© David Walter Banks, 2012, “Watching the Parade,” from the project, Florida: Eden Isle

“The theory of collective memory refers to the shared pool of information amongst a group of people. As Americans, our collective memory of Florida has become almost as much of a folk tale as it is based on reality. My recollections from childhood and adolescence are not necessarily how it actually looked and felt, but instead the world that I constructed from those fragmented memories.” (read more)

PERMALINK | Jun 19, 2013 | 14 notes | Comments

ELLEN JANTZEN: GHOST WRITER

”(…) each typewriter has a story to tell. Was it used to write a novel, poems or letters to editors? Was it used purely for business? Which users are still alive and which users have passed on?

I feel that more than most artifacts, the typewriter has a very personal connection with the user on a physical level (touching) AND on an emotional/intellectual level. The act of writing, even if only transcribing shorthand, draws upon the inner world of the typist.

In this series I am invoking the spirit of past users of each typewriter I photographed.”  - Ellen Jantzen

I bought a beautiful typewriter from the 1930s-40s a few days ago, a Naumann Ideal Modell ET, from the inital owner who told me some funny stories about it. Since then I enjoy writing postcards & letters with it, good old letters…

Playing with words, soothed by the sound of the type bars smashing against paper, leaving their mark, transporting a message; and it’s wonderful, you know, to have an addressee out there who’s happy to receive these analogue creations, your words filled with soul, paper as their carrier.

PERMALINK | Jun 18, 2013 | 185 notes | Comments

© Fred H. Kiser, ca. 1930, Phantom Ship Island, Oregon

“Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.”
― Carl Sandburg

PERMALINK | Jun 17, 2013 | 54 notes | Comments

THANKS TO 100,000 FOLLOWERS !!!

To put these into simple words first:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I’m overwhelmed. Never have I thought of reaching such a mass of people with what I’m doing - writing about, presenting photographs/photography. I’m amazed. Thanks for your interest, your words, thoughts, time, hearts, reblogs, shares, pins, plus’s & thanks for your time (“…and you can thank me for mine…”, from Sixto Rodriguez - Forget It) …

If you’re interested you can find my personal photography on burnedshoes.com.

 
THANK YOU GOOGLE

Thanks to Google for letting the world know what burned shoes are all about, and for your wonderful image search - this makes blogging & research a lot easier!

   
THANK YOU TUMBLR

Huge respect & praises also go out to the Tumblr team: you’re doing an amazing job! Thanks for the wonderful support and 2 1/2 great years of blogging here. I know that there have been a lot of changes going on lately (design, yahoo, …) and some people became exasperated about it, but I’m very confident that you keep up your great work! Just don’t let money guide you, then nothing can go wrong…

 
A HEARTWARMING STORY (AS A GIFT)

As a little gift I want to present to you the most moving blog story, a story about life, death & passion:

Some time ago, in September 2011, I first heard about the photographer Robert Landsburg, a man who gave his life for his passion: photography (read the whole story here). Suddenly, in May 2012 I received this message on my Facebook page:

“Thanks for sharing the last photos of my friend Robert Landsburg on your blog site. Looking at your photos, your logo (…) I think you and Bob would have hit it off very well. Tomorrow, today, marks the 32nd anniversary of the eruption. Finding your site and your work kinda makes me feel he is still with us bringing like minded folks together. Peace.” (Richard Anderson)

Yes, blogging can also make one cry. I’m looking forward to many many more years and moments like that.

Enjoy travelling with me from A to B and Back Again, all the best,
Burnéd Shoés

 
[ more here:  Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Google+  |  Tumblr  |  500px  |  Behance  |  Pinterest ]

PERMALINK | Jun 15, 2013 | 8 notes | Comments

PHOTOBOOK: LUCIAN PERKINS - HARD ART, DC 1979

Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Perkins’s images, taken during the fall and winter of 1979 and published to accompany a traveling exhibition, document a formative period in Washington, D.C.’s then-nascent punk and hardcore rock scene. At a time when local bands were struggling to find venues at which to perform, hardcore groups began playing at a daring set of ‘unheralded, unproduced, DIY pop-ups.’

Perkins was one of the few to bring a camera to these shows, and he produced propulsive images of the aesthetic as it was forming. Photos capturing the raw magnetism of performers like Charlie Danbury of Trenchmouth and H.R. of Bad Brains signal the power of the music. Perkins is also fascinated with the audience at these events, showcasing dingy stairwells and sweat-glazed faces.

In telling shots, performers and audience blur into a frenzied mass. Musician MacKaye, of the Untouchables, gives a firsthand account of being a 14-year-old at these shows, crossing dangerous parts of D.C. in order to stand with strangers in derelict buildings and hear live music. Musician Rollins’s brief essay on one of the bands, the Teen Idles, speaks to the intensity and commitment of those involved.” — Publishers Weekly

These photographs were published in Perkins’ book Hard Art, DC 1979.

 
» find more photobooks here «  |  » more photos of famous people «

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 31 notes | Comments

© Irving Penn, 1986, Gorilla Skull (Male), Prague

“Reality is inside the skull.”  ― George Orwell, 1984

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 372 notes | Comments

Unknown photographer, ca. 1946, Sheep in a bombed out hangar in Leipzig

This picture says so much about war and war games people play. We stupid animals. Stupid.

» find more photos of World War 2 here «

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 75 notes | Comments

© Unknown photographer, 1970s, Argentina

A woman lays dead on the side of the road after the car she was in was shot by right-wing paramilitary forces known as Triple A (Argentine Anti-communist Alliance) on the outskirts of La Plata, Argentina.

In 1975, the right-wing dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay embarked on a military plan called Operation Condor. The mission was to eliminate opponents to the regimes. Many of the victims came to be known as the “Disappeared,” because the government would simply make its detractors vanish.

It’s estimated that at least 60,000 people died as a result of Operation Condor. From the Amazon jungle in Brazil to the cold lands of Patagonia, thousands of victims were placed in unmarked graves, while others were thrown alive into the ocean from airplanes. (read more)

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 47 notes | Comments

© Ed van Wijk, undated, Balloons

 “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”  ― A.A. Milne

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 31 notes | Comments

© Nick Albertson, 2012-13, Your Office Drawer

“I layer and arrange everyday household materials much in the way a painter applies pigment to a canvas, building a composition up from nothing. While my photographs are visually similar to some modernist painting (such as those by abstract Expressionists or Minimalists), my use of ordinary materials as my ‘brushstrokes’ playfully questions the self-seriousness of those artists. I simultaneuously love the beauty and simplicity of that work while I find the accompanying contention of artist-as-genius to be outmoded and pretentious.

My decision to engage with disposable objects also resonates with my choice to use the medium of photography, itself often considered to be ubiquitous and utilitarian. My photographs understate the functionality of my materials, and privileges their formal aspects. Similarly, my work emphasizes photography as artistic medium rather than a functional one. This tension between form and function drives my practice.” (Nick Albertson)

PERMALINK | Jun 12, 2013 | 16 notes | Comments