santa school

Whether you like it or not dear Readers (if you've been here before in December, you'll know that I surely do) the holiday mayhem is upon us.

Having trouble getting into the spirit of the season? Here are a few of my favourites from Diane Arbus to help put some stuff in your stocking and jingle in your bells.

Santas at the Santa Claus School, Albion, N.Y. 1964


Xmas tree in a living room in Levittown, LI, 1963

state of mind

Diane says it all.

a pram in the hall

I'm not afraid to say it. I loathe Anne Geddes. Well, her photographs anyway. This admission may have cost me a few potential life-long friends among my portrait photography classmates, 99% of whom cited her as their creative inspiration, but I'm ok with that. (Seriously, you'd have thought I copped to enticing cherubs to feast on my candy house so I could further fatten them up and eat them.)

There's an old and oft quoted expression in the art & literary worlds: "there is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall." Maybe it's true and maybe it isn't. I admit, there was a time when I lost more than a few hours sleep pondering it but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of today's favourite things posting.

Without further ado, a few of my favourites ranging from the horrifying to the hilarious to the sublime brought to us by Diane Arbus, Martin Parr, Simen Johan , Loretta Lux and Ruud van Empel.