Field Trip
11/28/09 Saturday afternoon ramble in the Hudson Valley with the gang.
If you plan on visiting Lindenwald, the home of the 8th US President Martin Van Buren, in Kinderhook, NY – I can tell you right now it isn’t open til May 24th. And I’ve got no idea why this sad looking deflated tent was on the grounds.
Etymologists trace the word “OK” to an abbreviation of “Old Kinderhook,” a reference to Van Buren’s birthplace.
[Old Chatham Sheepherding Company: "Our entire staff works as a team to deliver our products to "ewe" at the height of their freshness and flavor."]
[Old Chatham Sheepherding Company is the largest sheep dairy farm in the United States. We purchased a wheel of their sheep's milk Hudson Valley Camembert from the honor system refrigerator on the grounds. It's all gone now because it was so good.]
[Tim and Gerard tossing the football around.]
[Sundown in Old Chatham.]
Aladdin the Christmas Camel Arrives at Mt. Vernon
11/24/09 “Perfect timing! The camel just got here. He was stuck in traffic.” And so I was introduced to Aladdin, a very gentle 2 year old historic reenactor.
In 1787 George Washington, who was fond of unusual animals and plants, paid 18 shillings to have a camel temporarily live at Mount Vernon for his guests at Christmas.
Over 200 years later, President Washington’s home is decked out for the Christmas season.
[Detail from the five-foot-wide and two-foot-tall gingerbread Mount Vernon replica by Roland Mesnier, former White House pastry chef.]
[Demonstrating the 18th-century chocolate-making process using an authentic colonial recipe.]
[Detail from one of the twelve Christmas trees in Mount Vernon ’s new facilities. This tree portrays: "George Washington, Farmer." ]
Abe Pollin, RIP
[Sharing an elevator with Larry King and Abe Pollin.]
11/24/09 Abe Pollin, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and former longtime owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team has died at the age of 85. He was a great philanthropist and his construction of an arena revitalized DC’s down-at-its-heels Chinatown. The above photo was taken at GW Hospital headed into a Larry King Cardiac Foundation event in June of 2007.
Come And Get It!
11/18/09 Education Secretary Arne Duncan (left) and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel roll up their sleeves and don chef’s hats to serve lunch to hundreds of students at John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, Va on Wednesday. The event to honor education support professionals (school bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria workers) was part of the National Education Association’s 88th annual American Education Week.
Chinese Lantern Launch Letdown
11/17/09 “Climate activists” with Avaaz.org light and release a dozen or so Chinese flying lanterns behind the White House before police ask them to stop. Their original plan was to launch hundreds. The photo op is a “call for Obama to stop delaying a global climate treaty and for the US to stop lagging behind while other countries—including China—and take action on climate change.”
Underground Standing Army
11/17/09 This morning, the National Geographic Museum hosted a preview for the exhibition “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor.” The organizers had expected the PRC Ambassador to attend but said he had a “good excuse” for missing the opening since he is currently in Beijing for President Obama’s state visit.
[Strongman]
The exhibition will formally open on November 19, 2009, and continue through March 31, 2010. This is its final stop on a four-city U.S. tour.
The exhibition offers an in-depth look at China’s First Emperor’s enormous tomb complex, considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The tomb contained thousands of terra cotta warriors intended to protect the emperor in the afterlife. The exhibition showcases 100 sets of objects, including 15 terra cotta figures representing soldiers, archers, servants, musicians and animals. This is the greatest number of warriors ever to travel to the United States for a single exhibition.
More than 80,000 advance tickets have been sold for “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor,” the museum’s first-ever ticketed exhibition.
[Detail - belt buckle]
Marvin & Karsh
11/13/09 Foto Week DC is winding to a close and I was finally able to catch a couple events last night. The Embassy of Canada held a screening of “Karsh is History” a biopic to go along with the exhibit “Karsh at 100: Portraits of Artists” at the embassy. Yousuf Karsh being one of the greatest photographic portraitists of the 20th century. The most amusing part of the documentary is an interview with Annie Leibovitz discussing her attempt to make a portrait of the famous Karsh. He was clearly not impressed with her attempts and tried to help her out by going through a variety of poses without being asked.
And then it was over to Marvin in the U Street neighborhood for the Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW)’s November Co-Ed Happy Hour! It was good to meet some new people and see some faces I haven’t seen in awhile. It was pitch black in the bar upstairs so I managed to blind everyone with my flash before leaving. My work here is done.
Veteran’s Day
11/11/09 What we call Veteran’s Day nowadays used to be Armistice Day because the Armistice ending WWI was signed by the Germans on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Here is a famous image from the First World War. You may have seen it before. I know it’s been the cover of several books. I suppose it is used so often because it graphically shows the utter desolation of the Western Front. The landscape has been destroyed by relentless artillery shelling. It looks like a Gustave Doré engraving of Hell. It was taken during the Battle of Passchendaele, a six month long battle of attrition fought in a muddy marshland which soldiers frequently drowned in. They drowned in mud. Even by the standards of The Great War, Passchendaele was particularly stupid and wasteful of human lives. By the time it ended, the Allies had captured a meager 5 miles of new territory at a cost of 140,000 killed, a ratio of roughly 2 inches gained per dead soldier and the Germans recaptured their lost ground, without resistance, 5 months later.
The photographer who took this image was an Australian named Frank Hurley. Before coming to Europe to photograph the Australian Imperial Forces in combat, he’d already been a part of some famous adventures. He was the official photog for the doomed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. Their ship, the HMS Endurance, became caught and was later crushed by the pack ice. Before it sank, Hurley chose his best 150 out of 550 plates – the maximum that could be carried – and smashed the rest. That’s what I call photo editing under pressure. The crew was marooned on floating pack ice and later on a tiny uninhabited island for months before rescue.
Btw, Amazon has a used copy of a book of his photographs entitled Frank Hurley: A Photographer’s Life for sale for a mere $251.00 if anyone is looking for something to get me for Christmas.
[Photo notes: Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, 29 October 1917. The leading soldier is Gunner James Fulton and the second soldier is Lieutenant Anthony Devine. The men belong to a battery of the 10th Field Artillery Brigade. Photo by Frank Hurley. Australian War Memorial collection number E01220.]
Miami: A Week In December 2007
[Giant traffic cones outside the Scope show.]
11/10/09 I’m thinking about Miami today because I’m trying to decide if I can make it to Art Basel and Photo Miami which are two huge, fun art events being held there during the first week of December. I’ve already got a photo shoot lined up for December 6th here in DC which would cut into any Miami trip significantly. I did not get to go last year because of work. I did attend in 2007 and had a great time meeting a lot of interesting people from the photo art world.
Here are some photos of Miami I made while I was there . . .
[Worker rolling cigars at El Credito Cigar Factory]
[Officer Dave Patton is waving not covering his face. Nice guy. I was lost and he gave me directions. I like the expression on the horse's face.]
[Angel gets ready for our shoot on S. Beach.]
[For 14 years, Nacio Machado has been selling Cuban flags and paraphernalia from his van near the Cafe Versailles in the heart of Little Havana. He came to the US in 1956.]
[12/09/07 Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R AZ) holds a town meeting at the Wyndam Hotel close to the airport in Miami.]
[Performance artist gets out of her artwork at Scope show]
[Dracula Video in Wynwood Arts District.]
[Gus enjoys the sweet life at the News Cafe in S. Beach. This is the place Gianni Versace had breakfast every day]
[House of Elian.]
[Performance group Lazerhappy outside the Scope show.]
[Muralist "Cycle" and paints a wall in the Wynwood Arts District.]
Down By The Pond
11/07/09 The pond on Ryan Farm. It’ll be completely frozen less than a month from now.
Death Reigns Supreme: From the LOC Photo Collection
11/06/09 The web galleries of the Library of Congress are a treasure trove of fascinating images and one of my favorite places to look for historic photographs when I’m wearing my photo editor hat.
Here’s an image I stumbled on while researching images for a story on the U.S. Supreme Court. Pallbearers are carrying the remains of Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler down the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington D.C. almost exactly 70 years ago on November 17, 1939. What a fascinating image on so many levels! Look at how the people are dressed. The surviving justices are all carrying top hats and wearing morning coats. There’s a boy wearing knickers by the center doorway.
Such a sharp glimpse into the past compels me to ask: who was this man? Wikipedia has him “notable for being the first justice from Minnesota, and for being a Democrat appointed by a Republican.” He was born in a log cabin. His appointment was controversial – it was opposed by The Nation, The New Republic and the Klu Klux Klan. Once on the bench, he voted against many of FDR’s New Deal laws and was the only justice who dissented from the famous Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ opinion holding that the forced sterilization of an allegedly “feeble-minded” woman was constitutional.
Back to the photograph – the horizon is askew as if the photographer jumped in front of the scene for an instant to capture the image quickly. The notes attached to the image indicate that it was shot on a glass negative so the photographer must have been lugging a huge 4×5 camera. The picture has both an immediacy – the front pallbearers are in mid-step – and a “frozen in time” feel to it. It was taken 70 years ago, but the facade and steps of the cathedral look the same today.
The notes also indicate that the photo is from the Harris & Ewing Collection . . .
“The Harris & Ewing Collection of photographic negatives includes glass and film negatives taken by Harris & Ewing, Inc., which photographed people, events, and architecture, particularly in Washington, D.C., during the period 1905-1945. Harris & Ewing, Inc., gave its collection of negatives to the library in 1955.
Available online are a growing proportion of the glass negatives – a subset of the approximately 50,000 news photographs and 20,000 studio portraits of notable people in the collection.”
TITLE: Services for late Justice Butler. Washington, D.C., Nov. 17. The body of the late Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler being carried from St. Matthew’s Cathedral here today following a high mass of requiem. Members of the Supreme Court are shown in the photograph
CALL NUMBER: LC-H22-D- 7828[P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBERLC-DIG-hec-27677 (digital file from original negative)
MEDIUM: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
CREATED/PUBLISHED: [19]39 November 17.
CREATOR: Harris & Ewing, photographer.
NOTES: Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection.
Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955.
General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
#67
11/04/09 My nephew Tim (#67) and the Gonzaga freshmen football team hit the locker room at halftime during their game with rival St. John’s.
Roger 4 Mayor TKPK
11/03/09 Roger Schlegel, childhood friend and candidate for mayor in Takoma Park, MD greets voter Mary Jane Machui outside the polling place on Election Day.
McDonnell Rally
11/02/09 GOP candidate for Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, holds a rally in Alexandria Va., on the morning before Election Day. He leads his Democratic rival Creigh Deeds by 11 to 18 points in various polls.
