Four people cross a street near Florence's Duomo, cropped at waist height from behind. Shopping bags swing at their sides, one of them wears a shearling coat, and long hard shadows run across cracked paving. There isn't a single face in the frame. With no faces, the bags do the talking. They're the most legible thing in the picture. For plenty of visitors they're the … [Read more...] about Florence Shopping Bags Near the Duomo Show What Visitors Really Take Home
Balthus at the Met: Why the Museum Keeps a Contested Painter on the Wall
Two paintings by Balthus hang side by side in this gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One is The Mountain (1937), a large alpine scene full of figures who don't seem to notice each other. The other is Nude Before a Mirror (1955). A rope barrier and a wooden floor complete the room. The Petition the Met Turned Down In 2017 an online petition asked … [Read more...] about Balthus at the Met: Why the Museum Keeps a Contested Painter on the Wall
Taiwan Excellence Pavilions Show How a Diplomatically Isolated Economy Sells Abroad
The Taiwan Excellence pavilion looks like most national stands on a trade show floor. Branded walls, the "Everyday Excellence" tagline, product displays, and people with lanyards drifting through. It's easy to walk straight past. It's also one of the more interesting bits of trade promotion anywhere, because of who is doing the promoting and what they can't do … [Read more...] about Taiwan Excellence Pavilions Show How a Diplomatically Isolated Economy Sells Abroad
An Italian Wedding Car With N.C.C. Plates and the Taxi War Behind Them
A bride in a full lace gown crosses harbour cobbles toward a black saloon while the driver holds the door open. Guests and moored boats fill the background. The light is hard midday sun, the frame is black and white, and everyone has their back to the camera. The detail that gives the scene away is small. The car carries N.C.C. lettering and a plate naming … [Read more...] about An Italian Wedding Car With N.C.C. Plates and the Taxi War Behind Them
Ship-to-Shore Cranes: The Port Equipment Washington Now Treats as a Security Risk
Ship-to-shore gantry cranes are the tallest working machines at most container ports. They straddle the quay, reach out over the vessel, and lift boxes off and on around the clock. In this frame a line of them stands over container ships at a deepwater terminal. For decades hardly anyone outside shipping gave them a second look. That changed once US officials started … [Read more...] about Ship-to-Shore Cranes: The Port Equipment Washington Now Treats as a Security Risk
Phones at Live Performances: An Okinawan Dance Watched on Stage and on a Screen at Once
Four dancers in blue robes with red lining and red underskirts move barefoot across a lit wooden stage, with a carved stone relief panel behind them. The dance is Okinawan, from the Ryukyuan tradition, and the tungsten stage light is warm. At the bottom of the frame an audience member's hand is raised, holding a phone, and its screen shows the same four dancers again, smaller … [Read more...] about Phones at Live Performances: An Okinawan Dance Watched on Stage and on a Screen at Once
Robot Photo Booths Are Taking the Event Photographer’s Spot on the Rooftop
The photo booth at this rooftop event is a robot in a white moulded gown, standing on a red carpet and holding a screen out at chest height. A ring light and an LED panel light it from the front while the city goes blue in the haze below. An operator in a black tee stands at the left edge of the frame. A man in a suit waits at the right. There's a branded flight case on … [Read more...] about Robot Photo Booths Are Taking the Event Photographer’s Spot on the Rooftop
Big Football Nights Run on Public Transport: A Lyon Metro Platform on World Cup Final Day 2018
On 15 July 2018 France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow and won its second World Cup. In Lyon, a long way from the Luzhniki Stadium, the evening played out where ordinary Sunday evenings do: in bars, in squares, in living rooms, and on the metro. This frame was shot from inside an arriving carriage, through a window covered in rain. The drops turned into big soft discs that … [Read more...] about Big Football Nights Run on Public Transport: A Lyon Metro Platform on World Cup Final Day 2018
The Périgord Churches Where Visitors Pay to Hammer a Nail
You hear it before you understand it. A flat metallic tap somewhere off the nave, then a pause, then another, in a building where the loudest thing is usually a door closing. Nobody looks up. The regulars know what it is. In a side aisle there is a section of tree trunk standing on end, chest high, and its entire surface has disappeared under brass nail heads. From ten … [Read more...] about The Périgord Churches Where Visitors Pay to Hammer a Nail
AI Search Is Draining Publisher Referral Traffic, and Newsrooms Are Rebuilding Around Direct Audiences
For two decades the economics of online news rested on a simple arrangement. Search engines sent readers to publishers, publishers sold ads against those readers, and everyone tolerated the imbalance because the traffic kept arriving. That arrangement is coming apart, and the newsrooms that survive the next few years will be the ones that stopped treating search as a business … [Read more...] about AI Search Is Draining Publisher Referral Traffic, and Newsrooms Are Rebuilding Around Direct Audiences