animal tracks

photograph by andrew zuckerman
(via animal talk)

photograph by tim flach
(via famhove)

photograph by evan kafka

(via feature shoot)

i grew up with loads of animals. some of them quite unusual— at different times my mother brought into our lives: a donkey, a jackal, spotted civets, a yellow-throated marten, goats... but the usual suspects were ever-present— dogs, cats, horses, birds, bunnies, guinea pigs, mice... i very much enjoy the company of animals. they have entirely individualistic personalities, and i find them endlessly entertaining to watch and interact with. i think these 'portraits' are incredibly powerful— they capture the force of character that lives inside those strange and wonderful animal bodies.

guy bourdin

soft-porn eyes

stacey mark's photographs seem anchored in the eyes—the exact mood of her photos is distinctively contained in them. everything you need to know is precisely there, in the eyes,  it doesn't matter what the props are, or who the girl is, or what kind of hotel room it's in, or what kind of lighting is set up...the mood stays singular and the same, emanating right there out of those heavy-lidded, soft-porn eyes. 

the hyena & other men

this is a photo of a hyena handler that is from a series of photos, the hyena & other men (series II, 2005-2007),  pieter hugo took in nigeria. i think the photos are disturbing and beautiful and bewildering. there is something so mythological, so fantastical and gruesome about these images and the reality of these men and animals.

a quote from pieter hugo:

these photographs came about after a friend emailed me an image taken on a cellphone through a car window in lagos, nigeria, which depicted a group of men walking down the street with a hyena in chains...the image captivated me. 

make sure you read the essay, 'the dog's master' (just make sure to scroll down the page, past the photos to get to the essay) by pieter hugo. it is compelling and provoking and skillfully articulates his understanding of these hyena handlers and their experience.

a hot mess

all photos by terry richardson

terry richardson does dirty dirty like nobody's business. and actually, these shots are on the much nicer side of things. let's just say the other side gets a lot closer to filthy. and it all happens pretty fast. 

that running-wild kind of youth

i quite like jonathan leder photographs. most of them anyways. i know they are a bit trendy. perhaps a little too cool. but i like the terrain that some of them speak to... that speedway of running-wild youth, spasming and misspent, glorious and dreamy, pouting and snarling...where it feels like anything might happen, where it feels like nothing happens. those panting moments. those bored, pacing moments. those secret, perverse moments. those sweet green moments. days of dress-up, days of dress-down. days of make-believe and make-up and make-shift and make-over. i think his photographs get these moments and manage to hold onto to something—something alive and young and throbbing. and i like the muted colors and the emptied-out landscapes and the fuzz of light. 

just passing through

photo from ffffound.com via weheartit.com

...like some cinematic dream...

puff-puff-blow

priscilla 1969 by joseph szabo

candy cigarette, 1989 by sally mann

mary ellen mark 

i used to 'smoke' candy cigarettes when i was a kid. and yes i will admit i thought i was cool for doing it. i liked the puff-puff-blow action. i liked the way the thing looked in between my little fingers. i did it privately. away from the other kids and definitely away from my older brother. i knew they weren't real. i knew they were made from sugar. but i liked keeping to myself when i did my 'smoking'. i never did turn into a real smoker. i like these photos simply as images. i am not looking at them through a moral lens. everyone knows smoking is bad for you. especially for growing, developing kids. i just find photos of very young girls smoking real or unreal cigarettes visually captivating, particularly these ones. i like the grotesqueness and the absurdity. i like the mix of innocence and defiance. i like damaged pretty things. i like thinking that there might be a tiny 'fuck you' in the puff-puff-blowing breath of each girl.