Wednesday List: a series of delicious rediscoveries

EUGENE ATGET, PROSTITUTE PARIS 1920S,  VIA

I cleaned up my Delicious bookmarks the othern night (probably the most hellish geeky and pointless decluttering project of them all) and during the process I found a bunch of stuff that I had completely forgotten about. It was quite inspirational and exciting, and as I like to share I’ve made a list for you. How lucky are you? So lucky

• Cabinet Magazine: The Museum of the Dead. This article is interesting enough, but it’s the photography that’s killer: it creates more questions than it answers. The image of the creepy children is fascinating and the text doesn’t even mention the creepy children. I need to know why the children are there. More research required.

• Vivian Maier: This is a site dedicated to the work of an American photographer called Vivian Maier who appears to have lived in New York in the 1940s and 50s. The dude that maintains this site bought the previously unknown photographer’s work at an estate sale and is slowly uploading the images. It’s great stuff, and there is something about the combination of the origin story behind the work and the images themselves that remind me of the work of Eugene Atget, whose work I have always fascinated me.

• American Suburb: More photography, but this contemporary and dominated by those largely banal images of contemporary suburban life and decay. A trope I know, but interesting photographs nonetheless. The site is a bit annoying (too much Flash!) but worth a look if you can navigate the useability issues.

• The link to this site was sent to me, I think, and the images are taken directly from the American Museum of Natural History's image library. The images are fascinating in the way that only disjointed documentary photographs can be. Also, I followed a link provided in the original site that led to Chicago Public Radio's documentary series This American Life, and in particular the episode titled "Simulated Worlds". I can't hardly wait to have a listen.