Highway At Night

Charles Sheeler

I feel like I see the world like this sometimes.


© Charles Sheeler, Amoskeag Mills #2


© Charles Sheeler, Study for Improvisation on a Mill Town, 1948

Unicyclist In Covent Garden

Castle

Cool.

Flute Player

In Bath. He was not pleased with me taking his picture.

Street Scene

In Bath.

Pond

I believe I took this at Stourhead.

A Secret Garden

Alley Way

Rainy day in Warwick.

As a Tourist

Clouds...

...resting above Hadrian's Wall.

River Cam

A view for privileged eyes.

My sister went here yesterday.

Fountain Abbey

Tree

At Hampton Court. An inspiring display of horticulture.

Elgin Marbles

Here are a few posts dedicated to my sisters who are going to pop about England without their hubbies this summer.

Why is there such a fuss over these? I learned that the relief--or depth of the carving--is no deeper than 3 inches. Yet, the stone-carvings have a 3-dimensional quality and capture the movement of the horses and their riders.

Study No. 3

Study No. 2

Gazing Out Window

Study No.1

Playing With Sister

Walker Evans

This Polaroid is not typical of Evans' earlier documentary work.


© Walker Evans

Hiromu Kira

I liked this photograph from the Seattle Camera Club show at Henry Art Gallery in Seattle.

© Hiromu Kira

An Undecisive Moment

indistinct, blurry, shadowy, faint, unclear, vague, indefinite, unfocused, obscure, nebulous, vague, ill-defined, unclear, uncertain, indefinite, indeterminate, imprecise, unformed, muddled, confused, ambiguous...
...words that have been on my mind.

Walead Beshty

© Walead Beshty

David Hockney

© David Hockney

Uta Barth

© Uta Barth.

In the Queue

Some interesting photography exhibitions going on this month. Here are a few in the queue:

The SAM
Amy Blakemore

Henry Fine Art
Uta Barth
Walead Beshty
Seattle Camera Club

UMFA
Helen Leavitt
Walead Beshty

Keets

My sister Katie. I love her.

Dave

Happy Birthday Dave! The big 9!

Lydia

Emma

This is one of a few favorite photos I took while at Silver Pelican. Emma had such great style--she showed up wearing this outfit and I thought--this is going to be good! A person's clothing can really make the photograph more interesting.

Green Peppers

Grammie & Grandpa

I love this shot of my Grammie and Grandpa. I'm not sure where they were headed but it looks like a shot from an old movie. I love the large number in the bottom corner.

Masters | Yousuf Karsh

My parents recently saw an exhibit of Yousuf Karsh's work in Boston. Thanks Dad for telling me about him. It is worth your while to check out his website and watch a short video clip of him explaining how he caught this shot of Churchill. It is a great story. He photographed some of the world's most famous people...Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein. I am a big fan.

Film is Better

November 08 GQ - Jeff Riedel Photo Essay from APhoto Editor on Vimeo.

32 pages of GQ magazine from one photographer, all shot with film. Need I say more?

2612

The light leaks, vignetting and double-exposures makes the Holga a fun and unpredictable camera.

Two Windows

Dahlia

A journal entry about Kensington Park:
Just before dusk is the most beautiful time of day. All sounds, worries and thoughts are calmed by the gentleness of light. The benches are full of silent, contemplative people. I wonder what they're thinking about. In moments and places like this one welcomes introspection. Acknowledging the Divine brings a richness and beauty to life. I will miss...the Peter Pan statue, the un-mowed grass between the trees, Kensington Palace, and playing Frisbee with friends.

Stairs at Hampton Court

Hampton Court was the residence of many famous nobility and royality. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723). He was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, mathematician, physicist and one of the greatest English architects in history. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal. This is a photograph of the grounds.

Choose an author as you choose a friend. --Christopher Wren

Masters | Irving Penn

Spencer Tracey, by Irving Penn

Penn captured the faces, and personalities, of celebrities from movie star Spencer Tracy (I948) to author Anaïs Nin (1971), gradually changing his approach to portraiture over the years. In the 1940s, Penn positioned his sitters in a narrow corner created by two bare, dull theater flats, a device of his own creation. The set both physically and psychologically confined the sitters, putting them on equal footing with Penn.

I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel. - Irving Penn

Photographing a cake can be art. - Irving Penn - asserted when he opened his studio in 1953

Standing on the White Cliffs of Dover

It was interesting to learn about the secret of the Dover War Tunnels that Churchill used during WWII. No one knew about them when they were first built during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. The tour guide said that people are still secretive about certain parts of the tunnels. We took a tour of the tunnels and saw the immaculately preserved rooms Churchill lived in and used for correspondence and meetings. My dad, an avid fan of Churchill, would've loved seeing this. Above the War Tunnels are the famous white cliffs of Dover that edge the English Channel. We were told that on a clear day we would see France.

"I felt as if I were walking with destiny; and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial." -- Churchill

West-End Plays & Concerts

Interestingly, I was glued to this audience of people enjoying themselves and not the concert they were watching. Concerts like this happen all the time outside London's National Theatre. I had just seen A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class.

View From a Ferry Ride

Another skyline. Sigh. This begins the first of many photographs taken in London during my study abroad there in the summer of 2004. That time is close to my heart. I loved seeing this enchanting, vibrant, sophisticated, international, city through the lens of my camera. I did not do it justice. I feel sentimental about my London photographs. I find them especially interesting--maybe more than you will--because of my experiences tied to the photographs. I long for London and would move there if it made any tinge of logical sense. I was diligent in my journal writing efforts and will sprinkle my posts with some entries.

Bentonville Skyline

This photo typifies some of my feelings about my experience in Bentonville, Arkansas a few summers ago. I found myself photographing telephone poles and water towers. The blank skyline of a town, placed in the middle of nowhere, bewildered and intrigued me.

Fruit Basket On Wood Chest

Taken at my parents house. It's interesting to think about why fruit is the subject of so much art.

Lucy | 9 Months

Chandelier

I love the challenge that every-day objects pose. This chandelier isn't really an every-day object but it illustrates how contrast, light and taking the subject out of context can trick the eye and make an image that is interesting.

Red Barns

It is interesting to look at black and white images and wonder what it would look like in color. What color would you have thought this barn was? I find something compelling and enchanting about old barns...especially red ones. (This one was red.)

Masters | Rodney Smith

The intriguing and mysterious Rodney Smith studied photography under Walker Evans at Yale, eventually earning a degree in Divinity. He was asked to lecture at schools like Columbia and Harvard, but he declined all invitations, instead riding slow trains in India, bicycling through the Camarque, strolling the streets in Paris. He still watches nothing but movies made before 1947. His favorite subject is men in hats.