MetaFilter posts tagged with culture and Photography

"Ja som aquí"

adamvasco — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:56:40 -0800

A daily photoblog of the mediterranean island of Mallorca. Checking the tags is a good way to trawl the archive.
food; history; customs and traditions; art

Brad Elterman

Combustible Edison Lighthouse — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:28:29 -0800

Brad Elterman's gallery of (mostly) celebrity photos from the 1970s, including Robert Plant, Matt Dillon, and the tale of Jackie O and the tape. Some shots may be NSFW. [via]

Umetnost

tellurian — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:12:10 -0800

The Digital Library of Slovenia has (among other things) music [like this] [previously], posters [like this] and photographs [like this].

Portraits of luminaries of the arts - 1930s-'60s

madamjujujive — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:08:36 -0800

Extravagant Crowd - Carl Van Vechten’s Portraits of Women and Photos of African Americans. Previous post by ND¢: Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten 1932-1964. Also, public domain works from Wikimedia Commons. Van Vechten was an influential critic, novelist, photographer, and promoter of the arts. He was an early patron of the Harlem Renaissance - but sparked a huge controversy with his unfortunately titled novel, Nigger Heaven. Despite this controversy, his interest in and high regard for African American arts was not in dispute. The Index and Introduction to the Portraits of Women collection is quite good, but for those who may not want to wade through all 96 pages of his African American collection, here is a selection I particularly liked: Eartha Kitt, 1954 Billy Dee Williams, 1963 James Earl Jones, 1961 Dizzie Gillespie, 1955, 2 James Baldwin, 1955 Ralph Bunche, 1951 Harry Belafonte, 1954 Billie Holiday, 1949, another, and with Mister Pearl Bailey, 1946 Leontyne Price, 1951, and as Bess Ossie Davis, 1951 Joyce Bryant, 1953 Diahann Carroll, 1955

70s Rock Stars in their parents' homes

mattholomew — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:05:56 -0800

70s Rock Stars in their parents' homes (via BuzzFeed)

Bod

tellurian — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:06:05 -0800

The Tibet Album: British photography in Central Tibet 1920 - 1950 [previously] via The Best of The Asian Studies WWW Monitor The site isn't just photographs, there's lots of other information too: Tsarong in 'At Home' ceremony, New Year

Dasang Damdul Tsarong was a favourite of the 13th Dalai Lama, a military man and later a shappe (cabinet minister in the Tibetan government) until he was removed from office as a result of his modernising policies. He was a great friend of the British Mission frequently inviting them to his house and accompanying them on their various visits around Lhasa. He was considered by the mission to be a great character, as Gould recalled “Once, after a long and festive party at the De Kyi Lingka, he fell asleep in my arms murmuring, “Great minister, I love you, I love you”. At breakfast next morning he had his usual bright eye and was quite unperturbed. He spoke a little English. To him it seemed strange that anybody in India should not welcome British rule”. (1957:236) He had four wives (including Rigzin Choden, Pema Dolkar, Rinchen Dolma (later Mary Taring) and Tseten Dolkar) and ten children. Although he was in India in 1956 he insisted on going back to Tibet to help the Dalai Lama to escape into exile. He was captured by the Chinese and in 1959 died mysteriously the night before what was due to be his public humiliation.

Ragyapa family outside tent shelter

"On the left of the road are the hovels of the lowest class of Lhasa society, the ra-gyap-pa, a community of scavenging beggars whose work is to dispose of the dead bodies. ... // Their dwellings consist of a wall of sods into which are built the horns of animals; over the top is raised a roof of ragged yak-hair tent-cloth. This is often surrounded by an outer wall of the horns of yaks, cattle and sheep heaped together. In the summer their hovels are gay with nasturtiums and marigolds. ... But these are the lowest of the Ra-gyap-pa. Further on, though they must still live outside the city, they have proper houses, built of sun-dried bricks, but still with neat rows of yak horns let into the face of the wall, like a mosaic"

"Photography lost its innocence many years ago."

amyms — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:20:08 -0800

Photo Tampering Through History. A regularly-updated collection, from 1860 to present, of examples of photo manipulation. Sometimes the changes are made for historical revisionism, sometimes for political maneuvering, and sometimes it's just a "wtf?" The page is part of a larger body of work by Dartmouth's Hany Farid, who has some other interesting goodies online. [Warning for the Pepsi Blue detectives: In some of his pages, he's shilling for his consulting services]

Photography of British Sci-fi fans at home dressed in character.

filmgeek — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:07:01 -0800

Land of the Free, home of the geek. Steven Schofield takes photos of british sci-fi fans, dressed in character in their homes. He treats it as 'found' photography, which seems to illustrate the subjects vulnerability. The title of the work is Land of the Free - and illustrates how American culture infiltrates, with the ironic edge of questioning the idea of the freedom of choosing to copy the look of these fictional characters. via kottke

They carried the joys and sorrows of those living with the sea

tellurian — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:45:52 -0800

Iwase Yoshiyuki "In the late 1920s, young Yoshiyuki received an early Kodak camera as a gift. Since the main livelihood of the town came from the sea, he gravitated there, and soon found a passion for "the simple, even primitive beauty" of ama – girls and women who harvested seaweed, turban shells and abalone from beneath the coastal waters." "By the late 1960s, they had disappeared. This body of work stands as the final, most comprehensive visual document of the life and work of these divers." [NSFW] Note: the Ama section has more than the 15 previews shown, when you enter the slide show (there are 45).

witness the strangest customs of the red, white, brown, black and yellow races ... attend their startling rites, their mysterious practices ... all assembled for you

anastasiav — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:41:40 -0800

The Secret Museum of Mankind :: "Published in 1935, the Secret Museum is a mystery book. It has no author or credits, no copyright, no date, no page numbers, no index ... The tone of the commentary is dated, and uniformly racist in the extreme, often hilariously so. It reads like the patter of a carnival sideshow barker, from a time when the world was divided between "modern" Europeans and "savages" ... Presented here is the Secret Museum in its entirety, all 564 pages scanned and transcribed-- nothing is omitted or censored ... Treat it as entertainment instead of education (don't take it seriously and don't believe a word it says!), adjust for the blatant racial bias of the time, and enjoy."

Make An Online Pilgrimage

amyms — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:45:12 -0800

Sacred Destinations. Nearly every culture in human history has sought to encounter and honor the divine, the mysterious, the supernatural or the extraordinary in some way. This most often occurs at sacred sites - special places where the physical world seems to meet the spiritual world. From ancient wonders, to Greek temples, to Biblical sites, and everything in between, the website has a vast collection of photo galleries and maps. The website's founder also maintains a travel blog and posts recent pictures on Flickr. Note (in case anyone sees anything that seems familiar): A picture and a page from the Sacred Destinations site have been included as reference points in two previous Metafilter posts [here and here] but the site itself and the travel blog have never been featured.

Love thy Neighbor

doug3505 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:07:46 -0800

Love thy Neighbor Photographer and author Steven Hirsh has photographed the homes of registered New York State sex offenders. A wonderful writer and photographer, this work is chilling, alarming, beautiful. I get that Quentin Tarantino feeling of beauty and disgust. Look at me, nooooo look away. The series of 24 images are on Hirsch's website.

you cant eat applause for breakfast

ZachsMind — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:18:40 -0800

Breakfast looks different to different people. That alone made me wanna post this cuz that's just hella cool, but after I saw that, I started wondering what does breakfast sound like? Why should we even bother with breakfast? Here's some more thoughts on breakfast. Hungry yet? This was a great movie by the way. I guess that one was okay too. So what did you have for breakfast? [previously]

How I (wish I) spent my summer vacation

mmahaffie — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:53:01 -0800

Eyes on the Nations is a web site by a young man from North Carolina named Jordan Hill. He's working in various corners of the world to help with community development as a part of a soft christian missionary approach for the University of the Nations and Youth With a Mission. He's also a talented and curious photographer with an eye for people, places and critters. (Warnings: NSFW if you haven't ever seen old issues of the National Geographic. Worse, some of this is Xanga)

Running The Numbers

Armitage Shanks — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:32:57 -0800

Running The Numbers. This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. [via]

Inner City Youth, London

tpl1212 — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:24:34 -0800

Inner City Youth, London "In 2002, Simon Wheatley began photographing London's publich housing developments...and was able to obtain a level of intimacy with his subjects that provides a true picture of the daunting project of growing up in the intimate confines of drug use, societal neglect, and poverty." This (Flash-based) narrated slideshow features Wheatley's work, and is a look at the culture...and also the music (grime) "as an artistic response to the place and circumstance, an expression of the violence, bleakness, and neglect..." (via Future Feeder)

Giant Woman Licks Man

taz — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:50:31 -0800

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)

same time, different channel

madamjujujive — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 06:32:10 -0800

Sometimes it's hard for me to conceive that other contemporaneous people on this planet lead lives so dramatically different from my own. What if this or this or this constituted your daily commute? Or if this or this were among the challenges you faced in your daily job? The native people and arctic wildlife galleries offer a glimpse of the past preserved. More wonders at Bryan & Cherry Alexander Photography.

Do it in the road.

dobbs — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 20:34:05 -0800

iN-PUBLiC The Home of Street Photography. My favorite photography site.

Masamania

plep — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 02:56:28 -0800

Masamania. Not safe for work! 'Hi, this is masamania who create this page, MasaManiA.com. This page is made up of photos I actually take in twon. .I hope I can show and tell you the real, true Japan that cannot be seen in other mas media. I am living in Tokyo, Japan. I was born in Japan, grown up in Japan, study English in Japan. This is the reason I can speak Engrish. Some people complain that my updating and email response is slow. And other people conplain that my englsih is poor. '

Artsy Photographer Takes Portraits of P6rn Stars, Savage Wappa Ensues

matteo — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 09:24:51 -0800

XXX: 30 P9RN STAR PORTRAITS (a bit NSFW, obviously) by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, is a book that features paired portraits (one clothed and one nude) of the top stars in p6rn, straight and gay, from legends like (best-selling memoirist) Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy and Nina Hartley to (ahem) rising stars like Sunrise Adams, Belladonna, Chad Hunt. The book includes short essays on the intersection of p6rnography and culture by a wide range of writers, from Salman Rushdie to AM Homes. XXX is, essentially, about the much-dreaded "p6rnification" of the culture at large, recently featured in the New York Times. As Gore Vidal writes in the book's introduction, “Doubtless, sex tales were told about the Neanderthal campfire and perhaps instructive positions drawn on cave walls. Meanwhile, the human race was busy establishing such exciting institutions as slavery and its first cousin, marriage.” (more inside, with totally NSFW Terry Richardson)

Belgium View

hama7 — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 06:39:24 -0800

Belgiumview.

Phil Borges: Photographs of People of Indigenous Cultures

plep — Sat, 02 Aug 2003 02:31:22 -0800

Phil Borges: Photographs of People of Indigenous Cultures. A set of online exhibits. Take a look at Enduring Spirit: photography of tribal peoples, from North America, Peru, Kenya, Tibet, Ethiopia and other places. More photographs online : Tibetan Portrait, the Living Link.

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.

Digital Journalist

plep — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 02:14:59 -0800

The Digital Journalist: Features. The Digital Journalist: Features. Photojournalism features on a spread of human life, from Afghan child labour, the Dalai Lama and the Soviet Union to Marilyn Monroe, jazz and Smalltown USA. (Warning - adverts).