MetaFilter posts tagged with america and photography

George S. Zimbel

chunking express — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:52:52 -0800

George S. Zimbel is a documentary photographer. His website features a lot his work, which goes all the way back to the 1940s. There is a lot of great stuff to look through. His blog is also an interesting read.

The abnormal has become the norm

tellurian — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:37:55 -0800

Brenda Kenneally documents the effects of illegal drugs in her Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. Money Power Respect and Big Trigg. NSFW [previous comment]

Renaldi's "Fall River Boys"

mapalm — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:36:32 -0800

Richard Renaldi is doing some pretty wonderful photography. For several years, he’s been using a large format 8x10 camera (with the hood and everything), profiling people in ways that feel both intimate and authentic. His first book, “Figure and Ground,” is a collection of portraits and landscapes that capture, with a quiet intensity, a diverse cross-section of the country. His newest book, “Fall River Boys,” is a sort of chronicle of a decaying American town, and the (mostly) young inhabitants who are either unable or unwilling to leave. (He and his partner even launched their own press to get it published.) Earlier discussions here and here.

The Big Ol' Picture

Happy Dave — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:36:16 -0800

14 large color photos from the Farm Security Administration. "The 1600 color photographs of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection include scenes of rural and small-town life, migrant labor, and the effects of the Great Depression. A significant number of the color photographs concern the mobilization effort for World War II and portray aircraft manufacturing, military training, and the nation's railroads. Browse by subject, photographer or geographic location. (Previously)

McClellan Street.

chunking express — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:49:26 -0800

"These photographs of McClellan Street by David and Peter Turnley, taken in 1972-73, help us understand how America came to be the country that it is today." — John G. Morris

African-American Snapshots & Portraits

JPowers — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:32:13 -0800

African-American Snapshots & Portraits (page is slow to load) (previously) (via).

Photos by Cody Smart

dobbs — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:31:19 -0800

Pictures from hitchhiking across America. {via}

Bannerman's Arsenal Photoessay

jonson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:17:43 -0800

Excellent post over at BLDBLOG on the history of Bannerman's Arsenal, a ruined island castle in the middle of the Hudson river, created by a war profiteer who was at one time the world's largest arms dealer. Bonus points for the amazing accompanying photos by Shaun O'Boyle, whose site Modern Ruins has been featured on the blue previously.

Deja View: Historic landscape "rephotos" (1800s, 1970s, 1990s)

taz — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:15:41 -0800

The Third View project is a fascinating presentation of "rephotographs" of over 100 historic landscape sites in the American West that presents original 19th-century survey photographs, photographed again in the 1970s, then once again in the '90s - from the original vantage points, under similar lighting conditions, at (roughly) the same time of day and year. [Flash, and you'll probably need to allow pop-ups; a little more info inside...]

Pre-WWII America in Color

ijoshua — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:19:49 -0800

Kodachrome color photographs of American life, dating from the 1930s, 40s, & 50s. Selections via DailyKos.

Christopher Morris's "My America"

matteo — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:42:24 -0800

"Then my photography started to shift; everything had to be very clean and Republican, straight and perfect... Everything is staged and controlled... It's the complete opposite of war photography."
War photographer Christopher Morris's new exhibit and book: "My America".

Maxwell did it!

tellurian — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:45:33 -0800

Images of Atlantic City Boardwalk from R.C. Maxwell. Photographs taken to give client's an idea of the traffic that would see their billboards, provide a record of the people who have thronged to the boardwalk since the early 1900's.

Memento Mori

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:34:43 -0800

Memento Mori : both in Europe and The United States, post-mortem photography [pdf] was both reminder of and coping mechanism for death in the 19th century.

A change of style

tellurian — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 16:42:12 -0800

Robert Gregory Griffeth has deleted all of his galleries and in their place has posted these 12 enigmatic panels and a tracker (which, if accurate, tells me that there are a couple of hundred puzzled punters a day). [more inside]

American Historical Photos

Gyan — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 02:07:33 -0800

PictureHistory - a source of American historical photographs

Lee Friedlander: "I only wanted Uncle Vern standing by his new car"

matteo — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:41:53 -0800

Little visual miracles. For more than forty years that most American of photographers, Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters Lee Friedlander, has recorded modern American urban life -- with its jumble of people, signs, buildings, and cars, and television sets. He likes to turn a common blunder of amateurs -- photographing something nearby with one's back to the sun -- into a leitmotif. His shadow plays the role of alter ego, sticking to the back of a woman's fur collar, clinging to a lamppost as a parade of drum majorettes passes by, reclining like a stuffed doll on a chair. Clever jigsaw puzzles, his pictures frequently reveal themselves to be laconic, austere poems to what Friedlander has termed "the American social landscape',' meaning mostly ordinary places and affairs. "Friedlander," an exhibition of more than 480 photographs and 25 books covering decades of work, runs at MoMA through Aug. 29, before traveling to Europe until 2007. More inside.

Images of the American Civil War

matteo — Fri, 20 May 2005 07:23:54 -0800

Images of the American Civil War

American Photographs: The Road

todd — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 13:20:05 -0800

American Photographs: The Road "In 1935, the collaborative satirical writers Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903-1942) traveled to the United States from the Soviet Union on assignment as special correspondents for the newspaper Pravda. Shortly after their arrival in New York aboard the French luxury liner Normandie, they purchased a Ford automobile and embarked upon a ten-week road trip to California and back."

just wow

amberglow — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 12:32:56 -0800

Mike Disfarmer had a photo studio in the resort town of Heber Springs, Arkansas throughout the 30s and 40s, creating images with an amazing blunt, unvarnished beauty and strength. Nothing speaks more eloquently about Disfarmer's artistry than the photographs themselves. His genius was the ability to capture without judgment, the essence of a people and a time.

American History

plep — Thu, 03 Jul 2003 02:08:02 -0800

US National Archives & Records Administration Exhibit Hall. Some good American history pieces - the Emancipation Proclamation, government drawings, 20th century photographs, the New Deal and the arts, panoramic photography, 1970s Chicago, World War 2 posters, gifts to presidents, and more.

Unseen America

plep — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 07:48:14 -0800

Unseen America. First person photographs by low income people. Via Bread and Roses, a cultural resource for the labour movement in the New York area.

Collaborative Photographic History

RKB — Wed, 07 May 2003 08:21:19 -0800

America 24/7. Well, you've got to figure they'll reject way more photos than they'll accept, but I for one am looking forward to the opportunity to be included in one of those fancy thick "A Day In The Life" coffee table books. The project starts on Monday and only lasts for seven days, so make sure to take some time out of MatrixWeek to look at the world around you -- in all it's mundane glory -- and click, click, click away.

liam — Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:36:05 -0800

When you drive across America, you may or may not want to take a picture at every mile marker, but be sure to stay at vintage motels, eat at classic diners, and, above all, visit historic mental institutions. (Then thank the site with the Interesting Ideas.)

machaus — Fri, 28 Dec 2001 15:23:47 -0800

Vanishing America. While doing some research on the "neon graveyard" in Las Vegas, I ran into this site which seeks to "discover, procure, document and preserve through photographic media the architecture and cultural landscapes situated along the highways of the U.S." While I wish that the gallery had more entries, the links section is a real gem. How else would you find out about stuckonstuckeys.com or The grotto of the redemption?

jeremias — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 09:16:55 -0800

Oh so spooky (In a Disney sort of way) The main page is annoying if you dislike applets but this site explores Disney's Haunted Mansion with an obsessive zeal. Of course there *is* all sorts of cool stuff going on behind the scenes. Like the guy who broke his neck . . .

(And who knew the ride seats were called doombuggies a.k.a "omnimovers", and that they are patented?)