AMERICAN CRAFT

A while back Reference Library posted some interesting photos of Paolo Soleri working at Arcosanti that led me to a series of pictures made in the 1970s for LIFE Magazine. Taken by Nina Leen, the photographs document artisan American crafters at work dyeing yarn, spinning pottery and blacksmithing, among other things.

JULIUS SHULMAN: 1910-2009

Famed photographer of modernist architecture Julius Shulman died yesterday in Los Angeles.

What always struck me about Shulman's pictures is their playfulness. Shulman managed to capture the humanity behind the imposing shapes and sharp angles of mid-century buildings, and allowed the structures to seem both otherworldly and remarkably accessible. The inclusion of people, nature, and clutter helps to normalize otherwise alien structures, and at the same time highlights the innovations and creativity on display in the buildings. RIP.

KENTUCKY EYES: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

Self Portrait

Born in Normal, Illinois, Ralph Eugene Meatyard eventually settled in Lexington, Kentucky, where he began photographing his new-born son at the age of 25. An optometrist by day, he joined the local camera club, where his talents were recognized and encouraged by Van Deren Coke. Taking pictures only on the weekends, Meatyard began to realize a wholly singular aesthetic, incorporating props (notably masks, detritus, and graffiti) into the photos he took of his wife and children. Influenced by eastern mysticism and Zen philosophy, he began to focus on what biographer James Rhem called "the beauty of ideas rather than ideas of the beautiful." This led Meatyard to his many formal experiments, including the so-called "Zen Twig," "No Focus" and "Sound Image" series.

Early examples of a developing aesthetic








His last effort, completed shortly before his death from cancer at age 47, was The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, a family photo album depicting the family and associates of the titular character. Named after the protagonist in a Flannery O'Conner story, "Lucybelle" features 64 images of Meatyard's wife Madelyn in a hag's mask, accompanied in each photo by a friend or relative in a translucent old man's mask. The first image shows Madelyn with Meatyard himself as the old man, standing in their back yard. The sun seems to be rising behind them, and Madelyn has her foot firmly planted on the neck of a very snake-like garden hose. The world seems newly formed, open and rife with possibility, a sort of Oedipal Genesis for the American Gothic set.


Lucybelle Crater and her 40 year old son, Luycbelle Crater

As the album progresses, we are introduced to the various members of Lucybelle's cohort, all of whom seem to be called Lucybelle. Meatyard's use of the masks, and his insistence on giving everyone the same name, is his attempt to universalize the photographs; he wanted merely the "aroma of having a person, a human being in the picture, which stands for a very different thing than having a particular human being in the picture." He articulated his pictures as representations of sentiment- that which is abstract and universal- as opposed to sentimentality, which is local and particular.

The last image in the series circles back to a garden setting. This time though, Meatyard and Madelyn are in reverse: he is in the hag's mask (and his wife's dress), his body thin and ravaged by cancer, while Madelyn plays the friend. There is a quietness about the picture, and one gets the sense that Meatyard felt he had accomplished what set out to do: to reflect us back upon ourselves, to nudge us "beyond the billboard" of particulars and into a world of greater and deeper consideration. A beautiful idea indeed.


Lucybelle Crater and close friend Lucybelle Crater in the grape arbor

BLACK CHROME: PANTHERS & EAST BAY RIDERS

The photos above are from an exhibit at the California African American Museum in LA. Chronicling the history of black bikers in and around Oakland and the East Bay, the show examines the contribution of blacks (and black women) to popular cultural perceptions of motorcycles and motorcycle riders. Unfortunately, we're a day (or 2 months) late and a dollar short, as the biker-specific stuff came down in March. Lucky for us, there's a book that looks at this stuff too: Soul on Bikes: the East Bay Dragons MC and the Black Biker Set.

Still up are Howard L. Bingham's (famous for his iconic snaps of Muhammad Ali) photographs of Black Panthers taken in 1968 for LIFE magazine.







via The Vintagent and The Selvedge Yard

ELLA FITZGERALD: LIVE AT MR. KELLY'S

Taken by Yale Joel in 1958, these photographs show Lady Ella performing at the intimate Chicago institution Mr. Kelley's.

FEMALE GAZE: THE PUNK PHOTOGRAPHY OF THERESA K.

Lucky enough to have been a misfit teen during the dawn of punk rock, Theresa Kereakes was in the right place at the right time, namely Los Angeles during the latter half of the 70s. Apparently, she photographed everyone who mattered- from the Avengers to X- and her archives span multiple blogs, including those dedicated to portraits of men and women, early punks, and things she find interesting when she goes out walking.

Now working as a cinematographer out of Nashville, TK continues to document the scenes she loves, and her photos continue to capture the intimate moments of often chaotic lives. Perhaps the best example of Theresa's aesthetic- and certainly our favorite- are the photos she took of the Germs as they were just starting out.





Theresa Kereakes' photographs- very reasonably priced- are available for purchase here.

JOHN BERRYMAN IN DUBLIN

Minneapolis poet John Berryman is most famous for his epic volume Dream Songs, an obtuse collection of poems that seem to draw as much from Whitman as they do from Joyce. Filled with allusions and unreliable narrators, Dream Songs is an at times impenetrable and mystifying meditation on life, death and the in-between. He killed himself in 1972, jumping into the Mississippi River from the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis.

These photographs, taken from the LIFE archive, show the poet on vacation in Dublin in 1965.

WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE: A CARTER FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM

These photographs, taken by Eric Schaal for LIFE in 1941, were to be the Carter Family's re-introduction to the world beyond the Grand Ole Opry. Having recorded some 350 songs between 1927-1941, the Carters were well established as leading country music talents, but onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930's dashed any possibility of financial success. Having grown tired of playing dances and hootenannies in the mountains around their home, in 1929 A.P. set off to look for work in Detroit, while Maybelle and her husband left for D.C. with similar ambitions.

In 1938, after a slew of intermittent recording sessions and the births of many children, the Carters headed to Del Rio, Texas to record for border-blaster XERA-AM, whose signal was unencumbered by the US law stipulating that radio stations only broadcast to 50,000 watts. Their appearance went out over the air to nearly the entire western hemisphere, and was hugely successful. Record sales surged, and LIFE sent a photographer to the Carter camp, located in the serene Poor Valley area of Virginia. As the magazine was preparing to go to press, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Carter feature was scrapped.





"Mother" Maybelle Carter




The family at home in Poor Valley




Daughters Anita, June, and Helen; A.P.'s wife Sara, Maybelle, and A.P.




A.P., Sara, and Maybelle




Maybelle, A.P., and Sara




Sara, A.P., and Maybelle



Maybelle




Poor Valley, Va.

SPEED TRIALS

Setting records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, ca. 1948-1953.












all photos from the LIFE archive.

BRING IT ON HOME TO ME

John Olson's amazing pictures of rock musicians at home with their parents. Photographed in the 70's for Life Magazine.

Grace Slick


Eric Clapton


Elton John


David Crosby


Frank Zappa


via The Daily Swarm