THE ViETNAM ZiPPO
LiGHTER

From the collection of Bradford Edwards, Photography by Misha Anikst, copyright Asia Ink and Visionary World 2007.

You can take a closer look at Vietnam Zippos if you follow this link to amazon.com.

 

We've been reading Sherry Buchanan's Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers' Engravings and Stories 1965—1973 (from the collection of Bradford Edwards).

It's an intriguing book, illustrated with hundreds of photos of engraved Zippos, with informative explanations of the inscriptions on the lighters, and with brief descriptions of the historical and cultural setting in which these folk art relics emerged.

So we decided we'd give you an excerpt from this fine title, artist and Zippo collector Edwards' essay on how his collection came to be.

Southern California Lowriders

Back while he was doing fieldwork among lowriders in the southwestern states of USA, American Ethnography’s owner and editor Martin Hoyem photographed the people he met and their cars. Here’s a gallery of Hoyem’s photos from his fieldwork. We’ve called it Southern California Lowriders: Los Angeles 2005.

 

Satan’s Angel Photo Gallery

Don’t miss our gallery of titillating visuals from the life of burlesque star Satan’s Angel.

(We interviewed Satan’s Angel back in 2008. That interview is also worth checking out: A Conversation with a Flaming Beauty.)

 

Photography and Sociology

In 1974 sociologist Howard Becker published “Photography and Sociology” He wrote: “Robert Frank’s […] enormously influential The Americans is in ways reminiscent both of Tocqueville’s analysis of American institutions and of the analysis of cultural themes by Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict.”

Becker has gratuitously allowed us to re-publish the article for our readers: Photography and Sociology.

 
Silk screen print; Car Customizing & Outlaw Aesthetics

Serigraph Sale! $24!

We cleaned out the closet, and found a few leftover serigraphs from the “Car Customizing & Outlaw Aesthetics” series. We are now practically giving them away for the price of $24 (plus shipping).

Look for it in our online store.