A friend of mine recently was explaining his obsession with Factory Records. The label was a Manchester-based independent record label in the influential in the late 70s and 80s and still today. Their roster included some groundbreaking artists: Joy Division, New Order, James, OMD, and Happy Mondays. And not only was the label focused on curating a beautiful, interesting collection of music, but they paid the same amount of detail to the packaging and artwork for each release.
The label not only cataloged its music, but also its artwork and various other items. As someone obsessed with typefaces, album packaging, techno-pop, and music in general I have become very interested in the concept of the label and the albums, artists, and artwork. There was a coffee table printed a few years back documenting the albums. I just ordered it.
This video clip, of Paul Nicklen’s encounter with a giant leopard seal, is sweet and frightening all at once. Mr. Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, tells the story of a 4 day meeting with the huge sea-going mammal. The images are shocking. Seals get that big! He stayed in the water! WTF!?
But the story is sweet too. The seal tries to share a meal, first a live penguin, with the photographer. When he does not partake in the meal she gets restless and brings him a half-dead penguin. Still no. How about a dead penguin? Nope.
Even the most frightening of animals help one another. Just as long as you’re not a poor little penguin.
When I saw this remarkable LIFE photo of a defiant brownstone apartment building, I stopped cold in my scrolling mouse tracks. The photo, which reminded me of this year’s hit Pixar film UP, should be displayed next to the word “gentrification.” Its caption read “Construction in NYC: land being cleared for 20 story building in East 60s — still occupied brownstone is soon to go.” Gothamist asked its readers where exactly this building was located and they came through with an answer. That brownstone was located at 215 East 68th Street. Today a doorman highrise building sits in that spot.
ABC News also posted on their YouTube page the original televised report of Peter Jennings announcing this “astonishing development” from Germany. What’s interesting, Marc Hirsh points out about this video is comparatively how succinct it was compared to today’s non-stop scrolling, 24-hour media coverage.
Three minutes and nineteen seconds, and then ABC News was out. It’s all but certain that the newsroom was in overdrive by this time, but you don’t see it. Jennings simply reported what ABC knew, called on a journalist close to the action to provide details and promised updates as they became available. And then, most shockingly from the modern-day standpoint, he shut up.
The Denver Post has a really powerful photo essay, Ian Fisher : American Soldier, up in honor of Veteran’s Day. The paper followed Mr. Fisher for 27 months, from the time he enlisted in the U.S. Army until the time he came home. It shows how a soldier is made. The images speak for themselves.
When Condé Nast decided to cease publication of Gourmet Magazine my heart sunk a little bit. Though I rarely used a recipe from the book I often times found myself perusing the pages for inspiration. It was a quality magazine.
As the publishing world changes at a drastic pace it is interesting to watch what becomes of print media. For someone who escaped as a child into the pages of magazines, and who still does, it’s a bit saddening to see these guys become extinct.
On the website Last Days of Gourmet Kevin DeMaria wrote “October 5th, 2009 in shock and disbelief, using garbage pails for long exposures, I took these photos of the last days at Gourmet.Although at times it was hard for me to shoot the common places in the offices at Gourmet, I knew I needed to document where I loved working for the last 8 years.”
The images captured will resonate with more than just those who work in print media. They capture the sorrow of many Americans who have lost their jobs.
Our society’s obsession with celebrity gossip has only become magnified and proliferated in the digital age as celebrity photos du jour appear seemingly simultaneously on countless gossip blogs and websites, where publication turnaround times often lap the mainstream gossip periodicals. Moreover, the rapid dissemination of a single photograph within this cultural echo chamber especially within the online landscape raises some questions of ownership for both the photographer and subject. Like pandora’s box, once the photo is published on a single website, it has essentially entered the public space whereby ownership is practically irrelevant. This is just the opinion of one humble blogging pop culture-ologist. Against this backdrop, the celebrity portraits, or what he calls “portroids” taken by Rick DeMint with his polaroid camera appear refreshingly “authentic.” Each single polaroid is signed by the subject as it develops which implies a certain cooperation and complicity by the Famous Person, unlike the paparrazi photographs we’ve all learned to love and hate. In conclusion, where did I come across Rick’s photographs? Via Kanye’s blog, natch.
This entry is apropos of nothing other than that I finally got around to reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which I recently completed. I can’t emphasize how much I enjoyed the fictional novel, but this entry isn’t meant to be a book review. No one wants to read my pedantic explication of this (truly fantastic) novel. This isn’t a spoiler, but I enjoyed the cameo appearance of Salvador Dali in Michael Chabon’s literary tour de force, which perfectly segues into this image I came across on the Internet today. Look at this photograph of the surrealist nonchalantly taking an anteater out for a stroll. No matter how “weird” or “bizarre” or “crazy” your day might be, ask yourself, “Have I seen anyone take their anteater for a walk today?” If your answer is no, then your day has been quite normal and mundane. And oh yeah, go pick up Amazing Adventures and thank me later.
Tom is back with another breathtaking time-lapse video in his landscape series Timescapes. Using high definition equipment, he’s “dedicated to pushing the artistic boundries of timelapse and outdoor cinematography, with a particular emphasis on night timelapse.” His latest was shot in California’s White Mountains and Yosemite. It’s definitely one to watch in full screen. This makes me recall a recent fascinating National Geographic article, “Our Vanishing Night” which bemoans how the progress of human development resulted in pervasive light pollution that has robbed us of our night sky without some consequences as a result.
Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it’s not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and radically alters the light levels—and light rhythms—to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life—migration, reproduction, feeding—is affected.
The quality is pretty gritty, but I find them interesting, not the least because they are glimpses of these people without their artistic personas showing. Just another traveler submitting to the demands of the state.
We all must submit if we wish to travel to Cabo for spring break. Kidding.
