Dylan = Floating Cigarette = Aykroyd
October 12, 2013 7:54 AM Subscribe
Middle + Off: A tumblr blog that juxtaposes photos to surprising, elegant, and often humorous effect. (Probably NSFW -- there's some artful nudity in there.)
Some fantastic photos in there.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:07 AM on October 12, 2013
posted by MartinWisse at 8:07 AM on October 12, 2013
This is great!
Similar-ish: Who Wore It Better and I'm Google
posted by moonmilk at 8:17 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Similar-ish: Who Wore It Better and I'm Google
posted by moonmilk at 8:17 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
This is excellent and beautiful, but I wonder at the fact that they're apparently using lots of other people's work, unattributed. I can't see any credits on any of the photographs, which is both nasty in a theft of creative work kind of way and super annoying because I'd like to see more of some of them.
posted by fight or flight at 8:26 AM on October 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by fight or flight at 8:26 AM on October 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
Well, heck, this is pretty great! Whoever Middle + Off is, he or she has a delightful, creative and very flexible and varied take on how images can speak to each other, reflect each other, comment on each other, lean on each other, make jokes about each other, etc. It's very impressive.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:27 AM on October 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:27 AM on October 12, 2013 [4 favorites]
This reminds me sort of weirdly of Des Hommes et Des Chatons, except not as one note and not usually as adorable.
On a more serious note, I actually feel like looking at it is helping me understand the language I've often heard used to describe photography as art. Somehow the parallels draw out the elements of composition and angles and things that I've never really felt like I understood.
I like it quite a lot, thank you.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:31 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
On a more serious note, I actually feel like looking at it is helping me understand the language I've often heard used to describe photography as art. Somehow the parallels draw out the elements of composition and angles and things that I've never really felt like I understood.
I like it quite a lot, thank you.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:31 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Fascinating.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:59 AM on October 12, 2013
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:59 AM on October 12, 2013
I love these kinds of visual juxtapositions, but it's completely unacceptable to do something like this without linking to the original source and providing credit somewhere. It takes a special kind of asshole to slap a Creative Commons license (specifying "No Derivative Works"!) at the top of work derived entirely from other people's work.
It's called the WEB for a reason, after all. We can do so much better than this.
posted by oulipian at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
It's called the WEB for a reason, after all. We can do so much better than this.
posted by oulipian at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2013 [8 favorites]
This is so fabulous; thank you HeroZero! I've always been a huge fan of this sort of photomatching play, and this is person is sooooo good at it. (though, yeah, I agree that sourcing the images would be a lot better.)
I'd love to do an endless game of "telephone" with a pile of people based on the same sort of theme. Begin with one person posting one photo (a), and the next person posts a visual echo or pun or extension of that image (image b), similar to what we see in this blog, and then the third person posts photo "c" working from "b," then person four posts photo "d" to align with photo "c" ... and etc., etc. It would be wonderfully fascinating to see how that would evolve. What would the 25th, 50th, 100th photo look like compared to the first?
posted by taz at 9:34 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I'd love to do an endless game of "telephone" with a pile of people based on the same sort of theme. Begin with one person posting one photo (a), and the next person posts a visual echo or pun or extension of that image (image b), similar to what we see in this blog, and then the third person posts photo "c" working from "b," then person four posts photo "d" to align with photo "c" ... and etc., etc. It would be wonderfully fascinating to see how that would evolve. What would the 25th, 50th, 100th photo look like compared to the first?
posted by taz at 9:34 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
Agreed with "This is outstanding, now credit your damn sources."
posted by Navelgazer at 9:50 AM on October 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 9:50 AM on October 12, 2013 [3 favorites]
I admittedly did not give two seconds' thought to the intellectual property issue when I posted this. It's pretty crummy -- especially, as oulipian notes, since the blogger puts a CC "no derivative works" license on it.
posted by HeroZero at 9:53 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by HeroZero at 9:53 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
A few choice ones buried way down: 1, 2, 3, ... and 4.
posted by stonepharisee at 9:57 AM on October 12, 2013
posted by stonepharisee at 9:57 AM on October 12, 2013
taz, a friend and I tried the telephone game you suggested, with actual telephones (well, crappy 2002-era cell phone cameras). It turned out like this.
posted by moonmilk at 10:41 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by moonmilk at 10:41 AM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
but it's completely unacceptable to do something like this without linking to the original source
This 1,000 times. I'm desperate to know what's going on in the left hand panel of this image, for example--I'm sure it's famous and I'm just terribly culturally illiterate. But I can't even tin-eye it because he's turned the mash-up into a single image. Horrible.
posted by The Bellman at 10:55 AM on October 12, 2013
This 1,000 times. I'm desperate to know what's going on in the left hand panel of this image, for example--I'm sure it's famous and I'm just terribly culturally illiterate. But I can't even tin-eye it because he's turned the mash-up into a single image. Horrible.
posted by The Bellman at 10:55 AM on October 12, 2013
the Dolly Parton = Poodle trope is almost as old as, well, Dolly Parton, but it demonstrated how simultaneously timeless and dated the premise can be. Still, a few "HEY!" moments, overall quite good. And yes, more backstory/sources PLEASE.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:58 AM on October 12, 2013
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:58 AM on October 12, 2013
The Bellman: here's more info.
posted by paperback version at 12:06 PM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by paperback version at 12:06 PM on October 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
I'm desperate to know what's going on in the left hand panel of this image
Apparently Dutch hiding from German machine gun fire on VE Day. Not sure why I can't find a better link.
posted by Valued Customer at 12:10 PM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Apparently Dutch hiding from German machine gun fire on VE Day. Not sure why I can't find a better link.
posted by Valued Customer at 12:10 PM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Thanks, MeFites!
posted by The Bellman at 12:21 PM on October 12, 2013
posted by The Bellman at 12:21 PM on October 12, 2013
It's like an artsy version of Totally Looks Like.
posted by Gordafarin at 2:28 AM on October 13, 2013
posted by Gordafarin at 2:28 AM on October 13, 2013
There is some goddamn incredible juxtaposition here. Also some goddamn incredible source photos, which like many others here I really wish were credited.
I too am finding that this blog is teaching me a lot about composition and what makes a photo work.
posted by Scientist at 11:16 AM on October 13, 2013
I too am finding that this blog is teaching me a lot about composition and what makes a photo work.
posted by Scientist at 11:16 AM on October 13, 2013
did not give two seconds' thought to the intellectual property issue
To get all weaselly, some say there's no such thing anyways. After all, all "IP" is filtered by my senses as it comes in, so it has been remixed before the server streams the file to my mind. Which then interprets it based upon firmware, prior experience and novel experience.
"Intellectual origin"? Not so much, because all intellects are broadly and profoundly influenced by the cultures they arise from, and all "creatives" are standing on the shoulders of millenia of previous creations. The whole idea of "property" is an artful dodge.
QED
posted by Twang at 12:28 PM on October 13, 2013
To get all weaselly, some say there's no such thing anyways. After all, all "IP" is filtered by my senses as it comes in, so it has been remixed before the server streams the file to my mind. Which then interprets it based upon firmware, prior experience and novel experience.
"Intellectual origin"? Not so much, because all intellects are broadly and profoundly influenced by the cultures they arise from, and all "creatives" are standing on the shoulders of millenia of previous creations. The whole idea of "property" is an artful dodge.
QED
posted by Twang at 12:28 PM on October 13, 2013
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posted by HeroZero at 7:59 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]