Happy Halloween! I thought I would celebrate by showing you some really awesome photography. Haunted Air is a brand new book (released in the last few days) of Halloween photos taken between 1875 and 1955. I don’t own this (yet!), so I can’t say too much about it, but I will say the photos I have seen immediately reminded me of the old school creepy masks found in some of Diane Arbus’ work. The book is appropriately introduced by none other than David Lynch.
A plague doctor was a special medical physician who saw those who had the bubonic plague. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some doctors wore a beak-like mask which was filled with aromatic items. The masks were designed to protect them from putrid air, which (according to the miasmatic theory of disease) was seen as the cause of infection. The protective suit consisted of a heavy fabric overcoat that was waxed. A wooden cane pointer was used to help examine the patient without touching. [from Wikipedia]
Not only was Nick Blinko the musical drive behind the brilliantly twisted Rudimentary Peni, he was an amazing artist. Blinko’s works are very recognizable by their extreme amount of detail, dark subject matter and disregard of formal composition. He is considered as an “outside artist” as he suffers from schizophrenia and supposedly once believed himself to be the Pope. Many of his nightmarishly detailed drawings focus on religion and death. Unfortunately, nobody has published a book of his art, which is so painstakingly detailed that Google images do not do them justice. So far, the only way to obtain his art is by buying the Rudimentary Peni albums (as well as his earlier band, the Magits) and his book, The Primal Screamer, which contains a few illustrations.
*this is an improved version of an early post that I felt was lacking in content.
October Shadows
The Halloween Lady
Gifts For Ill-Mannered Children
Artifact
Kindred
Hidden Still Life (photography)
Masque of the Red Death
In the mid twentieth century, a woman named Frances Glessner Lee made intricate dollhouses that cost thousands of dollars to create. They depicted unsolved murders and contained an intense level of detail to help detectives solve crimes. They were called The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.
For more information on the Nutshell Studies, visit this blog. Also, I must thank my friend Phoebe for telling me about these.
