The Pinhegg

The Pinhegg - an egg pinhole camera by Francesco Capponi.

Works by Terry Turrell

Works by Terry Turrell at Garde Rail Gallery in Seattle, WA. "...Terry Turrell uses unconventional, often recycled materials embodying beautiful yet rugged characteristics, true to his Northwest roots. Drawn to art his entire life, Turrell’s innate ability to transform the ordinary or overlooked is as unique as his style. Working intuitively, Turrell creates work that is both innocent and confrontational. His work can easily be defined as the perfect imperfect."

Home Movie from the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Collection, ca. 1927

Home Movie from the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Collection, ca. 1927. "...A home movie (originally captured on 16mm film) taken by Julian Stein of Gertrude Stein's oldest brother Michael Stein's home, designed by Le Corbusier, in Garches, France followed by scenes of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas at the Hotel Pernollet in Belley, France."

Drinking Of England

Lens Culture... Drinking Of England - photographs and text by Peter Dench. "...The English have turned drinking into a national obsession, nearly an art form. A few national days of significance is far too limiting to the imaginative English imbiber, and hundreds of excuses have been found to indulge in a bender. The English are drinking younger, longer, faster and more cheaply than ever before. Binge drinking followed by public order problems are becoming increasingly common in towns and cities." More... Works by Peter Dench at his personal site.

Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Helldriver

Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Helldriver at Sushi Typhoon. "...An alien-spawned, mysterious mist blankets the northern half of Japan, transforming those who inhale it into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies hell-bent on devouring the surviving human population."

Photographs by Stanko Abadžić

Photographs by Stanko Abadžić at VERVE Gallery of Photography. "...Stanko Abadžić was born in 1952 in Vukovar, Croatia. When he was 15, his father gave him a camera that Abadžić taught himself to use. He also joined a photography club, studied photography books, and attended photographic exhibitions. After marrying, he worked as a reporter and photojournalist to support his family.
When the Croatian War of Independence broke out in 1991, Abadžić left everything and fled with his family to Germany for what he hoped would be a brief stay. After four difficult years, during which he took few photographs, they were denied German citizenship and forced to leave. After moving to Prague, Abadžić experienced a rebirth and began exploring the city with a medium-format camera. At this point in 1995, he began to develop his visual eye in earnest." More... Works by Stanko Abadžić at his personal site.

Identity

X-Ray Spex...Identity (1978, EMI International INT 563 .mp3 audio 02:23). RIP: Poly Styrene.

Kazuyasu Matsui Gallery

Japan Exposures... Kazuyasu Matsui Gallery. "...Every day, in the area of the small town in the mountains where I live, I take photographs while going about my job as a milkman. On my days off, I head deeper into the mountains or to the sea, camping or sleeping in my car, and taking photos. When I’m shooting, it often feels like those days when I was in grade school, and enjoying summer vacation just playing out in nature. “If only every day could be like summer vacation,” I think to myself. Shooting photographs gives me that kind of feeling, and I end up choosing photographs that show more than I have aimed for."

Animated Anatomies: The Human Body in Anatomical Texts from the 16th to 21st Centuries

Animated Anatomies: The Human Body in Anatomical Texts from the 16th to 21st Centuries at Duke University Library. "...Animated Anatomies explores the visually stunning and technically complex genre of printed texts and illustrations known as anatomical flap books. These publications invite the viewer to participate in virtual autopsies, through the process of unfolding their movable leaves, simulating the act of human dissection. This exhibit traces the flap book genre beginning with early examples from the sixteenth century, to the colorful 'golden age' of complex flaps of the nineteenth century, and finally to the common children's pop-up anatomy books of today."

Christian Marclay: Guitar Drag

Christian Marclay: Guitar Drag (2000, NEON 002 12'' Clear vinyl, One-sided 14 min. Soundtrack from the video Guitar Drag, 2000. Recorded in San Antonio Texas, on 18th November 1999) at UbuWeb Sound. "...Guitar Drag by Christian Marclay is now being released on Neon Records. The record is actually the sound track for Marclay's video with the same title that was shown first at London's Hayward Gallery sound art exhibition 'Sonic Boom' in 2000. The piece as well as Marclay has become an icon in sound art circles, and although the video can only be seen in exhibitions as an installation, it is widely known. The full 14 minutes sound track is released on a beautiful 12'' clear vinyl record packaged in a sleeve with stills from the video.
Filmed in San Antonio Texas, it shows an amplified Fender Stratocaster guitar attached to a rope being pulled behind a pick-up truck. As the guitar drags across the road it produces a range of sounds from the bumping and the friction against the varied surfaces. A fantastic visual piece, but also an amazing sound piece, that stands just as well alone, and in some ways just as visual! From the first sounds of duct-tape being ripped, the familiar sound of someone gently slamming the strings of the guitar, to the sounds of an engine starting and then slowly the beginning of a sound that is hollow and at the same time human, and that takes us through the deepest roarings to high pitch screams until the very end when it all slows down and stops, unwillingly it seems. Knowing the story behind the work or not, the sound itself triggers your imagination, leaving your soul no peace. For even if this could be seen, or heard, solely as a beautiful noisy sound piece, there is too much to the idea behind Guitar Drag, for it to not leave you restless and thoughtful."

Rosendo Pita

Rosendo Pita at Barbara Archer Gallery. "...Born in Union de Reyes, Cuba in 1931, Rosendo Pita was the epitome of a gentleman: kind, generous, blended with just the right amount of wit. Pita fled Cuba in 1962, spending a short time in Spain before immigrating to New York City where he spent the rest of his life.
Pita’s home, the one he shared with Peter Cristopher — his companion of 37 years, was a truly unique environment. Every inch of their apartment was covered in art he made, found or collected. These objects range from the rare and precious to those found in the street or in a 5¢-and-10¢ store. Everything was combined; and in his eyes everything was precious."

Ansel Adams: Gems of New Mexico

Ansel Adams: Gems of New Mexico From the David H. Arrington Collection of Ansel Adams at Andrew Smith Gallery. "...Gems From New Mexico includes classic photographs as well as seldom seen prints that demonstrate Adams's full range of vision from early soft-focused prints to crisp, dramatic expressions from his later years. The sixteen masterworks on exhibit were photographed in New Mexico from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. On view is the very first print ever made of the legendary 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico' 1941. Also displayed are some of Adams's studies of New Mexico churches and spectacular, lesser-known landscapes taken at Ghost Ranch and Penasco."

Nan Goldin: Variety

Nan Goldin: Variety at Gallery Guy Bärtschi in Geneva.

Fred Stonehouse: Marsh Baby

Fred Stonehouse: Marsh Baby at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, IL.

Carleton Watkins, Glass Stereographs of Col. John C. Frémont's Mariposa Estate, 1860-1861

Carleton Watkins, Glass Stereographs of Col. John C. Frémont's Mariposa Estate, 1860-1861 at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. "...Among the earliest outdoor photographs taken by San Francisco photographer Carleton E. Watkins, these images document the Mariposa estate of Col. John C. Frémont.
Watkins was born in Oneonta, New York, in 1829. The youngest of five children of a Scots innkeeper, he became a childhood friend of Collis P. Huntington. During the California Gold Rush, the men travelled together to California, where Huntington later built a railroad empire. Watkins' introduction to photography remains obscure, but by the early 1860s, he had established his own photographic studio in San Francisco. He soon won international acclaim for his images of the Yosemite Valley. Watkins remained an active photographer until the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed his studio and his negatives. He passed away in 1916."

When I Was Young

When I Was Young at Morrison Hotel Gallery.

Forbrydelsen

Been watching The Killing on AMC of late. Here's a preview of episode 1 of Forbrydelsen (Flash Video 03:19) - the Danish crime series The Killing is 'Based on.'

Symphony of Moments

Symphony of Moments - Photographs by Lauren Rosenbaum at Soulcatcher Studio. "...Lauren Rosenbaum (b. 1970) is first and foremost the mother of three beautiful girls. While she always loved photography and grew up with two artistic parents, her vision and unique take on imagery came from her children. It grew out of her joy in capturing little moments with them, and the challenge of refining raw images into something unusual and beautiful. Her goal isn't to take pictures of her children but to capture images of childhood itself.
Many of Rosenbaum's images hearken back to the pictorialist imagery found in Alfred Steiglitz's famous turn of the century publication Camera Work. Her images have been featured in such prestigious publications as American Photo and Nikon World."

Tseng Kwong Chi

Tseng Kwong Chi. "...My mirrored glasses give the picture a neutral impact and a surrealistic quality I am looking for. I am an inquisitive traveler, a witness of my time, and an ambiguous ambassador."

Tseng Kwong Chi
1950-1990

Neo-Malthusianism: Birth Control in the Netherlands

Neo-Malthusianism: Birth Control in the Netherlands. "...This is a digital exhibition on the introduction of birth control in the Netherlands between 1870 and 1940, and the accompanying debate. The leading part is taken by the Nieuw-Malthusiaanse Bond (Neo-Malthusianism League), whose archives are housed in the IISG. How this Dutch organization for birth control came by its name is explained in the first section of the exhibition. The following sections highlight Dutch pioneers of birth control, among them Aletta Jacobs and Johannes Rutgers. The opinions of both advocates and opponents of birth control and contraception are presented in digitized book chapters, newspapers, letters, pamphlets, posters, newspaper cuttings, and booklets. The exhibition features a collection of information booklets dating from around 1900, describing and depicting condoms, pessaries, and other contraceptives. These and other booklets, some of which are very rare and fragile, are fully digitized and can be viewed online, along with a few issues of Het Gelukkig Huisgezin (The Happy Family) and Verstandig Ouderschap (Wise Parenthood), the official house organs of the Nieuw-Malthusiaanse Bond."

Wisconsin In The Civil War

Wisconsin In The Civil War at the WHS. "...The Civil War (1861-1865) was one of the bloodiest and most tragic, with over 600,000 soldiers killed. During its four long years, more than 90,000 Wisconsin soldiers fought for the Union cause.
To mark its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), we created 'Wisconsin in the Civil War,' a digital collection containing more than 16,000 original documents. The collection provides ready access to dozens of diaries, regimental histories and book-length memoirs, thousands of soldiers letters, hundreds of newspaper articles, and more than 1,000 photographs, maps and other images.
The collection goes beyond basic facts about Wisconsin military units. It offers personal, in-depth, and moving portraits of Wisconsin soldiers in war."

Made in Mississippi: Black Folk Art and Crafts

Made in Mississippi: Black Folk Art and Crafts - a film by Bill Ferris (1975, 18 minutes, Color). "...Made in Mississippi is a 16mm documentary based on fieldwork that William Ferris conducted with African American folk artists throughout Mississippi. Footage includes Richard Foster at the 'dog trot' house he grew up in, basket maker Leon 'Peck' Clark, quilter Amanda Gordon, floral gardener Esther Criss, cane fife maker Otha Turner, painter and cane maker Lester Willis, and sculptor James 'Son' Thomas. The artists discuss their informal training, artistic motivation and vision, and the value they attach to their art while working on their crafts."

Nan Goldin: In My Life

Nan Goldin: In My Life (1997) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...This program features Nan Goldin’s celebrated 1996 mid-career photography retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Goldin’s exhibition filled an entire floor at the Whitney Museum with pictures that chronicle her involvement and fascination with the alternative, "downtown" culture of New York City, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, etc. Culled from a period that spans more than 25 years of taking pictures, Goldin’s desire to make a visual diary of her friends and lovers, as well as her own life, makes for a moving, highly charged, visual experience."

Amy and Koshiro

My daughter Amy and her youngest brother Koshiro. Love the sunglasses.

Wastelands - photographs by Dan Dubowitz

Lens Culture... Wastelands - photographs by Dan Dubowitz. "...Dan Dubowitz loves to travel the world in search of abandoned, decaying buildings, which are usually gasping their last breath before being demolished to make way for something new — or merely rotting away. He finds beauty in many of these spaces, and he documents them lovingly with his medium-format camera." More... Works by Dan Dubowitz at his personal site.

Geoffroy Tory - Graphiste avant la lettre

Geoffroy Tory - Graphiste avant la lettre at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. "...Personnalité incontournable de l'univers du livre à la Renaissance, Geoffroy Tory est à la fois un précurseur des règles et usages de la langue française, un éditeur humaniste et un artiste de talent. Soutenu par François Ier, il est le premier à porter le titre d'imprimeur du roi. Visite guidée, livres à feuilleter et parcours pour les enfants accompagnent l'exposition que lui consacrent la BnF et le musée national de la Renaissance à Écouen." (fr)

Photographs by Jos Tontlinger

Photographs by Jos Tontlinger at LaGalerie.be. "...Je suis né en 1959. Je vis et travailles à Bruxelles depuis 1980. Photographe de formation, je suis diplômé de l'ICADI à Liège et passa par le « 75 » à Bruxelles. J’ai travaillé durant une quinzaine d’années dans le domaine de la production audiovisuelle. Ensuite je prends un tournant radical dans ma vie et me forme comme psychanalyste ; activité que j’exerce encore aujourd’hui. Depuis 2009 je reviens à la photographie. La psychanalyse a une influence manifeste sur mon travail photographique, tandis que l’inverse est moins certain. De nombreuses jonctions s'y opèrent cependant et traitent de la condition et de la nature humaine dans toutes ses dimensions et nuances." (be) More at Jos Tontlinger Photographie.

Food For Thought - A Group Exhibition

Food For Thought - A Group Exhibition at Robert Mann Gallery. "...Including works by a wide range of twentieth and twenty-first century artists, Food for Thought: A Group Exhibition surveys a range of photographs that are testament to our insatiable appetite for feasting and photography. The exhibition will include images with food as a common thread ranging from classical still lives to commercial commissions advertising their wares to surreal assemblages. What unites these very disparate registers of photographic production is the camera's seductive power to enliven the objects before it's lens, or conversely, for the objects to appeal themselves to the camera's powers. Amidst well-known masters of the genre such as Irving Penn and Paul Outerbridge, photographers such as Ansel Adams best known for their achievements in other areas line up alongside contemporary artists prepared to push photographs of food to new levels. The comprehensive effect is a feast for the eyes."

Nils Karsten

Nils Karsten at Ubu Gallery in New York. "...an exhibition of approximately 45 works on paper by Nils Karsten, spanning 1998 to 2011. Karsten's labor-intensive style is apparent across all of his output, from his painstakingly reproduced woodblock relief prints – measuring over 30 square feet – to his unsettling and detailed drawings and collages.
Hamburg-born Karsten probes memories of childhood and adolescence to combine iconic images from pop culture, early British and New York punk, revolution (Baader-Meinhof), war (Vietnam) and even alien invasion with surreal and fantastic utopian vistas. The artist approaches these themes in several distinct ways, each influenced by his proximate relationship with the music and social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s." More... Works by Nils Karsten at his personal site.

49

I turn 49 today - halfway to 98!

Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me

Nick Lucas... Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me (1929, Brunswick 4418 .mp3 audio 02:48). From Nick Lucas, The Crooning Troubadour and his Guitar.

The Films of Peggy Ahwesh (1985-2009)

The Films of Peggy Ahwesh (1985-2009) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...Over the last twenty years, Peggy Ahwesh has produced one of the most heterogeneous bodies of work in the field of experimental film and video. A true bricoleur, her tools include narrative and documentary styles, improvised performance and scripted dialogue, synch-sound film, found footage, digital animation, and crude Pixelvision video. Using this range of approaches, she has extended the project initiated by 1960s and '70s American avant-garde film, and has augmented that tradition with an investigation of cultural identity and the role of the subject. Presented here are: From Romance to Ritual (1985), The Deadman (1989), Martina's Playhouse (1989), Nocturne (1998), She Puppet (2001), The Third Body (2007), Beirut Outtakes (2007), Bethlehem (2009)."

Rare Taliesin I and II Photographic Proofs Acquired

Rare Taliesin I and II Photographic Proofs Acquired at the WHS. "...An exceptional collection of early photographic proofs of Taliesin, architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin home and studio outside of Spring Green, provides a rare glimpse of the structure in its earliest incarnations. Wright redesigned and rebuilt Taliesin numerous times during his lifetime. These changes, whether a result of fire or an outgrowth of Wright's ever-evolving philosophy about domestic architecture, often went undocumented photographically — especially the earliest iterations of the building, Taliesin I (1911-1914) and Taliesin II (1915-1925). These photographs document the celebrated structure from late 1911 to circa 1924."

Incidentes melodicos del mundo irracional

Incidentes melodicos del mundo irracional by Juan de la Cabada, illustrations by Leopoldo Méndez (1944) at Graphic Witness.

Tony Cox: Incense

Tony Cox: Incense at Fuse Gallery. "...The sense of smell is closely linked to memory, affecting people’s ability to recall past events and experiences. Artist Tony Cox shares a selection of his black and white photographs from the mid 90s to early 2000s when he was living between California and New York. He explains, 'sense was a big thing then – the smell of eucalyptus trees, weed, nag champa, the stench of Canal St, the smudging of sage..' Incense is both the literal smell that can trigger memory, but also something that disappears and can’t be grasped, like the memories Cox captures in his photographs. Most of Cox’s images come from his eighty-eight rolls of 35mm film that were stored for over ten years before being processed."

Lorenzo Castore

Lorenzo Castore at Agence VU.

ANPO Art X War

Trailer (Flash Video 02:18) for ANPO Art X War - A film by Linda Hoaglund.

Max Kozloff: New York Means Business, Photographs 1977-1984

Max Kozloff: New York Means Business, Photographs 1977-1984 at Higher Pictures. "...Photographs have been known to age well, after years pass. In 1979, I took a picture of a Third Avenue pawnshop in whose window the subject of time itself was displayed. It exhibited hundreds of second hand, windup watches, accompanied by decorative price tags. Previous owners were of course not mentioned and the shop is probably gone. Wandering Manhattan's streets, one could find many similar windows, loaded with toys and old clothes, drapes, zippers, or twines. They represented holdouts for small trades swamped along newly gentrified and corporate avenues. 'New York Means Business' is a pertinent title for this body of early work, involved with consumerism, but also a sardonic take because the retail described was in bad straits. What at first looked like inconsequent still lives had changed into little theaters of disused or cast off wares, begging for an afterlife. I wanted to do justice to them by means of color, which for me is tenderness. Later I turned, and still turn, to photograph my fellow creatures passing by."

Salomè

Salomè (1910, directed by Ugo Falena) at Europa Film Treasures. "...In honour of her father-in-law Herod, the young Salome dances the dance of the seven veils. Charmed, he offers her the reward of her choice. Salome demands the head of John the Baptist, who has just rejected her. This will be delivered to her on a tray. This silent film is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s play, itself inspired by the biblical event."

Charles Moore: Civil Rights and Beyond

Charles Moore: Civil Rights and Beyond at Stephen Kasher Gallery. "...Moore, the son of a Baptist preacher and car salesman, was born in Hackleburg, Alabama, not far from the birthplace of Helen Keller. In 1958, at 27 years old, as a photographer for the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama, Moore was on hand to photograph the arrest of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. by two policemen. His photos of the event were distributed nationwide by the Associated Press, and one was published in Life magazine. This photo pushed the regional story into a national debate. It also launched Moore’s long, historic career producing images of the civil rights movement for a nation that would be 'shocked and shaken in their conscience' by the images Moore put in their hands."

Works by Cameron Gray

Cameron Gray... Organic Pork (2007, Oil on canvas on wood). From Works by Cameron Gray.