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Monday, August 29, 2022

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Galen Rowell

Photography Appreciation

Galen Avery Rowell was a wilderness photographer, photojournalist, and climber.

Born on August 23, 1940 in Oakland, California, Rowell was introduced to the wilderness at a young age. He began climbing at age 16.

In 1973, he completed his first major assignment for National Geographic. He pioneered a new kind of photography where he considered himself a participant in the scenes he photographed. He made an art of self-portrait, as explained by photographer Steven Werner. This approach won Rowell the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography in 1984. 

In his lifetime, he published numerous magazine articles and eighteen books. He referred to his landscape photography as "dynamic landscapes," due to the fast-changing nature of light and conditions and his energetic pursuit of the best camera position at the optimal moment.

Returning from a photography workshop in Alaska, Rowell, his wife, and friend were killed in a plane crash approaching an airport in Bishop, California, on August 11, 2002.





Source:

Wikipedia

https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/on-location/featured-stories/lessons-learned-from-galen-rowell/

http://ndmagazine.net/photographer/galen-rowell/


Monday, August 22, 2022

Body Paint: Aura Rosenberg - The Astrological Ways

In 2013, the Martos Gallery in New York City held an opening for contemporary artist Aura Rosenberg with a live performance of her works, part of The Astrological Ways series.


 via Edwardo Efren

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

The Monkees - Last Train to Clarksville

Music Appreciation

Released on August 16, 1966, Last Train to Clarksville was The Monkees' debut single, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 on November 5, 1966. 

The song was written by duo Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The song's opening riff was inspired by the Beatles. It's said Hart misheard the end of the Beatles' Paperback Writer and thought Paul McCartney was signing "take the last train," then decided to use the line after finding out McCartney was actually singing "paperback writer."

The song is about a man calling a woman to meet him at the train station in Clarksville before he leaves. Although not direct, the song implies the man is a soldier leaving for the Vietnam War.



via woolhat1

Source: Wikipedia

Monday, August 15, 2022

Light Painting: Painting with Light Behind the Scenes

Photographers: Ariel Perez, Byron Williams, Terry Witherspoon

Model: Katherine

Video Edit: James Geiser


via Entense Focus


Sunday, August 14, 2022

Pole Dance: ORI - Black Book

Choreography: Anna Rrredkina

Revolution 2022. White Nights. St. Petersburg, Russia (28-29 May 2022)

via i.POLEBOTE

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Reid Blackburn

Photography Appreciation

I remember watching a mountain erupt on TV and trying to make sense of it, when I was young. My parents tried to explain that it was Mount St. Helens, a volcano. It wasn't until the made-for-TV film "St. Helens, Killer Volcano," which came out a year later, when I understood the level of scariness. 

Twenty years later, I was able to visit Mount St. Helens with my ex-wife and daughter. Driving up the winding road to the Johnston Ridge Observatory provided a sense of appreciation of the volcano's power. News reported trees were ripped out of the ground 17 miles from the crater. Fifty-seven people perished on May 18, 1980.

One of those individuals was photojournalist Reid Blackburn, who had been assigned to document the volcano's activities.

Born on August 11, 1952, Blackburn attended Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. In a National Geographic article, Reid was said to have "the incisive eye of the born portrait photographer, capturing a face precisely when the mask falls away to reveal an instant of truth." 

He began working at The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Washington, as a photojournalist in 1975. He was also a freelance photographer for the National Geographic and United States Geological Survey. 

In May 1980, Blackburn set up camp at Coldwater I, about eight miles from the mountain's north flank--a spot that was thought to be safe. His job was to remotely trigger cameras that were set facing the north face of the volcano. 

Although he was due back down from the mountain on May 17th, he decided to stay. Perhaps, as his wife, Fay, said in a newspaper interview, Blackburn wanted to get that shot of his career.  

At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale started a rapid series of event as The Columbian reported "Massive landslide uncorked an unexpected lateral blast that sent a superheated cloud of ash and rock roaring down the Toutle River valley." The total avalanche volume was about 3.3 billion cubic yards. 

The Columbian reported that "Blackburn had only enough time to get in his car before he was caught in the superheated cloud of ash, pumice and gas." His vehicle was spotted in mud and ash the following day. All his photos were destroyed by the eruption.


Reid Blackburn (circa 1971-1974)


FBI agents in 1980 on the shores of the 
Columbia River, looking for money or clues


Reid's last roll shot five weeks before eruption


Sources:

Wikipedia

https://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/01/victims-volcanos-toll-hits-home/

Koenninger, Tom (May 23, 1980), "We Ache, for Reid was One of Us". Spokane Daily Chronicle.

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st.-helens/1980-cataclysmic-eruption

https://avalonlibrary.net/National_Geographic/National%20Geographic%201981-01%20159-1%20Jan.pdf

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/31/postscript-to-an-eruption-newly-discovered-photos-by-reid-blackburn

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/08/02/us/COOPER-2.html

https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/lca_photos/304

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Albert Bloch

Art Appreciation

American Modernist artist Albert Bloch was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 2, 1882. He dropped out of school to study art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts.

Bloch worked as a caricaturist and illustrator before moving to Germany in 1909. There he met German artists Wassily Kandisnsky and Franz Marc. Impressed with Bloch, they invited Bloch to exhibit his work with their group, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), which became an expressionism art movement from 1911 to 1914. Bloch was the sole American artist in the group.

Whereas The Blue Riders focused on landscapes, Bloch focused on portraitures, and many of his characters during this time included dell'arte clowns, harlequins, pierrots, and carnival themes.

Bloch moved back to the United States when World War I began. He began teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago then held a head position at the University of Kansas.

Bloch passed away on March 23, 1947.

The Green Domino (1913)

Summer Night (1913)

Portrait of a Boy (1911)

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://jonathanboos.com/albert-bloch/