Posts tagged photography
Clockwise from upper-left: "Midwife/Middle School Science Teacher"; "Owner of Defunct Amusement Park"; "Bar Tender"; "Graphic Designer/Print Shop Owner", from the series "You Are What You Eat," photos by Mark Menjivar, featured in GOOD, 13 May 2009 :: via edible geography
You can tell a lot about people by the contents of their refrigerators. Photographer Mark Menjivar's series of fridge portraits from across Texas (and a few other states) offers food for thought and contemplation, and spurs in me a cleaning impulse I'd forgotten I had.
Nate: 
from Life:Size Book # 001, by Roland Tiangco, 2009 :: via Book Cover Archive
Here's something pleasing from a young Brooklyn artist: "Book # 001 of a series of books which contain 100% printed reproductions of everything in our world." With a big nod in the direction of Jorge Luis Borges, who imagined an ancient empire where the craft of cartography had become so exact that the entire realm was mapped on a 1:1 scale, which of course covered the entire realm. "In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation, no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography." Tiangco's first 1:1 reproduction is of an anthropology bookshelf; the whole thing is printed single-sided and perforated, so you can cut up the book and make a giant, bookshelf-sized poster out of it. Hey, it's probably cheaper than Books by the Foot.
Nate:
Carved agate jujube-form snuff bottle, China, 19th century, from the exhibition "Private Passions: Collecting Miniature Works of Asian Art," at the Portland Art Museum, 2010
Last night I attended a lecture on—why not?—antique Chinese snuff bottles. Snuff is, of course, made of spiced tobacco, a New World commodity, and made its way east to Europe and then on to China with the Portuguese and the Jesuits (whose gifts of snuff and snuff-boxes were among the few Western trinkets not disdained by the Emperor). I was surprised at how small the bottles were—barely the size of the smallest cell phone, with their stopper-openings about a quarter-inch in diameter.
Nate:
"Motel, Jeffrey Road, Wyoming," photo by Mat Slaby, The New Breed of Documentary Photographers, 5 December 2009
I love the tension between welcome and desolation in this scene, the contrast between the jaunty top-hat and the odd yes/no take on the usual vacancy sign. It took me four or five looks at this to realize it wasn't a shot of a mirror reflection but the view out the rear window of a van.
Nate:
photo by Mary Amor, from her "lifestyle" portfolio :: via BOOOOOOOM!
A beautiful shot by a young LA-based photographer that for me triggers memories of many a Southern California winter. I love the odd stillness of the scene, despite the lean-into-it wind.
Nate:
photo 
None alike
None alike 
from "The Unbelievable World of Snowflakes," TreeHugger.com (presentation based on photos from "SnowCrystals.com") :: via Daring Fireball
Is it possible that no two snowflakes are alike? It seems so, which means you should browse through this extraordinary collection of snowflake photographs. And then ponder Jeanette Winterson's comment: "They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?"
re:
nature, photography
Andy:
video 
500 Fotos by Adam Tyson
500 Fotos by Adam Tyson
from "500 Fotos," by Adam Tyson
Adam Tyson is a novelist, photographer and video jockey whose work includes slide show installations like this photo collection, "500 Fotos." I'm drawn to this compilation's seemingly random succession of images that reflect things both familiar and foreign. The technical quality and composition feel accessible, as if I am looking through snapshots in someone's personal photo album, and the way the music comes and goes takes me back to the days of cassette tapes, when one song ended and then tape rolled for a couple of seconds before the next song started (something modern ears are unaccustomed to). Many of the images draw me in to the action, arousing my natural curiosity about people and my attraction to eclecticism and the energy that I have only ever encountered in urban centers.
Christy:
from "type the sky," photographs by Lisa Rienermann, 2007 :: via ReubenMiller
This lovely photographic alphabet—which incidentally wonderfully captures the urban inner-space of building courtyards—won a deserved prize from the Type Designers Club of New York City.
Nate:
"Skate Land" (2003), by Christian Patterson, from the portfolio series Sound Affects 2002–2005 :: via BOOOOOOOM!
I love the cheery desolation in this photo. And, of course, the wings on the roller boot (or maybe it's the wheels on the winged boot). I always wondered how Mercury would come in for a smooth landing.
Nate:
from "Desert Reality," photos by by Ed Freeman, opening in New York on 10 December 2009 :: via We can shoot too
I love LA-based photographer Ed Freeman's Desert Reality series, lovingly dead-on portraits of depopulated or abandoned buildings. There's a corresponding Urban Reality series as well, though there the lack of people is more unsettling. (Interestingly, Freeman's previous music career included a gig as producer of Don McLean's rock and roll ur-song "American Pie"). I particularly love the simultaneous warmth and foreboding in this picture, the way the overgrown tree in bloom is embracing the tiny house. We work to cultivate our gardens, but when we can work no more, our gardens return the favor.
Nate:
from "Two Weeks in Forever," by Peter van Agtmael, New York Times, 14 October 2009
Photographer Peter van Agtmael casts fresh light on the landscape in Afghanistan in this photo essay for the New York Times. As I watched this slide show and listened to van Agtmael's narration, it struck me that, with social networking and the Internet, we in America have more access to information about this war than any previous one, yet it seems that we are less interested or concerned than past generations, for whom every aspect of daily life was affected by the "wartime mentality." I wonder what this says about us as a culture?
Christy:
"Wedding Preparations, Davao City, Philippines," photo by Ryan Anson, The New Breed of Documentary Photographers, 2 October 2009
I love the warmth of this photo, and the way it somehow makes its considerable action (the figures almost read like multiple exposures of a single, very active woman) nonetheless conveys a strong sense of peace and stillness, the pause and deep breath one takes before stepping out into a momentous event. The photographer writes: "I shot this image in early 2004 during a wedding near Davao City where a small Muslim minority group called the Kalagan people live amidst millions of Catholic residents. I was initially surprised that the bride let me in the changing room to spend time with she and her relatives as they applied the finishing touches to her dress and make-up. However, like many Filipinos in this region, Joanna and her family welcomed me as a guest and allowed me to photograph them in a very intimate environment."
Nate:
photo Food flags
Food flags 
"Lebanon (lavash, fattoush, and a herb sprig)," by WHYBIN for the Sydney International Food Festival 2009, blogged at The Kitchn, 29 September 2009 :: via GOOD
From a delicious series of national-cuisines-as-national-flags dreamed and plated up to promote the Sydney International Food Festival. Other mouthwatering banners include Italy, Brazil, France, Korea, and Switzerland. Sadly, no African countries/cuisines are represented—perhaps we can get BetumiBlog on the case.
Nate:
"Woman taking her time rambling south at 63 mph on the Hollywood Freeway near the Vine Street exit in Los Angeles on a Saturday afternoon in 1991," from the series Vector Portraits, by Andrew Bush, at M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, 12 September–15 October :: via We can shoot too
I've seen Andrew Bush's freeway photographs here and there before (there's even a book of them, Drive), and every time I catch a glimpse I'm more intrigued. The composition is always the same: a car door, a driver, a bit of landscape, and a simultaneous velocity and stillness, the striking (and vaguely unsettling) intermixing of private and public spaces and moments—of life in the million bubbles of our highway culture.
Nate:
photo light-test.com
light-test.com 
"It's Too Damn Hot for This !!!," a light test for a BusinessWeek photo shoot, photo by Brad Trent of his assistant Kaz Sakuma, on a roof in the South Bronx, light-test.com, 18 August 2009 :: via kottke.org
From a photo blog dedicated to test shots taken by professional photographers, usually with their assistants standing in for the models, often with light meters or color charts in hand to make sure the colors stay true in post-processing. As Jason Kottke notes, the photos are often charmingly more candid than the end results we see in ads and magazine spreads. I find it fascinating because it reveals how much the photographer's (and assistant's) work on setup and lighting contributes to the glamor of the finished product: all the photo assistants look quite good, and often much more interesting than the models and celebrities who'll be in the final image.
Nate:
"Boston Road near Charlotte Street" (1979) from Faces in the Rubble" by David Gonzalez, The New York Times, 21 August 2009
Photographer David Gonzalez writes, "Thirty years ago this summer, I returned to the South Bronx, where I grew up, with a Yale diploma in one hand and a beat-up Pentax camera in the other. Raised to get a good education, become a doctor and escape, I had instead come right back to teach photography — on Charlotte Street, no less, the world’s most famous slum." His New York Times essay and multimedia slideshows revisit the images and memories from his work from 1979, and open a window into the legendary South Bronx, presenting what my friend (and IAM Board president) Mark Meehan calls "an urban narrative of hope."
Christy:
"Crazymouse," Minnesota State Fair (2008), photo by David Bowman :: via Flak Photo
This glorious long-exposure photo is also the first reference to the Minnesota State Fair that I can recall that doesn't have to do with terrible-for-you food innovations. Though come to think of it, that beautiful pink blur does look a lot like cotton candy. Or a mushroom cloud.
Nate:
from "Light breakfast," photo by David Sykes, 18 June 2009 :: via swissmiss
One of my favorite questions in the world is "What did you have for breakfast this morning?" This cheeky take on an answer looks to be a rubberized version of the not-so-light English full breakfast, with eggs, sausages, tomato, and little gassy Heinz Baked Beanz.
Nate:
excerpt 
Face time
Face time
It's fascinating how, along with their obviously useful applications, one thing diagnostic labs do is remove an element of human contact from the medical experience: just the facts of the case, no intuition or fuzzy stuff. You'd think that would be a boon for good medicine (in the way that double-blind studies are), but could it be that losing the face-to-face aspect actually makes for less meticulous diagnostics?
Nate: 
When Dr. Yehonatan N. Turner began his residency in radiology, he was frustrated that the CT scans he analyzed revealed nothing about the patients behind them — only their internal organs. So to make things personal, he imagined each patient was his father.
But then he had a better idea: attach a photograph of the actual patient to each file.
“I was looking for a way to make each case feel unique and less abstract,” said Dr. Turner, 36, now a third-year resident at Shaare Zedek Medical Center here. “I thought having a photo of the patient would help me relate in a deeper way.”
Dr. Turner’s hunch turned into an unusual medical study. Its preliminary findings, presented in Chicago last December at a conference of the Radiological Society of North America, suggested that when a digital photograph was attached to a patient’s file, radiologists provided longer, more meticulous reports. And they said they felt more connected to the patients, whom they seldom meet face to face.
"Monks from the Shaolin Temple in China rehearse inside wooden boxes as part of a dance entitled "Sutra" choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - part of the annual Singapore Arts Festival, Wednesday 20 May 2009" AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, The Big Picture, 19 June 2009
Dancing inside the box! From last week's lovely Big Picture series, "Dance around the world."
Nate: