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03
May 2012
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Russia-By-Rail

Read and watch NPR's reporter David Green and photographer David Gilkey's account of their 2-week long journey through Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, by train.  

With passable roads for wheeled transport still a rare site in the vast expanse of Siberia, the Trans-Siberian railway is a monster of a road: at 6000 miles it is the longest railroad in the world.  And the landscape opening up to anyone traveling along it - formidable and unforgiving. 

"The things to do were amazing and the places to see were epic; but the people, the people are what made it all worth the effort", said Gilkey.  While going through his outtakes, a photo gallery emerged with stark images capturing the strength and self-assuredness of the Russians. 

"It was in their eyes.  You could see that life is tough - nothing comes easy - but it has made them stronger," he said.  "The adversity is always present - in life, in government, but they march through it while holding on to a strong sense of the past."

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Storm clouds pass above a wintery landscape on the shores of Lake Baikal in central Russia.  Baikal is the world's largest and oldest lake and holds nearly 20 percent of the world's fresh water. 
(David Gilkey/NPR)

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The route of the trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok

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03
May 2012
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Blueberry Ice Cream of Snow Mounds

A wonderful Russian photographer, Evgenia Arbugaeva, documents life in her native Tiksi, a small town in Northern Siberia.  As a young girl, I had a layover in Tiksi, on my way further Northeast to my future home in the remote town of Chersky.  My memories of Tiksi are indelible: first aurora borealis, unbelievable cold, the world outside the small airport lost to endless darkness and 2 meter deep blanket of snow and ice.  See it through Evgenia's eyes, in her collection called Tiksi...

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Evgenia Arbugaeva, Tiksi

This is Evgenia's introduction to the project:

Once upon a time in Siberia, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in a warm bed in a small town, a little girl woke up from a dream.  It was morning, but it was still dark out, for the little town was so far North that the sun would not show itself for many months. They called this the Polar Night.

The little girl rubbed the sleep from her eyes and dressed in the dark.  She put on her pink jacket and red stocking cap and stepped outside.  Her breath froze and she walked in the direction of school.  All around her were endless fields of frozen tundra.  But the fields were not white like you might think, for up above the Aurora Borealis lit up the sky.  It looked like a big green breath frozen in the heavens and all around the little girl were beautiful colors.  The snow was painted green.  And on some mornings—if she was lucky—she’d even see bits of blue, yellow and pink on her walk to school.

She loved these colors very much.  Walking through them made her imagination come alive.  She liked to think of the fields as blank canvases for Mother Nature to paint upon.  And what did that make her?  Was she part of the painting too, in her pink jacket and red hat?

She smiled and her mind began dreaming of the days when the Polar Night would come to an end, when the first sun would light up the snowy mountains, making it look like blueberry ice cream.  And then the summer would come, the snow would melt and the tundra would transform into planet Mars with it’s golden color seeming to stretch out forever in every direction.

She thought to herself, “Every season has its own colors.”  She stored all these colors in her heart, and walked beneath the Aurora Borealis in this little town way up North.   

The town was called Tiksi.

To be continued...

Congratulations to Eugenia, the Magenta Foundation's Bright Spark Award 2012 winner!

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23
Apr 2012
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Night Photography

I am pleased to announce the opening of a photography exhibition Night Photography at the Darkroom Gallery for which one of my photographs - Self-Portait In Minneapolis - was chosen by the Juror Linda Rutenberg

Tucked away in upper Vermont, not far from Canadian border, the gallery showcases works of photographers from all around the world.  Night Photography features work sent in from all across the USA, Canada, Brasil, UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey.  Opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 4th, 5-7p.m. 

Inviting entries from photographers, the Gallery stated: 
Night photography reveals a world that we do not consciously see and offers photographers unique creative opportunities.
Night and day, dark and light - one implies the absence of the other.  But like yin yang, each has a bit of the other. The surprising thing to first time night photographers is how their images reveal things that the mind's eye does not see.  Different light sources reveal their true colors. Compared to daylight, directed and weaker light creates drama, contrast, mystery and mood. The dynamic range of light at night tends to be more in line with our tools abilities. Of course there are technical challenges with shooting in low light, but also tremendous creative opportunities. That's what we want to show with this exhibit. Do you work with existing light - or do you introduce your own? Maybe you paint with light emitting light brushes. How have you approached shooting at night to express your vision? We want to see.

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Self-Portrait in Minneapolis

I took this photograph while visiting Minneapolis for the opening of a photography exhibit at the Photo Center there in March of 2010.  This is a view of the night city, and the Mississippi river, from Guthrie Theater, a gem of a building by French architect Jean Nouvel.  I think I picked up on the folded language of the building, and the way it elevates you above the city, as if on a stage, while leaving you invisible.  A myriad of color lights, inside and out, and playful multiplicity of reflections teased my sense of reality, conjuring up a new one, appropriately theatrical.

There are many remarkable photographers represented in the show.  I would like to highlight two of them: Carmen Spitznagel from Germany (to see her amazing, serene work, click HERE), and Fabian Freese, also from Germany (click HERE to see his Lightpaintings, vanishing architectural interventions)

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The Sea, Carmen Spitznagel

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Cuxhaven2 - Nordsee, Fabian Freese

Click here to download:
darkroom.pdf (290 KB)

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16
Dec 2011
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Isa Leshko: Elderly Animals

I just received the December newsletter from the photographer Isa Leshko, and wanted to share her recent photography series Elderly Animals with you.  In the short documentary by Walley Films posted on the NPR website, Isa talks about the project, about how it emerged, unexpectedly, and how working on photographing these farm animals and pets towards the end of their lives she was in fact looking in the face of our own mortality as well.  I am overwhelmed with how much emotion - and respect for their subjects - these images evoke.  Most of the animals in these images look weary and tired, but some of them emit strong unconquerable defiance. 

Here is an excerpt from an Observer article about Elderly Animals: 
It's not strictly true that all living things grow old and die.  The jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula returns to sexual immaturity after reproducing and is believed to be biologically immortal. The rest of us, however, succumb to our age with weary inevitability. It's good to have work such as Leshko's to remind us that – be we horse, hound or human – there's more to life than youth.

Filed under  //   isa leshko   photography  
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11
Dec 2011
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Steven Holl Awarded AIA Gold Medal

Steven Holl has long been one of my favorite architects.  (The others are Tadao Ando, Carlo Scarpa, Peter Zumthor) Holl's architecture is rooted in humanistic ideals, and expresses a form of unique spacial poetry.  For years now, he has been germinating his idea(l)s in small watercolor sketches that he makes every morning as he wakes up.  I am so happy to know that his work has been recognized with this prestigious honor.  

I had applied to work for him, more than 10 years ago, just out of school.. It was just an 8-person studio back then.. Where would I be now, had I gotten that job?.......

When my father passed away unexpectedly at the age of 58 in late fall of 2000, I went home to Latvia to be with my family at his burial.  I had a layover in Helsinki, as usual, on my way to Rīga.  And the one place I gravitated to, on this very hard trip was the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Holl.  In spite of its secular function and very modern presence, it possesses purity and an ephemeral lightness that transcends its function and enters the zone of the sacred.  After several quiet hours at the museum I felt strong enough to proceed, and to board the plane that then took me to my father.  

Metropolis magazine has a neat gallery of Holl's watercolors, accompanied by an article.

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Steven Holl. 

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Steven Holl. Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, Finland

Filed under  //   AIA   Helsinki   Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art   architecture   steven holl  
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08
Dec 2011
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18-year Old French Boy Meets Far North Siberia

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Emile Hyperion Dubuission, from Siberia.  The Far North Series

I just came across this young photographer's work.  It struck a very personal note with me.. His images look like visitors in my family album, from the days when I lived in the extreme Far North of Siberia.  They are hauntingly beautiful, stripped of any pretense, and spontaneous.  A veil of bleak beauty covers them, distancing the viewer from the viewed.. 

P.S. I do wonder though, how did he  - and his camera - survive in those temperatures.   It takes years to persuade your body and mind to marginally agree with the extremities of that place...

Filed under  //   Siberia   photography  
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18
Oct 2011
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Presenting at Hillside Art Salon tonight

6pm. at the University of Massachusetts chancellor Robert C. Holub and Sabine Holub's house.  

Hosted by Sabine Holub.  

Check out the Salon's website to see a couple of pieces from the collection I will be showing tonight, as well as those of other presenters.  20 slides/20 seconds each!  Sounds like a brutal format, a kind of speed dating with art, but I think I like it: it prevents preciousness from slipping into the presentation.  The time constraint has it's price too.. Didn't Mark Twain once complain about the 5 minutes he was given once to deliver a speech, saying that he'd need two weeks to prepare for it, while he could give a 2-hour lecture today! :)  

I am really excited about this event...., and I better practice my "5 minutes" now!  

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From the Lightness Series.  Walker Art Center. Minneapolis. 2011

Filed under  //   University of Massachusetts   amherst   art   photography  
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06
May 2011
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Works on Paper

An expansive art show covering a wide range of media - all focusing on PAPER - is opening tonight in Holyoke, at the Paper City Studios.  It will showcase a lineup of wonderful artists from the region.  I will have one of my photographic assemblies in the show as well.  

I stopped by the Paper City Studios the other day and found my friend Sheryl Jaffe installing her piece in the attic space.  Even before completion, this work was breathing mystery and emanating an ephemeral beauty reminiscent of ancient papyrus scrolls and imprints of prehistoric bones in stone.  

Come, see, and make sure you climb all the way to the attic! Hope to see many of you there!  

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Sheryl Jaffe.  Installation in progress, Paper City Studios, Holyoke, 2011
 
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Sheryl Jaffe.  Installation in progress, Paper City Studios, Holyoke, 2011
 
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Sheryl Jaffe.  Installation in progress, Paper City Studios, Holyoke, 2011
 
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Sheryl Jaffe.  Installation in progress, Paper City Studios, Holyoke, 2011
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Filed under  //   art   exhibition  
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28
Mar 2011
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What Matters About Photography?

Blogphotosmall

I'd never asked myself this question before. But the theme and the title of an upcoming photography show - What Matters About Photography? - at the Vermont Center for Photography made me ponder.  Where do I even begin?  There are innumerable ways in which photography matters - to me.  This is what I wrote in a short essay that accompanied my submission for this annual juried exhibition, and that only begins the conversation for me: 

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious, Albert Einstein once said.

 Photography allows me to dwell on, to capture, and to share with others what I see as the immeasurable and the mysterious in our lives - be that a child’s face as she relishes the feel of her fingers sinking in the warm fur of the cat’s belly;  or the stillness of time, void of space and sound, as I watch my husband quietly fight for his life; or the pattern of light, flowing outward through a tobacco barn’s open slats, like outstretched wings of a gigantic bird about to take off into the dark winter night; or the way the world suddenly  arranges itself, just this one time, just right here, in front of me...  I am reminded, time and again, in these plentiful moments of witnessing life’s mysteries, to remember life.  Memento Vita - paraphrasing the ageless wisdom of the Ancient Romans.

 I am very excited to announce that three of my photographs - Raiija and Runka, Accordionists, and an Untitled from 30 Days in Spring Series were accepted for the show.  You may already be familiar with the faces of Railija and Runka, and of the Accordionists, both of which were on display in Amherst in Northampton this past winter.  I haven't yet however shown any photographs from the 30 Days in Spring series.  These document Agus's quiet and willful fight with cancer last April, 2010.  I am both nervous and thrilled to have one of them on display in this upcoming show.  

Please come to the opening reception this Friday, April 1 in Brattleboro, VT.  See more information below.  And no, it is not an April fool's joke! :-)

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Accordionists.  Rīga, Latvia.  2009

 
THIS MONTH AT VCP...APRIL 2011...
WHAT MATTERS ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY-
A JURIED EXHIBITION
...April 1-May 1, 2011 

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Nancy Weber, En El Campo-Mexico, archival digital print, 2011

 

 

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Elsa Voelcker, Grampie Caning a Chair, silver gelatin print, 1970

 

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Judy Unger-Clark, Three Kids on a Beach, hand colored silver gelatin composite print, 1991

 

An excerpt from an VCP newsletter: 

 In April 2011, the Vermont Center for Photography will present a juried exhibit titled, What Matters About Photography. We hope that by exploring what matters with images and writing we will get to some kind of understanding of photography's place in the world of ideas and art. What Matters About Photography will feature work by Elsa Voelcker, Susan Lirakis, Andrew Strattner, Paul Osborne & Catherine Davis, Corey Stein, Michael Stoudt, Andrew Hodgdon, Heidi Haner, Cheryl Willoughby, Liza Mindemann, Paula Sagerman, Donald David, Jerry Reed, Liz LaVorgna, Bernie Kubiak, Kathleen Carr, Suzanne Flynt, Judy Unger-Clark, Ellen Madden, Betsy Feick, John Nopper, Cynthia Hughes, Anita Licis-Ribak, Bill Arduser, Nancy Weber, Doug Frank, Brent Seabrook, Andrea Powell, and Tim Ellis.

 

An opening reception will be held Friday, April 1, 2011, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. during Brattleboro's Gallery Walk. The exhibit will be on view through May 1.

 

GET INVOLVED! Please post your thoughts and photographic examples about what you think matters about photography on our wordpress blog at http://vcpwhatmatters.wordpress.com/.

 

Most works featured in the What Matters About Photography exhibition are for sale.  Please contact the gallery manager at info@vcphoto.org or 802-251-6051 for more information.  

 
 

Filed under  //   30 Days in Spring   City on the Sea   Vermont Center for Photography   exhibition   photography  
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07
Feb 2011
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Presenting at Smith College

This afternoon, I will be giving a presentation on my personal design and photography work at Smith College as part of the spring lecture series, Daughters of Invention. I am thrilled to be in such an inspiring company! Last hours of preparation...

I have unearthed, after 13 years of it laying dormant, my Masters of Science thesis project on Architecture+Music. Still today, the subject is so relevant to me, and fresh!

Morton Feldman once said: I paint the canvas of time with colors of sound. John Cage may have added: ...and silence....

Click here to download:
Daughters of Invention Poster.pdf (1.52 MB)

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