Twin Guards at the Arbus Exhibit

If I see a major exhibit of one photographer's work, I am liable to start looking for photographs that might look like the ones you saw in the exhibit.  This does not look like any of her work at all, but...  She photographed more than one set of twins and she worked only in black & white.  So I thought this photograph of twin guards would be an interesting thing to photograph.  The guards are not twins, of course, there is one guard and the back wall of the gallery is a mirrored wall.  She also used some square format cameras so I cropped this into a square to complete the comparison. 

 

"STOP WATERING YOUR LAWN"

You may want to click on the photo first to see the headline on the cover of Newsday today!  But I am way ahead of them!  Look at my lawn!  The story in the paper said that Suffolk County is telling people to stop watering their lawns.  We live in Nassau County and the drought is just as bad here.  But I thought you would like to know that I was way ahead of the government!

 

Back to the Diane Arbus Exhibit

I wanted to go back to the Diane Arbus exhibit in the city one more time.  For two reasons.  I found out after leaving the first time there was a 90 minute film that was playing where the former student of hers who printed all of the 450 prints in this show was talking about her work and the way she saw her subjects.  And I wanted to carefully make sure I had looked at each and every photograph in the show.  The last time I realized that I missed a number of images because it was hard to make sure I had walked in and around all the structures that held the photos.  So I did all that.  It was exhausting but it felt good to see it the first time.   I am so lucky.  So I spent my day in the exhibit and then I come home.  But I am not done - I have all the photographs I took of the show and people at the show and I was so excited to look at my camera cards and find some interesting photographs that I know I took.  And this is a favorite!  There is a huge digital screen taller than a person and every 15 seconds it shows another cropped face, just showing the eyes.  So I found a spot and watched the scene and every time someone walked in front of the screen I took a photograph.  I love this one!  What do you think?  I am finally giving you a *real* photograph for a change.  Please click on it - it is a larger image than most.

 

Anselm Kiefer at Mass MoCA

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. Kiefer has developed themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, in addition to spiritual concepts of Kabbalah, which is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. His works are characterized by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture's dark past, and unrealized potential, in works that are often done on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects. This work is called “The Women of the Revolution” (Les Femmes de la Revolution) and is comprised of more than twenty full-size lead beds with photographs and wall text.  It is an astounding work which takes up a huge space.  I wish I could tell you more but this is all I know.  I will say this a powerful thing to see in person.

 

Stan's Talk at ASLI

Stan drove out from the city tonight to speak at ASLI about his astronomy clubs two new remote telescopes.  They have a telescope in an observatory on a remote mountain in Texas. Members can sigh up to get observing time on the scope in order to take astro photographs.  Then they set up another remote telescope in Chile!  Wow!  From there members can photograph objects in the southern hemisphere which we can't see from here.  He had a really attentive audience!  I should add, that his incentive to come speak involved the promise that I bake Mediterranean Salmon for dinner which he loves.  And honestly, I do a pretty good job making that dish.

 

The Whitestone Bridge

I am posting some photographs that I never got around to posting because I was always getting new ones and so forgot about these.  This is the Whitestone bridge and the only reason I could photograph it was because I was riding with Stan on the way back from Vermont and he was driving.  I was sitting in the front passenger seat.  While crossing the Throg's Neck Bridge, you see suspension cables whizzing by and it is hard to time the release of the shutter so that a cable is not blurred in the middle of the shot.  So as we crossed the bridge I was clicking as fast as I could while pointed at the Whitestone.  I must have shot 20 frames and there was only this one that was both sharp, and had no cables.  Lucky me! It is an extra large size image so please click on it to see it so much better.

 

Departure

We took Liz to JFK at suppertime for her flight back to Los Angeles.  It was wonderful having her here and the time sure did go fast.  We did drive up to Connecticut to see family on Saturday, and then mostly it was just hanging around, both before and after.  Maybe we will fly out there before Christmas, I hope.  Otherwise it will be a long time before we see both Liz and Amy again.

 

Full Moon

We were driving back from Connecticut last night and suddenly Liz said "Look at the moon!"  We looked to the east and there, just above the horizon was a beautiful orange full moon rising over Long Island Sound.  It was orange because of the smoke in the sky from wildfires out west.  5 hours later, it finally rose above the trees in our back yard, and so I used one of my telescopes to capture the bright white moon, much higher in the sky.  What a beautiful sight and what a joy to view close-up through a telescope!  I have posted an extra large image, so please click on this to see much more detail.

 

Restoration

We drove to Milford, Connecticut to have lunch with my sisters.  We drove by the pond behind city hall and I was stunned to see what the Congregational church looked like.  This church is a landmark in Milford and a photographer's delight.  If you are in the right place, you can see this church reflected in the Duck Pond behind city hall.  It is a classic photograph that I first took as a high school kid with my Minolta Autocord camera in black & white.  Turns out the church steeple which goes back to 1825, if I have my facts straight, is in dire need of repair and reinforcement.  The cost is estimated to be $500,000.

This church and this scene IS Milford!  Here is what the church looked like before the restoration began. Church Before Construction

 

Photographer at Work

We were in one of the smaller galleries, both shooting different things and then I turned around and saw Stan photographing in this light.  Wow!  And then I notice the two constructed human arms hanging down!  Whoa!  OK, now that's a shot!  The exhibit had to do with the artists dealing with "disgust" in their works.  The two arms hanging down certainly worked for me.  Couldn't wait to get out of that gallery!

  
 

Preacher Man

Come listen to the preacher man!  Look at him talk, look at his gestures.  Clearly he is a long-time preacher man with a lot of experience exhorting his flock to action.  He knows what he is doing, you can tell.  Don't you wish you were here to hear his sermon?

A real preacher man?  Nahhhh...  It is just ACTING!  I wandered into one of the modern artworks and it kind of connected computers to religion, or something like that.  To quote the information: "Petra Szilagyi creates artworks that respond with reflection and absurdity — like Bless Your Hard Drive, a prayer room for a benevolent future for the internet."  There is a beautiful hand made lectern in this exhibition made from a tree trunk.  I went over and stood behind it and immediately pretended to be a preacher.  I was having fun so I handed Stan my camera, and asked if he would take a few photographs as I gave my silent sermon.  Sorry, I just got carried away!

 

Liz is Here!

Liz is here!  We drove down to Kennedy Airport around suppertime and picked Liz up.  She will be here about five days or so and we are really looking forward to just hanging out and catching up.  Well, actually we will be driving up to Connecticut to visit "the cousins" and "the sisters" so that will be really nice for all of us.  I usually try to grab a quick photograph at the arrivals area at JetBlue, but it was so crazy busy that I didn't dare take my eyes off the traffic to take a photograph when we spotted her.  So that's a first for me, but I did get this photo when we got home.

 

Rail Bridge Lattice Structures

I have photographed these power line transmission towers before.  Riding back from Vermont I was sitting in the passenger seat and so was able to carefully photograph these structures again.  These structures carry 115,000 volt transmission lines between a power substation in Stratford and an power substation in Milford.  They were originally built in the 1900's.  United Illuminating attached the power lines to these structures in the 1940's.  I am astounded at how delicate and beautiful these structures are.  The value of the lattice design is that the wind can pass through them without adding putting too much stress on them.  I treasure seeing these structures every time I cross the Housatonic river in Stratford on I-95.

 

The Lawn is Looking Good This Year!

I thought I would show you a drone photograph of our side lawn.  It is looking great this year, for a change.  See how rich and green the lawn it.  I expect Scotts to call and ask if they can send a photographer so they can use a photo of my lawn on their bags of seed!  I refuse to waste water on the lawn!  So this is the price I pay, and I am OK with this.  The soil has never been good here ever since we moved in.  When there is plenty of rain and it is not too hot, the lawn actually looks pretty good.  I actually meant to photograph it with the drone in the spring, and it looked really good.  We are in drought conditions, and this is the result.

 

The Beauty of the Galleries

I never tire of spending time in the galleries at Mass MoCA.  The designers of the conversion from a New England factory to a n art museum were absolutely brilliant.  They sanded and varnished the original floors but, in this case, left the finish on the floor to ceiling poles.  It is so fascinating to look at all the areas in the different galleries that still have the original finish on walls and supports.  It is such a rich experience that is so different from most museums which are built and painted.  This museum is so rich with history, reminding of us of its original purpose - manufacturing things.  In this case it was capacitors for use in electronics, manufactured by Sprague Electric Company.

 

The Boiler House

This is the interior of the Boiler House which was built by the Sprague Electric Company back in 1947.  Here there are remnants of three boilers like this one,  a huge coal hopper, steam fittings, and ash disposal conveyors among other things.  It is absolutely fascinating to see these huge structures.  You are looking at one boiler, which was probably lined with fire brick and the outside covered with asbestos to keep the heat in.  The text in the building talks about it being preserved as a relic of the great industrial age of carbon.

I love the beauty of this piece of equipment and all the pipes.  These pipes carried the water into the boiler where it was heated by the fire of burning coal, to produce steam.  I know the steam was used to heat all the buildings on the property.  To this day you can see the steam pipes crossing the river to other buildings.  What is wonderful about this piece is that it is designed as a very efficient mechanical device, and yet is has such a wonderful beauty to it. 

 

This is an exterior, with the Boiler House on the right and the conveyor belt that carried the coal up to the boilers still in place.  I would loved to have seen all of this in use back in the day.  Now I can only imagine it all, and that is fun to do as well.

 

Vincent Valdez - some portraits

This portrait is one of the first paintings you see when entering the exhibition of Vincent Valdez' work.  There is something about his portraits, and I don't know what it is, but they just hold me.  When standing in front of them, I am just drawn to stand there and study them.  I can't take my eyes off them, and that's a wonderful thing!

This is the second portrait and it is five feet away from the first one and it has the same effect on me as well..

And this one was the most powerful one of all!  It is such a joy to be drawn into a painting like this.  We look at paintings hoping to be moved by what we see, I guess, and I was moved by all three of these.  This entire exhibit was so powerful by what it showed me and what I experienced.