Friday Finds

Have you poked around the Criterion Collections' website lately? It's the berries! You can hop around their entire collection, and even download (for nominal fees) some of the older films. It's also kind of nice to play around on the site and then hop over to Netflix and throw some films you didn't know about or forgot about in your queue. If it weren't so early I'd be watching The Virgin Spring. But it is a bit early for Bergman, and I think my five year old would protest.

 Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring

Speaking of good films, the Maysles Brothers (Salesmen, Gimme Shelter) website is fun to explore. Just watched Grey Gardens the other night with my husband and he told me a bit more about their innovations and pioneering work in the documentary film vein. So naturally being reference library-brained I found Albert's (the surviving brother) website.                                                                         

 Grey Gardens - The Maysles Brothers

A few months ago I discovered photographer Peter Ross's website, specifically his still lifes of William S. Burroughs' things. William S. Burroughs was (if you're not familiar) one of the eccentric founding fathers of the Beat generation (he wrote Naked Lunch). Peter Ross has documented his odd collections, seems Burroughs has a fascination with guns, blowdarts and pinwheels. Check it out here.

 Typewriter, William S. Burroughs's Stuff / Peter Ross

I laughed myself silly over this photographer's work. Robbie Augsperger uses an old light kit to recreate the *ahem* golden days of studio portraiture. The Corporate Headshots page is my favorite, but this guy is pretty amazing too.  

 

                                                        

Italo Disco - 2009 Robbie Auspurger             

Here's hoping your weekend is thrilling, calming, trilling, and beautiful. I'm still writing at Controlling A Spicy Universe, too - if you're looking for some esoteric whining.

Daily Clicks - Old and Found Photos

Have been thinking about spooky images lately. Like that scene at the end of The Shining, with the slow push zoom towards that group photo at the Overlook in 1924(?): 





And can't you just hear the trills of "Midnight, With the Stars and You"...? Here's the scene. I recall the first twenty times I saw that film, that bit gave me the willies about as much as Grady with his unfortunate head wound in the mirror. 


I was thinking about that scene this weekend, and about old photos. Don't we all just love old photographs? I used to love to slink around antique shops in Ohio and Tennessee, pawing for old photos, making up stories in my head about the strangers caught forever on film. There are several places online to do this right from the relative comfort of your computer, and I'll share a few that I frequent. In the coming weeks I'm going to dig out more, and if anyone has any suggestions...comment them here please and thank you. 


#1: http://foundphotos.com: My knowledge of this site is relatively new, but thanks to Katie in Australia I'm a convert. Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in a while but there's enough in the archive to click for a while if you've never visited before. These aren't very old photos, just candid, random, and fascinating.  


#2 Shorpy: Oh, I'm a huge, huge fan of Shorpy!! Nicely organized, nice collection, nice feature to zoom into a high-res version and really explore each image. The other evening I was just totally engrossed in their collection of Dorothea Lange photographs, exploring some of the ones that I wasn't familiar with, like Wapato Ennui: 

1939 - Dorothea Lange


and 535-07-5248 and Wife:



1939- Dorothea Lange


Dear Lord the STORIES in those images! Shorpy categorizes photos by photographer, era, "Pretty Girls", World War Two, Civil War, Kodachrome and tons more. 
#3 Albert's Eye:  I know next to nothing about Albert's Eye, I can't even tell you how I FOUND Albert's Eye - a beautiful flickr photostream full of vintage charm. Some of my favorite sets are St. Vincent's Orphanage (there's the beautiful and heartbreaking), American Studio Portraits, and In the Photobooth.



The beauty and heartbreak of humanity is all over these collections. I hope you feel as grounded and grateful of life when you browse them as much as I do...
Coincidentally, if it's vintage Photobooth images you love, here's a wonderful little book with a nice collection of them: 



         Photobooth - Babette Hines. 


*I've added the above links and a few more to the Reference Library page*


UPDATE: Thank you Princess Sarah for the following links: 
Black and WTF 
Vintage Child Abuse