
In March 2023, I dropped in on the set of Reservation Dogs, the hit FX/Hulu comedy, during the filming of their third season. The story was published August 2023 here.
Party City is the Devil
2016-19
The world is drowning in garbage.
We all know its true.
Whether clogging our landfills, or choking fish in the sea, our addiction to things in Late Capitalist America is leading to the potential extinction of nearly everything.
In 2016, I decided to use party supplies as a metaphor for the absurdist, runaway overconsumption that is depleting the world's resources, and changing its climate.
With their candy colors and chemical nature, these paper and plastic playthings are the perfect symbol for taking what we want from the Earth, rather than what we need.
Party City is the world's biggest party supply conglomerate, so I shopped there for 1.5 years, buying objects to make into temporary sculptures in my studio.
All the images were made using natural light only, and contain things that used to be natural resources.
Trees, plants, and oil are converted into plastic spoons, scary masks, diabetes-inducing candy, and paper streamers.
Party City exists to sell trinkets and objects that end up in the trash the day they're used. It's an entirely disposable culture, and one I wanted to put under a microscope with my current work.
(In the case of the recent global news story, Party City helped drained the world of helium, which they give away for free with each mylar balloon they sell.)
Every day, the news gets worse, with respect to the future of our planet.
I'm hoping these colorful, dynamic-yet-dystopic images will help bring attention the climate change, as they present a sense of cheery foreboding and underlying chaos that is difficult to miss.
Recycling my Junk
2013-16
Sometimes I buy things and throw them away.
Paper towels. Party favors. Tiny flashlights.
Things like that.
Here in the First World, we do it all the time. Our cultural artifacts are disposable.
Sure, we recycle our glass bottles and tin cans, but that's about it. If your DVD player breaks, you simply chuck it in the trash. (We're good at breaking things, but not so good at fixing them.)
I'm also something of a pack rat.
You can only imagine the accumulation of useless crap that faced me, as I chose to move out of my studio after eight years.
Piles were everywhere. An over-stuffed garbage bag leaned in the middle of the room, like a local drunk. The waste paper basket next to my computer sat, unemptied, for almost a year.
Rubbish. Junk.
Call it what you will, it was occupying the majority of my workspace. The truth is I left the studio because I couldn't afford it anymore. Too much cash for how little I used it. But the light was so beautiful. That's where I made my best work. It hurt a lot to give that up, I assure you.
The resulting photographs represent two parallel processes: my desire to maximize the value of my otherwise worthless goods, and my need to squeeze one last bit of glory from that gorgeous light, before it was gone forever. In the end, the project was more emotional than I had anticipated. Fortunately, it made me feel much better about having to leave.
MINE
2011-2012
Everything you see in these photographs is MINE.
My farm. My property. My nature.
I own it.
After examining food in my last project, \"The Value of a Dollar,\" this time around, I wanted to focus on territory.
The Earth itself.
So I mined my own natural resources for a year, here on my land in Northern New Mexico, and removed the artifacts to my studio. Then, I fabricated the animals and objects into sculptures to be photographed. Products. Commodities.
This series of photographs is envisioned as the first wave of products offered by the Blaustein Mining Company, my corporate alter ego.
As such, MINE is ongoing. The images are direct representations of dual processes: my creative practice, and the capitalistic behavior through which we extract what we wish from the Earth for our own material gain.
The Value of a Dollar
2008-2010
The over-consumption of food, and of the resources used to raise, grow, and produce it, is a critical issue in contemporary society.
Photography, my chosen method of expression, contributes mightily to the problem. Millions, if not billions of advertising dollars are spent annually to photograph food and obfuscate reality.
Fast food conglomerates are certainly the worst culprits, but everywhere we see glamorized versions of what we eat.
Food is clearly a potent symbol of wealth, power, health, and globalization for the 21st Century.
Its value is determined by the price of oil, its transnational transport contributes to Global Warming, its ingredients entice America into obesity, and its production processes animals into floss and mush.
The photographs in this project attempt to strip back the artifice; to depict food items as they were sold, (minus packaging,) without styling, retouching, or artificial light. Each image represents one dollar's worth of food purchased from various markets in New Mexico.
The subjects exist as equivalent amounts of commodity, and nothing more. The resulting images allow for a meditation on the power and seductive nature of the photographic medium itself.
Trapped in Paradise
2021 was the worst year of my life.
(Worse than 2020 even.)
My wife was recovering from clinical depression. My mother-in-law evaporating to Alzheimer's Disease. And my children were withering, stuck at home part year, as the schools were still closed during the pandemic.
Mid-life is famously tough, but for Jessie and me, some of those days felt like actual torture.
I was 30 lbs overweight, unhealthy, and unhappy.
However, I live in a beautiful place; a horse farm in the village of Arroyo Hondo, just outside Taos, New Mexico.
And I love my wife and children more than anything on Earth.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, my family and I found ourselves enmeshed in deep misery, yet walking in circles around the gorgeous farm and adjoining dirt roads.
(Or driving aimlessly around photogenic Taos, with nowhere to go.)
I felt trapped in paradise, as even when vaccines became available, we still spent 2021 in a state of suspended animation, desperate to avoid getting my Mother-in-law sick.
Bonnie became less communicative each passing day, and was mentally gone by late May of that year. (She passed in December 2023.)
In order to stay sane, amidst the chaos, I made this photographic project, shooting pictures the entire year.
These images represent my world in Taos as I know it, having spent the majority of my adult life here.
They’re also chronological.
They record a state of mind, pulsing with energy: claustrophobic, anxious, vibrational.
The exceptions, the beautiful ones, break the tension and represent the joy of healing.
Like birds in a deep blue sky.
Those few times when I looked up, and felt free.
Jonathan Blaustein
“Go Back to Poland!”
Project Statement
The Israel-Hamas War kicked off in late 2023, and by the spring of 2024, large-scale, Anti-Israel protests dominated many American college campuses.
I read the news voraciously, and one day, a story went viral that some Columbia University students were chanting “Go Back to Poland!” at Israelis, and American Jews as well.
Not much gets under my skin, but that certainly did.
Go back to Poland?
Where all of our ancestors were annihilated?
Are you kidding me?
Not to mention, it’s super-insulting to Poland. Like, you Jews need to be punished, so why not go back to that shit-hole country you people came from?
As it happens, my ancestors did come from Poland. (As well as Germany, Prussia and Hungary.)
All of my grandparents, (and two of my great-grandparents,) were born in the US. But all of the relatives they left behind, in the Old Country, were murdered by the Nazis.
The slate was wiped clean.
In Poland, the numbers were horrifying.
Something like 3 million Jews killed, out of a pre-war population of 3.1 million. (And the Jews that survived were dispersed.)
Before the Germans invaded, Jews made up 10% of Poland’s population, and had lived there for 1000 years.
1000 years!
Then they were gone.
These days, a generation of Poles has lived and died in a country without many Jews at all.
I wondered, what would such a place be like?
As it happens, I was invited into an art exhibition at a Krakow museum a few years ago.
(There was a bit of lead time.)
It opened in the spring of 2024 at MOCAK, and by last summer, I couldn’t get the protestors chants out of my head.
“Go Back to Poland!”
When the museum sent me an exhibition catalogue, and I realized how lovely the show was, I decided I was going to take the protestors up on their challenge.
Go Back to Poland?
Sure, why not?
Let’s see what the place is like.
Over eight days in Poland meeting artists and curators, as well as spending hours alone, walking the streets, I found myself enthralled.
From a vibe check standpoint, I loved Poland.
It was so chill. And thriving!
Beautiful and clean, sure, but I felt a live-and-let-live energy in the streets, not unlike the Netherlands. (But with a strong Catholic spine, hence the pronounced societal conservatism.)
In order to be systematic, I visited Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk, the three major cities of the south, center, and north of Poland.
Did I feel comfortable there, as a Jew?
Absolutely.
I loved the place.
But I did find it odd that there was so little left, after 1000 years of Jewish experience.
Cemeteries. To be expected.
I saw a synagogue in Krakow, and one of its signs had been vandalized.
I saw a guy in Warsaw wearing a yarmulke.
And I felt like an animal in a zoo, in the Polin (Jewish) Museum in Warsaw, because the history was told with the end point known.
Jews used to live in Poland.
But then they all got exterminated.
The end.
Not a good feeling. (Though the exhibits are top notch.)
It’s impossible to discuss this subject, the aftermath of ethnic cleansing, without acknowledging that Israel, the Jewish country, is currently in the midst of doing just that to the Palestinian people in Gaza.
By all accounts, they’ve destroyed the country, and killed or starved so many people. And by many accounts, Israeli right wing politicians seek to remove the Gazan population and rebuild - turning the enclave into a high-end, Israeli tourist destination - which is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
The trauma cycle continues...
I returned to Poland again in 2025, and have begun to interview other American Jews who’ve been to Poland, to see what their experience was like?
Did they also feel right at home, as I did?
Or was it painful for them?
Did they lose any known relatives in the Holocaust, or was it only a nameless wave of ancestors, as it was for me?
I also plan to interview Poles, to see how they feel about it.
Jonathan Blaustein
Go Back to Poland!
2024-
Selected Edit Image Titles
1. Nestie, from Kherson, who fled Kyiv in 2022 and settled in Kraków. We made this
photograph in the street light illumination, after eating Vietnamese food in Kazimierz.
(2025)
2. Ivy growing on the walls outside the Old Synagogue, which is now a museum in
Kraków. (2025)
3. Transport ships on the Baltic Sea, heading towards Gdańsk, which was still called
Danzig when Hitler attacked in 1939, kicking off World War II. (2024)
4. Vlada, an artist, and Ukrainian refugee from Dnipro, moved to Kraków with her
husband Petro in 2022. Vlada, who is half Jewish on her father’s side, changed her last
name several years ago, at his urging, so she wouldn’t be easily identifiable as Jewish.
(2025)
5. Ivy growing over gravestones in the New Jewish Cemetery next to the train tracks in
Kraków. (2025)
6. A painting installation inside the Old Synagogue museum in Kraków. It is a busy
tourist attraction in Kazimierz. (2025)
7. A sign for a tour company offering visits to the Auschwitz death camp, and more.
(Apparently.) Right next to the Vistula river in Kraków. (2025)
8. Yaakov and Yitzchak, from Israel, in the graveyard behind the Remuh Synagogue,
which is still in operation, and open to the public. When reached by email, they said they
really enjoyed meeting Jews from around the world on their trip to Kraków. (2025)
9. Lights illuminating the painted ceiling in Remuh Synagogue in Kraków. (2025)
10. Bezalel, the chef at a kosher restaurant next to Remuh Synagogue, in front of the
ivy behind the back courtyard in Kraków. He didn’t speak English, and the finger guns
were his idea. (2025)
11. Helena Czernek, a Warsaw artist with Jewish ancestry, inside Mi Polin, her gallery/
museum space right next to a preserved section of the old Warsaw Ghetto Wall. Helena
makes mezuzah, Judaica art items, and also did a graffiti project in conjunction with the
Nozyk Synagogue in Central Warsaw. (2025)
12. Covered-up graffiti (which was both Pro and Anti-Israel at one point,) around the
corner from the excellent Kebab King restaurant in Central Warsaw. (2025)
13. Inside Pope John Paul II’s All Saints’ Church in Central Warsaw. (2025)
14. A safety barrier outside the Nozyk Synagogue, featuring the graffiti project designed
by Helena Czernek. There are police on duty at all times, outside the synagogue, and
Goliat Security officers as well. (2025)
15. A prayer book on a lectern, inside the Nozyk Synagogue in Warsaw. (2025)
16. An Israeli flag, hung from the women’s section in the Nozyk Synagogue in Warsaw.
(2025)
17. Religious, right-wing protesters marching through the Old Warsaw Ghetto. (2024)
18. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joshua inside the St. Nicolas Church in central Gdańsk.
(2024)
19. A security camera capturing the ghostly atmosphere along the Royal Route in
Gdańsk. (2024)
20. An old man lifts his face to the sun, enjoying a quiet moment along the promenade
in Sopot. (2024)
21. A sculpture of the Pietà in St Mary’s Church in Gdańsk. (2024)
22. Hotel room view, on the MDM Square in Warsaw, (which was built by the Soviets,)
minutes before I left for the airport to travel 25 hours home to New Mexico. (2025)
", "size": { "content": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 0, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "linkTarget": "", "filters": [], "dateAdded": "2025-11-20T20:30:50.674Z", "overrides": {} }, "10401": { "id": 10401, "label": "02vladafromdnipro", "caption": "Vlada, from Dnipro. She and her husband Petro left behind a partially finished apartment in a high-rise building overlooking the river. ", "type": "image", "content": "02vladafromdnipro.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1065383 }, "key": "10401", "overrides": {}, "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:17.682Z", "linkTarget": "", "filters": [] }, "10402": { "id": 10402, "label": "08wojciechfrompoland", "caption": "Wojciech, from Poland, in the new modern art museum in Warsaw. ", "type": "image", "content": "08wojciechfrompoland.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 911680 }, "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:18.757Z", "filters": [], "key": "10402", "linkTarget": "", "overrides": {}, "keywords": [] }, "10403": { "id": 10403, "label": "09pigeonsinthewarsawsky", "caption": "Pigeons in the sky over downtown Warsaw. ", "type": "image", "content": "09pigeonsinthewarsawsky.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 757423, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "overrides": {}, "filters": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:19.690Z", "keywords": [], "key": "10403", "linkTarget": "" }, "10404": { "id": 10404, "label": "01nestiefromkherson", "caption": "Nestie, from Kherson. She fled Kiev for Krakow at the beginning of Russia's war with Ukraine. ", "type": "image", "content": "01nestiefromkherson.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 2509687 }, "overrides": {}, "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:20.761Z", "linkTarget": "", "key": "10404", "keywords": [], "filters": [ "Navbar Panel" ] }, "10405": { "id": 10405, "label": "03mercedesbenz", "caption": "A Mercedes-Benz and some graffiti on a Krakow street in evening. ", "type": "image", "content": "03mercedesbenz.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1398674, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "key": "10405", "overrides": {}, "filters": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:23.369Z", "linkTarget": "", "keywords": [] }, "10406": { "id": 10406, "label": "04thegraveyardatremusynagogue", "caption": "The graveyard behind the Remu Synagogue in Krakow. ", "type": "image", "content": "04thegraveyardatremusynagogue.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 2154974 }, "keywords": [], "filters": [], "linkTarget": "", "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:24.397Z", "key": "10406", "overrides": {} }, "10407": { "id": 10407, "label": "05chefbezaleloutsidethekosherrestaurant", "caption": "Bezalel, the chef at a kosher restaurant right next to Remu Synagogue in Krakow. ", "type": "image", "content": "05chefbezaleloutsidethekosherrestaurant.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1286396 }, "linkTarget": "", "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:25.707Z", "overrides": {}, "filters": [ "installation images" ], "key": "10407" }, "10408": { "id": 10408, "label": "06warsawatnight", "caption": "Walking around Warsaw at night. ", "type": "image", "content": "06warsawatnight.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1826656, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "key": "10408", "filters": [], "linkTarget": "", "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:27.746Z", "overrides": {}, "keywords": [] }, "10409": { "id": 10409, "label": "07downtownwarsaw", "caption": "A construction facade on a downtown Warsaw shopping street. ", "type": "image", "content": "07downtownwarsaw.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1719617 }, "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:28.635Z", "linkTarget": "", "filters": [], "key": "10409", "overrides": {} }, "10410": { "id": 10410, "label": "10thewomenssectionofthewarsawsynagogue", "caption": "The women's section of the only Warsaw synagogue to survive WWII.", "type": "image", "content": "10thewomenssectionofthewarsawsynagogue.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1493203, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:29.514Z", "overrides": {}, "linkTarget": "", "filters": [], "key": "10410" }, "10411": { "id": 10411, "label": "11hotelviewofMDMsquare", "caption": "View from my hotel room on the Soviet designed MDM Square in Warsaw. ", "type": "image", "content": "11hotelviewofMDMsquare.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 2075710 }, "overrides": {}, "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:30.596Z", "filters": [], "key": "10411", "linkTarget": "" }, "10412": { "id": 10412, "label": "12nearkazimierzinkrakow", "caption": "A street near Kazimierz, the former (and current) Jewish district in Krakow. ", "type": "image", "content": "12nearkazimierzinkrakow.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 1927700 }, "keywords": [], "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:31.678Z", "filters": [], "key": "10412", "overrides": {}, "linkTarget": "" }, "10413": { "id": 10413, "label": "13ivygdansk", "caption": "Ivy on the wall in Gdansk. ", "type": "image", "content": "13ivygdansk.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 3923990, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 } }, "filters": [], "overrides": {}, "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:33.331Z", "keywords": [], "linkTarget": "", "key": "10413" }, "10414": { "id": 10414, "label": "14bulletholesinagdanskcathedral", "caption": "Bullet holes in a cathedral wall, Gdansk. ", "type": "image", "content": "14bulletholesinagdanskcathedral.jpg", "size": { "content": { "width": 4048, "height": 2700 }, "thumb": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "featuredImage": { "width": 0, "height": 0 }, "bytes": 3692032 }, "keywords": [], "overrides": {}, "dateAdded": "2026-04-10T17:08:34.687Z", "linkTarget": "", "filters": [], "key": "10414" } }