Curio Cabinet / Photo Curio

It's Flashback Friday and the anniversary of James Joyce’s death. In honor of the late Irish author, enjoy these curios all about literature and writing. Acclaimed writer Teju Cole knows a thing or two about creating space in his writing, as well as in his other passion: photography. When he's not drafting stories about intersections of African and American cultures across continents, Cole is an avid traveling photographer who often names his images after the locations where they were taken, like the above Brazzaville, named after the Republic of the Congo capital. "I am intrigued by the continuity of places, by the singing line that connects them all," Cole once wrote for his book Blind Spot. Whether it's an oceanside view in Brazzaville, beat-up busses at the base of an ancient and majestic mountainside, or the packed streets and sidewalks of New York, Cole manages to see these places like no one else, with an eye for age-faded colors and the geometry of closely-packed living quarters. With a knack for perfect snapshots and a monthly column On Photography for the New York Times Magazine, Cole is ensuring others get to see the hidden wonder in our everyday experiences, as well as catch glimpses of extraordinary travels across the globe.
 

Image credit & copyright: Teju Cole
 

It's Flashback Friday and National Cuddle Up Day, which encourages cuddling to stave off the January cold. May these pleasant curios add to the comfort! 
D'aww. Does it get any cuter than this father and son playing it up in the sun? Between his harrowing forays into combat, famous wartime photographer Robert Capa spent his time in the company of illustrious friends, like painter Pablo Picasso. Shown above is a photo he took of the artist and his adorable son, Claude, at a seaside resort on France’s Côte d’Azur in 1948. Claude was the child of Picasso and one of his mistresses, Françoise Gilot, who was 40 years his junior. By the time this wholesome photo was taken, Capa had already documented the Spanish Civil War and stormed Omaha Beach alongside soldiers on D-Day. Due to his unrivaled reputation as a war journalist, and his publicized relationship with Gerda Taro—an equally fearless photographer—his talent for bubbly candids has otherwise been forgotten. And with friends like Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse, and others, it's a real shame. Though Capa would die an untimely death on May 25, 1954, in French Indochina, both his heartwarming portraits and his grisly war scenes live on as testaments to the many merits and detriments of humankind.
 

Image credit & copyright: Cornell Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos.
 

It's Flashback Friday and Christmas is almost here! Enjoy these holiday-focused curios. 
Step right up and get some holiday cheer! In the early 1900s, it was common to see Christmas card vendors on city streets during the holiday season. This one is selling his wares for just a penny a piece—but the price isn't the only thing that has changed over the years. Contemporary cards typically feature Nativity scenes, twinkling Santas, or personalized messages with photos and chatty family updates. But the first Christmas cards didn't focus on strictly holiday themes. Louis Prang, a Boston printer, introduced them to the U.S. in 1874 (the tradition began in England in the 1840s). Prang's lithographs featured romantic tableaus, animals, and winter landscapes. Over the years, cards gradually became more "Christmas-y." The Three Kings were a popular theme in the 1920s, while Santa cards trended in the 1940s. Today, Christmas cards are undergoing another dramatic transformation: more and more people are sending digital greetings instead of paper ones. But however you choose to say it, the message and the meaning is the same: Happy holidays!
 

Below: Examples of early Christmas cards.
 

Image credit & copyright: Library of Congress; WikiArt
 

It's Flashback Friday and the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. In honor of this famous demonstration, enjoy these curios all about protests. 
The flower is mightier than the bayonet. Over fifty years ago, someone at a peaceful protest at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. handed Jan Rose Kasmir a chrysanthemum. Kasimir was 17 years old then when photographer Marc Riboud snapped her image in this face-off between protesters and the National Guard. It was 1967 and 13,000 Americans had been killed in Vietnam, sparking the full fervor of the anti-war movement. Protest leaders planned to encircle the Pentagon, with some vowing to conduct an exorcism to rid the building of its war spirits. At the Pentagon, marchers were met with the force of 2,500 Army troops. Many protesters were beaten and 681 were arrested. But for Kasmir, the day ended anti-climatically: when it got dark, she took a bus home. She had no idea that Riboud had taken the picture. "If you look at my face, I am extremely sad," she said years later, referring to the photo. "At that moment I realized how young these boys were…. I think they were afraid they were going to be told to fire on us." Fortunately, at least on that day, they held their fire.
 

Image credit & copyright: Marc Riboud/Magnum Photos
 

It's Flashback Friday and winter is here! Enjoy these curios all about the season. 
The family that photographs together, stays together. Canadian camera-whiz Josiah Launstein shot this photo of a Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep while on an outing with his family in British Columbia. Both Launstein's father and sister are professional photographers, so the outing wasn't just about enjoying the scenery; it was also about getting amazing nature photography shots. The above panoramic image, entitled Ridgeline Sentinel, earned Launstein the 2017 Young Outdoor Photographer of the Year Award, making him the first person to ever win the award twice, having won in 2014 as well. That may seem like a lot of praise for a 12-year old with an SLR, but Launstein's dedication to his craft is nothing to laugh at. He began taking photos when he was just seven years old, receiving basic photography lessons from his father. Since then, Launstein's training has been in the field; in Ridgeline Sentinel, he had to wait until the winter weather permitted exploration, then during a lucky moment, brace himself "against a solid support" to quickly capture the bighorn and majestic landscape. After all, one doesn't become an award-winning photographer by being sheepish with their camera!
 

Below: more of Launstein's award-winning images: his 2014 Young Outdoor Photographer of the Year Award of two bighorns clashing, a Goose Attack, and Raindrops on a caterpillar.

Image credit & copyright: Josiah Launstein
 

It's Flashback Friday and also Play Basketball Day! Enjoy these sports-focused curios. 
Oof, that’s gotta hurt! The above photo, taken in 1954, shows American boxing legend Floyd Patterson cracking a left, or performing a surprise left hook punch, into the face of fellow boxer Jesse Turner, during a bout in Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway Arena. Turner lifts his right forearm to block, putting his swollen left eye into full view. The tops of audience member’s heads are just barely visible, beyond the ring. Patterson, already a 1952 Olympic gold medalist, went on to win his bout against Turner, and to become a two-time world heavyweight champion. Unfortunately, Turner was not as lucky. The promising young boxer from St. Louis scored an impressive 36 knockouts during his 62-bout career, but passed away at age 29 for unknown reasons. Patterson retired from boxing in 1972. He was inducted into the United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame in 1987, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. A knockout athletic career, indeed.
 

[Image description: A black and white photo of boxer Floyd Patterson punching at boxer Jesse Turner’s face with his left glove. ] Credit & copyright: AP
 

It's Flashback Friday and Black Friday! In honor of the holiday buying season, enjoy these curios all about shopping and consumer crazes. 
Many of us may think of a hotel or gas station shop as just places that help us get from one location to the next, but for Stephen Shore, these are the perfect artistic subjects. Prior to the first publication of his Uncommon Places in 1982, Shore was considered a pioneer in color photography, and a prodigy who sold his first work to the Museum of Modern Art in New York at the age of 14. With this series, Shore was also the first to capture unseen scenes in semi-industrial American towns and cities in the latter half of the 20th century. In the above photo, he shows off his composition skill, centering an orange and green palette amid trucks, produce, a muscle car, and well, wood pallets. These days, it's not hard to find Shore, who turns 71 today, reinventing the food or cat picture on Instagram and continuing ceaselessly to push the line between landscape photographer, photojournalist, and curious traveler.

 

Below: more shots from Uncommon Places.
 

Image credit & copyright: Stephen Shore
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the introduction of the push-button telephone on this day in 1963, enjoy these curios all about communication. 
Say cheese! If the above image seems primitive in these days of instant online photo sharing, that's because it's the very first camera phone image ever taken.In a true melding of technologies, Philippe Kahn was at the hospital with his pregnant wife in 1997 when he hacked a Motorola Startac cell phone and a Casio QV-10 digital camera, and connected the two to his laptop. Throwing the devices together with just a soldering iron and cut cables from his car phone, Kahn was able to hold his newborn daughter Sophie in one arm and snap a shareable photo with the other. His "21st-century Polaroid" was emailed to over 2,000 family, friends, and business associates, with dozens of replies wondering how he managed to share the image so quickly. Kahn's baby photo forever changed the way we share photos, moving film, prints, and albums in the digital age. As for Kahn, who later founded LightSurf and FullPower, he can celebrate that June 11th morning as the serendipitous day when both his child and a new tech innovation were born!
 

Image credit & copyright: Philippe Kahn
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Origami Day, enjoy these curios all about paper. 

British artist Christopher Bucklow may not be a ghost hunter, but his series of Guest photos sure are supernaturally brilliant. Bucklow, who turns 61 this week, is part of a resurgence of "camera-less" photographers in the U.K. who use non-traditional methods to produce photogram images on light-sensitive photo paper. For his Guests series, Bucklow had subjects stand in front of aluminum foil sheets, where he would trace their silhouettes, then poke thousands of pinholes through the metallic paper. From there, he held the aluminum sheets up to sunlight, so the photographic paper would capture the exposure. Depending on the quality of the natural light, the images either appeared blue in the final shot, like the above figure, or developed red or green glows. The effect is otherworldly, like half-appearing apparitions, or personnel materializing through a Star Trek transporter. Beam us up, Bucklow!

 

Below: more Guests and Bucklow at work.
 

Image credit & copyright: Chris Bucklow
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of King Tut Day, the anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, enjoy these curios all about unearthed treasures. 
This handkerchief may be delicate, but the suffragette featured on it was anything but. Mary Raleigh Richardson made waves when she damaged a Diego Velazquez painting depicting the goddess Venus at the National Gallery in London in 1914. By destroying the iconic mythological woman, Richardson hoped to send a protest message against the British government's "destruction" of suffragette leaders. The above print is one of several from photographer Amy Jorgensen's series, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. While researching her own suffragette great aunt, Edna Berg, Jorgensen unearthed a rich collection of surveillance images featuring early 20th-century female activists. She commemorates these pioneers in cyanotype prints, a technique made famous by Anna Atkins, the first woman to produce a photograph. Handkerchiefs provide a base for the prints that's decisively rooted in suffragette history, as the imprisoned women would embroider them to record the injustices they faced. Said Jorgensen, "In pairing the surveillance images of militant suffragettes, the wedding rhyme [of the series' title], and the delicacy of a handkerchief, I was interested in creating a collision point for patriarchal structures." We think Aunt Edna would approve!
 
Image credit & copyright: Amy Jorgensen
 

Welcome to the real Halloweentown. The Spirit of Halloweentown is a festival based on the cult classic Disney Channel movie Halloweentown, and it takes place every year in the actual location that the movie was filmed—St. Helens, Oregon. Fans of the movie will appreciate that the giant pumpkin statue featured in the story now serves as the centerpiece for St. Helens’ festival, as in the photo above. It stands surrounded by other spooky decorations, from hanging bats to skeleton guards. The pumpkin is lit on the first Saturday of October, and stays lit until the end of the month. Since Halloweentown turned St. Helens into a must-travel destination, several spooky businesses have popped up in the area, such as a Haunted Hotel and a Museum of Peculiarities and Oddities. There is also a self-guided tour that passes through shooting locations for Halloweentown and Twilight, which used the town in its production as well. Several Twilight stars have also made appearances at the festival and participated in the lighting of the pumpkin. How's that for a star-studded, spooky celebration?
 
[Image description: St. Helens’ famous pumpkin statue stands surrounded by other Halloween decorations.] Credit & copyright: City of St. Helens

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Celebration of the Mind Day, enjoy these curios all about innovation and discovery. Biomimicry at its best. What looks like an insect weaving a tangled web is actually velcro doing what it does best: hooking onto itself. The resemblance to nature is no coincidence; velcro inventor George de Mestral modeled his product after burrs, which would cling to his clothes during walks in the woods. This image lets us see velcro's mechanism up close, with the hook-covered strip latching right onto the tiny loops on its complementary strip. Photographer Tracy Anderson captured the 94-times-magnified miniature scene using a Nikon SMZ1500 Stereomicroscope. As we begin a new year, we hope you can channel the sticking power of velcro. As for us, we're off to "adhere" to our new year's learning resolutions!
 
Image credit & copyright: Tracy Anderson
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of National Dessert Day, enjoy these curios all about sweet treats. 
Num, num, num. September the 10th witnessed this year's Moon Festival, a tradition celebrated by East Asian cultures on the 15th day of every eighth moon—and humans weren't the only ones getting in on the fun. The furry guys shown above, semi-aquatic rodents called coypu, are nibbling on special mooncakes gifted to them by their handlers at China's Nanning Zoo. While typical mooncakes consist of baked or steamed pastries loaded with fillings like lotus paste, salted egg yolk, fruits, nuts, and seeds, these rascals' treats contained a medley of fish and fruit suitable for their restricted diets. The Moon Festival is defined by family gatherings, lighted lanterns, and hearty meals. Celebrated since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.), the tradition honors the moon goddess Chang'e, who guzzled a potent elixir that tragically whisked her off to the moon before her husband's very eyes. It's certainly a tale that makes you cherish those closest to the heart—with and without fur!
 

Image credit & copyright: Yu Jing
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the anniversary of New York City’s groundbreaking law banning cigarettes in bars and restaurants, enjoy these curios all about health and wellness. 
Some gym memberships come at a high price, though few can claim the ill-fated elitism of a Titanic gym-goer. Among the many luxuries available to first-class passengers aboard the Titanic was a gymnasium fitted with the latest in strength-training and cardio machines, cycling bikes, and an electric camel which was reportedly "good for the liver." In 1912, gym exercise was treated as a leisurely health benefit, unlike many of today's intense sessions aimed at physical transformations. Gym sessions were separated by gender, with women using the facilities from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and men from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The old-timey trainer and manager of the space was Mr. Thomas McCawley, who would have collected a daily admittance fee of one shilling a head (about $4 today). As the ship went down on April 14th, McCawley held his post at the gym. While we admire his dedication, we're glad there's no chance of being lost at sea while working out at a Planet Fitness.

 

Image credit & copyright:
Robert Welch, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of The Phantom of the Opera’s literary debut, enjoy these curios all about opera. 
The future looks so bright in Australia, we gotta wear shades. One of the most dazzling displays of fireworks on New Year's Eve has happened for over 20 years at Sydney Harbor—but it was never meant to be an international spectacle. The Sydney Harbor Bridge was first used as a fireworks centerpiece in 1986 in an event honoring the 75th Anniversary Review of the Royal Australian Navy. 10 years later, the New Year's Eve show was first televised; today, over one billion people watched the event across the globe. To be kind to those with little ones and early bedtimes, there are actually two shows every December 31st: the 9 p.m. Family Fireworks and the Midnight Fireworks. The events typically last anywhere from 12-25 minutes; the explosions are timed with a soundtrack, and their colors are arranged for a theme each year. Examples of themes include"City of Color," "#SydNYE," and the 2017 theme, "Wonder." Plans included a rainbow waterfall off of the bridge to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia, and nearly nine tons of fireworks lighting up the night sky. That's a whole lot of fanfare at the bridge to a new year!

 

Below: Relive 2016 any day with a video of the epic Sydney midnight light show.
 

Image credit & copyright: Silver Spirit Sydney
 

It's Flashback Friday! In memory of Queen Elizabeth II, enjoy these curios all about European history. 
Death can be overwhelming—but for English photographer Henry Peach Robinson, who passed away in December of 1901, it was a difficult subject worthy of photography. Fading Away shows a family at the bedside of a fatally-ill daughter, with all of the worry and pain that would occur in such an event. To create the photograph, considered an early form of photomontage, Robinson combined multiple negatives to form a final staged image. Unfortunately, he faced an uphill battle with this piece: the subject matter was considered too morbid and taboo for Victorian sensibilities, as was its "artificiality." Yet he received some of the highest praise in the land when Prince Albert became a fan and ordered this print, alongside many other Robinson works. Even with the newfound popularity, Robinson continued to face critical dissent among the ranks of the Royal Photographic Society in England, where he had to argue fiercely for photography as an art form. Considering how popular photography and photo manipulation are nowadays, it looks like Robinson had the last laugh!
 

Image credit & copyright: Metropolitan Museum of Art
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of National Sudoku Day, enjoy these curios all about games. 
Producers of the show Twenty One had a formula for success: they rigged the game. The quiz show, which ran from 1956 to 1958, was hosted by Jack Barry (center). Charles Van Doren (right) was a star contestant. Twenty One had a simple format: a returning champion and an opponent answered trivia questions; the one who earned 21 points first won. The first episode of Twenty One wasn't fixed—and was a complete flop. The contestants couldn't answer most of the questions. Geritol, the program's sponsor, was furious. After that, producers tightly scripted the show, telling contestants ahead of time when to answer correctly and when to fumble. At the show's peak, Van Doren, a Columbia professor with All-American good looks, challenged the reigning champion, and finally beat him. But rumors of game show rigging finally caught up with Twenty One, and it was cancelled in 1958. Van Doren went from being a celebrity darling to one of the most unpopular men in America. He was fired from his job, and spent his life trying to escape his notoriety. When it comes to game shows, the scolding old adage rings true: Cheaters never prosper.
 

Image credit & copyright: Library of Congress, Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the first ATM in America, which started operation on this day in 1969, enjoy these curios all about money. 
These men had good reason to look unhappy about where they stood, literally and figuratively. This photo shows unemployed gentlemen in line outside a soup kitchen in 1931, just two years after the stock market crash which started the Great Depression in the U.S.A.—the worst economic collapse in modern history. It all began on October 24, 1929, in what came to be known as "Black Tuesday." When the Dow fell an unusual eight points that morning, panicked sellers sold too many shares too quickly. The market lost a massive amount of value in a very short time. Fistfights even broke out on the trading room floor and police had to be called. When banks tried to help by buying shares of stocks, people took it as a sign that the banks were rattled, which led to too many people attempting to withdraw funds at once. A complete economic collapse ensued, in which a staggering one fourth of Americans became unemployed. Soup kitchens, like the one pictured above, became common in cities, with lines commonly stretching several blocks. The Great Depression lasted a staggering 10 years—enough time for anyone to get sick of unemployment.
 

Below: an easy-to-understand video outlining the causes of the Great Depression.
 

Image credit & copyright: NARA, Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the 19th Amendment taking effect on this day in 1920, enjoy these curios all about the lives and accomplishments of extraordinary women.  Ooh, that might bruise. Born in 1878, photographer Percy Byron captured these unusual images showing women learning self defense around the turn of the 20th century. Held in New York, the self-help classes were revolutionary; at a time when physical exertion was still frowned upon, few women had access to ways to protect themselves while traversing the city's crowded streets. These images were taken at classes held by one Doctor William Latson, but he wasn't the only one encouraging women to take up arms... ahem, umbrellas. Coinciding with other feminist movements like suffrage, the women's self-defense movement spread to other cities, some classes even featuring boxing and jiu jitsu lessons. In the early 1900s, women still wore their heavy dresses while learning fight moves, but later images show them in looser, more comfortable clothing. Either way, it looks like these ladies weren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty!
 

Below: more of Percy Byron's images of a self-defense class; a woman performs jiu jitsu on a man in Berlin in 1924.
 

Image credit & copyright: Percy C. Byron / Museum of the City of New York and German Federal Archive
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of International Orangutan Day, enjoy these curios about endangered animals and plants. Talk about a comeback story! In 2018, a gigantic specimen of endangered lily pads made a spectacular resurgence. Called Victoria Cruziana, hundreds of these plants appeared on the surface of the Salado River near Piquete Cue, Paraguay—an area where they were just recently believed to be extinct. The lily pads grow upwards of five feet in diameter, and although their robustness seems like an ideal survival trait, it was once a great detriment. Droves of tourists used to flock to the Victoria Cruzianas' native rivers to touch them, ride them, and even make off with them. In 2006, the enormous lilies were put on the endangered species list. All these years later, the environmental effort is finally paying off: the Victoria Cruziana has returned to the Salado River from out of the blue. Or should we say, out of the green?

 

Image credit & copyright: David Stanley, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size