Meanwhile, 1,759 miles away

You can't tell me it doesn't look like we were made for each other.  On the left: Tim, in San Diego; On the right: me*, in Leland, Mississippi. Both photos circa December 1976, both (we think) were taken on or around our birthdays, December 14 and 26.

Happy birthday, Tim. . .

*Yes, I'm curling my hair in the living room. Not sure why, unless it's to catch the eye of that cute rich guy on the left. (Or, yeah, more realistically, somebody beat me to the bathroom.)

Old school ghosts

From Detroit, a city rapidly becoming famous for its gorgeously decaying old buildings: some haunting then-and-now images (apparently of an old school building) in which heyday snapshots have been digitally superimposed onto current photos.

Thanks to Nick Taylor for the tip!

The difference 700 years makes?

Mystery solved! The ever resourceful* Brian Williams weighed in on my "Lilies of mystery" post (right) last week, saying "I recognize these as the front and back artwork from Cocteau Twins' 1982 EP Lullabies (The Arum lily appears on the back.)" He also found the source, The Liliput Pocket Omnibus (pub. date uncertain), along with several scans of its pages, including the spread above.

Above, on the left: STONE. The Famous Angel in Rheims Cathedral, built over 700 years ago; Above, on the right: FLESH AND BLOOD. Centuries later, a striking resemblance is seen in Mlle. Louisette  Bouniol, also of Rheims.

*I know this for a fact. He was my Cub Scout co-den leader back in the day!

The difference a day makes

On the left: A leaf we came across on the UNC campus in Greeley, Colorado on an overcast day with freezing rain. On the right: The same leaf the next day, after an overnight freeze and snowfall.

Presidential parties

In keeping with this week's presidential election, here are a couple of paintings by "visual storyteller" Andy Thomas — delightful stuff. Top: Callin' the Red. Democratic presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, President Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, President Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Andrew Jackson. Bottom:  A Grand Ol' Gang. Republican presidents George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Abraham Lincoln.

See more of Andy's work here.

Joy!

So many fun shots of joyful jumpers that I had to break with the usual format and try a foursquare. . .

Top: Nick does a triple axel (um, sort of) at White Sands, NM; Ripley (who could jump like this for hours, according to Ana June, who took the photo) in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
Bottom: the exuberant Jet in Olalla, Washington (shot by Randy King); me at Lake Waccamaw, NC (the lake where I was born. My dad, Grant Egley, wanted to try out the "sports" setting on his new camera)

Which came first?

Heard about this one on Radio Lab. The episode was about searching for the truth and included an interview with filmmaker Errol Morris. Here's a bit about the photos from Radio Lab's website:

Taken in 1855 during the Crimean War, the —photo — titled "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" by its photographer, Roger Fenton, is one of the first photos ever taken of war. And it may also hold the title of First Faked Shot.

As Errol explains, it turns out there were actually two photos -- both taken from the same spot over 150 years ago. One image famously shows a road littered with cannonballs (top) while the other shows the same road with no cannonballs (they're off to the side in ditches) (bottom). Which one came first? And why would the cannonballs have been moved?

 You can hear the story here.

Lilies of mystery

On the left: Our Lily; on the right Arum Lily.

This looks like a scan from an old book, but I haven't been able to find anything further. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know. . .

Thanks for the tip, Melissa!

Santa Fe, is that you?

Spent the afternoon today with Tim and Nick climbing around the hills overlooking Santa Fe trying to find the spot from which Timothy O'Sullivan snapped* the photo on the top in 1871. Because of obstacles which have sprung up over the last 141 years (like people's houses — and lots of trees), this, the shot on the bottom, was the closest we were able to get.

*Not the word to use. Nothing snappy about O'Sullivan's process, according to an article the Daily Mail published earlier this year. (Check out the article to see a nice selection of O'Sullivan's breathtaking photos of the still pristine West.) As their writer put it:

O'Sullivan used a primitive wet plate box camera which he would have to spend several minutes setting up every time he wanted to take a photograph. He would have to assemble the device on a tripod, coat a glass plate with collodion — a flammable solution. The glass would then be put in a holder before being inserted into a camera. After a few seconds exposure, he would rush the plate to his dark room wagon and cover it in chemicals to begin the development process.

Thanks to Randy King for the link and the challenge!

And sometimes they just show up

Screen shot of back-to-back posts on my Facebook newsfeed today. Can't say I worked very hard to find this one. . .

Some people never change. . .

   
Buenos Aires photographer Irina Werning has done an incredible job of meticulously recreating old photos like the ones here. See more of her impressive project here.

Above: Mechi, 1990 and 2010, Buenos Aires Right: Johanes, 1994 and 2011, Hamburg; and Lucía, 1956 & 2010, Buenos Aires

(Thanks to Melyssa Holik for the tip!) 

Juxtaposing

As part of her Juxtaposition project, Erin Loechner has gathered photos from all over the internet and matched them up in combinations that are gorgeous and compelling — the kind of stuff you can look at all day long and not get tired of. (Thanks to Megan for the tip!)

Top photo: Salva Lopez; Bottom photo: Michelle Arcilla

The sun rises in the east. And the west.

On the left: Sand castle at sunrise on Ocean Isle Beach, NC, October 2010; On the right: Lifeguard stand at sunrise at Long Beach, CA, October 2010

(I know, I know. Getting dangerously close to cliché territory. Vacation slides will probably be next. . .)

Decisions, decisions. . .

Whether to rent or to buy? On the left: Home for rent in Belen, NM. On the right: Home for sale in Belen, NM.

Dorie and the tires

On the left: my photo of Dorie Hagler shooting a fence decorated with tires. On the right: Dorie's photo of the "tired" fence.

Summer nights in the back yard

On the left: Julie Blackmon, Night Movie, 2011. On the right: Gregory Crewdson, untitiled (Back Yard Romance) 2004. 

Four sisters take on time

Another intriguing project: Helsinki-based Wilma Hurskainen and her three sisters attempted to recreate about 30 photographs their father took of them when they were young. Several of the resulting photos are here.

Says Hurskainen: "It seems as if we were trying to go back to our childhood by adopting the same position towards each other and the photographer's/spectator's gaze but we unavoidably fail. We have to fail – there is no return in time. " You can see more of Helsinki's work here.

(Thanks to Jen Lowe for the tip!)

Now and then

On the left: Zeke, January, 2012, Santa Fe, NM. On the right: Megan, sometime in 1982, Santa Cruz, CA. (Thanks to Megan Goldberg for sharing this one!)

Miss O'Keeffe, I presume?

On the left Georgia O'Keeffe, "Cebolla Church," 1945; on the right: Reeve Taylor, "Georgia O'Keeffe's Cebolla Church" (painted as part of Annette Cohen's third grade art class), 1997.

You shoot my shot, I'll shoot yours

On the left: Laura's shot of Reeve shooting Laura (as he shows off his muddy jeans after slipping in the spring-thaw ooze); on the right: Reeve's shot of Laura shooting Reeve. Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, 2007.

Walk on by

On the left: Tim, Nick, and Reeve walk past a storefront in Manitou Springs, CO, September 2007. On the right: Tim, Reeve, and Nick walk past a storefront in downtown Springfield, CO, July 2006.

Dear photograph. . .

Breaking the format a moment to share a really yummy site: Dear Photograph is a photo blog which made up of old photographs reshot in front of the site where they were originally taken — which makes for some poignant visual storytelling. Contributions are sent in from all over the world, usually with a line or two saying something about the image.

Text for the above photo:

Dear Photograph,
Over 25 years later, the house is still blue and my mother is still looking over me.
Alexandra

Signs

On the left: early morning outside the Pantry Restaurant in Santa Fe, September 2010; On the right: early morning outside a thrift shop in West Hollywood, October 2010.

Branches and blossoms

On the left: Vincent Van Gogh's "Almond Blossom" oil on canvas, 1890; on the right: detail* from Gustave Baumann's "Spring Blossoms," woodcut print, 1950

*OK, so this one might be cheating — using a detail, I mean — but Bauman's branches are the first thing I thought of when I saw this Van Gogh's painting, so I had to try. . .

Inside and out

On the left: View from the exterior. Reeve shoots the convenience-store doll (and Laura); On the right: View from the interior. Laura shoots the convenience-store doll (and Reeve and Tim)

A study in contrast

On the left: the trunk where Tim keeps his clothing. On the right: mine.

White on white (on white on white)

On the left, Kazimir Malevich‘s “Suprematist Composition: White on White”  (1918).
On the right, my “Priority Envelope in More Snow than We Expected Today. . .” (2010)

Cousins

On the left: Nick (approx 15 mos, at his house in Colorado Springs, CO, 1988); on the right: Reeve (approx 2 years old, in his room in Santa Fe, NM, 1992)

Of kith and . . . kind?

I was going through some old photos and happened upon one, taken about 40 years ago, in which my sister, Cathy, and I are dancing. I was immediately struck by how much, in the photo, Cathy at age 6 looks like her son Ian. But I was even more struck by how much, in the photo, I at age 7 look like . . . me. See for yourself.

I know, I know. A long, roundabout way of stating the obvious. We look like our families; we look like ourselves. Still, it’s kind of fun to see it laid out so plainly via the medium of photography.

Top photo: Ian and Laura,  December 2008. Bottom photo: Cathy and Laura, December 1968.

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