apwbATTACK: Quayside, Newcastle, UK
Os Gêmeos (Portugese for “The Twins”) are Gustavo and Otávio Pandolfo, artists from São Paulo, Brazil that have managed to accomplish what most graffiti artists dream of; to have created a global series of instantly-recognizable works of public art, the caliber of which transcends their ephemeral nature — or more simply, beautiful in a way that they tend not to get painted over.
These photos were found in a box of 35mm slide transparencies at a Santa Barbara yard sale. There is something so sad about the relics of someone’s life sitting in the sun, anonymously, late in the day. Judging by my friends’ reactions, buying other people’s photos is crazy, but the fact that they were slides, and so old … they had a sense of mystery.
These ones capture an almost mythic ’70s; innocent nudity, a sweet, earthy, back-to-nature hippie-ness…
How did something like this end up in a yard sale? The people selling it spoke very little English, and appeared to do yard sales professionally. Seems like most of these people would still be alive. Did the photographer die? Or just decide to toss them out?
Maurice R Merrigan at the Peace River Suspension Bridge, 1942 or 43
During World War II, my grandfather spent a couple of years working on the Alaska Highway and the Canol Pipeline. I recently inherited some of his photos, and among them were 30-some-odd of his time in Alaska and the Yukon. Many weren’t captioned, but I’ve tried my best to put together the information I could about them. I wish I knew what kind of camera he was using, as the photos have such a rich lower register. It might just be the era, but they remind me so much of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, and how I picture Steinbeck. Maybe that’s just how the light was hitting the planet at that time.
