The City Dark is a feature documentary about light pollution and the disappearance of the night. The film follows filmmaker Ian Cheney, who moves to New York City and discovers skies almost completely devoid of stars. Posing a deceptively simple question — why do we need the night? — he leads viewers no quest to understand what is lost in the glare of city lights.
Upon one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Los Angeles was the inability to see the stars in the sky. Of course the city has plenty to offer to compensate, but that dull tint that covers the night skyline of heavy urban environments is still a sad thing. Looking forward to this flick.
Really shocking images captured in Australia of the dust storms sweeping across the country. These come courtesy of Tom Hide who braved the outdoors to capture the surreal surroundings. Suddenly I have an inkling to put on Total Recall.
I’m not interested in making pictures of the mayhem. We all know what post-Disney strip malls, towering condominiums and McMansions look like. I want to show what you haven’t seen. I also want to remind you that water is an endangered resource. Living preoccupied lives, water is far from our day-to-day consciousness and concern. My pictures show the intricate and infinite nature of water.
One series was shot in the pristine freshwater rivers and springs of north and central Florida. In open water there is ever-present particulate matter. This layering of mud and muck, although it may appear to interfere with the water’s clarity, is in fact it’s lifeblood: the living and breathing matter seasons the soup and it reflects, refracts and bends the light to create its complexity.
Not sure where all the influx of nature-oriented photography is coming from today, but I can’t deny the beauty of these images from the Everglades by Karen Glaser. There’s an almost painterly element to these images in the lush textures that abound.
[Karen Glaser via lens culture]
My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the “wild” and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within my work I examine the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world. Increasingly, these encounters take place within the artificial ecotones we have constructed that act as both passage and barrier between domestic space and the wild.
The photographs in this series are constructed based on real stories from local newspapers and oral histories of intentional and random interactions between humans and animals. The narratives are set in and around Matamoras, a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania that borders a state forest.
Fantastic images from Amy Stein melding narrative interludes where animals and (primarily in this series) suburban existence meet. These photos make me think about the split-second hush that falls upon citizens here in L.A. whenever we spot a coyote.
The Museum of Animal Perspectives (MAP) collects and displays wildlife imagery that has been captured using remote sensing cameras. Through the presentation and interpretation of this imagery, the MAP endeavors to expand the public’s capacity to empathize with animals and plants.
Everything from a scorpion, goats, bison, etc… the list goes on.
Pink Floyd members discuss recording “Money”, complete with footage of the original 7/8 intro tape loop and effects mixing. Indescribably awesome. It’s like watching Da Vinci talking about painting the Mona Lisa.
What makes a Londoner? Place of birth, place of work, a certain accent, a particular attitude? Living here, dying here? Finding fame and fortune here? Look around these walls and you’ll find all these things, and many more. We’ve rifled through the vast archives of Getty Images to unearth a multifaceted selection of photographs of the capital from the past hundred years or so, but this time with the emphasis on the capital’s inhabitants.
You can get a taste of this exhibition currently happening at the Getty Images Gallery via a slideshow on Telegraph.co.uk. Some fascinating images — everything from child endangerment, fascist rallies, to British celebs.
I Need That Record! asks the simple question: why have over 3,000 independent record stores in the U.S. closed in the past decade? As much a cool history lesson on vinyl as a portrait of greedy record labels, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, e-commerce, shoddy “stars” pushed by big money and even the digital revolution, the film is, at its core, a loving tribute to the cherished nerdy record stores which for decades have nurtured our access to the music we all love. In addition to the exploration of its juicy premise, the film contains interviews with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Mike Watt (Minutemen), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Chris Frantz (Talking Heads), Pat Carney (The Black Keyes), composer Glenn Branca, authors Noam Chomsky and Legs McNeil, rock photographer Bob Gruen–and features dozens of indie record stores across the U.S. of A.! The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Brendan Toller, a panel discussion (moderated by Michael Des Barres, featuring special guests) on the fate of the indie record store today, a Danny Benair Record Club listening party (bring a record to share if you want!), and a record swap on the Cinefamily outdoor patio!
8/13 @ 8pm / SERIES: Don’t Knock The Rock 2009
[Cinefamily]
A 5-year collaboration between 7 artists documenting the Detroit of today. Stark, moving, and sincere –
These seven artists have been working in the city as explorers, adventurers and pioneers for years to capture the city as it changes, evolves, devolves and transforms into something unbelievable, profound and heartbreaking. In the end they hope as a group to show Detroit as it is, not what it should be or what it was, but how it is. This in itself a provocative gesture as there are not many who feel content with the Detroit of today.
