F R E E C O N T I N E N T A L
love
dad
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Saturday, February 14, 2026
c i t y s c a p e
T O W N S C A P E
C A R E L W I L L I N K 1 9 3 4
A menacing sky looms over a deserted street
with a few isolated buildings scattered here
and there. This nightmare vision forecasts
another war in Europe, and another humanitarian
cataclysm for the still young Twentieth Century.
Dutch painter Carel Willink embraced Magic Realism -
an accurately rendered reality displayed in an
eerie welcome to an unnatural world.
H O U S E S I N T H E S N O W
F R I E D E N S R E I C H H U N D E R T W A S S E R 1 9 6 2
Straight lines are godless and immoral.
That was the artist Hundertwasser's
starting point in architectural thinking.
We should focus on one's emotions.
The forms here are organic, whimsical.
The colors bright and playful.
A sprinkle of silver snowflakes
adds melancholy, in nuance.
M A N W I T H S P E C T A C L E S
M S T I S L A V D O B U Z H I N S K Y 1 9 0 6
St. Petersburg, still under the rule of Tzar Nicholas.
The guy with the glasses is a poet friend of
the artist. Behind him is the steady encroachment
of urban blight on all that is natural.
The soulless progression to obtain greater efficiencies.
Who speaks up for objectives other than industrial
goals? And if someone does, who would listen?
Who among those gathered with power
would take action in defense of the voiceless?
The Twentieth Century.
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
S H A D O W O F N I G H T
R O B E R T Q U A L T E R S 1 9 8 5
Mundane street life bathed in the flagrant colors
of a Pittsburgh sunset. People do what they do
in keeping the street vibrant. No matter what.
The steel mills close. Jobs disappear.
Families move elsewhere for work.
People remain.
Life still fills the streets of Pittsburgh.
Robert Qualters paints his affection
for the people of this, his hometown.
S I X O ' C L O C K , W I N T E R
J O H N F R E N C H S L O A N 1 9 1 2
Rush hour crowd catches their commute home
at the Third Avenue El in Manhattan. They are
shop workers, laborers and clerks toughing
through another bone chilling night.
They are energized, definitely not gloomy.
Life is good. The industrial dynamo promises
endless possibilities for mankind's future
once the spigot fully opens.
B O L S H E V I K
B O R I S K U S T O D I E V 1 9 2 0
The flag-carrying Bolshevik towers over
the masses crowding the Lilliputian streets
of Moscow, his red banner unfurling with
the triumph of Communism. Boris Kustodiev's
allegorical painting of the Russian Revolution
provided the symbolism that would become
the standard for Soviet art and propaganda.
The picture was an immediate hit but
Kustodiev was concerned it would be found
provocative. After all, here's the courageous
Lenin marching ever forward, his giant strides
crushing the little people underfoot.
So much for valuing the individual.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Monday, February 9, 2026
Happy Birthday Jessicca!
M E G A B R A I N A T T A C K S !
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !
J E S S I C C A
* * * * *
😀 😄 😁 😃
* * * * *
love
dad
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Ansel Adams
M O O N R I S E
H E R N A N D E Z , N E W M E X I C O 1 9 4 1
A late afternoon sun illuminates white crosses as
the moon rises over a small town, its church
and graveyard.
A N S E L A D A M S
1 9 0 2 - 1 9 8 4
Preeminent American landscape photographer and
lifelong environmental activist Ansel Adams worked
to define the identity of the American west.
He shaped the imagery of mountain and desert
in black and white using his own personal lore.
C H U R C H
T A O S P U E B L O 1 9 4 2
The Taos tribe gave Adams permission to photograph
the San Geronimo Chapel in Taos Pueblo, a church
providing continuous Sunday sermons to the villagers
since 1850.
G E O R G I A O ' K E E F F E A N D O R V I L L E C O X
1 9 3 7
Adams captures a moment of mischievous banter
between the painter Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox,
the head wrangler at Ghost Ranch, her favorite
New Mexico hangout.
B O U L D E R D A M
C O L O R A D O R I V E R 1 9 4 1
The Interior Department funded Adams to photograph
this new Colorado River dam as well as scenes from
National Parks out west. The images provided
were to become giant murals for Federal buildings.
World War Two ended the project's funding.
The photos Adams provided sat, forgotten in the
National Archives over the next seventy years.
T H E T E T O N S A N D T H E S N A K E R I V E R
W Y O M I N G 1 9 4 2
This image was included in the payload
of the Voyager satellite, launched into
space in 1977. This gave extraterrestrials
of uncertain time and place, the opportunity
to enjoy the beauty of Earth along with us.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Saturday, January 31, 2026
p h o t o s
P I E R R O T C L I M B I N G T H R O U G H A W I N D O W
F E L I X N A D A R 1 8 5 4
The long exposure time required in the early days
of photography made staged action shots such
as this near impossible.
The deep shadows created from loose-fitting clothing
adds to the picture a sculptural quality.
A L F R E D L O R D T E N N Y S O N
J U L I A M A R G A R E T C A M E R O N 1 8 6 9
Tennyson titled this picture of himself as
The Dirty Monk - tired, unkempt and brooding.
Tennyson went about his business of being
the nation's poet laureate while attired
in a romantic's cloak.
O S I P B R I K
A L E X A N D E R R O D C H E N K O 1 9 2 4
Rodchenko wanted people to see objects anew.
His photography involved making the familiar strange.
Here a friend's head barely fits into the portrait space.
A Russian logo is double-exposed over one eye.
The result is an image suited to be posted
as promotion for some Orwellian venture.
T H E G R A D U A T I N G C L A S S
F R A N K E U G E N E 1 9 1 3
We're not documenting students graduating.
Look at the mood. Artistic manipulation.
Ladies posed to perfection under soft lights.
Eugene displays a painter's dreamworld
through his photographer's lens.
C R I S S - C R O S S E D C O N V EY O R S
C H A R L E S S H E E L E R 1 9 2 7
Sheeler was enthralled by the precision of machinery
and the logic of industrial order. The opportunity
to photograph Ford's giant River Rouge factory was,
for Sheeler, like being given a tour of the future.
Here was technological utopia laid out before him.
Here was our substitute for religious experience.
Intoxicating.
O L D T I M E R S T R U C T U R A L W O R K E R
L E W I S H I N E 1 9 3 0
Hines referred to them as sky boys -
the workers he photographed laboring
to build the 102 story Empire State Building.
It was his testament to the heroic nature of
modern industrial man.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)