Meanwhile #167
This week’s particularly monochromatic visual digest.
Sinéad O'Connor by Jane Bown, 1992. Incredible. Captures so much about her with so little. From this collection of Bown’s work on The Guardian, covering the pop culture gamut from Beatlemania to Björk.
I’ve been poring over this fantastic album of Robert Yarnall Richie photographs on flickr for a job this week, and this 1938 shot of men at an oil field in Friendswood, Texas leapt out at me. Alas, it’s not right for the cover in question, but by golly I’m determined to find a use for this at some point.
Milano, la terrazza del Duomo by Paolo Di Paolo, 1962. I’ve only just discovered the Italian photographer, who died last month, but I’m already seduced by his incredible images documenting the grime and glamour of postwar/mid-century Italy. Bruce Weber’s 2021 documentary The Treasure of His Youth: The Photographs of Paolo Di Paolo looks like it might be worth a watch.
Going down a bit of a Weber rabbit hole, I’m loving the rawness of this poster for his 1987 boxing doc Broken Noses. Imagine that peering out of the cinema foyer amongst all the technicolour floating heads.
More hand-lettering here, exquisitely framing Gong Li on the poster for Ye Lou’s 2019 film Saturday Fiction. This is just one of many, including a handful of character posters. There are English variants too, but sidey-sidey text just doesn’t compare to uppy-downy (technical terms). Not sure who the designer is – any ideas?