torp3918

It's safe to say that Toronto has a 1970s fetish. I've speculated as to why this is in past posts about the decade, but I think, suffice it to say, we're fascinated by the degree to which the city looks both familiar (the CN Tower and many of the major towers of the Financial District can be traced back to this point or just before) and yet profoundly different (parking lots galore). It's a compelling tension, and one that's only increased by the curious sepia tone that seems to define images derived from this period. People really seemed to like brown 40+ years ago.

If there's an ideal set of images that shows off the historical allure of the decade, it might very well be postcards. I've posted a number of night shots from the 1970s before, but the slightly faded day images really show off the sparsity and grit of the city back then, even as they are intended to sell the city to tourists. The 1970s were a decade in which Toronto grew up (both in terms of its built landscape and a population boom), which is why it's so intriguing to see how undeveloped everything looks.

Here's a collection of some of my favourite Toronto postcards from the 1970s.

The foot of Roncesvalles

St. James ParkSparse, yellow-toned skylineYonge St.Looking down from the CN TowerYorkvilleEglinton and the DVPFreighter in the harbourNo condos hereCity HallGlory days at the CNESkyline at duskYonge north of GouldYonge looking south from GerrardNighttime on the GardinerOntario PlaceYorkdale in its infancy

Thanks to Chuckman's Blog, which is an excellent resource for Toronto postcards across the decades.

Paper artist Maude White cuts meticulous depictions of birds, people, leaves and other compositions embedded with hidden scenes and stories. Each piece can involve thousands of minute cuts giving the works an extreme feel of density and texture. White is currently based in Buffalo and will have work on view next month at the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative as part of a show titled Birds I’ve Been. You can see more of her work in her portfolio and over on Instagram.

Photo by Giulio Calisse in the blogTO Flickr pool.

birdtouch:

colornbian:

what

ＴＯＭＯＲＲＯＷ ＷＥ ＥＮＴＥＲ ＴＨＥ ＶＯＩＤ 

British artist Lucy Sparrow has converted an entire abandoned corner shop in Bethnal Green, east London, into a temporary art exhibition titled The Corner Shop featruring 4,000 hand-sewn felt products. Chips, magazines, candy, frozen dinners, and even the cash register have been faithfully rendered in fabric, a process that took Sparrow about seven months to complete and began with a successful plea for help on Kickstarter. The shop is open to visitors every day this month, and almost all of the items are available for purchase online. (via My Modern Met, Laughing Squid, The Jealous Curator)

For a major retrospective of Dutch furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld, the team at Studio Wieki Somers collaborated with chocolatier Rafael Mutter to create Chocolate Mill. The piece was comprised of a giant cylindrical chocolate block that was carefully organized in 10 stacked layers, with flavored shapes used to create different geometric patterns. As a crank-turned blade similar to a cheese slicer grazed shavings off the top, the hidden layers were slowly revealed. You can watch a timelapse of the piece in the video above. (via Designboom, Design You Trust)

justbriann:

It literally says it might make you sweat. Just in a really fancy way. Lol

"Dihydrogen monoxide containment unit"

Azure TB

Atsushi Motoyama

Teerayut Hiruntaraporn

Megu

Ituki Kadiwara

Syota Takahashi

kobaken

kobaken

Hitachi Seaside Park is a sprawling 470 acre park located in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, Japan, that features vast flower gardens including millions of daffodils, 170 varieties of tulips, and an estimated 4.5 million baby blue eyes (Nemophila). The sea on blue flowers blooms once annually around April in an event referred to as the “Nemophila Harmony.”

If you plan on visiting, the park offers a great English language flower calendar to help plan your trip. You can see many more photos of the grounds here. (via Bored Panda)

Photo by Francis Reyes in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Elin Jonsson

As a quick follow-up to our video from Keith Skretch yesterday, here’s a similar concept from two years ago by Laurin Döpfner who used an industrial sander to grind down logs, electronics, and even a skull in thin layers which he then photographed to create this amazing stop motion video. Each object is comprised of about 100 different photos, a process I can only image was extremely labor intensive.

This will be trending on /r/ThingsCutInHalfPorn/ by the end of the day if it hasn’t already. While you’re at it see also @HalfPics, and for the not so faint of heart there’s the Visible Human Project. (via Jason Sondhi)

Tmart Canada Online has the Ikey Press Buttom Slim & Smart Shortcut Customized Cool Gadget for Android Devices on sale for only $4.46. This Almighty Android Button can be yours for only $1.11 shipped using a coupon code!

Simply enter the promotional code ikey0624 at check out to receive your discount which will allow you to purchase this awesome little gadget for only $1.11 shipped. Limited to one unit per person. The ikey for Android is practical and easy to use. You simply need to download the paired app to set it up! It supports a key to unlock, light, take photos, record, and more!

Also be sure to select CANADIAN currency at the top of the page before adding the item to your cart, to ensure there are no surprise costs.

Click here to check out this offer from Tmart Online!

mymodernmet:

These before-and-after shots demonstrate the incredible power of visual effects on screen.

Photo by Victor Varga

Photo by Krisztian Birinyi

Photo by Krisztian Birinyi

Photo by englishhungary

Photo by Andras Csore

Photo by Centre for Budapest Transport

Zsolt Andrasi

Although Christmas still feels like something in the vast future (or past, depending on your point of view) it certainly doesn’t hurt to think about the wintry season as summer temperatures continue to rise. One of the most mesmerizing Christmas sights we’ve seen are these trams and local streetcars in Budapest decorated with over 30,000 LED lights. The twinkling lights, when photographed with just the right exposure, creates a marveling image that resembles a futuristic vehicle speeding through time. This beautiful tradition of decorating trams was an initiative by the Budapest Transport Company, which kicked off in 2009. If you want to plan a visit you’ll definitely want to check out their website for routes and tram schedules.

Prints of the long exposure images are available from Krisztian Birinyi through 500px. (via My Modern Met)

© Julio Lucas. Bradenton, FL United States. 1st Place / 2014 Photographer of the Year.

© Jose Luis Barcia Fernandez. Madrid, Spain. 2nd Place / 2014 Photographer of the Year.

© Jill Missner. Ridgefield, CT United States. 3rd Place / 2014 Photographer of the Year.

© Michael O’Neal. San Francisco, CA United States. 1st Place / Animals.

© Coco Liu. Illinois, United States. 3rd Place / Architecture.

© Felicia Pandola. Providence, RI. 1st Place / Nature.

© Juana Chaves. Madrid, Spain. 2nd Place / News & Events.

© Terry Vital. Windham, NH. 1st Place / Others.

© Hector Navarro. Zapopan, Jalisco Mexico. 3rd Place / People.

© Coco Liu. Illinois, United States. 1st Place / Seasons.

© Little Su. New Taipei City, Taiwan. First Place / Sunset.

It’s amazing to see the stories we’re now capable of telling with a device that fits in our pocket containing a camera about the size of a dime (or maybe it’s even smaller now, I’m running out of currency/technology scale comparisons). One of the primary champions of photography taken with iPhones is the iPhone Photography Awards which just announced the winners of their 2014 competition. This is the 7th year of the IPPAWARDS, a global contest for photographs taken only with iPhones. This year includes 54 photographers hailing from 17 countries who competed in 17 different categories. Seen here are the top three winners and some of my own favorites, but you can see much more on their website. (via Tim Cook)

The Badlands are a type of parched, sunbaked terrain characterized by jagged rock, cracked earth and, of course, minimal vegetation. It’s a harsh environment of lifeless wasteland but there is also good news to be found in the badlands. For the patient observer, like photographer Guy Tal, there is a delicate beauty that reveals itself only so often. “On rare years,” says Tal, describing his series of photos taken in the American West, “wildflowers burst into stunning display of color, transforming the desert into a veritable garden for just few precious days.” The reason, apparently, is that vegetation in the region has adapted to the climate. With just a tiny bit of moisture the desert can transform into a colorful garden of bright purple and yellow. You can see more photos on Tal’s website, or purchase his book More Than a Rock. (via Bored Panda)

Update: According to @happyhillers these are Scorpionweed and Beeplant flowers.

kickass-pics:

it comes with 2 subwoofers 

Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira (previously) recently completed work on his largest installation to date titled Transarquitetônica at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade in São Paulo. As with much of his earlier sculptural and installation work the enormous piece is built from tapumes, a kind of temporary siding made from inexpensive wood that is commonly used to obscure construction sites. Oliveira uses the repurposed wood pieces as a skin nailed to an organic framework that looks intentionally like a large root system. Because the space provided by the museum was so immense, the artist expanded the installation into a fully immersive environment where viewers are welcome to enter the artwork and explore the cavernous interior. Transarquitetônica will be on view through the end of November this year, and you can watch the video above by Crane TV to hear Oliveira discuss its creation.

nevver:

Mary Janes

How does an island in New York City’s East River go from being notoriously feared, almost 100 years ago, to being completely forgotten about today? That’s the story behind North Brother Island, the subject of photographer Christopher Payne’s new photo book.

A 10-minute boat ride from the Bronx’s Barretto Point Park, North Brother Island originally housed Riverside Hospital between the 1880s and 1930s. While in operation, the hospital served hundreds of patients who suffered from extremely communicable diseases, including smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever and even leprosy. It was also where “Typhoid Mary” was quarantined, and where she eventually died. In a 1935 profile for the New Yorker, the editor Stanley Walker described the island as “…a dismal spot. Sitting there, one may see, as the best view, the gas tanks on the Bronx shore. Now and then a ferryboat glides past. At night the dirty water of the East River laps against the rocks, making a messy, ghostly noise.”

The island’s facilities have since been decommissioned and the island itself abandoned since 1963. It sank into the depths of our memories until 2008, when Christopher Payne wrote a proposal to photograph and document the island in its current state. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation agreed, and thus began Payne’s expeditions, which would continue for the next 5 years. His stunning photographs are now available in his new book, “North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City.” (via Animal and Slate)