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Feb 17, 2010
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Giraffe killed by drought. Stefano De Luigi
The winners of the World Press Photo contest have been announced. Check out the gallery.
Feb 6, 2010
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In Heaven there is no religion, thank God.Mahatma Gandhi
Feb 1, 2010
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![Lung-Fa Tang Temple. Mental patients. Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 1998. Chien-Chi Chang. [From the series The Chain]
Contemplating the nature of human bonds and societal ties, Chien-Chi Chang’s sombre monochrome photographs portray inmates from a mental asylum chained together in pairs, ostensibly as part of their ‘revolutionary’ therapy. Freedom and constraint, love and alienation, compassion and shame are some of the complex issues that define the ambiguous relationships between Chang’s captured subjects and the outside world. Considered social misfits and a disgrace to their kin, the pictured men were consigned by their relatives to Lung Fa Tang, a Buddhist sanctuary and Taiwan’s largest chicken farm with a workforce of nearly 700 mentally ill inhabitants.
Physically linked by a small chain around their waists, day in day out, only unlocked for sleeping, the more stable of the two is supposed to assist the less lucid in their daily chores. With their ties to society severed but bound by the ‘chain of compassion’ to one another, the interactions between the paired outcasts can only be fraught. As Chang comments: The most pathetic part is that once the two are chained together, they are forever incapable of fighting against it. Their only alternative is to become submissive, to give in, or they will never walk out of that place.
Visiting the asylum over a period of six years, Chang took the present photographs in one session, asking them to pose after lunch on their way back to work. By positioning his subjects as if on stage in front of a plain dark background, he transcends the photojournalist mode, and with this transforms his images into a cipher for the human condition per se.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kx6g7zBQJw1qz8s8ao1_400.jpg)
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Lung-Fa Tang Temple. Mental patients. Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 1998. Chien-Chi Chang. [From the series The Chain]
Contemplating the nature of human bonds and societal ties, Chien-Chi Chang’s sombre monochrome photographs portray inmates from a mental asylum chained together in pairs, ostensibly as part of their ‘revolutionary’ therapy. Freedom and constraint, love and alienation, compassion and shame are some of the complex issues that define the ambiguous relationships between Chang’s captured subjects and the outside world. Considered social misfits and a disgrace to their kin, the pictured men were consigned by their relatives to Lung Fa Tang, a Buddhist sanctuary and Taiwan’s largest chicken farm with a workforce of nearly 700 mentally ill inhabitants.
Physically linked by a small chain around their waists, day in day out, only unlocked for sleeping, the more stable of the two is supposed to assist the less lucid in their daily chores. With their ties to society severed but bound by the ‘chain of compassion’ to one another, the interactions between the paired outcasts can only be fraught. As Chang comments: The most pathetic part is that once the two are chained together, they are forever incapable of fighting against it. Their only alternative is to become submissive, to give in, or they will never walk out of that place.
Visiting the asylum over a period of six years, Chang took the present photographs in one session, asking them to pose after lunch on their way back to work. By positioning his subjects as if on stage in front of a plain dark background, he transcends the photojournalist mode, and with this transforms his images into a cipher for the human condition per se.
Jan 27, 2010
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The real deal would be beyond awesome, but this sculpture by Tom Sachs would be pretty cool too.
The nasablad /via iainclaridge.
Jan 26, 2010
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Jan 17, 2010
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Jan 12, 2010
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![Siglu Petrol Station, 2008. Kevin Cooley. [From the series Iceland]](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw5fdpebFN1qz8s8ao1_500.jpg)
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Siglu Petrol Station, 2008. Kevin Cooley. [From the series Iceland]
Jan 6, 2010
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100 things we didn't know last year
Some highlights: An outbreak of swine flu in 1976 killed one person but a vaccine to combat it killed 25; Britain had animal welfare laws before it had child welfare laws; Married couples used to always sleep apart; There are so few redheads in Mexico they often greet each other in the street; Male life expectancy in the UK goes up by about three months every year.
Dec 31, 2009
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If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs. And maybe your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you’ll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is …Charles Bukowski
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Englishman • 18 years old • 6'3'' • Student — studying photography • Evolutionist • Occasional madman • Say hello: eclowes [at] well [dot] com
