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Showing posts from 2016

Carrie Fisher's face

Quality graphic design for Carrie Fisher's book cover. Apart from the clever typography I really like the colour AND best of all the daring crop of the face.

The Myth of the U.N. Creation of Israel: Jeremy R. Hammond

FPJ article examining the UN's deliberations on the idea of partition of Palestine in 1947 which were seized upon as a justification for Israel to illegally seize land and declare itself a state, an act immediately supported by the US. As the unjust 'settlement' imposed on Germany after WWI laid the seeds for WWII, similar treatment of Palestine made inevitable the ongoing conflict between the West and the Arab world.

Palestine and the UN vote

Long ago President Obama promised much to the Arab world and at the time some even believed he could deliver, but it turned out to be business as usual. Today was his parting gift; not veto-ing a UN resolution critical of Israel's settlements on Palestinian land. He's about to leave office and the Democrats no longer hold any of the levers of power so the impact will be minimal beyond the short term. If there was ever a time to do the right thing for once while incurring the inevitable fury of the Israel lobby it was now. In reality it's many years too late and means nothing, but even so it is one of those very rare moments in politics it's hard to be totally cynical about. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38421026 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38422438

English Landscape in the Autumn

  Hedgerow alongside local military airbase

1918-2016 war with Russia

The first war on Russia by Britain and the US after WW1

Banner for Gen. Stoltenberg

European Council on Foreign Relations report on Nato Enlargement , July 2016

Bob Dylan plays for a fan

A photo of a corner, in a corner, (from gig photos era)

Annie Collette, (gig photos)

 

Richard Estes: Hotel Empire, 1987

Lucas Blalock: Scenario for Barter, 2011

Phillips 108 Lucas Blalock Scenario for Barter Estimate £1,000 - 2,000 Sold for £2,500

Heloise Letissier

BBC interview

Fiona Apple: Across the Universe

Fiona Apple (born September 13, 1977)

Stoltenberg banner

Stoltenberg, in red, white. blue and black

Stoltenberg, black and red

site B, new build houses through trees

earthworks, from below

corner

wall, fences

Site B: sky

Nato, (inverted red and black)

Nato, red and black

Nato. (font: Tannenberg Fett)

Linda Ronstadt: The River, (by Joni Mitchell)

Martha Rosler: Runway, from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, (c. 1967–1972)

I nearly fell out of bed last night while listening to the Modern Art Notes podcast .  Interviewee in the second part of the show was artist/feminist/activist Martha Rosler (b.1943) and, while making herself lunch during the phone interview by the sounds of it, she casually mentioned Lewis Baltz, in the context of them both photographing landscape as land-use . I know he was a fairly marginal figure for most people into photography, so as a loooOooooong time fan it's a super-special moment for me when he gets a mention out there in the world.

Photograph of Robert T. Lincoln, (c.1865) and Edwin T. Booth (c.1879)

Robert, son of US president Abraham Lincoln, and the man who saved him from possible serious injury at a train station, Edwin T. Booth , brother of John Wilkes Booth.

Blood afterwards

There was a ton of wildlife around today. Usually I see a few small birds hopping around under the hedges for safety but as I walked along pheasants would repeatedly burst forth and flee into the sky with a frantic whirring sound. But what gave me more of a fright each time were big, rabbits that leaped from cover but only when I was practically putting my foot beside them. They were very brave waiting till I was so close and were perfectly invisible (at least to me anyway). They were big creatures and I don't know who was more shocked at our meeting them or me (it was probably me, actually). I knew they weren't rabbits but hares when I got back to the road and set off and saw one, fresh roadkill by the verge. In the moment I passed the detail that caught my attention was the rim of blood, bright and new, around the white of its eye.

Hedgerow after cutting

Site C:the war landscape hedgerows, again.

Seeing the Ralph Meatyard video earlier I was motivated enough to get off my wuss ass and go do some more hedge photography, even though I had decided enough was enough with that series. It's not as if anyone apart from Noam Chomsky has given the pictures the time of day - (but if anyone was to, I'm more than happy that it was him... he was probably only being polite, though). The rest of the world was proving perfectly capable of carrying on without the need for hedge photographs. Well mine, anyway. There's a hill to the south of town that has to be ascended to get out to the airbase a few miles beyond where these particular hedges reside. Last year I could cycle half way up that hill but this year, probably due to unpublicised earth movements, it has now become almost vertical and so I stop at the bottom, strap my bike to my back and scale a cliff face. I suppose it makes sense building an airfield up there beyond, as it would be nearer the sky.  As it is the Reaper d

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Check out this Modern Art Notes podcast on The Lexington Camera Club. (It's the second interview in the show so you might want to skip the first 40 minutes or so). It explains how it came about that in a small town in 50's America a group of amateurs became committed art photographers - including local optician Ralph Meatyard.

Cranston Ritchie: Ground Ties, (c. 1956-61)

Modern Art Notes podcast: The Lexington Camera Club

'Run Silent, Run Deep', (1958)

un-remembering

Replay: Aug 2012

Factory: Components

the battlefront

'and then the angels forget to pray for us' (Leonard Cohen)

After the war

Site C: Sunday 13th November 2016

Alison Rossiter

collectordaily Yossi Milo "Made from 1950s papers designed for military use, this Alison Rossiter 4-piece composition is among the largest she has ever made. Its simple geometric shapes in white, grey, and black feel almost sculptural, the subtle evidence of her dipping process seen in the rippled undulations of the middle tones." - Loring Knoblauch

Viktoria Binschtok: Orange Wings

collectordaily Klemms  

Jeff Buckley: Hallelujah, (Leonard Cohen)

John Cale - Shrek: Hallelujah, (Leonard Cohen)

Lana Del Ray: Chelsea Hotel No. 2, (Leonard Cohen)

Nina Simone: Suzanne, (Leonard Cohen)

Leonard Cohen: Dance Me to the End of Love

Tomas van Houtryve: Blue Sky Days @Anastasia Photo

How things can be misconstrued from the drone point of view, collectordaily review and Artforum Suspect Behavior , 2014

Cody's Lab: Mining Platinum From the Side of the Road, 2016

The Smiths: Ask

Local war landscape

 

Paul Nash: Landscape of the Vernal Equinox, 1943

I was never excited by the paintings of Paul Nash but found this evening's BBC 4 programme by Andrew Graham-Dixon was engaging and many of the works were suddenly impressive.  I'm intrigued now by Nash's preoccupation with very specific local landscapes which engaged him for years, how he found significance in the moon and equinoxes - and I can relate to his becoming a war artist.

Very Close Proximity, and yellow leaves

After somehow getting away without any hassle from officialdom last Autumn I didn't think I'd go back to site C again, particularly after getting no interest in the pictures from various open submissions. But, it was that time of year again, when those leaves would be changing colour so amazingly. How could I not go? On the cycle trip out I was pondering excuses to turn back, particularly because the hedgerows en route were mostly still green and I wanted another batch of images with flaming yellow and burning gold leaves (that, to me at least, referenced explosive shell-bursts). The ones taken on the first day of November last year (after a violent storm had stipped most of the branches) were more effective I thought due to those hot colours. The weather has been mild recently so presumably that's why the hedgerows are holding back longer this year. Site C involves taking pictures in very close proximity to what's actually there at site C, and not including that

Site C, Pollock, and the convention of having the sky at the top of the picture

It's hard not to think of Jackson Pollock (or Picasso's Guernica ) when making wide pictures. Using high res sweep-mode panoramics today I was considering the welter of lines in Pollock's paintings, and later reflected on Picasso's response to the bombing raid in 1937.

Life at Forest Fields/Hyson Green, Nottingham, 1980s

Thanks, Stephen .

site A, passing by