Give it up for Aunt Doll! Sharing her Aunt's realness with the rest of us in a rather fabulous fashion,
Michelle Maguire, a photographer and prop stylist based in Columbus, Ohio, has published a "small-edition artist's book featuring eye-popping, hand-printed images of my blunt, funny, completely unimpressed Italian-American great-aunt, Doll, with colorful Aunt Doll anecdotes by my husband Aaron Beck."
"Aunt Doll, age 84, has lived in Canton, Ohio, her entire life. She cusses, loves cured meats, knows more about the NFL than you do, plays strip mall slot machines with her vegetarian hairdresser of 42 years, isn't trying to be funny but is, worships the sun from her concrete-slab patio, and frets about nothing except her beloved Italian bread causing her to pack on the pounds."
"Aunt Doll makes the most if it. The gist of her story: enjoy every chicken wing while you holler at the Browns on your gigantic analog TV, because we aren't here forever. She'll cuss you out in one breath and in the very next, offer you a salami sandwich."
Definitely good value and Michelle is also making the most of it over on her website in the
Salami Dreamin' pages.
All images © Michelle Maguire
Klaus Pichler, the Austrian photographer who is executor of multiple excellent projects, announces his latest wonderful series,
Golden Days Before They End. Visiting 'Branntweiner' around the country, Pichler and a writer, Clemens Marschall, braved these small dens which are usually early-opening for hardy regulars. As always with Klaus, it is a beautifully documented insight, this time into a culture on its last legs.
"Pichler and Marschall went on a mission to find, document and explore the last of these refuges for a dying drinking generation. On countless wanderings through Vienna they found some of these places in their final throes. The book is a swansong for these bars that have shaped their customers' existences for decades, places that are soon to disappear forever." From the foreword to
Golden Days Before They End.
In his seventh aCurator feature,
Rob Hann whisks us away to three new states. In continuation of his series 'I Dream a Highway' he went to Oregon, Idaho and Montana with his usual keen eye, kindly sharing his tour with me, a fellow Brit with a love of the American landscape. I'm always excited to see what he comes back with and think this could be the best series yet.
"In October 2001 I took my first American road trip with a camera. When I got home and looked through the pictures I'd taken I felt I had the basis of a photo book. I thought I needed to take one more trip to have enough material. Almost 15 years and many trips later I feel the time has come to take positive steps towards making that book. The photographs here are from my most recent trip in Oregon, Idaho and Montana. I can't imagine it will be the last."
Rob Hann, February, 2016
You can see Rob's art in person - he is in New York's Soho several days a week selling his affordable prints on Prince Street.
Go on Rob's past road trips -
Using the weird and wonderful Fujifilm Instax Mini 8,
John Brian King photographed 23 models each wearing only this Ronald Reagan mask. Making the photos in an empty office, the women posed however they liked. The resulting images are an ironic reflection on the American right wing's much-loved conservative leader.
Tits to you and your memory, Ronald.
The mini-roids are collected in a book:
Nude Reagan is out now from Spurl Editions.
"John Brian King is a Los Angeles native who graduated with a degree in photography from the California Institute of the Arts. He designed the film titles for over thirty films, including Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love and The Ring. He wrote and directed the feature film Redlands, an examination of creativity and horror in relation to photography."
Read more over at Spurl.
"Stories of survival, joy and despair from a 141-year-old institution."
Tom Price is a British photographer who is currently living and working in India. His work "...is people-centred, with a focus on inequality and empowerment, especially in women and children." And he's jolly busy at it, too.
'Pass between the front of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the huge bowler hat that perches on top of the gate to Charlie Chaplin Park, take a right onto Hogg Street and curve round until you get to the narrow entrance of what appears to be a darkened alley. Step inside, you've just entered the 141-year-old Sir Stuart Hogg Market, known locally as New Market.'
According to
Wikipedia "By the 1850s, British colonists held sway in Calcutta and displayed increasing contempt for the "natives" and an aversion to brushing shoulders with them at the bazaars. In 1871, moved by a well orchestrated outcry from English residents, a committee of the Calcutta Corporation began to contemplate a market which would be the preserve of Calcutta's British residents."
Despite two fires and regular flooding the market continues today, with 2,000 stall holders selling everything from furniture to flowers.
Tom is also a pretty great writer - check him out on
Medium.
All images © Tom Price
Morley Safer, 1977 by Yousuf Karsh
Sad news! Morley Safer has died at the age of 84. Karsh photographed him in 1977, and on the Karsh website is an entertaining video from 60 Minutes with Morley Safer of
Safer with Karsh, together they recreate the famous Churchill photo. "I'll be Churchill" says Mr Safer.
Rocio De Alba quit booze and took up a camera in order to regain control of her life and mental health. Having suffered from an excruciating irrational fear since childhood, and self-medicating in order to cope, this artist finds photography to be a savior. Independently productive, Rocio's concentration is on the frank portrayal of modern families, relationships and structures.
Then, check out the amazing "
Miracle Baby" story... it must be seen to be believed.
Documentary photographer
Adam Reynolds has focused his attention on the Middle East and here brings us a glimpse at the ubiquitous Israeli safety shelter.
"Since its creation in 1948, the State of Israel has felt itself isolated and beset by enemies seeking its destruction. This collective siege mentality is best expressed in the ubiquity of the thousands of bomb shelters found throughout the country. By law all Israelis are required to have access to a bomb shelter and rooms that can be sealed off in case of an unconventional weapons attack. There are over 10,000 public and private bomb shelters found throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories."
I was reminded of stories about London in the Blitz - the London Underground was my parents' bomb shelter. No beauty treatments or couches down there.
Besides his photojournalist qualifications, Adam holds a Masters degree in Islamic and Middle East Studies. Smart!
Wonderful work from a young woman I met at
University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Swansea in the UK last year. Generally, the students were working on fairly mature, worldly projects.
Rayhannah Ali says of her imagery "My work is about family and using collage to express different feelings of situations and meanings reflecting back to a South Asian culture." Unable to choose, I went with two projects. UNUNDERSTOOD is an embrace of and homage to the graphic imagery of Shirin Neshat while The Disturbance uses mixed media and family photos for a provocative experience.
"I'm a SAD GURL because I am a mermaid that has been stranded on land, and on top of that I'm being forced to "grow up" when that's clearly a terrible idea." - Annie © Sam Lichtenstein and Jess Williams // SAD GURLZ
On a cool Friday night in April, in Brooklyn, myself and a bunch of my photo cohorts gave up another evening for the greater photo cause - this time for ASMP's student reviews. There was a variety of photography to look at, and only 10 minutes to talk about it with each person so I was concerned when two youngsters sat down to be reviewed together. But Jess and Sam, aka the founders of the SAD GURLZ project, lit me up with their refreshing attitude, their confidence, their looks, and their collection of SAD GURLZ who have been invited to submit a statement about a particular reason they haz sad, and have some of their bits and pieces photographed.
"I'm a SAD GURL because my cognitive psych professor said that if aliens do come to visit, they'll kill us." - Haley
It can be tough reviewing students, especially when they are from all different schools and at different levels, with some not seeming to have been given any guidance. I was convinced during my first review that Taylor Swift must have been standing behind me as the young man's eyes wandered incessantly.
"I'm a SAD GURL because I'm such a fangirl at heart but The Beatles and the Beach Boys broke up so I have nothing to take my top off for." - Paulina
"I'm a SAD GURL because I want to go to Med School but I spend all of my time drinking Budweiser and sleeping with NYU frat boys." - Carlie
Jess and Sam seemed far from sad as they showed their book and beamed about their project. They are infectious and besides which, the series is an insight into the minds of today's young women. I have spent much time thinking what I would have said to them.
"I'm a SAD GURL because love doesn't exist. It's not just sunshines and rainbows. It's all fucking heartbreak." Original SAD GURL Jess
"I'm a SAD GURL because at this point, it's easier to be single than deal with fuckboys." Original SAD GURL Sam.
Not so SAD! Jess and Sam © aCurator
