Last Thursday I was commenting on digital manipulation [Link] This got me thinking again about two recent collections of David Carson’s photography – The Book of Probes and Trek. Superficially there is a lot of play in these on focus and resolution – abstraction in a dissolved image, recognition that there may be something in…
photography
tipping points
On trust and digital photography – Sam put it this way – and very effectively – Yes, but I think this is the central point of all this – that sometimes, a big enough quantitative change in the ease of doing something makes a qualitative impact on some social action. I think you see this…
ghosts, abandonment, ruins
From Phil@philosophistry – ghost town gallery.com – a gazeteer of ghost towns. You can send virtual postcards through the site. See also my comments last August on photographs of archaeological ruin.
Vermeer’s archaeological interiors
Gorgeous. The movie. “Girl with a pearl earring”. At the heart – the simulacrum – the exact copy of an original that never existed. The PR and website for the movie are all about a delicate understated relationship, implicit in a finely crafted painting, a love story (the publicity stills show the main characters staring…
the anarchaeological
Abram just sent me this picture by Juan Carlos Castro of Reistertown, MD. It appeared in Adbusters. Hygienic. Contrast the photographs I posted last month, and remember the archaeological fascination with the constitution of place. I recall the anthropologist Marc Augé is into this kind of non-place.
Photographing the archaeological
I notice a few recent books by photographers who are into abandonment and decay – me monitoring sensitivity to the archaeological, as usual. I particularly like ReadyMades: American Roadside Artifacts by Jeff Brouws. — here are some drive-in movie screens Pictures of old pickup trucks, abandoned gas stations (he has a lovely series in black…