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Mark Culham
@markculham.bsky.social
550 followers 500 following 3.8K posts
Where the bee sucks, there suck I
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markculham.bsky.social
📷 Snowdon Black & white photograph of Frank Auerbach in his cluttered studio. It includes a familiar feature from some of Snowdon's theatre photographs, the blur. Here Auerbach is sitting wiping his hands on a cloth vigorously such that, arms, hands and cloth are a blur. He looks up, to his right with his head leaning to his left, he could be looking out of a high window, or simply musing. The blur is a feature of Auerbach's work too. Behind him, pictures are attached to the wall, some are his works but I also recognise a print of Titian's blue man and I think a tiny Rembrandt self-portrait as Zeuxis laughing, which would make sense as it is Rembrandt doing an Auerbach.
November 11, 2025 at 10:21 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Of course, he has a banjo in his hands! I don't know why I didn't do it before with this picture. You can zoom in on New Zealand's National Library site but you can't download decent resolutions, or at least I haven't found how to. A detail from the photograph in the quoted post.
November 10, 2025 at 9:56 PM
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Painting by Watteau called the Scale of Love by the National Gallery, London. I chose this to compare with the photograph although here it is the man with the musical instrument looking down at the music in the woman's hands. Behind a man and a woman walk away and two women, a small child and a man sit on the right. Using the National Gallery's zoom in feature I can see another couple through the gap on the right sitting with their backs to us on a downward slope going away from us.
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 PM
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📷 from the collection of Edgar Richard Williams, photograph said to be taken by William Williams. Black & white photograph of a family picnic to compare with the one in the quoted post. Here, four adults, two children and one dog are sitting on, or near rugs, placed on grass, whilst a boy stands much further back firing his catapult towards the river. Near him is a rowing boat. I say it is a picnic but I can only see two cups in the picture. Tree to their right, river ahead, a strip of land on the other side and then a pale grey sky. No one is looking at the camera except for the dog and maybe, just maybe, the girl, but not in an obvious way.
November 10, 2025 at 8:58 PM
markculham.bsky.social
It is not easy to look tragic at eighteen, when you are extremely pretty, with the cheeks and lips and shining eyes of perfect health.
📷 Julia Margaret Cameron Albumen print, brown tones, of May Prinsep looking tragic. Close-up, head and shoulders, head tilted towards the camera, eyes looking around the camera, wearing white robes including over her head concealing much of her hair. This to accompany the text from Katherine Mansfield, Taking the Veil.
November 10, 2025 at 7:43 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Rough notes on the visual language of silent films

Leering, Peripheral Awareness & Annoyance
or hate at first sight
Underground Dir. Anthony Asquith Leering - Cyril McLaglen is sitting somewhat back of Elissa Landi looking at her with a smile and doesn't change even though he must sense she is aware of his gaze and that it is unwanted. Peripheral Awareness - Elissa Landi indicates that she is aware the man sitting next to her is leering at her by holding her face forward but turning her eyes slightly up and to her left, but not enough to see him fully or catch his gaze. Annoyance - we then see her with an unchanged expression but this time her eyes are pointing up. She could be reading an advert, looking at a clock, but we know from the context she is doing neither, she is looking at nothing, she is annoyed, and I sense she's assuming she is making her feelings plain to him, but he continues to leer.
November 10, 2025 at 6:51 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Rough Notes on the Visual Language of Silent Films

Politeness, Disdain & Timidity
Underground Dir. Anthony Asquith Politeness - A man offers a woman a seat on an underground train by raising his hat, tilting his head and body as if to get into her eyeline and mouthing words. Disdain - she responds by looking down at him, without any degree of welcome, indeed a look of some hostility. The camera is pointing up to her, her arm out, holding on, it could be a nazi salute but of course that comes later, wearing a uniform and a helmet. Timidity - his hat back on we see him sink down and hide himself under his newspaper in an exaggerated close-up reading position as if he has forgotten his glasses. The camera looks down on him too.
November 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Irving Penn Black & white photograph of Norman Mailer. He is side-on, but his head is turned towards us slightly with his eyes looking past the picture plane to our right - if the edge of the photograph were the frame of a window then he is looking out of the window but ignoring us to our right. He has two fingers from his left hand on the middle of his chin, his thumb which we can't see will be against his jaw, the bottom of the photograph crops his little finger slightly so we don't see his full hand. It is a recognisable thinking, examining, contemplating, judging pose - it's an act, a photograph for the back of a book, the writer. The background, plain, lit, dusty charcoal like patches. The play of shadows on his face where we see shadows either side, lit from somewhere above and Infront, could even be a window it has an almost natural feel.
November 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Bob Willoughby A black & white photograph taken during filming of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. We see Richard Burton side-on with his arm high on the back of a chair, cigarette between his fingers, smoke spiralling up to form a tree-like crown of interlocking smoke trails just above his head lit by a spotlight on the top left corner, his other arm resting on a table, his fingers holding the edge. As he looks to our right he could be enjoying a break, mentally rehearsing his lines, or acting in front of a camera rolling.
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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Isuzu Yamada in Throne of Blood playing a character based on Lady Macbeth. Here she looks at her hands, aghast, seeing blood that isn't there. She is dressed with make up from presumably a particular Japanese period, she has stylised eyebrows and two more marks higher up like extra eyebrows. Plain white background.
November 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM
markculham.bsky.social
If the dates are correct this photograph by Norman Parkinson was published a month before the Avedon picture was taken. A man with a partially closed umbrella over his head is looking down to one side, avoiding eye contact with a woman in front of him who has pursed her lips and is about to kiss him. They stand side-on to the camera with a large theatre-like curtain behind them.
November 10, 2025 at 12:11 AM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Edgar Richard Williams The figure on a track, in amongst trees, photographed at such a distance that even if they are sitting as if for their portrait, a portrait is out of the question, is another theme in Williams' photography. Here the woman, sitting as if for their portrait, is wearing black and so more easily identifiable as a distant figure, but that is not always the case.
November 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
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A colour screenshot from the film North by Northwest when a biplane turns to start an attack on an unsuspecting, yet starting to feel insecure, Cary Grant who is standing on a dirt track in the middle of nowhere. This is to go with the photograph by Edgar Richard Williams in the quoted post who hit upon a similar scene, but many years previously and presumably without the suspense, although now I can't see it as anything other than suspenseful.
November 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Edgar Richard Williams Unbeknownst to Williams he has hit upon an iconic scene for Hitchcock fans. A black & white photograph of a man standing in a field looking up at a biplane as it turns to presumably land and pick him up. By his side is his bag. The Hitchcock scene, where the plane does not land but instead attacks, is from North by Northwest which I will quote post. Interestingly, I doubt if it is possible for me to see this photograph as intended unless it was intended to be suspenseful with the possibility of danger.
November 9, 2025 at 7:38 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A couple of details from the photograph in the quoted post to show more clearly how Margaret Fay Shaw looks at the camera in the mirror having just that moment looked down to check her picture in the viewfinder, her head remaining down. On the right we see her camera and her worn shoes in close-up.
November 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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📷 unknown to me A black & white photograph of Margaret Fay Shaw standing in moorland, her feet disappearing in the ground, her boots or glasses in her hands, she stands to the right of the photograph, her left arm clipped by the right edge, on the left, numerous small white flowers, then the distant flat moorland, and above the light grey sky. Her body ever so slightly turned to our left, she looks at the camera grinning.
November 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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I've never to my knowledge eaten the results but I am a Nora Ephron fan.
A colour still from Nora Ephron's film Julie & Julia. We see Julie (Amy Adams) flat on her back in the kitchen. If my memory serves she is failing at a Julia Child's recipe.
November 9, 2025 at 12:49 PM
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📷 unknown to me Black & white slightly cropped photograph of Anthony Asquith filming Underground. He is sitting to the right of an escalator with a cameraman beside him, looking out of shot down to our left. The tripod legs of the camera are on various steps across the width of the escalator. Down the right hand side framed advertisements, towards the top two further people sitting.
November 9, 2025 at 9:11 AM
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Some colours of the Dorset Regiment, having lost much of their colour, so threadbare are they, hanging in Sherborne Abbey.
November 9, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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📷 Edgar Richard Williams Slightly cropped black & white photograph, looking across and down towards a man and his dog high up on a rock ledge. The man is sitting with his legs dangling over the edge looking at the dog beside him who is standing looking down. Below we can see vegetation and then water.
November 8, 2025 at 9:06 PM
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📷 Edgar Richard Williams The full photograph of three men walking up a steep snow covered slope, a detail of which is in the quoted post. Above the slope we see the rocky top of the mountain and, close to us, bottom left, another rocky section of a mountain. The three men walking in single file are as small as ants.
November 8, 2025 at 7:53 PM
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A dance-like detail from the quoted post of two men on horses side-by-side but facing in opposite directions, each flailing something with their arm, the shape of this similar to the horse's legs, two legs of the horse on the right breaking the frame, whereas we see glimpses of other horses that are cropped by the frame.
November 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
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A bit of an experiment in how we interpret images that have been placed together. Two people apparently in suspense at what they are viewing as they eat popcorn in a cinema and above them the final scene of Hamlet from the quoted post.
November 8, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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📷 Jack Garofalo Black & white staged photograph of Alain Delon in a city square with an ornate building behind, taking a photograph with his camera pointing up to the sky and a pigeon perched on his hand looking down into the lens. Delon is like a rectangular block taking up the bottom left of the photograph and overlapping the square block of the building top left, all else light grey except for the pigeon, left, and some people right.
November 8, 2025 at 3:46 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Grok becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on November 29, 2025
November 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM