From the Black Death to the measles, rapidly spreading diseases have taken a toll on humanity for centuries. Here's a look at the biggest and deadliest pandemics ever.
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Katherine Murrell, from Great Dunmow, Essex, England, was 16-years-old when she got her first cancer diagnosis. After six months of aggressive chemotherapy treatment, she was cancer-free. She then got cancer again, not once, but two more times during her youth. Now, at 27, she’s fighting for health again––but for other people–– as a paramedic.
"I’ve now spent 11 years going to regular hospital appointments time and time again,” said Katherine. "When you get that used to it, you want to give something back – that’s my mentality I suppose."
It all started when Katherine visited her doctor regarding some back pain when she was 16. It was initially thought to be a trapped nerve until Katherine experienced rapid weight loss and her doctor took her in for some blood tests. Not only did the tests reveal that she had lymphoma, but she was at stage four. It took over six months of daily chemotherapy before she was given a clean bill of health.
Young Katherine during one of her earlier cancer treatments.Photo credit: SWNS
However, seven years later, Katherine was worried her cancer had returned after noticing a swollen lymph node in her neck. After a biopsy confirmed her suspicions, she had to have those lymph nodes surgically removed along with her thyroid. She was, again, given a clean bill of health until two more lymph nodes were found to be pre-cancerous a year later. After that surgery, she was cancer-free but decided to get a double mastectomy in 2023, knowing that having radiotherapy at such a young age dramatically increased her chances of developing breast cancer. Her instincts were correct, as a tissue sample that was collected while prepping for the operation revealed that she had a cancerous tumor on her breast. As of late 2023, Katherine has been cancer-free.
While anyone would understandably never want to visit a hospital again after such repeated ordeals, Katherine was different. Ever since her treatment as a teen, she saw the work the hospital was doing with her and other patients, becoming inspired.
"When we got to the hospital, that’s when it really hit me that the medic crew was amazing and how cool it would be to do something like that,” Katherine recalled. “They got to me really quickly and then gave me exactly what I needed. I now know that was just in a day’s work for them, but the care they gave has really stuck with me."
Katherine decided to train to become an emergency medical technician (EMT) in the London Ambulance Service. It was actually on the day she graduated that she received her second cancer diagnosis.
Katherine taking a selfie before undergoing cancer treatment.Photo credit: SWNS
In spite of all that has happened to her, Katherine remains positive and sees her past as a way to better empathize with the people she treats.
"Now, any time I go to a cancer patient at work, I am so empathetic – I just get it. It’s a connection I have with these patients – an emotional connection of course, but more than that I have a real understanding of the physical aspects of what they are going through, like the hair loss and everything else,” she said. "When I go to patients like that – that’s when the penny drops for me that I’m in the right job. I get this wave of happiness that I’m in the right place, I’m where I belong.”
Katherine saw what she experienced as not just a learning opportunity but a direction in finding her calling. In fact, she recommends anyone who has conquered such struggles to analyze those struggles and see if it leads to a possible, enriching vocation.
"I truly believe it has enriched my learning and work in my current role. So now I use it as a superpower and I’d advise anyone going through a similar situation to try to do the same."
Pictured: Katherine suited up and ready to get to work!Photo credit: SWNS
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More and more older couples are sleeping in different rooms.
For many people, having a partner in bed with you is a great way to end your day and go to sleep. Aside from the physical activity, it can be nice to share a warm bed and snuggle up with a person you love to release feel-good chemicals through cuddling, have a second body to help warm up the bed, and feel connected with your partner.
However, many older couples are routinely sleeping independently without any issue. Why is that? Well, many younger folks have gone to Reddit to ask older people why they’ve decided to stay together yet sleep alone with their spouses or partners.
Snoring is among many reasons committed couples have experimented with "sleep divorce."Photo credit: Canva
For most of the older couples, the move to sleeping in separate quarters was for practicality:
“I was absolutely sick of being asked in the middle of the night to sleep on the sofa due to snoring. A few years back we got a puppy and I moved downstairs to sleep to facilitate the 4 times a night it needed to go out. The move became permanent. It just works better.”
“My husband hated it at first, too, when it was just occasional nights that I would sleep in another bedroom or on the sofa, but when he started having trouble sleeping, too, and started realizing how much better he slept when I wasn't tossing and turning next to him, he got on board.”
“I’m a morning person in need of a quiet space to sleep while my husband is a night owl and needs to fall asleep to the TV.”
“My habit is to read for an hour or 2 before dozing off. Husband needs TV on. I sleep cold, he sleeps hot. The last time we shared a bed, he kicked me out and I hit my head on the nightstand. Separate rooms.”
“We are both terrible sleepers as we get older and we end up waking each other up all night with tossing and turning, trips to the bathroom, snoring, etc. At some point, a good night of sleep becomes more important than sleeping in the same bed.”
While one can think that this is a red flag indicating a problem in the relationship. After all, the telltale sign of trouble in a relationship on TV and in film is when one half of the couple sleeps on the couch. But many of these posters say that this isn’t the case:
“We also spend time in bed together every night before retiring to our separate rooms, and I think that's an important habit to maintain. It's OK not to do it every night, but for us, anyway, it maintains the emotional and physical intimacy, and I notice a difference if we skip that time together for more than a week.”
“I sleep from 9pm – 5am and he sleeps from 12am – 8am. Our relationship is healthier, and people act like it means we aren’t intimate anymore lol. As if intimacy is only at night in the bed.”
“I usually climb into bed anywhere from 0-4 hours before she gets up, and we always cuddle. But we almost never go to sleep at the same time. That's why I tuck her in every night. We cuddle a lot before she goes to sleep, and joke around and she teases me or I tease her until she wants to go to sleep. :)”
“We spend time in bed together every night before we go to sleep, and then we retire to our separate bedrooms and get a good sleep.”
A 2017 poll from the National Sleep Foundation found that one in four couples actually sleep separately. So is this “sleep divorce” practice actually healthy? Or will it just lead to actual divorce? Well, according to psychologist Dr. Joseph Cilona of Manhattan, it all depends on the reasoning behind getting separate bedrooms.
Just because a couple sleeps separately doesn't mean they're never in bed together.Photo credit: Canva
"The effects of sleeping in separate rooms can be extremely positive for a relationship, extremely negative for a relationship, or anything in between," said Dr. Cilona to USA Today. “Each couple should examine and discuss clearly and specifically their thoughts, feelings, and needs around this issue to find a mutually satisfying compromise."
In short, it appears that whether it’s healthy if you sleep together or separately depends on “why” you’re not sleeping together. Many of these psychologists believe that as long as both partners are on board and that the purpose is so that your loved one can get quality rest that it shouldn’t negatively impact the relationship. In fact, both people in the couple getting quality sleep ultimately makes each one happier overall.
Whether alone or together, having a good night’s rest leads to better connection and life with your partner.
Photo credit: Canva
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Dr. Hilleman administering a shot to his young daughter as her older sister comforts her.
In 1963, Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s daughter, Jeryl Lynn, was sick. She was infected with MuV, a very contagious virus that causes swelling and inflammation of various glands and body parts. If left untreated could possibly cause deafness, pancreatitis, and, in rare cases, sterility. Using his training and experience, Hilleman rubbed a cotton swab in his own child’s throat to isolate the MuV to see if he could discover a way for others to develop an immunity to this damaging viral disease. He succeeded. Jeryl Lynn recovered on her own, fortunately, but would comfort her baby sister, Kirsten, in 1966 when her father administered a shot of the preventative treatment.
In 1967, Hilleman’s treatment was approved and widely recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thanks to this treatment, infections of MuV in the United States went from an average of 162,000 cases per year in the 20th century down to only 429 cases recorded in 2023. Hilleman’s work has saved and preserved the health of millions over the last 50-plus years. In fact, the now-called “Jeryl Lynn strain” of the treatment is still being used today. The treatment was a vaccine, recommended to be given to babies and young children. You likely heard of MuV by its more common name: the mumps.
Pictured: Jeryl Lynn getting treatment for her mumps.Photo credit: National Museum of American History
This wasn’t Hilleman’s first time encountering and creating a vaccine. Hilleman isn’t just known for the mumps vaccine, but is widely considered in the medical community as a pioneer in modern vaccination and microbiology. After growing up during the Great Depression, Hilleman studied and was able to get his PhD in microbiology through various scholarships, graduating in 1944. Starting his work amidst the conflicts during World War II, Hilleman developed a vaccine for Japanese B encephalitis, which was desperately needed for soldiers fighting in the Pacific front. In 1957, Hilleman was recruited by the private sector, accepting a position at Merck & Company. From then through the 1990s, Hilleman and his team created more than 40 different vaccines. This includes vaccines currently being used to protect against mumps, measles, chickenpox, rubella, pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chlamydia, and pandemic influenza.
Pictured: Close-up of the mumps virusPhoto credit: Wikimedia Commons
Hilleman’s body work alongside his science partners have saved an estimated 150 million children from fatal diseases over the past 50 years. They’re part of the reason why infant mortality has improved globally, from around 10% in 1974 to less than 3% in 2024.
Dr. Maurice Hilleman, 1919 – 2005Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Developing the mumps vaccine seems like a daunting task and ask, but in the end the motivation was simple and relatable. A father saw that his child was sick and just didn’t want anyone else to suffer like she did. This dad just used the know-how and skills he had learned, earned, or was given to help. This dad just happened to be a microbiologist and vaccinologist that was called to act.
You likely aren’t a microbiologist, but you don’t have to be one to make a difference to many. If your kid needs a playground to run around in and you’re a carpenter, ask your community if you could help build one in the neighborhood for everyone to enjoy. If your local library has closed, set up a small “take-a-book, leave-a-book” shelf by your mailbox. It may seem small, but it could still make a big difference in the day-to-day lives of those around you. Just ask yourself what your abilities are and keep your eyes open for opportunities to use them.
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Ficheiro:Gerber Hart Library stacks.jpg – Wikipédia, a ...
As I often say in my own drag history work, “drag history is American history.” This phenomenon is alive and well on the Gerber/Hart Library & Archive’s Instagram. Here, once a week, the renowned Midwest LGBTQ+ library and archive celebrates “Tillie Tuesday” in honor of famed Chicago drag queen Miss Tillie, “The Dirty Old Lady of Chicago.” Tillie worked as a drag artist for some 50 years, between the 1940s and the 1990s. Drag has faced pushback throughout history and in our current moment, with lives both underground and aboveground, so this was a rare feat then and remains one now.
As Gerber/Hart shares on their podcast Unboxing Queer History, what became the Miss Tillie archive was dropped off by a friend of the drag artist after her passing. There was a wealth of photos and memorabilia in this woman’s trunk–professional images, snapshots, flyers, and more–all highlighting the five decades of Tillie’s career, a majority of which were spent in the Chicago area.
While few biographical details are known about Tillie herself, historian Owen Keehnan and the archive were able to put together some of them. She had a 9-5 job at a uniform company, for example, and lived a very separate life in drag–at the popular drag bar Club Chesterfield, for example she worked two nights a week, making $9 a night plus tips in the 1960s. She also loved to deck herself out in jewelry, and many of her photographs chronicle a treasure trove of wigs, gowns, feather boas, and fishnets. And the nickname? It comes from the younger men she kept around, who often lined up to buy her drinks after her shows. Tillie’s archive remains a favorite of the Gerber/Hart staff.
To have such photographs chronicling Tillie’s life in these eras is practically unheard of, the podcast shares. This was a time when, if people were found out to be queer, let alone in drag, they could lose everything. Raids of gay bars were frequent and frightening, “with patrons being arrested, jailed overnight, and typically having their names printed in the newspapers,” the archive writes. “Even if the charges were later dropped, this caused many individuals (especially individuals who were teachers or worked for the government) to lose their jobs. Some even committed suicide.”
If you appeared to violate what were then Chicago’s laws against cross-dressing, you were often singled out early on. So the fact that so many photos of Tillie’s exist situates her and drag in the context of not just drag history, but American history and the queer community’s ongoing fight for equality. “When we see these joyful photos of Tillie and her friends, it’s important to remember that these gatherings were critical acts of resistance at a time of hostile legal oppression of LGBTQ+ people,” the archive writes.
The Gerber/Hart Library & Archives first opened in 1981 and is named after the early 20th century queer activists Henry Gerber and Pearl S. Hart. Based in Chicago, it specifically chronicles LGBTQ+ life from the Midwest. Among their main missions is to “collect, preserve, and make accessible [this] history… in order to advance the larger goal of achieving justice and equality.” They also have a lending library, exhibits, and public programming that offer insight into LGBTQ+ Chicagoan and Midwestern life. Archives like Gerber/Hart are essential at a cultural moment like this and serve as a reminder of the queer community’s neverending contributions to history.
To learn more about LGBTQ+ history from this region, check out their Instagram and their website, and stay tuned for more “Tillie Tuesdays” in the future.
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People online debated the "dumbest" unwritten rules that shouldn't exist
I’m a visual learner, and I feel uncomfortable when I’m socially adrift, so I’ve never been a big fan of unwritten rules. In my estimation, if something is important enough to qualify as a rule, it’s probably best to write it down somewhere—in bold, in large font, in a document everyone can absorb. That said, we do live in a world dominated by subtle customs and niceties, and we probably couldn’t even agree on what rules should make the cut.
Which brings us to the fine strangers of the Internet, who recently engaged in a productive debate: "What’s the dumbest 'unwritten rule' that should be done away with?'" It’s a funny conversation but also a deep one—and the responses touched on everything from finances to family.
One of the top arguments on the thread, posted in r/AskReddit, is scrapping the idea that "you have to defend your friends, even when they’re wrong." Someone replied, "If they did something shitty, it’s not my job to lie to others and cover it up for them. The most I can do is stay out of it and let them deal with it themselves." And another Redditor extended that argument to family: "People that value loyalty above all else are that way because they do awful shit and don’t want repercussions."
Elsewhere, Redditors debated an eternally triggering topic. "Tipping," one user wrote. "Not because they don’t deserve it but because it’s bullshit to pass the anxiety to the consumer instead of just paying your fucking employees correctly." One person wrote that they only tip in certain contexts—a mom and pop diner would be different than a Starbucks. And someone else noted that the entire act of tipping, even on an interpersonal level, is just uncomfortable: "Tipping puts stress on me," they wrote. "I want to see a price and pay that price. I’m an awkward person and don’t like the interaction of tipping. I’d much rather that you charge me a price you think is fair, even if that means raising your prices 20%."
Then there’s the idea that we "can’t talk to coworkers about salary." The exchanges are fascinating: One person argued that "talking to anyone about salary has been engrained as a faux pas forever," working out to be "in the employer’s favor." Someone else noted that they’re open about their earnings, ensuring that they aren’t being exploited at the workplace: "I used to work in a creative industry, and we always discussed salaries so we knew we were being compensated fairly. We were not!"
On that note: While it might feel weird (for multiple reasons) to talk salary with a coworker, it’s important to know about the National Labor Relations Act. "Under [the Act], employees have the right to communicate with their coworkers about their wages, as well as with labor organizations, worker centers, the media, and the public," reads a description on the NLRA site. "Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection. If you are an employee covered by the Act, you may discuss wages in face-to-face conversations, over the phone, and in written messages. Policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful as are policies that chill employees from discussing their wages."
When we think of heavy metal, images of macho lyrics, aggressive artwork, long hair, headbanging, dark clothes, and electric guitars often come to mind. For a long time, women were a rare presence in the metal scene, a genre historically dominated by bands like Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. But times are changing, with artists like Evanescence introducing a Gothic heroine to the metal stage. Yet, even today, the bias against "women in metal" persists. In December 2020, when Zaria Zoyner—known as @zariasmusic on TikTok—posted videos wearing a Metallica shirt, trolls bombarded her with mocking comments. Her response video hit back perfectly.
Representative Image Source: A guest wearing a black Metallica t-shirt, olive bomber jacket, and black backpack outside Stylein during the Stockholm Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2017 on August 29, 2016. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
The video has since garnered 730,000 views and 164,000 likes. Zaria, a North Carolina-based musician and singer, responded to a comment by @paytonnsmith, who questioned her Metallica fandom after she posted videos wearing a "Ride the Lightning" T-shirt. The commenter demanded she "Name 3 Metallica songs," while others accused her of just showing off without knowing the band.
According to Bored Panda, her initial reaction to the comments was frustration. However, she soon realized that she had a really funny response to silence those critics. She posted a response video saying, “So my response to you guys is, like really? Only three? Only three songs? How ’bout I play ’em on guitar for you?” She then rocked three Metallica songs on her guitar - “Master of Puppets,” “Enter Sandman,” and the guitar lead in “One.”
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Olly
Following the video, she told the Daily Dot, “I decided to respond to that comment because I’ve been a Metallica fan for such a long time but I’d never shown that side of me on TikTok,” and added, “I’ve been a self-taught guitarist since 15 and Metallica was the band that influenced me to pick it up and inspired my journey with music.”
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Yank Rukov
Zaria listened to a lot of Metallica throughout her life, she told Bored Panda. “The first time I heard Metallica, I was sitting in my 5th-grade classroom when my teacher played Enter Sandman. I was like ‘This is the best song I’ve ever heard’ and I asked her who the band was. She told me it was Metallica and a few years later when I got my first guitar, the first riff I learned was Enter Sandman.”
The account of this trolling person was observed to be deleted after this video, but Zaria didn’t stop. Later on, she posted yet another TikTok of herself practicing Metallica’s “Unforgiven,” and continued with more. In one of the clips she posted on her Instagram page, Metallica commented from their official account. Others chimed in to support her. "Great response,I can bet most of these misogynists can't play one Metallica song.Keep on playing and rock on!" wrote one person. "Haters trying hate and look how what happened, Metallica now knows who Zaria is, and thanks to social media and my metalhead senses, I discovered the page. Happy for you, this is what happens when you stereotype a girl who actually knows her sh*t," another added.
Zaria was ecstatic. She posted the screenshots of comments in another post, writing, “It was simply one of the most special moments of my life. It meant the world to me and I didn’t care if anyone else realized the magnitude of what had happened,” and further added, “Not only did they leave a very nice comment on my last post, but they followed me back on Instagram, which was surreal and incredibly overwhelming in the best way possible.” The moral is, “Don’t take criticism from someone who is not in the arena.”
Whether it was luck or pure chance, sometimes the most unexpected things happen. Lynora (@marthainfused) shared a surprising experience from a recent shopping trip, as reported by The Independent. While thrifting at Goodwill, she stumbled upon a Coach bag in decent condition—and for a steal of a price.
Representative Image Source: Pexels| Cottonbro Studio
“Got this coach bag at Goodwill. I paid $6.99 for it,” the woman mentioned, adding, “Wait till you find out what’s inside.” Lynora went on to show the coach bag and revealed that it was in a mediocre state. It seemed to be a usable bag which was slightly dirty but one could make do with it. However, there was a bonus surprise inside the bag. The woman revealed the bottom of the inside of the bag and pulled out an envelope from under the base cover.
Representative Image Source: Pexels| Cottonbro Studio
“I thought I’d clean it up. I started by removing the flap underneath the purse and I found this envelope,” she explained. The woman found $300 inside the envelope and a handwritten note on the cover. She read the note which was from a woman named Martha. “I have three children, they will give my things to Goodwill when I die. So, I am putting their inheritance inside all my favorite things,” the note read. Martha went on to explain why the bag was dear to her. She revealed that she acquired the bag after her husband’s mistress left it at her home in a hurry. “I came home early from a visit to my parents in Connecticut and she must have left her bag and shoes,” she wrote.
Check your mother’s purses before you donate them to goodwill! #justsaying #omgchallenge #foundmoney #goodwillfinds #goodwill #donate #justkiddingrelax
The note concluded by saying, “I carried this bag every day. I wonder if my husband knew it was his girlfriend’s. I carried it daily and am giving it away because my kids don’t want it.” She also encouraged the purchaser of the bag to use the money inside the envelope to purchase a new bag. Several people were impressed by Martha’s witty response to her mistress and her wonderful reaction to the situation. @oli.and.deanne wrote, “Best story ever! Wish I could have known Martha.” @bcpbby added, “Is this for real!? Martha, I know you must be smiling down from heaven for real!”
Lynora was moved by the baffling yet heartwarming action of the woman and the money she received. She shared a follow-up video explaining that she wished to pay it forward by following Martha’s footsteps. She said, “Just got back from donating a bunch of stuff at Goodwill. And you know what, I put $100 in the pocket of a pair of jeans. In a world full of Karens, be a Martha.”
Bright blue glasses rest on Wim Wenders’ face when I greet him at the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York. He wears suspenders, one strap white and one black, with polka dots, that hold up chic, oversized trousers. Wenders, who’s most often known as the director of cinematic masterpieces–like 1984’s Paris, Texas, 1987’s Wings of Desire, and 1999’s Buena Vista Social Club, among many others–is also an accomplished photographer. His latest art exhibition, “Written Once,” which features images the director made in the 1970s and 1980s, opened at the Howard Greenberg Gallery on January 28 and runs until March 15.
“Written Once” features images from two series previously published in Wenders’ books Once and Written in the West, some of which have never before been made into prints. From Once, elegantly grainy, soulful black and white images tell stories of Wenders’ time in the U.S.–in one image, Martin Scorsese repairs a flat tire in the middle of the desert; in another, the actor and musician John Lurie plants a powerful kiss on a companion. Written in the West sets the landscape of the American West alive in vibrant color, turning its grocery stores and gas stations into painterly landscapes.
Wenders and I sit in a room filled with images by master photographer Walker Evans, one of Wenders’ greatest inspirations. He jokes that he keeps getting distracted, but if he does I don't notice. For GOOD, we spoke about truth, place, storytelling, history, and self-reflection.
How did the show come together and how did you decide to put these series in conversation with each other? [Gallerist] Howard [Greenberg] is strangely responsible. He came to my office, he went through all my drawers and got quite excited about some of the pictures. He chose the lesser-known pictures along with some exposed previously. He found some lost treasures and liked them, and just happened to be from these two series. He liked the idea that they're both books, that some of them were unknown, that I never printed them. I liked his eye and his choices. I was happy these pictures were reanimated and that I finally was able to print them. I'm more interested in the act of taking the picture than printing it. I've been taking photographs since I was a little boy but for 40 years of my life, I didn't print anything. I was happy I had the contact sheets. It was almost always more important for me that I took pictures, not that I did something with them afterwards. That changed with Written in the West, the first exhibition I had. Howard looked at my contact sheets and at my test prints [from that series], and said, “Oh, why didn't you use that one?” If somebody looks at my stuff from 40 years ago, I'm amazed by what they see in it and I say, “Oh yeah, you're right, not so bad. Why didn't I ever print it?”
Why were you more interested in the act of taking the picture than printing it? Taking photographs for me is a very intense way of being and of looking. Photographs and my camera helped and guided me to travel, made me look more closely. My main profession is maybe traveler. In many ways, my camera feels like a recording instrument. It cannot just record a picture, but it also helps me understand a place and the story it tells me. It helps me to be somewhere and understand the light and the colors and see details, the history of a place, the history of the people [who] came through there, everything that we did to that place. For me, taking photographs is a way to be, to exist more in the moment and more intensely. Printing is not exactly in the moment. Printing is like going back and looking at something you experienced. I've always been interested in moving forward. Printing is almost like a nostalgic process. I'm not a nostalgic person, so I have to force myself, and I need somebody to tell me, “Wim, this picture, you better print it.”
What is it like to reflect on the work now decades later? Photography is a medium where you're very intensely living in the now. I'm a photographer of places, much more than of people, even if there are people sometimes. It's really interesting to see who I was then, and who I was that saw these things, wanted to keep these moments and press the shutter. Today, if I was in the same place, I might take a very different picture. In a strange way, when I came into the gallery this morning, I encountered somebody I used to be, a young man very fascinated with America who lived and worked here in the 70s and 80s. I pretty clearly remember who that was, but I also realized I moved on. America has changed a lot. I realized that some of the places that interested me so much at the time have been either photographed to death, have disappeared, or were destroyed. The term “Americana” didn't exist when I made these pictures. It is now such a common word to describe a certain nostalgic feeling about America, but at the time I didn't feel it was a nostalgic journey. At the time it was truly sort of an exploration into the history of America. These places I show, especially in color, are historic places they talk about when they talk about American history. The West is an important part of American history. It's a country full of dreams, broken dreams, illusions and lost illusions. So to revisit them 40 years later, again, is another lost illusion [laughs]. Photographs are pretty solid in representing history. I love photography for the fact that it's so solid.
How do those ideas and your images live together? These are all prints that are completely unmanipulated. What you see is what you get. What you see is what I saw. It's sort of an old fashioned idea of photography. Now the photo is no longer a witness of something that really happened, but a creation of something done with the help of a camera. There's Photoshop and all sorts of techniques. Looking at Walker Evans’s photographs, that's what he saw. My photos are from that tradition, like [photographer] Joel Meyerowitz, on the wall there. I love that man, so I'm in a strange way surrounded here by old friends. Walker Evans was my great hero when I was a young man growing up, maybe 15-16 years old and trying to do something with my camera. I realized you can do something so much more beautiful with it, not just photograph what's around you, your friends, family, and journeys–you could make photographs that were a statement. I'm completely overwhelmed that we're sitting here in a room with 15 Walker Evans photographs. For me, those are an expression of truthfulness, because it's more an attitude than a result. The result “truth” is always questionable, but the attitude producing something truthful is not questionable.
What does making a photograph teach you about how you want to make a film and vice versa? My photography and my filmmaking have one thing in common: an extreme interest in place, in finding out its story, what part of history is reflected in it, what stories reverberate, and what I can read in it. My filmmaking is all place-driven. If I reach that state where I know that story--Berlin in Wings of Desire, the West in Paris, Texas–could not possibly have happened anywhere else, then I feel I've done justice to place and story, and I've told a story rooted in truth because the place and the story are linked in a necessary way. I need that.
For me, the truth of a story is very much linked to its place, and the characters need to be linked to a place. I like films that specifically take place somewhere else, where there is a history, a particular language, a tradition, habits–films that are linked to a certain region or countryside or to that city. I hate, and I often walk out of, movies when I realize they don't take place anywhere. A lot of movies take place nowhere and then you find out this is possibly Pittsburgh, but you know Pittsburgh and this is not Pittsburgh. A lot of movies are made not in the place where they're supposed to take place, but they're just where it pays off to shoot them because there's a tax rebate or something. I see “tax rebate” written big over many movies, and I can't stand realizing a place is phony. I don't want to watch a lookalike. I want to see the real thing. Why should I see a movie that takes place nowhere? Why should I believe the story of all these characters, that character sees something I know he can never, ever in his life, see there? I can't take it. I'm old fashioned. I need to believe that this is happening.
When you look at your work now, do you ever feel critical of yourself? You cannot criticize the picture. You can criticize the attitude. I don't like all of these pictures there. Some are done sort of hastily, especially some of the black and white work. I didn't always think of myself as a photographer. I became one in the pictures I shot in America and the American West in preparation for Paris, Texas. I make a lot of journeys, only to take pictures, but not to make a movie, and then I make a lot of movies and I don't take a picture at the same time. It's two different attitudes. I can criticize an attitude, but I don't want to criticize the result. Some of my pictures are a little bit half-hearted I think now, but others are right on, and I'm happy I made them. I realized how much the attitude and being in the now creates the photo. I think the attitude of the photographer is visible in the shot, and that you can sometimes criticize. Sometimes it's a little bit superficial, sometimes it's just en passant. Some photographs are careless, others are profound.
Young Katherine during one of her earlier cancer treatments.Photo credit: SWNS
Katherine taking a selfie before undergoing cancer treatment.Photo credit: SWNS
Pictured: Katherine suited up and ready to get to work!Photo credit: SWNS
Snoring is among many reasons committed couples have experimented with "sleep divorce."Photo credit: Canva
Just because a couple sleeps separately doesn't mean they're never in bed together.Photo credit: Canva
Photo credit: Canva
Pictured: Jeryl Lynn getting treatment for her mumps.Photo credit: National Museum of American History
Pictured: Close-up of the mumps virusPhoto credit: Wikimedia Commons
Dr. Maurice Hilleman, 1919 – 2005Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Cosmo Kramer High Quality GIF
Tipping Jim Carrey GIF
Representative Image Source: A guest wearing a black Metallica t-shirt, olive bomber jacket, and black backpack outside Stylein during the Stockholm Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2017 on August 29, 2016. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Olly
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Yank Rukov
Representative Image Source: Pexels| Cottonbro Studio
Representative Image Source: Pexels| Cottonbro Studio
Image Source: TikTok|
Image Source: TikTok|
Lounge Painting II, 1983, Gila Bend© Wim Wenders/ Wenders Images and Howard Greenberg Gallery
When Martin Scorsese had a flat tire II, 1977© Wim Wenders/ Wenders Images and Howard Greenberg Gallery
John Lurie, 1986, Montreal© Wim Wenders/ Wenders Images and Howard Greenberg Gallery