Sabine Weiss

Pioneering photographer Sabine Weiss, who was the last surviving member of France's celebrated humanist school, has died aged 97,  28 December 2021, at her home in Paris.

Although she had stopped taking pictures, Weiss was actively involved in her archive until her death. Born in Switzerland, she learned her art in Geneva, moving to Paris after World War Two. She became renowned particularly for her images on the streets of Paris, and for 70 years remained at the heart of French photography.

Weiss began taking pictures when she was 18. Sabine Weiss opened a Paris studio in 1950. She immortalised day-to-day life in Paris and much of her work featured the lives of children. Weiss said once that her aim was to capture "snotty-nosed kids... beggars... and the little piss-takers".

In 1952, she met the photographers Robert Doisneau and Edward Steichen and joined their Rapho photo agency. During the 1950s and early 1960s she worked widely for international publications. Among her clients were Newsweek, Time, Life, Esquire and Paris Match.

Boineros from Around the Globe

Boinero lighting up on a bench in Bilbao, Spanish Basque Country

Egyptian policeman looking out over River Nile farmland and distant city skyline of Cairo

 A Hindu Brahmin in Dehradun, India

Boinero on the streets of Mitrovica, Kosova

Steward at the Chester Pride Festival, UK

An elderly Cuban boinero poses for a street portrait on The Prado, Havana, Cuba.

 Boinero with old fashioned plate camera, Santillana, Spain 

Boineros from Vietnam

 

Psycho Comedy

 

Fresh faced may even be too mature a description for the existence of sinister noise makers Psycho Comedy. Formed in a bubbling melting pot of influences, the group are ready to spread their cryptic wings and let fly into the musical night.

There is something very appealing in the creations that Psycho Comedy form within their sonic kitchen. They can bring images of the stripped back early era psych of Pink Floyd to mind yet have the gritty rawness of The Stones or The Stooges about them while making it sound extremely relevant. 

Brighton

Purple at the Upper Gardner Street Market in Brighton, UK.

Olentzero

 Olentzero, the Basque Father Christmas:

Santa's

 Alternative Santa's & Father Winters:

Cuban Boineros

 Boineros from Cuba:

The Incredible Combination of Hooch and Cheese

Raclette is a Swiss dish, also popular in Savoie, France, based on heating cheese and scraping off the melted part. 

Watch this demonstration by Lionel Tuaz, a French mountaineer and great connoisseur, in the very beautiful resort of Menuires (Saint Martin de Belleville-Vallée des Belleville-Savoie-Alpes-France), mixing gnôle (hooch, alcohol) into the recipe.

Chabua Amirejibi

Mzechabuk "Chabua" Amirejibi, (often written as "Amiredjibi", 1921 –2013) was a Georgian novelist and Soviet-era dissident notable for his magnum opus, Data Tutashkhia, and a lengthy experience in Soviet prisons.

Chabua Amirejibi with tattoo of Saint George, which he believed kept him alive during prison 

His family, once a princely house, was heavily repressed during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge: his father was shot in 1938 and mother sent to a Gulag camp. During World War II, he was recruited into the Red Army, but was soon sacked due to his family background. Subsequently, he became involved in anti-Soviet activities, being a member of the underground political organization Tetri Giorgi.

In April 1944, he was arrested on coup plot charges and sentenced to twenty-five years of imprisonment in Siberia. After fifteen years in prison, three prison escapes, and two death sentences, he was ultimately rehabilitated in 1959 and began his literary career in his late thirties with short stories.

Winter /Summer

While we are down-dressing, here at Beret HQ in the South Pacific, boineros in the northern hemisphere need to think about up-gearing for winter. 

Few berets keep the head as warm as an Auloronesa or Super Lujo.

Meanwhile, I'll be thinking of you northerners from under my cotton Flamingo.