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The Course of Empire (1833-36)

Mar
2010

Cole, Thomas. The Course of Empire: The Savage State. 1834. Oil on canvas, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

Cole, Thomas. The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State. 1834. Oil on canvas, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

Cole, Thomas. The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire. 1836. Oil on canvas, 51 x 76 in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

Cole, Thomas. The Course of Empire: Destruction. 1836. Oil on canvas, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

Cole, Thomas. The Course of Empire: Desolation. 1836. Oil on canvas, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

A must-see is the superlative ExploreThomasCole online exhibit, a collaboration of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the National Park Service and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The highly informative section on The Course of Empire has many fascinating insights, including a “decode” option highlighting significant aspects of each work, and commentary on the series gleaned from correspondence of the painter himself.

Dawn delivery

by Chris Taylor

Mar
2010

A C-17 Globemaster III waits for an air crew going on an air delivery mission at an air base in Southwest Asia Feb. 2, 2010. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Angelita Lawrence)

Tech. Sgt. Kevin Owen sits on the ramp of a C-17 Globemaster III while flying over the mountains of Afghanistan after an air delivery mission, Feb. 2, 2010. Sergeant Owen, a 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron loadmaster, and the crew delivered 34 container delivery system bundles to a base in Afghanistan as part of a combat re-supply mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Angelita Lawrence)

Film Noir by Mark Brown

by Chris Taylor

Mar
2010

Film Noir 1, originally uploaded by NapalmPhoto.

Film Noir 2, originally uploaded by NapalmPhoto.

Terry Cordell: You can’t expect to dodge the police indefinitely, George. Wouldn’t it be smarter to go to Cochrane and get this thing out in the open?

George Steele: Just about as smart as cutting my throat to get some fresh air.

– Crack-up. Dir. Irving Reis. Perf. Pat O’Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall. 1946.

Film noir femme fatale

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

“There’s one good thing in being a widow, isn’t there? You don’t have to ask your husband for money.”

– Shadow of a Doubt. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton. 1943.

Photographer: Matt Frederick. Model: Fleur de Guerre.

film noir femme fatale, originally uploaded by fleurdeguerre.

Africa from above

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

The vistas and wildlife of the former British East Africa, sourced from the Flickr photostreams of AnotherOz and Jose Cortes III.

Kilimanjaro, originally uploaded by AnotherOz.

Victoria Falls, originally uploaded by AnotherOz.

Ngong Hills, originally uploaded by AnotherOz.

JF6N1652, originally uploaded by Jose Cortes III.

IMG_2986, originally uploaded by Jose Cortes III.

IMG_3621, originally uploaded by Jose Cortes III.

For more aerial shots of African wildlife, see the Okavango, the view from above – 2009 set from Mr. Cortes. And for more high-altitude aerial photographs of landmarks and landscapes around the world, see the Aerial Shots set from AnotherOz.

John Barry: Out of Africa Original Soundtrack (1985)

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

Generally this film sets my teeth on edge; especially Meryl Streep’s faux-Danish accent and Robert Redford’s lack of an English one. But I do love the stunning beauty of Kenya itself paired with John Barry’s terrific soundtrack.

For my money, the best moments in this lengthy clip run from 6:40 to the end, and feature a de Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth (G-AAMT). You know this was prior to extensive CGI use, so someone actually took a Gipsy Moth out to Kenya and flew it around in front of the camera. Of special note is the segment from 9:10 to the end, where the Moth buzzes flamingoes along a lakeshore at quite low altitude. According to IMDB, the pilot for this footage was Wing Commander Sir Henry Arthur Dalrymple-White, 2nd Baronet, DFC, a veteran of the Second World War who resided in Kenya and kept flying until his 80th year. Sir Henry passed away in Nairobi on June 30th, 2006.

Times Square on a rainy night, c1931

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

(Image © Bettmann/CORBIS)

1931 – Times Square, originally uploaded by straatis.

Film Noir by Jared DiMartine

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

The IT industry of often portrayed as weary soul-destroying labour in a matrix peopled with ungrateful or at least uncaring cubicle drones. How appropriate, then, that it should give rise to one Jared DiMartine, who has put his time in purgatory to good use—funding a photography hobby and small business that we hope yields great future dividends. Below are excerpts from Mr. DiMartine’s exhibition “Film Noir“, presented at the Kiehl’s Boutique in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, last February.

Film Noir 4, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

Film Noir 5, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

Film Noir 15, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

Film Noir 12, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

film noir 18, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

film noir 19, originally uploaded by jareddimartine.

The F.H. Jewell Collection

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

Archivist John Cornelius has done us all a service by preserving a remarkable window into a bygone past—this collection of photographs taken in China between 1921 and 1927 by one Frederick Harris Jewell, marketer for the British-American Tobacco Company.

Temple and "Stairway to Heaven" c. 1920s atop Tai Shan ("Sacred Mountain") in Shandong province, elev. 5,069 feet. Significant "Mountain of the East" in Taoist tradition, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. (© J. D. Cornelius 2008 / F. H. Jewell Collection)

You can read more about Mr. Jewell and see dozens more images from China and elsewhere at Mr. Cornelius’ site. Highly recommended.

Victorian & Edwardian Actresses

by Chris Taylor

Feb
2010

Your correspondent has just discovered a new favourite photographer—Mr. Alexander Bassano (1829-1913)—via a Flickr set of Victorian and Edwardian actresses collected by pufferfish_77.

One’s inner nerd can’t help but marvel at the resemblance actress Daisy Hancox seems to bear to another actress, one Carrie Fisher; albeit some forty years before there was a Carrie Fisher. Also of note is the timeless quality of the Mary Clare photograph, which seems like it could have been taken yesterday.

Daisy Hancox by Bassano 1916, originally uploaded by pufferfish_76.