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markculham.bsky.social
Mark Culham
@markculham.bsky.social
560 followers 500 following 4.2K posts
Where the bee sucks, there suck I
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markculham.bsky.social
Rough notes on the visual language of silent films

A comic classic (Reader, he didn't fall in!)
Three cropped screenshots from the film No Blood Relation by Mikio Naruse showing a man by the harbour edge feigning that he is losing his balance and might fall in.
December 1, 2025 at 11:11 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Aha! I've been to the church but didn't notice the Cosmatesque mosaic but then that was before I explored the Holbein Ambassadors floor and its supposed relation to Westminster's Cosmati pavement.
Three mosaic floors, from Iron Acton in the quoted post, the floor in the painting by Holbein of The Ambassadors, and the Cosmati pavement at Westminster, all with similar Cosmati style mosaics of a big circle with four smaller circles interlocked around its circumference.
December 1, 2025 at 9:05 AM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Max Oettli Black & white photographic portrait of a man, upper body, who has kind of slithered into frame or at least gives that appearance with his body posture, slightly bent to our left and slightly forward from the hips his head arched slightly back the other way, he looks downwards into the camera. The background is split in two by a diagonal line of a wooden frame that runs along behind his neck as we see it. Dark grey above and white below.
November 30, 2025 at 9:04 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Hold it, flash, bang, wallop, what a picture
What a picture, what a photograph
Poor old soul, blimey what a joke
Hat blown off in a cloud of smoke
Clap hands, stamp your feet
Banging on the big bass drum
What a picture, what a picture
Um-tiddly-um-pum-um-pum-pum
Stick it in your family album
A detail from the photograph in the quoted post of a man on the beach with an old fashioned camera on a tripod pointing to wards a large open box on wheels where people maybe sitting to have their photograph taken. It's difficult to make out because it is a very small blurred detail.
November 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
markculham.bsky.social
This is a bit of a find. John the Baptist with a camel's head dangling down between his legs. I don't know why I haven't explored this before because I can put my hands on another. I see c.1525, Cologne mentioned.

📷 Budby
Ightham Mote
Two details from a stained glass window showing the figure of John the Baptist and a detail of his bare legs with a camel's head dangling between them, which is part of his camel skin costume.
November 30, 2025 at 6:17 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Rough notes on the visual language of silent films

Random legs and wheels pass each other during a montage.
A black & white screenshot from the film No Blood Relation directed by Mikio Naruse of a man and a bicycle passing each other but we only see the legs and wheels.
November 30, 2025 at 1:06 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Rough notes on the visual language of silent films

Running away
&
Running after
Two black & white screenshots from the film No Blood Relation by Mikio Naruse. A man, our thief, is running away but his head is turned to look back. It's an exaggerated, comic, running pose that I wouldn't want to try unless I'm on soft ground. And below we see a group of men running in the same direction.
November 30, 2025 at 10:54 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Rough notes on the visual language of silent films

'Thief!'
&
The Thief
Two black & white screenshots from the film No Blood Relation by Mikio Naruse. A man with his hand to his mouth in the classic calling out pose and below another man turns his head with a surprised look to his eyes. He's the thief.
November 30, 2025 at 10:47 AM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Max Oettli A black and white photograph of the photographer's crossed legs resting on the arm or the sofa with the window as background showing a detail of the house opposite with two windows.
November 30, 2025 at 9:16 AM
markculham.bsky.social
I'll go out on a limb. No where else does John cry on Mary's shoulder other than in Rubens' crucifixion. But in these two translations into stained glass it's been messed with so I don't know who's who, as if Rubens needed amending.

Stained glass 2x📷 @simoninsuffolk.bsky.social
November 29, 2025 at 8:43 PM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Snowdon A black & white photograph of Tom Stoppard sitting on the ground with his back to a wall of gravestones lined up forming a wall. His head is turned to our left but his eyes are looking into the camera. His left leg bent, his right leg is more outstretched such that his foot has partly left the frame. His right arm dangles down between his legs and his left hand grabs it by the elbow as if he's taking his pulse with his thumb on the inner side. He's still alive.
November 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
markculham.bsky.social
I've never been and presumably it has many things to see inside but from my perspective it has a window by Joshua Price, the design of which comes from a lost painting by Rubens via an engraving.

The Conversion of Paul
📷 Rex Harris
November 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A detail from the quoted post photograph showing a room with a cropped painting. I have added the rest of the painting which is of Sappho Writing the Odes Dictated by Love. The painting is by Antonio Zucchi. Apart from Sappho writing with a winged man standing behind her there are cherubs on the ground in conversation, one pointing over to Sappho and Love the other looking in that direction.
November 29, 2025 at 9:13 AM
markculham.bsky.social
I would travel into the future but only to read the learned papers on this chap after there is nothing left of our civilization but plastic.
A plastic father Christmas. Image taken randomly from the internet.
November 29, 2025 at 8:55 AM
markculham.bsky.social
An engraving by Giulio Bonasone showing Jupiter kissing Juno but only because she has taken Venus' girdle. I've cropped the image left and right to omit Venus and Mars who are separated in the meantime.
November 29, 2025 at 8:21 AM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Max Oettli Black & white photograph of an assortment of bits of processed wood, mainly painted white, with a net curtain and some piping, that together form the side of something quite close up to the camera. It looks makeshift, somewhat derelict yet the randomness of the pieces and their arrangement has an abstract assemblage quality. A Found Art photograph.
November 28, 2025 at 10:25 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A black & white photograph by Max Oettli of three smiling people, two women and a man, in a living room. Behind them on the left we see a bit of a painting by Pablo Picasso that's referred to as Poor People by the Sea or Tragedy, mainly painted in blues, of a man and woman hunched with bare feet by the sea. A young boy is by their side. In colour, I have added the rest of the painting which features the woman. There is an obvious incongruity between what's expressed in the painting and the happiness expressed in the photograph.
November 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Just to challenge myself again this is the only depiction of Mary's childhood in the temple, and it's not even the main scene.

From a lost drawing by Holbein's dad, engraved by Israhel van Meckenem.
The Presentation of Mary at the Temple
British Museum
An engraving showing Mary walking up steps to present herself at the Temple whilst being watched by her parents and others, wilst the priest waits for her at the top. In another much smaller additional scene, made to look as if it is taking place at the same time in an adjoining room, we see Mary with some other women making fabric.
November 28, 2025 at 9:25 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Lovely set of photographs introducing me to this window.

Plenty of times by me, but has a page ever been turned like this in the history of art, all scrunched-like?
The Annunciation from the quoted post plus a detail of Mary preparing to turn a page in her book. She has pushed the page over so it bends in the middle and flicked the edge up with her thumb so the page has a double bend in it.
November 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
markculham.bsky.social
The fun of Flickr is that searching throws up random things and this one is a humdinger.

Unmistakably by W. F. Dixon who got me into stained glass. Neither a normal search on Flickr or Church Stained Glass Records would have found it I searched for 'Powell'!

St Andrew's, Tilmanstone
📷 Jeltex
A stained glass window by W. F. Dixon of the three Marys at the empty tomb being told by an angel that Jesus has risen.
November 28, 2025 at 6:39 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Martin Schongauer
All Saints, Cawthorne
Schongauer's single figure of Mary at the Annunciation appears twice in the church's stained glass. Bottom left in a window by Burlison & Grylls and bottom right in a window by James Powell & Sons.

📷x2 Budby
Three images. A black & white engraving by Martin Schongauer of Mary beside some lilies, repeated twice in stained glass in different colours but clearly the same design as the engraving.
November 28, 2025 at 5:51 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A detail from the quoted painting showing a gap in a woman's clothing where we see her hand holding the hand of a baby, the baby otherwise concealed. The detail is sharp enough for us also to see the work that went into depicting the various surfaces of shawl, skin and a glimpse of her blouse.
November 28, 2025 at 9:26 AM
markculham.bsky.social
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a den; And laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a dream . . .

Harry Stammers
1949
St Andrew's, Preston, Dorset
Stained glass window by Harry Stammers showing a number of scenes from John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress plus the words quoted in the post.
November 28, 2025 at 8:27 AM
markculham.bsky.social
A painting by Grant Wood called American Gothic. Unlike the photograph I am quote posting we are much closer to the couple and the man is taller than the woman, and he holds a pitchfork, not to his side but in front of him with its prongs going no higher than his shoulder. We can tell the pitchfork is held firmly on the ground. He is wearing his farming clothes whereas she is smartly dressed. They stand outside their house, probably a lawn's length away. He looks towards us whilst she looks over to our right, she is not holding a vase. Both their outer arms have been cropped somewhat as have their waists.
November 27, 2025 at 9:30 PM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Max Oettli Black & white photograph of a woman and a man, the woman smartly dressed, holding a vase, she is much taller than the man, who is wearing casual clothes probably for the gardening as he holds a rake to his side with its head above them both. He has his other hand on his hip, teapot style. Despite the many differences they are clearly referencing the painting by Grant Wood and indeed Oettli uses the words American Gothic in a brief note. The two stand outside a bungalow with the front lawn between them and it. They look with deadpan expressions at the camera. Their feet are cropped.
November 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM