"People Photographs" and an Optical Illusion

Today I thought I'd share with you a couple of interesting websites that I recently visited.

The first site, featuring the work of Arthur Mole and John Thomas, E.O. Goldbeck, and others, captured my attention because it's about photography. It is a gallery of photographs taken between 1915 and 1920, during and shortly following WWI. Every one of the "living photographs" was created by grouping masses of people, dressed in dark and light clothing (uniforms?), into various military and patriotic shapes. My favorite is the Official Seal of the 11th Division. (Click on it, so you can see it at a larger size, and note how skillfully the lettering was made.) The article at the bottom of the web page says, ". . . instead of prospering from the sale of the images produced, the artists donated the entire income derived to the families of the returning soldiers and to this country’s efforts to re-build their lives as a part of the re-entry process." Click here to visit this amazing gallery.

The second web site is just for fun. Open this page, and look at the dancer. Is she spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise? The instructions on the page say, "If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa." I don't know how true that is. When I first looked at it, she was spinning one direction (I won't tell you which, so that you won't be influenced), but then, suddenly, I saw her change directions. Interestingly, when she's spinning one way, it's her right leg that touches the floor; when she spins the other way it's her left leg! Have fun with this one. And leave a comment, saying which way you see her spinning.