Human Eyes

Anonymous, When Being Expressed This Package Contains One or More Human Eyes, nd [via]

Mysterious Found Photo

I found this in an old scrapbook when I was cleaning the studio last week. I would love to know where it was taken, what objects those are on the rim of the fountain, how deep the said fountain is, and whether or not this is the person selling the water available on the left.

Where the Mountains Meet the Sea: Mountains Part 2

Maya Lin, Avalanche and Untitled, 1997


Wolfgang Laib, Five Mountains Not to Climb On, 1990


Kate Steciw, Depth Mapping the Mountain


Jasper Elings, Default Landscapes


From India Studio Portraits


Heidi Romana, Wept with Emptiness


Andreas Gursky, Cableway, Dolomites, 1987


Emmet Gowin, Mt. St. Helens, 1982


Frank Gohlke, Looking South at Crater and Lava Dome, Mt. St. Helens, 1982


Thierry Geoffory, From Colonel, 1995


Hamish Fulton, Broken Wood Mountain Skylines, 1993


Francis Frith, Pyramids at Dahshoor, 1858


Anonymous, Found Photograph


Emily Shur, Picnic Table, Queenstown, New Zealand


Francis Alys, When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002

Anonymous: Some of My Favorite Found Photographs

"In Almost Every Picture" - Kesselskramer Publishing

I found a book at the Wexner Center for the Arts Bookstore yesterday that I am completely enamored with (featured at the end of this post). After conducting research, I learned that the Kesselskramer Publishing company has a number of books in this series. Here are some of the highlights:



In Almost Every Picture 3 reveals a series of photographs of deer and other small animals captured by a camera rigged with a motion detector (above).



In Almost Every Picture 7 features portraits of a Dutch woman at a shooting gallery. Every time she hit the target, a photograph was exposed. See this link at Lens Culture for images starting from 1936 up until 2009 documenting the span of her life at the shooting range.



In Almost Every Picture 8 documents a Japanese rabbit named Oolong who has an unusually large head perfect for balancing objects. Who wouldn't love to look at a doughnut on top of a rabbit's head?



... and finally my purchase, In Almost Every Picture 9 showing one family's (failed) attempts at photographing their black dog. He appears like a ghost in the images, a cut-out silhouette, a nonentity, or a lost pet.







This books comments on so many elements of my personal practice: the love of found photography (and images of the family), memory, and humor yet it is drenched in loss and sadness. The images remind me of Ludmilla Steckelberg's Absence of All Colors (check out more of the photographs here). Steckelberg removes the dead ancestors from her family photo albums (below).



The last photograph of the black dog is an overexposed image revealing his face. Everything in the background is blown out but you see him smiling at the camera.

Abandoned

Joni Sternbach's Broken Bridge Shelter Island (Tintype) from the Abandoned series.



That image reminds me just a little of my all time favorite found photograph:



Anyway... more on Sternbach soon and the coast. Oh the Pacific NW coast...