Curio Cabinet / Photo Curio

It's Flashback Friday! Soak up some pre-weekend inspiration with these curios about innovators who blazed trails and broke molds.
 

"Hold the camera still!" Director and cinematographer Tom Lowe had no need for those words during the filming of Awaken, his technologically pioneering time-lapse documentary spanning 30 countries. His innovations in gimbal technology, or pivoted supports, enabled Lowe to produce prolonged time-lapses that remain seamlessly steady through turbulence or storms. The shot above is from a meandering helicopter ride over Dubai; in it, fog drifts between skyrises, rolling over shorter buildings. But gimbals weren't all that Lowe tinkered with: Awaken also showcases cutting-edge underwater and aerial cinematography with amazing shots of diverse cultures, beautiful animals, and nature. According to Lowe, "Awaken is a celebration of the spirit of life, an exploration of the Earth, and an ode to the cosmos." Pretty ambitious for a single film!
 

Below: more shots from Awaken.
 

Image credit & copyright: Tom Lowe
 

Hey, you’ve got a little something on your beak. This unlucky pigeon is one this year’s recently-announced finalists in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. We’ve written about this contest before, but this year’s competition was unique for a few reasons. In I Guess Summer’s Over by photographer John Speirs, a dead leaf has blown into a pigeon’s face, obscuring its head. The bird is perched on a concrete ledge, which makes sense since Speirs took the photo in Oban, a busy resort town in Scotland. “I was taking pics of pigeons in flight when this leaf landed on a bird’s face,” Speirs explained. The fortuitous shot joins 45 other finalists chosen from an unusually large field of entrants. This year’s contest received a record number of over 7,000 entries. As always, proceeds from the contest will benefit a wildlife charity. This year it’s Save Wild Orangutans, which works to protect the primates in Borneo. Unlike years past, however, finalists will have their work exhibited at The Photography Show in Birmingham, England. Not bad for a windswept little bird.
 
[Image description: A pigeon with a brown leaf covering its face.] Credit & copyright: John Speirs/Chee Kee Teo/Martina Novotna/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
 

Below: two more finalists from this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards; Time for school by Chee Kee Teo, and Mr. Giggles by Martina Novotna.

It's Flashback Friday. In honor of National Stand Up To Cancer Day, here are some curios about people and organizations who have done just that.
 

In April of 2010, Jennifer Merendino and her husband Angelo received the worst news of their lives. Jennifer was supposed to be free of the breast cancer that shook the first year of her marriage, yet she was informed that the disease had metastasized to her liver and bone. Consumed with grief and frustration, Angelo began to photograph their daily lives, hoping that the photos would show friends and family the immense work it took to survive cancer treatments. Encouraged to share the images even further, Angelo began a photo blog entitled The Battle We Didn't Choose, which chronicled his wife's struggles with breast cancer from the early to late stages, as the illness and pain drastically changed Jennifer's body and daily realities. Many people have reached out to Angelo, telling him Jennifer's story has given them the courage to get mammograms or go out without wearing a headscarf to hide hair loss from chemotherapy. Jennifer lost her battle with breast cancer in December of 2011, though this Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we're thankful for her heroic efforts to show the real-life struggles breast cancer patients face on a daily basis.
 

Below: more images from the Merendino's The Battle We Didn't Choose project.
 

Image credit & copyright: Angelo Merendino
 

Who knew there were waterfalls in the middle of the ocean? This powerful image, captured by Canadian photographer and marine biologist Paul Nicklen, is part of the ongoing Origins exhibition at Chicago’s Hilton Asmus Contemporary, which runs through October 2. The exhibition features photography from Nicklen as well as Mexican photographer and fellow biologist Cristina Mittermeier, highlighting the impacts of climate change. In Ice Waterfall, six visible waterfalls gush from the Nordaustlandet ice cap in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. A seagull, dwarfed against the closest waterfall, gives a sense of the ice cap’s enormous scale. In a statement about the image, Nicklen explained, “Even though this was taken just 600 miles from the North Pole, the temperature was in the high 60’s. The Arctic could be completely devoid of sea ice during the summer in the next 10 to 20 years. This striking scene is a reminder of the fragility of this icy ecosystem.” It’s Nicklen’s hope that his images will help to inspire urgency and action, when it comes to climate change. It will certainly take plenty of both to prevent scenes like this one.
 
[Image description: An enormous chunk of sea with six visible waterfalls gushing from it.] Credit & copyright: Paul Nicklen/Hilton Asmus Contemporary
 

Below: another photo from the Origins exhibit, Leap Of Faith by Cristina Mittermeier.

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of National Food Bank Day, enjoy some curios that are all about helping others.
 
Rats tend to get a bad rap, but this little guy is actually on a humanitarian mission. A Belgian nonprofit called APOPO is training giant pouched rats, nicknamed "HeroRATs," to detect land mines in Angola, Mozambique, and Cambodia, where photographer Aron Gekowski took these photos. Formerly war-torn countries around the world are peppered with old but still lethal landmines; these explosive devices resulted in 8,600 accidents in 2016, with 78 percent of the victims civilians, and 42 percent children. The rats, which are cat-sized, are light enough to step on mines without triggering an explosion, They have a remarkable sense of smell and are able to distinguish between mines and other types of metal. And they work for peanuts—literally—and bananas, too. But detecting mines isn't the only life-saving work these rats do. APOPO is training giant rats to detect tuberculosis, which often goes undiagnosed and treated in developing areas of the world. The animals are able to detect the disease far faster than their human counterparts: they can check 100 samples in 20 minutes, a task that would take a lab technician as long as four days. In our estimation these talented rodents aren't just heroes—they're superheroes!
 

Below: more images including a HeroRAT harnessed for work; and rats being transported to the minefield.
 

Image credit & copyright: Aron Bertie Gekowski, Caters News
 

Can jellyfish blush? In July, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered a previously unknown species of jellyfish with bright pink and red coloration. In the photo above, the crimson creature swims in deep blue water. Light from NOAA’s instruments allows one to see the jellyfish’s body in detail, including its rows of short, thin tentacles. The creature was found 2,297 feet under the waves by NOAA’s Deep Discoverer, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with 20 powerful LED lights to see in the near-total darkness of the ocean’s twilight zone, the last region that gets any sunlight.
Although the jellyfish is probably part of the Poralia genus, NOAA stated that it “has many more tentacles than seen in the described Poralia rufescens, leading scientists to believe the jellyfish… is an undescribed species.” Researchers don’t yet have an explanation for the creature’s unusual, striking color. Maybe it’s just camera-shy.
 
[Image description: A bright red jellyfish drifting in blue water.] Credit & copyright: NOAA
 

Below: Footage of the red jellyfish recently discovered by NOAA.

It's Flashback Friday! Around the world, the end of summer is marked by fairs, festivals, and religious ceremonies. In that spirit, enjoy these curios highlighting celebrations from throughout the calendar year.
 
Don't worry, this isn't a scene from Midsommar! Ivana Kupala Night is a much happier celebration held every year in parts of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland. It celebrates the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. In the photo above, a young woman wears an intricately woven crown of wildflowers and a white dress, symbolizing purity. A bonfire burns bright and tall behind her as a crowd looks on. Along with feasting on traditional food, bonfire jumping is a big part of this celebration (supposedly if a guy and a girl jump over together, they will get married). At night, flower wreaths are placed in nearby rivers as an offering to ancestors. The festival's origins are a tad complicated: Kupala was an ancient pagan summer celebration before the Orthodox feast of John the Baptist took its place in many parts of the world. Over time, the two celebrations mixed together, becoming the modern Ivana Kupala night. Hey, the more celebrations the merrier!
 

Below: more images from Ivana Kupala celebrations.

 

Image credit & copyright: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
 

Not all hidden treasures are buried. Some, like the lost studio of photographer James E. Hale, are up in the rafters. David Whitcomb, an attorney in upstate New York, recently came forward to share a trove of Hale’s historical photographs, which he discovered in the attic of a New York building he purchased last year. Among the photos, which will be auctioned beginning September 18, was a rare, framed portrait of suffragette Susan B. Anthony. It shows Anthony wearing a high-collared dress and reading a book with her white hair in a bun. She also wears her famous flag pin, which was given to her by the women of Wyoming. It features four diamond stars, representing the only four states where women could vote, at the time. This portrait of Anthony can also be seen in the Library of Congress. As for its photographer, Hale was active in the late 19th to early 20th century, and photographed many celebrities in his day. Along with photos and negatives, Whitcomb discovered some of Hale’s equipment, including a camera and chemicals used for development. It’s enough to make you want to say cheese.
 
[Image description: A gold-framed, sepia-tone photo of Susan B. Anthony reading a book.] Credit & copyright: David J. Whitcomb
 

Below: More historical photos discovered in the building’s attic.

Props to this record-setting plane! This picture, taken on August 24, 1929, shows the Bellanca TES (Tandem Experimental Sesquiplane) standing in a grassy field. Visible are its unusual looking wings which gave it the sesquiplane designation, meaning “one-and-a-half wings.” Also shown are its two propellers; a two-bladed, forward-mounted propeller that pulled, and a three-bladed, backward-mounted propeller that pushed the plane. Designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, an Italian-American aviation pioneer, the aircraft was built for The Chicago Daily News, and was the first plane to fly non-stop from Seattle to Tokyo. The Bellanca TES was the only one of its kind to be produced. Its two 420 horsepower engines were set tandem in the fuselage, and would eventually be replaced with 600 horsepower engines in 1930, when the plane was converted for The Chicago Daily News to be used as a long-distance cargo plane. Newly named The Blue Streak, it was in operation until May 26, 1931, when vibrations from the driveshaft caused structural failure and the plane crashed, killing all four on board. Despite its tragic end, the Bellanca TES has made a permanent landing in the pages of aviation history books for its innovative design.
 
[Image description: A black and white photo of a Bellanca TES plane sitting at rest in a grassy field.] Credit & copyright: Public Domain.
 

Below: another photo of a Bellanca TES. Photos of this plane were rare due to its short production run.

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the 19th Amendment’s ratification on August 18, 1920, enjoy these curios featuring accomplished women!
 
Color us amazed at photographer Medina Dugger's work. The Lagos-based artist's series Enshroud celebrates the history and significance of women's veils in Islamic cultures and Nigeria, where about half the population is Muslim. The models in the series are posed with the dynamic flares of their veils, often in bright colors and patterns which are accented by the African weaving prints used as backgrounds. These freeing poses are heavily contrasted with the current narratives of the hijab, in which the very sight of the item of Islamic women's clothing "[risks] stereotyping, social exclusion, judgment and abuse" directed at the wearer. Dugger notes that these oppressive views do not represent a complete history of the veil in Nigeria, stressing that, "...in ancient times, veils indicated a woman's social status." Some now wear them symbolically to combat islamophobia in the West. Because who needs a superhero cape when the heroic spirit lies inside of these women and their proud heritages?

 

Below: more models from Dugger's series Enshroud.
 

Image credit & copyright: Medina Dugger
 

It's Flashback Friday! On this day in 1961, construction on the Berlin Wall began. Take a look back at the social changes (both good and bad) of the 1960s with this 60s-themed curio.
 
Forget not the tyranny of this wall...nor the love of freedom which made it fall! These words, graffitied onto the remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany expressed the feelings of the German people who, in 1989, rushed to tear it down. The wall had been built starting in 1961 and stood for more than a decade, separating the Federal Republic of Germany in the West from the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic in the East. Its fall marked the end of communist power in Germany, and allowed long-separated families and friends to be reunited. In the photo above, a large crowd envelops the wall: people sit atop it, spray paint it, or pry off pieces of it for souvenirs. While the Soviet's failure in Germany was a long and complex process, the photos of the Berlin Wall's demolition make one simple fact very clear: Germany was happy to be whole again.
 

Image credit & copyright: The Berlin Wall, AP Images/John Gaps III
 

Below: a short video on the history of the Berlin Wall

Talk about life imitating art! On July 27th, scientists from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) found these real-life lookalikes of characters from the popular children’s cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants. Christopher Mah, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, shared a screengrab he took from NOAA’s livestream of the expedition. While the picture doesn’t show the famed pineapple-shaped house of the eponymous character, it clearly shows the bright yellow sponge next to a light pink sea-star, representing Spongebob and Patrick, respectively. In the cartoon, which has been airing since 1999, Spongebob and Patrick are best friends. However, that is not likely the case with the above pair discovered by scientists. Found 6,184 feet under the Atlantic Ocean via a remotely operated deep-sea vehicle, the yellow sponge is in the genus Hertwigia, and the sea-star is in the genus Chondraster. Although it’s unclear exactly what species they are, members of the genus Chondraster “[have] been observed feeding on sponges,” according to Mah. It could be that the sea-star was actually heading toward its prey. Hopefully, the sponge can serve up a Krabby Patty instead!

[Image description: A bright yellow sea sponge and pink sea star side by side underwater.] Credit & copyright: NOAA Ocean Exploration/Christopher Ma
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Farmworker Appreciation Day, enjoy this agriculture-themed curio from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 
This little guy could fit right in with Star Wars stormtrooper guards, if he wasn't a meager .4 of an inch long. When the 2018 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition winners were announced, the above image of a mango seed weevil (Sternochetus mangiferae) by Pia Scanlon took 8th place. In most cases, the sight of this creature would be an unwelcome one to humans, as these little guys are known to burrow into mango fruits and lay eggs. Sometimes the mango seed weevil can devastate up to 80 percent of crop yields in southeast Asia and Australia, leaving no visual indications until the fruit is chopped open. Scanlon, who works in the Government of Western Australia's agriculture and food department, became interested in studying this scaled specimen as part of a national effort to prevent infestation in Western Australian crops. The portrait of this long-snouted weevil was taken with stereomicroscopy equipment, which increases a microscope's viewing area, 3D imaging capabilities, and gives scientists a more comprehensive look at specimen under study. Here's hoping more cool views of insects help everyone better understand their places in our ecological systems.
 

Below: Eye of a Metapocyrtus subquadrulifer beetle and Balanus glandula (acorn barnacle), both winners in the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition this year.
 

Image credit & copyright: Pia Scanlon, Government of Western Australia
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Yousef Al Habshi, Charles B. Krebs, Nikon Small World
 

See Versailles in a new light! With his recently released photo series Infrachroma, Canadian photographer John Kosmopoulos presents locations around the world in infrared light, which is invisible to the naked eye. In the photo above, the normally lush green that covers the grass and foliage at the Gardens of Versailles, behind the stately Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France, are replaced by pastel pinks. The iconic location now looks like something from a fantasy movie. Infrared photography has been around since the early 20th century, and has been used in everything from military surveillance to astronomy. Although commercially available infrared film was developed by several manufacturers in the 1930s, they are no longer produced and expensive to obtain. Instead, many photographers use digital cameras, which are inherently sensitive to infrared light, with filters that block visible light. These varying methods, along with post-processing, result in a wide range of unusual or psychedelic effects. So if you’ve ever thought about becoming a photographer, just remember that the grass doesn’t always have to be greener on the other side of your lens!
 

[Image description: An infrared photo of the Gardens of Versailles in which plants and topiary appear to be pink and white.] Credit & copyright: John Kosmopoulos/Silver Zen Photography
 

Below: Another of Kosmopoulos’ infrared photographs from Paris.

Please enter the lobby at a trot! On this day in 1939, country music sensation Gene Autry became the second person in history (behind cowboy film star Tom Mix, in 1925) to ride a horse into the ballroom of the famously ritzy Savory Hotel, in London. In the black-and-white photo above, Autry waves his cowboy hat high in the air as he makes his way through a crowd outside the hotel entrance. The stunt was part of a press reception being held in Autry’s honor. At the time, Autry was one of the most important figures in American country music, with hits like Back in the Saddle Again and Tumbling Tumbleweeds cementing his fame. The latter song was so popular it was turned into a film starring Autry. America’s “singing cowboy” also starred in his own western T.V. series, fittingly named The Gene Autry Show from 1950 to 1956. Strangely, Autry’s character in the show changed from episode to episode; sometimes he was a ranch hand, other times a sheriff. Someone ought to have told him that riding a horse into a hotel probably counts as disturbing the peace!
 
[Image description: A black and white photo of singer/actor Gene Autry waving his hat as he rides his horse through a crowd outside the Savoy Hotel.] Credit & copyright: AP Photo/CBS/Columbia Broadcasting System/Public Domain
 

Below: Another photo of Autry with his horse, Champion.
 

Holy corsets, that is one thin waist! Don’t jump to any conclusions about re-aligned internal organs, though. That wasp-like figure was actually achieved via the same sorts of photo-editing tricks that flood social media today. As fashion historian and photography expert Bernadette Banner recently explained in a video, people in the Victorian era employed a variety of techniques to make their photos fit the beauty standards of the day. In the above photo, a Victorian-era woman wears an elaborate dress with a high collar and lacey details. Her waist seems impossibly small in relation to her shoulders and lower body. The portrait artist who took the woman’s photo likely whittled away at her waist with a paintbrush or pencil before the film was developed. The woman’s smooth skin is also likely the result of edited negatives. Portrait artists would use pencils to add white lines and dots to a photo negative, which covered blemishes and smoothed skin upon development. Some photos took things even further, layering multiple negatives to create creepy-yet-playful composite pictures of people interacting with ghosts or holding their own heads. And they say modern influencers are photoshop masters!
 

[Image description: A black-and-white portrait of a Victorian-era woman with smooth skin and an extremely small waist.] Credit & copyright: David Knights-Whittome/Samuel Kay Balbirnie
 

Below: Bernadette Banner’s video about vintage photo-editing, plus two more examples of edited Victorian photos, a “headless” photo and a “spirit” photo.

Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! To celebrate the discovery of the Hale-Bopp Comet on this day in 1995, enjoy this space-themed curio!
 

Space enthusiasts would probably lose their gravity over this. Photographer Ben Tuxworth's recent collection arranges marbles to resemble planets. Using only the spherical toys, LED lightning, a minimal amount of photo-editing software, and a macro lens, Tuxworth creates remarkably accurate portrayals of celestial bodies. In the image above, the "sun" not only glows from within, but also shoots beams of light through space. Thanks to the indentations on the marble's surface, it even appears to have sunspots. Tuxworth once explained that the idea for turning marbles into planets and suns came to him by accident. "When I set out to photograph marbles, I had no idea of the creative opportunities that lay ahead," Tuxworth said. "As soon as I placed the transparent, textured marble (that represents the star) onto the orange LED Lighting Arm of our lighting system, I was amazed at how close it looked to a real star up close." Maybe one day telescopes will become advanced enough to show us faraway planets in great detail. Until then, at least we've got our marbles.
 

Below: see Ben Tuxworth's step-by-step video explaining how these photos were made.
 

Image credit & copyright: Ben Tuxworth
 

While the men were away, the women worked all day. It’s no secret that, during World War II, women from allied nations stepped up to work jobs usually filled by men. Women weren’t only working to keep commercial industries afloat, though—they built the ships and other military equipment used to fight the war! In the black-and-white photo above, taken on this day in 1942, two British women, Jemime Spence (left) and Betty Hunter work at a table with heavy drills. They wear their hair in scarves as they make deck fittings, metal pieces which secure sails, ropes and rigging to the decks of ships. Sadly, womens’ contributions to the war were often overlooked, after it ended. In a 2018 interview with the BBC, former World War II shipbuilder Janet Harvey described how she and other female workers were “cast aside” after the war. However, Britain and other allied nations have recently been making amends. In addition to statues and plaques commemorating womens’ World War II service, surviving female workers have been honored individually. Harvey, for example, was awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering from Glasgow Caledonian University for her vital work. Better late than never!

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of two women, Jemime Spence (left) and Betty Hunter, working at a table with heavy drills to make deck fittings.] Credit & copyright: AP
 

Below: Another photo of women working in a shipyard during World War II, as men look on behind them.

Written by: Maria C.