Can’t decide what to get someone (or yourself) for the holidays? Might I suggest a year long subscription to Cabinet Magazine?

Cabinet is an award-winning quarterly magazine of art and culture that confounds expectations of what is typically meant by the words “art,” “culture,” and sometimes even “magazine.” Like the 17th-century cabinet of curiosities to which its name alludes, Cabinet is as interested in the margins of culture as its center. Presenting wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary content in each issue through the varied formats of regular columns, essays, interviews, and special artist projects, Cabinet’s hybrid sensibility merges the popular appeal of an arts periodical, the visually engaging style of a design magazine, and the in-depth exploration of a scholarly journal. Playful and serious, exuberant and committed, Cabinet’s omnivorous appetite for understanding the world makes each of its issues a valuable sourcebook of ideas for a wide range of readers, from artists and designers to scientists and historians. In an age of increasing specialization, Cabinet looks to previous models of the well-rounded thinker to forge a new type of magazine for the intellectually curious reader of the future.

Each issue is themed. Here are the five most recent:

Issue 27 - “Mountains”
Issue 26 - “Magic”
Issue 25 - “Insects”
Issue 24 - “Shadows”
Issue 23 - “Fruits”

Take a look at the contents. But, believe me, they’re even better than they sound.

A while ago, Andy Adams of Flak Photo e-mailed me to pass on information about an interesting photo contest called The 36 Exposures Challenge.

In the words of Stephen Shore, “[Today] there seems to be a greater freedom and lack of restraint… as one considers one’s pictures less, one produces fewer truly considered pictures.” FILE Magazine, Flak Photo and Coudal Partners have joined together to create a contest to get photographers to think about this idea:

We are asking you to use a film camera to explore Shore’s concept of “conscious intentionality.” Broadly speaking, we are challenging you to do two things: articulate a concept, project, or theme and then use a film camera to photograph the images to accompany it. There are, then, two parts: creating the idea and then acting on it.

Sound interesting to you? Submit your concept by January 6th.

If your project is selected, they send you the 36-exposure roll of film of your choice. You then have two weeks to shoot the roll and then return it to them undeveloped. All of the images from each finalist will then be put online in the order they were shot on the roll for judging (prizes to be awarded). The negatives will be returned to the photographers at the end of the contest. Ownership of all images is retained by the artist.

Find out more here.

Nancy, Danville, Virginia, 1969
© Emmet Gowin

I will always love this photograph. Thank you, Emmet Gowin.

Aurele, Joana and Lou, NYC, 1999
© Nan Goldin

I will always love this photograph. Thank you, Nan Goldin.

Noah Kalina’s internet-famous video was parodied last night by The Simpsons. Pretty funny - congrats, Noah!

Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years:

Homer Simpson takes a photo of himself everyday for 39 years:

Read what Noah has to say on his blog.

UPDATE: Take a look at these related stories…

Karl Baden - 20 years of photographing himself
Ahree Lee - 3 years, with facial feature alignment

And lots more to be found here.

(from “The Democratic Forest”)
© William Eggleston

Cucurrucucú Paloma
by Caetano Veloso (originally by Tomás Méndez)

They say that at night he did nothing but cry.
They that he didn’t eat and did nothing but drink.
They swear that heaven itself shuddered when it heard his cry,
How he suffered for her, calling out to her even as he died.

“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he sang.
“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he wept.
“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he sang.
As he died of mortal passion.

That a sad dove early in the morning comes to sing to him,
To the small house with its little doors open wide.
They swear that the dove is none other than his soul,
That he however is still waiting for her to come back, she, the wretched.

Cucurrucucú, dove,
Cucurrucucú, don’t cry.
The stones never cry, dove,
What do they know of love?

Cucurrucucú, cucurrucucú,
Cucurrucucú, don’t cry any more.

This Photograph is My Proof, 1974
© Duane Michals

I’ve always been moved by this pairing of text and image by Duane Michals. Below the photograph it reads,

This photograph is my proof. There was that afternoon, when things were still good between us, and she embraced me, and we were so happy. It did happen, she did love me. Look see for yourself!

Click here to view the image larger.

Unidentified Woman, Hotel Corona de Aragon, Madrid, 1980
Jerry Hollins, Chicago Federal Courthouse, 1980
Unidentified Man, Ankara, Turkey, 1980
Unidentified Man, Ontani Hotel, Los Angeles, 1980
© Sarah Charlesworth

Here’s another intriguing project: Sarah Charlesworth’s series Stills.

Stills are black and white enlargements made from newspaper photos of people in mid-air. The images show people jumping from burning buildings in an attempt to save their lives, as well as individuals who are trying to commit suicide. Neither the intention nor the outcome of the jump is apparent.

The series reminded me of Carolee Schneemann’s more recent controversial project, Terminal Velocity. This project consists of a grid of photographs of people falling to their deaths from the World Trade Center on September 11th.

Terminal Velocity, 2001
© Carolee Schneemann

Utterly disturbing, but somehow very beautiful.

See the rest of Sarah’s work on her website - there’s a lot to look at.

(via This is That)

Untitled (from “Shady”)
© Estelle Hanania

There’s a number of images that hold me in the portfolio of French photographer Estelle Hanania, particularly those from her series Shady. When you arrive at her website, this is the text you’re presented with:

These images are islands, independent territories, lost in the middle of the ocean. On our solitary discovery voyage, without a guide, we might think we lose our way. We approach a material, both soft and rough, we hesitate, velvet or mosscovered tin?

We perceive iridescent grass, followed by rosy, water-beaded-cheeks. Across, a faded cloth marinates in a bathroom sink. Between the two, it seems we can recognize the outline of a constellation, guess at the direction, then the mirage disappears once again, and the already loose thread of the story escapes us completely.

There is no truth to seek, no more than wrong path to follow: there is only suggestion. Small autarchic worlds, ready to shelter our own purpose.

- R. Stopin

I love this.

Just as a side note, I’ll point out that Estelle was recently in Issue #6 of Capricious (one of my favorite photography magazines) with her peculiar series Demoniac Babble.

See more of her work here.

(thank you Karly)

… but I will still buy you in Pro-Packs.

Find out which other single rolls have been slashed, over on 2point8.

UPDATE: To clarify, this does not mean you can’t still go to your local photo store and buy a single roll of said film. This simply means that Kodak will no longer be distributing this film by the roll, but instead by the pack or in bulk. In a way, this is better (less packaging used to distribute the film stock) and doesn’t effect the majority of people already buying the film (pros often buy their pro film in bulk anyway). But, let’s just hope it’s not foreshadowing for some real film slashing.