Late 90’s/early 00’s technology, design, and marketing were all so weird in a very specific way. It’s a shame we lost that. 404 Media details the release of the Nokia Design Archive. I enjoy this one particularly:
Is everything OK at home, Nokia?
Now derelict Williamson Power Station, Lancaster. Once used to supply power to the city’s linoleum factory, it has more recently been used for illegally storing compacted waste, which set alight in December 2023. Following the days-long fire and the operation to extinguish it, it now stands mostly empty, fire-damaged but no less immense.
More information and pictures available on the Lancaster Civic Vision website, for those interested.
About as well photographed as possible, after orthodontic treatment, and with a bag of apples in my hand.
For something a bit different today: the cover of the first issue of Vogue Polska. The Palace of Culture and Science is just completely arresting to see in real life, originally an unwanted Soviet gift, it somehow has a might incomparable to more modern skyscrapers. I love this moody cover which features it front-and-centre.
I also can’t resist quoting this section from its’ Wikipedia article:
A number of nicknames have been used to refer to the palace, notably Pekin (“Beijing”, because of its abbreviated name PKiN), Pajac (“clown”, a word that sounds close to Pałac), and the “Drunk Confectioner’s Nightmarish Dream” (koszmarny sen pijanego cukiernika), attributed to poet Władysław Broniewski. Other nicknames include the “Syringe” (strzykawka), the “Elephant in Lacy Underwear” (słoń w koronowych gatkach), the “Russian Wedding Cake” (ruski tort) and “Stalin’s rocket” (rakieta Stalina), as well as more pejorative appelations like “Stalin’s dick” (chuj Stalina).
How could I have let this beauty linger in my photo library for a year?
This hard to photograph Superdrug on a sloping street isn’t going to win any awards for photography, but the zig-zag roof and first-floor glazing are architecturally excellent.
I like some of the elements, such as the green roof windows at the rear, the porthole below, and the glass bricks in reception, but clearly the psychiatric hospital in Den Dolder I reblogged yesterday is way more interesting!
