TSA Considering Banning Photography Of Checkpoints
Carlos Miller writes on Pixiq:
The Transportation Security Administration is considering changing its policy on photographing security checkpoints after several videos depicting questionable incidents between passengers and TSA screeners were posted on Youtube.
News of the possible changes in policy was posted Friday on the TSA Blog, the same blog that posted that it is permissible to photograph checkpoints, even though most screeners act as if it has always been illegal.
The reason it is considering changing its policy stems from a Youtube video that was recorded in Phoenix when a woman opted-out of the metal detectors and chose to get patted down by a TSA screener.
The woman began yelling hysterically that she had been molested by the screener.
Meanwhile, the woman’s son was recording the incident and continued to do so, even though several TSA screeners told him he was breaking the law.
It is impossible to tell whether the woman was molested in…
My God — It’s Full of Stars! (Video)
Video made from images by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado at the Very Large Telescope:
The Government’s War on Cameras (Video)
Via Reason TV:
Who will watch the watchers? In a world of ubiquitous, hand-held digital cameras, that’s not an abstract philosophical question. Police everywhere are cracking down on citizens using cameras to capture breaking news and law enforcement in action.
In 2009, police arrested blogger and freelance photographer Antonio Musumeci on the steps of a New York federal courthouse. His alleged crime? Unauthorized photography on federal property.
Police cuffed and arrested Musumeci, ultimately issuing him a citation. With the help of the New York Civil Liberties Union, he forced a settlement in which the federal government agreed to issue a memo acknowledging that it is totally legal to film or photograph on federal property.
Although the legal right to film on federal property now seems to be firmly established, many other questions about public photography still remain and place journalists and citizens in harm’s way. Can you record a police encounter? Can you film on city or state property? What are a photographer’s rights in so-called public spaces?
Let’s Punk the Rapture
Fun idea from MLKSHK that Gizmodo is making a contest out of. Mat Honan writes on Gizmodo:
A lot of people think the Rapture is coming May 21. It’s not. But assuming your pets are okay, here’s a prank we’d like you to pull. We call it Rapture Bombing.
On May 21, get a bunch of your old clothes in full sets of pants, shirts, and shoes. Bonus points if you leave accessories like an old watch or sunglasses to go with them. Lay them out as if people have suddenly disappeared, leaving only the clothes behind. Be creative.
Take pictures. Post them on our Facebook page, or tweet them with the hashtag #rapturebomb.
We’ll run the best ones; our favorites will win prizes. (Don’t get too excited—we’re talkin’ iPhone cases and shit.) And if you make your local news? You’ll be Giz’s hero for the day.
Here are some more post-”Rapture” photos.
Reuters Publishes Photos of Raid on Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad Compound
There are no photos of Osama Bin Laden (yet…). Note the photos are graphic. Via Reuters:
Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.
The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths. (More at Reuters)
Kids Celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s Death (Photos)
Matt Stopera posts on BuzzFeed:
This is kind of disturbing. Check out these pictures of kids celebrating Osama’s death in Times Square…
Life Inside Store Displays
In advertising and window displays, companies invite us to step into a lifestyle which we may access by purchasing their products. Suppose someone took the message too literally? While visiting IKEA with friends, photographer Christian Gideon created a series of pictures in which all facets of daily home life were simulated within the store’s famed mock interiors. The results are hilarious and poignant (with lots of bro bonding). Via My Modern Metropolis:
Thousands Of Tourists’ Photographs, Combined Into One
Framing sites of mass tourism in our viewfinders, we create photographic souvenirs that are integral to the touristic experience. These products, coined “photograph-trophies” by Susan Sontag, separate our leisurely pleasures from the real everyday experiences of work and life.
Artist Corinne Vionnet begins with the most recognizable of images and creates something unearthly and unsettling — from Flickr and personal blogs, she culls thousands of tourists’ snapshots of a well-known landmark (such as the Taj Majal, below) and overlaps them into single composite, revealing the collective “tourists’ gaze” produced by the absurd behavior of millions of people endlessly taking the same photograph over and over. Via My Modern Met:
Television Programming At The Moment It Dies
I’ve seen the most interesting thing on TV a thousand times, but never noticed it. Artist Stephan Tillmans photographs tube televisions at the split second they are turned off, to glorious effect. Via his website:
The television picture breaks down and creates a structure of light. The pictures refuse external reference and broach the issue of the difference between abstraction and concretion in photography.
Rare Photos From Eva Braun’s Private Collection
LIFE has a collection of recently released photos that belonged to Adolph Hitler’s longtime girlfriend Eva Braun, providing a window into the often strange and silly personal lives of some of history’s greatest villains. Most of the images depict the couple in leisure-time activities. However, my favorite is the below shot, taken in 1937, of the narcissistic and not-so-inviting interior decoration in the living room of their home in Berchtesgaden, Germany:
The Psychic Polaroid Projections Of Ted Serios
Extrasensory abilities, or hoax? The University of Maryland has a retrospective on the work of Ted Serios, an alcoholic bellhop who, though intense concentration, could produce dreamlike “mind photos” using a Polaroid camera. The Chronicle of Higher Education is a believer:
Strange as it may seem, such “thought” photographs do exist, and a selection of them are on display in an exhibition through March 27 at the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
“Psychic Projections/Photographic Impressions: Paranormal Photographs from the Jule Eisenbud Collection on Ted Serios” features a series of images produced by Theodore Judd Serios (1918-2006), a bellhop from Chicago who appeared to possess a genuinely uncanny ability. By holding a Polaroid camera and focusing on the lens very intently, he was able to produce dreamlike pictures of his thoughts on the film; he referred to these images as “thoughtographs,” and many striking examples are on…
Pictures From The Secret STASI Archives
German artist Simon Menner has a bundle of photos taken by East Germany’s secret police during Cold War. Offering a glimpse into the small absurdities of life as a Communist spy, included are snap shots of suspicious household objects, agents modeling their “normal civilian” disguises, and West German spies who knew they were themselves being spied on, et cetera:
East Germany, until it ceased to exist in 1989/90, had one of the most advanced surveillance system ever in operation, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Department of State Security) or STASI. In terms of number of agents per capita it even outranked the Russian KGB by far.
Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was decided that most of its archive should be made accessible to the public and for historic research. Even though the access is restricted, this was very much in contrast to what most of the other nations of the…
The Virgin Mary Appears In A … Condom? (Photo)
Via Riemann’s Cut:
I don’t know if the Condom-Mary is an old idea or not…
This is Why Stuff is Cheap in America: Pollution Photos from China
Via China Hush:
On October 14, 2009, the 30th annual awards ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund took place at the Asia Society in New York City. Lu Guang from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”
Images of 19th Century Paris’s Hell-Themed Café
Manning Krull at Cool Stuff in Paris has posted some rare pictures of a Hell-themed café that was founded in late 19th century Paris.
Little is known about the establishment, which appears to have operated into the mid-20th century. National Geographic has this to say:
“A hot spot called Hell’s Café lured 19th-century Parisians to the city’s Montmartre neighborhood—like the Marais—on the Right Bank of the Seine. With plaster lost souls writhing on its walls and a bug-eyed devil’s head for a front door, le Café de l’Enfer may have been one of the world’s first theme restaurants. According to one 1899 visitor, the café’s doorman—in a Satan suit—welcomed diners with the greeting, “Enter and be damned!” Hell’s waiters also dressed as devils. An order for three black coffees spiked with cognac was shrieked back to the kitchen as: “Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!”
Next door was a less interesting…
London Calling – Again
The image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass on the cover of The Clash’s London Calling is one of the most iconic images in all of rock ‘n’ roll. While you can’t always judge a record by it’s cover, in this case, you can.
London Calling is a great record in a great looking package, but Marcus Gray’s new book Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling is a different story. While the book’s cover – and its title – implies that this volume is an examination of the band’s 1979 release, and a critical analysis that would argue it’s place among rock’s best records, covers can be misleading.
This is actually much, much more…
Holy Bat-Internets! The Batcave’s Been Discovered in Okinawa Using Google Maps!
Holy Bat-Internets! Many thanks to the intrepid reporting by Cyriaque Lamar on io9.com. (Possibly a new Bat-Ally?) At least we are closer to determining the new villain in the anticipated sequel to The Dark Knight.
It’s that vile Searchmaster known as … The GOOGLER! Cyriaque Lamar writes on io9.com.
Batman’s secret hideout has been discovered using the magic of the internet, and surprisingly it’s not under Wayne Manor. No, it’s located on a US military base in Okinawa. Who’d have thunk?
Why does this building sport the Batman insignia? Says one Reddit user, “There are two squadrons of [F15s] here on Okinawa, the bats, which sport blue tail flashes, and the cocks, which sport red tail flashes.” That sounds perfectly logical. Perhaps a little too logical. I’m inclined to believe that that hangar hides a device more along these lines…
The Statue of Liberty Hit By Lightning
Via Metro (UK):
This is the moment the Statue of Liberty was hit by lightning — and caught on camera by a photographer who waited two hours in a storm-hit New York City.
New Yorker Jay Fine apparently waited more than 40 years for the shot before braving the storm last month in Manhattan’s Battery Park City.
The 58-year-old photographer caught the incredible snap — but it was a rather arduous process capturing the perfect picture.
He said: ‘I had been watching weather reports so I knew a storm was coming and it just seemed like a great opportunity.
‘I was ready and waiting and took 81 shots before finally getting this one.
‘I was shocked when I realised what had happened.
‘It was pure luck really, a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s the first photograph of its kind I have ever seen.’
Children of the Victorian Era, Post-Mortem
If you notice a sleeping or vacantly-staring figure in an antique photograph, it might not strike you to wonder if the subject is even alive. In the 21st century, we rarely see photographs of the dead that are not connected with crime scenes or accidents; dead relatives are instantly removed to funeral homes, where their bodies are embalmed by well-paid specialists. The Victorians, however, were not so disconnected from death, and a common practice was to have portraits taken of the recently-deceased. In these post-mortem photographs, the dead may appear in coffins, but were also quite frequently arranged among family in lifelike poses. As it was a period of extremely high child mortality, images like the ones in this video were often the only keepsakes 19th century families had by which to remember their short-lived sons and daughters:
David Bowie’s Book Of One Hundred Archive Objects
1975 Photo by David Bowie using Kirlian Photograph Machine, Source: bowieNet.net
David Bowie is shopping around a book of photos of 100 pieces from his archive. From bowieNet.net:
We still don’t want to give too much away just yet, suffice to say that David Bowie has been working on a book entitled Bowie: Object.
There’s no firm publishing date in place, but we can give you a little more detail.
Bowie: Object is a collection of pieces from the Bowie archive, wherein, for the first time, fans and all those interested in popular culture will have the opportunity to understand more about the Bowie creative process and his impact on modern popular music.
Bowie: Object features 100 fascinating items that give an insight into the life of one of the most unique music and fashion icons in history. The book’s pictorial content is annotated with insightful, witty and personal text written by Bowie himself.
Designed by Barnbrook, Bowie:…
