Artists (and dogs) at the Exploratorium

I have never given much thought to whether or not I am an artist.  And the whole idea of whether or not photography is an art is a whole ball of wax that I try to avoid.  So when Pam Winfrey (whose idea it was to have the Exploratorium host the “Normal” exhibit) invited me to be part of an artist’s night, I said yes without giving it much thought.  So it was a bit weird for me to be introduced to people as one of the artists whose work was on display.  I’ll accept it for the time being but I doubt it will go to my head.  The event was pretty cool.  Since I was basically alone, I wandered around looking lost for a while before I ran into my refound friend Katie Hahren and her daughter Annie.  That loosened things up a bit.  Eventually Karen Miller and I ended up signing catalogues and chatting with guests. / One thing about San Francisco that I really like is that dogs seem to be accepted in most public places.  When I was at the Exploratorium in February I met a 4 month old black lab who was on his way to work for only the second day.  I can not imagine bringing the Pearl to an office job even now when she is 12 and mostly calm.

This is the new Exploratorium on the Embarcadero at Pier 15.  It is amazing. Go check it out if you ever get the chance.

Stahl House (Case Study House #22)

I have been fortunate as a photographer to get into a number amazing buildings.  Not many quite as incredible as the Stahl House in LA.  Cristine’s sister Lynne and her husband John are docents there, and on Sunday evening we had the privilege to be in one of the most iconic mid-century homes in the world.

The story of the house is well documented so I will not go into it, but it is well worth reading about.  Click on the Stahl House link above and you can read a bit more about it here.

The most amazing aspect of the house now is that it is still family owned, and they have graciously made it open to the public.  For what is a very reasonable fee, small groups can have guided tours (possibly by Lynne and John) that allow visitors to experience something so rare that it is almost inconceivable.  (Cristine looks quite at home in this shot.)

This is a stitched photograph (2 images) that is not perfect (one funky area that I noticed right away), but it shows the house pretty well at twilight. / Big thanks to the Stahl family, and especially to Lynne and John who have become experts in mid-century architecture and artifacts.  They also docent at the Eames House, which is open to the public on a limited basis. / Go to the Stahl House website to poke around and set up a tour.  If you are in LA it is easily one of the top 5 things to do.

“Paper Wins”

My friend Charlotte X.C. Sullivan produced this lovely piece called “Paper Wins”

It is based on the idea of the “emotional complexity of choice” with the game Rock, Paper, Scissors in mind.  She molded the papers over “river-smoothed” rocks and placed them on the floor of a large barn/artist’s space at Bramble Hill Farm in Amherst.

It became somewhat of a performance piece when she was de-installing it and the giant fan needed some help in blowing the papers away.

Vietnam Memorial and SAAM

Cris and I are in DC visiting Peter.  He is amazing and is doing really well.  We took the time for a quick visit to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  I can never get enough of it and I always come back to this part of the building which is near the Lunder Conservation Center.  If any of you reading this are in the area and have never been here you really should make the effort.  There is a great wood fired pizza place a couple of blocks away called The Matchbox.  Get a small pizza and see some art!

Two of my friends from Meadville were killed in Viet Nam.  Jim Rudd was a neighbor whom I knew quite well.  We spent a lot of time together at the YMCA and I can remember his talking about his interest in Native American culture.  He was a very sweet guy.  He was a private in the Marines and died on 6 August, 1968.

I knew David Dragosavac less well, but Meadville was small and I am pretty sure we were on the Y swim team together at one point.  David was a Sergeant in the Army and was killed on 1 April, 1970.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is really worth a visit.  Very moving.

Utopia Parkway

I just got back from shooting a great dance piece by Angie Hauser and Chris Aiken who are new dance faculty members at Smith.  Their piece “Utopia Parkway” is totally improvised, as is the live music that goes along with it (Jesse Manno and Robert Benford).  It only runs tomorrow night and Friday at Smith (20+21 September).  It is totally great and shouldn’t be missed.  If you in the area, go see it.

Hadley Hall Projection Room

This is a bit of an experiment.  When I was out at Willard recently, I shot the bowling alley in Hadley Hall and then went upstairs to the projection room.  The lighting was the weirdest I have come across.  I shoot most of this stuff in RAW, so that I have tons of latitude when it comes to editing the photos.  I messed around with these images for a long time and I could NOT get the color to look good.  The walls were yellowish and there were mixed fluorescents.  Rather than get discouraged and stuff the whole idea of a post I decided to convert to black and white and see how they look online.  Funny, since in the days of film I used to shoot this sort of thing in black and white much of the time.

The tradition for the projectionists was to write the name of the film and the date it was shown on the walls.

Lots of interesting films here.  For example, “All Fall Down” was shown on 13 January, 1963, and Apache Rifles got a (Good) rating.

And here “The Glass Slipper” was shown on 14 April, 1956.  And these were all 35mm prints!

What really interests me about the asylum having shown first run movies is that the residents of the institution were able to attend, as were the people who lived in the surrounding towns.  From what I have been told, the townsfolk sat in the balcony and the asylum residents sat downstairs.

I like these notes for the projectionist.  There must have been someone downstairs who could send some sort of signal in case of a problem.

The projection room seemed to me to be almost totally intact.  The sheet of paper here might be hard to read online, but at the top of the list is “Back To The Future”.

Here’s another of the projection lenses.  A beautifully made optic.

There was still quite a bit of paperwork lying around.

I was just blown away by this room and its contents.

It is really hard to put into words just how fortunate I am to get into places like this, and how important it is to me to be able to preserve images of something that very few people can see for themselves.

So, thank you all for checking in and encouraging me to do this kind of work.  I am off to Rotterdam tomorrow to shoot more suitcases and will post an update to that project very soon.

Safety Pins

This afternoon I took publicity photos for Paint Box Theatre’s production of “The Ugly Duckling”.  When I got there I noticed the costumer had these safety pins on her jeans.  Very functional and also cool looking.

Giulio Cesare

I had some work at Princeton yesterday and as I was shooting some panoramas in the fine arts building I saw this guy sitting alone on a table in a hallway.  He is about only 3 inches tall and still looked like he had total control of his realm.  I wonder if this is what Caesar really looked like.  He has a very commanding presence.

Waterloo, NY

Waterloo, NY is an interesting little town.  It is not too far from Willard and I have passed through it a lot since it lies on one of the main routes between the Thruway and Ithaca.  There was a Masonic Lodge on this corner (Virginia and Williams Streets) which was torn down in 2007.  When that building came down, this sign became visible again.

I walked up to the brick to get a closer look and it is in very good condition.   It is a complete shame that the Masonic building had to be razed, but at least something interesting came out of its destruction.

Albert Bierstadt

I have always liked this painting.  Bierstadt was apparently quite the operator.  / I’ve been in DC the past few days and had the chance to spend a few hours at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  It is the best museum in a city full of great museums.  It shares the old patent office building with the National Portrait Gallery which in itself is pretty cool.  While there I got the chance to see some of the people that Peter Carroll and I worked with on the Lunder Conservation Center project, and had a really nice visit. /  Back to Massachusetts tomorrow and will mail out the next level of rewards for the suitcase backers.