Whenever I see a well done photographic typology, I immediately think baseball cards- after all, they're conceived and created as a highly similar and uniform series, each with its own distinct and individual personality. And they just beg to be collected...I felt that nostalgic grade school giddiness of anxiously perusing and comparing ballplayer stats on the backs of baseball cards as I was comparing desks and other miscellaneous room items in these photos of Jan Banning's Bureaucratics. Their bright colors, unique eccentricities and near interchangeable characteristics almost made me want to trade and rate them according to any and all those categories.
Never collected bubble gum cards? No problem, you'll still love these all the same. They're fun, playful compositions that bring an historically droll occupation to life on a worldwide scale! And if that weren't enough- they're quite the singular collection of portraits... and a (must have) book!
2 comments:
These are fabulous and as someone who ran a charity in the beaurocratic 1984 nightmare that is Ethiopia I can sure appreciate them!
On another note Stan, you might appreciate this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7753000/7753202.stm
Its an edit of a duckrabbit slideshow that the BBC ran following an interview with David White on the Today Programme (Britain's leading news and current affairs show)
Seems to me the kind of project you might appreciate, though means a lot more to us Brits who were brought up on Brunel.
All the best
Benjamin (duckrabbit)
Had the pleasure of watching it yesterday! That portrait will forever remain one of photography's most potent visual statements. And it was amazing to have Mr. White pick up the same tools well over a century later to remind us of where this medium has taken us in the course of time and space...
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