this should be in fashion

.. such elegant long ears. Everyone looks better with elegant long ears, it's very flattering, good for your image and also practical. Elegant long ears picks up special signals from outer space. I'm sure of it.

American Natives photographed by Edward S. Curtis

Curtis' goal was to document as much as possible of the various groups of Native American people, their way of life and traditions.







There's often an element of Otherness evident in the photos taken by photographers trying to document people from cultures other than their own. I wonder how much different the photos of these people would have been if Edward S. Curtis had given the camera over to the people he wanted to document, and asked them to document themselves?

one of the first photographic portraits

It's a daguerreotype from 1839 by Robert Cornelius, and it's one of the first portrait photographs ever taken. I think he looks really cool in the photo. I found two versions of this photo, and while I like the first one, the second one might be more like the original?

nude in the wood by Arthur F. Kales

vintage tattoos

It's fun to see the expressions on their faces, they're totally full of attitude.







These photos reminds me of a lucid dream I had a while ago where I went back in time, like two hundred years ago. Everything was very realistic, and I was so excited. I tried to talk to some of the people I met, but they all just looked at me and scolded me as I wasn't dressed right and had piercings and all that, and I woke up before I was able to change the direction of the dream. How rubbish! And the most rubbish thing about it is that I'm sure that's what would have happened if I had gone back in time for real.

girls showing off their pussies

I know, I know, what a rubbish joke, but it had to be made.

we want beer

I've had an option on this blog for a while for people to buy me a beer, I take visa and paypal but so far (and not surprisingly) I've had no donations. Sigh. You're to blame if I die of thirst.

old extravaganza

Does anyone know who this lady is?

victorian post mortem photography 2

i posted some victorian post mortem photographs yesterday, yet i wanted to post these on their own as i think they are different than those i posted yesterday. the difference is that in the others, the bodies were posed as if asleep - where as in these, the bodies are in coffins. there hasn't been any attempt of hiding what has happened. to modern eyes some of them may seem nearly surreal; we've got other references now, and a coffin reminds us of vampires and horror movies. but i guess back then, it was more an acceptance of what had happened.


i find the children in their coffins strange. some of them seem like dolls still in their packaging.

victorian post mortem photography

there's something unsettling about pictures of dead people, even when they are as beautiful and serene as these victorian post mortem photographs, where the dead is posed as if asleep. i bet the victorians too would have prefered to have a photo of the person while he or she was still alive, but photography was too expensive, and sometimes people died without there being a single photograph to remember them by. especially children, who had a higher mortality rate back then, was never photographed until it was too late. the moment after someone's death was the last chance to capture a memory of them, and post mortem photographs were displayed along with the normal family photographs.

















i did in fact paint some paintings ages ago with sleeping and/or dead people, inspired by victorian post mortem photography, but with a more contemporary look. i think the subject is easier for a lot of people to look at in a painting, although personally i have no problem looking at the photos; i think they're absolutely beautiful in a melancholic sort of way. i think the fact that you just can't tell if the subject IS in fact dead or if he or she is only asleep makes it interesting.

currator robert storr had a therory of the good grotesque that matches this effect; "it's like the duck/bunny trompe l'oeil, the drawing that looks like a duck at a certain angle but the bill becomes rabbit ears when it's turned on its side... is it a duck or a bunny?... they are locked and your mind keeps flashing from one to the other. good grotesques are sort of like duck/bunnies."