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Picture Cycle
With her debut collection Beauty Talk & Monsters (2007), Masha Tupitsyn established a new genre of hybrid writing that melds film criticism, philosophy, and autobiography. Picture Cycle continues Tupitsyn's multigenre investigation of the personal and cultural annals of memory, identity, and spectatorship, both on and off the screen. Composed over a ten-year period, Picture Cycle is a pioneering collection whose sharp and knowing vignette-like essays form a critical autobiography of the daily images in our lives. Deftly covering a range of theoretical and cinematic frameworks, Tupitsyn traces here the quickly vanishing line between onscreen and off-screen, predigital and postdigital. The result is a unique intellectual study of the uncanny formation of our life's biographies through images.
- GenresNonfictionEssaysFilm
300 pages, Hardcover
First published November 19, 2019
8 people are currently reading
513 people want to read
About the author
Masha Tupitsyn
21 books92 followersMASHA TUPITSYN is a writer, critic, and multi-media artist. She is the author of the forthcoming 2-part study, Time Tells, (Hard Wait Press, 2023), Like Someone In Love: An Addendum to Love Dog (Penny-Ante Editions, 2013), Love Dog (Penny-Ante Editions, 2013), LACONIA: 1,200 Tweets on Film (ZerO Books, 2011), Beauty Talk & Monsters, a collection of film-based stories (Semiotext(e) Press, 2007),
Picture Cycle
(Semiotexte/MIT, 2019), and co-editor of the anthology Life As We Show It: Writing on Film (City Lights, 2009).
In 2015, she made the 24-hour film, Love Sounds, an audio-essay and history of love in English-speaking cinema, which concluded an immaterial trilogy. The film was accompanied by a catalogue, published in 2015 by Penny-Ante Editions, and has been exhibited and screened in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Tarot Diaries , 2016, is an audio essay, diary, and mixtape about fate and future in late capitalism.
In 2017, she started her ongoing durational film series, DECADES. So far, she has completed two installments, the 1970s and the 1980s . DECADES composes a history of cinematic sound and score for each 20th century decade. The next installment will be the 1990s.
Her newest films are BULK COLLECTION and the ongoing music series The Musicians .
Her writing on film, feminism, culture, and art has been featured in numerous anthologies, journals, and art catalogues such as Bookforum, Artforum, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, BOMB, LitHub, Fence, Frieze, The New Inquiry, Berfrois, IndieWire, The White Review, Fireflies,The Rumpus, Performa 11, and Pace Gallery. She has taught film, media, literature, and gender studies at The New School, Pratt, and NYU.
Her new series of books, Time Tells, will be published by Hard Wait Press in November, 2022.
Her introduction to Paul Schrader's First Reformed will be published by Archway Editions/Simon & Schuster in 2023.
In 2015, she made the 24-hour film, Love Sounds, an audio-essay and history of love in English-speaking cinema, which concluded an immaterial trilogy. The film was accompanied by a catalogue, published in 2015 by Penny-Ante Editions, and has been exhibited and screened in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Tarot Diaries , 2016, is an audio essay, diary, and mixtape about fate and future in late capitalism.
In 2017, she started her ongoing durational film series, DECADES. So far, she has completed two installments, the 1970s and the 1980s . DECADES composes a history of cinematic sound and score for each 20th century decade. The next installment will be the 1990s.
Her newest films are BULK COLLECTION and the ongoing music series The Musicians .
Her writing on film, feminism, culture, and art has been featured in numerous anthologies, journals, and art catalogues such as Bookforum, Artforum, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, BOMB, LitHub, Fence, Frieze, The New Inquiry, Berfrois, IndieWire, The White Review, Fireflies,The Rumpus, Performa 11, and Pace Gallery. She has taught film, media, literature, and gender studies at The New School, Pratt, and NYU.
Her new series of books, Time Tells, will be published by Hard Wait Press in November, 2022.
Her introduction to Paul Schrader's First Reformed will be published by Archway Editions/Simon & Schuster in 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 19, 2025
“𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦. 𝘖𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵. 𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦.”
Everything I love about logging life into Letterboxd. Most people don’t, but I take cinema seriously. Not because it’s my job but because I love it a lot. It saved me from killing myself, and I think Tupitsyn is aware of this sentiment given her effortless and chic way of weaving in reality with film. A certain prose runs through it all that stitches itself so close to the heart. Ultimately, it engages. Not as memoir or film criticism, but in the way that we should be sharing our own lives and how we engage with art.
Here in Seoul to a sunlit apartment in Scotland, I talked with my friend Katie James where we went on for a good bit of 3 hours, talking of life, talking of art, and this book happened to show itself in our talk multiple times, so much so that she went out to buy it herself.
I met Katie James through booktube and together we’ve hearthed a relationship to something like comradery or kinship. (I’m looking for a word much closer to profound cohesion where art and life exist, but I don’t know if there is a word for that.)
And so I think that’s it. That’s what this book tries to do. Chases after the profound. Relating to all. Katie and I scoff at the people who always say, “Life, or whatever, it’s not that deep.”
Well it is! We’re going to make it so. It's what gives things meaning. It’s what gives life, life.
And here, Tupitsyn gives life to celebrity life, writing about the parasocial before parasocial existed with Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. With a lot of love for Bresson and Lynch. With great mentions of the destruction of the female body as martyr through films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and then some. Her references are all over the place, but you realize that she is a container of so much good that passion runs through the text, and it’s this passion for film that is equivalent to my own.
I wish people loved films like I do.
And I say the same for books too.
But it really is all I breathe and live through.
It’s my song and dance. It’s just, well, me.
And I love it all.
So, I guess in a way, I’m trying to say what I’ve been finding a hard time saying, even after 30 years, is that I love myself.
Maybe love, right now, is a little too strong. But I like myself.
But then comes that line from Lady Bird between the mother and daughter and hell I don’t even want to unpack and go through all of that again, but yeah. I like myself enough to still be here. And I hope the same goes for you.
“𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺. 𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵.”
Everything I love about logging life into Letterboxd. Most people don’t, but I take cinema seriously. Not because it’s my job but because I love it a lot. It saved me from killing myself, and I think Tupitsyn is aware of this sentiment given her effortless and chic way of weaving in reality with film. A certain prose runs through it all that stitches itself so close to the heart. Ultimately, it engages. Not as memoir or film criticism, but in the way that we should be sharing our own lives and how we engage with art.
Here in Seoul to a sunlit apartment in Scotland, I talked with my friend Katie James where we went on for a good bit of 3 hours, talking of life, talking of art, and this book happened to show itself in our talk multiple times, so much so that she went out to buy it herself.
I met Katie James through booktube and together we’ve hearthed a relationship to something like comradery or kinship. (I’m looking for a word much closer to profound cohesion where art and life exist, but I don’t know if there is a word for that.)
And so I think that’s it. That’s what this book tries to do. Chases after the profound. Relating to all. Katie and I scoff at the people who always say, “Life, or whatever, it’s not that deep.”
Well it is! We’re going to make it so. It's what gives things meaning. It’s what gives life, life.
And here, Tupitsyn gives life to celebrity life, writing about the parasocial before parasocial existed with Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. With a lot of love for Bresson and Lynch. With great mentions of the destruction of the female body as martyr through films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and then some. Her references are all over the place, but you realize that she is a container of so much good that passion runs through the text, and it’s this passion for film that is equivalent to my own.
I wish people loved films like I do.
And I say the same for books too.
But it really is all I breathe and live through.
It’s my song and dance. It’s just, well, me.
And I love it all.
So, I guess in a way, I’m trying to say what I’ve been finding a hard time saying, even after 30 years, is that I love myself.
Maybe love, right now, is a little too strong. But I like myself.
But then comes that line from Lady Bird between the mother and daughter and hell I don’t even want to unpack and go through all of that again, but yeah. I like myself enough to still be here. And I hope the same goes for you.
“𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺. 𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵.”
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September 19, 2024brain... expanding - doesnt care about convention or boundaries. fun stuff
Read
February 14, 2021I did not understand most of this, but what I did understand I enjoyed quite a bit
Read
January 25, 2024Split into 3 sections (Famous Tombs, Analog Days, Picture Cycle), the book holds general themes around film, society, the body, art, psychology, as well as the impact that consuming entertainment has on a person.
I found the essays in Famous Tombs (Section 1) to be quite difficult to settle into. Some of the writing felt without aim or direction, while others were focused on a minutia that came across as difficult to pin down. Both of these general complaints provided a similar outcome within the text - a vague direction and point, that forever floated in a repetitive cycle before fading away entirely.
Things improved a lot in Section 2 with the essays grouped under Analog Days. Tupitsyn brought in personal anecdotes, as well as a couple of memoir pieces that stitched together some of the ideas that were floated over earlier on. Her film criticism at the beginning of the book felt clunky and stagnant, whereas the personal provided a more fluid voice and seemed to show the author coming into a flow with her writing.
Essays that make up the final section of the collection benefit from Tupitsyn having now found her feet in the criticisms and ideas that she has around the impact and influence film has over large swathes of society.
I enjoyed the angles from which this book looks at film criticism - we view the art not singularly through its plot (Tupitsyn touches on her disregard for plot in one of the final essays, which I can completely relate to) but more so through the power it has to alter and effect a person, as well as finding that we come to mirror certain characters and scenes that we consume both at a younger age and in the present moment.
Criticism that is both philosophically drenched and completely immaterial to the point of making big asks of the reader to ride along a certain line of thought that the author is looking to explore.
I found the essays in Famous Tombs (Section 1) to be quite difficult to settle into. Some of the writing felt without aim or direction, while others were focused on a minutia that came across as difficult to pin down. Both of these general complaints provided a similar outcome within the text - a vague direction and point, that forever floated in a repetitive cycle before fading away entirely.
Things improved a lot in Section 2 with the essays grouped under Analog Days. Tupitsyn brought in personal anecdotes, as well as a couple of memoir pieces that stitched together some of the ideas that were floated over earlier on. Her film criticism at the beginning of the book felt clunky and stagnant, whereas the personal provided a more fluid voice and seemed to show the author coming into a flow with her writing.
Essays that make up the final section of the collection benefit from Tupitsyn having now found her feet in the criticisms and ideas that she has around the impact and influence film has over large swathes of society.
I enjoyed the angles from which this book looks at film criticism - we view the art not singularly through its plot (Tupitsyn touches on her disregard for plot in one of the final essays, which I can completely relate to) but more so through the power it has to alter and effect a person, as well as finding that we come to mirror certain characters and scenes that we consume both at a younger age and in the present moment.
Criticism that is both philosophically drenched and completely immaterial to the point of making big asks of the reader to ride along a certain line of thought that the author is looking to explore.
July 18, 2023
I love the first and third sections of this book that are often about film-related things. John Cusack, the Shining, gossip, the Devil, Winona & Johnny Depp, etc. The middle section is more poetic and about love/heartbreak...and I don't have time for any of that.
November 29, 2019
No one loves movies like Tupitsyn loves movies.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews