A Chronology of Crime in the Keystone State

A slideshow of 20 mugshots of hapless criminals from the town of New Castle, PA. from the 1930s through the 1960s. Expect drunks, larcenists, and even a peeping tom!

The Bar Mitzvah and Other Tales of Living in Stereo (Presented in Eye-Popping 3-D!!)

28 slides from my stereo slide collection animated to give an incredibly life-like 3-D effect. Well, maybe not incredibly life-like but still pretty cool. There are 12 slides from a 1950s bar Mitzvah to which I've added 14 more of my favorites. Make sure you click through to the end to get an amazing Thanksgiving treat!!

Of Politics & Patriots

Election time is almost upon us so I put together about 80 photos of two-bit politicians, angry protesters, flag-waving patriots, and the giant, disembodied heads of dead presidents. So do your civic duty and check out the show but don't forget to vote!

Double Takes

80 of my best double exposures. All that is solid melts into air as Dali-esque dopplegangers cavort with ghostly ghosts. It's a Freudian field day as the camera reveals lantent desires and dreams made flesh. Simple accidents or vertiginous glimpses of a deeper reality?? You decide!

A Letter from the Vanishing World (The Readers)

As print languishes in its death throes here's a message in a bottle to our soon to be be-Kindled kinder: there were once things called books and newspapers and people read them. Consider these 30 photos, as immaterial as they may be, as evidence.

Everything You Already Knew About Sex (But Kind Of Wish You Didn't)

A set of five separate NSFW shows from the margins of the sexual world. Expect an amazingly strange and sad report back from the front lines of fetishism, an incredibly persistent (and very narrowly focused) cross-dresser, and just about the happiest topless middle-aged woman you've ever seen! Not for the faint of heart so avert your eyes if you must. But remember, it's just like Lady Olga told Joseph Mitchell, "If the truth was known, we're all freaks together."

Moving Pictures: Brief Lives and Living Portraits

20 animated series of photobooth strips and/or multiple photobooth images of the same person. A jittery, flickering, Frankensteinian attempt to bring old photos back to life. A couple of the series- the first and last- have over 30 images so they'll take a little time to load but they're worth the wait!

The Eternal Sunshine of Fred & Anne

Assorted excerpts from a series of albums I picked recently of a 1910s-20s Iowa couple in which all evidence of former loves has been imperfectly, and often violently, erased.

It's 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future

56 images from a pre-powerpoint IBM slide presention with one foot in the future and the other stuck solidly in the 70s.

The Haven of Contentment

Over 30 slides that were part of an old Moose Lodge slide show in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the cassettes which must have gone along with them to provide the narration weren't with the slides but I'd love to hear how they spun some of these images into a narrative called The Haven of Contentment. Let's just say this place looks a lot closer to Twin Peaks than to Shangri-La.

On The Beauty of Absence

A Small show of accidental abstractions: 13 pages from an album I recently picked up in which almost all of the photos had either fallen out or been removed.

Smoke

Short & sweet: 50 photos of smokers & their cigarettes.

Guns, Guns, Guns!!!

Over 100 photos chronicling America's love affair with firearms.

Defaced

75 photos where people's faces have been scratched out, cut out, drawn on, covered up, or otherwise obscured.

What Was On (1957)

48 Photos of women on TV taken late at night by a lonely photographer in 1957. Encrusted with 50 year old dust and emulsion the photos of women from melodramas and late-night talk shows are not only a record of one person's peculiar obsession but also a virtual catalog of the kind of roles women played in the popular entertainment of the era.

What Was On (November 1963)

In November of 1963 Martin Johnson took over 140 photos of CBS's coverage of JFK's funeral. I've edited them down to a small selection of 33 photos documenting both the assassination and funeral itself.

What Was On (In Space)

Space Exploration of the 60s & Early 70s the way most people experienced it: on grainy black & white TV sets. 50 photographs of the television coverage of some of the Gemini and Apollo missions, a few of them as other-worldly as space travel itself.

What Was On (1968)

In June of 1968 Martin Johnson documented the television coverage of Robert F. Kennedy's funeral. 17 photos of an American tragedy.

Dance Lessons

50 photos taken at a Chicago-area Arthur Murray Dance Studio from 1958-1962. A beguiling mixture of awkwardness and grace.

African-American Portraits & Snapshots

No clever title just, in honor of Black history month, a roughly chronological selection of over 150 of the best African-American themed photos from my collection. As a special bonus I've included four clips from my home movie collection as well!

At Sea

35 photos taken aboard a destroyer during the Vietnam War show the odd languor of being at sea.

On Beauty (And Its Discontents)

Almost 85 photos on the idea of feminine beauty. Expect pin-up girls and beauty queens, mirrors, make-up and more!

The Party

Almost 50 photos from one late 60s/early 70s biracial, bisexual, bacchanal. WARNING: this one's probably NSFW.

The Bottom Half

Faces are totally overrated so here are 32 photos of legs, feet, and behinds- A little something for the fetishist in all of us.

Civil Servants

A small show of 16 portraits of policemen, fire chiefs, and meter maids from Nazareth, PA. 1975

Encounters With The Other (Adventures In Amateur Ethnography)

A selection of over 50 photos from the late 19th Century through the 1950s taken (for the most part) by American tourists and soldiers of "the natives" while on foriegn soil from Mexico and the Caribbean to the exotic, inscrutable East. WARNING- there are a couple of photos that might be considered NSFW.

The Menagerie

69 photos of our animal friends, some living, some not. Expect dogs, cats, elephants, birds, and a whole bunch of blurry monkeys.

What Was Next

31 photos documenting the oblique narratives created by negative strips and composite prints.

Catch of the Day

34 photos of fisherman (and women) proudly displaying their catches (it's cooler than it sounds-honest!!)

Down By The Tracks (Some Places Pt. 1)

38 photos celebrating the romance of the rails, the promise of escape, those leaving and those left behind.

On The Street (Some Places Pt. 2)

37 photos taken by the professional photographers who staked out the streets of major cities and tourist spots and took candid snapshots which they would then attempt to sell to their subjects, promising them "Natural pictures of you in motion." For the most part hastily shot and incredibly poorly printed, these photos are neverthess are invaluable record of streetlife from the 30s through the 50s.

At The Window (Some Places Pt 3)

33 photos looking out and looking in.

Family Dynamics

50 photos- Simply put, the biggest, boldest, best-est family photos Square America has to offer.

Some Introductory Remarks on the History of Summer

A roughly chronological survey of over 375 photos from the first sixty-nine summers of the 20th century featuring bathing beauties and brawny beefcake, sun, surf, and sand.

The Faces

a group of 40+ photos of a group of young women (and one young man) undergoing some mysterious kind of medical testing. Your guess is as good as mine!

Lighting Out for the Territory

The Road Trip Photography of Martin C. Johnson- a love song in kodachrome to the golden age of the road trip. Johnson crisscrossed the country throughout the 60s and photographed every bit of it- expect motels, diners, and beauty of the passing landscape from driver's seat.

Orphans

No not some doe-eyed waifs begging for table scraps. Here you'll find the best of my slide collection- over 80 slides of dragsters, dames, and other delectable treats.

What We Remember (1957)

A suite of blurry photographs that are all that remains of one family's travels during that year. Look and then ask yourself- who will remember us when we're gone?

A Brief Essay on Love

A series of photos representing love in all its guises.

The Portrait Gallery

A collection of over 100 portraits from the late 19th through the mid 20th century

Square America

A sprawling series of more than 600 square format snapshots documenting American life from the late 1940s through the early 1970s.

Costume Party

A selection of photographs of people dressed up for Halloween and other occasions

The Book of Sleep

A multitude of snapshots of sleeping people.

In the Booth

A selection of photobooth photos and photomatics from the 1930s through the 1970s.

The Pleasures and Terrors of Youth

A series of photos of stunned, terrified, and (occasionally) happy children

Song

Music, sweet music. 90 Photos of sultry singers, gonzo guitarists, and lots and lots of accordions.

Dance

Waltzers, limboists, and box steppers: 70 photos of folks out cutting a rug.

The Road

A whiskey-soaked fever-dream written in high-test, burnt rubber, and twisted steel! A non-stop thrill ride across the cracked asphalt of the American dream! Okay, it's really a bunch of photos of people and cars and the open road.

In Mid-Air

A small show of photos of people (and animals) slipping the surly bonds of earth and floating in mid-air.

A Wedding Album

A show dedicated to that most photographed of events. Expect this blushing brides, nervous grooms, and lots of rice.

The Square America Christmas Spectacular

A Photographic Smorgasbord of Everything Christmas in five Festive Parts.

A Photobooth Life

Over 40 photobooth photos document one woman's life over the course of about 10 years.

The Painted World

A collection of oddly, crudely, and sometimes beautifully hand-tinted photos.