Edvard Munch´s Vampire (1894)

Edvard Munch's 1894 masterpiece Vampire is to be sold after more than 70 years in the hands of a private collector.

Vampire, often seen as the sister of Munch's iconic painting The Scream, will be auctioned at Sotheby's, in New York, for an estimated $35m (£19m). It would smash the existing Munch record of $30.8m (£16.65m) set in May for Girls on a Bridge.

Vampire provoked controversy when it was first unveiled, stoking early-20th Century fears about women's liberation. It depicts a man and woman locked in an embrace and represents themes of love, sex and death.

(...) Simon Shaw, senior vice president and head of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department in New York, said: "Few paintings pack as hard a punch as Munch's Vampire. "Like The Scream, it distils extraordinarily intense feelings into a simple, unforgettable motif. The lovers, locked in their dark embrace, evoke love's paradox as a source of tenderness and pain." [source: BBC]

 

Indeed, the first title of the Painting was "Love and Pain".

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Kevin Kelly - Photography and Pilgrimage

Pilgrim, Gangotori (India) - The sources of the Ganges river are popular pilgrmage destinations. This lowland pilgrim is on his way to Gangotori, one of the sources, on a hike of several days into snow. His head is well wrapped, but the rest of his clothes are skimpy. Everything else he has in his in bag.

Kevin Kelly is a writer, and one of the founders of Wired Magazine. On his site, many subjects, like photos, films, documentary, writings, and others.

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The Tibet Album (photography)

Mt. Chomolhari, by Frederick Spencer Chapman (1907-1971)

"Two ladies wearing Lhasa dress", by Rabden Lepcha

"Tibetan boy with kite", by Spencer Chapman

The Tibet Album presents more than 6000 photographs spanning 30 years of Tibet's history (1920-1950). These extraordinary photographs are a unique record of people long gone and places changed beyond all recognition. They also document the ways that British visitors encountered Tibet and Tibetans.

Featuring photographs taken by Charles Bell, Arthur Hopkinson, Evan Nepean, Hugh Richardson, Frederick Spencer Chapman, Harry Staunton and the previously unidentified photographs of Rabden Lepcha.

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Stéphane Pannemaker (engravings)

Gaucho des environs de Buenos-Ayres.

Maxourounas (Brésil)

Jeune dame mulâtre

Stephane Pannemaker was a member of a German family of engravers, who were known for producing wood engravings with hard, metallic lines and sharp contrast of lights and darks.

The pictures above are from a Gallica web page about a book with engravings of whole world, intitled Moeurs, Usages et Costumes de tous les Peoples du Monde (1844). The sellectioned pics are about engravings made on Brazil and Latin America.

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Temporary Peace (Photo)

"Temporary Peace", photo by the amazing photographer Paula Andrade

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Yoshiyuki Iwase (Photography)

Iwase is a famous japanese photographer, specially on the theme "ama" (womans that works on sea, diving and harvesting sea products).

They carried the joys and sorrows of those living with the sea... i immersed myself in their world

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Anna Scharl (Model)

link

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;)

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Beijing Olympic Games - "The Big Picture"

A great selection of images by boston.com

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Tom Chambers - Photography

Three galleries, bio and informations.

In composing a variety of stark, woodland settings in contrast with a billowy dress or other man-made articles, I explore the dichotomy between what is natural and what is fabricated. Why do people costumed in formal dress seem so omnipotent on the street, yet so vulnerable in the wild? Each of these compositions explores a place where unexpected circumstances collide.

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The flowering bush-clovers

No matter where I fall
On the road
Fall will I to be buried
Among the flowering bush-clovers.
-Kawai Sora-

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Ithaca (Konstantinus Kavafis)

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

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Memorable Beijing Olympic Moments (photos)

"Memorable Beijing Olympic Moments", photos by Sports Illustrated (and the jamaican athlete Usain Bolt just like a... bolt)

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