Sort of long photos

April 8th, 2009 by Steve Curati

Long photos are great. A by-product of the introduction of video to Flickr, long photos differ from short films in subtle ways. I’m not sure that there is a rigid definition of what constitutes a long photo, but to my mind they work best when they have a fixed viewpoint and don’t zoom or pan. They’re more like moving snapshots than videos. One of my favourites is this one of people milling around tables at the RFH by Russell Davies.

Anyway, I’ve been messing around with something different. This is my first attempt of a long still photo. I reckon a still photo with a soundtrack should be able to draw you in in a different way to both ordinary still photos and long photos. The idea is that they take the moment of a shot and extrapolate either forwards or backwards (or both) in time around that moment.

For this one, I took the photo with the iPhone and then switched to the iTalk ap to record the audio, so it’s not quite authentic as a soundtrack. I think in future I’d rather take a still from a movie (or traditional long photo) or, better still, choose the moment and take a separate photo while recording the audio.

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Briliant!

Dave Brubeck with young Russian violinist

“During a visit to Moscow in the 80’s, Dave Brubeck met the faculty and students in Moscow Conservatory. While he was improvising on a “Ei, uhnem”, a Russian folk song, a young man downstage stood up to play Stéphane Grappelli-style violin jazz with him.”

(by afahsu)

via @openculture

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(via Iconic Photographs With Their Subjects Removed)

“I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.”

austinkleon:

Ronald Searle, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing ‘to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead’. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication.

When asked about the drawings, Searle said, “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.” Here’s a little more about them:

Prior to the cancer shock the couple had bought a decrepit house in the south of France and, despite her illness, Monica continued to devote her time making this house a home.

Devastated with his wife’s diagnosis Ronald did the only thing he knew how to do to cheer her up. .. draw.

Before every chemotherapy session he gave his wife a painting. Monica was depicted as a mole, a very happy mole celebrating life in their new home. (The Mole idea came after their discovery of a large celler that they made into a cosy room)

‘Everything about them had to be romantic and perfect,’ says Ronald. ‘I drew them originally for no one’s eyes except Mo’s, so she would look at them propped up against her bedside lamp and think: “When I’m better, everything will be beautiful.”

Searle died last week at 91.

(Images via bluedoorbooks)