"I’ve compared #wishingpelt to a Trojan Horse because it was accepted gleefully as a gift, a gag, or an opportunity for humor. But within it, this work also carries unforeseen capacities for intimate confidences, shared connections, and critical views of the circulation of images as social activity. Many participants surprised themselves (and Fader) with their secret con- fessions. Others later returned to tell of the delayed personal impact of their hashtagged moment. Spectators of the performance on Instagram had the social networks of the art fair visualized by the inescapable #wishingpelt photographs that crowded their feeds. For both the IRL performance and the shared broadcast image, humor was the entice- ment and the decoy."

-David Getsy

“Queer stories are not only erased by lack of media coverage. Queer erasure happens a second round in the advent of digital technology, and our expectations that all histories are digitised”

"Sean Fader uses two photographic series to bookend a transformative two decades of LGBTQIA history through the lens of digital photography and its role in queer representation."

"In a new exhibition of work at the Denny Dimin gallery in Tribeca, Sean Fader takes a closer look at queer history and representation, homing in on the past two decades. Composed of two bodies of work shown together, the exhibition examines how digital technology has impacted the queer narrative. And although quite different in tone, both series (created in tandem) comment on the idea of archive — who has history prioritized, how are they remembered, and by whom?"

"If the original black mirror, the Claude glass, hid the artist to reveal the idealized subject, then Sean Fader’s 365 Profile Pics is its modern day progeny indeed. Despite comprising some 365 images of the artist’s face, the expansive artwork reveals very little about Fader himself, turning its lens instead onto contemporary culture, image making, and consumption."

"Fader, who’s present at the gallery most days to assist with the auto-portraiture, enacts the sharing and caring of the exhibition’s title: the optimistic desires of his original performance, based admittedly on a quirky kind of eroticism, necessarily requires its distribution online and on the gallery wall (a counterpoint here is the more enclosed intimacy of the late Adrian Howells’s work). I’m not sure the hashtag is an instrument of collective authorship, as much as it is currency for a corporate-minded smart-phone app. But in topping up Prince’s own appropriation of the performance, Fader shapes a dialogue on display value and contemporary strategies of (self)-promotion. His connections between the sentimentality of the wish, the attention of the hashtag, and the creativity of the artist are fertile in their implications, if perhaps naïve in their politics."

"Instead of dwelling on the way that Prince’s work emptied his participatory social media project of all its meaning and context, Fader engineered an appropriation of his own, sending out a press release inviting the public to see his work at Gagosian “in an exhibition organized by Richard Price.” The incident has been instructive, helping him to focus his practice and his interests."

"Signing up on 16 online dating sites and going out on 100 dates in a year might not be something you’d talk to your mother about, but it does provide fodder for an interesting photography project. Sean Fader did exactly that beginning in January 2010 and suddenly found himself enmeshed in a project in which he felt like an 'emotional train wreck.'"

Take a look at this thoughtful takedown article.  

"And where is Sean Fader the artist in “’SUP?” Although he never appears in any of the photos, he is omnipresent. Without even seeing him, you know he’s hot. He has to be to land over 100 hot guys to “make beautiful art” with. (A note to straight readers: Unlike in straight culture, where being rich, famous, or talented can get you laid, in gay male culture, being hot, or at least fulfilling the requirements of a certain type remains a modus operandi.)  And he is. Fader’s artist photo on his website might as well be used in SCRUFF marketing campaigns: Furry, bearded, topless but with shades, Fader embodies the hipster-art otter fantasy."

This piece rejects the idea that the author is dead. Instead, its title, Backdrop for the rebirth of the collective author (“There’s a Whole Lot of Authorship Going On.” - Richard Prince) declares the rise of collective authorship. It’s not about who made what, but about engaging with a larger community.

If you've ever taken your love life to the digital sphere, you're familiar with the stressful, agonizing and self-esteem destroying task that is creating your dating profile.

From choosing accurate yet complimentary photos to summing up your charm, wit and brains in a succinct bio, the challenge at hand is an arduous one. In an exhibition entitled "Sup?", Sean Fader explores the complexities of online representations, mixed desires and the occasional breaches of truth:

What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

If you’ve ever met up with someone you’ve talked to online, you know that reality can often be quite different than expectations. That tricky relationship between online personas and real-life identities was what inspired photographer Sean Fader’s most recent project, Sup?