What Photos Teach

My relationship with photos is now the most clinical it's ever been. I rarely say 'regular' stuff now like, "where was this taken?," "Who's this in it?," "Where were you when this was taken?" I've lost interest in asking information-finding questions of this nature. And it's fine. I reckon we all graduate to that next level, at some point. I learn a lot of the business of photography on a daily basis. I've come to appreciate how difficult a medium it is and how hard its practitioners have to work for their work to reach as a final point as it needs to before showing.

I tend to say more and more things like, "the chiaro/scurro conflict is strong in this one" or "I'm not sure about the sepia tones in this one," and so forth.

Last night I apparently was in a mood. In my usual way I contradicted the statement by resorting to an oldie but goodie, "No, I'm not! What?!"
"You look like you're in a mood. Like here. He-he-he."

And then I smiled. Because I was shown a photograph of mine that was taken when I was three. I don't know which box it was taken out of but I reckon it was a box.

Apparently, I was mad at something that day. I was playing outside but my parents summoned me for family photos which, of course, I resented. Who wants to experience an interrupted game? Not me, that's for sure. When my play time is messed with, I throw fits. I threw a fit. For family photos, one does one thing as a rule of thumb: One smiles.
Yes, ok, consider this picture.
The quality is not good as it was not scanned right but I wanted to highlight the facial features. One can't hide emotion from the camera.
"Smile, sweetie, smile for the camera," Say the parents.
Apparently, I said, "No! Don't feel like it."
"Smile just for a second."
"No."
"Smile and you'll get gelato."
"No!!"
Ok, insert something akin to, "just take the friggin' picture." And it was taken. The face I picked for the picture corresponded with the emotion I was feeling: I was ticked off that I was taken away from the playground.

And I wasn't in a mood anymore. All because of being shown a picture of me when I was three, being in a mood over being removed from the playground against my will. Funny how a photograph can contain so much.

Young Skaters in Uganda

Simply beautiful photographs of young people skating in Uganda. More here.

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Oxfords of the '09

Based on my observations this year on the text of fashion, I've noticed that the Oxford shoe seems to serve as a 'fusing' item, i.e., one that signifies purposeful walk and simple quotidianity. I posted earlier about my Frye Oxfords and I was pleased to see this photograph on the Sartorialist page. I find the Oxfords to be a good representative of the current urban vibe. Sartorialist seems to concur.
So, the tip of the hat today goes to Sartorialist for the photo of the day.

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The art of Mykola Syadristy

Mykola Syadristy is an amazing artist. He's also amazingly little known.
Check out his work here. Fabulous stuff!

Picture info:

The least size of the Coca – Cola bottle in the world. The hight of it is 1,65 mm. The lenght of the logo under the bottle is 0,7 mm. Made of gold.
The size is enlarged.

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Lillian Bassman

The Times has an excellent piece today on one of my favorite photographers, Lillian Bassman.

I highly recommend.

You may read it here.

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Noteworthy Photo

I think I like Bono in eyeliner and foundation.
You?

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A Favorite Photo

And this is one of my most favorites.
Confession: the art of photography is almost as important and relevant to me as literature and music. Indeed. And while a photographer I am not, I have learned well to appreciate. By request, I will be regularly posting some of my all-time favorite photos. Some of the pictures come from publications and others from my photographer friends and my own iPhoto collections.
This one is of John Lennon and his son, Sean. The chiaro/scurro contrast is incredible here.
graph per rs

What's Your Blog About?

Ok, this, this entertained me. It might also be one of those pictures that's worth, well, a bunch of words.
One of the HetPer readers did this with the content of this blog and this is what the picture yielded.

More for Dylan Fans

This, I'm looking forward to owning.
A bit from the NY Times says:
"Mr. Dylan, then in his 20s, arrived in Hollywood, examined the photographs and wrote his own prose poems to accompany them.

No one involved in the book can recall exactly when Mr. Dylan wrote the poems, which are by turns sparse, playful, witty and sarcastic. But the words faintly recall “Tarantula,” Mr. Dylan’s book of prose poems (or “Dadaist novel,” as some would call it) that was written in 1966, and they bear a strong resemblance to the “11 Outlined Epitaphs” in the liner notes of “The Times They Are A-Changin,” his 1964 album.

As the “11 Outlined Epitaphs” begin:

“I end up then

in the early evenin’

blindly punchin’ at the blind

breathin’ heavy

stutterin’

an’ blowin’ up

where t’ go?

what is it that’s exactly wrong?"
graph per ny times

Beautiful City Photos

The past few years I've developed an active interest in urban photography. Photographs that especially tackle my fancy are those that document various things Americana from the '50's and '60's. Hence, I found the following collection absolutely breath-taking. See them in full here.
But a favorite would have to be Chicago's lake view:
Hat tip to MR for the pointer. Via the Atlantic
graph per cushman photography