EXIT #26 considers looking through the window as a metaphor for contemporary photography.

On this occasion EXIT has taken the idea of the window as a metaphor for reflecting on some of the strategies of contemporary photography. The issue is divided into three sections: the first explores the window as a frame, as a tool that serves to structure the composition and provide depth - heir of the pictorial tradition -, and that can also assume an abstract geometric quality; the second focuses on glass, the concept of transparency and that of reflection, as a mediating surface, a pane interposed with reality; and the third highlights the gaze, those who observe and those who are observed, emphasizing the idea of the photographer as voyeur, as witness of everyday life, but also as he who places himself on the threshold, between interior and exterior, private and public. Each of the sections includes two portfolios with texts specifically written for EXIT by the selected photographers: in Frame, John Divola and Thomas Florschuetz; inGlass, Uta Barth and Sabine Hornig; and in The Gaze, Shoja Azari and Lucinda Devlin.

In her editorial bearing the same title as the magazine, EXIT editor and publisher Rosa Olivares considers the window as a pane that reflects a fragmented reality. She also writes about the mystery and attractiveness of those spaces of communication, and about the melancholy and nostalgia of those who watch life go by through the window.

Martha Langford, assistant professor of art history at Concordia University, Montreal and founder of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa, is author of the magazine's main essay. With the title Picture Windows and through the work of some of the fundamental creators in the history of the photographic medium, such as Josef Sudek and Alfred Stieglitz, Langford's text reflects on the power of glass and its quality as a filter, since it questions or frustrates the primacy of sight.

Texts: Rosa Olivares y Martha Langford

Artist portfolios: Josef Sudek, Michael Snow, John Divola, Thomas Florschuetz, Uta Barth, Sabine Hornig, Shoja Azari, Lucinda Devlin.

Also: Todd Hido, Daniel Boudinet, Lee Friedlander, G.W. Sebald, Aldred Stieglitz, Jeff Wall, Luisa Lambri, Jens Komossa, Mayumi Terada, Günther Förg, André Kertész, Abelardo Morell, Tom Wood, Ryuji Miyamoto, Naoya Hatakeyama, Veronika Kellndorfer, Ignasi Aballí, Robert Frank, Joel Meyerowitz, Merry Alpern, Gregory Crewdson, Anna Malagrida, Shizuko Yokomizo, Salla Tykkä, Serge Clément, Andy Lock, Alexandra Navratil, Ola Kolehmainen, Sergio Belinchón, Pertti Kekarainen, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. 

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