All of you photography enthusiasts, you should come and watch the scene from my windows one of these nights.
(And teach me how to shoot it properly, I guess.)
Road works and nighttime photography
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Category Archives: Photography
Joel Peter Witkin and Jan Saudek
For those of you with that morbid streak, if you are in Milan, don’t miss the dual exhibition of photographs by Joel Peter Witkin and Jan Saudek, at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea until April 27.
Left: Joel Peter Witkin, Man with Dog, Mexico, 1990.
Right: Jan Saudek, The Knife.
Sunset, sunrise
Seasons
It’s raining today, but there’s no reason not to appreciate the turning of the leaves.
Sandy Skoglund, Radioactive Cats and lighting fixtures
I’ve always been a fan of Sandy Skoglund’s photography, but I’m wondering why on earth lighting fixtures firm Fratelli Martini chose one of the artist’s more somber and disquieting works for the cover of its 2007 catalog.
How it ought to be for the most peaceful people on earth
An image of joy and peace (thanks to my colleague Steffen, who shared it with me a long time ago) as I am reading the sad news about the violence and pain inflicted onto Birmanian Buddhist monks, who must be among the most peaceful people on earth, in their fight for freedom and democracy.
Portulaca in bloom
On my balcony, today.
Bring on the tulips
What a gorgeous purple color.
In bloom: crocus flowers on my balcony
I thought you’d enjoy this picture.
The Accidental Masterpiece: a vintage photograph I found
I am not a big hoarder of mementos and family lore. Yesterday, however, I was prompted to dig out this picture in reading Michael Kimmelman’s book, The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa, which has a chapter devoted to a brief social history of photography and the many masterful photos that survive to today even if all information about their authors and subjects has been buried in the dust of time.
I absolutely love this photo. I don’t know who the people pictured here are (my father’s extended family, perhaps?), where they were (my guess would be somewhere in Northern Italy), and when the picture dates from (hard to tell from prevailing fashion and accessories, it is perhaps the early 1950s, but it could be earlier or later). I love the clarity and the definition of the figures’ reflection in the lake or the pond. I love the diagonal horizon line provided by the slope. I think the photographer was absolutely brilliant. It is a small but treasured possession, one of the few photos I haven’t parted with since I was a child. Do you have accidental masterpieces in your drawers, too?
