Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is a freelance journalist who contributes to the Guardian, Creative Review, the British Journal of Photography, Aesthetica Magazine and more.

Nan on Brian’s lap, Brian’s birthday (1981), from ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’. Maison Européenne, Paris.

The photographers who have got up close and very personal

Many artists have recorded their most intimate moments, but why should anyone else be interested in the results?

10 Jul 2022

From ‘I have found a light in the darkness’ by Julia Soboleva (Witty Books)

The strange and sinister world of Julia Soboleva

The Latvian-born artist takes found photographs and paints over them to make enigmatic and eerie images – but they’re not meant to be scary, she insists

29 Apr 2022

Photography Reviews

From Muddy Dance (2021) by Erik Kessels, published by RVB Books.

Up in the air – the photographs that defy the laws of gravity

What goes up inevitably must come down – but for a fleeting moment some photographers have tried to suggest otherwise

6 Nov 2021

Mass Baptism, Southend-on-Sea (detail) (2013) in ‘Thames Log’ by Chloe Dewe Mathews. © Chloe Dewe Mathews

From baptisms to boat burnings, life along the Thames is full of surprises

With an eye for ritual, the photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews celebrates an unfamiliar vision of the river

28 Jan 2021

Installation view of ‘Night into Day’ at the Fondation Cartier, Paris, in October 2020.

Sarah Sze makes sense of time and space

The sculptor’s installation at the Fondation Cartier uses images and streams of information to investigate the nature of reality

27 Oct 2020

Wrestling with Spectres (2019) from the Arrival series, Farah Al Qasimi. Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line, Dubai; © Farah Al Qasimi

Spirit of the place – an interview with Farah Al Qasimi

Conveying the views of a disgruntled jinn is just one of the artist’s absurdist approaches to understanding the modern world

16 Sep 2020