Stephen Black

Many and in many different genres. I tend to like photographers who can do any kind of project and still be recognizable. The pinnacle of that for me is Irving Penn. Someone I’ve been obsessed with recently is Niegel Shafran and his workbooks edited by Loose Joint.

One of the most intelligent case studies in design is the Chinese tea cup. They’re made without handles simply because if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to drink.

Humans naturally want to add more. Add a cardboard sleeve, add a warning on the outside of the cup, add a handle. The result of all these things never cools down the actual contents.

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Before the Covid-19 pandemic there were a lot of non-Japanese people in Roppongi. My wife is British and worked at Roppongi Hills for about 10 years, but she and other non-Japanese people have completely different maps of Roppongi in their heads to the ones we do. In this place we all know as Roppongi they have their own cultural sphere; they have... See more

But what of the wives and daughters? Flatland’s women are mere line segments, actually very thin triangles, whose social standing is zero. Their intelligence is little greater. They are required by law to wiggle from side to side so that they can be seen, and to emit loud cries so that they can be heard, because a collision with a woman is as fatal... See more

Curation is so deeply under-explored on the Internet in my opinion. It sits right in between consumption and creation and is the perfect bridge between the two, allowing us to actively engage with what we consume to then produce work from this saved knowledge.

The Hokusai Museum is a diverse tribute to the renowned Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika who visited several times near the end of his life in the charming town of Obuse, about 20 kilometers northeast of Nagano.

NY Tech Week... this is likely the last event I will attend: https://lu.ma/breezin?tk=rzYaTu&utm_campaign=the-z-list-49&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=thezlist-irl.beehiiv.com