Artist: Dorothea Lange

I recently discovered how much great viewing there is on PBS online and was intrigued to watch a documentary on Dorothea Lange directed by her granddaughter Dyanna Taylor. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning shows footage of Lange from 1962-66, combing through her vast photographic archive to choose images for an exhibit at MoMA. Her assessments of her own work are interspersed with the back story of a childhood bout with polio which left her with a limp, her two marriages and her struggle to balance art with motherhood. The photographs she took during the 1930s of the migrant farmers and their families fleeing the dust bowl states for the west coast (and finding that there wasn't work or shelter for them there) came to represent the Great Depression and eventually helped galvanize the public and the government to provide aid. As she traveled the country, often with second husband Paul Taylor (an economist and social scientist), she would introduce herself to her subjects and let them know what she was doing so that they were willing to be photographed. The result was a stark realism that still holds up 80 years later. Most sobering for me, was Lange's description of a series of photos she took of middle class women's mended stockings as they sat waiting to be given a bag of groceries to take home (a surreptitious bread line for women of a certain social standing). Their silk stockings were scarred with thin snags that had been meticulously darned, yet that looked worse for the mending. No self-respecting woman would have left the house in such a state unless those were the only stockings she owned and she didn't have the means to replace them. It's these small details that tell the story of such a difficult time and that remind us not just to look at what is in front of us, but to really see it.

                                   

Images: Dorothea Lange via Shorpy and Indulgy.

Color Palettes by Design Seeds

I recently discovered Design Seeds and I can tell it'll be a favorite for a long time to come. Individualized color palettes are created from professional photos of everything from food to places. Search the archives by creating a color value or look up swatches by themes like "vintage" or "mineral". If you find yourself gravitating towards one color, just print the image and take it to your local hardware store to have them match the shade. Gorgeous and handy -- it's now a must-have in my tool kit.

Images: Design Seeds.

History in Pictures

I've recently taken to browsing the history section of Pinterest with fascination at the images that I'm finding. Some (like the giant fallen sequoia tree above) bring up more questions than they answer -- How? Why? What next? Others feature an event in history that I knew about but never paused to consider the details. Sometimes it helps to remember where we once were (child labor, world war...) to appreciate the gains we have made. And sometimes you just need to wonder at the human capacity for both genius and stupidity.

 Children sleeping in the London underground during WW II

WW II war dogs

Child laborers in a textile mill

The construction of the Statue of Liberty in France

Unboxing the Statue of Liberty

After a house fire in Montreal, the building facade is thick with ice

Victorian bathing huts to preserve the modesty of naked bathers

Skyscraper window washers

Images: Pinterest.

Photography: Legs and Antlers

Sometimes you just need a good laugh. These auction photos gone awry--usually involving mirrors being shot head on--put a smile on my face. 

Images: Auctionzip.

Photography: Vacation Redux

Nothing clears the clutter from my brain like a vacation abroad. It's always a welcome pause from the tiny daily stresses that, like a cloud of humming gnats, gain momentum the closer they travel together. I begin to unwind the moment I settle into my airplane seat, despite the fact that the passenger in front of me has invariably settled into my lap the instant the "Keep seatbelts fastened" light goes out. The first day of my trip reminds me to be patient with myself as I acclimate to the local language/customs/vibe. But once I'm rested and have eased into the newness of a place, the rest is discovery and wonder.


The pictures I've taken on these trips are a reminder not only of the places I've visited, but also of the unburdened state of mind I was in at the time. But not every year is a vacation year. So bringing a few of the standouts out of the photo album, or off the hard drive, and arranging them on a wall is a visual reminder of the good times. I frame a few and attach others to transparent clipboards I found at Target so that I can switch them out periodically.

Some of my favorite photos are those that could not have been planned. A moment presented itself and somehow my camera was at the ready. 

A Parisian roofer took a break from his work six stories high to chat with his girlfriend on his cell phone.

These days you never know who is listening in on your conversation. A statue at the Louvre takes precautions.

Jet Lag can strike anywhere--even on a hard museum bench.

A London flash mob spells out a warning and then disappears into the crowd of shoppers in Harrods.

A little girl at her daycare in Cape Town's Khayelitsha Township.

 I hope these South Africans didn't have a long trip ahead of them--especially the one keeping the window steady.

I happened down an alley in Simon's Town, South Africa, and met with this vision.

Cairns: Lovely Piles of Rocks

ZapPictures, Inc.

Still Breathing has endured as one of my favorite films since I first saw it about a decade ago. Brendan Fraser plays a San Antonio musician, Fletcher, whose father and grandfather both had visions of the women that were meant for them and subsequently found and married them. Fletcher finally experiences his own vision of his bride and he travels to L.A.'s Formosa Cafe to find her. There he encounters Rosalyn, played by Joanna Going. She is a con artist who mistakes him for her next mark and sets about seducing him. Intensely pursuing her but determined not to sabotage their relationship by rushing things, Fletcher eventually breaks down Rosalyn's defenses. During a stroll down a tree-lined street, he pauses to tell her about how he builds cairns. He takes her hand, palm up, and piles several little stones on it to commemorate the moment they are sharing together. Soon after, he tips her hand and lets the stones fall. Cairns aren't built to last but rather to punctuate a moment in time.


I have since built a few cairns of my own while walking along Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. Its meditative effect makes it the perfect way to shed city life stresses. Part of the fun is trying to build something that looks like it shouldn't be able to stay standing. Balancing it on the edge of a boulder or leaving a space at the center that you can see through makes it more than just a pile of rocks. Each structure is so precarious that I always know when it has reached its limit. Usually I'll continue on my walk until I'm on the other side of the creek and then I'll watch people's reactions as they discover the cairn. Dogs and children are particularly fascinated by these unexpected art installations in the wild.


Definition: cairn 

Pronunciation: \ˈkern\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English (Scots) carne, from Scottish Gaelic carn; akin to Old Irish & Welsh carn cairn

Date: 15th century

: a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark (Merriam-Webster)

The tallest cairn I've managed so far.

As a seller on Etsy, I love browsing at what is on offer from artists and vintage lovers around the world. It turns out that my love of cairns is shared by a number of them. Here are a few that captured my attention.

Moss Terrariums' Cairn Terrarium No 1

Made for Fun's Bottle Stopper

Leaping Gazelle's Sea Cairn

Jibby and Juna's Cairn Illustration Pendant

AntiGenre's Cairn Ring

Groundwork's Cairn No. 3--Limited Edition Print

 (which I also happen to have framed in my bedroom)

Jenifer Glagowski's Original--Orange on Grey