Yearly Archives: 2014

Silhouette

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I need to start with an apology for failed notifications, multiple notifications, and extra notifications. Hati and Skoll is now in its third year, and websites tend to run into mail problems at about this point thanks to an army of e-parasites.  I am working on a “permanent” solution and hope to have it in place over the weekend.  But in the meanwhile please bear with me.

Week’s end and I have been going through the usual “Best Photographs of the Week” sections on various sites and there are a few beautiful images to share this week.  There is a wonderful silhouette by Anindito Mukherjee for Reuters showing workers building a rail bridge over the River Yamuna in New Delhi, India.  Silhouette is one of those over done art forms, but when it works, as in this wonderful image, it can be gorgeous, a surrender of grey tones towards a simple geometric statement in black and white. In fact, the man on the right with his blue shirt represents a kind of contrast to the otherwise pure monochrome of the image. Here the appeal is in the vertical geometry of the bars that essentially eclipses the workman.

The Swap

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So much of photography nowadays expands beyond the digital and becomes a web-based affair. I recently came upon a site called “The Swap.” The Swap is an ongoing portrait project, designed and curated by Stuart Pilkington. It is based on a very simple concept. On two separate days two photographers photograph each other and create two portraits. On day one, person one is the photographer and the other is the subject, and on day two they swap roles so that the photographer becomes the subject and visa versa.

This very straightforward concept has two effects. First, it emphasizes the significance of portraiture as an art form, where the creative act is both to reveal how you see the other person combined with how they see themselves. Second, it forces the photographer to step out of his/her comfort zone and to become the subject. For many, I fear, photography is a way of abstracting yourself from life, to become an observer instead of a participant.

I think that the best way to approach “The Swap” is to click on pairings and then to go through each one by one. At first, I was struck by how many photographers are trying way too hard to be clever and unique. Their portraits at best seem quirky. But then as I went through more and more of the images, I started to see some beautiful images and every once in a while the concept of a pairing struck a deep chord of resonance. The photographer had succeeded in a wonderful way.

I recommend a slow perusal of this site, and if you and a friend are truly adventurous, sign up and create a pair of images.

Peter Lik’s “Phantom” the most expensive photograph ever.

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Remarkably a photograph by Australian/US photographer Peter Lik, a wonderful trick of light taken in Arizona’s Antelope Canyon recently sold at auction for a remarkable and record breaking $6.5 MI.  It is now the most expensive photograph ever sold. And it reveals a spectre that would have made Conan Doyle blink with credulity. To the extent that the art market sets the standards, this moves photograph to a new echelon in the artistic hierarchy.

 

Photographic First # 15 – Earliest dance photograph

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Figure 1 - Possibly the earliest ballet photograph from the George Eastman House and in the public domain because of the age of the image.

Figure 1 – Possibly the earliest (1849) ballet photograph from the George Eastman House and in the public domain because of the age of the image.

The discussion of the 1892 premier of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” got me wondering about the earliest dance photography. This (Figure 1) appears to be a daguerreotype in the George Eastman House collections from 1849 that unfortunately is by an unknown photographer of an unknown dancer. What is remarkable about the piece is that the dancer is shown in a relatively simple position.  This is remarkable because of the long exposure times required at the time.

Figure 1 is of a contemporary image (~ 1850) a beautiful full plate Daguerreotype portrait of a Spanish dancer complete with castanets. The original is in the collection of the Photo Library IPCE (Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain) in Madrid. There seems to be a huge temperol disparity between the two images.  The second seems almost modern in its expression.  The turning of the neck creates a marveklous sense of muscular motion, and the coloration is gorgeous in its subtlety.

Figure 2 - Spanish Danscer with castenets. From the and in the public domain because of its age.

Figure 2 – Spanish Dancer with castenets (~1850). From the IPCE – Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain- and in the public domain because of its age.

 

Tchaikovsky and the Christmas Nutcracker

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Figure 1 - the first performance of the Nutcracker production of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1892). (Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz, in the original. From the Wikimediacommons and in the public domain because of age of image. production of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1892).

Figure 1 – the first performance of the Nutcracker production of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1892). (Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz, in the original. From the Wikimediacommons and in the publi cdomain because of age of image.

The weather is turning colder here in Boston. Our skin is cracking from the freeze-drying air, but spirits are high.  One of the important seasonal events is the Boston Ballet’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s “the Nutcracker.”  This is a ritual played out in many American cities, and thinking of it always brings a smile to my face.  My son, at the time, referred to it as “The Nutcrack'” and, out of deference to his mother, tolerated being dressed in itchy wool shorts, knee socks, and a blazer to attend what must have seemed a very boring event with an audience filled with coughing and contagious children.  But it is such a delightful parade of little people in wool and velvet, looking ever so Christmassy. And the ballet itself does capture the unique aspect of anticipation that permeates the holiday.

Hearing about this year’s event got me thinking about whether or not there are photographs of the original performance, and sure enough, hence Figure 1 . The Nutcrack’ was first perfomed on the 18th of December 1892, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The performance was conducted by Riccardo Drigo, and featured:  Antonietta Dell’Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, and Timofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer.

Counter to current practice children performed the major child roles in those days.  It is, I guess, another one those photographic time travel events, except that the whole pageant seems, in fact, pretty timeless.  This image is especially poignant as it offers up a view of imperial Russia at its height of misplaced and complacent glory.  You look at the picture and, if you live where I do, you can imagine the bone-chilling cold of St. Petersburg just outside the doors of the theatre.

Figure 2 - The Tchaikovskys in 1848. From the Wikimediacommons and in the public domain because of the age of the image.

Figure 2 – The Tchaikovskys in 1848. From the Wikimediacommons and in the public domain because of the age of the image.

In researching this, I also came across a photograph from 1848 of Tchaikovsky as a young child himself. Left to right are: Pyotr, Alexandra Andreyevna (mother), Alexandra (sister), Zinaida, Nikolai, Ippolit, Ilya Petrovich (father). This again is a time trip.  It is wonderful in the way that so many family groupings from that date are.  Not everyone is looking at the camera which creates a sense of abstraction and indifference.  For the little girl in front the whole event seems rather boring.  Perhaps this anticipates the obligatory journey to her brother’s ballet by so many little children then unborn. Certainly the outfit that Pyotr is wearing would be suitable for a modern performance and the cowlick is just wonderful.

A new look for Hati and Skoll Gallery

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Figure 1 - Black-Capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

Figure 1 – Black-Capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

Regular readers of Hati and Skoll will probably have noticed that the look of the website changed over the weekend.  I have been dissatisfied with some of the features of the “Theme” that I was using (or lack there of) and have been planning on changing it and making the look zippier.  I welcome any comments on how it is now looking to you.  If you do write, please let me know what device you are using: laptop, laptop wide, IPad or other tablet, vertical or horizontal.  One of the big challenges nowadays is getting it to appear well in all formats , on all devices.

This is not the final refinement of the site.  I just wanted to get the new “Theme” up and running with all the pages intact.  So this is really only a first pass at it, and it will undergo further modification over the next few weeks.

I thought that I would also post the image of Figure 1, which shows the very noble little bird, indeed the Massachusetts state bird, the Black-Capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus. Learning to photograph birds is a major educational experience and it is particularly difficult for the smaller song birds like the chickadee. The continues to be a major sharpness issue.  This image was taken using a monopd at 400 mm with IS on, which I find is better than trying to use a tripod with IS off.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM at 400 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-priority AE mode, 1/250th sec at f/6.3 with +1 exposure compensation.

 

And as for the phrase “Going to hell in a handbasket”…

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Figure 1 - a colorful photograph by Infrogmation (from the Wikimediacommons and in the public domain under GNU attribution license) from New Orleans' Mardi Gras showing a child's wagon. decorated as mini-float entitled: "Going to Hell in a Handbasket."

Figure 1 – a colorful photograph by Infrogmation (from the Wikimediacommons and in the public domain under GNU attribution license) from New Orleans’ Mardi Gras showing a child’s wagon. decorated as mini-float entitled: “Going to Hell in a Handbasket.”

Yesterday I talked about how we are going to hell in a handbasket and this led to one of my tangents on space travel.  Sorry.  But I did want to return to the very curious phrase, “going to hell in a handbasket,” itself.  To make this photographic, I include, as Figure 1, a colorful photograph by Infrogmation, from New Orleans’ Mardi Gras showing a child’s wagon decorated as mini-float entitled: “Going to Hell in a Handbasket.”

I did some searching of the phrase, and the origin seems clouded in obscurity and there are many proposed possibilities.  I have a favorite that appeals to the antiquarian in me, but first want to point out that therein lies a major problem with the internet.  Misinformation is self-propagating on the worldwide web; so if this is wrong, well…

You may remember from world history Charlemagne (748-814), who founded, in what is now Germany, the Carolingian Empire.   Charlemagne fought a guerilla war (an affront to true guerillas for sure) with the teutonic goth tribes.  He was suspicious that his generals were exaggerating the enemy casualties (like this has never been done before or since). So he ordered that the right hand of his enemies be chopped off and sent to him as a kind of census.  It was an early form of digital counting.  They were sent in what came to be known as “handbaskets.” Yuck! The obvious result was that his generals also started sending the hands of their own fallen soldiers to inflate the numbers.  Isn’t this a lovely story?  And so much for the term “handbasket.”

Now as for “going to hell in a handbasket” it is said that the goths believed that if you were not buried intact, in particular if you did not have a hand, that the gate of Heaven would not open for you, and you would go to the other place with all due haste.  Hence, the expression.

I promise to return to the topic of photography for my next post.

Going to hell in a handbasket and by rocket to Mars

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Figure 1 - The first launch of Orion, Dec. 5, 2014. Photocredit NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O'Connell

Figure 1 – The first launch of Orion, Dec. 5, 2014. Photocredit NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O’Connell

Quite frankly, more and more we seem to be going to hell in a hand-basket, and if it weren’t for my intrinsic faith in youth and the future, I would be quite despairing.  It’s all cyclical.  Many years ago at the height of the Vietnam War, (I will remind you, casualties probably exceeded two million.)  I remember my father despairing.  This was not the world that he had hoped for in his youth.  This was not what “The Greatest Generation” had fought and sacrificed so much for.

Sometimes it takes an event or an image to inspire you.  Yesterday I found myself watching the launch and return to splash down of NASA’s Orion Spacecraft. Found myself? I was drawn to it.  The beautiful image of Figure 1 becomes iconic!  My fellow office geeks and I were watching the event in my office Friday, and I could barely contain myself.  “Will you look at that,” I kept saying.  My friends were tolerant.

We are fulfilling a promise of my youth.  We are going to Mars.  It is our destiny. E ‘il nostro destino. We are escaping the tethers of Earth, because the mundane yields to our imagination. And for me, my mind went back over fifty years to May 5, 1961 and another iconic image and moment.  It is the image of Figure 2, the launch of Alan B. Shepard and Friendship Seven.

“[We choose to do these things] not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962

Figure 2 - Launch of Alan B. Shepard on Friendship 7, May 5, 2014. Image from NASA.

Figure 2 – Launch of Alan B. Shepard on Friendship 7, May 5, 1961. Image from NASA.

Bathing in wine

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Hmm! In my continuing quest to bring you only the finest in bizarre pictures, I found this photograph by Frank Robichon for EPA of a group of Japanese wine lovers, aka oenophiles, well bathing in beaujolis.   This in celebration of the uncorking of 2014’s Beaujolais Nouveau.  Traditionally, this occurs (the uncorking not the bathing) just after midnight on the third Thursday in November.  This follows just weeks after the grapes have been harvested.

We may be reminded of Ben Johnson’s “Ode to Celia:”

“Drink to me only with thine eyes,      

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss but in the cup     

 And I’ll not look for wine.”

Except, I guess to bathe in it!