Rec. #796: Black Panthers in the 1960s

What: The Guardian highlights works from a 1968 photo essay by Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones. The photo essay captures community activism, political education, and overt resistance.

How to get it: The exhibit at the San Francisco Art Institute has closed, but you can still see a curated photoset on The Guardian. 

Rec. #781: Borderline - Frontiers of Peace

What: Photographer Valerio Vincenzo conceived of his ongoing project Borderline - Frontiers of Peace as a way to challenge our usual notions of what borders look like.

These images of open borders that were once sites of violence effectively bolster the idea that the Schengen Agreement was "probably the most important historical event in Europe since World War II."

How to get it: You can view many images from this project on Vincenzo's website. You can also purchase the book or (if you're feeling particularly flush with cash) individual prints.

Rec. #776: The Black Cowboys of the Mississippi

What: Picture a cowboy. Try again.

Photographer Rory Doyle's ongoing series "Delta Hill Riders" focuses on black cowboys and cowgirls in the Mississippi Delta.

Take that, John Wayne.

How to get it: Doyle has had international exhibitions of this series, so maybe you'll catch one of those. If not, you can still see samples of his work from The Guardian, The Washington Post, and his own website.

List #71: Best of 2018

The Big Family Cooking Showdown: Best Replacement for the BBC's Great British Bake Off, Rec. #717

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Most Positive TV Twist, Rec. #707

Burn, Burn, Burn: Best Road Trip, Rec. #723

Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Best Return of the '90s Snarky Brunettes, Rec. #743

Captain Awkward: Best Advice on the Internet, Rec. #705

Check, Please: Best Webcomic Now in Print, Rec. #735

Chess: Best Live Musical Performance, Rec. #721

Colossal: Best I-Guess-It's-Technically-SciFi, Rec. #713

"DecaDance/Chicago": Best Live Dance Performance, Rec. #703

Dogs on Twitter: Best Reason Not to Rage-Quit the Internet, Rec. #747

Dr. Gameshow: Best Way to Keep Up with NYC Comedy When You're Not in NYC, Rec. #719

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Best Place to Discover New Sketch Comedy Duos, Rec. #749

An Emmy for Megan: Best Short Form Comedy Concept, Rec. #751

Flo & Joan: Best Musical Comedy Duo, Rec. #709

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: Best Righteous Fury on the Screen, Rec. #739

Janeane Garofalo: Best Return of the '90s Snarky Brunettes, Rec. #743

Giant Days: Best Continuing Comic Book Series, Rec. #711

Good and Mad: Best Righteous Fury on the Page, Rec. #737

The Good Place: Best Recent Evidence of the Genius of Allison Jones, Casting Director, Rec. #745

The Good Place: Most Deserving of Implicit Trust, Rec. #757

The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4): Best Replacement for the BBC's Great British Bake Off, Rec. #717

The Guardian: Best Photography Curation, Rec. #729

Making It: Best Replacement for the BBC's Great British Bake Off, Rec. #717

Only Connect and Victoria Coren Mitchell: Best Match of Host with Show, Rec. #755

Paddington 2: Best Movie Featuring Sally Hawkins Underwater, Rec. #701

Helen Rosner: Best Insight Into the Food World for Non-Foodies, Rec. #715

Schitt's Creek: Best Serenades, Rec. #733

The Spy Who Dumped Me: Best Buddy Comedy, Rec. #725

Taskmaster: Best Embrace of Meaninglessness, Rec. #731

Louis Virtel: Most Welcome Podcast Guest, Rec. #753

Visages Villages: Best Road Trip That Is Also a Buddy Comedy, Rec. #727

W1A: Best Faux Documentary, Rec. #741

You're on an Airplane: Best Return of the '90s Snarky Brunettes, Rec. #743

Rec. #729: Best Photography Curation

***BEST OF 2018***

 The Guardian consistently presents interesting, gorgeous photography covering a wide range of sources and subjects.

See:

Rec. #467: Holi 2018 - Before and After
Rec. #486: Gun Violence Protests Around the World
Rec. #495: Amazing Mini Animals
Rec. #516: Pantone Project
Rec. #531: The Unexpected Beauty of China's Bicycle Graveyards
Rec. #536: ABBA Unseen
Rec. #552: Kodachrome Snapshots
Rec. #578: Dog on the Deckchair - Sussex in the '70s
Rec. #606: MFON - Women Photographers of the African Diaspora
Rec. #614: 101 Uses for a Ping-Pong Table
Rec. #635: The World's Most Beautiful Libraries
Rec: #650: How the U.S. Has Prepared for Nuclear Armageddon
Rec. #668: Canine-Human Lookalikes
Rec. #682: Infra Realism - Deserts Saturated with Colour
Rec. #691: Behind the Scenes with the Biggest Soul Stars of the '70s
Rec. #698: No One's Home: Europe's Abandoned Houses

Rec. #698: No One's Home: Europe's Abandoned Houses

What: Have a tour through some extravagant decay, with this photoset from urban photographer Roman Robroek. The set includes collapsed floors in Italy, abandoned pianos in Poland, and piles of discarded books in Germany.

How to get it: "No One's Home: Europe's Abandoned Houses" was published in The Guardian in August.

Rec. #691: Behind the Scenes with the Biggest Soul Stars of the '70s

What: Photographer Bruce Talamon spent a decade following R&B and soul artists in the U.S., and now 300 pictures from his archive have been collected into a book.

The Guardian shares some of the images, as well as insight from Talamon, in this article.

Representative quote: "Backstage, publicists [back then] didn’t snatch the Jack Daniel’s out of the artist’s hand or take the spliff out of Bob Marley’s mouth. I could shoot all night long and nobody ever said: ‘Put your camera down.'"
How to get it: "Behind the Scenes with the Biggest Soul Stars of the '70s" was published in The Guardian this past July.

Rec. #682: Infra Realism - Deserts Saturated with Colour

What: This photoset from The Guardian highlights work from photographer Katie Ballis's "Infra Realism" project. Ballis converted a digital camera for infrared, giving us a startling look at nuances that are usually just beyond the scope of the human eye.

How to get it: You can see the full series on Ballis's website and even buy prints if you're feeling particularly spendy.

Connections to previous Wreckage: See more cool photography here.

Rec. #668: Canine-Human Lookalikes in Pictures

What: Photographer Gerrard Gethings embarked on a project to find 50 human/dog pairs. He started with the dogs, then searched for promising-looking human counterparts. This photoset from The Guardian gives us 10 of the resulting pairs as well as insight into the overall process.

Representative quote: "I’ve been taking photographs for a long time so am well versed in administering dubious compliments."

How to get it: "Canine-Human Lookalikes in Pictures" appeared in The Guardian last month.

Connections to previous Wreckage: See more photography here.

Rec: #650: How the U.S. Has Prepared for Nuclear Armageddon - in pictures

What: I mean. You might want to take a look.

How to get it: The photoset "How the U.S. Has Prepared for Nuclear Armageddon" was published in The Guardian this past June.

Connections to previous Wreckage: You can see recommendations for other photosets, many from The Guardian, here.

Rec. #635: The World's Most Beautiful Libraries - in pictures

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

What: The Guardian features some highlights from a new Taschen book from Italian photographer Massimo Listri.

The contents are relevant to our interests.

How to get it: The photoset is from the beginning of this month and freely available. The book itself is considerably spendier.

Rec. #614: 101 Uses for a Ping-Pong Table

 

What: Who knew a half-abandoned ping-pong table in Germany could be this interesting? From 2012-2016, photographer Hayahisa Tomiyasu recorded what was going on around the ping-pong table he could see from his apartment.

Representative quote: "I spent Christmas and New Year in my room, so as not to pass any interesting occurrences at the table."

How to get it: The images are now gathered into a book, TPP, that won the 2018 MACK First Book award. You can also see several of the images in "101 Uses for a Ping-Pong Table," a gallery from The Guardian.

Rec. #606: MFON - Women Photographers of the African Diaspora

What: In their own words, MFON "is an exclusive and commemorative publication committed to establishing and representing a collective voice of women photographers of African descent." You can see examples of the work with this gallery from The Guardian.

Images of underrepresented populations matter (representation matters!), and so does who's behind the camera. Plus, of course, the photos are really good.

How to get it: Read more about MFON on their website.

Rec. #599: The Hidden Flag

What: Six activists took advantage of the World Cup to travel through host country Russia (which is rife with homophobic discrimination) as a living Pride flag. Their plausible deniability? The colors came from their footsoccerball shirts.

How to get it: See the full photo series and hear from the participants at TheHiddenFlag.org.

Rec. #578: Dog on the Deckchair - Sussex in the '70s

What: Photographer Dorothy Bohm's work spans 75 years. This gallery from The Guardian spotlights some of it and also includes fascinating nuggets about Bohm's life (e.g., after fleeing the Nazis, she apparently learned English within the first year of her arrival in England).

Where to get it: If you happen to be in Chichester, you can see a Bohm exhibition. For the rest of us, The Guardian published this gallery in May.

Connections to previous Wreckage: See more posts on photography here.

Rec. #552: Kodachrome Snapshots

What: "Colourful Lives: Salvaged Snapshots from the Kodachrome Era" is a Guardian photo gallery highlighting some selections from The Anonymous Project.

Families, friends, bodybuilders --- this collection's got it all.

How to get it: The Guardian published this gallery last October.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Other photo galleries from The Guardian include "Holi 2018" (Rec. #467), "Gun Violence Protests Around the World" (Rec. #486), "Amazing Mini Animals" (Rec. #495), "Pantone Project" (Rec. #516), China's bicycle graveyards (Rec. #531), and "ABBA Unseen" (Rec. #536).

Rec. #536: ABBA Unseen -- in pictures

What: Eurovision was this past weekend. How better to honor it than by strolling through some archives on ABBA, arguably the biggest Eurovision act of all time?

"ABBA Unseen" includes highlights from a recently closed London exhibition that featured photographs, costumes, memorabilia, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

Representative quote: "One of ABBA’s only touring indulgences was a tour doctor ... He was treated in the same generous way as the rest of the crew, such as the band not starting aftershow dinners until everyone, including stage-riggers and roadies, was ready."

How to get it: This photo series appeared in The Guardian last December.

Rec. #531: The Unexpected Beauty of China's Bicycle Graveyards

What: The Guardian presents this series of photographs showing some of the millions of dockless share bikes in abandoned and collected in cities across China. Beautiful, mesmerizing, and vaguely depressing.

Rec. #516: Pantone Project

 

What: The Pantone swatch book has 1,114 colors. Australian photographer Matthew Henry is working to capture all of them.

How to get it: See a great spread in The Guardian and also Henry's Instagram.

Rec. #495: Amazing Mini Animals -- in pictures

What: Want to see a tree frog on a jug, a dwarf goat in a purse, or a kestrel on an egg? Here you go.

Representative quote: "The most bizarre experience was hearing the frustrated hedgehog make a noise as if he was clearing his nose."

How to get it: This gallery was published by The Guardian last fall.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The Guardian has some fantastic photography features, like "Holi 2018" (Rec. #467) and "Gun Violence Protests Around the World" (Rec. #486).