Tata Vislevskaya is a young director and screenwriter currently living in Moscow. Explore her photostream over at Flickr.
Previously on Skandalon: The most popular snowflake in the world, Snow Crystal by Wilson Bentley.
“Wilson Alwyn “Snowflake” Bentley (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931), born in Jericho, Vermont, is the first known photographer of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated.” (Wikipedia)
“Though produced in considerably primitive conditions, the photographs are masterpieces of the intricate, infinite patterns in nature, never before imaginable. Wilson A. Bentley captured the astonishing beauty of what he called “gems, wrought by blizzards.” Today, the knowledge we have, in large part, about the complexity and the beauty of the snowflake is due to the scholarly efforts of this remarkable pioneer. Bentley’s prodigious body of work, SNOW CRYSTALS, was published in 1931 in New York, N.Y., by the McGraw-Hill book publishers. That same year, less than a month after the book’s release, Wilson A. Bentley walked home in a raging snow blizzard to make yet more photos of his beloved form of precipitation, and, contracting pneumonia from that walk, died two weeks later.” (Hammer Gallery)
“Every snowflake has an infinite beauty which is enhanced by knowledge that the investigator will, in all probability, never find another exactly like it. Consequently, photographing these transient forms of Nature gives to the worker something of the spirit of a discoverer. Besides combining her greatest skill and artistry in the production of snowflakes, Nature generously fashions the most beautiful specimens on a very thin plane so that they are specially adapted for photomicrographical study.” Read the full essay by Wilson Bentley at his official website.
Those instructions are from the book The Boy Mechanic Vol. 2 1000 Things for Boys to Do also available over at ChestofBooks.com and on Amazon. The book was published in 1948 by Popular Mechanics Co. Here is a description of it’s content: “How to construct devices for winter sports, motion-picture camera, indoor games, reed furniture, electrical novelties, boats, fishing rods, camps and camp appliances, kites and gliders, pushmobiles, roller coaster, ferris wheel and hundreds of other things which delight every boy. With 995 illustrations.”
See Nickolas Muray’s set on Flickr.
Artist’s statement: “Broadway explores New York City’s greatest avenue, traversing many social and economic demographics, it continues to define the big apple in the 21st century. Since embarking on Broadway in late 2006, and even before that, I have always been mesmerized at how life unfolds on the streets of New York. Pedestrians, cars, bicycles and anything imaginable moving in and out within mere inches of each other, even with the chaos surrounding everything in a city of this magnitude people seem to be in their own world. From daily commuters rushing past one another to work as if neither existed to tourists gazing into the lights of Times Square the heartbeat of New York can be found on Broadway. These photographs explore simple and fleeting moments. Originally Broadway was a Native American foot trail, soon taken over by the first Dutch settlers. Running from Bowling Green at the tip of Manhattan winding its way through the financial and theatre districts, times square, the bronx and small towns on the hudson river eventually coming to an end near Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County. Broadway defines New York, yet is constantly changing. These photographs are a record of Broadway its residents and visitors. This is still a work in progress…” (from Courvoisier officiel website)
From idsgn’s blog: “Scientists say not two snowflake are alike. Apparently, designers have their own opinion — The simplified snowflake can be traced back to German typographer Hermann Zapf. Working with the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1977, Zapf designed a collection of useful symbols, ornaments, and typographic elements, well known today as ITC Zapf Dingbats.
Spreading like frost in a blizzard, Zapf Dingbats became the de facto dingbat typeface over the following decades, giving typesetters access to commonly used symbols like arrows, pointing fingers, telephone icons, and (of course) snowflakes. […] In 1990 the snowflake was born again in Microsoft’s Wingdings typeface, with a nearly identical glyph to the one made popular in Zapf Dingbats.” (read more). Learn what’s a dingbat font.
