Curio Cabinet / Photo Curio

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Pink Rangers, assemble! These women may look like body doubles from the Power Rangers film, but they're actually Afghan martial artists-in-training. Sima Azimi, center, is the country's first female wushu trainer. Her pink entourage is comprised of dedicated students ranging from ages 14 to 20. These girls, part of the liberal-leaning Hazara community in Kabul, are definitely a minority in Afghanistan; most communities strictly prohibit women from partaking in sports. Azimi only learned the Chinese martial arts form as a refugee in Iran. Now she's using her knowledge to help end violence against women in her homeland. Paying it forward never looked so fierce.
 
Image credit & copyright: Wakil Kohsar
 

Talk about staying cool under pressure. On this day in 1968, American figure skater Peggy Fleming earned her third consecutive win at the World Figure Skating Championships in Geneva, Switzerland. Just one month prior, however, Fleming had claimed the most coveted prize of all—a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics. In the photo above, a 20-year-old Fleming skates in an outdoor practice ring in the Olympic village, in Grenoble, France. Even as she strikes a pose, balancing on one skate with her arms lifted, her expression is serene. Fleming's famous light green dress was chosen when her mother learned that nearby monks, in Grenoble, made Chartreuse Liqueur—a green, herbal drink. Fleming had been training for an Olympic performance since childhood. When she was 12, she faced a career setback and tragedy in one: her coach, William Kipp, was killed when a plane carrying the U.S. figure skating team crashed in Belgium. When a memorial fund was set up to help rebuild the sport, Fleming became a beneficiary and used the money to buy new skates. Just a few years later, in 1964, she placed first at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
Below: a video of Peggy Fleming's 1968 Olympic performance, which won her a Gold Medal.

[Image description: Figure skater Peggy Flemming wearing a long-sleeved, light green dress and white skates strikes a skating pose with her arms spread and legs crossed, 1968.] Credit & copyright: AFP/Getty Images
 
Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Academy what? The first ever Academy Awards, which took place in May 1929, attracted only 270 people. Tickets to the event cost as little as 5 dollars (about $70 in today's currency) and the ceremony portion lasted a full 15 minutes. And it wasn't broadcast to outside audiences because winners had already been announced three months prior. Despite lacking the significance and glitz of today's Academy Awards, the event was actually attended by many film industry pioneers of the time, including some that hadn't yet become famous. In the picture above, see if you can spot Walt Disney, the Warner brothers, Charlie Chaplin, or Emil Jannings. The first award for Outstanding Picture (now known as Best Picture) was presented to the producers of Wings, a romance and war film based on World War I. Winners in all twelve categories received a firm handshake from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Douglas Fairbanks, as well as a shiny gold statuette. That statuette would come to be known as "Oscar": the most coveted man in Hollywood for 92 years and counting.
 
Image credit & copyright: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
 

Regal is as regal does when it comes to Pat McGrath and her makeup work. McGrath recently became the first makeup artist to receive the title of Dame as a Member of the Order of the British Empire. While looking at McGrath's 2016 W magazine cover and editorial work with pop star Rihanna, it's easy to see why McGrath's inventiveness has made her one of the most in-demand makeup artists of the past 30 years. To give Rihanna the bejeweled look, McGrath initially applied a foundation from her own line called McGrath Labs Skin Fetish 003. From there, three-dimensional Cartier jewelry pieces were placed together to create the golden eyepiece. Gold flakes and liquid-appearing makeup effects were added beneath the eye, as well as the red lip color and paillettes. The overall effect is a futuristic baroque look, and definitely one of McGrath's most memorable works. We might even call it one of her crown jewels!

 
Image credit & copyright: Steven Klein / W Magazine
 

Written by: Esther P.

Songbirds are normally peaceful animals, but when birdseed is involved, all bets are off! American Wildlife photographer Jocelyn Anderson has been photographing birds for years. Two of her photos were even featured in the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards Top 100. In 2020, she became known for her videos and photos of wild birds eating out of her hand. In the photo above, two birds spar over Anderson's outstretched hand, which is filled with seeds, nuts, and pieces of fruit. The smaller of the two birds, a Black-capped chickadee, attempts to fend off a grey-and-orange tufted titmouse, which hangs off the side of Anderson's hand. Such squabbles are just some of the fascinating bird interactions Anderson captures, both on video and in photos. Her technique for luring birds close to her, which is shared on the "How to Hand Feed Birds'' section of her website, takes a lot of patience to master. She suggests placing a chair in a particular spot, then arranging clothes in a chair to approximate the figure of a person, and leaving seed out, in the figure's "hand" (empty glove) to get the birds used to the process. For Anderson, the dedication has certainly paid off!
 

Image credit & copyright: Jocelyn Anderson
 

Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Judy Dater calls herself an "obsessive people-watcher," and from her earliest days as a photographer her subjects have been humans—including herself. In My Hands, Death Valley, Death Valley, California, above, her hands make a powerful foreground; they appear to be pulling back a slide to reveal the desert plain and mist-shrouded mountains behind. Dater studied her craft in San Francisco in the 1960s, when Ansel Adams and Edward Weston dominated the photography world, and everyone wanted to take pictures of natural objects and landscapes. Not Dater. On photography field trips, while everyone else shot rocks and cliffs, she took photos of her fellow students. "Seeing a person in relation to the environment was always more visually interesting to me," she reflected recently. At 79, Dater and has no plans to stop taking photos. She has a lot more people watching to do.  

Below: Twinka and Tree, San Anselmo, California, and author Maxine Hong Kingston, both by Judy Dater.
 

Image credit & copyright: Judy Dater
 

Turns out, it's possible to photograph the passage of time...but it takes a lot of dedication! American photographer Nancy Floyd's recently released photography collection, Weathering Time, showcases around forty years' worth of daily self-portraits, beginning from 1982, when she was 25 years old. Above, the left photo was taken in 1984, while the right was taken in 2013. In the latter image, Floyd has purposefully posed and dressed similarly to the 1984 image, and is even standing in front of a door, as in the original. The photos are so much alike that their differences naturally stand out—namely the effects of the aging process on Floyd's facial features. In a recent interview, Floyd referred to Weathering Time as a "visual calendar" and pointed out that some images not only depict important changes in her, but in her environment. "While Weathering Time chronicles my youth to the dawn of my old age, the images also reflect the experiences of my generation and underscore the cultural, technological, and physical changes that have occurred over the past 38 years," she explained. Talk about aging gracefully!
 

Below: two more comparison images, My Brother Jimmy's Bath Robe. The left image is from 1983, the right from 2012.
 

Image credit & copyright: Nancy Floyd/GOST Books
 

Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Happy Valentine's Day! Love, the Milky Way. IC 1805, better known as the Heart Nebula, glows brightly from the Perseus Arm of our galaxy. It gets its shape and red color from dust clouds and the radiation of stars near its center. If you're enamored with the Heart Nebula, we're sorry to break the news, but it's taken. Its valentine is the nearby Soul Nebula, also known as IC 1848. Together, they're categorized as a star-making complex known as "Heart and Soul." Though "only" seven million years old, these two are creating stars at a rapid rate. Ah, young love!
 
Below: an image of Heart and Soul.
 

 
Image credit & copyright: Dan Sullivan and Jean Guimond
 

Black History Month this year comes with a stark reminder of systemic racism in the United States. Online photography magazine LensCulture is celebrating the efforts of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement by awarding photographer Kamal X a 2nd place title in the Black & White Photography Awards. X's series of incredible portraits The Beautiful: Oakland to D.C. follows the historic protests that erupted in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd: Black protesters take to the street en masse by foot, car, and bus in the above image. X's street photography skills give the black and white images a timeless quality: many, including one featuring a protest gathering at the Washington Monument, appear as if they could stand seamlessly along images from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, save for the contemporary clothing on many of the activists. Here's hoping future generations look back on this time similarly as one of a cultural awakening and bending the arc of the moral universe even further towards justice.
 

Below: more images from Kamal X's series The Beautiful.
 

Image credit & copyright: Kamal X
 

Written by: Esther P.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Those bright colors might be attracting the wrong kind of attention! The Edwards' fig parrot, photographed above in Spain's Canary Islands, is one of many parrot species facing population issues related to deforestation, habitat loss, and demand for the intelligent birds as pets. A recent study in National Geographic included the above image as well as photos of other struggling species like blue-throated macaws, which rely for survival on a type of palm tree that only grows in Bolivia. 346 out of 350 documented species of parrots in the wild are eligible for protection by a global agreement called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Though parrots available in pet stores may be bred from captivity, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the majority of pet parrots are plucked from the wild. Researchers at a university in South Africa are now developing a method to determine if a specific bird was caught in nature. If their research pans out, airport inspectors and pet stores could take samples from a particular bird and quickly figure out whether it was created in a way that complies with international standards. We sure hope that strategy takes flight!
 

Below: the male red-winged parrot; the gang-gang cockatoo; the blue-throated macaw.

 

Image credit & copyright: Joel Sartore / National Geographic
 

No social distancing for these snails! While humans were stuck inside for much of 2020, snails were living their best lives, grabbing drinks with friends and throwing house parties...at least, if Aleia Murawski and Sam Copeland's recent book, Snail World: Life in the Slimelight is to be believed. The book showcases miniature scenes built over several years by the Illinois-based duo for their favorite gastropods. In the photo above, two snails sit in plush chairs at a Tiki-themed bar. Tiny bottles of alcohol line the back counter as the snails seem to sip tropical cocktails from novelty cups, complete with tiny umbrellas. A pineapple and "taxidermied" swordfish complete the ambiance. In a 2018 interview, Murawski confessed that she thinks of snails as "tiny puppies with shells", saying "I love seeing how they will interact with a set. We put cucumber juice on certain objects, but we cannot will a snail to do something. We make a scene and hope they are interested in what is around them.” If Murawski and Copelands' colorful photos are anything to go by, these little are not only interested, they're having a shell of a time!
 
Below: two more of Murawski and Copelands' snail photos
 

Image credit & copyright: Aleia Murawski, Sam Copeland/Broccoli Mag
 

Written by: Maria C.

Familiarity breeds contempt—at least, that's what seems to be true of Lorna Simpson's Five Day Forecast. Back in 1991 before Simpson was successful in the fine art world, she worked the 9-to-5 grind in an office, trying to make ends meet while working on her true aesthetic passions. Five Day Forecast evokes the certainty of the work week, with the weather-related title and day-by-day work week written above each photo of a cross-armed and guarded black woman. The monotony is broken up with the "Mis-" titled words running at the bottom of the display: "Misdescription’, "Misinformation" "Misidentify", "Misdiagnose," "Misfunction," "Mistranscribe," to name a few. The juxtapositions no doubt emphasize the stress, the monotony, and communication breakdowns in display. Simpson has been called a conceptual photographer—her work goes beyond snapping pictures to tell the story of her images. With Five Day Forecast, she highlights some of the struggles Black women are still facing this Black History Month: that of incredible demands made on them, with plenty of room for identity erasure.

Below: more of Simpson's photo collages.
 

Image credit & copyright: Lorna Simpson Studio
 
Written by: Esther P.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Don't panic, there's no chance this wave will come crashing down on the park ranger! This photo of Wave Rock in Western Australia (about 180 mi from Perth) was taken in 1963 by Robert Goodman for National Geographic. Standing 49 feet tall and 360 feet in length, Wave Rock is part of the north side of Hilden Rock, a formation in the Yilgarn Craton, one of the earliest land masses to emerge from the sea billions of years ago. Winds and water erosion formed the rounded shape of Wave Rock's granite 600 million years ago and the color stripes are an effect of algae living on the surface. For the local indigenous Ballardong, the formation is an important part of their cosmology: the Rainbow Serpent, a creator deity, was said to have swallowed all the nearby water; as her weighed-down body slithered across the land, she created the curvature of Wave Rock in the landscape. These days water conservation efforts in the area are ensuring no nearby creatures will get away with reserves. Just on top of Wave Rock is a wall which funnels rainwater into a nearby dam, making the spot as functional as it is gorgeous!

 

Below: an overhead view of Hilden Rock, and the wall atop Wave Rock.
 

Image credit & copyright: Robert Goodman, National Geographic, Welcome to Wave Rock, Don Pugh
 

Ever feel like the world is caving in around you? That feeling became literal in Naples, Italy last month, when an enormous sinkhole spontaneously swallowed up a hospital parking lot and three empty vehicles. In the drone photo above, the dark sinkhole gapes amongst otherwise orderly surroundings. Debris, from asphalt to a slab of grass, can be seen inside it, as a few authorities stand nearby. Although no one was injured during the event, and the Hospital of the Sea's operations were not interrupted, a nearby residence for recovering Covid-19 victims had to be closed when the sinkhole interrupted electrical power. Thankfully, the sinkhole opened at dawn, before many people were present. According to Italian authorities, it measured around 21,527 square feet and was 66 feet deep. Though they can seem entirely random, sinkholes are usually caused by the sudden lowering of groundwater, which leads to a loss of support in rocky layers of ground. They can also happen due to seasonal groundwater changes, such as rapid freezing and thawing, or heavy precipitation. At least no one was swallowed up along with their cars...though this will surely make a few peoples' morning commutes more complicated!
 
Below: drone footage of the sinkhole

[Image description: A large sinkhole in a parking lot, shown from above, with hospital buildings in the background.] Image credit & copyright: EPA
 

Written by: Maria C.

Waiting for the Shepherd

Eugenie Fish Glaman (1873-1956)

etching on paper

10 x 8 in. (25.3 x 20.3 cm)

Smithsonian American Art Museum

 
Can sheep be muses? For American artist Eugenie Fish Glaman, born on this day in 1873, they certainly were! After growing up on her father's farm in Kansas, Glaman found herself unimpressed with other artists' (such as the Dutch painter Josef Israels) depiction of sheep, her favorite farm animals. Glaman thus set out to capture the fluffy flock. In Waiting for the Shepherd, a flock of around ten sheep stand loosely huddled inside a barn. Every visible sheep wears a unique expression—the one in the foreground seems wary, while those further back seem content, and one rests its head against the bar door. Glaman accomplished great detail through the medium of etching, in which ink is applied to a design on a carved metal plate, then pressed onto paper. At a time when women were not expected to be artists, and those that were were expected to adhere to certain "feminine" themes, Glaman's rugged depictions of farm life broke the mold. What baa-ter way to expand the scope of the art world?

 
Below: two more of Glaman's animal-focused works, Shearing Sheep and The Rest Hour.
 

 
Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

This pretty pepper photographs better than most of us! It helps that the man behind the lens was Edward Weston. He was a master of black-and-white compositions and close-up studies of organic subjects. The photographer first snapped peppers in 1929 against plain burlap and muslin cloth backdrops. Not loving the results, he tried again in August 1930 with a white cardboard backdrop that proved too stark against the green pepper. In a last ditch effort, he placed the vegetable inside a large funnel. The funnel's curve, visible above, allowed for Weston's lighting to reflect off the pepper from multiple directions, accentuating its striking shape and texture. In the artist's own words: "It is a classic, completely satisfying—a pepper—but more than a pepper; abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter. It has no psychological attributes, no human emotions are aroused: this new pepper takes one beyond the world we know in the conscious mind." Notice Weston's mention that "no human emotions are aroused"; some critics and viewers would disagree, pointing to sensual or even erotic shapes in the subject. Weston dismissed these, preferring not to have his work "pigeonholed by those who bring to it their own obviously abnormal, frustrated condition."
 
Image credit: Beetles & Huxley
 

Let's get ready to rumble! The ancient sport of Japanese Sumo wrestling has been around for at least two thousand years, yet in Japan, women are still not allowed to compete in the sport professionally. That hasn't stopped amateur teams and tournaments from popping up through the years. In the photo above, female sumo wrestlers Tokuko Saito (left) and Mayuki Matsumoto (right) position themselves for their middleweight match in the 1997 All-Japan New Sumo Tournament in Osaka. Both women are in the usual crouched sumo form, and sport traditional wide belts. Although the All-Japan New Sumo Tournament no longer exists, other all-female tournaments have had real staying power, such as the Female Only Sumo Grand Tournament, which began in 1991. This is in spite of traditions which officially prohibit women from even touching a sumo wrestling ring or dohyō. At places like Asahi University in Mizuho, Japan, mixed-gender sumo clubs have had great success, leading some to hope that women will one day be allowed to compete professionally. In the battle for equal representation in sports, one thing is clear: these tough athletes won't be stepping out of the ring any time soon.
 
Below: members of the 2018 Asahi University sumo club.
 

Image credit & copyright: AP Photo, Itsuo Inouye, Laura Liverani, The Guardian
 

Written by: Maria C.

Remy from Ratatouille isn't the only one with good taste around here. Recently, theater artist Jonothon Lyons donned his best brown suit and tail to become Buddy the Rat, a performance art rodent who makes his way around New York City. Lyons came up with the idea in 2008 while working on a stage show in Portland, Oregon called Frogs. After playing the part of several animals, including an anteater, polar bear, and penguin, he developed a desire to portray the mischievous city rat. Earlier this year Lyons teamed up with director Todd Strauss-Schulson (A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas) to film the three-minute short Rat on the streets of New York City. Lyons had so much fun with the film, he took the character out for random acts of performance art around the city: whether it was catching a ride on the subway, showing people how to wear a triple-mask during covid, or paying homage to the original "pizza rat" meme by lugging his own slice of pie across town, Buddy the Rat is causing quite the stir in the city that never sleeps!
 

Image credit & copyright: Jonothon Lyons
 
Written by: Esther P.