This coffee lid made me do a double take. Turns out Letica is a U.S.-based supplier of paper and plastic packaging with a … um … “familiar” logo.

For a second, I thought Leica was making precision, German-engineered beverage lids that make a distinct and beloved sound when you pop them onto your paper cup.

The Journal of Artists’ Books presents JAB27, in which they invited artists, writers, and thinkers from across all eras of the Visual Studies Workshop’s history to explore the photobook form.

I was asked to write on Errata Editions’ “Books on Books” project. My essay – The Meta-Experience of Errata Editions – focuses on the series’ fascinating braid of eras, objects, and ideas.

Subscribe to JAB at their website, or get a copy by attending the upcoming Photo-bookworks Symposium at the Visual Studies Workshop (July 1-3, 2010). An incredible lineup awaits: presentations by Ron Jude, Jason Fulford, Mike Mandel, and Jeffery Ladd, Anne Wilkes-Tucker, Alec Soth, and more. Register now!

Photo by Lt Victor Jorgensen.

(via Wikipedia)

Image above spotted in a found copy of the Nikon SLR Guide (1988).

Imagined response to the above caption (by c. 1988 Nikon owner): “Yeah, unlike those miserable pricks and their Canons!”

The Canon v. Nikon debate is easily one of the goofiest things in photography (see also: photographer’s vests). Seems like fewer people care (or even know) about this once-vital metric of photographic identity now that Sony and Panasonic (not to mention Blackberry and Apple) make the world’s most popular cameras.

New debates (about printers, software, etc.) have replaced the old, but the thought of a few grizzled “purists” gnawing on this one at the counter of a camera shop makes me crack a nostalgic grin.

Garry Winogrand and his 1957 Ford Fairlane, which was given to him by Lee Friedlander. New York City, early 1964. Photographer unknown.

Collection of the Center for Creative Photography / University of Arizona / Garry Winogrand Archive.

(via International Center of Photography)

Hellen van Meene’s website has a large selection of her gorgeous portraiture. It also has a brief F.A.Q. where she throws the book at a certain type of photography teacher.

A generic query from a student whose assignment is “to write about the technical aspects of the work [...] about how the print was made, the lens used or shutterspeed or type of print for example?” is followed by a long paragraph full of specifications (“Hellen van Meene makes her photos with a Rolleiflex 2.8F “Rollei-WERKE FRANKE & HEIDECKE 2,8F 2476084, Made in Germany”).

After that, she zeroes in on the true definition of photographic education:

Tell your teacher or whoever that these things really do not matter. Hellen started making photos on plastic snapshot camera she got from Santa Claus. She advises to get to know about color in the darkroom like she did, or simply by experimenting with Photoshop (like she does now, but based on what she learned among the chemicals in the darkroom). Learning to view the world like a photographer is the only thing that matters, not the hardware, film or settings used.

Amen.

Left to right: George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom

Gaze upon some curvy, eye-popping chairs from a 1961 issue of Playboy. The men of Mid-Century Modern design posed for this provocative shot featured with a profile of their work titled “Designs for Living.”

Pull the curtains and ogle all you like, or “read it for the articles” at Lushpad.

[ Imported from /// Visual Thought ]

The New York Times Lens Blog asked readers to make a picture at 15:00 U.T.C., Sunday, May 2.  Dubbed “Moment in Time”, over 10,000 images from the project were posted today.

I spent some time hovering / spinning / flipping through the wild variety of images. The two above stood out and I thought they made a pleasant diptych.

Photos by Carrie Ruckel (left) and an unamed photographer from Lynchburg, VA (right).

Y’know, with all this wailing and gnashing of teeth about the death of blogging, it’s really encouraging to see a magazine like Artful Blogging step in to help preserve the grand tradition of online publishing.

Wait, what?

David Lasky’s contribution to the recent Free Comic Book Day was this silly / smart meta-comic, meant to be printed on newsprint and magnet-ed to fridges everywhere.

Have a look at the larger version, fall into the endless “mirror facing a mirror” narrative, and grin (finger quotes!).

(via Scott McCloud)

There’s a thorough attention to the craft of light in these portraits by James Rajotte. They’re from a project billed “Rochester Portrait Inventory” taken on his front porch in the Flower / Flour City.

His blog features more from this one-day shoot; here’s hoping he makes more.

[ jamesrajottephotographs.com /// twelve (blog) ]

According to a new blog – Marina Abramovic Made Me Cry – “some people couldn’t handle the heat” of sitting across from (and staring at) the artist during her show “The Artist Is Present”.

(via Buzzfeed, photos via MoMA’s Flickr)

Previously: Touching Harms The Abramovic Performers

Untitled (2009) by Mike Yates. Collage on paper. 2.75" x 3.75"

The Visual Studies Workshop is holding their annual benefit auction this Friday, April 9th in Rochester, New York. Photographs, prints, and artists’ books for every collector’s budget will be sold to benefit this truly unique non-profit arts education center.

Should you find yourself far from the land of Garbage Plates and Genesee Cream Ale, you can still preview and bid on all the artwork at the auction website. Online bidding ends April 8th, so get to it!