Der anwesende Journalist David Halberstam, Reporter der New York Times, beschrieb ihn als völlig gefasst:(via Kotzendes Einhorn)
“I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”
"... Detroit, industrial capital of the XXth Century, played a fundamental role shaping the modern world ... Nowadays, unlike anywhere else, the city’s ruins are not isolated details in the urban environment. They have become a natural component of the landscape. Detroit presents all archetypal buildings of an American city in a state of mummification. Its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great Empire ..." The Ruins of Detroit(via MeFi)
The cameras used for a documentary on polar bears were designed to be as unobtrusive and resilient as possible. Polar Bear: Spy on The Ice used hi-tech "spy cams" to get as close as possible to the bears during summer in the Arctic islands of Svalbard. But while they were built to withstand temperatures as low as -40C, in the end most could not cope with the curiosity displayed by their subjects. BBC: Polar bears get the better of spy camerasEin weiteres Video, in dem man mehr über den Spycam-Bot erfährt, gibts nach dem Klick
"Er hat keine Wohnung, aber er ist kein Obdachloser. Er lebt und schläft in Zügen. Für die „Bahncard 100“ sammelt er Pfandflaschen. Verspätete Züge sind Einnahmequelle. Von einem Leben mit Stopps, aber ohne Halt ..." Der Zugnomade
"The institute is located inside the hospital Santa Maria which has a MD training program. In the context of my daily work, I have the occasion to go through the corridor where the anatomy classes of 1st year students are taking place. I have been fascinated by the representation and models they use for these classes. They are quite detailed and interesting, but as the same time they have some kind of old-fashion charm and a real aesthetic that I wanted to capture. So for the last 18 months, while going where I keep my laboratory mice (which happens to be in the same corridor), I took my camera and made some shots on the way. Not moving anything, letting chance placing the organs, the chairs and tables."(via Street Anatomy)
"Ladenschilder und Fassadenschriften begegnen uns auf Schritt und Tritt. Als Visitenkarten der Geschäfte und Aushängeschilder im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes sind sie weithin sichtbar, dienen der Orientierung und prägen das Stadtbild. Aus Neonröhren geschwungen, aus Stein gemeißelt, auf die Hauswand gemalt – manche der Schriften sind kunstvoll gestaltet und typografisch raffiniert, manche leichtfertig zusammengebastelt, andere grell und modisch. Viele zeigen Altersspuren oder sind schon beinahe ganz verblasst. Von A wie »An der Alster« bis Z wie »Zum Brandanfang« – das Hamburg Alphabet archiviert, dokumentiert und ordnet Schriftzüge von Hamburger Fassaden. Mal sachlich, mal verspielt und mit vielen Hamburg-typischen Schildern erzählt dieses Fotobuch Geschichten über Straßen und Stadtteile, über Typografie und über Veränderungen des Stadtbilds." Hamburg Alphabet(via Publique)
We'd like to call them "ghost towns", but they are clearly not abandoned. Amazingly, people still live in them, go to work in harshest possible conditions (paradoxically making it the richest and mightiest industrial area in Russia) and then come "home" to relax in this inhuman weather, non-existing infrastructure, in dangerously dilapidated buildings ..." Siberian "Ghost" Cities Scare
"The 1950’s was an idealistic time in American History, filled with hope, opportunity, and wonder. It was also, “The Atomic Age” where new technology promised to both save humanity as well as put it in jeopardy. All of these factors gave birth to one of the most prolific genres in film history, 1950’s Science Fiction Cinema. More then just bug eyed monsters and little green men, 1950’s Sci-fi Cinema provided science inspiration for millions of eager youths across the country. Then after 1957 and the launch of Sputnik, science fiction became science fact as an inspired population worked toward one of the greatest achievements of mankind, spaceflight. Monsters From The Id weaves the intersecting themes of over thirty classic films in order to tell the untold story of the Modern Scientist and his role in inspiring a nation. The film continues to explore the psychological and cultural impact of 1950’s Sci-Fi cinema in America and asks, “where is science inspiration found today?"(via MeFi)
"In the heyday of holography, back in the 1970s, there were four schools dedicated to the holographic arts around the world, and five studios in New York City alone. Today, there are only a few left in the world ... Jason Sapan, as his birth certificate calls him, is sort of like a laser Doc Brown, and his cluttered New York studio-laboratory ... feels something like a time machine, a living ode to a seemingly obsolete art ... His laser lighting has been used at the original Studio 54, on CBS, in print advertising for Macy’s and Revlon, on Broadway, for book and magazine covers, and graphics at the original Studio 54, and a number of music videos, including a starring role in one by Flock of Seagulls, which landed him the first on-air credit in a video on MTV. ... While moving holograms that float in midair remain the stuff of science-fiction, Doctor Laser has pieced together a reality that’s much stranger: that studio in Midtown Manhattan, tucked into a former blacksmith’s forge, is a veritable wonder cabinet of dancing 3D imagery, flashing lasers and homemade holography equipment. He revels in that DIY-ness ..." Doctor Laser: Inside the Wondrous Lab of One of the World's Last Holographers
“My photographs of the derelict shopfronts record the last moments of the Jewish community in the area – the bustling world of the inter-war years had been moved into the suburbs, and the community that stayed behind was less identifiable. In the nineteen eighties they were just hanging on, some premises had been empty for more than five years. Like a mouthful of broken teeth, a boxer’s mouth that had been thumped, with holes where teeth once were ... Later, in 1988, I moved back here to live in a co-operative housing scheme in Whitehorse Rd in Stepney and then I had time to walk around in this landscape that evoked the fragmentary stories I had heard of my grandparents’ lives in the East End ... The eighties were a terrible time for removing everything, comparable to what the Victorians had done a century earlier. So I photographed the shopfronts because this landscape was not going to last and then I put the pictures in a box." Alan Dein, East End Shopfronts 1988 und More East End Shopfronts of 1988(via How to be a Retronaut)
"With grand buildings, subtropical climate and scenic location ... the resort city of Gagra was once known as the “Russian Riviera.” ... It is widely claimed that, shortly after the Soviet triumph, Lenin personally gave the order to convert this haven of the rich into a paradise for the proletariat. In the 70 years that followed, Gagra was to the USSR what Hawaii was to the United States, an exotic foreign kingdom located within its borders — all the sunshine you can handle and no need for a phrasebook. Yet, almost immediately after the collapse of communism, this former playground of Czarists and lucky Soviet citizens became the scene of open combat and ethnic cleansing. Significant sections of the city were abandoned after the conflict came to an end in 1993, and since then have crumbled into an eerie ruin ..."
Wired: War-Torn and Overgrown, Ghost Town Was Soviet Paradise (Text + viele Fotos)
