Wednesday, April 22, 2009

As time goes by


I am an unreliable witness. Television footage was shot at the same time Eddie Adams took his photo but his image is not a film still. This photo gallery includes another moment from his reel. A new documentary about Adams was released earlier this month.

Susan Sontag Interview

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

street action


Edward and H.T. Anthony publisher, Broadway on a Rainy Day from the series Anthony's Instantaneous Views, 1859-65



Talbot, View of the Boulevards of Paris, May 1843


"The weather is hot and dusty, and they have just been watering the road, which has produced two broad bands of shade upon it, which unite in the foreground because, the road, being partially under repair (as is seen from the two wheelbarrows, etc. etc.), the watering machines have been compelled to cross to the other side. By the roadside a row of cittadines and cabriolets are waiting, and single carriage stands at a distance a long way to the right. A whole forest of chimneys borders the horizon: for, the instrument chronicles whatever it sees, and certainly would delineate a chimney-pot or a chimney-sweeper with the same impartiality as it would the Apollo Belvedere."





Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, c. 1839



Thursday, April 9, 2009

a shimmer of possibility













Inspired by Chekhov’s short stories, Paul Graham’s a shimmer of possibility comprises 12 individual books, each volume a photographic short story of everyday life in today’s America. Whilst the twelve books are all an identical size, they vary in length from just a single photograph, to 60 pages of images made at one street intersection. The radical form of this multi volume book embraces the unique nature of Graham’s work, giving the flow of life precedence over conclusiveness, where nothing much happens, but nothing is foreclosed either. http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/possibility.html


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Photographic Gun of Marey

Étienne-Jules Marey (March 5, 1830 – May 21, 1904) was a French scientist and chronophotographer. This 1882 invention allowed for the capture of 12 consecutive frames per second.
Abstract from the patent:
Photographic gun
United States Patent 4907022
A hand held weapon simulating a rifle, shotgun or pistol having a camera pivotally mounted in the area of the usual projectile insertion and ejecting mechanism which has its shutter, focus and f adjustment means mounted in or adjacent the firing chamber which camera is actuated by trigger action of the weapon for taking pictures through the barrel of the weapon.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

THE OCTOROON II


THE OCTOROON





Susan B and Susan B (and Bobby Indiana)


Dorothy Dow as Susan B. in the original Production of The Mother of Us All (1947)

Mignon Dunn as Susan B. in The Santa Fe Opera Company's production of The Mother of Us All (1976)


.... and ... some of Robert Indiana's artwork from the 1976 production:

Stein & Thomson

Two images of Gertrude Stein with Virgil Thomson: