Not An Angel

Overheard in Christmas decoration section of a local store. 

I don't know why you like that one. It doesn't look anything like an angel.

Might need to include that in my Prolegomena To A Study Of Pretty Bad American Christmas Decoration.

Proliferation of Domains On The Internet

"Google Domains" lists the following Top Level Domain suffixes. The explosion of TLD's has an impact on those of us who have used TLD's in Google searches. The impact may not be as serious for those who search for things at educational institutions (an example these searches: ["coral mortality" site:edu] ["slave narrative" site:edu or site:org]. On the other hand, as a photo historian I will need to lengthen the domain search to "Wet Plate Collodion Tintype" site:edu OR site:org OR site:photography OR site:academy. Even then I may miss a useful domain. 

The source of the proliferation may because it will be a boon to commerce ["road bike" site:bike].  Is it really worth the bow to business?

By the way, when I searched for ipad site:cheap I notice that I got ad results from ordinary .com's. 

Source: https://support.google.com/domains/answer/6010092?hl=en 
More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains This page includes suffixes for countries, a boon for some kinds of research.

Google Domains supports the following top-level domains (TLDs):

TLD	Price per year of registration
.academy	$30
.accountants	$120
.actor	$40
.agency	$20
.associates	$30
.bike	$30
.biz	$12
.boutique	$30
.builders	$30
.business	$20
.cab	$30
.camera	$30
.camp	$30
.capital	$50
.cards	$30
.care	$30
.careers	$50
.catering	$30
.cc	$20
.center	$20
.cheap	$30
.church	$40
.city	$20
.cleaning	$30
.clinic	$50
.clothing	$30
.club	$13
.co	$30    Note: .co domains have a 5-year maximum registration.
.co.in	$11    Note: .co.in does not allow private registration.
.co.nz	$19    Note: .co.nz does not allow private registration.            .co.nz does not allow domain locking.
.coach	$60
.codes	$50
.coffee	$30
.com	$12
.community	$30
.company	$20
.computer	$30
.condos	$50
.construction	$30
.consulting	$30
.contractors	$30
.cool	$30
.credit	$120
.cruises	$50
.dance	$20
.dating	$50
.delivery	$60
.democrat	$30
.dental	$50
.diamonds	$50
.digital	$40
.direct	$40
.directory	$20
.discount	$30
.domains	$30
.education	$20
.email	$20
.energy	$120
.engineering	$50
.enterprises	$30
.equipment	$20
.estate	$30
.events	$30
.exchange	$30
.expert	$50
.exposed	$20
.farm	$30
.fish	$30
.fitness	$30
.flights	$50
.florist	$30
.football	$30
.foundation	$30
.fund	$50
.furniture	$50
.futbol	$13
.gallery	$20
.gifts	$40
.glass	$30
.graphics	$20
.gratis	$20
.gripe	$30
.guide	$40
.guru	$28
.haus	$110
.healthcare	$60
.holdings	$50
.holiday	$50
.house	$30
.immo	$40
.immobilien	$30
.in	$12    Note: .in does not allow private registration.
.industries	$30
.info	$12
.institute	$20
.insure	$60
.international	$20
.investments	$30
.io	$60    Note: .io does not allow domain locking.            .io allows 1, 2, and 5-year registration periods.
.kaufen	$30
.kitchen	$30
.land	$30
.lease	$50
.legal	$60
.life	$40
.lighting	$20
.limited	$30
.limo	$50
.maison	$50
.management	$20
.me	$20
.media	$30
.memorial	$60
.moda	$30
.net	$12
.network	$20
.ninja	$19
.org	$12
.partners	$50
.parts	$30
.photography	$20
.photos	$20
.pictures	$11
.pizza	$60
.place	$40
.plumbing	$30
.productions	$30
.properties	$30
.pub	$30
.pw	$9
.recipes	$50
.reisen	$90
.rentals	$30
.repair	$30
.report	$20
.republican	$30
.restaurant	$60
.reviews	$20
.sarl	$40
.schule	$20
.services	$30
.shoes	$30
.singles	$30
.social	$30
.solar	$30
.solutions	$20
.supplies	$20
.supply	$20
.support	$20
.surgery	$50
.systems	$20
.technology	$20
.tienda	$50
.tips	$20
.tires	$120
.today	$20
.tools	$30
.town	$30
.toys	$30
.training	$30
.university	$50
.us	$12    Note: .us does not allow private registration.
.vacations	$30
.ventures	$50
.viajes	$50
.villas	$50
.vision	$30
.voyage	$50
.watch	$30
.works	$30
.world	$40
.zone	$30

* Prices subject to change without notice.

Begüm Yamanlar's Landscapes

Begüm Yamanlar 

Begüm Yamanlar, untitled (1/3), from Zone Series 

Begüm Yamanlar, untitled (2/3), from Zone Series

Begüm Yamanlar, untitled (3/3), from Zone Series

Begüm Yamanlar, an Istanbul photographer and video artist explores the mystery and uncertainty of space, urban space, rural space and objects in indeterminate space. 

Her Zone Series consists of landscapes that simultaneously invite and repel, give the viewer easy entrance tempered by doubt or dread. 

Each image includes a path running from the viewer's location into a forest until the path curves out of view or disappears in an unexplained fog. Would I step into the scene? In a dream perhaps; otherwise I move on to the next image. But I always return and contemplate, wondering if I haven't detected a whisper from the image.

The artist clearly has a catalog of tree trunks, limbs, foliage and fleeting spots of light. She uses these judiciously in a way that pulls the individual images together through repetition, overlay and variation. The viewer comes to know these passages as visual friends in an environment fraught with dread.  

Yamanlar told me that each photograph combines seven or eight images that she then develops through twenty or so layers. The images have a tonal richness despite the prevailing darkness. Looking at the first of the series I enjoyed the thought that layers can be handled in a way that suggests a full brush in a painting. 

"Painting" reminds us that these contemporary photographs have precedence in seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. In Jan van Goyen and others, especially Jacob van Ruisdael, we find a similar mystery in forests with paths or roads that invite and then disappear.

Another historical link with the Netherlands is deforestation, a process that was well underway in Holland by the seventeenth-century.* Turkey too is cutting itself toward barren land, a theme found in the work of a number of contemporary Turkish photographers. The hills along the Bosphoros, the respitory system of Istanbul, are being denuded at an alarming pace that almost certainly portends an alarming end. 

One cannot but wonder if the persistent dread in Yamanlar's forests express the viewer's apprehensions or those of the forests. Or both. 
_________________________
Begüm Yamanlar's "ADA/Island" opens at Galeri Zilberman the evening of July 3. İstiklal Cad. Mısır Apartmanı No.163 K.3 D.10, 34433 İstanbul

*Whited, Tamara L., Jens Ivo Engels, Richard C. Hoffmann, Hilde Ibsen, and Wybren Verstegen. Northern Europe: An Environmental History. Edited by Mark R. Stoll. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2005, 80-81.

In Facebook:

Many years ago, around around 1970 I guess, I was in the back, passenger part, of an Afghan truck. I don't remember where I was going. Doesn't matter. I was sitting on a wooden bench along one side of the truck. On the bench on the other side was a woman holding a baby (with a husband or brother next to her). The woman wore a chadri (burka); she was covered from head to foot. The baby began crying. The woman raised the chadri enough to suckle the baby. My eye caught sight of the mother's breast. I quickly looked away. Then I sneaked one more glance. In this natural, universal act of motherhood and babyhood I had seen the breast of a woman whose body was otherwise hidden from me. The truck was quiet. The passengers were content that the baby was in the arms of its mother sucking for nourishment and contentment. I felt content too.

"We will be violent"

ASU Announces New Football Coach | KUAR

“We will be the most violent, physical football team in the Sun Belt. Now, that doesn't happen over night. I told the guys when I met with them, you will work harder in this program than you have ever been asked to work in your life but you will also reap bigger rewards than you've ever reaped. But it's all about work. We will be violent, we will blow people up. We will stop the run and we will run the ball,” said Anderson. (December 13, 2013)

So said the new football coach.

Whipping up the crowd of supporters is one of the items in the job description of a football coach. Whipping up a desire for violence in collegiate athletics should not be in the job description. Violence is the primary cause of increased injuries to student athletes, the cause of life-long physical and mental problems and even death. 

The university made no statement and issued no reprimand. Violence in athletics must be official policy. Shame.

[I wonder if he might have been thinking about the RNC]