Comments on: looking through old photographs

looking through old photographs

nickyskye — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:08:46 -0800

People sleeping, gently vulnerable and evocative, vintage photographs.

Snowball's blog is packed full of interesting photographs: I love this one and this. Naughty Marilyn Monroe [nsfw], retro, kids, teens, from the time of the Russian invasion in Afghanistan, concentration camps.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:17:00 -0800

RAWR! Neato find nickyskye!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:18:26 -0800

Hey, come on. Some of these people are DEAD. Nice post, nicky!

By: Stewriffic

Stewriffic — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:20:28 -0800

These are cool photos, nicky. Thanks...

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:24:33 -0800

Sleeping, like most other things, is much stranger in Japan.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:31:34 -0800

Haha! Rhaomi, I've taken a few pix here in Japan, over the years, of people sleeping, some of them very similar to what we see in your link. This is one of the most sleep-deprived nations on earth, apparently, and it's not at all unusual to see people sacked out like this. And, with the virtual lack of crime, it's not especially dangerous for folks to catch a nap on a bench or a subway train or wherever, often with their briefcase or purse or shopping bags in full, easily-abscondable view.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:34:26 -0800

wow!

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:39:10 -0800

Google image search: "people sleeping". For some reason I find these images mildly disturbing. I don't know why. Some of my best friends sleep.

By: device55

device55 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:43:33 -0800

That Marilyn photo is great.

By: scarello

scarello — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:55:38 -0800

I wonder if their dreams were ever fulfilled? Excellent post, thank you!

By: Auguris

Auguris — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:00:29 -0800

For some reason I find these images mildly disturbing. Possibly because there is someone taking pictures of these people while they sleep, unaware of what is going on? That's what bothers me.

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:06:04 -0800

flapjax at midnite: "Haha! Rhaomi, I've taken a few pix here in Japan, over the years, of people sleeping, some of them very similar to what we see in your link. This is one of the most sleep-deprived nations on earth, apparently, and it's not at all unusual to see people sacked out like this." It does strike me as weird, though. I thought the Japanese in general were obsessed with propriety and public image, and you'd think that falling asleep in the middle of the train station floor would go against that, especially if you're a businessman. But if they're as overworked as their academic standards and train schedules seem to suggest, then maybe it's been forced to become a socially acceptable thing. I'd love to live in a place where it was safe enough to do something like that, by the way...

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:28:15 -0800

Excellent find, nickyskye! See also: Subway Snooze

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:31:00 -0800

(also: my son, asleep)

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:36:46 -0800

Most of them look uncomfortably contorted

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:38:20 -0800

again, wow. That is the best set of photographs I have seen on mefi in ages Nicky.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:40:01 -0800

Milo. What a great name :)

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:40:32 -0800

He's a handsome boy, not_on_display. Say hello to him for me.

By: Xurando

Xurando — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:41:28 -0800

Previously, there were the pictures of the mortal coil, and then we move onto pets.

By: bukharin

bukharin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:45:29 -0800

All these people are dead now.

By: buzzman

buzzman — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:54:08 -0800

Restful.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:15:32 -0800

just stumbled upon this Nicky. (scroll down to the Loretta Lux and the Sally Mann.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:16:54 -0800

Me, asleep. Also not dead though I am aware I look that way. Great link nicky.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:19:09 -0800

God ... sleep is so wonderful, isn't it? I need to get more of it.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:27:13 -0800

That is the cutest thing I have ever seen Jess :)

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:33:15 -0800

awww jess, such a sweetly sound asleep noo noo. Pleased you like the link.

By: thatbrunette

thatbrunette — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:47:18 -0800

I love this, what a great find. Thanks!

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:52:11 -0800

"It is from Anna Karenina, and it is a nice example of self plagiarism. In that novel not one but two babies--Levin's and Anna's--are described as looking as if string is tied around their fat little arms. Likewise in David Copperfield, Dickens likens Uriah Heep's open mouth to a post office, and Wemmick's open mouth, in great expectations--to a post office. Stendhal writes, in The Red And The Black, about how politics ruins a novel in the way a gunshot would spoil a music concert, and then repeats the image in The Charterhouse of Parma. Henry James wrote that Balzac, in his monkish devotion to his art, was a "Benedictine of the actual," a phrase he liked so much he used it later about Flaubert. Cormac McCarthy writes, in Blood Meridian, "the blue cordilleras stood footed in their paler image in the sand," and returns to that lovely verb seven years later in Al The Pretty Horses: "Where a pair of herons stood footed to their long shadow." Why shouldn't he? Such things are rarely examples of haste and more often proof that a style has achieved self-consistency. And that a Platonic ideal has been reached--these are the best, and therefore unsurpassable words, for these subjects." james woods - how fiction works

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:18:39 -0800

I've slept in public before. It's not a big deal if you're not carrying a laptop or something around with you—just buy pants with a button on the back pocket for your wallet.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:04:37 -0800

Reminds me of AnaCam.

By: roger ackroyd

roger ackroyd — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:34:56 -0800

@Jessamyn, your hair was seriously awesome in '85.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:54:38 -0800

She still has beautiful hair. Yeah and love that pink satin long shirt Jess wore in '85.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:21:42 -0800

Evocative, definitely. I really liked the one of the two men--father and son?--sleeping sitting up on a couch, heads tilted the exact same way.

By: yoga

yoga — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:18:15 -0800

Heh, jess! Here's yours truly. I do remember how good it felt to just crash right then & there.

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:37:39 -0800

Holy crap, I just walked through that same doorway in Dachau yesterday. it was pretty messed up.

By: hojoki

hojoki — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:31:47 -0800

Mmmmm...Marilyn.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:13:31 -0800

awww yoga. And omg dunkadunc.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:38:35 -0800

Oh, nickyskye, it's so good to have you around again! Thanks!

By: Unicorn on the cob

Unicorn on the cob — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:42:13 -0800

The idea of never watching someone sleep again could be a cause of infinite sadness, for some. It's so intimate.

By: snookums

snookums — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:09:44 -0800

I find sleeping people creepy. Not quite dead, not quite dead enough.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:24:41 -0800

snookums, but there's that lovely slow breathing of sleep, so peaceful. And snoring, the silliness of observing another's REM stage, all that funny dream twitching and knowing that in fact a sleeping person is in the process of charging their battery, their beautiful lifeforce.

By: pjern

pjern — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:24:12 -0800

This is the sort of thing that discourages us of less talent from seriously blogging :) I loved the image in the first link, very evocative.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:49:03 -0800

All you really need is a tarp and a box of Cheez-its.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:00:01 -0800

Wait, the images under teen look really familiar... I can't find the post but if I recall there was a previous Mefi post featuring them. I seem to remember that the photographer was the girl's father who took pictures of her all through her childhood into early adulthood. I just really had a deja vu of seeing her get increasingly goth & sad looking as she started out young and gradually took up black eyeliner and smoking as she aged.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:28:57 -0800

Say hey miss lynnster *waving Your curiosity made me look at the credit on the first photograph, "Jack Radcliffe". Went to google, put in his name + Metafilter and hey presto, a post about the photographs he took of his daughter, Alison.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:54:00 -0800

awwww.... ;)

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:01:48 -0800

Oh man vronsky, those are utterly adorable photographs of incredibly beautiful children! All snuggled up. Oh YAY happy snuggling.

By: jetsetsc

jetsetsc — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:02:29 -0800

The weird thing is, every single one of the people in the photographs were dreaming the same dream - of a future, long after they have died, where there is a world brain machine that will allow future people to see pictures of them while they are asleep. Dreams sure are strange.

By: mippy

mippy — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:04:54 -0800

Sleeping and dead people!

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:30:46 -0800

People sleeping in public places are the best. I'm particularly fond of workers with hats over their faces or still on their heads. Once, I stumbled upon a herder in the mountains near Lake Tso Moriri in India on top of a ridge where I hadn't expected to see anyone at all, face-down and half-curled. Luckily the goats didn't give me away. Being asleep might just be humanity's best side.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:16:16 -0800

Jorge Pardo (nice)