A spectator watches as the Canadian Forces Snowbirds leave nine smoke trails as they finish their performance during at the Canadian International Air Show that closes out the final weekend of the Canadian National Exhibition at CNE Grounds in Toronto on September 2, 2013. By Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images.
For her photo series “Suburban Dreams,” photographer Beth Yarnelle Edwards documented family life in the suburbs of Silicon Valley:
“I think of my images as being like genre paintings because they’re intended to depict a typical event in the home rather than a decisive moment,” Edwards explained via email. “And like genre paintings, I strive to include as much information about the people and the place as possible.”
The images are the result of collaboration between Edwards and the families she photographs. She interviews them, takes a tour of their home, and then recreates events from the family’s daily life. Rather than pose them, she sets up improvisations. “When I see a gesture or action that rings true, I’ll ask the person to freeze because my shutter speeds are fairly slow; this leads to a slightly frozen look, which I love,” Edwards said. …
“I call my series and monograph Suburban Dreams because it depicts a way of life that many Americans live and even more aspire to,” she said. “To me personally, the American Dreams means the freedom to believe and act as one wishes as long as that doesn’t impinge on the rights of others.”
(Photo by Beth Yarnelle Edwards. Suburban Dreams was recently exhibited at The Oakland Museum of California. The series is available as a monograph.)
A man smells a sex toy at the Asia Adult Expo and Intimate Lingerie expo in Hong Kong on August 29, 2013. After failing to take place in Hong Kong over the years, the event opened in the former British colony and will run from August 29 to 31. By Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images.
Fans wear many different looks as a first-inning foul ball heads their way. The Boston Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orioles in an MLB regular season game at Fenway Park on August 28, 2013. By Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images. A reader flagged it:
Whether or not you’re a baseball fan, you have to love this image.
A demonstrator shouts at the riot police during clashes that erupted after a march in support of Colombian farmers protesting in demand of government subsidies and greater access to land, in Bogota on August 29, 2013. Backed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest leftist guerrilla group, farmworkers called the open-ended protest to demand government subsidies for certain agricultural products and lower prices for inputs like seed and fertilizer. Protesters also are seeking guarantees on access to land, special land preserves for poor farmers, policies in support of traditional miners, improved delivery of healthcare, and potable water in rural areas. By Guillermo Legaria/AFP/Getty Images.
Oprah Winfrey speaks at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2013. President Obama and others spoke to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech”. By Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images.
Taking peacocking to a whole new level:
Hindu devotees enacting Lord Krishnas life during a Janamashtami procession on August 27, 2013 in Jammu, India. Janmashtami is an annual commemoration of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. By Nitin Kanotra/Hindustan times via Getty Images.
A captured wild male black rhino named Sero at Lewa Wildlife looks out from its crate at Lewa conservancy on August 26, 2013. Eleven of Lewa’s total 73 endangered black rhinos are being relocated to neighboring Borana conservancy to afford them more space. The horn of each relocated rhino is cut and a tracking device is fitted to monitor its movements and to help combat poaching. Lewa has suffered severe poaching in the past. Illegally poached rhino horn is sold for large sums as an ingredient in some traditional Chinese medicine. By Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images.
For his Stardust project, artist Sergio Albiac combines portraits with images from the Hubble telescope. David Becker explains how you can take part:
1. Upload a frontal face image of yourself to your Google Drive account.
2. Share the image with Albiac via his email address: stardustportrait@gmail.com.
3. Wait a couple of days for quality control. If your portrait is suitable, Albiac’s algorithms will merge it with Hubble images to create three different montages that emphasize the cosmic dust from whence we all come. Results will show up in your Google Drive account and on the project’s Flickr page, unless you opt out of the Flickr part.
(Photo by Sergio Albiac)
From the new tumbr Book Shelfies, an exercise in literary narcissism. Naturally we had to go with the canine stand-in:
Ruby reads:
The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist and Alexandra Dick
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
American Skin by Don De Grazia
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
In the Woods by Tana French
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Road by Carmac McCarthy
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The Dish 