photography and the role of time

I was made aware of a great photographer, Michael Wesely,  by good friend Auke Vleer (who is not that bad himself :))
This photographer is very famous (so this post is like way duhhh) for his long exposure shots of buildings and cityscapes.
This is his website Too bad that he doesn't have any large format pictures on his website (not that I would have dared to post them). As a mater of fact I think his website looks more as a german (he ìs german) modernist (he is) architect (for which he has an obious knack) than the site of a hot photographer, but, hey, who the hell am I to judge the guy.
I must say that I was slightly disappointed with the photographic results. When I was told how this man works and that uses shutter times up to three (!!!!) years I became extremely curious. I did not know what I could expect but the sheer monumentality of the effort, this almost archaeological endeavour... I guess I had expected the final result to be a bit more awesome aswell. Monumental if you wish.
Don't get me wrong I believe these are fantastic and gorgeous images, but it turns out that for me the patina of history, the flux, the erosion caused by people and elements are simply vanished. Maybe the shutter time is on the long side after all?




This image which I took from another great weblog (yeah, there's a couple out there..) is taken in Berlin and has a shutter time of two (devastating) years.


Another photographer that makes interesting work is Bill Travis. Something completely different, yet...!
What we see here is a different kind of visualization of time (and the passing of it). For me this borders on kitsch, but at the same time the historic and nostalgic looking photo's remind me of Davis Lynch movies (but from the 1900's).
Check out the link above for photo's.

Reason I am interested in all of this, besides a natural interest in photography, is that I bought a panorama photo from ebay.
 

It is a photo from 1919 and made with a so-called cirkut camera. This camera passes a scene in a couple of "sweeps". It is therefore possible for  people and elements to appear several times in the picture (which it was not used for in this image).
The same friend that told me about Michael Wesely had a book about the work of Eugene Goldbeck. A photographer who's claim to fame is the assembly, production and visualization of huge vistas of military personnel who are arranged in Norh Korean style. Absolutely stunning images.
So, I decided I wanted one of those panorama's for my home. This McClymonds photo is humble in it's compositional ambition compared to Goldbeck, but it is something I can't wait to see and admire.



I believe there's 21.000 people in this picture....


McClymonds info

yeah and this

throw these in while you're on it!

wishlist

I want this book (among a thousand others). Chris Ware's The Best American Comics 2007

 

life without buildings

a very inspiring weblog. It had so many great posts that I will only post the link. find out for yourself.
One picture I can't hold back. For me it is iconic. It reminds of a picture from Rem Koolhaas' Delirious New York. The 1909 theoreum. This is obviously different, but it is very similar. A fantastic rendering though.

illustrators of the "gouden boekjes"

Alice Provensen

Gustaf Tenggren



Richard Scarry (a childhood hero of mine)

Arne Ungermann

Leonard Weisgard a favourite

Mary Blair

more tomorrow!
Have a good new year!

Willem Bijmoer

For the Christmas holidays I am staying at the house of my father and mother in law.
I was browsing through some old children's books when I came across the cover of Abeltje. Since time is on my side here I can spend a good deal of time browsing and searching for things I like and that I am curious about.
The illustrator is Willem Bijmoer. His work is very recognizable for dutch children and for dutch people in general. He illustrated a lot of the books that Annie M.G. Schmidt wrote. And since she is the most popular writer of children's books in Holland for I think the second half of the century, her work is iconic. And so are the illustrators.
So, I have known this work of course. But only now have I looked it up and it turns out to be really excellent work; very fifties, but beautiful in it's technique, with characters that are alive and not as boring as they should have been for the time when they were drawn (just like the stories of Schmidt). Bijmoer also made very nice decors.
I am really into the fifties (and earlier) illustration-styles since the Charlie Harper "discovery". I am experimenting with chalk and pencil to obtain the slightly shaded effect which a lot of the illustrations from that period have. There is also a lot to discover when it comes to the use of dry brush techniques and ink styles.
I cannot post any pictures since there is a strict copyright procedure.
 

on authority (Max Weber)

I was trigered by this sentence when reading the final chapter of a book on the Haight Ashbury (by Charles perry):
"To that extent the Digger Crusade can be seen in terms of Weberian sociology as part of an endless conflict between charismatic and bureaucratic authority."
Somehow this conflict rings a lot of bells. I recognize it in my own work and life.
This is what a summarized piece in wikipedia says:

The sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him." Charismatic authority is one of three forms of authority laid out in Weber's tripartite classification of authority, the other two being traditional authority and rational-legal authority. The concept has acquired wide usage among sociologists.

source: wikipedia

something else that sounds interesting enough to read up upon, is:
"The accepted psychological explanation of fascism was that the authoritarian personality was taught to suppress it's feelings and submit to it's superiors, on the condition that it was allowed to take out all it hostilities on underlings and outsiders"

This is a definition from Wilhelm Reich, from his book The Mass-Psychology of Fascism (Die Massenpsychologie des Faschismus). Een marxistische uitleg

This definition is clearer than any definition I have ever heard or read. It also is a huge yellow warning sign for a reoccurring fascist tendencies. Because the heart of fascism is not an old fashioned ideology but a sociological phenomenon (which can be exploited).
"Fascism is only the organized expression of the structure of the average man's character.."

I am trying to digest that. It is worth chewing on.

Boris Bilinsky

Boris Bilinsky's work for the Fritz Lang Film Metropolis











This work probably inspired by his posters but not from his hands.

research links catalogues

index of research databases:

Tales from the vault: Canadian Pulp fiction

Canadian Mail Order Catalogues

and more postcard links

and more:
Great Britain with annoying ads, but hey, it's free, and it's high-res

postcards III

okay, this one was bound to be continued: International Postcards.. mjummy
But at ridiculous prices...


New York, Barclay Vessel Building


Adolf Hitler at the grave of his mother..

postcards II

Another site with postcards. This one for traders (buyers and sellers). It also contains a lot of nice old postcards. On this site I found postcards of Kapelle, where I grew up.
Other cards are of Vlissingen, which was flooded not only in 1953 (after it had been bombed to pieces in the war), but also in 1906, and of Rotterdam (before it was toen apart by the Germans). There is also on eof Cadzand, where we spent our holidays.

 

postcards

Site with thousands of dutch postcards.

Far from complete but a great initiative!

Phillippe Apeloig

site of Phillipe Apeloig, a french typographer/graphic designer. His work seems very classically modernistic, yet his best work is more eclectic, playful and vivid. Sometimes funny. Which I like best.
He lives in New York and France.  He has worked for Total Design in Holland and with April Greiman in California.
These posts are all related to me reading the book "The Story of Graphic Design in France" by Michel Wlassikoff, which contains a lot of beautiful and often surprising (and unknown, to me) graphic design.

design in France

site on the history of graphic design and typography in France. The weirdest URL... untraceable. That's also french I guess

Oracle

History of the San Fransisco Oracle by one of it's founders Allen Cohen.
History of the Diggers
a bibliography of the Haight Ashbury also includes films.

Summer of Love

Link to a PBS documentary about the Summer of Love (San Fransisco, California, 1967). As I mentioned before I am reading a good book on the Haight Ashbury scene in the sixties. I wanted to know more about this period in the history of the United States and the history of the Counter Culture. An interest I have had for as long as I can remember, but which takes on a new shape all the time (from Thompson, to beats, to anti globalists)
This documentary is a nice introduction to th hippie phenomenom (of course the book I am reading is better).  The moving images are nice to see after having read so many details. For me it remains a period in time which is inspiriational. Until I imagine where all the ex hippies currently are and what they're doing. who they became, and what was left of their heritage. Also what it mutated in.

Posters

Here are two sites of fantastic Poster Makers. The Heads Of State and SmallStakes Both work ina different style but in all work the clean and simple but folky style is perfectly suited for what I think is the best client list ever: Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, Gomez, Iron and Wine etc. Some of the finest bands from the US. Actually those are not the direct clients (I think the concert halls are) but nevertheless I'd be willing to offer my small toes if I'd be able to work for bands like that (en being soo good at it). The design are extremely strong in their visual intelligence and wit. Respect mes amies!

Wes wilson

Wes Wilson was a poster designer (graphic artist is a better word) in the famous days of '66 an '67. He designed hundreds of brilliant rock posters, mainly for the Fillmore East. His skill and style evolved at a furious pace. His posters were very sought after and immediately copied by other artists that wanted to catch on to the "new wave" in graphic arts and the "hippie" style.
May 5 1967 he designed his last poster for Bill Graham, the famous owner of the Fillmore East and rock promoter., who replaced his work for the work of lesser but cheaper gods.
"his style was imitated in L.A., Austin and London (.....) Bill Graham had  already slipped in an occasional poster by another artist, so Wilson decided to demand a raise while his iron was hot. No Deal. Wilson's last poster showed a serpent with a bold dollar sign in its mouth"

from "The Haight Ashbury" by Charles Perry, 2005 (which I am currently reading of course)

This Site shows some pretty examples of his work.
This site sells them for an amount of money that Wilson would have laughed at when he printed them. They sell beautiful items though.





pictures copyright wes wilson, taken from http://www.collectable-records.ru/images/post/wilson/