"Cryopreservation Unit, Cryonics Institute, Clinton Township, Michigan. This cryopreservation unit holds the bodies of Rhea and Elaine Ettinger, the mother and first wife of cryonics pioneer, Robert Ettinger. Robert, author of “The Prospect of Immortality” and “Man into Superman” is still alive."
"Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility Cherenkov Radiation. Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy
Southeastern Washington State."
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Contraband Room. John F. Kennedy International Airport Queens, New York."
"An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" is an exciting photo project by New York-born Taryin Simon. She has been pretty much building her own photographic cabinet of curiosities, seeking rarely seen subjects from the domains of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion in the United States, using a large-format camera whenever possible.
"Aspiring" is a great series of aspiring Baltimore models portraits taken in their own living place by american photographer Jay Parkinson. People's homes obviously reflect their personalities and I love this kind of portraits as they usually look much more intimate and authentic than the studio ones.
From his interview with Conscientious' Jorg Colberg:
"One thing that I think makes all of these photographs interesting is that these models all have the confidence to get in front of a camera and give it their best and, on top of all that, let me into their homes so I can capture them in what should be their most comfortable place in the world. But often, this translated into a very vulnerable appearance. I specifically contacted only models that had done only one or two shoots, and sometimes no prior shoots. I wanted to capture them in the very beginning of their efforts to realize their dreams. Every aspiring model also has
some sort of notion of how a professional model should pose in front of the camera, but actually getting your body to do that does not translate well on the first or second shoot. Professional models are professional models for a reason -- they've had the experience to simply know what to do and how to pose. I provided very minimal to sometimes no direction for poses in these shoots. I wanted the poses undeveloped and immature to document a sort of tension between their dreams and reality."
Interior Camouflage - For Artist in Studio during Open House, 2004
Police Camera - Moslem Quarter, Jerusalem, 2006
I like Dutch artist Desiree Palmen's Camouflage and Streetwise series.
From the artist's website:
"Concern about the increasing use of identity based electronic information systems and the frequent use of surveillance cameras is one of the impulses for Desiree Palmen to create her work, which uses camouflage, as its main focus. In photo works, videos and site-specific actions, she explores the possibilities of letting people 'dissolve' into their surroundings or to let them disappear against the background. The manipulation of clothing plays a crucial role. A shirt covers the body and then extends to cover the tabletop, confusing the contour of the body of the person wearing the shirt with the table itself. In another work, a suit is painted in such a way that when the model is in a very specific position, he/she disappears into the background. Palmen then takes pictures of these situations she creates from the ideal viewing perspective for her audience. In the actual situation, if the viewer moved one step away from this ideal view, then the function of the camouflage seizes to exist.
In recent work, she looks more specifically at the social implications of surveillance as she attempts to mislead the eye of 'Big Brother'. Beginning from the perspective of police-installed cameras in so-called dangerous streets of Rotterdam, she then creates camouflage that models wear while performing actions in the street. The models become invisible for the target audience: the surveillance personnel, while also attracting the awareness of people passing by. In her photo and video work, she uses the same surveying methods of the security systems as she reveals that being visible and invisible are both aspects of the same oppressive phenomenon." Arno van Roosmalen / Tentagenda / March 2002. Translation: Laurie Halsey Brown.
This reminded me of the 2003 Tachi laboratory of the University of Tokyo's experimental "invisibility cloak" - which was actually simply a projection of the image behind the cloak (taken with a camera) projected back onto the front:
