News Flash

So I missed this, but artist/writer Jocko Weyland had a show earlier this Spring at Kerry Schuss in NYC called “Almost News.” Wayland works for the AP NewsPhoto Library, which gives him access to a torrent of images going back 100 years.  Many of them, detached from their original news story, beg for explanation. The [...]

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Everything in Our Apartment

This might look like a page from a J. Crew catalog, but in fact it’s a clever photographic experiment called “Sort” that appeals to the collector, the organizer as well as the photographer in me. Not to mention I love any excuse to group things visually by color (see Etsy, lynda, Crayola). Paho Mann, a [...]

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As Found

We tend to think of found photos as existing solely in the physical world, pieces of paper from the past covered with chemical emulsion and unknown faces, but the Internet opens up a whole new universe of vernacular photography where the images are less tangible, more ephemeral and free from the bonds of ownership. It’s [...]

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Energy Saver

Most people view lightbulbs as mere functional objects. Catherine Wagner proves this wrong in her photographic catalog of these wonderful everyday glass sculptures (“A Narrative History of the Lightbulb“) that was on exhibit at Stephen Wirtz gallery earlier this year. The Baltimore Museum of Industry invited her to document their prize collection of 50,000+ lightbulbs. [...]

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Photo Trouvée

I’ve been planning a small display of some of my found photos for a local café. Right now I’m puzzling over what to show and how to arrange it. I think I’ve got just about every book published on found photography and I’ve been paging through them for inspiration. Each editor has a different organizational [...]

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Postcards from the Edge

Any photo project wrapped up with travel and travel memorabilia gets my attention immediately. Michael Hughes created a clever photo series called Souvenirs on Flickr in which he playfully shoots tourist attractions with a tourist tchotchke slyly inserted in the frame—at Cadillac Ranch a red toy Cadillac held in a fist lines up in perfect [...]

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Photo Lust

This morning I spent two hours over at the Alemany Flea Market, sifting through old photos. Having done this for a few years now, I realize there’s an entire ritual and psychology around it. I move through the stalls quickly, trying not to get distracted, eyes on the prowl for boxes with snapshots, vintage post [...]

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Babbette’s Feast

When I was down in LA, I got the chance to visit Babbette Hines’ Found Photo Gallery. Hines is the author of Photo Booth, a beautiful collection of shots ranging over 75 years, beginning back in the 20s. You can find it in most bookstores, but Babbette would probably like it if you bought it [...]

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Wish You Were Here

I had bookmarked this photo piece that appeared in The Morning News online gallery a long time ago just because I loved the idea. French filmmaker Julien Donada created this project called “I Was There” in which he documents scenes in old tourist postcards. For example: He finds a postcard of the plage in Biarritz [...]

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Book of Shadows

As a collector of found photos, I had to see the show at Fraenkel Gallery which features images from Jeffrey Fraenkel’s private vernacular photo collection. He centered the exhibit around images in which the photographer casts a shadow, creating a dark silhouette that looms larger than life depending on the angle of the sun. Even [...]

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