Gary Winogrand Ruined My Trip to the Zoo

The visit itself was great. Thankfully the weather was cold, wet and awful and the zoo was deserted. This made for a fun and breezy traipse through the exhibits and allowed for some quality mutual staring time with the animals. It was only later when going through my snaps that I realized the burden of the sticky baggage I was carrying and the absurdly high bar that had been erected.









"Winogrand's zoo, even if true, is a grotesquery. It is a surreal Disneyland where unlikely human beings and jaded careerist animals stare at each other through bars, exhibiting bad manners and a mutual failure to recognize their own ludicrous predicaments." --John Szarkowski







The above 5 pictures are by Gary Winogrand and were published in his book The Animals.

No Heat

We lost the heat in my home 3 days ago. Vigorous attempts have been made to return things to normal. Which would be great, because fall is here and it's damn cold at 6 in the morning.

Roid Rage

Polaroid Is Back! Is this a good thing or is it analogous to bringing back those old push propelled rotary lawn mowers?

"The one-step Polaroid camera we all know and love is also making a comeback.

The announcement from Polaroid comes days after the last batch of film officially expired on October 9th.

Black-and-white Polaroid film will be available in early 2010 with color coming later in the year..."

From Silicon Alley Insider

30 Dumb Inventions

"Ha! hold my Brain; be still my beating Heart."

William Mountfort, Zelmane, 1705




Beating Breasts, 1963. A pair of artificial breasts with a built-in heartbeat. An invention from Japan intended as a sleeping aid for very young children. More at life.com Photo: Keystone/Getty Images
Mar 16, 1963



T.V. Glasses, 1963
Inventor Hugo Gernsback with his T.V. Glasses.
Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
jan 01, 1963



External Turkey Roaster, 1966
Photo: Reg Speller/Getty Images
Jan 26, 1966

Photograph On the Moon

"This is the Duke family. They are probably in their garden, sitting on a bench. They look so happy. And they should be, because Charles Moss Duke was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972. He landed with mission commander John W. Young at the Descartes Highlands, which is what makes this photo so special: It's still there, untouched, unperturbed, exactly in the same position as he left it before taking this snapshot with his Hasselblad 70mm film camera." More at Gizmodo

What The Hell Is Columbus Day Anyway?

Really. I know that it's today. I imagine it's meant to commemorate the arrival of Columbus to the "New World." ?



Italianate Town House with Cast-Iron Balcony, Knights of Columbus Building, Mobile, Alabama?, Walker Evans, 1935



Columbus Circle, Berenice Abbott, 1936



Statue of Columbus, Central Park, NY

The Zen of Penn

Irving Penn passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Obituaries were swiftly posted on the front pages of almost every major news web site and newspaper. Andy Grundberg of the New York Times accurately characterized Penn's work by noting that Penn's pictures were made with "compositional clarity and economy." Penn was one of only a small clutch of photographers who's name and images are recognized by the larger public. Like Richard Avedon, and a few others before him, he owed this broad noteriety to an unusual ability to make pictures that succeeded in all of the various realms and arenas of the photography world. No easy feat. I suspect that, unlike many contemporary photographers, this was not a particular goal or interest of his. Based on his abundant productivity it seems obvious that he simply enjoyed making pictures and exploring the myriad of processes, techniques and subject matters that were imaginable.










All of the above pictures are by Irving Penn

Prospecting

A few nuggets scooped up from Prospect Park.

Alfred Stieglitz Was A Photographer of Color

Mrs. Selma Schubart, 1907



Man In Red Sweater, 1907



Portrait of Kitty, 1911



Two Men Playing Chess, 1907



Frank Eugene Drinking Beer, 1907

All of the above Autochromes by Alfed Stieglitz are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I'm Liken Steichen

Sort of. The photographs below are pictorially delicious and undeniably "pretty" but, like a chocolate Bon Bon, come close to being nauseatingly sweet. Their best to consume in small amounts and then only on occasion.



Woods Twilight, 1899



White Cloud, Lake George, 1903



The Flatiron, 1904



Melpomene-Landon Rives, 1904



Alfred Stieglitz and Daughter, 1904

O'Keeffe Reconstructed

I've taken the liberty of reconstructing Georgia O'keeffe from the many bits and parts of her that Alfred Stieglitz photographed. She doesn't look happy about it.

The Black Dahlia Murder

"True crime meets urban legend!"

China Likes "Fine Art" Photography

New York Magazine has a curious little piece on their site describing China's "first-ever museum collection of photography in Guangdong. The contemporary art world has been devouring Chinese photography for years, but only now is that finally being fully acknowledged in China itself." You can read and see more HERE.



Miners at Wumeng Mountain, after work, pit-coal miners bathing, 2003, Geng Yunsheng
Courtesy of: China Institute Gallery



Construction worker on an city overpass, 2002, Liu Yiwei
Courtesy of: China Institute Gallery