The late 18th-century was a golden age of satire in Britain. Etched cartoons and caricatures abounded, poking fun at kings, noblemen, society ladies, French revolutionaries, the institution of marriage, and countless other people and things. “The absence of absolutism in Britain carried with it a relative freedom of the press,” writes Stephen J. Bury in Oxford Art Online, by way of explaining the cartoon combustion of the time. “Technological developments encouraged a switch from verbal to visual satire, and the era witnessed the development of a social context for debate, whether in the coffee-house, club, or on the street.” Other factors cited by Bury include relatively easy means of production and distribution, new publishers, and “the appearance of a number of great artists on the scene.”
‘The Vivarium; or, Insect-Home’ taken from ‘The Butterfly Vivarium’ by H. Noel Humphreys. Published 1858 by William Lay.
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NEWSHOUR: Reporting from Cuba, a place frozen in time yet full of potential
It’s fascinating to be in a commercial-free zone — no chain stores, no ads, few signs — without the visual clutter of so much of our lives. Then there are the people, universally friendly, who we met along the way and who became part of our stories — the human dramas within the larger political, economic and cultural drama that is unfolding. For a reporter, a rich country, indeed. Not in wealth, but in everything else.
The minuses? There’s the heat, high 90s every day we were there. There’s the lack of internet connections. […]
There is also the continuing presence of the state in the daily lives of people. We met the artist Tania Bruguera, who’d been detained, her passport taken, for trying to stage a performance piece in which average citizens could speak their minds.
Architectural Density in Hong Kong
With seven million people, Hong Kong is the 4th most densely populated places in the world. However, plain numbers never tell the full story. In his ‘Architecture of Density’ photo series, German photographer Michael Wolf explores the jaw-dropping urban landscapes of Hong Kong. He rids his photographs of any context, removing any sky or horizon line from the frame and flattening the space until it becomes a relentless abstraction of urban expansion, with no escape for the viewer’s eye. Infinite and haunting.
Editor’s Note: Co-signed.
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