An Edward Weston invitation from PhotoEphemera. The author writes, ‘Not sure who’s invite this was or who wrote on it but I like the idea of cocktails in the penthouse with Ed after the show. I wonder if he was a fun drinker.’
Some things I’ve been meaning to post about lately but haven’t really found a way to fit them into something with more depth:
First off, you really must go to PhotoEphemera, a blog dedicated to the printed accompaniment to photo history. They feature a wide range of photographers, showing gallery announcements, greeting cards, tearsheets, invitations, and other assorted odds and ends. As the author says to explain the site in his inaugural post:
I collect all sorts of photography related stuff. Mostly photography books–or I did anyway, BC–but also ephemera such as gallery announcements and the like. I’m sure if I dug down deep enough I could figure out why, but you know, at a certain point in one’s life, you just have to live with it.
Little by little, I’ll put some of this collected material up. It’ll be a wide variety of odds and ends from the history of photography: things I find interesting or amusing or unusual.
Secondly, Kottke.org recently featured a useful link to Smarthistory, a site that is trying to replace the ‘static art history textbook.’ But, having completed my art history requirements a few years ago, it’s also a pretty fascinating visual reference of movements and periods. take a look.
And finally, Art Fag City was sifting through some old Onion articles and usefully compiled a list of hilarious art related ones. My favorite below.
Hard To Tell If Wikipedia Entry On Dada Has Been Vandalized Or Not
“This is either totally messed up or completely accurate,” said Reed College art history major Ted Brendon. “There’s a mustache drawn on the photo of Marcel Duchamp, the font size keeps changing, and halfway through, the type starts going in a circle. Also, the majority of the actual entry is made up of Krazy Kat cartoons with abstract poetry written in the dialogue balloons.”
The fact that the web page continually reverts to a “normal” state, observers say, is either evidence that ongoing vandalization is being deleted through vigilant updating, or a deliberate statement on the impermanence of superficial petit-bourgeois culture in the age of modernity.
