no filter

My Modern Met has a nice appreciation of the effortlessly whimsical portfolio of New York-based photographer Rodney Lewis Smith (1946* - 2016 †), who insisted on remaining on remaining true to the art and discipline, setting up his subjects with only natural light and relying on his trusted Leica 35 mm camera and his refined vision to tease order out of chaos. With a career spanning over four decades, Smith has influenced many portrait and fashion photographers that followed as well as leaving a vast archive of sentimental and surreal snapshots that represent a cross-section of moments—especially punctuated by the artist’s own sense of spontaneity that complements his talent for composition.

expurgation

The US Federal Communications Commission released thirteen pages of public complaints on comedian Michelle Wolfe’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner performance.
Ironically, the majority of the objections focus on obscenities and profanities that the dotard Trump himself forced uncomfortably into the public sphere and lowered standards all around by his own words and actions. Furthermore, it looks like those getting grumbly couldn’t be bothered to switch stations—thirteen pages seeming rather measly compared to the furore ignited on social media.

lawful evil, neutral evil, chaotic evil

We’ve seen quite enough of this narcissistic jerk and given him enough free airtime to last several lifetimes, but it was nonetheless interesting to learn about the portrait painter Ralph Wolfe Cowan, who found his niche in as a vanity artist of the 1980s, specialising in pandering to the egos of the likes of the reality show star aspiring to dictatorship pictured, actual dictators and their trophy wives, several musicians, sultans, popes and royals. It’s strange to ponder Cowan’s various subjects sitting for him and to consider how they’re connected—ever so tenuously by this cult of personality that individually they’d probably would not want to share in and could not stand the each other’s company since the would all magnify the worst within them.

thank you for visiting arkham sanitarium

Via The Art of Darkness, we were delighted to discover a growing, carefully curated catalogue of charms and talisman that will be no match Cthulhu (previously) and the other dread elder gods return. Alas, not even this jean bag chair, despite being Shub-Niggurath-like in appearance, can save you from the horror to come.

this is

Profiled in The Atlantic, we appreciated Deborah Cohen’s introducing us to Czech illustrator Miroslav Šašek and his hopeful, happy picture book series that was targeted to a young readership to help them comprehend a post-war world that while polarised not so defined by nationhood.
This is Paris or London or Rome and many other editions, Šašek believed might prompt the next generation to imagine and understand a world not defined by brinksmanship and competition but cooperation and commonality. His message and distinctive Mid-Century Modern style is resonant with contemporary audiences and many of his books were re-released in the early Aughts.