A documentary publication, grounded in a living archive.

The Artefakt is the publication arm of the Artefakt Foundation — a non-profit dedicated to preserving documentary photography and using it as the basis for substantive long-form work. We publish essays, films, dialogue, and archive selections drawn from the work of photographer Jon Lowenstein and from a small community of practitioners we read carefully.

We are not a news outlet. We are not an aggregator. We are a workshop with an archive attached.

What we publish

Essays — long-form criticism and reportage, often built outward from a single image or a small set of images. Generally 1500–6000 words. Frequency: we publish when the work is ready.

Film — short and feature documentary work made by Jon Lowenstein and the Artefakt Foundation, plus invited collaborations. Watch in-house at theartefakt.org/film.

Dialogue — extended conversations between practitioners and, in select cases, between a practitioner and a machine. The conversations attempt to think rather than perform.

Archive — public selections from a working archive of documentary photographs. Each photograph carries its date, location, and the essays that cite it. Browse at theartefakt.org/archive.

Where we are

The Artefakt is published from Calgary (Treaty 7 Territory) and Chicago, the two cities Jon Lowenstein has long worked between.

Independence

The Artefakt is supported by individual readers, by occasional brand commissions on specific projects (acknowledged in-line), and by the Artefakt Foundation. We do not run display advertising. We do not sell subscriber data. We do not use tracking pixels in dispatches.

If you want to support the work, the most useful thing you can do is subscribe to dispatches. The most generous thing you can do is commission a series.

Editorial team

Jon Lowenstein — Founder and lead photographer. Three-decade documentary practice across the Americas, with sustained projects on the South Side of Chicago, the Darién Gap, and migration through Central America.

The Editors — a rotating editorial collective of writers and photographers convened by the Foundation for specific issues.

Contact

For pitches, licensing, press, partnerships, and commissions: contact us.