Synaesthetic.

World Press Exhibition

2011-08-13T18:46:00.005+12:00

Highlights from the World Press Exhibition:

Niger, 'Food Crisis' - Marco Di Lauro
Gadabedji, Niger
Entrails of dead animals hanging as meat traders buy the dead animals to cook them on the spot and send them sell them in Nigeria. The stench from dead animals is very bad in Dakoro, about 450 km Northeast of the Nigerian capital, Niamey. This vast reserve in Gadabedji is the last grazing outpost for animals across the large West African State. In the last two weeks of June, 4,000 animals died as a result of a severe food crisis gripping this nation of 15 million people and affecting nearly half of the population. Meat traders roam the area buying dying animals for a fraction of the going rate. The meat is cooked on the spot and shipped to Nigeria. One man had to sell his animals (normally worth 400,000 CFA) for 70,000 CFA. His children are severely malnourished due to a lack of food. They are among 1.6 million children who are severely or moderately malnourished. Another 1 million are at risk of malnutrition.

Agent Orange - Ed Kashi
Da Nang, Vietnam
Nguyen Thi Li, aged 9, who lives in the Ngu Hanh Son district of Da Nang in Vietnam, suffers from disabilities believed to be caused by the defoliating chemical Agent Orange. During the Vietnam War, US forces sprayed Agent Orange over forests and farmland in an attempt to deprive Viet Cong guerrillas of cover and food. The dioxin compound used in the defoliant is a long-acting toxin that can be passed down genetically, so it is still having an impact forty years on. The Vietnam Red Cross estimates that some 150,000 Vietnamese children are disabled owing to their parents’ exposure to the dioxin. Symptoms range from diabetes and heart disease to physical and learning disabilities.

Ed Kashi speaks about the project:
"I was in Danang, Vietnam to work on a short film about child victims of Agent Orange and, while shooting video, was confronted with this incredible moment where the light, composition, character and mood combined to present something magical, transcendent and ultimately beautiful in its essence. Yet, it also showed the ongoing effects of a war that ended 35 years ago. Nguyen Thi Ly, a 9 year old girl afflicted with the genetic defects associated with Agent Orange exposure, represents yet another generation of children in Vietnam who need care and support."

Dhaka, Bangladesh - Andrew Biraj

An overcrowded train approaches a railway station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as more passengers wait to board. Millions of residents of Dhaka were traveling to their home villages to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday. Dhaka is fast becoming one of the largest cities in the world. Its present population of 13 million is expected to rise to between 22 and 25 million by 2020. The rapid population growth has put severe pressure on transport infrastructure.

Andrew Biraj speaks about the project:
“Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is the home of nearly 12 million people and everyday the number is getting higher. Hundreds of people rush to Dhaka daily to find a way of living, as they have no work in villages. The rising sea level makes many climate refugees in this low-lying country of more than 150 million people. Also many people are losing their homes due to river erosions. Two devastating cyclones over the last three years also left many homeless.

Most of the jobless and homeless people take shelter at the slums in Dhaka. Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, is an occasion when they prefer to go to the places they belong. During the time, they leave the capital en masse. The train is their only option as most of them cannot afford any better transport. I wanted to show how they make their way to home. There was not even space on the rooftop of the trains, but it did not surprise anyone. People even travel sitting between carriages. They take a high risk to travel to their homes as they have no other choice.”

THE FLYING CHOLITAS, GODDESSES OF THE RING - Daniele Tamagni

La Paz, Bolivia

Wrestler Julia la Paceña is known for her acrobatic style. Freestyle wrestling, or lucha libre, one of the most popular entertainments in Bolivia, was once the domain of men only. Now cholitas, women wearing the traditional skirts and bowler hats of the indigenous Aymara and Quechua people, are making a mark. The choreographed tussles, part-comic, part-epic struggles between good and evil figures, attract enthusiastic audiences. Some of the women even take on their male counterparts.

Daniele Tamagni speaks about the project:
"I shot the cholitas in La Paz, Bolivia in 2010. The idea behind this project was to tell stories about three or four fighters, showing them in their daily life, while backstage and fighting. Carmen Rosa, who is 40 years old, is the founder of these women who fight almost every Sunday. She is extremely passionate about fighting and has dedicated years to gain the success she has now. Her motto is 'grace and elegance in free fighting'. I wanted to show the violence, but above all the grace. The traditional aymara dress (multi-layered skirts) have an important role in the process of reaffirmation of their identity as Bolivian and as women."

Swan Serenade - Stefano Unterthiner
Hokkaido, Japan
Whooper swans on Lake Kussharo at dawn. The warm waters of the volcanic lake are usually slow to ice over, making it a good wintering habitat. Whooper swans are a northern hemisphere swan, with a range from Iceland to beyond Japan. They breed on islands and beside lakes and slow-flowing rivers from mid-May, and also frequently inhabit estuaries, marshes and floodplains. Their diet consists predominantly of leaves, stems and roots of aquatic plants. Around October, the swans fly to more temperate areas for winter. One 1,280-kilometer-long migration route, from Iceland to Ireland, is possibly the longest sea crossing by any swan species.

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Andrew Grunewald
Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo
The lava lake of Mount Nyiragongo, in the Virunga National Park, bubbles at the bottom of the volcano’s immense crater. Persistent lava lakes in volcanic craters are rare, with only five currently known in the world. The one on Mount Nyiragongo varies in size, but has at times been one of the most voluminous lava lakes in the planet’s recent history.

Olivier Grunewald speaks about the project:
"I took this picture from the rim of the huge crater at the beginning of an expedition during which we planned to stay inside the crater for ten days. The goal for the team has been to go down at the bottom of the crater with ropes and to try to go as close as possible of this huge lava lake. Three members of the team approached the ocean of lava within one meter. I was one of the three and took the first pictures so close to the lake."

Steve Christo
Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia
Swimmers participate in the Cole Classic ocean race at Manly Beach, Australia on 7 February. Together, the 1-kilometer and 2-kilometer events in the race attracted 4,500 entrants.

Bibi Aisha - Jodi Bieber
Kabul, Afghanistan
Bibi Aisha, 18, was disfigured as retribution for fleeing her husband’s house in Oruzgan province, in the center of Afghanistan. At the age of 12, Aisha and her younger sister had been given to the family of a Taliban fighter under a Pashtun tribal custom for settling disputes. When she reached puberty she was married to him, but she later returned to her parents’ home, complaining of violent treatment by her in-laws. Men arrived there one night demanding that she be handed over to be punished for running away. Aisha was taken to a mountain clearing, where, at the orders of a Taliban commander, she was held down and had first her ears sliced off, then her nose. In local culture, a man who has been shamed by his wife is said to have lost his nose, and this is seen as punishment in return. Aisha was abandoned, but later rescued and taken to a shelter in Kabul run by the aid organization Women for Afghan Women, where she was given treatment and psychological help. After time in the refuge, she was taken to America to receive further counseling and reconstructive surgery.

Zhang Liang struggles to regain control as an undercurrent pulls him away from the pump.

Firefighter instructor Zheng Zhanhong hears the men’s cries for help and enters the water.

Zhang Liang slips below the surface as Han Xiaoxiong battles to keep him afloat.

Zhang Liang is pulled under by the current, with only a hand remaining above the surface, when instructor Zheng Zhanghong is only 2-3 meters away.

Han Xiaoxiong is also dragged underwater as he attempts to rescue Zhang Liang.

Unable to save their colleague, Han Xiaoxiong and Zheng Zhanhong struggle back out of the oil.

Covered in oil, Han Xiaoxiong passes out from exhaustion

Han Xiaoxiong is carried to land, and survives.

A funeral and memorial service is held for Zhang Liang.

Lu Guang
Dalian, Liaoning, China
On 16 July, two pipelines exploded as crude oil was being unloaded from a tanker in the port of Dalian, in northeast China, unleashing a massive oil slick into the Yellow Sea. Firefighter Zhang Liang, 25, died during clean-up operations. While diving to clear debris from the submerged pump responsible for pumping water to firefighting boats, he was caught in an undercurrent and drowned. His colleague Han Xiaoxiong, and later also their instructor Zheng Zhanhong, tried in vain to rescue him.

Lu Guang speaks about the project:
"Whenever I see these pictures, I feel painful.

I have been paying attention to environmental protection and shooting on the environmental protection theme for more than ten years. On July 16, 2010, the pipeline explosion and oil spill accident happened in Dalian. Then I gave close attention to the situation of oil pollution in the ocean. On July 19, I arrived in Dalian. I got up at 4 o’clock in the morning on July 20 and shot for three hours along the seaside. At 8:10, I got to the sea area closest to the site of pipeline explosion. In the ocean with thick greasy dirt, I suddenly found two people in the oil contamination. I felt strange and shot several photos with telephoto lens at once. Then I ran towards them and asked the instructor at the shoreside. The instructor told me that they were the firefighters cleaning the oil contamination on the water pump (later the names of two soldiers were known. One was Zhang Liang; the other was Han Xiaoxiong).

After several minutes, someone shouted for help. Zhang Liang was pulled by the undercurrent three meters away from the water pump. He lost control. The instructor rushed into the greasy dirt to save Zhang Liang. He grasped Zhang’s head and hands; however, it was too slick. He seized Zhang for a while, but loosened at last. Within one minute, Zhang Liang was drowned by the oil and water. My hands began to tremble. A life disappeared in front of me. Zhang Liang sacrificed with glory at the age of 25. Han Xiaoxiong was injured because of absorbing much oil.

The two soldiers were responsible for the floating boat pump of long-distance water supply system. In order to guarantee putting out the fire and supplying water in the front, they had to clean the sundries on the floating boat pump every day, such as the oil contamination and the sea grass. They had been working for four days continuously since the explosion happened. That day should have been the date on which Zhang Liang and his fiancée took their wedding pictures.

I have been engaged in shooting for 30 years. However, this is my first time to meet such situation. Whenever I recalled the scene and saw these pictures, I felt painful in my mind. At first, I didn’t want to see these pictures anymore. Without the oil contamination, Zhang Liang would not die. The fire fighting solider Zhang Liang sacrificed for people. Through these shocking pictures, I hope that more people can pay attention to pollution and realize the effect of oil to environment. This is the comfort to martyr Zhang Liang. Meanwhile, it is also the reason for my participation in to the contest and making more people see these pictures."

One of the Best Things About Auckland

2011-07-05T21:28:00.000+12:00

I arrived (via tragically cramped overnight bus) in Auckland at seven in the morning and promptly took another bus, this time to Scott's house, where I banged obscenely on his bedroom window until he woke up. Friends. What else are they for.

Barbara Cole

2011-06-08T18:47:00.000+12:00

From Painted Ladies:

Courthouse Ladies

Sparrow

Without Pretense

From Underworld:

Deep Thinker

Dylan Collard

2011-06-08T18:36:00.000+12:00

Aesop's Fables

Radiator

Mannequin Workers

12th Man: Serpentine Swimmers

End Frames

Captive Landscapes (2009) - Daniel Kukla

2011-04-10T15:21:00.000+12:00

Richard Mosse

2011-03-17T19:31:00.000+13:00

From Infra:

Nowhere To Run, South Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

Colonel Soleil's Boys, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

From Breach:

From Untitled:

Untitled (Gaza), Jan 2007, showing RPG damage to the home of assassinated Fatah Commander Mohammed Ghraib, who was speaking live on Gaza TV when Hamas besieged his family home, killing him and seven others.

Memories in Decay - Michelle Muzyka

2011-03-17T19:20:00.000+13:00

From Memories in Decay:

Due to the change in the global climate, there have been an increasing number of natural catastrophes. Many buildings become vacant in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event. Given an opportunity, nature will try to restore a balance within an ecosystem offset by man-made damage. Organisms help deconstruct and reclaim the remnants of human artifacts fueled by the presence of water that is an inevitable result from such disasters. Memories In Decay presents an allegory of this decomposition process. It is an installation representing an artificial species composed of manually and digitally cut paper colonizing an abandoned interior space. The positive and negative shapes take on the form of an entity aiding in this decomposition, which comes to life as it slowly creeps in to fill in cracks and crevices much like the analogs in nature. The deserted room becomes inhabited again with proliferations by bringing the outdoors into the interior. This paper fungus is continually self-replicating to build an intricately woven mass. New spores of smaller paper populate the edges of the sculpture as the being reproduces over time and extends the life of the species.

Hans Hammonds

2011-03-11T00:52:00.000+13:00

From Girly Pictures:

Irina Werning

2011-03-02T00:52:00.000+13:00

Back to the Future:

I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today... A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.

Pancho in 1983 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Flor, Male, Sil in 1983 & 2010

Nico in 1986 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Lucia in 1956 & 2010, Buenos Aires

La Negra 1980 and 2010, Buenos Aires

Mechi in 1990 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Benn and Dan in 1979 & 2010, London

Tommy in 1977 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Lulu & G in 1980 & 2010, Buenos Aires

My parents in 1970 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Damian in 1989 & 2010, London

Soap

2011-02-01T09:55:00.000+13:00

This is from a photoshoot I did for Soap

(a wee magazine I put together at the end of last year)

Basically the best way to spend a rainy afternoon

How to Freak Your Friend Out By Taking Lots of Photos of Them vol. II

2011-01-12T14:42:00.001+13:00

My friend Ben.

Looked a total babe at our friends' wedding

Told him this, declared I felt like 'a proud mama'

Later I spilt champagne everywhere

And nearly ran into a glass door.

Kitties of the Beeb

2011-01-12T02:45:00.003+13:00

Spent Sunday afternoon hanging with these cats

eating chicken marinated in mango and pineapple

Stanmore Bay

2011-01-12T02:28:00.000+13:00

Garden of Beeb

2011-01-12T02:26:00.000+13:00

Margarita Georgiadis

2011-01-03T10:45:00.000+13:00

The Night Dances II

The Unravelling

Noise

Turning Shadow

Time Past

Daycation

2010-12-31T15:20:00.000+13:00

Boxing Day Ennui

2010-12-27T14:45:00.001+13:00

History of Vaccines II

2010-12-13T02:16:00.000+13:00

Scanning electron microscope image of Hepatitis B viruses

The History of Vaccines

2010-12-13T02:13:00.000+13:00

Created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, The History of Vaccines chronicles the development of vaccination practices:

Metropolitan Life Insurance company promoted diphtheria immunization in New York in the 1920s.

The children lined to up received what at that time would have been toxin-antitoxin mixture.

Diphtheria outbreaks accompanied war and disruption in Europe.

In 1943, there were 1 million cases in Europe, with 50,000 deaths (not including the USSR).

Cincinnati Hospital intern group of 1894-95. Dr. Charles Waugh Reynolds, MD, is seated at the right, and George Joseph Hermann, MD, stands slightly apart, at the far right. Hermann and Reynolds were among the first physicians in the United States to use diphtheria antitoxin in 1894.

Anatomy and Rumination

2010-12-08T15:15:00.002+13:00

I drew this picture the other day

I'm not sure draw is the right word

Romain Laurent

2010-12-06T14:56:00.000+13:00

Tilt

Burnout Syndrome

Dispatches from Antarctica

2010-12-06T13:17:00.000+13:00

Dispatches from Antarctica includes a series of photos taken by Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Vaughan, chronicling his experiences on Operation: Deep Freeze.

Noah Conopask

2010-12-06T12:57:00.000+13:00

Blood, Penn Station, NYC

Tompkins Square Park, New York City

Peter Beste

2010-12-06T11:57:00.000+13:00

South Park School

From Houston Rap I

Captain Jack | Max's Candy Shop

From After Hours

Houston, Texas occupies a peculiar spot on the global stage, in the spotlight because of its importance to the global economy but rarely seen as anything other than a center of business. The perception of this southern metropolis is hardly any different within the United States. When it comes to the question of what Houston has to offer culturally, misperceptions invariably abound.

To some degree, there is merit to that. Master-planned communities blanket huge swaths of land, strip centers and office parks line the freeways and newly built condominiums swallow up some of Houston’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods in a block-by-block process of gentrification that eschews interest in the city’s history. To the eyes of visitors, Houston does not present well.

But Houston’s non-centralized and non-zoned geography present drawbacks that extend far beyond real estate value or cultural visibility. Poor civic services and one of the nation’s weakest public transportation systems, combined with its non-pedestrian friendly streets, long summers and unforgiving urban sprawl, have put many of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods on the fringe of an already polarized cultural dichotomy. Parts of Houston have, for decades, remained estranged from Houston.

In that, new cultures have sprouted within those pockets of the city. The neighborhoods of South Park, Fifth Ward and Third Ward have, over the space of the last thirty years, produced a culture centered around rap music that has flourished independently, in the process creating a sustainable economy of its own within the city limits. Houston has developed its own musical genres (the slowed-down sounds of DJ Screw and the horrorcore of Ganksta NIP and the Geto Boys), cultivated a car culture (slabs, candy paint, custom rims) and innovative approach to jewelry (diamond-encrusted mouthpieces known as grills), a homegrown vice (Codeine Promethazine cough syrup mixed with soda) and has encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit that has become commonplace among its artists. This has resulted in an independent scene where artists promote and release their own records, selling them directly to the fans to eliminate the middlemen and keep the money in the community.

Gaahl at his Grandparents' Cabin

From Black Metal I

Mayhem Backstage | Roros, NO
From Black Metal II

In the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called black metal has emerged in Norway. It's roots stem from a heady blend of horror films, extreme heavy metal music, Satanism, pagan mythology, and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990's, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as a juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society.

Winnie Truong

2010-12-06T11:26:00.000+13:00

Winnie Truong

Ornament and Correction (2010)

pencil crayon on paper

48" x 72"

London Bound

2010-11-20T17:02:00.001+13:00

Halloween Special: Dr Colossus

2010-11-01T22:59:00.000+13:00

Halloween Special: The Living Diamonds

2010-11-01T22:33:00.000+13:00

Halloween Special: Toad

2010-11-01T22:17:00.000+13:00

Ralph Lagoi and Kate Lace

2010-10-26T09:57:00.001+13:00

Set in the love hotel rooms of Osaka and Kansai, Love Land Invaders expresses what Lagoi and Lace call 'luxurious pop':

Elle Muliarchyk

2010-10-21T16:35:00.001+13:00

Stills from Elle Muliarchyk's latest film project, which involved sending Megan Collinson to ten psychics in ten different disguises.

Brian M. Viveros

2010-10-21T11:43:00.000+13:00

Brian M. Viveros and his doe-eyed, Marlboro-smoking ladies: quietly defiant and disarmingly sexy:

Dirt Tease (2010)

Dirtyland III (2008)

Evillast (2008)

El Carnivora (2008)

Momma Said Knock You Out (2009)

Gladiate Her (2010)

Last Round (2010)

Mess With the Bull (2008)

Seeing Red (2010)

Look Into My Eyes

2010-10-13T15:15:00.000+13:00

My optometrist took these amazing scans of my eyes today:

(My left eye)

(My right eye)

The bright orange spheres are my optic disc, where all the blood vessels converge, and the dark spot in the middle is my macula. Cool, huh? They have such a haunting, astronomical quality to them.

I tried to show them to my friend but as soon as he saw the first picture he yelped and started gagging, and my other friend informed me that he has a "fear of eyes", whatever that means.

Timothy Archibald

2010-10-12T12:12:00.000+13:00

From an Interview with Timothy Archibald on Feature Shoot:

You’ve been photographing your son, Elijah since he was 5 years old. Since then you have found out that he is on the autistic spectrum. How have the images changed or evolved with this discovery?

When I first started photographing Eli, we already knew something was up…something was different with him and the way he engaged with the world. The term “Autistic Spectrum” and all of that never came into it. But he was different, he saw the world differently than I did, was in it in a way that was curious to me. Those differences are the things that made me want to explore him, or more accurately, to explore “the me and him relationship”, with the camera. That was the key for me: it wasn’t really just pictures of a beautiful child, but images about the relationship between he and I and the great unknown at the time. The relationship had the layers and the tension and having the great unknown…this thing I couldn’t understand, that gave us the fuel for the project. The kid…oh, he was just the innocent one.

This is a very personal series, a collaboration between you and your son. What made you decide to make it public as well as release it as a book?

For me, the power of having experiences is the sharing of the experience. It can help others navigate their own situations, it can be cathartic to share on my end, it can open doors and shut doors too. So, you gotta share this creative stuff I always feel. My previous book (Sex Machines : Photographs And Interviews, Process 2005) was like social anthropology- really looking into other’s lives with distanced observation. I wanted to do something less literal, more beautiful, more personal, but with some emotional weight for people to carry with them. As this body of work started to form it seemed like I could do all those things with it.

I’ve always liked what a book can do for a story that has an arc: you can have a beginning, middle, end, work with the pairings, all those book nerd things that come into play, I love those things. But also, I thought a book, its in a home, it’s kinda private, it would probably end up on someone’s kitchen table….very domestic, like the project was. Its not larger than life on the walls of a gallery.

Do you see this as an ongoing project?

It’s most definitely not an ongoing project. I never wanted to be one of these Dad’s who photographed a kid over the entire arc of the kid’s life. It’s just not that interesting to me to see the passage of time. To me this “Echolilia channel” that the photographs were made during, really captures this time when I was really trying to look at the evidence in my kid and my life and figure out this mystery, try to understand this child that I just had a hard time harmonizing with. I thought we both felt like we were digging and mining this situation together to try to figure it out…or figure something out. And in the end we didn’t get any answers…..but amidst it all we built a bridge. Now we’ve met at the middle of the bridge and there is just no need to make these images any more.

Ai Weiwei

2010-10-12T11:47:00.000+13:00

From Tate Modern:

Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands.

Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. Sunflower Seeds is a sensory and immersive installation, which we can touch, walk on and listen to as the seeds shift under our feet. The casual act of walking on the work’s surface contrasts with the immense effort of production and the precious nature of the material. Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.

From The Guardian:

[Y]ou can trudge over them, walk or skip or dance on these seeds, all of them Made in China. Or scoop up handfuls and let them run through your fingers, in the knowledge that someone, an old lady or a small-town teenager in Jingdezhen, has delicately picked up each one and anointed it with a small brush. Every seed is painted by hand. The town that once made porcelain for the imperial court has been saved from bankruptcy by making sunflower seeds. It is absurd.

The meanings are as multiple and singular as its form. Ai Weiwei has taken the lesson of Duchamp's readymade and Warhol's multiples and turned them into a lesson in Chinese history and western modernisation, and the price individuals in China pay for that. Every unique seed is homogenised into a sifting mass. Most contemporary Chinese art is a product made for western consumption, just as willow-pattern plates or porcelain vases were shipped out in huge quantities for the western market.

Akiko Ida and Pierre Javalle

2010-10-11T18:06:00.000+13:00

Fuelling my increasingly dangerous obsession with dioramas is Akiko Ida and Pierre Javalle's work, which uses food as a landscape:

Thomas Allen

2010-10-11T17:49:00.000+13:00

I first stumbled upon Thomas Allen's work via Kitsune Noir's desktop wallpaper project, where he created this:

His blog is laden with a multitude of equally striking treats of the vintage pulp cut-out varietal:

Andy Ellison

2010-10-11T11:55:00.000+13:00

To assess the reconstruction capability and field homogeneity of the MRI machine in his lab, Andy Ellison started scanning fruit and vegetables, stitching the images together to create these hypnotic videos:

Cabbage

Celery

Eggplant

Grapes

Lettuce

Squash

Pomegranate

Pumpkin

Snap peas

Tomato

Dave Eggers

2010-10-04T15:33:00.000+13:00

He's written a bevy of beautiful novels, penned the screenplay for Where The Wild Things Are, founded McSweeney's and established 826 National, a non-profit centre teaching kids how to write (funded through their ridiculously awesome store-fronts - ranging from a pirate supply store to a superhero supply company and a time travel mart). Honestly. He's basically the coolest human being, ever. And to top it all off, he recently published Is It Right to Draw Their Fur: Animal Renderings:

Printed in time to coincide with a gallery show in San Francisco, this is Dave Eggers's first collection of drawings. Most of these works are of unusual mammals, most often accompanied by slogans with ancient, heroic, or just plain odd overtones. This 14" x 19", full-color package is a combination of 26 large-sized prints and an accompanying booklet.

It Is Right to Draw Their Fur echoes questions posed by Eggers in McSweeney's Issue 27: What is the line between a doodle, a cartoon, a gag, and a work of fine art? Does it seem, sometimes, that the artist is defacing his or her own work by adding text? Is loose draftsmanship appealing, in that it's intimate and disarming? Is absurdity more appealing when it comes across as humble?

Marion Bolognesi

2010-10-02T16:20:00.000+13:00

Benjamin Lacombe

2010-09-16T13:12:00.002+12:00

I really like Benjamin Lacombe's work:

And I am very excited about his new book, which features Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, Peter Pan, Little Red Riding Hood, Madame Butterfly, and Thumbelina:

(pop-up art by Jose Pons)

d. yee

2010-09-09T12:59:00.000+12:00

Life as Cinema:

Natalie Kosnar

2010-09-09T12:04:00.000+12:00

Stephen Powers: Love Letter

2010-09-09T11:27:00.000+12:00

Love Letter is literally a love letter painted on the walls facing the Market elevated train. 40 local and international artists will paint the walls in august and the letter will be on view for one and all starting as early as Labor Day

The project will encompass 50 painted walls between 63rd and 45th street on Market Street, a documentary film with scripted elements, a sign school and shop that will provide training for area youth and free signage for businesses on the market street corridor, and 2 books documenting the project. One of the books will be a small paperback that will be distributed to area businesses free of charge, for them to sell to visitors. The other book will be a larger hardcover book that will document not only the artwork, but the neighborhood and the inspirations of the Love Letter Project.

Love Letter is an unprecedented public art project by Steve Powers and The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. It is funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

4800 Market Street

Want and Wait

5027 Market Street
Knocked on Your Door

16 N. 51st Street
Hold Tight

5101 Market Street
Home Now

5221-25 Market Street
Open Your Eyes

5521 Market Street
Miss You

6117 Market Street
Forever

The Wright Brothers

2010-09-02T14:13:00.000+12:00

From The Library of Congress:

Among the materials the Wright Brothers estate gave the Library of Congress in 1948 were 300 glass plate negatives and two nitrate negatives, most taken by the Wright brothers themselves between 1897 and 1928. About 200 views from 1900 to 1911 document their successes and failures with their new flying machines. The collection provides an excellent pictorial record of the Wright brothers laboratory, engines, models, experimental planes, runways, flights, and even their accidents. The collection also contains individual portraits and group pictures of the Wright brothers and their family and friends, as well as photos of their homes, other buildings, towns, and landscapes.

Reuchlin Wright, brother of Wilbur and Orville, age 40, head and shoulders

George Reeder, relative of the Wright Brothers, called Uncle George, head and shoulders

Lester, Willie and Paul Henderson, neighbors of Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton, Ohio

Bertha Wright, age five, niece of the Wright brothers, daughter of Lorin Wright

Side view of flight 41, showing the machine traveling to the right, with double horizontal rudder in front and double vertical rudder behind, as Orville flew 12 miles; Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio

Flight 82: Wilbur piloting at a considerable height, flying a distance of 2 3/4 miles in 5 minutes and 4 seconds, almost four circles of the field at Huffman Prairie, the best and longest flight of the year; Dayton, Ohio

Kitchen of the camp building at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with neatly arranged wall shelves holding dishes, canned foods, and other provisions

Dan Tate, at left, and Edward C. Huffaker, at right, launching the 1901 glider with either Wilbur or Orville piloting

Captain William J. Tate, the Wrights' first host in Kitty Hawk, and family on porch of their home, the Kitty Hawk Post Office

Side view of flight 45, Orville flying to the right close to the ground, covering a distance of about 14.2 miles in 25 minutes and 5 seconds; Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio

Wilbur Wright, age 38, head and shoulders, about 1905; one of the earliest published photographs of him

Orville Wright, age 34, head and shoulders, with mustache

Andrew van der Westhuyzen

2010-09-02T13:23:00.001+12:00

I love dioramas (see also: Thomas Doyle), and Andrew van der Westhuyzen's are pretty cool, even though they were made for an awful compilation CD).

Chillout Sessions XI

Chillout Sessions XII

David Chancellor

2010-08-31T14:42:00.004+12:00

Muvhimiwe Nzou (Elephant Hunter)
Chitsa 'Campfire' area, adjacent to The Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe.

Local villagers fall upon the body of a dead elephant reducing the huge carcass to bones in under 2 hours. 24 hours later the bones have also gone, all that's visible are the fresh tracks of elephants in the damp ground where the carcass once lay.

Chris Milk

2010-08-31T13:55:00.000+12:00

Holy shit you guys. This interactive film for Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait" completely reinvents the medium of the music video. So fun. Check it out!

Everynone

2010-08-19T17:24:00.000+12:00

Everynone makes videos that beautifully capture simple concepts (see their website, they have heaps more). They're kind of like the filmic version of Hallmark, only they're actually really good.

Moments

Words

The Hypnotic Splendour of Destruction

2010-07-28T12:36:00.000+12:00

Tempus II - Philip Heron

The Blue Holes of the Bahamas - Wes C. Skiles

2010-07-22T00:31:00.001+12:00

From National Geographic:

Inland blue holes are unlike any other environment on Earth, thanks largely to their geology and water chemistry. In these flooded caves, such as Stargate on Andros Island, the reduced tidal flow results in a sharp stratification of water chemistry. A thin lens of fresh water—supplied by rainfall—lies atop a denser layer of salt water. The freshwater lens acts as a lid, isolating the salt water from atmospheric oxygen and inhibiting bacteria from causing organic matter to decay.

Fifty feet from the surface looms a pale haze, less smoky than fibrous, like a silvery net of faint, swirling cobwebs hovering motion less in the darkness. It's a layer of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas created by bacterial colonies and decaying organic matter.

"All of a sudden, it's got you," says photographer Wes Skiles of the "insanely dangerous" vortex in Chimney Blue Hole off Grand Bahama. Like a giant bathtub drain, it sucks down millions of gallons when the tide comes in. "It's like going over a waterfall—there's no escape."

Of the more than one thousand blue holes believed to be in the Bahamas, less than 20 percent have been probed, and Kakuk estimates that three-quarters of those offer passages never seen before. The great age of Bahamian blue hole exploration lies ahead.

Reed Young and Photojournalism

2010-07-20T02:26:00.003+12:00

As ridiculous as it sounds, I realised today that I’d forgotten about telling stories through photography. Not completely, but over the past year there’d been a marked shift from my initial fascination with photojournalism to a lazy preoccupation with aesthetics (symptoms include, but are not limited to: spending an alarming number of afternoons idly sifting through ffffound and fistfuls of tumblrs).

And then I came across Reed Young’s work and it was so excellent and vibrant and best of all it reminded me that photos have the potential - through photojournalism and otherwise - to change the world. Idealistic, sure, but it's the best place to start from.

Here are some of my favourites from a image binge last year (the lack of hyperlinks attributable to the fact that this was before - gasp - I had a blog):

Tyler Hicks, The New York Times

Afghanistan. One suspect, who was later released, is marked with a number for identification purposes.

David Guttenfelder, The Associated Press

Japanese 'salary men' company employees gather after work in a gravel lot outside the Imperial Palace overlooking the financial district of Tokyo in September 2006. The loyal, black-suited cog of Japan Inc. 'the Salary Man' has been the symbol of Japan's post-war economic miracle.

But monotonous commutes, long days marked by emasculating work, absence from family, and the isolation of trying to get ahead in a business culture where individual achievement is frowned upon often makes the life of the Salary Man a lonely struggle.

Moving through the landscape of Tokyo like anonymous ghosts, the salary man is up at dawn for his two-hour train commute. His workday begins at 8:30 a.m., when the tardy bell sounds in his office. After an 11-hour day, there is obligatory excessive drinking and karaoke with superiors. The last train home leaves at midnight. Repeat.

Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times

The lifeless bodies of children killed by the Israeli bombing of Qana are rushed from the scene to waiting ambulances. At least 16 children were killed in the July 30th attack.

The Israeli-Hezbollah Conflict marked the beginning of a month-long battle between the Israeli military and Hezbollah forces after their abduction of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack.

Few anticipated the intensity of the conflict as Israel responded with massive air strikes on Lebanon. Roads and bridges were destroyed, blocking the passage of many as they tried to flee the south. The sick, elderly, and poor were trapped in a nightmare, some without medicine, food or water.

In the end, 1,100 Lebanese civilians and 44 Israeli civilians were killed, along with hundreds of fighters on both sides. Although the buildings can be rebuilt, the human suffering and loss will remain.

Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times

Frightened children block their ears as people scramble to flee the city of Aaitaroun, where over one hundred people have been trapped by the bombing and damaged roads.

Christopher Anderson, Magnum for Newsweek

A Palestinian security force soldier lies wounded in the hospital after an attack by Hamas gunmen

Espen Rasmussen, Verdens Gang

Almost every building in Balakot was destroyed during the earthquake. Three months later, the inhabitants lives in tents and temporary houses.

Per-Anders Pettersson, Getty Images

Crew members wash Dola, a chimpanzee, that they bought for US$25 while waiting for their boat to leave the Kisangani port for the capital Kinshasa on March 4, 2006 in Kisangani, in Congo, DRC. Dola died a few days later from an unknown disease.

The Congo River is a lifeline for millions of people, who depend on it for transport and trade. The journey from Kisangani to Kinshasa is about 1750 kilometers, and it takes from 3-7 weeks on the river, depending on the boat. During the Mobuto era, big boats run by the state company ONATRA dominated the traffic on the river. These boats had cabins and restaurants etc. All the boats are now private and are mainly barges that transport goods.

The crews sell tickets to passengers who travel in very bad conditions, mixing passengers with animals, goods and only about two toilets for five hundred passengers. The conditions on the boats often resemble conditions in a refugee camp.

Congo is planning to hold general elections by July 2006, the first democratic elections in forty years.

Jan Dago, Jyllands-Posten/World Picture Network

Romania. Bucharest, Street children.

Bobo on the left is just turning 18. He tells me he has run away from home because of a violent father. The children pour toxic paint into plastic bags to inhale the fumes - this gives a quick high but the price is also severe brain damage.

This group of street children live in the heating channels that run under Bucharest. The heat down in the tunnels are intense and humid, the smell of human waste makes the stomach turn when one enters. The children are living down here because of the cold temperatures during winter in Rumania. They also try to avoid the risk of getting beaten or abused sexually if they try to sleep anywhere above the ground.

They tell me that the police also harass them, but that they have never seen any policemen who want to enter the heating tunnels.

They live from begging and from parking tips. Precise figures about how many street children there are in Romania is difficult to obtain, the range is from hundreds to 10,000.

Romania and Bulgaria became new members of the European union on the 1.1.07. The union now consists of 27 members and 480 million people. The two new members have been through turmoil during history. Romania is still marked by their diseased dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his surreal leadership. Many countries have also been affecting Romania and Bulgarias development and the mindset of the population. The different involvement from other countries has left the two countries and the populations in a state of divide about what will happen to them when they enter the European union. Some fear that it will be a repetition of history, others are hopeful that the wealth of the other members will have a positive effect on the situation.

Life is already hard for the population in both countries. This makes it a nervous time of mixed hopes and fears of what will come for the people of Romania and Bulgaria.

Wissam Nassar, Maan News Agency

Damon Winter, Los Angeles Times

Family members console the mother of Israeli Army reservist David Amar at his funeral in Kiryat Shmona, Wednesday August 16, 2006.

Amar was killed a day before the cease-fire agreement ending fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Muhammed Muheisen, The Associated Press

Muslim pilgrims pray at Jabal Al Rahma holy mountain, the mountain of forgiveness, in Arafat outside Mecca, Saudi Arabia early.

More than 2 million Muslim pilgrims raised their hands to heaven and chanted in unison as they hiked through a dessert valley Sunday to a tent city on the outskirts of Mecca in preparation for the annual hajj.

Brian Hill, The Daily Herald

A St. Charles fire fighter carries the body of Chase, a two-year-old boy from the Fox River in South Elgin, IL, Thursday; July 27, 2006. The young boy had been missing for nearly three hours when the firefighters found him near the shore. Rescue personal were unable to save him.

Genaro Molina, The Los Angeles Times

Parts of Mardi Gras floats lie tattered and abandoned in a warehouse in New Orleans almost a year after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

Jose Cendon, Freelance

A patient of the SOSAME (Soins de Sant Mentale) Neuro-Psychiatric hospital in Bukavu lies tied to a bed.

Stephen Katz, Freelance

Along the coast of Nigeria, where oil is king, an epidemic of cheating and corruption has bloomed. Among many scams, local kerosene merchants have begun to cut their product with gasoline, which is a few cents cheaper. The end result is that for a couple pennies of extra profit, unsuspecting Nigerians are sold tainted fuel for their lanterns and stoves which often explode, causing severe burns and death.

Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press

A Pakistani child looks on as women covered with burqas from the tribal region of Bajur and Mohmand agency wait to be registered at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Jan. 30, 2009.

Armend Nimani, Agence France-Presse

A Kosovo Albanian woman looks out a window in the village of Babaj Bokes after sheep were slaughtered on May 6 2009 during the celebration of the traditional feast of Saint George’s Day, which is observed by several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint.

Margaret Bourke-White, Getty Images

1937, Kentucky: Bourke-White captures one of America’s principle contradictions following the 1937 Ohio flood. Against a backdrop of wholesome affluence, the reality of American life is not quite as advertised, as African-Americans line up for relief.

Guillem Valle, Freelance

05/09/2009 - Mugumbano, South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. A Congolese miner at the entrance of Mugumbano gold mine.

Rebel groups, government and mining companies exploit mineral resources, fuelling civil and interstate conflict as players vie for control over riches. Meanwhile, miners put their lives at risk on a daily basis to extract precious metals in order to obtain meagre economic compensation.

Reed Young's work is a lot more playful but equally as narrative driven:

Italian astrophysicist Margherita Hack, explaining to Federico why the sky is blue

Yasuyuki Hirose is a 32-year-old retired sumo wrestler who’s become famous in Japan for his part in a comedy trio that performs on TV. His obesity related difficulties are often the topic of the group’s jokes. In particular he’s known for being able to drink a two-litre bottle of orange Fanta in only ten seconds.

In the end it wasn't him we found, but perhaps another.

2010-07-11T20:38:00.001+12:00

Lindsey Carr

2010-07-08T13:56:00.000+12:00

Scarlet Ibis

Gemma Correll

2010-07-08T13:37:00.001+12:00

Gemma Correll's illustrations are heart-meltingly cute:

Beauty and Decay

2010-06-24T11:12:00.000+12:00

From English Russia:

The Pervaya Eltsovka River consists of two subterranean pieces, an old littered one and a new one - that is still being built.

The old part represents square tunnels, stink and much litter. Here comes different household rubbish that is dumped by people upstream. As a result, the collecting header is blocked by congestion of plastic bottles.

Julie Blackmon

2010-06-24T09:52:00.000+12:00

From Mind Games:

Bubble Girl

Dragon

Goggles

Ice Cream Sandwich

Naptime

From Domestic Vacations:

Time Out

Birds at Home

Gum

Cherry

Artist's statement:

The Dutch proverb “a Jan Steen household” originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire this body of work. I am the oldest of nine children and now the mother of three. As Steen’s personal narratives of family life depicted nearly 400 yrs. ago, the conflation of art and life is an area I have explored in photographing the everyday life of my family and the lives of my sisters and their families at home. These images are both fictional and auto-biographical, and reflect not only our lives today and as children growing up in a large family, but also move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives, both imagined and real.

The stress, the chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect are issue that I investigate in this body of work. We live in a culture where we are both “child centered” and “self-obsessed.” The struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality is intense since these two opposites strive to dominate. Caught in the swirl of soccer practices, play dates, work, and trying to find our way in our “make-over” culture, we must still create the space to find ourselves. The expectations of family life have never been more at odds with each other. These issues, as well as the relationship between the domestic landscape of the past and present, are issues I have explored in these photographs. I believe there are moments that can be found throughout any given day that bring sanctuary. It is in finding these moments amidst the stress of the everyday that my life as a mother parallels my work as an artist, and where the dynamics of family life throughout time seem remarkably unchanged. As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos.

Alex Cornell

2010-06-22T00:31:00.001+12:00

Alex Cornell's vast designs are at once elegantly simple and infused with a sprawling, dry wit.

For Kitsune Noir's The Desktop Wallpaper Project

Concept project for a fictional Wes Anderson film Festival that totally nails the Wes Anderson aesthetic.

Infographics Rock my World

2010-06-20T22:58:00.000+12:00

The Worst Oil Spills in History

Have You Tried Online Dating?

The Pantograph Punch

2010-06-17T15:06:00.000+12:00

My friends and I have made a blog (well, technically it's a tumblr). It's called The Pantograph Punch and it's basically the most e-fun a person can have.

I came up with the name while trawling wikipedia one evening - traditionally, pantographs were an instrument used to copy writing (they kind of look like a compass) and the pantograph punch was a machine used in the 1890 U.S. census. The name reflects the intention of the blog - finding cool things on the internet and transposing them into this pretty wee receptacle.

Check it out.

When The Rain Stops Falling

2010-06-16T01:25:00.006+12:00

Fingering the programme for When the Rain Stops Falling, I turn to Katherine and stammer: “I think this is a play about sustainability.” We smile uncertainly at each other. “Yes,” she replies. “It seems it is.” I purse my lips as I examine the stage, a beautifully minimal landscape bearing a solitary crack. Sustainability is, you know, like, cool and all, but whether I’m willing to sacrifice two hours of my Monday night to it is another story altogether.

And, well, it is another story altogether. Writer Andrew Bovell – best known for Lantana and Strictly Ballroom - maps the misfortunes and mistakes of three generations spanning from London to Uluru, woven together with an unmistakably tragic thread, each running seamlessly into the next. The people change, but their patterns don’t. Time simply overlaps, culminating in a ramshackle apartment one afternoon in Alice Springs, 2039, as Gabriel York (Stephen Lovatt) sits down for lunch with his son Andrew (Simon London) for the first time in 21 years.

I resent the play at first. The opening monologue feels artificially earnest and the transitions, stilted and ambiguously symbolic. I feel unnecessarily bewildered as it progresses: it seems confusing for the sake of being confusing – for the sake of being ‘artistic’. At times the dialogue feels heavy-handed, bordering on patronising; spelling out what has already been ladled into our laps. The faint traces of absurdist theatre – most notably the repetition of certain lines – make me feel disgruntled because while they draw parallels down the bloodline, they also reduce moments of poignancy to the banal and while you can relate this back to the absurdity of human experience, ultimately they are two totally different things.

But then When the Rain takes me by surprise by improving exponentially. And I really do mean this in the most sincere sense of the term. Under Shane Bosher’s direction, the cast give incredible performances and it isn’t long before I make the leap from being immutably unenthusiastic to teetering dangerously and unwaveringly on the brink of tears. The necessity of the fragmented presentation of their lives becomes clear, gently knocking the wind out of you as it slowly unravels.

Ultimately, the play is about sustainability, just not in the way you expect. It’s a quiet reflection on the need to maintain our histories, no matter how sordid and peppered with shame they may be. It’s a reminder that history has a funny little way of sustaining itself, and that attempting to conceal that history may mean that the last truth you ever know is the very truth you spent your whole life searching for.

The Power of Good Packaging

2010-06-10T13:26:00.001+12:00

HOLY SMOKES I want a bag of these in my hairy little hands RIGHT NOW.

design by here.

Robert Tirado

2010-06-10T13:18:00.000+12:00

Miss Kee

Nana Fishies

Nana Galaxian

Chic Squid

Maira Kalman

2010-06-10T12:53:00.005+12:00

I first became acquainted with Maira Kalman's work when I bought The Principles of Uncertainty on a whim (thank you, Amazon recommendations). It turned out to be the better choice over Alice in Sunderland anyway, which I still can't muster any enthusiasm for.

Anyway, I just discovered that she blogs for the New York Times (which continues to amaze me with its overwhelming breadth). And the Pursuit of Happiness is themed around American democracy, starting with Obama's inauguration. My favourite is probably In Love with A Lincoln but Can Do and I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door are pretty good too ("then came dinosaurs and motorcycles").

Can't Kiss

2010-06-10T11:55:00.002+12:00

The expressions on the dolls' faces in Pavel Bolo and Idan Schwartz's Can't Kiss crack me up big time.

Party Bison

2010-06-09T01:36:00.004+12:00

The only thing more awesome than a taxidermied bison head is
a taxidermied bison head wearing a sombrero
regarding you suspiciously from the floor of the luggage compartment
on the ferry from Waiheke to Auckland

The Pyramid Scheme EP Release feat. Dr Colossus

2010-06-09T01:16:00.002+12:00

Yulia Brodskaya

2010-06-03T10:26:00.003+12:00

Quilling was big I was five. I remember bouncing impatiently by the table - whether at home, or at my grandmother's house, or in the attic of my aunty's farmhouse - as the most delicate strips of paper transformed into sprawling landscapes, exquisite flora, and majestic beasts. It was far beyond anything my stubby little fingers could ever hope to achieve, of course, but I was content to simply watch the magic unfold (or, I guess, fold) before my eager eyes.

I'd completely forgotten about the art of quilling until recently, when I stumbled across Yulia Brodskaya's work:

Totally amazing.

Passivity in Disguise

2010-05-27T13:50:00.006+12:00

I never intended to create a blog.

Okay, that's patently untrue. More accurately, I never intended to maintain a blog. The blog was a placeholder. The real reason I bought the domain name was to create an online portfolio for my photography, but I was writing my thesis at the time and couldn't justify the hours I'd need to build a website from scratch. And so, with a gentle click, this blog charmingly wiggled its way into the world. I would caress it during those late nights in my windowless office, affectionately referring to it as my means of procrastinating productively. My blog, I'd coo, how much lovelier you are than that fat pile of reading on my desk. Oh yes you are, oh yes you are.

The thing is, I completed my thesis in February. Three months on and it's wearing the early signs of neglect. A cobweb lazily hanging from the search box; a messy scrape under its header from when it tried to climb the length of the guttering behind the house and no one was around to see it fall.

My excuse is that I've been too busy, and I have. And it's been great! Last week I gave a lab on the science and ethics of targeted memory erasure, which, as some of you know, is one of my most favourite topics. Ever. Earlier this week I taught on stereotyping and ambivalent sexism (another pet topic) and tomorrow we're discussing the debate surrounding whether homosexuality is innate, which totally gets me riled up. And next week I'm teaching on the social construction of gender. I love teaching at Epsom as well. Everyone out here is so friendly and the classes always have a really positive vibe.

But being busy isn't a valid excuse. In fact, it's recently struck me that being busy - in the way that I've been busy - is on par with being incredibly fucking lazy. It's passivity in disguise. This year was meant to be my break from academia, but somehow I've committed to more than a full-time load and once again I've left no time for anything else. It's a habit I need to break. It bugs me.

I'm picking up a fat wad of essays (like cash but with less value) this afternoon, so the next ten days are sliding into a single sigh of frustration. And then: the finish line, when time will come flooding into my life like a rush of fresh air. Right? Right.

Right.

So, ah, yeah. That's why I haven't posted much recently. Not sure being busy holds up in a court of, you know, blog-rearing law. In fact, I'm pretty sure if we stick to my vague analogy of the blog being my child, then I'm the worst kind of parent - "I'm not a bad parent, I just have better things to do with my time. I never even wanted the blog in the first place! Leave me alone!"

Anyway, here are some photos from Lina Scheynius's flickr:

The Shortest Word on Zines

2010-05-27T11:47:00.001+12:00

The Auckland Zinefest is coming up (applications close next week so get in quick!) I got excited and decided I wanted to make a science-themed zine, but then realised I didn't actually know what a zine was. In fact, my experience of zines can be reduced to a single encounter one winter's night when I was seventeen and my friend Holly was distributing zines at an EP release. But then she ran out and I never got to lay my hands on a physical copy. So ah, yeah, my experience of zines was never really an experience at all.

Google and Wikipedia can only take you so far on occasions such as these, so I tried this crazy idea of asking "people", namely the lovely Aimee and Jono, about zines. His reply still makes me snicker:

Primarily a form of self-indulgence, zines have become a popular method of letting the world know when you have too much time on your hands. They often deal with the real issues: '5 Great Bands I Saw At The Kings Arms in 2003', and ask the hard questions: 'Is Dumpster Diving Vegan?' It is also a great way for fantastic writers whose work is not 'accepted' by the big 'mainstream' writing journals to get their alternative poetry 'out there'.

Not only is it important to choose content anyone could have written, it's imperative that the materials used be equally uninspired. An A4 printer, a biro pen, a pair of scissors, a glue stick and a selection of crayons is all you need. When you're sure you have created all the content you'll need, just photocopy it 20 times and staple it together.

You can give your zines away or sell them for between $2 and $3. Your target market is other people who have also made a zine for this event.

I think he should make a zine about it.

In other news, Lazy Soosan is a neat little zine celebrating a different letter of the alphabet in each issue:

Kate

2010-04-28T17:54:00.003+12:00

We made a magazine and we're having a launch party to celebrate!

Y'all should come along if you can, there will be free copies available on the night and Emily and I are going to bake up a storm. And by storm, I mean cupcakes. Which are like storms, only infinitely more pleasant and hopefully more 'mouthwatering' than 'potentially disastrous'.

Cover art by Ana Bagayan

Black Hole

2010-04-21T22:55:00.002+12:00

Okay so I'm a huge fan of Charles Burns' work, and Black Hole is one of my all-time favourite graphic novels. Unsurprisingly, discovering this collaborative project between Max Oppenheim and prosthetic artist Bill Turpin (thanks to my friend Doug) has totally made my day.

This one is by far the best.

The Vagina Monologues

2010-04-06T20:24:00.004+12:00

I had the pleasure of photographing the lovely ladies from The Vagina Monologues this afternoon while they baked vagina cookies. It was super fun:

They're performing at the Maidment Theatre from the 22nd - 24th of April

$15 for students and $25 for adults.

The Impossibility of Tomorrow

2010-03-29T18:35:00.000+13:00

Please Say Yes

2010-03-29T18:30:00.004+13:00

Four of a Kind

2010-03-29T18:24:00.001+13:00

Just doin' my thang

2010-03-28T21:11:00.011+13:00

I don't think I've ever worked as hard as I'm working right now.

Well. Not right now, since right now I'm clearly procrastinating by writing about how hard I'm working instead of actually working hard. But whatever, I never claimed to tell the truth. Nor am I complaining. In fact, there's something inherently satisfying about working this hard, even though some of that work exists for the sole purpose of letting me have high tea with my two most favourite ladies on a Saturday afternoon.

You pay a price though, and I'm paying it right now. Sitting here, delirious on paracetamol and hot totties, swaying to The Smiths (who are growing on me) like a seventy year-old ex-motivational speaker who lost his hearing in his sixties and his sense of decorum not long after.

So Scott and I went to a wee place (this is my attempt to cutesy it up because I've totally forgotten what it was called) just out of Te Puke for his sister's wedding last weekend. We stayed on his uncle's farm, which boasted a lot of cows. This made a lot of sense, actually, because his uncle farms cows. I took some photos of the cows. I was pretty pleased. The cows seemed suitably unimpressed.

Shona's wedding was on the beach and it was beautiful.

I kept getting in the professional photographer's way, and though he was the jolly type I felt a little uncomfortable about trying to elbow my way into the whole 'taking photos' scene so I hid the camera back at the farm, where it didn't emerge again until two am that night when I couldn't find a light and blundered around taking photos so that I could use the flash to find my things.

Victor Karlovich Bulla

2010-03-26T18:14:00.001+13:00

I stumbled across this amazing photo today (if you click on it - and in fact, any of the photos I post - it'll come up with a larger image) :

Ленинградская обл. 1937год. Фотография Виктора Карловича Буллы / Leningrad region. USSR 1937. Photo by Victor Karlovich Bulla.

Carine Brancowitz

2010-03-25T17:25:00.003+13:00

I'll admit that I don't read many fashion magazines.
Okay, I don't read any fashion magazines.
Okay, I don't read magazines at all. Thank you, internet.

So I'm hardly an expert when it comes to this sort of thing, true, but Carine Brancowitz's illustrations are striking in their simplicity and in their use of what looks like ballpoint pen (I only say this because it reminds me of Juan Francisco Casas' hyperrealistic illustrations). I love the idea of drawing consumable pieces rather than photographing them in all their tangible glory, filtering them through a medium that can't entirely be trusted.

Lauren Kalman

2010-03-23T18:06:00.002+13:00

Lauren Kalman's Blooms, Efflorescence, and Other Dermatological Embellishments depicts dermatological disease using materials traditionally considered beautiful, creating this great dissonance between the viewer's initial disgust and the associated aesthetical appreciation. This is the best kind of art. There's something about human flesh and its deformities that I find infinitely fascinating and I love what she's done here. I've always wanted to create wallpaper in the same vein - imagine running your fingers over encrusted plaster, shaped in the most beautiful patterns but which nevertheless represent all that we seem to find repulsive - I think it'd be great.

Syphilis (2009)

Nevus Comedonicus (2009)

Cystic Acne, Back (2009)

Gonorrhea (2009)

Wart (2009)

From the curator of Anatomy in the Gallery:

In rendering the grotesque and undesirable aspects of actual human skin, Kalman’s jeweled adornments subvert conventional consumer desire for such talismanic commodities, from which buyers and wearers subconsciously seek to appropriate qualities coveted in the imagined “perfect” body. For instance, the artist explains that “gold’s brilliance, indelibility, and unoxidising surface signify beauty, purity, and immortality, qualities that are also desirable in the body,” yet her own pieces, though handcrafted using traditional metalsmithing techniques from gold, silver, and semi-precious stones, instead illustrate the physical body’s susceptibility to disfigurement, contamination, and decay.

Kalman’s photographs document these jeweled lesions and sores—most of which are more prevalent among AIDS patients—in situ on the body of a young, white woman, the stereotypical imaged body of consumer culture and one less often associated with the AIDS virus. This imaged body, which Kalman conceptually aligns with the imagined body, “is stylized, static, and manipulated, often an amalgam of bodily ideals and contemporary aesthetic paradigms.” Although her photographs retain some shock value in their depiction of pierced flesh, they also advertise these perverse piercings as jewelry, transforming them back into objects of desire connected to beauty, status, and wealth through their placement in relation to the romanticized ideal body, thereby dramatizing the corrupt and corrosive nature of consumer culture. However, her representation of disease in the documentary medium of photography, particularly as displayed in the context of a medical museum, simultaneously blurs the boundaries between commercial and medical images of the body.

Diane Arbus

2010-03-23T09:29:00.001+13:00

I have recently discovered, and become enamoured with, Diane Arbus's work:

Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park

New York City, USA (1962)

A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester

New York, USA (1968)

A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx

New York, USA (1970)

Untitled (3)

(1971)

Untitled (6)

(1971)

Michael Massaia - Afterlife

2010-03-18T09:33:00.002+13:00

These shots are from Michael Massaia's Afterlife, which capture the final days of Jersey Shore amusement parks.

On his process:

Well, first, it all starts with capturing the image. I will usually spend a few days walking around the area prior to taking the images. I try to find areas I can sneak into where I won’t be noticed. I still only use large format black & white film because of its superior resolution and dynamic range (especially in highlights). I try to capture most of my images on days when there is little to no wind. I also prefer days that are overcast, so I can get more of an even tonality throughout the entire negative.

I never composite or combine multiple images. Every image is created using one shot/piece of film.

After the image is captured, I develop the negative so it’s fairly low contrast, so I keep that even tonality intact. I then have to create an enlarged negative from the original negative because a platinum print can only be made through a contact printing process.

No enlargers can be used, so your negative must be the size of your final print.

After I create a decent enlarged negative, I then start to work on the paper in which the print will be made on. Finding a good 100 percent rag paper to make a platinum print on can be tough because of the different acidity levels, and different sizing that varies from paper to paper.

After you’ve found a good batch of paper, you then have to mix your chemistry, which you will eventually have to hand-coat onto the paper using either a high quality paint brush or coating rod.

After I coat my paper (I do multiple coatings), the paper is forced dried using a print dryer and the enlarged negative is placed onto the platinum/palladium coated paper and then placed in a device called a vacuum frame which firmly presses the negative and paper together.

The print is then exposed, using a multi-spectrum metal halide lamp. Exposure usually takes 3-5 minutes. I do a large amount of “light dodging and burning” which is a common printmaking technique that allows you to selectively control the lighting throughout the entire print.

Some of this is done on the actual negative, and some is done while the print is being exposed. After the print is finished being exposed, it is developed in different developers, depending on the look you’re going for. After the print is developed, it then has to soak in a series of acid baths (hypo-clearing agent, citric acid, etc.) to remove the excess metal.

Finally, the print is washed for about an hour’.

Mark Ryden - The Gay 90's: Old Tyme Art Show

2010-03-16T15:01:00.000+13:00

I love Mark Ryden and I love his latest work the most.

Incarnation (2009)

In his hauntingly beautiful and masterfully executed oil paintings, Ryden creates his own contemporary mythologies whose archetypes include fairy tale creatures, historical figures, and pop cultural icons. Seamlessly juxtaposing macabre motifs like meat grinders and disembodied presidents with eye-pleasing ingénues and seductive landscapes, the artist produces a vision of society in which menace and comfort are inseparably interwoven. These labor-intensive canvasses deftly rework centuries of art history, combining the grandeur of Spanish and Italian religious painting with the decorative richness of Old Master compositions and the lush textures of French Neo-Classicism.

The central theme of The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show references the idealism of the 1890s while addressing the role of kitsch and nostalgia in our current culture. "In the modern era, sentimentality and beauty have been disdained in the art world," he explains. "This new work is explores the line between attraction and repulsion to kitsch, and between beauty and banality." Through their visual richness and symbolic complexity, Ryden's infinitely suggestive dreamscapes invite us to enter their world and to indulge our sense of wonder.

These Friends of Mine

2010-03-08T22:13:00.001+13:00

Photos from the shoot of Lisa Crawley's latest music video:

I < 3 Camping

2010-03-03T16:40:00.005+13:00

If you haven't yet, I highly recommend heading along to I <3 Camping, which plays at The Basement until this Saturday - I'm going again tonight (I <3 it that much)

Written by the supremely talented Sophie Henderson and Curtis Vowell, I <3 Camping touts itself as an unromantic comedy, though it's precisely the kind of romance portrayed in this play that is romantic - it is awkward and it is fumbling and it is hilarious. It's also refreshing to watch a play that is (cringe) quintesentially New Zealand. I feel like I'm running the risk of sensationalising the whole thing, but: I <3 Camping truly captures our generation, the way Roger Hall captures our parents' (grandparents'?) generation. Think Eagle vs. Shark meets Flight of the Conchords. Actually, don't. I pretty much just named two things that make me laugh, and after watching the play again I've realised that its strength lies in the interplay between the realism of the main characters and the exaggerated quirks of the cameos.

Anyway, for those who aren't frequent patrons of theatre, now is the time to start. Trust me. It rules. And unlike films, plays don't last forever so go see it while you still can. The other thing I was reminded of tonight is the fluidity of theatre: It actually astounded me how much the play has blossomed over the past week. It's sharper, more fleshed out, and has a lot more impact because of this. I haven't seen anything this great written by young New Zealanders (shit, I don't mean to sound so patriotic. I'm not) since Blinkers and Spurs (though whether you can really compare the two is another question altogether).

I have some really hilarious photos but I don't want to spoil the surprise, so here are some vanilla shots:

Matthew Albanese

2010-02-08T12:54:00.007+13:00

Matthew Albanese meticulously creates these fantastical worlds and then photographs them:

My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.

Paprika Mars (12 pounds paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder and charcoal)

Burning Room (wood, nylon, plexiglass, purchased dollhouse furniture)

-The model was actually set on fire-

Sugarland. (20 pounds of sugar, jello and corn syrup).

-The crystals were grown in his studio over the course of two months.-

Salt Water Falls. (glass, plexiglass, tile grout, moss, twigs, salt, painted canvas and dry ice).
-The waterfall was created from a time exposure of falling table salt.-

Aurora Borealis. (made by photographing a beam of colored light against a black curtain).
-The trees were composited from life-
-The stars are strobe light through holes in a cork board.-

Vanessa and Lloyd's Wedding

2010-02-03T19:46:00.011+13:00

Kate MacDowell

2010-02-02T12:48:00.002+13:00

Kate MacDowell's sculptures are eerily beautiful. She seems to work with binaries, synthesising contemporary concerns with classical mythology, playing with the arbitrary disjunction between the animal and the human world, and using porcelain to create this jarring relationship of purity and tragedy. I like it. I like it a lot.

First and Last Breath, 2010

Romulus and Remus, 2009

Casualty, 2009

Mice and Men, 2009

Canary, 2008

Cycle, 2008

Safety, 2008

Sparrow, 2008

Persephone, 2008

Daphne, 2007

Venus, 2006

Artist's statement:

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. – C.S. Lewis.

In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.

I hand sculpt each piece out of porcelain, often building a solid form and then hollowing it out. Smaller forms are built petal by petal, branch by branch and allow me the chance to get immersed in close study of the structure of a blossom or a bee. I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value. I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.

David Lynch - Dark Night of the Soul

2010-01-31T14:55:00.002+13:00

David Lynch recently collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on a photographic installation at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. The album is amazing in its own right - I actually can't stop listening to it - but I love everything about this project! I love the wide-reaching collaboration involved, and despite this, how it still comes together seamlessly to create this beautifully haunting atmosphere. I love the idea of experiencing it through Lynch's eyes. I love how the use of photography makes you work to create the stories he has seen and the dreams he has had. I love how the use of photography seems strangely jarring despite the fact that it is simply an abstraction of the music video format. I love that it was presented as an installation in a gallery, propelling it into a space demanding greater engagement and creating this sense of displacement from how one typically consumes music. s'all lightweight baby. I haven't felt this enthusiastic about something in weeks.

A track-by-track breakdown from Spin Magazine:

"Revenge," feat. Flaming Lips / 4:54
About reaping revenge on an ex lover and the man she left him for. "In my mind I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart," Wayne Coyne sings over a keyboard-driven waltz with bells, throbbing bass, and xylophone. "I had all the means of bringing you fuckers down." And you thought he was a UFO-lovin' hippie.

"Just War," feat. Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals / 3:44
Relationships are a battle. "Goodbye, sleep tight," Rhys sings, bidding a lover adieu. "Just war / You said it wouldn't hurt / The last survivor crawling through the dirt." Whistling, slide banjo, and layers of intermittent noises, from a detuned radio-like static to samples of honking car horns, make this one of the album's weirdest cuts.

"Jaykub," feat. Jason Lytle / 3:53
Like the Beatles -- if they were bred in rural Nebraska and fed magic mushrooms. Alt-country acoustic guitar joins a Sgt. Pepper's-like piano showtune and angelic backing vocals as former Grandaddy singer/songwriter Jason Lytle details a man's dream of winning an award. "They all thought that you were dumb / But it's you up on the podium," Lytle sings.

"Little Girl," feat. the Strokes' Julian Casablancas / 4:33
With a surf-rock drum beat and a Chuck Berry-on-acid electric guitar lead, this track's like a 1950s sock-hop at Ed Wood's house. And the Strokes frontman has a hot and scandalous date. "You twisted little girl / Showing them what love is all about," he sings about a conniving lass who stole his heart. "Where did all the time go? / Everything is gone."

"Angel's Harp," feat. Frank Black / 2:56
Imagine the Pixies squealer fronting the Melvins. The religion- and love-themed lyrics are nothing new for Black -- but the slogging, uber-distorted electric guitars and skittering blips that sound like a disk drive from a 20-year-old computer certainly are. And they make him sound scarier than ever.

"Pain," feat. Iggy Pop / 2:52
"I'm a mix of god and monkey!" Pop spits in this chaotic punk tune with fuzzed-out guitars and charging, Stooges-like rhythms. "There are good people in this world of bums," he moans. "But sadly I am not one!" It's a song about pain -- and Pop's got plenty to sing about.

"Stars Eyes (I Can't Catch It)," feat. David Lynch / 3:11
The album's most transcendent, heart-wringing track is Lynch's lament on love lost. Fittingly, it's also the most filmic, custom made for a scene from one of his surrealist narratives. "I can't catch you… please, please comeback," he talk-sings as violins and oscillating whirs that sound like giant industrial fans prop him up. It's like Moby's Play filtered through a Monet painting.

"Everytime I'm With You," feat. Jason Lytle / 3:12
For Lytle, relationships and booze go hand in hand: "Every time I'm with you / I am drunk and you are, too / What the hell else are we supposed to do?" he whispers over a drowned-out piano melody. It's an plodding ode to intoxicated love -- and it leaves the listener feeling a little of both.

"Insane Lullaby," feat. the Shins' James Mercer / 3:10
The title couldn't be more fitting: this song's a lulling, blanket-snuggling Shins classic with Mercer's bright vocals -- covered in a wall of chaotic KMFDM-like industrial noises. "Dreams build up from the floor," he sings. "Life will never be enough!"

"Daddy's Gone," feat. Nina Persson and Mark Linkous / 3:08
The album's simplest song is also one of its best. This straightforward ballad finds Linkous -- in his only Soul vocal appearance -- dueting with the Cardigans singer about a child's vision of a hardworking father. The layers of melodies go down easy, as do its soothing one-liners: "Close your eyes, until your dreams arrive."

"The Man Who Played God," feat. Suzanne Vega / 3:10
This is the track to put Dark Night of the Soul on mom and pop's radar. It's another one of the album's few un-varnished guitar ballads -- and it's led by Vega's Feist-esque warble. There's a fun counting part, too. "1, 2, 3, you could be / The man who played god."

"Grim Augury," feat. Vic Chestnut / 2:32
This song's a spooky pre-feast ritual at the Adams Family residence. "We're cutting a baby out / With my grandmother's heirloom / An antler handle carving knife!" Athens, GA, songwriter Chestnut sings in a creepy cackle over samples of ringing clock bells and haunting keys. "We're sharing holiday dinner… and catfish were wriggling in blood and gore in the kitchen sink!"

"Dark Night of the Soul," feat. David Lynch / 4:39
Lynch has an uncanny ability to transport an audience. And Dark Night of the Soul's closing track is a perfect example, taking the listener to a dusty Prohibition-era speakeasy with its 1920s jazz piano, vibrato electric guitar, and repeated lyrics of "shadows of the dark night… dark night of the soul." It'll make the hairs on the back your neck stand on end.