The drug of choice for most of the world in the 19th century was Opium. The Western powers cultivated it, created demand for it in the East and then went to war to suppress it leaving a trail of carnage and opium addicts in their wake. Maggs Bros. Ltd. of London is currently offering what it believes is “the finest collection on the subject” ever assembled. The Santo Domingo Opium Collection is comprised of over 3,000…
Continue readingPortraits of Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), founder of the Society They first called themselves the Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society and they were the earliest incarnation of what are now known as the Jehova’s Witnesses. Portrait taken at the 1893 Watch Tower Convention in Chicago (the first major convention) which includes 76 members of the Society Just like today’s door-knocking Jehova’s Witnesses their main purpose was in the publication and distribution of religious tracts. …
Continue readingDay 68 with snow The idea is simple enough, place a book outside and document its decomposition. Tim Holt chose Michael Cunningham’s A Home at the End of the World as his subject and left the book outside “to face the ‘elements’ and picture it’s return to nature.” Being only 3 months into the project I trust we can expect some more amazing images down the road. Day 51 Day 54 Day 35 “a fox has taken an…
Continue readingMuch like the changes to the book trade that took place with the advent of online bookselling; the photobook world has exploded with the introduction of POD technology. In both cases technology has greatly reduced the barriers to entry and opened up the floodgates, which in turn has redefined the trade. Desiree Edkins (American, born 1974). Offset lithography; 16.9 x 17.1 cm (closed), 2009. Courtesy of the artist Nedejda, from Grodekovo series, 2009 (featured in Why…
Continue readingCirculation Desk, 2012 Lori Nix things big and works small. Her project “The City”, which began in 2005, seeks to recreate in miniature everyday urban spaces in a post apocalyptic world. The people are gone and what remains are these deteriorating spaces and their ever-changing relationship with the natural world. Nix says: I have imagined a city of our future, where something either natural or as the result of mankind, has emptied the city of it’s human inhabitants. Art…
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