Stare

Summer’s end

Betsy Brandes — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:26:25 +0000

Well, not really, we have another month or so to go. But last week my children started school and their summer ended. It’s their first year taking the school bus home. Reminded me of Reuben Cox’s familiar series. Check it out http://reubencox.us/school–bus.htm.

Moon landings

Betsy Brandes — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:31:34 +0000

It seems impossible to me that men walked on the moon, and yet I believe it to be true. What an odd time in our history, the cold war, the space race. There are so many moons to be walked on, not all of them are in space. That expression “If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they . . .” seems to make sense. Buzz Aldrin says there was less bureaucracy back then, space plans were often just two pages long — here’s what we can do and how we can do it, and they did it. We could use some of that common sense around today, uncomplicate ourselves, throw off our yokes, bury our stuff.

Adam Bartos photographed remnants of the Russian space program, standing still in time. http://www.adambartos.com/kosmos.html

Pop art

Betsy Brandes — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:36:15 +0000

Shot with my iPhone.

Under the sea

Betsy Brandes — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:01:48 +0000

Thank you to Mr. Belic for showing me places I’ll unlikely go.

http://www.abelic.net/

The Office

Betsy Brandes — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:17:47 +0000

Lee Friedlander immortalized cubicles in his series entitled At Work. The lack of emotion on the faces of the employees match their drab surroundings.

http://think-in-pictures.com/2007/10/25/lee-friedlander-at-work/

Take a look at these offices from well-known companies. Shouldn’t they all be as creative as these?

http://www.eightyonedesign.co.uk/how-would-you-improve-your-graphic-design-studio-or-office/

Wild life

Betsy Brandes — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:46:37 +0000

Think all wildlife photography looks the same? Take a look at Nick Brandt’s work. Original, up close and personal portraits of lions, zebras, giraffes, elephants, and more. His new book due out in September is bound to be a top seller.

http://www.nickbrandt.com/

All in vein

Betsy Brandes — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:48:49 +0000

Watched a lightning storm outside my window yesterday. My son took the opportunity to read aloud from a young reader’s science book on lightning. I learned that lightning is no wider than your big toe and it’s caused be a cloud’s desire to rid itself of energy.

But it’s the form of the lightning that I find fascinating. It often consists of one main vein with several smaller branches emanating from the main, or perhaps feeders stretching to the main. It reminded me of photos from space that were taken by the space station astronauts — the rivers and inlets that were photographed bear the same shape, as do some of the mountain ranges. Roots have the same structure. Our circulatory systems have an identical structure, as do veins in leaves, and branches, too. All have a connection to water. All seem to mark a flow of vital energy.

A gallery of lightning images: http://www.genesisfineart.com.au/lightning_gallery/lightning_strike_05.html#IMAGE

Astronauts’ views of earth — scroll down to see the rivers, lava flow, and ranges: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/recent_scenes_from_the_iss.html

Evidence of things seen

Betsy Brandes — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:26:35 +0000

Proof that we live in a beautiful world. Thank you Mr. Parker for showing me places I may never go.

http://www.kennethparker.com/

Faux photo

Betsy Brandes — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:43:07 +0000

I find Peter Funch’s images visually arresting. I know they’re not quite real but I want to believe they are.

http://www.peterfunch.com/

Transformers

Betsy Brandes — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:04:33 +0000

I heard a lot of talk today about Transformers 2 opening tonight. Fathers who were planning on taking their teenage sons to the midnight show, colleagues planning their week around it.

Take a look at the work of An-My Le, a transformer herself who became a political refugee from Vietnam and came to America at age 15 in 1975. Still intrinsically involved with war subjects, she documents the real transformers of today, regardless of whose side you’re on. I’d stay up past midnight to watch more of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiV3nWX5oO0

In the mid-90s, Ms. Le travelled back to Vietnam and found a landscape transformed but a visage hauntingly reminiscent of the war she fled thirty years earlier.

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425550718/423969340/an-my-le-ho-chi-minh-city.html

http://www.murrayguy.com/current/index.html