The Town Scryer is a mixed bag of humor, socio-political observations and ephemera from the perspective of a eclectic Pagan veteran of the counter-culture.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Stealing the King's Sword and Assorted Curiosities



"This famous image from the camera of Robert Lebeck is much anthologized as the ‘ African moment’. A gutsy young Congolese has jogged along the limousine of King Baudouin of Belgium and the Belgian Congo as then was. And, on the very eve of independence, 29 June 1960, he has reached gently down and lifted the King’s ceremonial sword and has begun to run with it.
Looking at the photograph fifty years on there is the suspicion that in part Lebeck’s shot became famous because of the sensitive features of the thief, the fact that he was in a suit and, of course, the entirely harmless nature of his protest."

    More at Strange History


The great American documentary photographer is hoping to find the subject of this photograph that he took in 1960 when he visits London to receive an award.
Girl Holding Kitten, posed somewhere in London in 1960, was taken when he was travelling around Britain in a Hillman Minx convertible. "She was with two friends and they were on their way to a concert which, as I remember it, took place on an island," Davidson, 77, said. "I hung around with them for a few hours. The girl with the kitten, the bedroll and the beautifully innocent, hopeful, mysterious face has stayed with me ever since."



Davidson is known for his closeness to his subject matter. He befriended a group of teenagers for his seminal book, Brooklyn Gang (1959), and spent three years living among the residents of East 110th Street in the late 1960s.
"I don't do detachment," he says. "I often start off a project as an outsider and become an insider."

The Guardian

     And now for something completely different:


Be seeing you.

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