The LIFE photo archive
The LIFE photo archive can be accessed online from now on. Google is hosting “millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.” [1]
Most of these images have a pretty good resolution – at least when it comes to images on the web.
Soldier holding tattered flag of the Eighth PA Infantry, during Civil War.
A bedraggled Mrs. Bates cooking over a stove w. her cat eats fr. a can in the basement slum apt. she shares w. her husband at 210 E. 98th St.
Migrant mother Florence Thompson & children photographed by Dorothea Lange.
Follow this link and have a look at the LIFE archive.
Tom Waits True Confessions & “The Big Picture”-blog
Read the interview Tom Waits did with himself over here.
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Have a look at “The big Picture” which is a “photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, compiled semi-regularly by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery – with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting” [About-page of The big Picture]
Go to “The big Picture“
The holy shrine
“In 1965 the group surrounding the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu identified the [photogaphic] documentation of family rituals as the ritual confirmation of the institution of the family itself, emphasizing the social function of taking photographs.” [1]
The occasions for family-photography are evolving out of its function. Photography in the family circle has to record the “good times” and special moments of a family’s biography. These are mainly weddings, birthdays, holiday trips, the kids, christmas and other parties.
The ‘classical’ way of collecting these douments was to put the family-photographs into an album. This album was limited in its public range. The access to it was strictly regulated. One needed to be an insider, an accepted member of the family itself or the close circle surrounding the family to be allowed to gaze at the family’s ‘holy shrine’.
Today things are different:
- 3.306.789 photographs tagged with wedding
- 2.141.630 photographs tagged with family
- 1.569.381 photographs tagged with birthday
- 1.441.387 photographs tagged with christmas
- 1.039.372 photographs tagged with holiday
- 888.364 photographs tagged with baby
The ‘holy shrine’ is now public.
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[1] Kathrin Peters: Instant Images: The Recording, Distribution and Consumption of Reality Predestined by Digital Photography [link]
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