Current mood:friendly
my sweet jesus, why did no one tell me that the san franciso public library has thousands of local historical photographs ACTUALLY ONLINE. shit, i just did a search for "women sewing" and got the most amazing avalanche of images. i can't stop looking through them. this is dangerous; pandering, as it does, to all my nerdiest desires. photography and history and san francisco. sigh.
like the time that annie and i went to the SFMOMA to see the exhibit of photography from just after the 1906 earthquake. it seems that that was a banner time for fledgling photographers, as the science was not completely ... um ... scientific yet, and suddenly there was a ridiculous need for documentation. for us, total crazy head-exploding nerdiness. a very short woman had to keep following us around to warn us, again and again, not to touch the glass, yes, even if it is glass over the photograph and not the actual photograph. and a second later we would scream, "look! they totally dodged the sun's rays into the shot! it's unreal! and the sun looks ridiculously big!" then, touch touch, yell yell, waah. and a second later ...
but that's how i found out about the captive airship, which i still cannot believe actually existed. it makes me drool, just a little bit. George Lawrence, a photographer from Chicago, figured out a way to send his camera into the sky, using balloons and kites and piano wire and some sort of remote shutter trigger. he had perfected this method before the 1906 quake hit san francisco, and leapt into action to document the wreckage. It was a big contraption, and one wonders how it was able to stay in the air. but the most fascinating thing about it is that the prints are contact prints, the negatives put to paper to make an image, no enlargements required. the detail is amazing. drool.
you can google "captive airship" and see some of the images, but nothing compares to seeing the prints up close and, yes, touching the glass, as if the wonder requires touch to be complete.
and if you wanna join in the local photographic orgy, check it out
like the time that annie and i went to the SFMOMA to see the exhibit of photography from just after the 1906 earthquake. it seems that that was a banner time for fledgling photographers, as the science was not completely ... um ... scientific yet, and suddenly there was a ridiculous need for documentation. for us, total crazy head-exploding nerdiness. a very short woman had to keep following us around to warn us, again and again, not to touch the glass, yes, even if it is glass over the photograph and not the actual photograph. and a second later we would scream, "look! they totally dodged the sun's rays into the shot! it's unreal! and the sun looks ridiculously big!" then, touch touch, yell yell, waah. and a second later ...
but that's how i found out about the captive airship, which i still cannot believe actually existed. it makes me drool, just a little bit. George Lawrence, a photographer from Chicago, figured out a way to send his camera into the sky, using balloons and kites and piano wire and some sort of remote shutter trigger. he had perfected this method before the 1906 quake hit san francisco, and leapt into action to document the wreckage. It was a big contraption, and one wonders how it was able to stay in the air. but the most fascinating thing about it is that the prints are contact prints, the negatives put to paper to make an image, no enlargements required. the detail is amazing. drool.
you can google "captive airship" and see some of the images, but nothing compares to seeing the prints up close and, yes, touching the glass, as if the wonder requires touch to be complete.
and if you wanna join in the local photographic orgy, check it out
 | Currently listening: Rock and Roll Music By Elvis Costello Release date: 01 May, 2007 |
