I seem to have gathered a small library of atlases for the Commonwealth project — five atlases that show all of the streets in Massachusetts circa 2004, plus some that aren’t passable anymore, and a larger scale topographic atlas. My street atlas of western Mass showed seven cemeteries on the main road through town. […]

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Mitch Epstein, Amos Coal Power Plant, 2004
I rarely wish that I had created a particular photograph, but I do envy Mitch Epstein for this picture, which is part of the ICP’s upcoming 2006 Triennial.

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Anyone who wants/needs to stay up-to-date on the Jackson Canyon fire in Casper can follow the Star-Tribune’s Blazeblog. That is all.

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In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts more than six million residents occupy only 7838 square miles of land. Humans suffuse the landscape, creating a mosaic of housing, farmland, and natural space. I travel to see and photograph what our built environment in this narrow sliver of America looks like and how we relate to […]

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The mountain just outside of town where my mother lives is on fire. Last night she said her hubby was out looking at the blaze (hopefully from a safe distance) which had left the town covered with ash Tuesday morning and blackened the sky the rest of the day. This morning, the fire […]

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Joerg Colberg talks with Alec Soth.

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I already mentioned an exhibit of contemporary photography, at the Wadsworth Atheneum. But it actually has three landscape art exhibits currently on display: American Splendor, a fine collection of Hudson River School paintings; Eloquent Vistas, a traveling show from the Geogre Eastman House with about 80 photographs from the 19th century; and Shifting Terrain, […]

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During the Weimar Republic, August Sander created portraits of typical Germans near Cologne. In these images the subjects pose for the camera, conscious that it was there but more-or-less emotionally detached.
Contemporary photographer Bill Sullivan channels Sander with a post-modern twist, appropriating the image of New Yorkers as they ride elevators, pass through subway turnstiles, […]

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If you like landscape photography — especially the contemporary mode that redefines landscape away from grand scenic vistas, the sublime, and the picturesque and towards a more inclusive depiction of the human-altered environment that finds visual interest in mundane or constructed details — then get yourself over to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut to […]

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A bit more than five years ago I started earnestly keeping a journal of occurrences in my household, events at the office, and thoughts in my head. Now, despite having this public forum online, I still record most things in those unlined black notebooks. It has become an invaluable part of my “historical […]

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Nikki S. Lee’s new series Parts is part Cindy Sherman, part Nan Goldin. (via Modern Art Obsession)
What Susan Sontag did for photography a review of Susan Sontag and the retrospective of On Photography at the Met. (From the New Republic via Gallery Hopper)
Mud Mosques of Mali
I saw some of Michael Wolf’s large format, minimalist, […]

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A good friend and blogher has tagged me to muse about books. Though I’m sure she didn’t mean it, I’m now feeling vastly inferior. She reads . . . a lot . . . important books and smart books like the kind I used to read. She studied English literature and poetry […]

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