February 28

Leaden
Leaven
Makes you think.

North to Alaska

Driving northeast engulfed by the heavy atmosphere of a heavy week. Tired housekeeping. Predators all around, but strangely still trying to attract predators who might be turned to advantage. Wondering where the end of ones rope actually is and how anyone actually suffers anything gladly?

Follower -- Message from Batman

Dear Follower,

Although you're not currently recorded as a follower, I know you're out there.

State Your Name.

Yours,

ACravan's batman

Today at ACravan's house

Divest; score and scourge the mountain; bake cocounut chocolate chip cookies; reduce the cleverness deficit; usher in the calm before the calm; sweat.

Today and a half

I'm back and unsure where to start. First I'll drink my cup of tea. Then make two phone calls, write three letters and re-start thinking and being.

Today

Today I'm getting started. Tomorrow I MAY go further.

So imaginative, I love it

http://thechive.com/2010/02/24/what-did-that-place-look-like-50-years-ago/

go to that link, seriously, you wont regret it.
one of the pictures:

its a picture of what the same place looked like fifty years ago! how cool!

love
ziggy

Erwin Olaf - Awesome or no?

I recently had to find a photography book in my school's library. Because my school has a small love of the arts, this section was about as wide as a 100 lb person. AKA, not large at all. I stumbled upon a slim book of Erwin Olaf, a photographer I had never heard of. I was immediately intrigued by the intricateness of his photographs. Each one had been taken with care. The book had photographs from 3 of hi series: Grief, Hope, and Rain.
The models have this blank look in their eyes, but seem to tell a story. There are small details in each photograph, a wrinkled handkerchief, red wet eyes, the way the hands and body are placed. They are almost erotic, almost uncomfortable to look at. The use of lighting, contrast, and color fulfill the intensity of each picture in the book. Although each photograph looks simple the first time you see it, the more you look, the more you find. Each one made me ask questions, and I LOVE that. I wish I could talk to him, and find out about where he gets these ideas, what makes his mind go. To see the images better, click on the pictures below. It will open up a new page with a larger pic.
I had two favorites, the first is from his grief series, called grief:

 

The second is from the Hope series, called Hope 5, 2005, i think?

Lovin Life

-Ziggy 

A great day ruined

So today I was with my friend JB, and we were killin some Ke$ha songs in the car. We saw an empty parking lot by the school, and decided to get out and do some hardcore dancing. So we are there, looking like fools, having an amazing time dancing and singing along to Ke$ha's dinosaur song, when we realize that JB is going to be late for class. We get in the car and leave. We drive around to the other side of campus and park by his building, and he realizes that HE LEFT HIS PHONE ON TOP OF THE CAR! of course, since we had been jammin out in style while driving to the other side of campus, we had not heard or seen his phone. We sped back to the parking lot, and found it crushed into three pieces on the intersection. It was horrible. at least for him.
He got so upset, and decided to buy himself a new phone. I assumed that he would buy himself a cheap-o fone since his contract wasn't up for another year, but instead decides to buy himself a brand new $200 fone. I urged and pleaded with him not to do it, and even asked random stranger walking by to agree with me. They all did. He still bought the phone. He then proceeds to call his father and tell him the horrifying news, only to find out that both of his parents contracts had come up, and he could have traded with them to get a new phone free. AAAGGGHHH!!! I dont know what he will do next, but I feel it could get interesting.
All in all, what could have been a killer rad day was ruined because of a friggin cell phone. Yuck.
Much love,
Ziggy

Collages from the 1860

There was recently a showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Playing With Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage." It showcased work of multiple women and men from the victorian era, around the 1860s, and what they did with carte de visites. They would create these really interesting and intricate collages using the pictures, and superimose them on suitcases, butterfly wings, and duck heads, as well as other things. It is really interesting to read about, because until these were uncovered, many thought that collages began during 1912, when Picasso and Braque were coming out with their works. I have linked the title of the show to an article from the new york times that goes into more detail about it. I tried to look for more images of these works online, but I came up only with the ones that were included in the article. If anyone has some of these images, or knows where I could find them, that would be great!

Be a betty!
Ziggy

i wish someone had given me this for valentine's day

Itsy Bitsy Snowflings

Today, I will show to you, some amazing photographs, taken by a very curious man, William Bentley. He took pictures of individual snowflakes his entire life basically. My favorite, by far, is this one:

For more information on it, click here
What I love best about his work is his attention to detail. Each one of his snowflakes are catalogued and named. Each is given the same amount of care.They are all so different, and he appreciated and acknowledged those differences. Each snowflake is just as different as each person that walks this earth, and that is what he saw when he started taking these pictures. He saw something beautiful in them that others realized and began to appreciate once he started taking these pictures. I love that.

Ziggy

stereoscopy

I have no clue what to say about these, they are like 3d images, but they only make my eyes hurt. I found some pretty ones of landscapes, here they are!

An image of a tower in spain...very pretty. To see more images from the gallery, go here.

I found this really cool image that is created using the stereoscopy process, but it is a modern version of this process. I found it on wikimedia commons, which I have never heard of until I started looking for stereoscopes, but this particular page was cool. You are supposed to look at the image using 3D glasses, but it is pretty stellar without them.

Pce Easy
-Ziggy

Carte De Visite

This truly is a lost art. These were photos that were produced on cardboard like paper. People would leave them as calling cards when they went to someones house, thus the name cartes de visite. They are about the size of a palm, and have very nice clarity and contrast. All the ones that I have seen are so pretty. I wish we still did this when we visited other people's houses. I found two that I thought were fascinating. One I found on flickr, and is of a woman, with creepy eyes. Apparently, according to the description and the comments, she was well off. Her dress is very shiny and looks like silk. I dont think it is that pretty or well made, but styles have changed since this picture was taken (1860). If you all have time, go look at the flickr page, coz the discussion is pretty cool.

Like I said, the woman has creepy eyes, she must have blinked while the picture was being taken. I personally think that the dress is too large for her, and kind of swallows her up. If you look at it close up, you can see that there is a lot of detail to the dress, and it must have been expensive. Unfortunately, it doesnt look that hot on her :(. 

The other image I found is also of a woman, with her back to the camera, looking over her shoulder. I think she looks much more elegant, and prettier than this "rich" woman above. She has an air of mystery to her, a sadness almost. She looks very regal, and I sort of created a life for her. She has noble lineage, but her family is nothing special. She lives in high society of Lima, Peru, but wishes for her independence from the responsibilities that come with high society. She falls in love with a foreigner, and becomes a dutchess of Spain.That is what I think of when I look at this image. I love it.Also, her dress is not so shiny, but it looks very nice on her, and although it may not be so extravagant, I have a feeling it was just as expensive as the other dress, if not more.Look at the lace shawl/top of the dress, as well as the jewelry she has on, and the way her hair is placed.

Love,

Ziggy

Ambrotypes new and old

So I was looking all over the place for some really cool looking ambrotypes, and I found something stellar. I was looking for ambrotypes of wedding couples, and I found this one from 1856 that was really mysterious to me. I wanted to just keep on looking at it, wondering what it was that they were thinking about. I kept looking, and I also found this awesome wedding photgrapher that does all his photography with ambrotype media. It is really awesome seeing the same media being used for the same purpose, but so differently, then and now.
The image from 1856 was from at the OhioPix website, which is like an online history museum of Ohio, pretty cool. The images from the present day wedding I found at the Offbeat Bride website, who has links to more from the same photographer.

 

  

It is so cool how art and how pictures are taken through the years. It may be the same type of camera, and the same kind of process,  but the message the pictures send are completely different.

-Ziggy

The Romantic Era

I have recently found some really cool paintings from the Romantic era. The photography of the 1800s is reminiscent of these paintings, especially the landscapes and stilllifes(sp?). I found a painting that I thought was beautiful, and could easily  be represented using a camera from the 1800s, to make a calotype or some similar type of print.

The image was painted by someone from the Dutch Romatic Period. There is more information about the Dutch Romantic Period on the Kunsthal website.I couldn't find a good enough photograph that represented the type of Romantic work done during this time, but if you look at some of my other posts, you will see what I mean by romantic photographs. What I did find was a mondern take on romantic photography. This artistic director Édouard Lock, created a new ballet, and it uses the romantic era ballets, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and the production stills are done in the same style. Here is an image of one of the stills, and here is the link to more information about it. As you can see, it is in color, but it does have a slight romantic feel to it.

Peace
- Ziggy

RICHARD BERNSTEIN

JANELLE "PENNY" COMMISSIONG

PET SHOP BOYS