FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
20 utterly bizarre images from a 1994 Scientology Handbook that will NUMB YOUR MIND
10.05.2016
10:04 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
The enormous 871-page hardcover 1994 Scientology Handbook features over 700 insane and strangely haunting illustrations that promise positive effects in today’s turbulent society. The ultra-saturated photographs use vivid, heightened colours in a traditional comic book format to help navigate the reader through a world rampant with conflict, drugs, illiteracy, crime, terrorism, immorality… the list seems endless. “To have any decent future at all, you need to know this manual for living and use it.” The actors and sets were photographed in the early ‘90s on full-sized sound stages belonging to Golden Era Productions in Riverside County, California. Next door to the sound stages lies a computer facility with an uninterruptable power supply so when the rapture happens you will still be able to get onto America Online and check your email.
 

“I spent a few hours and read the entire Scientology Handbook. It gave me a sense of knowingness I’ve never had before. I knew that I was prepared for any situation in life and I’d know what to do. I began applying the technology from the book and now I’m considered a miracle worker and someone who knows what she’s doing. All my life I’ve tried to help people, but now with The Scientology Handbook, I can really help them!”

We hope you experience the same results as K.J. shared in her Amazon customer review.
 

 

 
Many more after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Doug Jones
|
10.05.2016
10:04 am
|
Nightmarish horror photography from Russia
10.09.2014
02:26 pm
Topics:
Tags:

Dens by Moppaa
Dens by Moppaa
 
After looking through several pages of photographs by 27-year-old Russian photographer, painter and digital artist Moppaa, it didn’t really come as a surprise to learn that he started his art career engraving portraits on gravestones. Beyond that, there is not much known about this young artist but I did manage to dig up an interview he gave less than a month ago over at In Dark We Trust and gained a bit of insight into what makes Moppaa tick.
 
Moppaa (Eugene Kuleshov) says his interest in photography started in 2012 after he surprised his girlfriend with a photograph and “liked” her reaction to it. I can only assume that her reaction was positive as Moppaa has gone on to create some fairly terrifying images that often feature his girlfriend (who appears to be his wife now) as the subject. Moppaa’s goal as an artist is to make people “shit their pants” (me = mission fucking accomplished!) and is planning to publish a children’s book of horror stories. When asked to describe himself in three words he choose, “maniac”, “paranoid” and “artist” (me = agreed). So please, grab another pair of pants before you view the following images from this young, beautifully deranged artist. You can also view his full gallery here. If you need me, I’ll be under my bed.
 
Clown by Moppaa
Clown
 
Scout by Moppaa
Scout
 
They by Moppaa
They
 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
|
10.09.2014
02:26 pm
|
Vintage Photos of Rockers, Punks, and Pop Stars Playing Pinball
10.06.2014
10:33 am
Topics:
Tags:

The Ramones
The Ramones pose for CREEM, 1978
Here’s a set of vintage photographs capturing rock stars, punks, and pop royalty playing pinball. Many of these are candid shots, taken on the road during downtime while on tour. Some were taken in such a casual environment that information regarding who took the photo, and when, is scarce.

Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry, 1977. Photo by Bob Gruen.
 
David Johansen, Lenny Kaye, Dee Dee Ramone, Andy Paley
David Johansen, Lenny Kaye, Dee Dee Ramone, and Andy Paley at C.B.G.B.’s, 1977. Another one by Bob Gruen
 
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan, c. 1965
 
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley in a Detroit arcade, 1956
 
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen, 1978
 
Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent, 1963
 
Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer
 
Tina Turner
Tina Turner
 
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, c. 1983

Keith Moon explains why he loves pinball:

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Pins and Needles: Vintage Pinball Machines
Stop-motion of Sesame Street’s ‘Pinball Number Count’
Finally: The ‘Big Lebowski’ pinball machine is here and it is gorgeous!

Posted by Bart Bealmear
|
10.06.2014
10:33 am
|
The First World War: Color photographs of the German Front 1914-1918
02.10.2014
07:22 am
Topics:
Tags:

6666ww1jkjk
 
These incredible color photographs of the German battlefront during the First World War, 1914-1918, were taken by Hans Hildenbrand.

The novelist and playwright, J. B. Priestley, who fought in the war, described the difference in strategy and the folly of attitude between the opposing armies in his memoir Margin Released:

The British Army never saw itself as a citizens’ army. It behaved as if a small gentlemanly officer class still had to make soldiers out of under-gardeners’ runaway sons and slum lads known to the police. These fellows had to be kept up to scratch. Let ‘em get slack, they’d soon be rabble again. So where the Germans and French would hold a bad front line with the minimum of men, allowing the majority to get some rest, the British command would pack men into rotten trenches, start something to keep up their morale, pile up casualties and drive the survivors to despair. This was done not to win a battle, not even to gain a few yards of ground, but simply because it was supposed to be the thing to do. All the armies in that idiot war shovelled divisions into attacks, often as bone-headed as ours were, just as if healthy young men had begun to seem hateful in the sight of Europe, but the British command specialized in throwing men away for nothing. The tradition of an officer class, defying both imagination and common sense, killed most of my friends as surely as those cavalry generals had come out of the chateaux with pol mallets and beaten their brains out…

...I still feel today and must go on feeling until I die, the open wound, never to be healed, of my generation’s fate, the best sorted out and then slaughtered, not by hard necessity but mainly by huge murderous public folly.

 
99999ww1
 
12121212ww1jkjk
 
More color photos from World War One, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
02.10.2014
07:22 am
|
Forget the Selfie, here’s the Shelfie
12.18.2013
10:36 am
Topics:
Tags:

bookshelfie000.jpg
 
The Guardian has suggested an alternative version of the “selfie” called the “shefie.” In other words a portrait of the books and personal items displayed on people’s shelves—a literary shelf life, you might say. It’s just another in the seemingly endless list of self-obsessed, narcissistic images brought about smart technology—who’d a thunk sharing this stuff on social media was what the Internet was invented for?

The Guardian are currently accepting pictures and videos of people’s shelf lives, so if you have nothing better to do, and want to impress your pals by submitting a pic of all those heavy-weight literary tomes you’ve bought but never read, or you’ve just redecorated and have some simply gorgeous furniture to die for…then hop over to The Guardian for details of where to send your portrait or video. Meanwhile, here’s what others have been posting.
 
bookshelfie1111.jpg
 
bookshelfie222.jpg
 
More shelf life, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
12.18.2013
10:36 am
|
‘One of Us:’ Stunning portraits of origami masks

oneofus5
 
Designer Francesca Lombardi has created a menagerie of haunting origami animal masks, which have been photographed in beautiful black and white portraits by fashion photographer Giacomo Favilla for a series called “One of Us.”

Via the excellent arts blog Yatzer:

Titled ‘‘One of Us’’, the project consists of black and white portraits of people sitting in a vintage armchair, while wearing beautiful origami masks. With the intention creating an impression of an imaginary world, where animal and human natures blend together as one, each mask has been laboriously folded over and over again to resemble a different animal. Be the animal a puma, a rabbit, a crocodile or a cat – they all take their turn in ‘‘being the face,’’ be that temporarily, of a person sitting to have their photo taken where their most striking feature is the fact that they have no eyes – they are in fact stylised blindfolds in the shape of animals.

 
oneofus1
 
oneofus2
 
oneofus3
 
oneofus4
 
DM readers in London might like to know that the series will be exhibited at The Book Club beginning on November 28th. Or 28 November, if you prefer.
 
oneofus6
 

Posted by Ron Kretsch
|
11.04.2013
10:39 am
|
Old New York crime photographs superimposed on their present day locations
09.15.2013
12:31 pm
Topics:
Tags:

111nyemircotohp.jpg
 
The past inhabits the present in Marc A. Hermann’s composite images of crime scene photographs overlaid on their present day locations.

Above: 497 Dean Street, Brooklyn. A distraught Edna Egbert battles the police on the ledge of her home.
 
222nyemircotohp.jpg
427 1/2 Hicks Street, Brooklyn. Gangster Salvatore Santoro met a violent death on January 31, 1957.
 
333nyemirco
923 44th Street, Brooklyn. Gangster Frankie Yale dead after a car crash, July 1, 1928.
 
More then and now crime pix, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
09.15.2013
12:31 pm
|
Peace at Last: Beautiful and moving photographs of dead animals
08.28.2013
03:43 pm
Topics:
Tags:

IMG_4632.jpg
 
It was Gloria the cat that first brought Gemma Kirby Davies the “gift” that started her photographing dead animals.

“It started about 18 months ago when Gloria (the cat) brought me a gift,” Gemma tells Dangerous MInds. “A perfectly intact, but totally lifeless mouse–which as it fell from her mouth to the floor, seemed to sink into the earth with a complete sense of purpose and ultimate timeliness. It was his time to go, and the earth swallowed him back up. It made me feel a huge sense of peace toward death.

“Gloria rarely eats her prey, and so the mouse’s corpse was given back to nature. In one of my favourite books, Jim Crace’s Being Dead, there are beautiful descriptions of nature reclaiming nature and how through the death and decomposition of living things, nature is renewed and the dead (once living matter), prevail in the earth, the soil and the plants.”

Gloria’s gift inspired Gemma to begin photographing dead animals, when and wherever she discovered their bodies, and curating these beautiful and moving pictures on her website Peace at Last. It should be made clear that Gemma has nothing to do with the demise of any of the animals photographed, and her work aims to preserve something of each creature’s final beauty. The site is introduced by the poem “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost over throw
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure - then, from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones and soul’s delivery.
Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more. Death thou shalt die.

Gemma Kirby Davies: We, like all animals will one day die. It’s something I find sad, but reassuringly certain. I hope my photographs evoke a sense of how I perceive death; wholly still, eternally quiet and completely calm.

I see death as stillness and as sleep. Not all of my images are cute and fluffy; some animals may have come to a brutal end and their visceral wounds reflect that. But death for me is always an end to chaos: an end to suffering, peace at last.

Dangerous Minds: What attracted you to this subject matter?

Gemma Kirby Davies: Growing up I was always interested in dark themes in art; Francis Bacon’s paintings and macabre literature. I love Taxidermy, and have been extremely inspired by this art trend, especially the exquisite work of modern artists like Polly Morgan and Nancy Foutts.

Yes, there is a deeper meaning behind what I am doing, but I think the colours and composition of my pictures work on a superficial level too – dead animals can be visually stunning… and much easier to photograph when still.

DM: What has the response to your work been?

Gemma Kirby Davies: It’s not for everyone. My aunt’s response to the invite to my recent exhibition was, “Of course I’ll come and support you dear—as long as you don’t expect me to ever put any of it up on my walls!” and on applying for a stall at Spitalfields Art Market, I was advised that my work wasn’t family friendly and cautioned that my photographs could be “interpreted as disturbing”… I didn’t have the heart tell them that that was sort of the point!

I think art should always incite feeling, and if we all got excited about the same things then life would be rather boring. Reactions like that - especially from an art market in London’s seemingly edgy East End - prove that there is a real stigma around portraying death in art. If I have hit a nerve with this subject matter then I am glad of positive and negative responses as it opens up a debate.

Gemma is now developing a Peace At Last book, which will include pictures sent to her by other artists. If you are genuinely interested in submitting a picture, “your personal interpretations of this theme (photos of ‘peaceful’ dead animals),” then please send your images to peaceatlastphotography@yahoo.co.uk Alas, Gemma can’t offer a fee, but if published in the book each artist will be credited and “of course get free champagne at the book launch!”

Discover more of Gemma Kirby Davies’ incredible photographs at her site Peace at Last.
 
IMG_2302.jpg
 
imagdurt
 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
08.28.2013
03:43 pm
|
Tube Tales: Photographs of commuters on the London Underground 1970s-80s
08.15.2013
08:23 pm
Topics:
Tags:

ebutpeels.jpg
 
Armed with his Leica M4, photographer Bob Mazzer spent two decades documenting London’s commuters, tourists, and workers, as they traveled through the city’s famous Underground system.

Mazzer shot most of these photographs as he traveled to-and-from work. An exhibition of his Mazzer’s incredibly evocative images was first shown at a Greater London Council exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall in the 1980s. View more here.
 
ebutstsiruot.jpg
 
ebutsyddet
 
ebutssik.jpg
 
Via the Daily Telegraph
 
More photos from the Underground, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
08.15.2013
08:23 pm
|
Color photographs of Circus performers 1940-50
07.21.2013
04:20 pm
Topics:
Tags:

0ojbvncbhtrehudyfgjhcvbmn.jpg
 
I fell in love with the circus when I was about four. It was Billy Smart’s Big Top, where I sat with my parents and brother on tiered wooden benches, eating candy floss, watching parabolas of delight unfurl on the trapeze, high-wire acts hover magically on tip-toe, acrobats build structure from chaos, and clowns colorfully spill across the sawdust. It is a love that has lasted, and I still feel the cold-water shiver of excitement whenever the circus comes to town.

These stunning color photographs from the 1940s and 1950s of circus performers, are taken from Dominque Jando’s superb The Circus Book: 1870-1950. The images are so vibrant, one could almost step into the frame and join in all the fun.
 
000jbvcryeetdfgjcvhbmnm.jpg
 
00000baresdfhgjchvbnjhgfdgj.jpg
 
More circus portraits, after the jump…
 
Via Retronaut, H/T Tom Ruddock.

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
07.21.2013
04:20 pm
|
Celebrated filmmaker Jean Rouch’s one-reel portrait of photographer Raymond Depardon
07.17.2013
05:53 pm
Topics:
Tags:

hcuornaejmlif.jpg
 
Jean Rouch filmed and directed this delightful one-take, one-reel film on renowned photographer Raymond Depardon.

Rouch was one of the founders of cinéma-vérité, whose work influenced D. A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles. Rouch also developed the “jump-cut” in Moi, un noir (years before Jean-Luc Godard took credit for it), and was a pioneer of Nouvelle Vague. For his movies, he is also known as the “Father of Nigerian Cinema.”

Depardon is a self-taught photographer, who began his career as a photo-journalist covering the wars in Algeria, Vietnam, Biafra and Chad. He is a member of Magnum, and is internationally recognized as a photographer and film-maker.

A Portrait of Raymond Depardon captures an engaging moment between two greats of film: director Rouch and photographer Depardon discussing and contrasting their individual approaches to their crafts.

It’s a great wee film and rewarding for the insight it gives. It was shot in Paris on April 19th, 1983, at 7pm.
 

 
H/T Vasco Pimentel

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
07.17.2013
05:53 pm
|
Jenna Pope: Photographs of NYPD brutality at vigil protesting the killing of Kimani Gray

image
 
This week, Brooklyn has seen a community come together for vigils and demonstrations in protest over the shooting of Kimani Gray by the NYPD.

16-year-old Gray was shot by 2 officers patrolling East Flatbush in an unmarked car around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

The autopsy report, released Wednesday, said 7 bullets were removed from Gray’s body, 3 of these had entered his body form the rear. Police claim they shot Gray after he had allegedly pointed a .38-caliber Rohm revolver in their direction.

The police allegations have been contradicted by the only civilian eye-witness account that claims Gray was “unarmed.”

From this it is apparent that the NYPD have the power to kill who they want, when they want, without interference or sanction.

This can not and should not be tolerated.

The shooting deepened tensions between the Community and the NYPD, with the police response to the local vigils and marches criticized as being insensitive, over-the-top and brutal.

While a Brooklyn community comes to terms with the unfettered violence of the NYPD, one mother still waits for her teenage son to come home.

We send sincere condolences to Kimani’s mother, Carol Gray and her family.

Kimani Gray R.I.P.

The activist and freelance photographer Jenna Pope attended a vigil for Kimani on Wednesday night.

Jenna was there to show respect for Kimani, support the community, and to photograph the vigil.

The night ended in a police riot, with Jenna badly injured and in need of hospital treatment.

This is part of her account and some of her photographs from that night, and I ask you check out Jenna’s photographic report over at her blog site.

This week, there have been vigils and marches in response to the NYPD shooting and killing Kimani Gray in Brooklyn. I was there on Wednesday, and although the vigil and march started out peacefully, the cops decided to block us from using a crosswalk while we were on the sidewalk, and continued agitating the whole night. I believe that’s what we call a “police riot.”

I was only able to photograph the beginning of the march since there was a quick end to my night when I was hit by a thrown object. An arrest was happening to my left, and I was hit on the right side. I received a concussion and was driven to the hospital in an ambulance where a doc put 5 stitches in my head. I have no idea what it was, or who threw it. If it was one of the many young, rightfully angry friends of Kimani Gray, then I honestly can say I would not be angry with them. Instead, I am angry that the NYPD shot 11 rounds at 16 year old boy, hitting him the back and killing him – which is what cause this outrage in Brooklyn.

If we want to seriously change the world, then we need more activists and photographers like Jenna Pope to bear witness to the truth, to give a damn and make a difference.

If you want, you can support Jenna Pope fight for justice, one photo at a time, by donating here. Thanks.
 
image
 
More of Jenna Pope’s photographs, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
03.15.2013
07:40 pm
|
Free Cuddles: Apparently…
02.28.2013
08:20 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Free Cuddles? Though tempted, I’m unsure whether this is an offer to embrace or, to liberate…?
 
With thanks to Paul Darling, via Eat Liver
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
02.28.2013
08:20 am
|
A photograph of Patti Smith aged 11
01.15.2013
11:09 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
A photograph of Patti Smith aged 11.

Smith was ill for a lot of her childhood - sick with bronchitis, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and ‘three different kinds of measles’. Though she has claimed she was happy throughout her childhood, Smith did, for a time, think of herself as “alien to the human race”, as she explained in an interview with the Observer in 2005:

‘From very early on in my childhood - four, five years old - I felt alien to the human race. I felt very comfortable with thinking I was from another planet, because I felt disconnected - I was very tall and skinny, and I didn’t look like anybody else, I didn’t even look like any member of my family.’

Read the full interview here.
 
With thanks to Tony Vermillion, Via Another Mag
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
01.15.2013
11:09 am
|
FILMography: Photographs of movie stills in their original location
09.13.2012
10:29 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
FILMography is a cool site where movie stills are placed within their original film locations, and then photographed.

The theory is: ‘FILM + photography = FILMography.’

This delightful site is curated by writer, journalist and photographer Christopher Moloney.
 
image
 
image
 
More Filmography, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Robert Coupée and Anne Billson
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
09.13.2012
10:29 am
|
Page 1 of 5  1 2 3 >  Last ›