nigerian nostalgia project.

Lagos Municipal Transport Buses at Race Course in the 70’s, Vintage Nigeria

Interior of a European textile store, Nigeria 1930s.
Vintage Nigeria

Ibadan Teaching Hospital,1950
Vintage Nigeria

via lostinurbanism

Celestial Church of Christ (Aladura), 1982Vintage Nigeria

Fishermen in Calabar, 1981
Vintage Nigeria

Children in Calabar, 1981
Vintage Nigeria

Photo by Paul Almasy. Nigeria, 1972

A beach in Apapa, 1910s
Vintage Nigeria

Twins Seven Seven/Taiwo Olaiyi Salau (his real name) - musician, actor, poet and writer. His music (as is his art) is heavily rooted in Yoruba culture and mythology.

View of Afikpo Village. Ebonyi, Nigeria. 1950
Vintage Nigeria

The Nigerian Nostalgia Project is a wonderful archive collecting photographs of Nigeria from the late 19th century to the 1990s. The blog is run by Nigerian-raised Olayemi, alongside other administrators. They write:

The Nigerian Nostalgia Project serves as a place for the estimated 6 million Nigerian users online to gather and piece together through commentary and discussion, the fragmented history of our collective recent past. In the Group, pictures are posted from a variety of sources that highlight lifestyle, achievements, values, thought processes, and standards that existed in Nigeria prior to 1980 in contrast to what holds today. This is an interactive and emotional experience for the group participants as it emphasizes what is perhaps a basis for our national pride. Parts of our history are neither comprehensively documented, nor part of the standard education curriculum nor generally understood. The group activities add value by reconnecting many people to the ideals which were present prior to, and at the inception of, the independent Nigeria. They are critical to any effort to motivate the Nigerian population as the country strives to rediscover its identity and confidence, and position itself for sustainable future growth.

Click here for more.

just a thought. [ladies on cycles]

Sourced from the tangled scrag of the Hulton Archive, these excellent shots by Augustus Rischgitz show just how the ladies of the late 19th century used to role. What a delight. 

[photo drop] : famous faked photographs

via the Guardian.

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

give in to the simple pleasures of john martin.

The Bard c. 1817

John Martin is quite simply a genius.

A delightful afternoon at his current show Apocalypse, on view at the Tate Britain, confirmed this fact. Oh yes, it did.

Wildly popular during his heyday (circa 1815-1854), Mr. Martin was a celebrated figure in the art world,  delighting the public with his extraordinary cinematic vision drawn from religious mythology. In his lifetime he completed several notable series, including oil paintings depicting scenes from The Book of Revelations and mezzotint prints for an illustrated version of Milton's Paradise Lost.

Book Three

Book Four

Book Ten

Book Twelve

Not being much of a Bible thumper myself, its rare that paintings of a strictly religious nature will move me on the grounds of their subject alone. Yet Milton's wall-sized panoramas are nothing if not transfixing; envisioning well known Christian narratives in all their earth-shattering, ground-splitting, run-if-you-want-but-you"ll-never-escape-THE-WRATH windswept and fire-saturated glory. Yet its exactly this turn of hyperbolic flourish that gives these works a post-religious appeal; Martin transcends the pure Biblicality of his subjects and indulges the viewers desire for fantasy. He treats his stories as fable rather then fact, forsaking key characters in favor of imaginative landscapes which stretch out endlessly in ever-unfolding shades of violent and saturated and unnatural colour. In Adam and Eve Entertaining the Angel Gabriel we see our our main characters rendered as tiny luminous nudes; pale in comparison to the vast meadows, lagoons, and snow-capped mountains against which they are posited. In other works we find the King of Babylon barely visible amidst the colossus of his crumbling urban paradise, and the Pharaoh of Egypt a tiny figurine against a brooding sky clogged with lightening and cloud. Even when our boy Jesus makes an appearance in The Final Judgement, its the yawning chasm of hell-fire and careening debris which draws our eye in first.

Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion. 1812 

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 1852

The Fall of Babylon. c 1835

The Final Judgment. 1851

The Great Day of His Wrath. 1852/53

The Plains of Heaven. 1852/53

But what's most interesting to note about Martin's work is the so called "controversy" that surrounds it - mainly the fact that his work has alternately fallen in and out of favor with critics who have called it distasteful, sensationalist, redundant and low-brow. His popularity as a traveling exhibitor often seemed to work against him, giving grounds to his reputation as a painter who pandered to the crowd and was generally guilty of making things that were just too much fun to go and see.

Such commentary is not entirely misplaced; Martin's paintings certainly tend towards obscene theatricality, and given the choice between restrain and excess I would say he'd usually go for the latter (Why use a hundred foot-soldiers when a hundred thousand would do?). But its this indulgence of his obviously overactive imagination which invites us to indulge our own. Getting lost in Martin's images feels good. It would be foolish to overlook the dramatic vision (not to mention exquisite execution) which made Martin both a very talented and very likable painter, simply because his paintings are too readily pleasurable to look at.

It's a strange tendency of ours isn't it, this masochistic urge to question ourselves for enjoying anything that seems just a little too easy? Martin immortalized a world of Christian moralism where licentious kings, libidinous whores and sin-soaked cities met their demise at the hand of a greater, more rational authority. And while these tales certainly reek of flagrant sermonizing, it is our inclination to critique our own "devious" enjoyment of Martin's works which feel truly heavy-handed.

There is a reason eating is fun, sex is exciting and the sun feels wonderful on our faces... simple, uncomplicated pleasures that directly stimulate our senses and make us happy. No need to feel guilty, just accept it. Enjoy it. John Martin is still, 150 years on, one of the greatest pleasures in the art world. So go and see him. It doesn't mean you're weak.

King Arthur and Aegle in the Happy Valley. 1849

John Martin is at the Tate Britain until 15th January, 2012.

prints. and their past.

Le Jardin Fruitier, France, 1821

Welcome to The Small Galleon.

I'd like to begin with a brief tribute to the naturalist print, a longstanding love of mine, and quite a niche art form not usually granted attention outside of science history museums and collectors shops. 

Botanical prints are the earliest examples of this genre of art, which can be dated back to the fifteenth century. During this era, so called “herbals”, books containing medicinal and culinary uses for plants, called for scientifically accurate illustrations of the plants described, usually made with wood-cut prints. 

Belser Hortus, 16th Century

Matteaus Plataerius, 15th Century

Throughout the Renaissance period and the flowering of aestheticism, art for art’s sake, naturalist print making moved from pure functionality to cater to a more aesthetic market. Commissions for works of “florigia”, expensive books cataloging exotic fruits and flowers, flourished in the 17^th century. Advancements in techniques such as engraving and etching lead to greater fineness and experimentation.       

Indian Sugar Cane

Jatropha (Rubber Tree)

By the 18^th and 19^th century the popularity of botanical prints had reached its heights, while mass printing and lithograph allowed this demand to flourish. In 1787 William Curtis published the first issue of The Botanical Magazine, a platform for both illustrators and naturalists. This, the oldest journal of its kind, is still published today by The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, London. 

(following images from Curtis' Botanical Magazine, 1807)

In the modern world, the naturalist print feels full of nostalgia, intrigue, and exotica. In a pre-photographic era, the print itself was part curiosity, part travelogue, part historical record. As an artistic object, it cradles the thrill of the newly observed. Like peaking through the slit of an antiquated kinetoscope, the feeling is one of looking back upon a world still discovering itself. Despite its origins as an informational tool, the naturalist print somehow never truly feels like a work of pure realism. Partial to artistic temperaments, romantic saturation of colour, and imaginative situations, to the modern eye they more closely resemble drawings in a children’s fantasy story than any sort of hard scientific evidence. For me, these depictions of flora and fauna will always evoke a sense of bespoke quirkiness that’s often un-retained in photography, now the premier medium for cataloging the natural world. 

Gang Gang Cockatoo, 1884

England, 1860

Germany, 1894

 So here were a lovely few to get us started. I’ll be featuring new examples whenever the fancy strikes me, grouped by categorical or thematic similarities.