Yesterday commenter “T” wrote: One of the things that attracted me to this site years ago was the ability to agree to disagree and to use that disagreement to sharpen and refine my own thinking on a topic. Quite frankly, … Continue reading →
The facts listed are mostly about lack of hygiene, and those really are pretty disgusting. I already knew about numbers five and two. Re number five, I remember when I was a teenager and went to Europe with a large … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Once in a while I recycle an old post just for fun. At this point, I’ve published so many posts—10,542, according to trusty old WordPress—that even I have forgotten some of them. This one was very enjoyable to research—so … Continue reading →
[Hat tip: Open Blogger at Ace’s.] When I was a child I used to greatly admire Degas’ dancer paintings. My family had a reproduction of one of them, and I used to study it and marvel at how well it … Continue reading →
From one of Van Gogh’s letters to his beloved brother Theo: What am I in the eyes of most people – a nonentity, an eccentric or an unpleasant person – somebody who has no position in society and never will … Continue reading →
Photographer Sally Mann wrote a lengthy article in which she justifies, explains, expounds, and defends some controversial photos she took of her own children. She asserts that, since her children had the final say over every photo and whether it … Continue reading →
This article presents photos of couples when young, and then the same couples years later. Some of them aren’t particularly interesting. The passage of the twenty years that takes a couple from their 20s to their 40s doesn’t ordinarily demonstrate … Continue reading →
In the past couple of days I’ve taken some time to drive around New England photographing the fall. I had thought this would be a less colorful fall than usual because of the dry weather we’ve had. But when it … Continue reading →
…this woman’s photographs. It’s her sense of color that is extraordinary, I think. She also manages to do this while being the mother of ten, which is quite a job in itself.
Continue reading →This sort of thing always intrigues me. It’s a series of photographs of the four Brown sisters, taken every single year for the last forty years. My guess is that the sisters are very roughly my age, and it’s a … Continue reading →
I’ve always liked this portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent: Here’s the story of the painting, thought quite scandalous at the time. The original was even more scandalous, because it featured the lady with a strap falling off … Continue reading →
Here’s an alert art historian.
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