Tag Archives: Featured Post
Into The Wild: Santiago Street
Dispatch from the slums of suburbia.
When I parked my car at the end of Santiago Street, I half expected to find a cul-de-sac devoid of houses. Chris Blackwell, principal planner from the Penn Hills Department of Planning and Economic Development, told me how his department had demolished nearly all the street’s blighted properties in recent years.
Augmented Reality: June 20th, New York City
A dispatch from the ‘uncanny valley’.
The first time I ever actually saw augmented reality, I was living in Albany, NY. My friend loaded LAYAR onto his phone and we walked around our neighborhood, watching real estate data instantiate alongside buildings.
Death At The Demolition Derby
The loss of a father, husband, and friend.
In Logan, Ohio, on September 12, 2006. Dave Cosper passed away after winning his demolition derby heats at the Hocking County Fair. His son Brandon took his place the following week.
The Psychedelia Of Yesterday’s Textbooks
Adventures in hallucinogenic reading.
Like the work of so many commercial artists, one-shot pieces intended for an academic audience are often relegated to utter obscurity. Luckily the visuals published by Communications Research Machines have been archived for posterity.
The View From Kingston, Jamaica
Boogie’s descent into a culture of chaos.
There is no normal police presence in the city, the kind that would make you feel safe. The only time you see cops is when there are five of them piled on a jeep with their assault rifles. But the firepower of gangs in Kingston rivals that of police.
Living Through ‘Catastrophic Transition’
Fall & Winter explores the origins of global crisis.
Earlier this summer I received an email from filmmaker Matt Anderson. Back in 2010, I expressed interest in a documentary called Fall & Winter that he and collaborators Natalie Leite, David Black, Paul Park, and Michael Gerner were working on. His crew planned to look at what they dubbed as a transitional period in human existence and how that pertains to our way of life.
In The Land Of Plenty
American consumer culture and its consequences.
The documentation of American consumer culture is nothing new. But over the last 50 years, as urban blight gave way to suburban sprawl (and as the public witnessed that same trend nearly reverse itself), the study of such subject matter has strong emotional pull.
What Recession Looks Like
Scenes from surrendered homes.
If you want to know what economic collapse looks like, Douglas R. Smith’s photographs of foreclosed homes in California’s Central Valley tell the story. In his series Scenes from Surrendered Homes, visual evidence of the recession is depicted in heartbreaking detail.
Life After The Fairy Tale Ends
Inside the world of Fallen Princesses.
When Dina Goldstein’s “Fallen Princesses” exhibition debuted at Vancouver’s Buschlen Mowatt Galleries in 2009, it almost immediately sparked controversy. Or at least what passes for controversy nowadays, namely, it upset legions of commenters on the Internet.
Google Street View And The New American Picture
Scenes from the new age of voyeurism.
In A New American Picture, Doug Rickard, founder and editor of American Suburb X and These Americans, uses Google Street View to portray life in the United States from the vantage point of the Internet search giant’s omnipresent eyes.
The Omega Suites: An Inside Look at Execution Chambers
Pictured above is an electric chair at Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Virginia, photographed by Lucinda Devlin in the early 1990s. According to Forward Thinking Museum, “Devlin belongs to that generation of American photographers who pioneered the fine art of color photography. Her work is noted for the attention given to composition, the balance between delicate light and intense color,…
What Bureaucracy Looks Like
Last month photographer Jan Banning‘s “Bureaucratics” exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center Kulanshi in Kazakhstan came to a close. The portraits, part of a long-term project Banning undertook where he photographed bureaucrats from all over the world, portray what he refers to as a “slightly ironic perspective on state authorities and institutes.” His statement on the project provides further context:…
