The Beauty of Imperfection: Nancy Rexroth’s Dreamlike Camera World
A Cincinnati retrospective brings the photographer’s intimate experiments, soft-focus visions and restless curiosity into view.
An image can be hazy and still feel startlingly close. Nancy Rexroth’s photographs invite that experience: familiar places become difficult to pin down, while an atmosphere seems to linger just beyond the edges of recognition. For anyone who has ever kept a technically imperfect picture because it held a feeling, there is an immediate way into her work.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power, now open at the Cincinnati Art Museum, is the photographer’s first career retrospective. Running October 2, 2026, through January 3, 2027, with free admission, it assembles more than 150 photographs, personal effects, tools and other materials. The exhibition reaches from her early practice into the digital era, opening up a career too easily condensed to a single celebrated book.
That book is IOWA, which Rexroth self-published in 1977. The museum’s account of her archive places the project around Athens, Ohio, where she used a low-tech plastic Diana camera to make her distinctive pictures. The geography matters: the title alone should not lead us to treat these photographs as a straightforward visual survey of the state of Iowa. Place, sensation and the image’s emotional charge operate on different levels.
The Diana entered this story during Rexroth’s graduate studies at Ohio University, according to the museum’s retrospective announcement. A device manufactured as a novelty became part of an artist’s developing vocabulary. The museum situates that development amid the experimentation and changing opportunities of the late 1960s and 1970s, when feminism, education and growing institutional interest were reshaping photography’s artistic world.
There is something energizing in that example for image-makers today. Equipment has a character, and a limitation can become a decision. Softness might leave room for recognition to happen slowly. An uncertain edge can keep a viewer searching. These are ways to read the photographs, rather than a recipe for reproducing them. A blurred frame still needs an eye, a relationship to its subject and a reason to exist.
Rexroth’s experiments also extended well beyond one camera. The Nancy Rexroth Collection includes platinum prints, SX-70 transfers and later digital work, alongside other processes. The museum records her return to photographic exploration in the 1990s and two series made with low-resolution digital cameras between 2000 and 2004. That trajectory makes the retrospective particularly intriguing: it lets viewers follow an artist carrying her curiosity into another set of tools.
For Cyclolore readers moving between photography, fashion and visual culture, the invitation is to spend more time with what a picture makes possible. What does a room suggest when its details refuse to settle? How does an ordinary gesture become strange? What happens when an image gives us enough information to feel present, while leaving its meaning open? Those questions can travel back into our own practice without turning Rexroth into a preset.
The museum’s online exhibition gallery introduces works including A Woman’s Bed, Logan, Ohio, from 1970, and Trees Crossing, New Lexington, Ohio, from 1974. Its website also offers documentary films and an accessible audio tour, giving readers beyond Cincinnati a starting point. Begin with one photograph and give it a second look. The most useful lesson here may be patience with an image that does not reveal everything at once.
Explore more in the museum’s Nancy Rexroth exhibition film series.
The Mind of Iowa and The Nancy Rexroth Collection (2021), an archival documentary from the Cincinnati Art Museum.
More entertaining stories to read here.
Megan Thee Stallion has given Tina Snow two Tuesdays in a row. “Tina Tuesday Freestyle,” released September 29, is now joined by “Is You Cool?,” which arrived October 6. Together, the videos reopen a familiar corner of her catalog while listeners await Act III.
Drake and Don Toliver have released the official “Solar Eclipse” music video on YouTube, extending the rollout of HABIBTI (FOMO). The October 6 upload arrives four days after the song reached streaming, putting the Ella Langley-interpolating collaboration back in the spotlight.
A song can begin with a technical breakthrough, a wish to lift someone's spirits, or a feeling that has waited long enough to be expressed. For Christopher Benson, who makes music as ChrisB, those impulses help explain The Right Time, Money's Calling You and Diamond in the Rough. Benson says he wrote, produced and recorded all three himself. His accounts of their beginnings, together with the lyrics to all three songs, offer a portrait of an artist learning how to give personal intention a finished musical form.
Tinashe’s Popstar era has reached a new high. The album debuts at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 dated October 10, 2026, securing her first top 10 album, according to Billboard’s report.
The night didn’t begin as planned. Hundreds of people without tickets rushed the stadium entrances, forcing organizers to temporarily lock down access. Thousands of paying fans were left waiting outside while security regained control, delaying the concert by roughly three to four hours. Jay-Z eventually came on stage just after midnight and apologized, telling fans the delay was necessary for everyone’s safety.
Nicki Minaj, also known as the Queen of Gag City, speaks in-depth with Ebro Darden live in studio in New York City about everything related to "Pink Friday 2." The candid talk covers a wide range of topics, with Minaj discussing how her reaction to learning of her father's death affected the opening song on PF2, "Are You Gone Already."
Get your earphones charged and ready because you’ll need them coming into the New Year with Bronx native trendsetting rapper Sheem Klauf’s ‘Count These Bandz’ which dropped in September 2023. The 90’s feel trap song written with a stellar and catchy hook gives a new spin on nostalgia play snapping out of that New York Drill music that radio’s have gotten so use to listening to & definitely goes complimentary well with the ‘Big Shot’ MC.
The multi-Platinum R&B singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer Tinashe made a magnificent return appearance on Sunday before kickoff to perform the National Anthem. In addition, the lifelong Silver and Black supporter paid tribute to America before the Raiders vs. Chiefs games in 2021 and 2018.
'These last few days [since news of the lawsuit broke] have been gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing.'
"You f**kin' right" when they remark, "She got it from her mama, "Body impolite, it's rude/Victoria growled as she sang, "Done being the humble type/Tell me, are you down?/'Cause I'm tryna get up tonight. "I just wanna live in a fantasy/I think we deserve it, right? H*es and hoochies left and right."/All the memories I've ever had in my life, top them all.Permanent euphoriaLet's sleep where the lovers lie/Ladies is pimps tonight/Livin' within a fantasy, she sings.
Shygirl posted a statement on her Instagram Story saying that she was "devastated to share that due to an ongoing respiratory condition, I've been forced to make the difficult decision to cancel my appearances on the upcoming US tour on the advice of my doctor that I can no longer delay surgery."
Chris Brown now needs to appear in court for another strange case. Furthermore, according to The Blast, the paperwork originates from a bank that reportedly provided him with a loan to buy two Popeyes Chicken restaurants.
The tweet that Tinashe liked began, "You already know we're riding with you!" "I have a sense Chris is still bitter about the fact that you rejected him. That would account for his animosity and strange preoccupation with you, lol.
This, she claims, is evidence of the cycles that recur throughout our lives and the truth that, despite the fact that we evolve and our viewpoints shift, "who we are at a core stays the same." Her newest album is about getting to the heart of the matter. After the success of her most recent singles, "Talk To Me Nice" and "Needs," Tinashe sees the BB/ANG3L album as a chance for her audience to get to know her better. She says she doesn't often love grocery shopping but has always had a fantasy of "running amuck," adding, "I wanted it to be intimate and feel a bit more day-to-day, in a way."
Ric Flair, a great wrestler, is sampled in the song "Balut" saying, "Remember this, girls, none of you can be first, but all of you can be next." Apart from the well-known Filipino treat, Flair's moniker "I Da! Ba-Loot!" is possibly one of the sources of the song's title. Doja sings in the '90s-inspired song on how she stands out among amateurs and possibly even some peers as an artist and denies claims that she does drugs.
The multi-talented musician Tinashe, who is renowned for her outstanding vocal abilities and genre-defying aesthetic, has just released a scorching new song, "Uh Huh," which is upending the music industry. The catchy and funky tune "Uh Huh" demonstrates Tinashe's range as a singer.
"They didn't want to talk about artist of the year when we tried to set up the second call, which to me was really a slap in the face," As a result of the rebuff, Punch dropped SZA from the 2023 MTV VMAs performance plans. Punch accepted full responsibility for her absence in case MTV retaliated against her. He told The Hollywood Reporter, "I figured, why go perform and do this if she's not going to be respected to the highest level?" Therefore, I made the decision to cancel the performance.”
For "Attention," the rapper began the performance by dressing like a frustrated librarian with pencils in her hair. She then started to become naked before starting "Paint the Town Red." Twenty bloody copies of her Scarlet alter ego followed her around the stage the entire time. For "Demons," Doja let her hair down and rapped fiercely beneath florescent yellow lighting.
This summer, the "Moment 4 Life" rapper revealed that her fifth studio album would be released on November 17. The celebrity thanked her followers on Instagram for their support and made a vague mention of a tour, promising to reveal more information as Pink Friday 2 neared its debut.
Cardi opened the show, lowering down to the stage on a huge disco ball while wearing her hair loosely in the style of Donna Summer from the 1970s. Shirtless male bongo players accompanied her as she arrived, and when the song started, dancers in bright green and blue two-piece bathing costumes joined her.
You looking at her? Look at her, look at her. I'm referring to Doja Cat's Scarlet album cover, which she presented last night. A red spider (okay, maybe more magenta) with a drip of blood above it is depicted in the uncomplicated artwork.
Minaj took to X stating, “Glad you like the lyrics. The irony is that my fave part of the whole song is the very end… like the last 30 seconds. can’t wait for you guys to hear the whole thing.”
"I went in and I was like, 'Finally, I get to rap again,'" she recalled. As she says, "A lot of people discredit me, so it's nice to just put another one in the fucking bucket for a great rap song," which is exactly what she's done with "Demons."
Organizers issued a statement on Tuesday, claiming "severe circumstances outside of production control." "This decision was difficult and was not made lightly or without great thought," the statement said.
“This new album is more introspective, but I’m not leaning so hard into that to where it becomes boring,” she relayed. “So I want to give stories and bops. It’s a nice mixture of both… I think this project is a really fun canvas for me to play with my rap skills and talk about what’s going on in my life. But I’m not abandoning who I was and what I know about pop and singing and that aspect of music.”
Nashe released her first track "Talk Nice To Me" last month. She's also preparing for a fall co-headlining tour with Shygirl, with Jersey club queen Uniiqu3 serving as support. That should be a fantastic concert! Tinashe has a new track out today, and it's a fantastic one.
While this is Halle's proper performance debut, she loaned her exquisite voice to the soundtrack for The Little Mermaid (2023), which bested Top Soundtracks and crested at No. 21 on the Billboard 200.
Beyonce has been supplying the world in demand with her Legendary killer show The Renaissance Tour and you can definitely expect each or every other day there are new fan videos flooding the YouTube streets with videos of the Queen through different parts of her setlist. Well I was shocked to see while getting my dreads tightened a Doja Cat in the Vouge part of the show
At Paris’s Maison Européenne de la Photographie, PENN & FASHION revisits a career in which a dress could become the beginning of an image’s invention. Within that wider story, Irving Penn’s collaboration with Issey Miyake offers an unusually revealing account of what happens when a designer lets a photographer take the lead.
An image can be hazy and still feel startlingly close. Nancy Rexroth’s photographs invite that experience: familiar places become difficult to pin down, while an atmosphere seems to linger just beyond the edges of recognition. For anyone who has ever kept a technically imperfect picture because it held a feeling, there is an immediate way into her work.
Brandon Cole considers himself the Kevin Hart of photography, but if you watched some of the customer testimonials videos you’d know he’s so much more than that. The new technology he’s built in his new Black Dish has changed the game on so many levels for professional photographers and armature photographers alike.
Maegan Brown of The BakerMama separates how to make this pumpkin charcuterie board that the entire family will adore.
On January 16th DeJarius Evans was presented by Jackson State University as the first exhibit of the year partnering with C. Will for an exhibition called ‘The Zone’. The Doors opened at 4:30pm showcasing a plethora of Evans Photography covering a facet of emotions and moody masterpieces of black models and visuals.
NYC conceptual photographer Robert Albion Zeigler owner of Albion Productions captured the final night standing of a prodigious, 20-foot, LED amped, public structure last night. The experimental contemporary art was constructed by Chilean artist & activist Sebastian Errazuriz, and also his team. The architecture featured a livestream of our planet with the help of NASA’s Satellite in the cosmos.
This shoot included a series of photos that captured the beautiful Laura Jimenez in a Goth-esque session on the roof top in NYC. In one of the shots, fashion model Laura Jimenez can be seen in a stretched forward posture that accentuates the eye popping 'latex' pants in the frame. Immediately when initially seeing the photo you get strong Trinity vibes from the 90's & 2000's Blockbuster Trilogy 'The Matrix' played by the amazing Carrie-Ann Moss.
Drake, Don Toliver and Yebba’s “Cold Shoulder” has arrived on Drake’s official YouTube channel, giving the HABIBTI (FOMO) collaboration its own standalone video release. The October 6 upload follows the song’s arrival on streaming and brings its relationship drama back into focus.