Top Ten #2 – Annie Leibovitz: At Work

Annie Leibovitz's new book "At Work" was perhaps the stealth photo event of the year. Primarily a text rather than a picture book, it is nonetheless one of the most interesting photography books of the year, taking us behind the scenes to reveal not so much the technical aspects of a shoot, but the mental and physical preparations before and the psychological and strategic footwork during the taking of many of her most famous images.

Seamlessly interviewed and edited out of Leibovitz by the skilled editor, Sharon Delano, the book is a smooth and engrossing read from start to finish that entertains with all manner of autobiographical stories from Leibovitz's student days to the present, as well as her almost awestruck perspective and stories about other famous photographers.

There is an interesting selection of photographs - a mixture of iconic images and more obscure ones - and it's surprising to see how well they work printed smaller than postcard size. Much credit is obviously also due to the printers.

For anyone looking for lighting tips this isn't necessarily the book (although Leibovitz does provide a technical glossary as well as answers to her ten most frequently asked questions) but for readers looking to understand more about Leibovitz's art as well as what really counts - what's in an artist's head - this book is a treasure.

Winter Wednesdays-Starting January 7th

***New to Handbook of Nature Study****

I have decided to use the book Discover Nature in Winter to lead a Winter Wednesday activity. Each week will include a suggested chapter in the book to read and then I will chose one activity to share with readers. You will be welcome to follow the suggested activity or you can pick your own.

Each week I will include a way for those that do not own the book to participate. I will try my best to include a variety of activities from week to week. You can participate as much or as little as you have time or opportunity.

I will be including Mr. Linky on the bottom of the Winter Wednesday post and you can share any winter related activity you blog about. I hope this will encourage families to embrace the winter season and also it will be a way to be inspired by each other.

Winter Wednesdays will start on January 7th and continue for 9 weeks, ending on March 4th.

Winter Wednesday will be in addition to the Outdoor Hour Challenges posted on Fridays. Our next Outdoor Hour Challenge will be on Friday, January 9th.

Please refer back to my winter nature study activity blog entry at any time to include some of those activities.

Please feel free to grab the Winter Wednesday button above to put on your blog or in your blog entries. If the button does not show at the top of this entry, here is the link to the Flickr image for you to use on your blog. Winter Wednesday image It seems as if you are using Explorer the button shows up as an empty box at the top....crazy.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Farewell 2008

Tonight London is throwing a party to see out the old year and welcome in the new. Big Ben will chime for 15 minutes and a fireworks display will announce 2009.

Thank you all for your visits and comments in 2008.

I wish you and those close to you the very best for 2009.

Top Ten #3 – Paul Fusco's RFK Rediscovered

In terms of something I was personally involved in, the opportunity to work with Paul Fusco on rediscovering, editing and exhibiting photographs from his RFK Funeral Train series was one of the highlights of my entire gallery career.

I've written a number of times about the pictures (just enter Fusco on this blog's search box) so I won't repeat myself, but to give you a sense of the depth and quality of the work, here are just ten out of the nearly 2,000 images we had to choose from that didn't make the cut of the final 20 selected for the master set. (Simply choosing these ten out of the 50 or so that were under final consideration was heartbreakingly hard.) However, many of the unseen images can now be found in Aperture's newly released book.

Excuse the poor quality of these reproductions, but the images are of the original 35mm kodachrome slides shot in low-resolution off a Library of Congress lightbox.

Additional Options for Outdoor Hour Challenge 43 Growing Molds

We haven't completed Outdoor Hour Challenge 43 yet but I wanted to give some additional ideas for options to the original challenge.

Here are some additional ideas to get you started with observing molds for Outdoor Hour Challenge 43.

Here is a YouTube video that shows mold growing on bread and then an orange. It is a short and sweet video. Please remember to preview.



How about some clipart for your notebook?

This diagram shows the parts of bread mold.

Label for this one:
"Showing One of the More Common Molds found on Fruits and Bread. The tiny stalks grow vertically into the air. The end of each thread swells into a small round knob, from the inside of which hundreds of minute bodies, called spores, burst. As a is seen a large knob filled with spores." — Blaisedell, 1904


Here is a link to a whole list of information about puffballs and there are fantastic images to view as well.
Puffballs at MushroomExpert.com


If you are brave, you can grow mold in your own Mold Terrarium. I would love to see your results. We have conducted this experiment before and we found the best place to put our jar was in our laundry room cupboard where it was usually warm and dark.

Here is a complete booklet on fungus/mushrooms for you to look at using with your child. Preview it before printing the whole packet out since there are a lot of pages. I especially like page 17, 18, 21, 22, and 25 to print out and put in your nature journal.
Mushrooms PDF

Hope you found something here to spark your interest. Our next Outdoor Hour Challenge will be on January 9th.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Top Ten #4 – The Laramie Project

I like to put a recent film release in the top ten list, but this year the most impactful cinematic experience I had was sitting at home watching a 6 year old HBO Film on DVD – Moises Kaufman’s “The Laramie Project”.

As some of you know, I have been developing a film based on the life and autobiography of the legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland. It’s a long process in the course of which I have had the opportunity to meet with a number of renowned directors, most recently Kaufman himself, the founder of The Tectonic Theater Project.

Moises was recommended to me by Colin Callender at HBO, for whom Kaufman had made the film adaptation of his play “The Laramie Project” – an examination of the events and more particularly the people connected either to the murder of Matthew Shepard or the town of Laramie, Wyoming. (Matthew Shepard was the gay college student who in 1998 was kidnapped, beaten, and tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie and left to die.) Both the film and play came out of more than 200 interviews conducted by Kaufman and other members of the Tectonic Theater Project who traveled to Laramie a mere 5 weeks after the murder.

Talking to residents as varied as the bartender who served Shepard his last drink, the policewoman who untied the body, and a local limousine driver, the plays blends a narrative account of the event with an oral history of the townspeople. A stellar cast including Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Bill Irwin, Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, and Christina Ricci, play the various interviewees with remarkable self-effacement, and as the film proceeds, the many subjects covered – crime, punishment, justice, gay rights, hate, values, pride, AIDS…. and on and on – spread like ripples on a pond.

After ordering the film on Netflix I have to say I had to steel myself for the viewing. But just over an hour and half later I felt I had seen one of the great films of the decade – and one, given its horrific subject, that was handled with remarkable creativity, restraint and life affirmation. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

As a postscript, it should be noted that this year members of the Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie to find out what has happened to the community over the last 10 years. From their interviews an epilogue for the play will be created and added to the script.

Additonally, Tectonic’s newest production, “33 Variations”, about a musicologist who becomes obsessed with a mysterious chapter in Beethoven’s life, will open on Broadway on March 5th starring Jane Fonda.

A Little More Dr. No

What sort of American audience awaited James Bond in 1963? I hadn’t appreciated how familiar spy-spoofing was pre-007 until a recent airing of The Road To Hong Kong, a Hope-Crosby feature released a year before Dr. No, but remarkable for its parallel plot and situations. It was almost as though Bob and Bing were lampooning Bond before we’d been properly introduced to the character. Plenty was in the air to herald a cycle of super-spying and increased sex/violence tempos we credit to UA’s series. British advances since the mid-fifties were a secret kept largely from us thanks to spotty playdates groundbreakers received in the US. Violent rhythms of 007 to come were revealed in the pre-credit sequence of 1959’s Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure, and there was Sean Connery amongst participants in a shoot-out edited much in the fashion of Bond openers (even as it preceded them by several years). Horror and science fiction out of Hammer suggested new directions as well, but other than certified hits Curse Of Frankenstein and Horror Of Dracula, few beyond youths were going to see them (Enemy From Space, aka Quatermass II, had only 5,473 bookings and domestic rentals of just $148,602 in this country). A distinctive nervous tempo was the common thread woven into UK thrill-making, with producers before and besides Bond quickening pace and making our thrillers look old-fashioned in the bargain. Dr. No might well have been the first time many adults (in this country) experienced such visceral sensation familiar to their offspring via matinee viewings of newly toughened Tarzans and monsters playing more for keeps. Picture yourself grown up and cosseted on a pre-1963 diet of action staged placidly in domestic fare, and suddenly there’s Dr. No's Strangways and his secretary shot down in a way so startling, so modern, that I’m still (happily) disoriented by it. Imagine how it played new, but consider too how quickly Dr. No would be supplanted and rendered passé by slicker Bond models. I remember seeing it the first time on the 1965 reissue with From Russia With Love and thinking how primitive it seemed compared to the recent Goldfinger. A short review in Castle Of Frankenstein that Spring (1965) indicated I wasn’t alone in reacting so … The years have already hurt the first of the Bond series; slickness of later films make this one seem awkward by comparison. Honing the formula did abbreviate the freshness of previous Bonds, but was awkwardness necessarily a bad thing? The more I see of Dr. No, the more endearing its gaucheries become, those edges all the better for being rougher.

My preferred Bond (and Connery) is Dr. No’s unpolished merger between a character in development and a leading man learning the ropes. Polish translates too often to predictable, and early Connery/Bond is anything but. Was 007 intended to be so surly and abrupt, even with presumed colleagues in the field? I like his outburst when told that Crab Key is off limits, as though straining at the bit to push forward the investigation and letting no slower device (or line reading) get in his way. Notice how Connery locks the door in his hotel room and yanks out the key. He’s even aggressive at strapping on a shoulder holster, both these performed while alone and with no threat imminent. My greatest pleasure in Dr. No comes of watching this unseasoned actor play at being a seasoned agent. The film takes its time and lets Bond putter about the room laying traps for would-be intruders (but wouldn’t any one of them notice a briefcase latch covered in talcum powder --- and the clearly visible fingerprints they leave behind?). I was even inspired to pluck a hair off my own head and spread it across closet doors at home just as 007 did, and it might have worked as effectively, but for several shades lighter color that made it near impossible for me to relocate the strand once I’d placed it. Getting to know James Bond gave us access to commonplace rituals thought unnecessary in later films. Dr. No finds the agent changing in and out of suit coats, adjusting his cuffs, and seeing to matters of dress and deportment that amount to privileged views we’d not enjoy once the series found its stride. I enjoyed watching Bond merely detect, routine investigation being the presumed lot of even an MI-6 man. Phrasing archaic by 1963, but pleasingly maintained in dialogue, includes 007 referring to himself as a clay pigeon, Crab Key as my beat, and in a Connery take on a line referring to casing the joint, tacit awareness that it’s dated and that he (and we) are hep to that. Dr. No is admirable too for holding its exotica in check until at least the second half, even if that makes it seem trifling in comparison with later ones in the series. Jamaican scenics are grounded in a welcome reality of gravel roads, calypso bars, and airy porches. It wasn’t yet policy to find only those locations most glamorous for Bond to visit, a suffocating aspect of entries where a Pierce Brosnan was so freighted with product placement and overwhelming backgrounds as to evaporate into them.

I assumed right through the sixties that England was a power player on the world stage. That came of going to movies lots more than reading newspapers. Practical considerations seldom intruded upon my confidence in Bond and his devices, though I wondered why a man who prevailed so handily at gaming tables would bother exposing himself to the bother and risk of being a secret agent. However tongue-in-cheek the Bonds played, always-lush production and those massive sets commanded my respect and neutralized whatever doubts I’d entertained as to their social and political assumptions. It was trust I maintained, along with countless others similarly impressionable, that got critics sufficiently hot under collars as to brand 007 fascist or at the least a very bad influence. Dour spy films were correctives to Bond’s irresponsibility, but (comparatively) lower domestic rentals even for quality the likes of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold ($2.9 million) showed our preference for agents we could laugh with (or at). Maybe there was comfort in knowing that for all the sinister power wielded by Soviet and US opponents, there was a SPECTRE looming that trumped both. At a time of such international uncertainties, a worldwide organization devoted to criminal pursuits was not only believable, but likely. The biggest noise Bond made at the time of Dr. No was with a silencer. The oft-referenced casual killing of Anthony Dawson’s Professor Dent was, I’m sure, a calculated bid to separate (absolutely so) James Bond from crimefighters that had gone before him. It’s a moment still startling, thanks largely to the icy way Connery plays it. His hesitation after Dawson attempts firing his spent pistol was not unlike Jack Palance savoring the moment before killing a defenseless Elisha Cook in Shane, only this time it’s the presumed hero in cold-blooded assassin mode. Judging by Dent’s expressed willingness to talk just prior to his second, and again failed, attempt on Bond’s life, it would seem more practical for 007 to take him in for what would have undoubtedly proven a fruitful interrogation, but as we’re all tired of the functionary’s double-dealing by this time, it’s as satisfying to see him disposed of, however questionable JB’s morality in doing so.

December at the Beach

We had a relative to visit in Santa Cruz yesterday and we seized the opportunity afterwards for a little winter beach time. It was late in the afternoon but we were able to enjoy some sea air and wide open vistas of the Pacific Ocean. The sun was setting quickly and the shadows were getting longer but the air was warm and the beach was not crowded. The birds didn't mind sharing their sand.


This sailboat was just taking off out of the harbor and we watched it on the horizon. The skies were clear and you could see all the way across the bay.


This gull was catching some sand crabs for dinner.


This gull was just standing around waiting for something to happen. I love his reflection.


The wharf was casting its own beautiful reflection.


All too soon it was time to take the long drive home again. We had a nice break from the really cold weather we have been having at home, even if it was only for the day. If you click on this photo and look in the water near the cliffs, you will see surfers in the water with their boards!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Top Ten #5 – Ryan McGinley

I was thinking about which photography exhibition was the breakout exhibition of the year. I remember past years in which shows by Sally Mann, or Richard Misrach, or Thomas Struth significantly altered the aesthetic landscape, and while no single show provided those kind of breakout moments, I think Ryan McGinley has to be the photographer of the year.

Emerging as something of a celebrity (this year he was featured in both GAP and Marc Jacobs ads); McGinley affords us the pleasure of following his career. He regularly has new work published in magazines as varied as The New York Times Magazine, TAR, and Purple. He has started to make films. He exhibits regularly at his gallery, TEAM. And he can be seen to consistently expand his photographic vocabulary, most recently with black and white studio portraits.

McGinley’s luminous and edenic youthscapes may not at first seem to define the zeitgeist of these perilous times, but he’s proven to be ahead of the curve before and perhaps his insistence that youth can lead the way is the best sign of hope out there.

TEAM Installation shot

From TAR Magazine

Top Ten #6 – The Daily Beast

At last, an innovative, original, professional, and beautifully designed web magazine has arrived with the gravitas and best qualities of a traditional print magazine coupled with the nimbleness required by the web . While there are of course many fabulous blogs, and a smaller number of more esoteric webzines, it has taken the touch and verve of Tina Brown coupled with the deep pockets of Barry Diller to make something on a grand scale that looks and feels like the real thing. I am talking about The Daily Beast.

Launched during the presidential campaign (very smart move) the first thing that struck me about Beast was how ground-breaking the design and functionality of the site was. Where The Huffington Post is a steadfast Volvo, delivering its news in boxy and predictable chunks, The Daily Beast is a svelte Maserati – elegant, cool, able to turn on a dime, and waiting to pounce and surprise you.

They have excellent writers – from Brown herself to Chris Buckley, Susan Cheever, and Michael Korda – but keep their pieces at just the right length for reading on the screen. And last but not least, they understand that the web is a visual medium and illustrate everything they can with photographs that catch our attention.

Sierra Cement-Icy Morning

Just like many parts of the country, we are experiencing very cold weather. In the Sierra Nevada foothills where I live, the snow is rarely the fluffy flakes you see in winter storybooks. The snow we experience is very wet and is lovingly called Sierra Cement by skiers (watch the short video for an explanation). We had a few snow showers yesterday and that left behind a nice layer of snow and ice....brrrrr it is cold, well for this California girl anyway.

On my morning walk I was entranced by the ice on the deck railing. I could see with my naked eye the beautiful crystals.

So I brought out my camera with the macro lens and was able to capture the ice to share with you.

It really is like a whole little icy world down there.

"The ice on the surface of a still pond usually begins to form around the edges first, and fine, lancelike needles of ice are sent out across the surface....It is equally interesting to watch the formation of the ice crystals in a glass bottle or jar. Water, in crystallizing, expands, and requires more room than it does as a fluid; therefore, as the water changes to ice it must have more room, and often presses so hard against the sides of the bottle as to break it."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 811

Ice, snow, hail, sleet....all great subjects for winter nature study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Top Ten #7 – Friends with Cameras

Now that there’s no question we’re truly in the digital age, a place in the top ten has to go to friends with cameras who know how to take good pictures and are quick to e-mail them to the people they know would appreciate them. Top of my own list is Leslie Simitch, the executive vice president of Trunk Archive.

I’ve always felt Leslie was good enough not just to manage photographers, but to be a photographer herself – as these two pictures that I just received from her current Roman holiday amply display. However, Leslie was also the first person I knew who understood and took advantage of the seamless delivery system of digital photography from camera to e-mail inbox. We're talking ten years ago here!

We all have friends who are early adopters and Leslie got me going on iPhoto, passed on the invaluable advice to always use a card reader to download my photos instead of connecting directly from the camera (less risk of screw-up), and generally got me up to speed on all things digital. Much of this knowledge has now been passed on to countless friends and family – the circle of iLife, so to speak.

Top Ten #8 – WFUV

WFUV is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station, that has been broadcasting from Fordham University for 60 years. Serving nearly 350,000 listeners each week in the New York area and thousands more worldwide on the web, WFUV offers an eclectic mix of rock, singer-songwriters, blues, world and other music. If your taste is somewhere between pop and rock and you like to be ahead of the curve, their DJ's have broken just about every new musician I listen to - Corinne Bailey Rae, Matthew Ryan, David Ford, Brandi Carlile - and previewed new albums by all the old favorites like Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, and Shelby Lynne.

They've been on a Christmas kick the last few days and as an example of their range - two versions of the same song by two groups I never would have heard of without them - Sonos (above) and The Fleet Foxes (below).

Merry Christmas!

Crystal Snowflake

A very exotic swarovski crystal snowflake suspended between Harvey Nicols and the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel lights up Knightsbridge.
I overheard a couple of chaps discussing the cost of it the other day. £250,000 was the number they mentioned.
This truly stunning snowflake is 5 meters. Designed by Ingo Maurer. It will dangle in all its glory until 5 January.
Harrods and Harvey Nicks are selling an ornament version made from solid crystal with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity.


Yesterday Marley passed the Butterfly award to me. Thanks I am honoured.
Pay a visit to his great blog.

Merry Xmas to you all. I am today on a plane to take a few days break.

Top Ten #9 – Stephen K. Schuster

One of my favorite photo books this year was a little sliver of a book sent to me by Stephen K. Schuster, a New York City based magazine photographer. Titled simply "Kelly" the book is in Schuster's words “a limited-edition photography book on a past relationship". Limited to 25 initial booklets, I have no idea if any are left, but there's a nice selection of pictures on Schuster's website.

I'm not sure whether Kelly got any veto power over the images selected, and there are a handful of fairly revealing shots, but the pictures were taken with skill and love and the book seems to be much more about coming to terms with a break-up than exploiting a failed relationship.

Photographer/loved-one pictures are always fascinating because they show the shifting ways we view those closest to us. A psychology teacher I had at college once told us that there is so much information in the human face we can at best process about 10% of the information. Thus we selectively, but subconsciously, pick out the features that fit our mood and emotions. Happy - the person looks at their most appealing. Angry, betrayed, we focus on all the same person's worst features and physical flaws.

Schuster has pretty much kept to the positive, but in the 22 pictures of Kelly interspersed with a few location shots, he has created a moving visual haiku on love and loss, and the powerful relationship between photography and memory.