Photography

Cody Ellington's extraordinary nighttime photography of Japan thrills me, probably because I suck at nighttime pictures.

More pictures are on Ellington's Webflow site and a list of his other projects is here.

He's also a collaborator on Wander the Night.

The Canadian National Exhibition is open 18 days per year at the end of the Toronto summer. Final day for 2024 is today, September 2, Labour Day. Kristan Klimczak is down there right now taking photos of CNE visitors, just as she's done every day it's run since 2015.

The facial expressions on the Ex's visitors and employees pretty much sum up my thoughts of the event, which explains why I haven't been back since 1982. Cement, heat, lack of shade, terrible food, crazy prices, and crowds. It's hard for me to think of any place I'd rather not be. Love the photos, though!

More on Klimczak's site.

Absolutely floored by Ashley Suszczynski's work exploring "ancient traditions in the modern day."

From Suszczynski's site, which is correctly named Really Good Pictures:

Ashley Suszczynski is an award-winning travel photographer based in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, focused on capturing ancient traditions in the modern day. She aims to tell the story of how lesser known cultures, relics, rites, and rituals have withstood time and evolved in our ever-changing world. Through visual storytelling, she hopes to share knowledge and understanding of these age-old customs in order to continue their preservation and social approval.

Stunning work. More on the site.

Lovely Leica work by Joshua Singh. More on his site.

Breathtaking work from Tine Poppe: Gilded Lilies — Portraits of cut flowers.

I wanted to post them all but then there'd be no reason to visit Poppe's fantastic site.

Some of Lukas Vasilikos B&W series, Stories Retold. I believe most of these were shot in Greece, where Vasilikos lives.

See the full series on the Vasilikos website.

Lukas is part of the Burn My Eye collective.

The Verge on AI in photography with the release of the new Google Pixel:

An explosion from the side of an old brick building. A crashed bicycle in a city intersection. A cockroach in a box of takeout. It took less than 10 seconds to create each of these images with the Reimagine tool in the Pixel 9’s Magic Editor. They are crisp. They are in full color. They are high-fidelity. There is no suspicious background blur, no tell-tale sixth finger. These photographs are extraordinarily convincing, and they are all extremely fucking fake. 

Some of the examples they offer:

These were created in-camera. No additional software or skills required.

The conclusion of The Verge's article? We're fucked.

Caleb Stein's, Down By the Hudson, a series of b&w photos taken at a watering hole in Poughkeepsie, NY, explores the camaraderie and simplicity a gathering place engenders by simply being.

The full series, including gallery shots and accompanying text, is on Caleb's site.

Anecdote Alert

The image of the soaped-up boy reminds me of people I encountered on a weekend drive as a teenager. I was camping with some friends at a lake. There was a cliff with a rope tied to an overhanging tree. Locals would emerge from the water "clean," after soaping up, swinging, and letting go. One child, who couldn't yet have been 10, forgot to wipe his palms on his shorts before grabbing the rope. The excess Sunlight stymied his grip and he plunged into the shallowest part of the lake, just that side of the rocks. When I think of it, I see him strike stone and break — some times his head, some times his arm, most often his leg — complete with crack!, or blood, depending on what's been struck. It's an overwhelming "memory" that I have to remind myself didn't happen. He was fine, though a bit shook. I don't doubt that what he saw bursting through the water — the horrified looks on the observers' faces — is burnt into his brain the way the reverse has settled in mine.

That whole weekend was one of the strangest of my youth, and none of it in a good way.

James Mollison's extraordinary series, Where Children Sleep, offers portraits of kids and their "bedrooms" from places around the world. So much to think about these, especially when contrasted with one another. Equality, opportunity, privilege, burden, culture. Fantastic stuff.

The entire series of 56 diptychs can be viewed on Mollison's website.