Word: backgrounder
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...crossed was the human form, the social fabric and that permanent terra incognita, the human face. A man so stylish could never escape being dismissed as merely stylish, as though he weren't quite worthy of the name artist. Yes, his black-and-white portraits against a stark white background made the truth seem hip. All the same, you only had to stand before his unblinking portrait of President Dwight Eisenhower, a dwindling old warrior. If art is a word we use to describe things that tell us what we must know, about life and time and death...
...career in the merchant marine, taking identity card shots. Years later, the bare format of an ID became an inspiration for his mature portrait style, one of the great aesthetic insights of the 20th century. It consisted of high-focus inspection of unsmiling faces against an arctic-white background. Under that light, the body capitulates. Every line and facial sag announces itself. He used that approach to photograph everyone from Abbie Hoffman to Rose Kennedy. But these pictures were not cruel. They were fearless, lucid and unsentimental. As a fashion photographer, Avedon took human vanity to heights even human vanity...
...current four members turned to music and formed the band that is finally gaining the recognition they deserve. At less than 33 minutes long, the CD might just be too short to contain all the rock. Characterized by driving distorted guitar riffs, howling vocals and the old-school background subtleties of the electric organ, the Features cast themselves into the ranks of the Strokes and Jet. Highlights include the disc’s fourth track, “Blow Out,” that opens with a Weezer-esque upbeat chord progression beneath a few bars of catchy background vocals...
...South Asian Dance Company (SADC), in particular, has been the perfect forum for my dance taste. My dance background is quite varied, from jazz to bhangra to hip hop to West African to ballet. Not only does SADC encourage fusion and thinking outside of the box, the company also dedicates itself to increasing social awareness by spotlighting a charity at shows and donating all proceeds to them...
Over the past four years, under President Bush’s leadership, two sex-related subjects have been making headlines on a regular basis. The first is same-sex marriage, and the second has lately slipped into the background: abstinence-only [sex] education. Other than both being examples of the government regulating our sexual knowledge and behavior, they are also both issues that raise questions about why we marry in the first place. In a day and age in which, like all days and ages, individuals have sex with people of all genders and at a variety of ages, what...