Vivian Maier: The elusive genius who hid herself away

An exhibition in Amsterdam celebrates the work of a nanny who has come to be recognised as a master photographer. 

It was the kind of discovery that curators dream about during slow days at the museum. In 2007, a Chicago history buff named John Maloof bought a box full of negatives on a whim at auction for $400. Sorting through them, he realised he’d stumbled across something astonishing: charismatic, crisply composed pictures of the city in the 1950s and 60s, which ranked with the best US street photographs of the period. Not only had none of these images been seen before, no one had a clue who had taken them.

- BBC

 

L’intermède lumineux de Josée Blanchette

La sexualité, la spiritualité. L’amour, l’ayahuasca.Le gin, les copines. Dans Mon (jeune) amant français, on retrouve les sujets qui ont parcouru les écrits de Josée Blanchette. Et qu’embrasse maintenant Jeanne, la protagoniste de son roman, qui le rencontre, cet amant de trente ans, sur une piste de danse. Dans une soirée de swing, comme celles qu’affectionne la chroniqueuse du Devoir. « On part avec ce qu’on vit, ce qu’on est, ce qui nous allume. Je n’ai pas tout fait, là. Non. Non. Mais Jeanne a fait ben des affaires. »

- Le Devoir

 

THE AFTERLIFE OF THE MALE MODEL

What happens to young men when they quit the modeling industry? While some exit the business gracefully, others take a nose dive, only to find salvation at the Cheesecake Factory.

- MEL

 

The Love Story We All Need Right Now

In 2010, the renowned nature filmmaker Craig Foster started free diving in the icy, brutal ocean waters off the Western Cape of South Africa. He was suffering from debilitating burnout and adrenal fatigue and was desperate for “radical change” — but unsure what shape it might come in. Then it arrived in the form of a speckled, eggplant-hued octopus. After their first encounter — both of them under the sea, she so expertly camouflaged beneath a pile of abandoned shells that even the surrounding fish were perplexed — he was so mesmerized that he resolved to visit her every day. The resulting Netflix original documentary, My Octopus Teacher, chronicles the yearlong relationship between man and cephalopod.

- The Cut

Le dernier cinéma porno de Rome résiste

Il a survécu à la pornographie accessible à tous sur l’internet, mais résistera-t-il à la COVID ? Le dernier cinéma porno de Rome, l’Ambasciatori, continue contre vents et marées à projeter ses films « sexy » des années 80, pour le plus grand plaisir de ses clients.

- La Presse

Caught unawares: intimate glimpses of friends, strangers and lovers - in pictures

Amateur photographer Alberto di Lenardo’s work was, for many years, hidden away in a secret room. Now the unguarded moments he captured are being published in An Attic Full of Trains.

- The Guardian