Images

More than 10,000 items in the Walters Art Museum — about a third of the total collection — can now be viewed and downloaded online for free, without copyright restrictions. The museum's collection is "basically public domain," said Dylan Kinnett, manager of web and social media at the Walters. "Something like this would be less likely at a museum with contemporary art, where the artist is still alive or the estate is still active. " The free online accessibility, which complements the Walters' free admission policy, allows viewers to see works spanning several eras, from ancient Egypt and the Americas to 18th- and 19th-century Europe.

Baltimore police on Thursday released two grainy surveillance images of a group of people walking across Greenmount Avenue on the night of a triple shooting there that left a 16-year-old boy dead, calling them "persons of interest" and asking for the public's help in identifying them. Officers responded to the 2700 block of Greenmount about 8 p.m. Nov. 20 for a report of shooting and found three victims - two men and Daniel Pearson, 16. All were transported to local hospitals. While the two men, ages 33 and 20, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Pearson was pronounced dead.

Baltimore County police released images Monday of a forensic artist's reconstruction of a skull belonging to a man found in the Back River over a year ago. Police released the images to help identify the man but said the facial features might vary. The victim is a white male and 40 to 60 years old. The victim had no upper teeth and may have worn dentures, police said. The cause of death is undetermined but police said there were no signs of foul play. The body had been in the water for a significant period.

Jose Benito Ortega's sculpture "Christ Crucified with Angel" is bloody from head to foot. It bleeds down the face from the crown of thorns, down the arms, down the chest from the wound in the side, down the legs from the gashed knees.This crucifixion, one of the santos -- or holy images -- from the 19th and early 20th century southwest, doesn't pull any punches; it gives you all that suffering right in the eyes.Ortega's "Our Lady of Sorrows" however, is altogether different: Eyes downcast and with a slight, sad smile as if understanding all the world's sorrows, this representation of the Virgin Mary is an image of mercy.

Director John Waters is a Baltimore icon for his zany, anti-establishment feature films set in this city, but he is less well-known here as a photographer, possibly because he has never exhibited his still camera work in his hometown. So Straight to Video, an exhibit of Waters' photographs at C. Grimaldis Gallery (actually, they're photographs of video images of movies) is sort of a groundbreaking event. Waters has shown this work in New York and elsewhere but for some reason has waited until now to debut them in his native city.

The unrestrained joy of a championship celebration. The heartbreak of a mother leaving her child to go to war. A dancer's inspiring return from injury to the stage. These and the other images presented here -- some previously published, some not -- were all moments captured by The Sun's photography staff during 2004. They are mere glimpses of a year in which so much occurred. But among the thousands of frames each photographer shot this year, these are the images that stayed with them.

In his photographic prints of men underwater, usually nude but sometimes clothed, Robert Flynt addresses the subject of homosexuality frankly, but in such a way as to place it in a universal context. In the process he argues for its acceptance not as an aberration but as another expression of the natural order.By photographing his subjects underwater, Flynt gives these images a dreamlike, poetic lyricism, like slow-motion scenes of lovers in films, though not to the point of cliche. He puts his figures at a remove from the real world, and endows them with a balletic grace that blurs the distinction between the human figure as sexual object and as work of art.That's only one aspect of the meaning of these complex works, however.

The art of avant-garde choreographers and performers Eiko and Koma is indelible. The stark and splendid images this pair create haunt long after the performance. Eiko and Koma's two works, "Passing" and "Night Tide," which opened this season's Dance on the Edge series last weekend at Towson State University's Stephen's Theatre, contained mythic and archetypal images guaranteed to surface in day or night dreams.Both dances were performed with the stage transformed into a large reflecting pool.

Baltimore's Connie Imboden, now showing at Gomez, has garnered acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic -- especially in Europe -- for her photographic investigations of the human being.One is tempted to say "of the nude" or "of the human body," but that would be misleading. Although Imboden does employ the nude, she has in the past made images that are surrealistic, symbolic and psychologically probing. Using water and sometimes mirrors with her subjects, she has reflected our dreams, fears and states of mind from serenity to anxiety.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has begun to make the important argument that military force is only one tool in America's campaign against global terrorism. In addition to other non-military activities such as freezing assets and sharing intelligence, the United States and its allies must also wage an aggressive information campaign to promote our values and counter harmful opinions in parts of the Islamic world. The power of symbols, images, and ideas is today often greater than that of hard military assets.