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Picks Archive

 

Picks

I know something about wine, don’t get me wrong. But when I go to a restaurant, I almost always ask for a recommendation. I figure the waiter knows their stock better than I do. And I’ve found it’s the fastest route to a happy outcome. So with that in mind, here are some of our top photo-t-shirt picks.

 

Minimalist Art from 1843

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Anna Atkins 8. 1843. (New York Public Library.)

So many of the photograms of algae made by Anna Atkins are worthy t-shirts. But this image in particular has always struck me as astoundingly ahead of its time.

Atkins is considered the first woman photographer, and is made the first photobook in history. She used the cyanotype process, which makes her images blue and white. And each alga is labeled in her delicate hand.

The New York Public Library just closed an important exhibition of her work, which drew a lot of attention. But of all her photograms, this minimalist masterpiece keeps calling to me. The three strands of alga couldn’t be simpler, but their trajectory and force is powerful.

Can’t you see this as a painting that could hang in a gallery today? I do. Which is why I make it our official Anna Atkins recommendation.

 


Doug Lowell