Super slow motion stupidity

Great images and colors...

Mediocrity

The most significant feature of this country is the mediocrity of its people. This is a beautiful land, but most Mexicans are just mediocre.

A recent story.

A friend of mine teaches in a university, his students are doing Journalism. As he mentioned The Guardian, nobody knew the paper. He was shocked. And he got depressed when one of the students argued with him: "Why should we get interested in a British newspaper if they rarely publish something about Mexico? Let's focus on Mexican papers..."

Mediocrity has to do with a low, narrow scope. Hélas!

Licht, mehr Licht

Right before dying, Goethe famously said: "Licht, mehr Licht!" – "Light, more light!"

This is how light glows in Vienna. Awesome.

There's nothing to see there

The media is obsessed with Damien Hirst, but there is really nothing to see there, except for a PR and marketing magician.

Check out his dots, I'm fed up with them. They resemble his collection of pills, which I have seen at the Brandhorst Museum in Munich. And, yes, it is neat and clean, but nothing else.

Other people have done shoes, skateboards, whatever. It's just boring.

Now we even have this, by David Benjamin Sherry. What's next? A cow?

On coolness

Thomas Leuthard, Tradition vs Technology (2011)

When I discovered this image earlier today, I thought of Raphaël Enthoven's discussion on coolness. The concept emerged among the Afro-American population, and was early adopted by Miles Davis. Etcetera.

Nothing better than enojoying the presence of a cool girl!

On the air: Jean Shrimpton, Helmut Newton, Grace Coddington

Haiti: W. Eugene Smith, Christopher Anderson

The image of W. Eugene Smith in a psychiatric institute in Haiti resembles the fear of the men catched up while traveling in a boat to the American coast, as they started sinking. With this image, Christopher Anderson won a prize and developed the so called "experiential documentary", as he was taking part in the expedition and was about to die with everyone else, until they were rescued. He used no flash, only the light of the moon. Neat!

W. Eugene Smith, Madness (1959)

 Christopher Anderson, Haitian refugees (1999)

Sacral art meets Goebbels' propaganda

My colleague Cynthia Ramírez blogged earlier this year a collection of holy tits: Mary breastfeeding Jesus child. It was a nice post.

Very spooky indeed is to figure out that Goebbels' propaganda (posters by Wolf Willrich, for instance) got inspiration in such Christian motives.

Sadık Demiröz, Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton, Self portrait with Alice Springs and two models (1981)

 Sadık Demiröz, Untitled (2010?)

Beware of the State!

The State –in both images represented by the eagle– takes care of the family... Beware of it!

The idea comes from Deuteronomy 32:11, Memo pointed out to me:

"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings" (King James translation).

Nazi propaganda (1938)

"NSDAP secures the people’s community

Fellow-countrymen: if you need advice and help, apply at the local branches"

IMSS logo (1943)

An eagle taking care of a breastfeeding mother.. right!

Leo Arcand, Protecting spirit (2010)

Memo also suggested me this sosias, as an add-on.

Flying felines

First, Dalí painted this:

Gala and the Tigers (1944)

Then, Philippe Halsman shot this:

 Dali Atomicus (1948)

And this:

Philippe Halsman, Jean Seberg with cat (1959)

Later on, Helmut Newton shot this:

Twiggy and cat (1967)

Black rain

Yesterday evening it was raining a bit and the reflection of a tree captured my attention: the tiny glass roof was wet, flowers and leaves were on it, but above all it was the reflection of the tree which amazed me. Although it was still clear and the light of the sunset was being reflected on the roof as well, I somehow captured the spirit of yesterday's black rain.

Cartier-Bresson, Gup33

Cartier-Bresson famously shot these pics in Italy.

An idea which has been remade this week in Holland by GUP33 magazine.

 

Gómez Morin, Camus

This afternoon, as I was working at the Archive of Manuel Gómez Morin –one of the democratic voices in the Mexican XX Century–, his resemblance to Albert Camus struck me.

Einstein's conditions

Mileva and sons

By 1914, Albert Einstein's marriage to his Serbian wife of eleven years, Mileva, was fast deteriorating. Realising there was no hope for their relationship on a romantic level, Einstein proposed that they remain together for the sake of their children, but only if she agree to the following list of conditions.

1. You will make sure:
1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.
2. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:
1. my sitting at home with you;
2. my going out or travelling with you.
3. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:
1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
2. you will stop talking to me if I request it;
3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.
4. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.

Mileva accepted them, but to no avail. A few months later, she left her husband in Berlin and moved, with their sons, to Zurich. They eventually divorced in 1919, having lived apart for five years.

 (reblogged from Lists of Note)

Damien Hirst's greatness

It is not that hard to get a skull from a dead man from the XIXth Century, to cover it with metal and then with brilliants. Harder is to sell it as a masterpiece of art, to convince the media that it is awesome, to organize a hedge fond in order to buy what you have produced, and then to get a retrospective both in the Tate and in Doha. That's Damien Hirst's greatness.

These skulls cost a few dollars in San Ángel.

Alain de Botton, Jorge Volpi

My Valentine: Paul McCartney, Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp

White portrait: Harry Callahan, Hugo McGuinness

Harry Callahan, Eleanor (1947)

Hugo McGuinness, cover for U2's album War (1980)

Alone: Edward Hopper, Esther Bubley, Edward Keating

Edward Hopper, Automat (1927)

Esther Bubley, Nighthawke (1943)

 Edward Keating, Amarillo, TX (2000)

Juan Rulfo for tourists

One of the most conspicous Mexican writers, Juan Rulfo, was also one of our best photographers. I recently found six pictures he published in a tourist's guide for traveling across Mexico (1958). The images are very little known, and now Letras Libres re-published them.

Have a look!

Shoot girl!

Ligature magazine (2011)

Dennis Hopper, Jane Fonda (1967)

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre

Nikki de Saint-Phalle

 Donna Drake (1942)

 Helmut Newton, Jo Champa, Chelsea Hotel, NYC (1988)

And finally she shot!

Yale Joe, Archery providing entertainment at a teenage party