Ice forms on the banks of Lake Champlain in Northern Vermont. A walk along the the old Island Line Causeway, an old abandoned railroad track that used to stretch from Colchester, Vermont to South Hero, Vermont. Trains crossed the causeway from 1901 ro 1961. Ice forms in mysterious machinations over marble and sleeping winter trees. Photography by Oliver Maxwell Kupper © 2011
I’m sitting at JFK airport waiting for a puddle jumper to Burlington, Vermont. Its new year’s day. The great year of the Rabbit has begun. In the Vietnamese zodiac, the cat takes the place of the rabbit. I find it incredibly fascinating the transmutation of animal spirits to interpret our human personalities and the age in which we live. Its as if we live vicariously through their mystery, whilst captivated by their obliviousness to their own power and magic. As we enter the year of the Rabbit I think of one the greatest personalities of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso; and his painting entitled Cat Devouring a Bird and a photograph of him holding his pet owl. Pablo Picasso was born in the year of the Snake. That says a lot. Or does it? I believe that the mystical powers of animals to represent cycles, years, epochs and their cosmic associations is more real than we imagine. If in the Chinese Zodiac the Rabbit is interpreted as agile, versatile, abundant, artistic, and compassionate than why can’t we hope that in fact our lives in the the new year will be the same. The motto for the year of the Rabbit is “I Retreat.” Hard to do in an airport with thousands of frantic, confused, wanderlust travelers. In the Chinese Zodiac each animal has a ruling hour of the day. The rabbit’s ruling hours are between 5 and 7 a.m. Sunrise. Its currently half past 6 in the morning Eastern time. Today we are all Rabbits in one strange momentary paroxysm, in the inexorable gravity, the great miasma, always being pulled closer and farther away.
Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre
Circa 1955: A diving horse mid-dive with the rider clinging to its neck. (photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)
Circa 1955: Dinah, a diving horse stands with her rider after a dive. (photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)
William Frank “Doc” Carver or “Evil Spirit,” as he was sometimes known, was a talented, freewheelin sharp shooter and former dentist in the late 19th century. One day in 1881, whilst chasing bandits in Nebraska on horse back, a bridge he crosses collapses and he and his horse dive 60 feet into the the river below. It is this event that inspires Carver to develop the diving horse act. Carver trained various animals and went on tour. His son, Al Carver constructed the ramp and tower and his daughter Lorena Carver was the first rider. Sonora Webster Carver, William “Doc” Carver’s daughter-in-law, joined the show in 1924. The show became a permanent fixture at Atlantic City’s very popular venue, Steel Pier. This popular American past time disappeared shortly after the 1950s.
“The day I arrived in Sweden – which was the day of Louise Bourgeois’ death, I was walking down by the water and had to go to the bathroom really badly (the trickling canal wasn’t helping:) – I found a construction site with a porta potty and inside taped to the roof was a news paper photograph of Louise’s spider (attached in the pdf), the sun was shining through the white roof of the porta potty so the article on the opposite side showed through as well – a photograph of a beach in Sweden with the headline Pictures From Forgotten Corners - this double image with the words summed up all of my travels thus far – later I traveled to the Island of Grinda off Stockholm and saved the life of brilliantly white spider that was struggling to stay a float in the lapping shore break by reaching out a broken branch for it to hold onto….I was certain Louise’s spirit was watching.” Text by Dustin Lynn ~ View previous post: “From the Travel Folio of Dustin Lynn.”
Pripiat, Ukraine, is a city abandoned by the nuclear meltdown of Chernobyl.
Kolmanskop, Nambia, is town that has been abandoned for nearly 100 years. The desert sand inhabits its homes, hospitals, and churches.
