The Society Of The Spectacle

Photo via F/28

While looking through the excellent kox.tumblr (SFW), I stumbled upon the image above that really rather confused me. is it real? is it a diorama? Or just tilt-shift on acid? Upon further investigation, it turned out to be part of an excellent collection of similar diorama’s by the Flickr member F/28, or Florian Tremp – ‘Small World Photographer’. This collection of fantastic odd, and uneasy snapshots of small town, dustbowl America, aptly titled “No Country For Small Men”, are made all the more remarkable by the attention to detail and effort that has gone into photograph/diorama. All made by hand, they truly are a sight to behold.

The entire collection, (here on Flickr) is well worth a look.

The first flickr set of the year is dedicated to the ubiquitous Keep Calm And Carry On poster that has seemingly gripped the national conciousness, making it’s way from the walls of East London’s most post modern residents to the hallowed walls of  60 Minute Makeover (probably). It also happens to be brilliant vehicle for for anyone and everyone to express themselves. A few favourites after the jump. (more…)

Here’s a fantastic flickr set uncovering the delightful world of 1960′s Advertising, US style. It’s illuminating to see the morals and attitudes of the Mad Men world so accurately reflected in these ads, it shows how well the show is researched and written, but also the almost unnerving positivity of advertising of this age. It’s pure unadulterated selling, and in it’s own way is quite a refreshing change of pace.

It’s a big collection, about 300/400, so take some time to really dig around. See some more of my favorites after the jump. (P.S if you want more of this type of stuff then head over to The Footnotes Of Mad Men – beware! Season 3 spoilers will be there for all UK followers…)
(more…)

Love this Flickr set from night photographer Troy Pavia. Shot at the Byron Hot Springs Hotel in California. Unsurprisingly legend has it that it’s haunted. The forboding use of reds, greens and blues don’t exactly allay this feel. Good stuff, more highlights after the jump. (more…)

Buamai translates from Thai to ‘are you bored?’ Certainly the last thing you’ll be on this site is bored. Essentially an image aggreagtor from Flickr, it shows off some of the brilliant design, photography and weirdness that lives in the bowels of Flickr. I’d start from the Tag Cloud…

I recently found this fantastic set of images via Flickr of Los Angeles in the 1960′s. The images are that classic mix of 1960′s America, optimistic Mad Men esq stylings (the construction projects, the building of freeways etc…) And the countercultural underbelly that was stirring across the nation (and documented here via the denziens of Sunset Strip). Love it. Take a look here.

This is the strangest flickr set i’ve ever found, over 1100 images of family photos, holiday snaps and general weirdness from the last century (But mainly 1950′s – 80′s). I’m guessing that Superbomba has got these from garage sales and boot fairs, and it’s fascinating to imagine what happened to all these people, and also how the photographs seem to be more honest, there’s obviously no digital manipulation and the innocence of the photos help give them a charm all of their own. I could spend hours going through all of them, but have picked out some that caught my eye.