Art and Photography for a New Year

The theme of this end-of-year art and photography edition is “The Divine Comedy,” after Dante Alighieri’s epic poem written in the first years of the 14th century. Its three sections are titled Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. As Dante is led on a tour of the nine circles of hell by the ghost of the poet Virgil, the spirit tells him (in John Ciardi’s translation), “Your soul is sunken in that cowardice/ that bears down many men, turning their course/ and resolution by imagined perils,/ as his own shadow turns the frightened horse.” Later, with his eyes opened, Dante responds, “O sun which clears all mists from troubled sight,/ such joy attends your rising that I feel/ as grateful to the dark as to the light.”

We are grateful to the 15 artists and photographers who have reflected on paradise, purgatory, and hell for these pages and helped us create a New Year’s message to the Independent’s readers. We send you our heartfelt wishes for sunshine, courage, and joy. —The editors.

Inferno by Felipe Ortiz