Curious Images

[Wulfram]

1. This haunting old photograph was taken at Niagara Falls in 1879.
If you look in the center of the photo you will see the image of a man.

“Two men boating in the Niagara River were overwhelmed by the river's strong current, lost control of their boat, and crashed into a rock. The current carried one man immediately over the Falls to his death. The daguerreotype shows the second man, stranded on a log which had jammed between two rocks. He weathered the current for eighteen hours before succumbing to the river.” 6

He must have sat there a good while, wondering if anyone was going to try and rescue him, only to realize that nobody was going to do a thing. Even then, like any human would with a love of life, he continued to hold on.

I read somewhere that this daguerreotype is worth over 100,000 dollars.

(Please click on photo for larger image)



2. This drawing dates from 1831. “Pele-Scie” translates into “Father Saw”.
The man being cut in half doesn’t seem too concerned, as if he is saying “Dude, would you mind? I’m trying to get some sleep!”
Also, does anybody see a cloaked or hooded face on the lower back area of that priest?




3. The title of this sketch is called 'The Cabinet of Curiosities 1656'.

This was a private museum that belonged to a man called “Ole Worm”.
There were numerous examples of these "cabinets" throughout the world in those days.
Look at the upper right hand corner. Is that an Armadillo?!




4. This is why I love the Victorians. They invented some very crazy things.

'Concentrated FRIGID Jr.' was designed for the exclusive purpose of embalming babies.




5. Ever wonder what cartoon figures look like underneath?
Here is 'Linus' from the cartoon series called 'Peanuts':



And here is Donald Duck:




6. This is a daguerreotype photograph of the city of Boston.
It was taken from a hot-air balloon by James Wallace Black in October of 1860.
It is the first aerial photograph ever of a city.
Notice the ghostly image of the clipper ship in the harbor above.

[Wulfram]

Here are a few more.(Please click on first and third photos for larger images)


1. Bullet through a beer



2. Believe Instantly Breathspray!



3. Try to find all 81 Absolut bottles in the photo:

[Wulfram]

1.


2.


3. The Best Staircase In The World





4. Steampunk Treehouse



5. This square block is actually a street painting.



6. Church built in a gorge, near Ipiales, Colombia

[Wulfram]

1. Rushton Triangular Lodge - Rushton, Northamptonshire, England.

Designed and constructed between 1593 and 1597 by Sir Thomas Tresham
His belief in the Holy Trinity is represented everywhere in the Lodge by the number three: it has three walls 33 feet long, each with three triangular windows and surmounted by three gargoyles. The building has three floors, upon a basement, and a triangular chimney. A Latin text 33 letters long runs around the building on each facade.
The slightly raised ground floor has an entrance in the south-east facade, above the door is carved "3333". The principal room on each floor is a hexagon, thus leaving the three corner spaces triangular, one of these spaces contains a spiral staircase, the remaining two are small rooms. The building is crowned, above the quotations on each facade by three steep gables each surmounted by a three-sided obelisk at the apex. Among the emblems carved on the gables is the, highly symbolic, seven-branched candelabrum representing the seven eyes of God. A pelican emblem, a symbol of Christ and the Eucharist, is also carved. The triangular chimney is adorned with the holy monogram "IHS", a lamb and cross, and a chalice.
Carved in the gables are the unexplained numbers "3509" and "3898". Among the dates carved on the building are 1580, thought to be the date of Tresham's conversion, but also the (future at the time of their carving) dates 1626 and 1641 - to what do they refer? The broken inscriptions inscribed on each gable combine to read "Respicite non mihi laboravi".
The Lodge was the only building Tresham designed which he saw completed before his death in 1605. Nikolaus Pevsner in his famed Buildings of Northamptonshire states: "as a testament of faith this building must be viewed with respect". He also considered the lodge so architecturally important that he chose its photograph for the front cover of the first edition of his book.
Tresham was catholic and had been imprisoned for a lengthy period of time because of it. After being released he constructed this curiosity as a way of defying the protestant Elizabethan government. There is no record of him having been sent back to jail as a result. The mysterious numbers may have been some type of code by which other catholics-in-hiding could interpret as a sign that they were on safe territory.
Some earlier, obscure form of freemasonry may also be involved.

[velvet]

The Haunted Grandfather Clock, Birr Castle, County Offaly, Ireland



Cat, Virginia, USA



Old Castle Hackett, County Galway, Ireland



See more images at Simon Marsden Archives

Simon Marsden is one of the most fascinating contemporary photographers. Almost all of his photos are black&white, and he produces an eerie kind of magic with light and shadow.
There are also several books available with thematical collections, such as "Geistersuche" (Ghostsearch), "Im Reich der Geister" (In the Realms of Ghosts - Haunted Places on the British Isles) and "Im Reich des Grauens" (In the Realms of Horror - The World of Edgar Allen Poe in texts and images).
Contains, among others, the poem "The Raven" on which the movie "Der Kampf der Magier" (engl. title "The Raven") from 1963 (with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff) is based. Marsden illustrates Poe's shivering horror quite perfectly!

[Sigurd]

Here goes a personal contribution. One of the best photographs I've ever taken --- absolutely unedited.

Notice the splashing-water effect in the lower left corner and the still-water-reflection towards the lower half. One couldn't tell whether it's looking along a still river or towards the sky or a zoomed angled mixture of the two, though perhaps the branch in the middle ruins it somewhat.

But actually, it's just an effect created by precise-moment motion of the camera so that the lens-delay triggered a blurry effect when looking towards the treetops.

[Wulfram]

1. I am sure most people who have read about Van Gogh know that there is not supposed to be one photo of him that exists.
This is a photograph Vincent Van Gogh at about the age of 19:




2. This is a part of Marienburg Castle. That curious looking structure standing to the left is what as known as a toilet tower.
It was constructed for no less a personage than the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
The tower used to stand over a river, which has long since changed course.
I couldn’t find out if that is a bridge or a viaduct that connects to the castle.




3. This is a wax effigy of Louis the XIV, sculpted in 1705 when he was 67 years of age.
Every detail by the artist was included, which includes the color of his skin and eyes, the wig he wore when sitting for the portrait, right down to the very whiskers!
It is almost like looking at the actual person. It is a likeness that not even Bernini’s marble bust could capture.
The extreme “hook” of the nose may lend evidence to the theory that he had jewish ancestry from his mothers side.

(Please click on photo for larger image)

[Wulfram]

More random curiosities.

(Please click on photos for larger Image)


For the following controversial ad, Absolut was accused by hispanics for mocking what "used to be theirs".
It was also condemned by Americans for implying that Mexico should take back what used to belong to them.
In spite of the fact that the company denies both allegations, the map clearly shows Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada as being a part of Mexico.


A centuries old door in a Venice prison.
Exactly who, or what, needed all these locks to keep them in?!

During World War I, there was a moment when the metal that coins were made in Austria and Germany became more valuable than the money it represented. People began hoarding coins, and during the war, the metal which was available was needed for the war.

The shortage of metal meant people were having trouble making change. So individual cities, local banks and citizen's organizations began to take it on themselves to print what were called "Notgeld," which means "emergency money" or "necessity money", mostly colorful paper notes in low denominations (although they also used linen, tin foil, porcelain, and coal, to name a few unusual materials).

Notgeld began during the war and carried on into the period before and slightly overlapping the height of hyperinflation, when it literally took a wheelbarrow of money to buy eggs, which happened in the early 1920s.

Beautifully-designed, people began to collect them. And, since people collected the pretty ones, there began to be some competition about who could produce the prettiest.

Notgeld:






















Renaissance Observatory/Castle
Designed by Tycho Brahe in 1598




The Berlin TV Tower being shot into space!

[Wulfram]

These photographs were taken in Berlin during the recent German Unity Day.
I haven't figured out how giant marionettes figure into it, but they are still interesting to look at.

(Photos may be enlarged)

[Wulfram]

A kind of 3-D jigsaw puzzle of New York City.
From skyscrapers down to the smallest row homes.










These are the Miller Brewery Fermenting Rooms.
A series of murals were painted to cover a bland looking wall.
The results are beautiful. Too bad the beer itself isn't.

Before


After








A Swede named Erik Johansson created the following images.