Landscape
esiegel | November 30, 2013"Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who take pictures, you know, carry a camera. Because if I did I'd have stacks and stacks and stacks of different acts." -Edwin Starr
You've been outside enough to know that the deepest photos of the Universe -- of the night sky -- aren't quite the same thing you see when you open your gaze on even the darkest nights; there's often a lot more visible in the photos than there are to the unaided eye. As Earth, Wind & Fire would sing you (how's that for one from the vault), it might feel like you find yourself in a land called
Fantasy.
That's…
esiegel | September 29, 2013"Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends." -Shel Silverstein
No, there's not really an edge to our world, but if you've ever been to the ocean shores, you might know that feeling I'm talking about. The smell of the salt water, the wind gusting in from the sea, the sandy beaches and rocky outcrops slowly losing ground to the relentless waves; it's one of the most…
bioephemera | February 1, 2010Matthew Albanese makes miniature dioramas out of everyday materials and photographs them, producing Uncanny Valley landscapes that seem almost, but not quite, real. His Paprika Mars, above, is made of 12 pounds of charcoal and spices (paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder). Fields, After the Storm, below, is mostly faux fur and cotton.
Albanese's scenes are convincing precisely because they're so paradigmatic - the standard desolate planetary surface, Western grassland, etc. His work exploits our cognitive tendencies to interpret stimuli against the backdrop of our experience, especially…
bcohen | September 25, 2009Instead of me answering that, I wondered instead how other people have argued about the question. To be more specific, since I am interested in the role of scientific practice for defining the land, I wondered how people argued about whether or not science was better for agriculture. I wrote a book about it. It's called Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside. I commented here a few months ago that the book was finally on its way. Although Amazon sales do not begin until October 20th (here is their link), the publisher has it officially listed for…
bcohen | July 16, 2009I haven't been here much, but I did begin a new series over at McSweeney's called "Days at the Museum." It's a limited-run set of dispatches (summer-length, let's say) about research at the Smithsonian and related miscellany. Tuesday was the first one, called "Ronzoni All the Way Down."
This is the central image of the story, a fairly well-known portrait by the French Barbizon artist Jean-Francois Millet from 1857 called "The Gleaners":
And what is the story? I'll repost it in full below the fold. I'd bet it's fair to say it has the character of one of Lawrence Weschler's Convergences…
bcohen | June 10, 2009A slow June at the Fair (see here for an explanation), but I'm popping in to share what constitutes a different sort of landscape image(s) below. Here's the first:
The Citarum River in Indonesia.
Here we have landscapes of garbage, scenes of environments overwhelmed with waste, with excess, with disposed and disposable items. The images are jarring to me, especially when defined as landscapes -- that these are visions of the terrain in which we live. Nobody would confuse these for wilderness pictures. In this case, the human contrivance is too obvious to warrant comment, though In prior…
grrlscientist | December 19, 2008tags: Central Park Lake, NYC, reflections, image of the day
A Drizzly Evening On Central Park Lake 5:56PM November 13, 2008
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 9, 2008tags: sunset, Mt Shasta, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset over Mt. Shasta
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 8, 2008tags: sunset, Mexico, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset with Palm
Rosarito Beach, Mexico.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 7, 2008tags: sunset, Mexico, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset
Rosarito Beach, Mexico.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 6, 2008tags: sunset, Hawaii, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset
Ka'anapali, Maui.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 5, 2008tags: storm cell, Hawaii, landscape, nature, image of the day
Storm Cell
Black Rock, Ka'anapali, Maui.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 4, 2008tags: stormfront, hawaii, landscape, nature, image of the day
Ka'anapali, Maui
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | December 3, 2008tags: sunset, Hawaii, landscape, nature, image of the day
Sunset, Wailea, Maui.
Image: John del Rio [larger view].
grrlscientist | November 3, 2008tags: Pipestone Canyon Valley, Cascade Mountain Range, Winthrop Washington, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
On the road between the small mountain hamlet of Winthrop, Washington state, to Pipestone Canyon Valley, a few miles north of Winthrop in the North Cascade Mountain Range in Washington.
Image: David W. Morgan, 25 October 2008 [larger view].
The photographer, David Morgan, writes;
I am sending some pictures I took while on a fossil collecting trip this past Saturday. The [above image was] taken just a few miles north of Winthrop, WA while exploring the Pipestone…
grrlscientist | November 2, 2008tags: Pipestone Canyon Valley, Cascade Mountain Range, Winthrop Washington, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
Pipestone Canyon Valley, a few miles north of the small town of Winthrop in the North Cascade Mountain Range in Washington State.
Image: David W. Morgan, 25 October 2008 [larger view].
The photographer, David Morgan, writes;
I am sending some pictures I took [in Washington State] while on a fossil collecting trip this past Saturday. [This image was] taken just a few miles north of Winthrop, WA while exploring the Pipestone Canyon area looking for Paleocene leaf…
grrlscientist | November 1, 2008tags: Pipestone Canyon, Cascade Mountain Range, Winthrop Washington, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
Pipestone Canyon Valley, a few miles north of the small town of Winthrop in the North Cascade Mountain Range in Washington State.
Image: David W. Morgan, 25 October 2008 [larger view].
The photographer, David Morgan, writes;
I am sending some pictures [of Washington State that] I took while on a fossil collecting trip this past Saturday. [This image was] taken just a few miles north of Winthrop, WA while exploring the Pipestone Canyon area looking for Paleocene leaf…
grrlscientist | October 31, 2008tags: Autumn in the Palouse, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
Autumn in the Palouse.
[Eastern Washington State, USA]
Image: Joe Fuhrman, 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | October 30, 2008tags: Arid country in the Palouse, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
Arid Country in the Palouse.
Image: Joe Fuhrman, 2008 [larger view].
[The Palouse is a semi-arid "rain shadow" region in Eastern Washington State and portions of the Idaho panhandle, USA]
grrlscientist | October 29, 2008tags: Palouse Falls Washington, landscape, nature, photography, Image of the Day
Palouse Falls, Washington.
Image: Joe Fuhrman, 2008 [larger view].
[The Palouse is a semi-arid "rain shadow" region in Eastern Washington State and portions of the Idaho panhandle, USA]