07/24/09 Alexandra Avakian is a photojournalist and a member of Contact Press Images photo agency.  She’s also a contract photographer with National Geographic and frequently publishes in Time, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. She gave a talk Friday night in the Middle East Institute’s Islamic Garden about her new book, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, published by Focal Point and National Geographic Press. The talk was followed by a slideshow of her work and discussion of what went into some of her very powerful photographs. This is my idea of a really good time – just listening to a photographer talk about the stories behind the images. I got a copy of her book and she graciously signed it.

I left the Middle East Institute to meet my brother Tim and some friends at party at the National Aquarium.

The reaction of 9 out of 10 Washingtonians when you mention the Aquarium is an incredulous “There’s an aquarium in DC? Where?” It’s not the size or scope of what one thinks of when they think aquarium. It’s not Sea World or Monterey. There are no whales jumping out of tanks. It’s located in the basement of the Commerce Department so it has more of the feel of hanging out in the neighbor’s rec room. Think of looking at the fish tanks in Petco. In spite of a recent renovation, it still feels like “a museum of a museum” as a City Paper writer put it a few years back. Friday night’s invite to the aquarium was for “an Evening of Shark Conservation.”

We stayed til the open bar closed and then took our Sea Turtle calendars to Old Ebbitt Grill to continue the evening.