Tristan da Cunha: The busiest place you’ve never seen Photographer Julia Gunther and writer-filmmaker Nick Schönfeld chronicle the rhythms of daily life on Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island.

Photographer Julia Gunther and writer-filmmaker Nick Schönfeld chronicle the rhythms of daily life on Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island.

Three artworks by Chris Silverman. On the left, a blue car driving at night beneath huge crescent moon, past a moody forest and tall poles with lights. In the middle, an orange brick building that's shaped almost like a robot, surround by orange scrub brush, against an orange sky; the building/robot is emitting a puff of smoke out a window that looks like an eye, or a mouth. On the right, a drawing of the surface of the moon, with earthrise in the background, and -- incongruously -- a manhole with a yellow traffic cone next to it, and a ladder peeking out.

Behold the lovely art of @csilverman.bsky.social -- who does one of these drawings every single day ...

... using the Notes app on his iphone (!!)

I didn't even know Notes *had* drawing tools

he really pushes it

item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Yes — “The older I get, the more I realize, I don’t want a busy life. I want a deep life. Slow mornings. Focused work. Calm people. Meaningful progress. Good books. A quiet mind at night. Nothing flashy. Nothing trendy. Just a life that feels good to live. Depth over noise. That'll do.“ Karun Pal

Wow. Who knew Pithiviers, France looks like Eastern Colorado?

Pentax 17 | Ilford XP2 Super 400
#believeinfilm @ilfordphoto.com

Off road.

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls On the optimism of preparation in a time of democratic decay.

"The wall looks permanent until the day it comes down."

data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-wall-l...

Several people I know have used the word "beautiful" for this piece, and that's exactly right. A beautifully phrased essay on the bind we're in— until we aren't.

Recommended, in an extreme way.

A black-and-white photograph shows the nose of a commercial airplane centered within a narrow vertical window view, framed by two dark interior window mullions on either side. The rounded cockpit dominates the middle of the frame, its angular windshield panes appearing dark against the lighter fuselage. Below, a flat expanse of pale tarmac stretches toward the aircraft, with a service platform and ground equipment partially visible to the left. In the background, low airport buildings form a horizontal band beneath a textured sky filled with rippling, layered clouds that shift from darker gray at the top to lighter tones near the horizon. The tight framing turns a functional airport scene into something inward-looking. The aircraft feels almost watchful, suspended between arrival and departure, while the vertical borders emphasize separation—inside from outside, motion from stillness, and the human pause that exists just before leaving again.

“Off to Senegal”

The plane waits, framed by glass and shadow, caught in that quiet moment before we dip. Next post will be from Africa.

#EastCoastKin #Photography #StreetPhotography #ClassicMono

In 1931 in Kiel, Germany, Rachel Posner, the wife of a rabbi, took this picture.

On the back of the photograph she wrote:

“‘Death to Judah,’ so the flag says.

‘Judah lives forever,’ so the light answers.”

The light will continue to answer the darkness. Happy Hanukkah.

BEYOND THE FRAME | PERSONAL PROJECTS BY VETERANS JANUARY 9 – FEBRUARY 21, 2026 OPENING RECEPTION AT COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER 1200 LINCOLN ST, DENVER, CO 80203EMPTY HEADING SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2026EMPTY HEADING 5 – 8 PM ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Beyond the Frame | Personal Projects by Veterans features a compelling collection of fine art photography created by 8 Colorado artists who have served in the U.S. military. This unique exhibition is the culmination of CPAC’s Veterans Workshop Series, a six-month program of advanced photography courses provided to participants free of charge. Each project is intensely personal, reflecting each artist’s inspirations, life experiences, creativity, and point of view.  Alongside these powerful stories, CPAC proudly presents photographs by 16 former graduates of the Veterans Workshop Series who continue to pursue photography professionally. Copies of the exhibition catalog can be purchased on Blurb for $16. EXHIBITING VETERANS Jennifer Adair, Joshua Bridger, Brianna Corcoran, Harold Roberts FSAScot, Richard Rock, Vanessa Savas, Gary R. Stefanski, and Terrell R. Webb M.D. EXHIBITING ALUMNI Richard Caldwell, Rich Cancellare, Glenn C. Cole, Don Gardner, Elane Graves, Herbert Green, Bob Looser, Jeff Mallo, Aaron Middleton, COL(ret) Gurney F. Pearsall Jr. M.D., Chuck Rasco, Dick Reznik, Yvens Alex Saintil, Cherie Sutton, Ken Tschappat, and Kevin Weber

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Launched in August 2017, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center’s Veterans Workshop Series was created to offer local military Veterans with a passion for photography meaningful access to advanced photographic education—at no cost to them. Over the past nine years, 76 Veterans have completed the program, made possible through the collective support of CPAC and its partners, and driven by the dedication and creativity of the Veterans who participate. Over the past six months, participants have refined their technical skills, developed cohesive bodies of work, built professional portfolios, and learned to articulate their artistic practices. Their final projects will be showcased in a public exhibition in the David & Laura Merage Foundation Gallery at CPAC, on view from January 9 – February 21, 2026. Each artist was encouraged to pursue a personal project and explore a narrative extending beyond a single image. The resulting work spans a diverse range of subjects, each a deeply personal reflection of the artist’s individual vision. For example, Jennifer Adair’s photographs capture women’s motorcycle groups that embody camaraderie and empowerment, while Harold Robert’s portraits delve into his Scottish heritage and Colorado’s cultural connections to Scotland. Each year, I am inspired by the remarkable growth of these artists and the evolution of their creative voices. – Samantha Johnston Executive Director & Curator, Colorado Photographic Arts Center

I'm in my first exhibition, along with other vets, next month here in Denver. Opening night is Jan 10th. If you are local in Colorado and would like to enjoy an evening appreciating photography, you are welcome to attend the opening night or anytime for the six-week run. #EastCoastKin

Ragnar Axelsson.

'His face seemed to reach right back to the Vikings'

Guðjón, a farmer takes a walk along the black volcanic beach.
He was looking for a mink that had been killing his eider ducks. There was a moody atmosphere.

1995.

A portrait-format, black and white photo of a pool of water on a black sand beach. The light catches the edge of the sand in a line that leads towards distant mountains reflected in the water.

A simple scene from a remote black sand beach in Iceland.

I have a very bad feeling about this...

“The Purdue student newspaper owns its own presses” is the sound of engines revving

I’m handing out pro-democracy grades to the media The Guardian gets an A, the NY Times gets a C, CBS gets an F

"People often ask me what journalism I trust. So today I’m handing out letter grades to some major players." —Mark Jacob. www.stopthepresses.news/p/im-handing...

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

Raymond Depardon.

“Depardon’s geography is unique, arbitrary, personal, deliberately born of ‘the pain of the frame’ and ‘the joy of light,’” writes Bruno Racine in the introduction to Raymond Depardon’s La France, a photobook and ode to his native country, published in 2010.

Or, and hear me out, you could install any other flavor of Linux and not have everything you do with the computer tracked and sold.

A black-and-white photo of a modern glass building with a honeycomb façade that juts forward like a wedge. The sky is pale and blank, isolating the structure. In front, a calm reflecting pool mirrors the building as a dark triangular shape with slight ripples. A sparse plaza frames the scene: a tall light pole at left, low bollards, and dock-like edges tracing straight lines to the water. The picture reduces the harbor square to geometry: hard facets above, soft distortion below. The reflection compresses mass into an arrow, turning architecture and water into a single graphic form.

"Glass Grid, Harbor Mirror"

A faceted hall leans over still water; its reflection turns the volume into a sharp black-and-white prism.

#EastCoastKin #Photography #StreetPhotography #UrbanGaze #ClassicMono #Iceland #Fujifilm #Architecture

A black-and-white photograph of a parched landscape with cracked earth in the foreground. The dry lakebed dominates the frame, its surface broken into sharp, irregular polygons, their edges lifted like puzzle pieces separating. The cracks radiate outward and lead the eye toward the middle distance, where grasses and shrubs line the boundary of the dried ground. Beyond, dark rolling hills rise on both sides, framing a view into a hazy valley with mountains in the background. The sky above is overcast, with clouds adding weight and drama to the scene. The photograph reads as both stark documentation and abstract design: the earth’s fracture patterns forming lines and angles that echo human geometry, yet undeniably born of natural forces. It speaks of drought and impermanence, but also of order within collapse.

"Drought Lines"

The earth opens in fractured geometry, each crack a line drawn by thirst.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLines #BlueSkyArtShow #Angles #ClassicMono #EastCoastKin #Photography #LandscapePhotography #Fujifilm #Colorado

A black-and-white photograph of Interstate 70 running west across the Colorado plateau toward Utah. The highway dominates the foreground, its painted centerlines leading the eye toward a narrowing vanishing point. On the right, mesas rise in stepped terraces, their surfaces striped with erosion and shadow. On the left, the landscape flattens into an open valley with faint fencing and scrub. Above, massive cumulus clouds churn and billow, their sunlit crowns stark against darker, brooding undersides that seem to press down on the land. In the hazy distance, a pointed peak interrupts the horizon, anchoring the eye at the end of the road. The stark monochrome palette heightens the tension between the open invitation of the road and the looming heaviness of the sky. What begins as a straightforward highway scene becomes something more—an image of transition, movement, and the uncertainty that lies ahead when the landscape itself feels restless.

"I-70 to Utah"

The highway stretches west into storm-heavy skies across Colorado’s western slope.

#ClassicMono #EastCoastKin #Photography #LandscapePhotography #Fujifilm #Colorado

Robert Adams.

Colorado.

1965-68.

Adams’ work… isolated people living in a barren landscape being colonised and inhabited without much thought for the beauty or the destruction of the landscape.

Re-reading actually. Just finished The Comfort Crisis and starting Scarcity Brain. Both by Michael Easter. They are great if you’re into non-fiction.

I'm researching a magazine piece on how AI coding-tools are affecting software development

Are you a dev who uses 'em? Avoids 'em? Love to get your 2 cents!

Also: New CS grads looking for work ... what's it like, in this environment?

hit me up at clive@clivethompson.net

(and repost this please!)

Today in 1792 Alexander Hamilton described what has happened in the last decade.

🚌 GREYHOUND by Joanna Pocock publishes today 🚌

‘Traversing urban metropolises and desert vistas, GREYHOUND is an erudite study of how living among others became a dying art.’
— Ellen Peirson-Hagger, THE OBSERVER
🚌
Read an excerpt and order a copy: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/greyho...

Looking through rain covered glass at a rural church standing in a field under storm clouds. An RV is parked in the lot.

Take Me to Church

#ohotography #blackandwhite