Rian Dundon
Timeline
Contact Rian
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Rian:
Photos: L.A.’s mid-century smog was so bad, people thought it was a gas attack
“Only twenty of ten on Monday morning and already the sky was a flat canvas of smog haze pulled taut to its combustible edges as far as the eye could see.” Urban air pollution is often seen as an… → Read More
While abortion doctors were being killed, pro-lifers prayed in support of the attackers
There was a storm brewing above Florida State Prison on September 3, 2003, the day Paul Jennings Hill was put to death. Claps of thunder could be heard inside the execution chamber as he uttered his… → Read More
Photos: Depression-era billboards sold and celebrated the “American way”
Americans didn’t have a whole lot of money to spend in the 1930s. Great Depression and all. Nevertheless, people weren’t without wants, and advertising persisted as all manner of products were… → Read More
This televangelist cried in front of 8,000 people after being caught with hookers
“I have sinned against you my Lord,” the reverend spoke through tears, gazing skyward as he addressed his congregation. “And I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain… → Read More
When this actor brought a broom to a gunfight, he showed America what community looks like
The unrest had begun two days previous. With little sign of letting up, most Anglenos were hunkered down in their homes watching the news as fire and looting — a spontaneous response to the acquittal… → Read More
When the government tried to silence Howard Stern, it only increased his wild popularity
Since the late 1970s, the radio host Howard Stern has built a career perched on the edge of indecency. Considered by some a stalwart defender of the first amendment, others — including the Federal… → Read More
Welcome to the hotel. All rooms come with views of urban warfare
This story is brought to you in partnership with Beirut, the new movie starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. Coming to theaters April 11. “Artillery side or car-bomb side?” That was the question posed… → Read More
These jailhouse sketches of escaped Amistad slaves became the faces of rebellion
When a ship of escaped slaves was intercepted by customs agents off the coast of Long Island in 1839, prospects didn’t look good for those on board. Weeks earlier, near Cuba, they’d commandeered the… → Read More
What we’ve lost to gentrification –
The ongoing development of New York City, to cite perhaps the most conspicuous example, is intimately tied to the way its working-class communities have been imaged and imagined since the 19th… → Read More
Operation Desert Storm was a practice run in press manipulation
By the end of the Vietnam War, in 1975, the Pentagon had learned its lesson about granting reporters unrestricted access to overseas ground deployments. When the Gulf War began, a decade and a half… → Read More
Disco’s glory days were a kaleidoscope of yes –
Emerging from its urban working-class origins in the early 1970s, disco got real big real quick. By mid-decade, Barry White and Donna Summer songs were topping the charts, supplanting rock on the… → Read More
How to draw a crowd in 1936? Let a white woman hang a black man
The last public execution in America was a media frenzy. Not because a young black man was being hanged (that was hardly worth a mention in 1936) or the notion that it might be people’s last chance… → Read More
Photos: Jamaican bobsledding was considered a joke –
It’s been 30 years since the Jamaican bobsled team’s fish-out-of-water debut at the Calgary Games. Back then, for tropical countries to compete in the Winter Olympics was rare, if not unheard of. The… → Read More
Photos: Black Monday, the 1987 market crash that made us rethink greed’s good
There’s been a lot of Black Mondays over the course of history. A massacre in medieval Ireland; fatal storms in 14th-century England; the 1977 closure of a steel factory in Ohio. Bleak stuff, and… → Read More
Photos: To avoid extermination, Native Americans were forced to assimilate
“Assimilate or die.” That was the gist of it. As the 19th century came to a close, this was the choice faced by Native Americans whose land, culture, and tribal identities had been nearly erased by a… → Read More
Photos: Lesbian pulp was “survival literature” for many closeted women in the 1950s
In the years before and following World War II, pulp novels emerged as a space for new fiction riddled with tantalizing deviance. Almost no taboo was too extreme for these dime-store tomes, where… → Read More
A teen photographer’s gut-wrenching response to 1960s homophobia
When a photographer is able to successfully pinpoint the crest of a social movement, the resulting pictures can become an important historical document. If he is an artist, they can be transcendent… → Read More
These photos of incarcerated Hungarian kids were banned 40 years ago
As an extreme exercise of state power, incarceration is a complicated issue. Taking away people’s freedom can easily become a flagrant human rights abuse. In America, for example, we lock up citizens… → Read More
Early logging photos show the taming — and tarnishing — of Washington state’s old-growth forests
Industrial logging wasn’t always seen purely as wanton environmental destruction. In Washington State, clearcutting was once a necessary step in taming the land for habitation and jump-starting a… → Read More
Photos: Remembering Naked Hollywood through the eyes of a master photographer
For a lot of successful artists, moving beyond the work that made you famous is a challenge. There is always tension between the public’s penchant for familiarity and the artist’s intrinsic mandate… → Read More