For five centuries, the residents of Potosi, Bolivia, have lived and died in the mines of Cerro Rico, or “rich mountain.” The name, one could argue, is painfully ironic: Although the mountain has been a veritable trove of silver, it has been imperialists, not the natives and Africans working the mines, who have enjoyed those riches. “At one point in the mid-17th century, the town’s population was greater than that of London or Paris or Rome,”…

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The photographs on the pages of Ed Ruscha’s book Twentysix Gasoline Stations depict filling stations across the United States of America in the form of a stark, beautiful, and modern travel narrative. Inspired by Ruscha’s seminal work, the Japanense-Danish photographer Eric Tabuchi—who describes his fondness for petrol stations by likening their logos to coats of arms—took the concept into new territory with his project, “Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations,” which focused on nonoperational stations in various states of…

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This week commenced with advice for branding and design in social ventures and a celebration of William Kamkwamba’s innovative windmill. We explored the reality of what “competition” means in the national health care market, the importance of measuring what’s most meaningful, and plants’ perspective on humans.

We also learned about the Alliance for Climate Education, what happens when non-recyclables end up in the blue bin (courtesy of our new expert blogger, Jenny Price), the burgeoning scene of…

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If Mexico City is a book, then it’s one that’s constantly being rewritten. For the photographer Brian Rosa the city is in a constant state of flux and reinvention—never completely finished; never completely reinvented. He began photographing the place while living there on a research fellowship focusing on the large scale planning that occurred in Mexico City leading up to the national Centennial Celebration of 1910. Seeing a discrepancy between “the rigid central planning of [that…

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When Richard Ross’s visual exploration of natural history museums, Museology, was published by Aperture in 1989, its hallmark was a series of photographs of museum dioramas depicting animals in built environments. These dioramas, generally set behind a wall of glass that divided the viewer from the object of his or her observation, were constructed so as to capture the essence of an animal within its natural setting. In recent years, however, when Ross returned to those…

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Our friend Mark Menjivar, creator of one of our most popular Picture Shows, “You Are What You Eat,” continues to take his work on the road.

On Wednesday evening, an installation of his work (an example of which can be seen at left) will open—with much fanfare—at Ampersand in Portland, Oregon. At 7:30 p.m., Mr. Menjivar will engage in a discussion with Amanda Peden from Slow Food Portland, an event partner, and visitors can participate in an optional…

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In the short time since fast food chains have become part of our national (and global) culture, a number of burger shops have begotten some truly iconic–and insalubrious—food items, the mass production and marketing of which is utterly astounding. However, when removed from their brightly colored wrappers and shot against a stark, clinical background, as in the case of Jon Feinstein’s photographic series, “Fast Food,” the archetypal snacks and sandwiches take on a decidedly unsettling quality.

“There’s…

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In the early 1990s, when the photographer Alison Malone was a young girl, she was a member of a private society know as Job’s Daughters, an organization for 10- to 20-year-old girls who are direct blood relatives of Master Masons; it’s the only Masonic Youth organization for which a blood relationship is a membership requirement. While not explicitly religious, the group’s guiding principles can be found in the Biblical book of Job, wherein steadfastness is championed in…

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This week, as children and young people all over the country return to school from their summer vacations, we turn our attention to some educational locales in Massachusetts. We often think of the Bay State as being home to a number of the nation’s oldest most venerable educational institutions, and it is. Yet for her visual exploration, “Places of Education,” the photographer Lissa Rivera canvased an array of the state’s public and private schools, universities, Greek societies,…

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Tijuana is a city in flux. Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels that had besieged his nation in 2006, the city has been an epicenter of that violent and protracted conflict—among the cartels, the drug- and human-traffickers, the police, the federal agents, and the everyday citizens caught up in the mix. The poverty in neighborhoods throughout the city is nothing short of astounding, especially when juxtaposed with the wealth of…

Read & Discuss

This week commenced with advice for branding and design in social ventures and a celebration of William Kamkwamba’s innovative windmill. We explored the reality of what “competition” means in the national health care market, the importance of measuring what’s most meaningful, and plants’ perspective on humans.

We also learned about the Alliance for Climate Education, what happens when non-recyclables end up in the blue bin (courtesy of our new expert blogger, Jenny Price), the burgeoning scene of…

Read & Discuss

Our friend Mark Menjivar, creator of one of our most popular Picture Shows, “You Are What You Eat,” continues to take his work on the road.

On Wednesday evening, an installation of his work (an example of which can be seen at left) will open—with much fanfare—at Ampersand in Portland, Oregon. At 7:30 p.m., Mr. Menjivar will engage in a discussion with Amanda Peden from Slow Food Portland, an event partner, and visitors can participate in an optional…

Read & Discuss

This week, as children and young people all over the country return to school from their summer vacations, we turn our attention to some educational locales in Massachusetts. We often think of the Bay State as being home to a number of the nation’s oldest most venerable educational institutions, and it is. Yet for her visual exploration, “Places of Education,” the photographer Lissa Rivera canvased an array of the state’s public and private schools, universities, Greek societies,…

Read & Discuss

Our friend Mark Menjivar, whose series “You Are What You Eat” explored notions of health and hunger through photographs of open refrigerators, just announced via the community blog that his work will show at The Cole Art Center at The Old Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas, this Friday, July 17 at 6 p.m. Also showing will be the sculpture work of Mindy Sue Meyers.

“You Are What You Eat,” which was one of our most popular Picture Shows,…

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Salutations. The thick of summer has a calming effect, no?

This week, we salivated over beef hearts and pig heads and mused on the components of an ideal public apology, all the while pondering the possible demise of crossword puzzles.

We also learned about the (financial) value of sharing, the rise of semitarianism, and some of the nation’s unsung holidays. And we got back to business.

If you’re in the Bay Area, be sure to check out Creative Growth’s…

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A few weeks ago, we presented Benny Chan’s impossibly awesome collection of freeway photography, Traffic!, in the form of a Picture Show. Tomorrow, Mr. Chan’s series will open at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It will show through September 20, and, judging from how impressive the images were onscreen, it should be awe-inspiring—especially given that the photos in the exhibition stand eight feet tall by six feet wide.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking…

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This week, we learned about the super bowl of spelling, American foods of days gone by, and the interesting dilemma of eating local. We also touched on rebuilding America’s neighborhoods and depleting the world’s oceans.

We’d like to spend one more post congratulating Steve Price and the other winners of our Livable Streets contest. We can only hope that future contests generate such wonderful entries.

We hope you’re prepped for a fantastic long weekend. Be sure to keep…

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As we mentioned earlier, today is Friday the 13th. But what got us here? Well, there was a lifting of stem cell bans, a fuss about signing statements, and a serious (read: seriously anticlimactic) showdown of cable punditry. We got our feet wet on the topic of water-sourcing, we got real about DNA..
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For five centuries, the residents of Potosi, Bolivia, have lived and died in the mines of Cerro Rico, or “rich mountain.” The name, one could argue, is painfully ironic: Although the mountain has been a veritable trove of silver, it has been imperialists, not the natives and Africans working the mines, who have enjoyed those riches. “At one point in the mid-17th century, the town’s population was greater than that of London or Paris or Rome,”…

Read & Discuss

The photographs on the pages of Ed Ruscha’s book Twentysix Gasoline Stations depict filling stations across the United States of America in the form of a stark, beautiful, and modern travel narrative. Inspired by Ruscha’s seminal work, the Japanense-Danish photographer Eric Tabuchi—who describes his fondness for petrol stations by likening their logos to coats of arms—took the concept into new territory with his project, “Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations,” which focused on nonoperational stations in various states of…

Read & Discuss

If Mexico City is a book, then it’s one that’s constantly being rewritten. For the photographer Brian Rosa the city is in a constant state of flux and reinvention—never completely finished; never completely reinvented. He began photographing the place while living there on a research fellowship focusing on the large scale planning that occurred in Mexico City leading up to the national Centennial Celebration of 1910. Seeing a discrepancy between “the rigid central planning of [that…

Read & Discuss

When Richard Ross’s visual exploration of natural history museums, Museology, was published by Aperture in 1989, its hallmark was a series of photographs of museum dioramas depicting animals in built environments. These dioramas, generally set behind a wall of glass that divided the viewer from the object of his or her observation, were constructed so as to capture the essence of an animal within its natural setting. In recent years, however, when Ross returned to those…

Read & Discuss

In the short time since fast food chains have become part of our national (and global) culture, a number of burger shops have begotten some truly iconic–and insalubrious—food items, the mass production and marketing of which is utterly astounding. However, when removed from their brightly colored wrappers and shot against a stark, clinical background, as in the case of Jon Feinstein’s photographic series, “Fast Food,” the archetypal snacks and sandwiches take on a decidedly unsettling quality.

“There’s…

Read & Discuss

In the early 1990s, when the photographer Alison Malone was a young girl, she was a member of a private society know as Job’s Daughters, an organization for 10- to 20-year-old girls who are direct blood relatives of Master Masons; it’s the only Masonic Youth organization for which a blood relationship is a membership requirement. While not explicitly religious, the group’s guiding principles can be found in the Biblical book of Job, wherein steadfastness is championed in…

Read & Discuss

Tijuana is a city in flux. Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels that had besieged his nation in 2006, the city has been an epicenter of that violent and protracted conflict—among the cartels, the drug- and human-traffickers, the police, the federal agents, and the everyday citizens caught up in the mix. The poverty in neighborhoods throughout the city is nothing short of astounding, especially when juxtaposed with the wealth of…

Read & Discuss

Most vacations involve self-deception. We all do it to varying degrees, but to engage in the fantasy of a few days in paradise is to partake in a willful suspension of disbelief. Yet nowhere is our modern propensity for playful delusion more evident than in the work of the photographer Reiner Riedler, whose book Fake Holidays explores the wonderful absurdity a number of artificial paradises, from themed amusement parks to simulated beaches to scaled-down landmark replicas.

“I started…

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Alaska’s Dalton Highway, more generally known as the Haul Road, covers 414 miles of rugged terrain from an area about 75 miles north of Fairbanks to the edge of the Arctic Ocean. It’s the only road in the country that reaches those waters, and the only one in the state that connects the south to the north. Winding along a sublime backdrop of Arctic tundra and comprised mostly of dirt and gravel the Haul Road was,…

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In the minds of far too many Americans, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are little more than ideas: words and phrases bandied about by politicians, dinner party talking points for the moderately informed, momentary segments blipped above ticker stats on cable news shows. Yet no matter how far away those zones of conflict may seem, they are, in fact, quite real and quite consequential. And the men and women who’ve actually served on the front…

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JuliaOsovskaya is apiring writer and a "picture show" featured photographer wannabe and lives in Moscow, Russia

For more info about JuliaOsovskaya, visit:
http://sothankfulproject.blogspot.com/

Member since: 2009

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