Ruin memories
I have just received a copy of World Crisis in Ruin; the Archaeology of the Former Soviet Missile Sites in Cuba from Mats Burström, Anders Gustafsson and Håkan Karlsson. Another fascinating archaeology of the contemporary past. The 1962 Missile Crisis is a well-known episode in the Cold War and twentieth-century history. It is documented in [...]
public and private
Dublin. Buswell’s. I have been waiting for it to happen. I take photos of the textures of everyday life. Everyday life is under challenge. Ireland is on the brink of ruin. “We are back to the old three ‘Ps’ Michael”, someone says to me – “Pints, Ponies … and I can’t remember the third” … [...]
Longshanks in the north
Touring the Tweed with Gary (Devore). Though overly restored in the nineteenth century, the church of St Cuthbert at Norham on the Tweed still has some of the sumptuousness that originates in its original foundation by the bishops of Durham (Durham Cathedral houses the bones and grave of Cuthbert, and Norhamshire was not part of [...]
Jedburgh – after Beny
Exploring the Borders with Gary (Devore). Jedburgh Abbey – an extraordinary building. In the footsteps of Roloph Beny – remarkable photographer, remarkable and misguided snob. Here is his photo from the lavish Thames and Hudson edition of Rose Macualay’s “Pleasure of Ruins” (1962).
archaeography – developments
A session at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) (United States) conference 2011- Dialogs in Archaeological Photography. Flickr galleries – [Link] [Link] Here are some notes accompanying the fascinating and sometimes wonderful pictures. Nostalgic, Personal, Neglected, Treasured, Rejected: The Other Photography in Archaeology Colleen Morgan, University of California, Berkeley, clmorgan@berkeley.edu Our record of archaeological uncertainty is [...]
Montana
Jeff Dexter. Rocking C’s Ranch, Montana. Cattle country. Looking for Cooler Cave: full of bison bones. Petroglyph. Dry Range, Rocking C’s. My first visit to this vast landscape of the American sublime. Faint and evocative traces of the Native American past everywhere.
haunted media
Some years ago Sam (Schillace) put me onto a Russian photographer, Sergey Larenkov, who combines old and new photographs of Leningrad/St Petersburg, then – WWII, and now. They have haunted me ever since. It’s not difficult to find the photos on the web; it only took me a few moments to find them again – [...]
Heavenfield
Deniseburna near Hefenfelth on Hadrian’s Wall. 633 or 634. Oswald of Bernicia met and defeated in battle Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd. (Polaroid transfer)
Big Sur CA
Molly and Emma. Site of several scenes in “The Sandpiper” – Vincente Minnelli 1965 – [Link] Ben and Josephine
