Adapted from an essay I wrote recently:

The Limits of Photography, the current exhibit at MoCP, mostly fails in its promise to negate photography’s reality myth. However, Chris Naka’s recent video piece, I Can’t Feel My Face, truly challenges photography’s relationship with the contemporary audience. Over the course of the video, Naka zooms in on family photos using an iPhone, caressing the screen to alter the image. As his fingers press against the screen, he seems to be reaching for something just beyond tangibility. Even more than a print photo, the screen image is endlessly changeable, fluid. I Can’t Feel My Face is the one piece in the show that attempts to come to terms with new media and is, in that way, exciting. After all, what could be more threatening to photography’s authority than image manipulation at one’s fingertips?