May 31, 2009 • 1:25 pm 0
Interesting interview with Richard Mosse and more photos from his Iraq project BREACH on BLDG|BLOG, one of the blogs that made it into my “favorites folder” a long long time ago. Well worth a visit!
Filed under: Documentary, History, Photography, Travel , abandoned, architecture, BREACH, Iraq, palaces, Photography, Saddam Hussein, Travel
• 12:08 pm 0
It’s not really a secret that I am a big fan of Hunter S. Thompson, especially the earlier stuff, roughly up to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72. The later stuff…well, it’s okay, but after that he was…how should I put this…past his prime. However, I really enjoyed reading the three volumes of letters that have been published over the last few years and only a few days ago I finally got around to watch GONZO: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, which I can highly recommend. It has a ton of original footage, interviews with Ralph Steadman, HST’s ex-wifes, and other fellow travelers. And if you can stand Johnny Depp reading some HST while waving a six-shooter around (I wonder whose idea that was…) – more power to you.
Filed under: Art and Stuff, Books, Documentary , 1970s, Documentary, Hunter S. Thompson, journalism, writing
April 27, 2009 • 5:11 pm 0
It’s a blistering 75ºF outside and today we talk about death. Isn’t it funny sometimes how all of a sudden one topic comes to the forefront of your day? The first thing I found was this blog that had been started in conjuction with an exhibition of the Justice and Police Department Archives and the Historic Houses Trust. Sadly, it’s not very well maintained, but there are some haunting, surreal vintage crime scene photos on it {NSFW & not for the squeamish). You could take one picture and write an entire book about what happened.
The really amazing thing, however, are the vintage mugshots. They are intense! There are some more pictures and background info on TrAcEy’s blog. Apparently, those mugshots were taken by the New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. There are approximately 2500 of them and you can see a handful of them on the Historic Houses Trust’s searchable website. What strikes me about those portraits is how sharp and clear they are.
To round this up, we have Slate reviewing a book called Dissection, which is essentially a collection of, well, vintage photographs from the dissection room. Here’s a snip from the review:
This lost genre of photographs, Edmonson explains, dates roughly from 1880 to 1930. The images, which were taken at medical schools across the country, generally display groups of student dissectors posing with their cadavers. At times, the students—who are mostly male but occasionally female—are actively dissecting. Not surprisingly, many of the cadavers look less like human beings than pieces of meat. But in other images, especially those involving the skeletons that students used to help identify the bones and other landmarks in their cadavers, the dead are in unnatural positions, either by themselves or with students. A cadaver smokes a pipe; skeletons play cards; skeletons hug their dissectors; skeletons are even propped up to appear as though they are dissecting sleeping students.
Posted via web from Bearded Dave
UPDATE: Jessica Palmer wrote a great post on this topic on :bioephemera:, which is a blog I can only highly recommend for all you science aficionados out there. Great writing on art, anatomy, and science.
Filed under: Bizarre-O-Rama, Books, Documentary, History, Photography, Vintage Stuff , book, crime, death, dissection, intense, mugshots, Photography, vintage
October 8, 2008 • 10:29 am 0
Hello? Did I miss something? Last time I looked it was summer. Hot. Now, all of a sudden I’m freezing my ass off. Whatever happened to fall? I always thought Global Warming would do just that: warm stuff up! Well anyway…
The Big Picture is an amazing website and its series of the Earth from Above photos, which are stunningly beautiful, the website is worth checking out not only for landscape photography, but also high-quality photojournalism. Take for example the excerpt of a longer series from James Nachtwey, recent winner of the TED Prize last year (see Boing Boing post and Nachtwey’s Wish), on XDR-TB. Now, XCR-TB ranks somewhat high in the lameness-scale, because it is “eXtremely Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis,” meaning that this one is a keeper. Watch the video and get involved.
On other fronts, being a creature of habit, the fact that the Presidential Debate took place yesterday and NOT tomorrow completely passed my radar. I only caught the last few minutes. However, I do have piece of advice – Obama a domestic terrorist? Give me a fucking break. This recent comment by Keith Olbermann that I posted on my tumblr-blog hits the nail on the head. Kind of. You know, I don’t understand what’s wrong with the Democrats. This is first class mud served on a silver platter, so why the hell do you not grab a handful (or ten) and start slinging?! This is not the time to chuckle – take off the gloves and hit back! I mean, really.
Filed under: Documentary, News & Culture Flash, Photography, Science , Photography, Palin, photojournalism, xdr-tb, tuberculosis, freezing, democrats, olbermann, james nachtwey, ted prize
September 27, 2008 • 1:14 pm 0
The last few days have been quite stressful. I’m working towards my deadline, which is, actually, today, and I’m in the final stages of revising and hoping and praying that the print shop will accommodate my wishes for quick service. Passed yesterday and the stuff is on the way to the Old World as we speak! Otherwise, I might go postal on them. Seriously. And to top things off, the squirrels have moved into the attic again and I hear them crawling and clawing through the wall next to me. And it’s raining. And by this I mean RAINING! We are talking planetary amounts of water here, my friends.
Even though I can’t vote, I’m nevertheless extremely freaked out by the Republican party. Right now I’m following every snippet of the Palin-Fiasco with the same glee and wonder as I did the Paris-Hilton-thing last year. (Speaking of Paris Hilton – what has she been up to, recently?) I mean, seriously, this is a joke, right? A practical joke. A bad one? Definitely. Yesterday evening Two days ago I had nothing better to do than watch the new Palin interview on CBS (see here. Okay, okay, to alleviate a horror, I’ll throw a little Wanda Sykes into the mix to make you laugh again). I love the stuff about Alaska’s border with Russia. I just love it.
Oh, and I should also mention that I’m totally, completely, in love with Rososo, an extremely toned down feedreader that, as we speak, becomes my new start-up page. Just sayin’.
Filed under: Documentary, Grumpy German, News & Culture Flash , feedreader, Palin, Palin Interview, Paris Hilton, rain, rososo
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