May 30, 2014

Stefan Lorant: the father of sosias




Well, this was matter of time. I started working on the sosias project after reading Proust's similarity between Odette and Cefora, back in 2005.

Today I just "discovered" (the most subjective verb with pretensions of objectivity) Stefan Lorant. He even has a biopage on Wikipedia. The foremost genius, from Budapest, as it should be: filmmaker, photographer, editor and a man of images.

There is currently an exhibition in Berlin, curated by Udo Kittelmann, focused on Trier, the guy who designed the covers of his magazine called Lilliput, focused on political satyr. It ran for 162 issues, and the largest collection might be Kittelmann's, who has 142.

The first "parallel" or "yuxtaposition" or "photographic jokes" – as he calls them in a generic way, since he coined no name for it – was one of Rockefeller and an old poor woman. Then he started looking for more, as he was starting a new, independent magazine with few resources but a lot of creativity.

The "idea behind the idea" became "to show how stupid pomposity, how silly self-importance is".



Michael Hallett has written his biography, which I want to get right away. He dubbed him the godfather of photojournalism, but the was more than that: he also invented the photographic sosias (pace Lawrence Weschler).










May 27, 2014

Whistler's mother, Virginia Woolf



James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother (1871)


Gisèle Freund, Virginia Woolf smoking, London (1939)



May 24, 2014

Balotelli, Ronaldo





Balotelli (2012)



Cristiano Ronaldo (2014)



May 22, 2014

Hollywood, Ayutla




Hollywoodland sign (1923)



Ayutla, Jalisco



Entonces mi papá las corrió a las dos. Primero les aguantó todo lo que pudo; pero más tarde ya no pudo aguantarlas más y les dio carrera para la calle. Ellas se fueron para Ayutla o no sé para dónde; pero andan de pirujas.
– Juan Rulfo, Es que somos muy pobres



May 21, 2014

Adobe flat


I am posting these pics of my flat as an answer to some comments posted on Apartment Therapy's Small Cool Contest.

 Adobe wall (terrace)


Main entrance from patio


 
Kitchen and studio


 Bedroom


To do list (bench: orange crate from the 50s)


Studio upstairs


Ceiling



Bathroom


 Duchamp in Mexico


May 20, 2014

Ingres, Souza


In his most recent book, The News, Alain de Botton suggests this funny sosias: two powerful men playing with kids.


Ingres, Henry IV recieving the Ambassador of Spain (1817)


Pete Souza, President Obama gets caught into Spider-Man's web (2012)

Bauhaus Dessau: Herbert Bayer, Enrique G de la G




Herbert Bayer, Bauhaus Dessau Balcony (c. 1930)



Enrique G de la G, Bauhaus (2013)

May 3, 2014

Wolfram von Eschenbach, "Parzival"




«A brave man slowly wise –
thus I hail my hero –
sweetness to women's eyes
and yet to women's hearts a sorrow,
from wrongdoings a man in flight!»

May 2, 2014

"Mergers and Acquisitions", by Edward Hirsch




Beyond junk bonds and oil spills,
beyond the collapse of Savings and Loans,
beyond liquidations and options on futures,
beyond basket trading and expanding foreign markets,
the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard
& Poor's stock index, mutual funds, commodities,
beyond the rising tide of debits and credits,
opinion polls, falling currencies, the signs
for L. A. Gear and Coca Cola Classic,
the signs for U.S. Steel and General Motors,
hi-grade copper, municipal bonds, domestic sugar,
beyond fax it and collateral buildups,
beyond mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts,
hostile takeovers, beyond the official policy
on inflation and the consensus on happiness,
beyond the national trends in buying and selling,
getting and spending, the market stalled
and the cost passed on to consumers,
beyond the statistical charts on prices,
there is something else that drives us, some
rage or hunger, some absence smoldering
like a childhood fever vaguely remembered
or half-perceived, some unprotected desire,
greed that is both wound and knife,
a failed grief, a lost radiance.
     
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