Friday Link: Abandoned Architecture Photography

Happy Friday!

I love good photography (looking at it, not taking it), especially when it conveys a mood or suggests a story. French photographer Aurélien Villette does both. Here is a blog post showcasing some of his work on abandoned buildings.

What amazes me about it is the sheer size and/or former opulence of some of the buildings he’s captured. I mean, how can these buildings be abandoned? Doesn’t anybody notice them? Doesn’t anybody need the real estate? What about preserving their history? Who used to live or work there, and when and why did they leave?

His photos are wonderfully evocative, sometimes wistful, sometimes post-apocalyptic. If you love old buildings, seriously, go have a look.

That’s all for this week. See you back here on Monday!

 

Autumn Love

I love autumn.

Copyright Siri Paulson, 2011

After a long, hot summer, I love the novelty of actually needing coziness and warmth, whether it’s my favourite chunky sweater, a warm latte or hot chocolate, or a hot soup. I love warm blankets on cool mornings (less so getting out of them!).

I love the sense of new things starting, kids heading back to school, energy building for NaNoWriMo. Often I feel as if the new year begins in September, Jewish-style.

Labour Day

What are you still doing here? It’s a holiday!

Copyright Siri Paulson, 2010

Happy Labo(u)r Day. We’ll return to our regular posting schedule on Wednesday.

Friday Link: Colour Photos from 1939-1943

Happy Friday!

I always love looking at really old colour photographs. I tend to imagine the pre-1960s world in black and white, so it boggles my mind when I run across images from those times in full colour…makes them feel much closer to the world I live in now, the divide much smaller.

These photographs, courtesy of the Denver Post blog, capture facets of American life during WWII, though many of them aren’t about the war but about rural life. There’s immense poverty, there’s pride, there’s beauty. If you’re a steampunk fan, you might find inspiration here. If you’re a lover of history, or of rural life, or of photography…click through and have a look.

That’s it for this week. I’ll see you back here on Monday. Go forth and enjoy your weekend!

 

Friday Link: Bald and Beautiful

I am fascinated by photos of difficult subjects — poverty, palliative care, grief, cancer. If the photographer is sensitive, the photos are beautiful but often stark. It’s no surprise that they might be lacking in joy — in fact, one might even say that’s expected.

But recently I came across a set of photos that just blew all that out of the water.

Photographer Brandi Reynolds writes,

So my friend, Val, texts me one night and says she has this friend that is going through cancer treatment. The friend has lost her hair and decided that she wanted to do something artful/fun with her newly bald head and would I be up for a photo shoot?

I said yes immediately, so honored that Val would think of me, got in touch with Sara (the friend) and last friday we met in Sundance Square in Ft. Worth for a photo shoot.

I didn’t know what to expect going into the shoot. On the one hand, my heart went out to her (to anyone) going through cancer treatment. I lost a friend to cancer and I remember his journey and how hard it was. I’m a little sensitive, a little emotional, to the word cancer.

But yet, this was someone who decided to take the loss of her hair and turn into art and I was excited and curious to experience that.

I hope you’ll click through to see her photos and read the rest of the post.

(Hat tip to S.M. Hutchins of Live Wonderstruck for the link)