I was 14 back then with no local skate shop so getting my hands on a copy took a bit of work each month and usually involved a train journey. Commercially, the mid nineties skate industry was in a slump but the lo-fi D.I.Y ethic of the (mostly skater owned) companies just added authenticity to the whole thing.

When people are doing something for love rather than money, those scenes quickly attract and assimilate like minded individuals, equally interested in and open to doing their own thing. That attitude combined with the lack of any significant corporate presence made certain skate magazines of the era a hot bed of interesting graphic design, photography and art in general.

I want to share this Ari Marcopoulos feature in particular because it inspired me to purchase my first SLR and go on to study photography at College a few years later, but also because of the way it basically sums up a lot of what felt so visceral to me at the time… people just doing their own thing.

You can click on each of the images above for a bigger version but if you’re struggling to read the text or would like a better look at the photos, I’ve uploaded some slightly higher resolution scans here.

Was anyone else watching the sequences with the rings and seeing vinyl grooves? If you use the attached microscope on a lathe to inspect a lacquer or dubplate you’re cutting, they look a lot like a couple of these following frames…

Incidentally, if you like the NIN track in the video you can grab it for free as one of the first nine tracks from Ghosts I-IV (track 9 is pretty sublime too).

Source: http://vimeo.com/24410924

“When built in 1913, the Michigan Central Station was the world’s largest train station. The station was built fairly far from the downtown, with the hopes that it would anchor further development in the area. The station was used heavily through World War II, though the Great Depression slowed development in the city.  Michigan Central Station saw declining usage shortly after. Unfortunately the station was never even filled to capacity with several upper floors never being used.

The station finally closed for good in 1988. It has stood empty ever since, and after years of neglect and deterioration, the Detroit City Council has voted to demolish the historic building, and bill the owner, Matty Moroun, for the costs.”

The above images and text where taken from a project page of Kevins on Behance Network, click here to view the entire set. Also via his Behance profile you will find a set of various night scenes from metro Detroit and his 100 Abandoned Houses project.

You can browse the full selection of Kevins work at www.kevinbauman.com/

This book could be vital. For as long as I can remember, graffiti has been a prime candidate for appropriation by the seemingly infinite incarnations of mainstream media. The explosion in recent years of ’street art’ as an ambiguous tag for anything outdoors involving paint has done little to expose the real nature of the sub-culture that ad agencies still seem unashamed to pillage for a lazy fast track to an ‘urban’ aesthetic.

In a lot of ways, a low profile of the reality here is a helpful proponent in allowing it’s continued practice. The fact that such a raw, committed activity continues to burn so brightly despite the constant, overwhelming misrepresentation it receives is certainly reassuring. That said, it’s always good to see these things documented accurately at some point if only to provide a valid counterpoint for their bastardized commercial persona.

Pre-orders and further info at www.crackandshine.com

From their site…

“NEWWORK magazine is a large-format arts publication for Connoisseur of fresh ideas. Designed and published biannually by studio NEWWORK, each issue features new work from a wide range of artists and creators in the worlds of fine art, design, high fashion, culture, and politics. From art directors to business leaders, design students to curators, NEWWORK’s contributors are united in their passion to push the boundaries of their disciplines. Among the magazine’s special features are bold, custom-designed typefaces and a twist on the traditional newspaper format, offering a stimulating juxtaposition of striking design and everyday simplicity. Since pages can be separated, each layout can be hung on the wall as an individual art piece.”

visit www.newworkmag.com

From the BFI website… “Jennifer Baichwal’s award-winning documentary centres on renowned artist Edward Burtynsky whose large-scale photographs portray the devastating impact of industrial expansion on the environment.

Baichwal observes the artist at work amid some of the most surreal landscapes of the 21st century: China’s mountains of computer waste; the Yangtze River where whole towns are disappearing in the flooding caused by the Three Gorges Dam; the shipbreaking yards of Bangladesh; Shanghai, with its increasingly crowded skyline and millions of new inhabitants.

Eschewing polemics, Burtynsky aims simply to bring these landscapes into our consciousness, to provoke reflection on some highly inconvenient truths. Yet Baichwal’s film also exposes a tension between ethics and aesthetics: aren’t these images of apocalyptic splendour just a little too seductive? One thing’s for sure: it’s a terrible beauty that’s born.”

I saw this about a month ago and it blew me away. Although it was filmed back in 2006 it only saw a UK DVD release this week via the British Film Institute so I’ve been resisting the temptation to write this post until now.

Manufactured Landscapes is the most visually stunning documentary I’ve seen in a long time. It seems to have received a little criticism for the lack of any overtly ethical component in it’s narrative but for me that worked out well, providing an opportunity to absorb all the information on offer and consider the ethical connotations for myself once the film was over. As a film about social and economical issues, arguably perhaps it does lack something in addressing it’s ethical responsibility but as a film about a photographer and his work, I think it’s right on point.

I read another review where the author called the film boring (!!) which to me is madness. There’s no doubt this documentary takes it’s time but (in my view) anything else would be inappropriate and fail to do justice to the unquestionable depth and detail of Burtynsky’s work. For me, the combination of relaxed pace and calmly meandering, non didactic narrative was close to perfect. I seriously can’t recommend this enough.

If you’re still not convinced, there’s a well executed New York Times review here from sometime around the films US release date last year.

Finally, here’s a 10 minute compilation of excerpts from youtube…

Here’s an essential addition to your RSS reader…

“The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, compiled semi-regularly by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery – with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.”

I would suggest checking out everything there as it’s all good stuff but some recent particular favourites for me were ‘Views Of Jupiter’, ‘Large Hadron Collider nearly ready’, Large Hadron Collider ready to restart and ‘2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony‘. Incidentally, if you’re not familiar with the Large Hadron Collider story, that’s really worth a peep too.

Homepage for The Big Picture photo blog here.

On first inspection, the work of Joe Nishizawa looks a lot like a combination of computer graphics and Hollywood scale set design. Instead, every image is an entirely untreated photograph of a real location he has visited and captured as he found it, often without the use of even a flashlight.

His work centers around some of Japans most impressive industrial design, much of which is found hidden deep underground in various facilities that seldom grant any kind of public access. Taking pride in documenting just how technologically advanced a nation Japan has become, he’s created a collection of books that consistently render sublime imagery from objects and environments created primarily for function rather than any aethetic value.

If recent rumors about a live action Akira are true, I hope that whoever’s heading up the production design dept. has some of Joe’s books on their shelf.

Joe Nishizawa website

‘Hay Stacks’

‘Flower Fields’

‘Circular Housing Development’

‘Algae Between Logs’

Check the rest of his impressive portfolio at www.alexmaclean.com

Staying on the Japan tip from last Friday, here’s another nice photo set to peep at.

For 11 years, photographer Masataka Nakano has kept watch for the most impossible of scenes: central Tokyo street scenes inhabited by nobody. These aren’t manipulated composites but rather the result of a dedicated opportunist. There’s something very eerie about these desolate moments and their startling absence of congestion, usually so integral to the portrayal of this environment.

This is just a sample selection but you can pick up the complete series in this 96 page book published back in Sept 2007. If you’re into this check out more of Masataka’s work at his online gallery.

Hats off to Matt for pointing this stuff out to me.

“When the social elevator is broken you have to know how to bounce. Between the take off and the fall, the man parachuted in the city learns to control his trajectory.”

Wicked little photo set from French photographer Denis Darzacq.