The Tower Crane

There is a lot in this photograph. And you might not guess that the subject is the delicate vertical structure alongside the building to the right of center, in the far distance.  That delicate structure is a "tower crane" and they are everywhere in the world where construction is going on,  Here's the part that will give you the "willies" - there is a man in the cab at the top of the crane, where the angled piece, called the "jib"  joins the vertical piece, called the "mast," at the cab.  Both the crane and the building start out on the ground, and the crane helps build the building.  And as the building rises, so does the crane!  It is called "Jumping the crane" and the top of of the crane is jacked up by itself with a frame around the mast, and then a new section of mast is inserted under the cab!  It is too difficult to explain in words, so here is a link to an animation showing how the process works. I think you will find this interesting Jumping a Crane

Color me stupid, but when I did the first photograph with the wide angle lens on my camera, it never occurred to me to zoom in and do a closer photograph.  Fortunately, the image is so large from my SONY a7 that I could just crop out this part of the original photograph and post it as a separate image.  You should know that the operator has to climb the mast from the bottom each day, and then they climb back down at the end of their day.  Good exercise.  Scary place to work!

 

Man, Waiting...

Stan was headed to the men's room so I thought I would sit on this bench to rest for a few moments.  This man was on the other end of the bench, and, as is my way, I was kind of looking around, out of the corner of my eye.  I thought that because he was hunched over, his body made an interesting shape.  So, I had my camera in my hands and there is a screen on the back of the camera that can be folded out at a right angle to the back, so I can look down on the camera and see what it sees.  Then I turned the camera toward him to see what the scene looked like and I liked the dark shape of him in silhouette, and the long white hall going into the distance.  I snapped a couple of photographs, and while still looking noticed this woman coming from the rest rooms.  That made the photograph so much more interesting!  So I kept clicking until she got closer and then I stopped and put my camera away.  She kept walking right over to this guy! When I looked at all the photographs, it was obvious that she saw my camera, but didn't say anything.  Whew!

 

Frauenkopf (Woman’s Head)

I am not sure what attracted me to this sculpture of a woman's head.  It is much larger than normal size, for one. The other thing might be that I am looking at her in profile.  But I have no idea what it means.  For the last hour I have been looking up and reading reviews of exhibits by Thomas Schutte, and the meaning of much of his work is elusive, not only to me, but to professional curators.  This is the third piece I have photographed from the MoMA show.  I will give you these quotes:  "Thomas Schutte is one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation, Schütte’s real and invented forms, often distorted and unsettling, explore themes of cultural memory, existential struggle, and human striving for an impossible utopian ideal."  And this:  "The German artist Thomas Schütte is arguably the finest figurative artist now working in Europe."  And I love this quote: “What’s so great about the work is that there’s a lot I still don’t understand about it,” said Paulina Pobocha, the curator of Schütte’s MoMA survey. "That includes struggling to comprehend how such a range of art can come from one artist."  So I will leave this as a mystery for you and that's OK because there are so many things in life we will never know.  PLEASE click to enlarge this to full size and your sense of the piece will definitely change!

 

The Occultation of Mars by the Moon!

Today was a big day for amateur astronomers, because the Moon was going to occult (which means to hide) the planet Mars!  In this photograph, Mars is the tiny orange dot near the lower left of the Moon.  The bummer was the forecast was for overcast skies.  We had great good fortune and the skies cleared before the occultation happened.  When the Moon rose tonight the planet Mars was about 2 degrees below it.  You could see Mars with your naked eye.  I watched the Moon keep moving closer and closer to Mars over several hours.  I photographed it until this point then took the camera off and put in an eyepiece so that I could watch the event with my eye as the Moon covered Mars.

About an hour and 15 minutes later Mars emerged from behind the Moon and it was so cool to watch a tiny orange "bump" appear on the edge of the Moon and then keep coming untl the whole disk of Mars emerged and slowly drifted away.  What a thrill to see this.  It only happens about every 14 years, more or less.  Please be sure to click on each photograph!

 

Vater Staat (Father State)

This is the sculpture that you see when entering the first gallery of the Thomas Schütte exhibit.  It is a monumental bronze sculpture that is twice the size of a normal person.  This sculpture is about how nation states have used monumental figurative sculpture to convey authority, stability, glory and heroism, thus giving status to ruling parties. In "Vater Staat,"  Schutte critiques both authoritarian state power and the role that art has played in reinforcing it.  This towering demagogue is severe, but also vulnerably frail - he is bound by his garments in a way that suggests that he may have no body at all.  I was stunned when I entered this room and stood looking at this.

 

Lager (Storage)

Thomas Schütte is a German contemporary artist. He sculpts, creates architectural designs, and draws. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.  At MoMA there is a major retrospective of his work and the variety of the work is stunning.  I believe the exhibit occupies an entire floor in MoMA with many galleries full of his work.  This sculpture or arrangement is called, in German "Lager" which apparently means "storage" in english.  There is a beautiful simplicity to the brightly painted boards or canvases stacked one in front of another and from left to right.  But it grabbed my intention right away, and won't let go.  I can't explain it but it makes me feel really good - it seems uplifting to me - and yet I can't tell you why. But that's ok. I think it has to do with all the colors.   We all get feelings from works of art, and that's not the same as being able to explain those feelings with words.

 

A Day in the City 4

As part of the exhibit "Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern" that I talked about yesterday, this famous painting was also in the exhibit!  "The Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh, painted in 1889!  I guess is has to be one of the most famous paintings out there.  I remember buying a poster of this painting when I was in college.  So the area in front of the painting was mobbed, and of course looking at the painting doesn't count.  You need a selfie of yourself in front of it to prove you were there.  Sigh...

                               

I wasn't expecting to see this painting so it was a complete surprise to suddenly come upon it.  I did have a minute or two when the painting wasn't mobbed to study it, and it is a powerful feeling to find yourself face to face with the real thing!  I think I want to go back to MoMA again, before this exhibit closes so I can spend more time just looking at it.