Glass Beach – Nature Corrects Another of Our Mistakes

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that a rubbish dump being created would, in the space of a century, become a protected area.  Yet that is exactly what happened to what has come to be known as Glass Beach, just outside Fort Bragg in California.

Image Credit Flickr User mlhradio

The residents there had no refuse collection so, with the sea so close by the solution seemed obvious – throw the garbage over the edge of the cliffs above their local beach.  The burgeoning population of the town proceeded, with abandon reckless if not gleeful (after all, it must have been more fun than the usual taking out of the garbage) to do just that.

Young Faces of the American Civil War

Somehow we expect their faces to be different, not so staggeringly modern looking.  Place them in contemporary clothing and all of these young men would not look out of place in a mall or a high school yearbook. Yet these extraordinary ambrotype and tintype photographs were taken during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Over 160 years separates their lives from our own yet their youthful faces retain a powerful resonance and an immediacy which brings that dreadful conflict feel strikingly close to us..

Who were these young men? What sort of lives did they live during and (one hopes) after the Civil War? The names of many of the young men pictured here are unknown; their fates a mystery. Yet despite the century and a half gap between their careful posing for the camera, some can still be identified. Astonishingly, names can still be discovered, as well as insight in to their character and personality.

The Golden Hour: Magical Photography

Have you ever taken a photograph that seems to have a magical quality to it, because of the way in which the light has been captured in the shot?  The chances are that you took the picture during the two times of day that photographers know as the golden hour.

Image Credit Flickr User Martin Sojka

Image Credit Flickr User Alessandra S Alba

The first hour of sunlight of the day makes the first golden hour.  As the sun rises the light is softer than later in the day when the full and harsh rays of the sun shine down upon us.  Likewise at the end of the day in the hour before sunset, the sun is close to the horizon again.  As in the morning, the light travel in an oblique manner and so, instead of hitting objects straight down, hits them at an angle.

The Chiaroscuro and Rembrandt Lighting

In order to achieve the beautiful contrast between light and dark, known as chiaroscuro there is a method employed by photographers – Rembrandt Lighting. Here, with some beautiful examples, is how it is done. Image Credit Flickr User Mai En Hoa

Image Credit Flickr User 85mm.ch

Planet of the Lemurs: 10 Beautiful Little-Known Species

Image Credit Flickr User gripso banana prune

Most people have heard of the Ring-tailed Lemur and might suppose that it is the only species. However, there are many varieties of Lemur, a lot of which are beautiful and incredibly rare. The Ark in Space takes a look in to the planet of the lemurs and discovers the wonderful diversity of this lesser known family of animals.

People of 1925: A Year Through the Lives of Those We Never Knew

A century ago, the world danced precariously between wars, flappers twirled to new, modern dances, and telephones still had cords. But the people of 1925 laughed, worried, posed for photos, and waited for things to change - just like us. In this snapshot of time, let’s take a look at the faces, fashions, and fragments of ordinary lives from 1925 - and where possible, what happened to them afterwards.  (Now available - The People of 1926)

Note

I used Flickr’s The Commons and Wikimedia Commons for this project.  The first obstacle I came across was unexpected but on reflection it shouldn’t have been – human nature! Many photos from this era are not marked with exact dates or even years and so unless they were associated with a specific event, then the curators had to be vague (between 1920 and 1925 and so on).  Fair enough. Before I started using a phone and the date stamp that goes with digital photography, I didn't take the time to scrawl dates on the back of my snapshots – leaving me to guess about the exact year from my own history, let alone that of complete strangers. So, if I had not recorded dates myself, how could I expect others to do so?  Yet because I wanted to try and feature people as ordinary and everyday as possible, much more than politicians and actors, this precluded so many great photographs that I soon lost count. 

The second issue is the Eurocentricity of most photographs included. This was not a choice but due to the available sources. Most accessible historical photographic archives come from Europe and North America, where photography was adopted earlier and preservation institutions were established, resulting in better-documented collections.

When I have included people who were well known or even celebrated in 1925, it is in more informal settings wherever possible. A few photographs that have been recorded as circa 1925 have been included, simply because they were irresistible, so please forgive me for that. There were other issues that I came across as I went along, too (more of those later). However, the decision to select photographs with verifiable dates was a good one. 

Photography in 1925 was affordable enough for many ordinary families to participate but still a small luxury, especially when compared to how easy and cheap digital photos are today. Each shot counted, and people often took photos to capture special moments rather than daily life.  So, many of these photos will seem arranged, organized and posed for a good reason: they were!

I hope you enjoy this gallery of the people of 1925.

Source

Let’s start with something quite silly. The National Archives of the Netherlands has this great picture of a group of young swimmers with bike tyres tied around their bodies as a swimming aid. Taken in Germany, 1925.  It must have seemed like a clever idea at the time, but from the look of the smirks on some of the faces we can see here, I doubt whether this idea was ever taken seriously.   These young people all look as fit as the veritable butcher’s dog and it’s highly unlikely that they would have needed any support to help them swim!

Helping to End Oppressive Child Labor in the US – The Photography of Lewis Hine

The 1900 United States Census showed the population of America growing by over 20% since the previous census ten years before. Good news for a still expanding, young country. Yet there was another astonishing figure which appalled many. One in six children aged between five and ten were recorded as being in gainful employment.

May 1910: Bundle boy. St. Louis, Missouri.

Yet there was worse. This number, shocking in itself, represented a massive increase of 50% over a twenty year period in the number of children in this age group who worked, often in appalling conditions. America’s children were working in greater numbers than ever before - 1,752,187 of them all told between the ages of five and ten. With the country seemingly going backwards in its treatment of its children from poorer backgrounds, a group of people decided that something had to be done.

The Prandtl–Glauert Singularity – Amazing Jet Plane Shock Collar

It’s an amazing site – a cone of vapor appearing around an aircraft which is travelling at transonic speed.  Known as the Prandtl–Glauert Singularity this astonishing effect simultaneously widens the eyes and drops the jaw. Yet how does it occur?

Image Credit Wikimedia

May the Forced Perspective Be With You

Forced perspective photography can be great fun.  The technique uses optical illusion to make something appear larger, smaller, further away or closer than it really is.  If you have seen only one example then it will probably have been someone making it appear as it they are pushing or holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa (or perhaps the Eiffel Tower, which always comes a close second). So here are twenty examples of forced perspective to give you some amusement before you go back to what you should really be doing (studying, working or shopping but perhaps you could just grab your camera and try a few of these out).

Image Credit bark
There are numerous naughty examples of forced perspective, but this is the cheekiest you'll get here today.

The Depression Era Photography of Dorothea Lange

A look at the work of Dorothea Lange who captured the Great Depression through her lens and created some of the iconographic images of that era.

At a time when women had had the vote for less than twenty years, Dorothea Lange was a pioneer. A professional woman who took photographs for a living. The Great Depression of the 1930s is best remembered, photographically, by the work of the FSA, for which she worked. She travelled the USA recording the deprivations caused by the failure of the economy as well as taking many uplifting images that showed that, despite the hard times, life and love went on.

It is probably best to start with an image of the photographer herself. Unlike some, Lange did not interpolate herself actively in her photographs – those that we have of her show her usually on her own in very much a framed composition. This shot from 1937 shows her in the field with one of her cameras, rather coquettishly positioned atop of her car. Short dark hair and a feminine yet somehow boyish dress sense, the beauty of this shot lies in the baseball boots she is wearing. Her job was not, after all, one that required heels on any sort so why bow to the fashion dictates of the time?

Winter!

Image Credit Flickr User Andy Won

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.  Anne Bradstreet

Image Credit Flickr User Al HikesAZ

The Photography of Jack Délano - the Man who Colored the Forties

Above: A young worker at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Illinois, 1942.

"I was interested in people not only as images, but also as human beings. In stories that they would tell me or interviews I had with them. It seemed to be it was an important part of what I was trying to communicate." 

    - Jack Délano, Far From Main Street

Image Credit Flickr Library of Congress

Above: Taken in September 1941, this is the backstage area of the girlie show at the Vermont State Fair.

Many people will admit to having eclectic tastes but a significantly smaller number would be able to raise their hands and profess to having eclectic talents too.  Not so Jack Délano whose pictures of ordinary American life in the 1940s made him world famous as a photographer.  He was, however, also a trained musician, a composer, an illustrator and latterly a film and documentary maker. Here, we shall focus on his photography but as we examine his work in this field we hope to also include detail of his other areas of artistic interests.

The Century Old Color Photographs of Prokudin-Gorsky

Image Credit Flickr User Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky

In 1909 a remarkable project was initiated by Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky. His mission was to record – in full and vibrant color – the vast and diverse Russian Empire. Here, with his story, is a selection of his amazing century old full color pictures.

Image Credit Flickr User Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky

Just over one hundred years ago a Russian photographer, began a remarkable project. With the blessing – and funding – of the Tsar, Nicholas II, he embarked on an extraordinary journey to capture the essence of Russia in full color photographs. Many of these pictures look as if they could have been taken yesterday, with only the costumes worn by the people captured in their moment of time betraying the age of the work. The first shows two men crossing a small river.

The Art of the Japanese Manhole

The Japanese have a wonderful relationship with their manhole covers: they treat them as art. Here is a selection of the ornate, the artistic and the slightly bizarre.

Gedi – Kenya’s Hidden History Revealed

Image Credit Flickr User Viaggi Spensierati

The thirteenth century was one of turmoil. The crusades were in full swing, the Mongol empire under Ghengis Khan swept forever westwards while Marco Polo turned his own eyes towards the east.

Meanwhile in Kenya, East Africa, a group of enterprising people began to build a settlement which would endure for over three hundred years. Gedi, a sophisticated coral-brick built town belies the perception many have about this part of Africa - and its architecture - before the arrival of Europeans. Take a look at Kenya's hidden history revealed.

Image Credit Flickr User malczyk

School Portrait

A somewhat jaded school photographer is on his latest assignment.  The brown stuff has really hit the fan in his life and his current cynicism is reflected in the way he asks the children to pose for their photographs.

That is, until one little girl comes along...

Comedy is difficult and comedy with children even more, so hats off to director Nick Scott for attempting this and succeeding so wonderfully.  I paticularly like the little boy who says he hasn't filled out his tax form because I don't want to. Ah - if only life were that simple!

It isn’t often that a short film of less than three minutes in length can show a turning point in someone’s life so effortlessly. Despite its less than happy subject matter, School Portrait is a funny and affecting short film.

The Sublime Swallowtail

You may be familiar with the Common Yellow and the Western Tiger, but the Swallowtail family of butterflies is much larger and diverse than you may imagine. The Ark in Space is featuring some of the less familiar species, such as the Pipevine and the Chinese Peacock, along with some stunning photographs, and revisit one or two you have perhaps seen before - such as the Giant Swallowtail above.

Image Credit Flickr User TexasEagle

Love Valley – Seeing is Believing

Love Valley in Cappadocia, Turkey certainly has a claim to fame – a very large one. Rather euphemistically named, the valley is home to rock structures that bear a passing resemblance to… well - make your own mind up. Seeing, as they say, is believing.

Image Credit Flickr User Cachalan

Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) is a region of exceptional natural wonders, none more so than the giant monuments left by Mother Nature in Love Valley. Situated in the very heart of modern day Turkey this natural wonder sits on a high plateau over a thousand meters in altitude. Rainfall is sparse in this area and the place has hot dry summers and bitterly cold snowy winters. There is little rainfall and so the region is generally arid. In this environment these huge phallic natural structures seems like some sort of ancient homage to male fertility. However, they are far from man-made despite the possible resemblance to manhood.

Incredible Crepuscular Rays - Sunbeams Caught on Camera

Sunbeams are everywhere – yet when they are caught on camera they are often unwanted additions to a photograph. They cut swathes through the picture, chopping off heads and obscuring detail in a burst of light. However, when they are deliberately captured the results can be nothing short of magical.

Image Credit Flickr User Apheric Lens

Image Credit Flickr User G_Cowan

30 Photos that will Make you Look Twice

We hope that you find Kuriositas visually stimulating. However, without the host of great photographers out there who make their work available under Creative Commons licenses, we would not be able to show you a fraction of the wonderful places the site has featured over the years. While sourcing these photographs we often come across ones accidentally – and these are real moments of serendipity. They may not be what we are looking for but they make us look twice. Here are thirty of those double-take moments for you to enjoy.

Image Credit Flickr User Giulia Van Pelt

Image Credit Flickr User Alubavin