A Thousand Words: Part Two
Because Pam's House Blend reads like Andrew Sullivan's alter-ego in the aftermath of a crystal-meth binge, Gay Patriot is not so subtly trying to purchase votes by pledging to donate $1 for every vote received to a military charity and Brat Boi School reminds me of the kind of cute but emotionally dramatic guys I used to file restraining orders against when I was in my mid-twenties (I kid, I kid!), I want you all to look away from the trainwreck of the Best LGBT Award and focus on the Best Photo Blog Award, instead.
Since there's nothing like art to soothe the addled beast (and some bloggers are getting pretty damn addled over a contest in which the ones who come out on top win, well . . . nothing), I offer a brief overview of Photo Bloggers 6 through 10 (may they live forever, and may you always grace them with your Internet traffic):
6. Photojunkie Squared: Rannie Turingan's photo blog is an unassuming, intimate perspective on the larger world in which he seems to bemusedly find himself. Combining a would-be professional's eye with a snap-shooter's heart, Turingan utilizes what he calls "old, crappy" film cameras over digital models because he prefers what he considers the magic of film as opposed to the precise, often clinical nature of the strictly digital era. I find his photographs warmly personal, and sometimes touching.
7. Satan's Laundromat: A photo blog of New York "with an emphasis on urban decay, strange signage, and general weirdness," Mike at SL captures the everyday character of urban clutter and elevates it into art. A Macy's parade balloon, a street sign, graffiti on a wall, a smoothie stand during a trip to Tokyo -- SL catalogues and transforms its subjects into a sum that's larger than their individual natures might suggest, while ever reminding the viewer that beauty, if not always obvious, really is everywhere.
8. Sugarfused: A deft combination of writer's blog with photo blog, Sugarfused focuses more on nature pics than is my personal preference, but that said, her photos of flowers are sometimes amazingly sensual a la Georgia O'Keeffe, if you're into that sort of thing. Her writing style is also casual and friendly, and she has a loyal following of devoted fans.
9. Daily Dose of Imagery: One of the heavyweights of the photo blogging world, Sam Javanrou's blog is a marvel of light, mood, color, form and texture. He jumps nimbly from landscapes to portraits to architecture and urban fragments without losing even a bit of balance, and every photo is worth the double-take you're sure to perform.
10 Zombie Time: A welcome addition to the mix, Zombie Time chronicles the nuts and fruits of the anti-globalist, anti-capitalist left in snapshot form. This is not an art site, but, rather, a political journal in photographic form, and, as such, will undoubtedly be referenced decades into the future for its exhaustive visual examples of a political movement that mainstream society abandoned along the way towards greater social interconnectivity.