Editors' Note: The New York Times' Photography Morgue

The New York Times has a new Tumblr. And it's not your everyday Tumblr. But that should be expected, for The Times is not your everyday paper or news source or art source or cultural arbiter or whatever else the paper has come to signify for so many different people. The Times is something singular and lasting and so is its new Tumblr, The Lively Morgue, which intends to publish "several [Times] photographs each week" in a characteristically archival and sentimental way.

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Editors' Note: The Jewish Museum and the Radical Camera

The Photo League, a pioneering group of Jewish photographers who conquered the streets of Manhattan in the 1930s, were desperate "in the[ir] desire to convey messages of sociological import" (Beaumont Newhall), and The Jewish Museum's exhibition of their documentary work reveals just that. Recently, two of our editors viewed the exhibition. The exhibit is, among many other things, a study of the way in which the camera was viewed more as a method of social criticism than as a method of aesthetic creation. We found the work of these photographers to be an exhilirating reminder of the oft-untapped social import that art can have. The exhibit runs through March 25th, but much of the work can be viewed by clicking the image above.  

Head Negro in Charge, And Other Titles for That Obama Painting

Surely by now you’ve come across this painting (above) titled “The Forgotten Man,” which depicts President Obama trampling on the U.S. Constitution. There's a lot going wrong here. So, in order to help the artist sell more pseudo-intellectual paintings, I shall offer a list of titular improvements.

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10 Steps to Becoming an A-List Artist!

So, you want to grow up to be a real, bona-fide, celebrated artist? Want to shirk that whole "starving artist" trope and make it big? Want to be that kind of celebrity artist who's just so damn cool you can unscrew a urinal from a public restroom, screw it onto a museum wall and declare it "Art?" Well, cheers to that. Here are the 10 steps you need to make it.    

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From Object to Subject: Gordon Parks' 1968 Life Photo Essay

Inherent in any photographic image of a human subject is an objectification. The photographer (objectifier) captures an image of the photographed (objectified). Gordon Parks, the black photographer, pianist, poet and filmmaker, was aware of the complex arrangement of power relations involved in photography (particularly documentary photography) when he decided to undertake his 1968 Life photo essay in Harlem.

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Editors' Note: A Decade of Def Poetry

2012 marks ten years after the beginning of the HBO television series Def Poetry Jam produced by Russell Simmons. Def Poetry ended in 2007, just five years after its creation; yet, despite its short tenure, the series was significant in that it helped to popularize slam poetry and spoken word in a way not seen before or since. Below, we have compiled ten of our favorites from Def Poetry Jam in commemoration of the series ten years later and as an interesting point of reference as to the stylings, rhythms and cultural content of spoken word a decade ago.

Caveat: As spoken word sometimes goes, some of our favorites below are meant for adult ears only. 

1. Steve Colman - "I Wanna Hear a Poem"

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