Donald Weber (Bureau of Operational Landscapes)

As a Torontonian, the idiocy over the Park Lawn speed camera makes no sense, especially in a city with notorious congestion - it would only smooth the flow of traffic! But then we’ve always been a city of detrimental behaviour.

As a resident of Helsinki, there are speed cameras everywhere - the positive being that there’s hardly any traffic jams because everyone drives the speed limit, thus no braking, speeders, or other (generally) traffic disrupters.

As the head of a graduate photography program in Europe, this is exactly parallel my experience: students desire to engage with “reality” and our physical places through this specific medium. After a few years of decline… the opposite!

Every parcel, exempt or not, was photographed: churches, parking lots, bodegas, government buildings. A totalizing view shaped by bureaucratic vision, rendering the city as taxable surface.

In the 1980s, the NYC Department of Finance commissioned a photographic survey of the city, not for aesthetic merit, but for tax. Now catalogued at 80s.nyc

Explore this extraordinary archive at 1940s.nyc

Nearly every NYC property photographed in the 1940s by 32 WPA photographers for the city’s Tax Department. Referred to as “tax photos,” these images replaced traditional ledgers with visual records, each property marked with its block, lot, borough, and size. Bureaucratic vision made legible!

Up on an embankment, some overgrown trees and bushes hide an old iron rail bridge in the distance

I’m curious to see how these ramblings (literally, figuratively) play out, and to practice writing as a performative act that makes the world. Come along!

Two trees thick with green leaves on the bank of river with a barely visible iron Railbridge cutting across the frame in the distance

I’ll try and post daily or every two days. If you’re interested in following along, then send me your email!

An old bicycle path parallel to a meandering slow river with an old iron rail Bridge crossing the river in the distance

The idea is to delete all the subscribers after this two week period. It’s an ephemeral, immediate response to the starting of a photographic project…

Graffiti on the underside of an old iron bridge

For the next two weeks I’m going to make a disposable, “pop-up” newsletter with photos, some words, and other unformed thoughts…

Ex-urban hinterland with a rail line crossing the frame, broken sidewalk telephone poles and other infrastructure

The commission will result in a public art installation and collective ‘action’ with local amateur photographers throughout 2025 and into 2026…

Arrested rail Bridge covered in construction fences and signs with a decaying concrete staircase in the foreground

We’ll be here for the next two weeks getting started on a research trip. Walking, surveying, experimenting, mucking about…

Rusted train bridge under construction hidden admits trees and foliage

The Bureau has been commissioned to explore a dis-used railway line and bridge in Slovakia…

In Defense of Art Research - Notes - e-flux A petition calling for Leiden University to reverse its decision to phase out funding for its Academy of Creative and Performing Arts.

PhDArts at Leiden U. is on the verge of getting axed by the 🇳🇱 gov’t; an easy target in this age where knowledge is quantified and tabulated into slogans of grind and mindset.

I was fortunate enough to study here and receive my PhD; consider signing the petition!

www.e-flux.com/notes/668777...

“Peace”

This in relation to @siobhanangus.bsky.social Camera Geologica and Michelle Henning’s Dirty History of Photography would make a great triumvirate of photography’s material history.

The Bureau of Operational Landscapes is getting… operational! Follow along on Instagram @operational.land

All things photography, (operational) landscapes, site-based encounters, mash it all together and you’ve got: The Bureau.

Ukrainians don’t mess about.

YouTube video by Miller Center LBJ Orders Some New Haggar Pants

I can’t stand that orange menace, so I was reminded about a brighter moment in American presidential history, with LBJ ordering six pairs of “slacks,” with, uh, shall we say, colourfully detailed requirements. It’s a must listen, terribly funny.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=dohN...

Yes, photographed them in February 2014 at the Hrushevskoho barricade.

Ukrainians honourably resisted anti-democratic creep in 2014, only to be annexed, then invaded, by Russia, now betrayed by the supposedly democratic beacon that is the USA. What does the US even stand for now, other than vulture, extractive, rapacious capitalism? Can’t believe I’m even writing this.

Another photo list! Dig in.

Jump start your Bluesky photo experience!

Rob’s got a nice list going here:

And… any surprise that my least engaged post just so happened to mention PALESTINE? I also set the location to PALESTINE; within minutes it magically turned to digital dust.

I did a similar experiment, and noted that out of my 25k followers, only about the same 35 would ever appear on my timeline. And, of course, Instagram hates photography; a single photo is quashed like Santa Claus eating a cookie.

As neo-imperialism resurges in the USA, here’s a few panoramas of the Panama Canal under construction in 1913. The Canal is emblematic of histories of colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism and the military in the United States.

📸 @nypl.bsky.social

YouTube video by CBC News Is Trump right about the U.S. 'subsidizing' Canada? | About That

IMPORTANT: If you live in the United States or Canada, you’ve probably heard Trump‘s constant claim that the United States is “subsidizing” Canada. It’s wrong of course, but here’s the best explanation I’ve seen about how & why it’s wrong. PLEASE WATCH & SHARE IT A LOT. Kudos to Andrew Chang & CBC.

4/4 Looking south west towards Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives