What’s happening?
June 2nd, after the first day of photographing the 2010 ABANA Conference Gallery items, we strolled through the demonstrator’s tents; where metal met fire to become functional and decorative objects. Additional images from this stroll can be seen in a short slide show here.
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Leica M8, 50mm Summilux Asph
Last Tuesday Seth Tyler and I drove to Memphis for the 2010 ABANA Conference. Seth, besides creating very impressive metal work (both sculptural and functional), turned out to be the best studio assistant I’ve ever worked with.
We photographed about 120 hand wrought metal pieces, ranging in size from virtual jewelry, to pieces 7 feet on the long dimension; in three extremely intense days. Additionally I delivered two 2 hour seminars on how the blacksmiths can improve their own photography. The photograph below shows me working with a shelf bracket on the small sweep. Just to the left we also had a 9 foot sweep.
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We have the honor of launching, this very evening, a freshly redesigned web site for Vets Journey Home, a remarkable group of caring souls who offer a much needed, healing weekend to our vets, at no cost, because they know that our vets have already paid.
“a unique weekend program for veterans, designed to help heal the emotional wounds of military service. The program was created in 1989 as The Bamboo Bridge, co-founded by VietNam veteran Christan Kramer, and a Sargeant Major’s daughter, Patricia Clason. They were committed to giving VietNam veterans the Welcome Home they deserved and helping them heal their hearts and bring peace to their souls.
Since then, our country has been involved in many conflicts and wars. They also discovered that the emotional wounds many veterans carry can also come from service in peacetime – it is not only combat that wounds the heart.
In 2005, VietNam veteran Gene McMahon took over the lead for this work and re-named the program Vets Journey Home, to be inclusive of all veterans. Today, Gene and Patricia are joined by other instructors and a large community of volunteers, both veteran and civilian, who desire to serve those who served our country, by offering this compassionate and welcoming retreat, where any story is heard without judgment.”
Dan Nauman of Bighorn Forge continues to bring new forms to his hand wrought home furnishings.
“There is no substitute for feeling the stone, the metal, the plaster, or the wood in the hand; to feel its weight; to feel its texture; to struggle with it in the world rather than in the mind alone.” — William M. Dupree
“The artist is a man [or woman] who finds that the form or shape of things externally corresponds, in some strange way, to the movements of his mental and emotional life.” —Graham Collier
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(Slide show of additional views of this table)
Last week I had the privilege of meeting Mark and Sylvia Mondloch of Silver Creek Pottery & Forge. After exchanging a few emails, and a phone call, with Mark, we met at my studio to photograph some of Mark’s fine metal work.
Fireplace Tool Set (detail) by Mark Mondloch
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(Slide show of additional views of this Tool Set)
Garden Accents by Mark Mondloch
While the neutral formica sweep worked well for the Tool Set. I felt it appeared a bit sterile for the the flowers. Mark and Sylvia made a trip to Stein’s Garden Center and found some mulch and moss; which I believe was just enough to give the Garden accents a little context.
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(Slide show of additional views of these Garden Accents)
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Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm apo macro elmarit, apo 2x
Traveling through the last few weeks with thoughts mostly of Ann and her upcoming birthday; which occurred on August 17th. It all began with a trip up the coast to Sheboygan, WI to introduce Jim Proue and David White. I’d thought it would be fun to have them sing and play at Ann’s little surprise family birthday celebration. They’d never played together yet hit the mark right from the get-go.
(click image for larger view – Slide show with more images from this get together)
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The night before the party we went to hear Tracy Chapman at the Pabst Theartre. Without doubt – the most incredible concert I’ve ever attended. Ms. Chapman (and her band) performed flawlessly; and actually “better than” the original studio recordings. (click image for larger view – Slide Show of a few “intermission” images)
Of course it took a few phone calls to invite the family; a bit tidying up, arranging for food and errands with Erin’s help; and then – the party sort of just happened. (click image for larger view – Slide show of additional party images)
The day after the party Ann did her annual Irish Fest. Below we see one of Ann’s customers — not showing off his hair cut — but rather performing a fine Irish kick. (click image for larger view – Slide show of additional Irish Fest images)
Then it was getting ready for a four day road trip to the beautiful Mississippi River hills and valleys in Northwestern Illinois, Eastern Iowa and Southwestern Wisconsin. (click image for larger view – Slide show of additional river trip images)
Dan has been quite busy at his Big Horn Forge (we’ve also been working on his website for almost a decade). He had me photograph a recently completed gate for a stone walled garden in Cedarburg, WI. A fabulous gate for a fabulous garden. A gallery of additional views can be seen here.
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Laurie, the highly skilled gardner also kindly gave me some of the recent harvest.
and a couple other pieces recently photographed for Dan
above photographs created with Leica R8/DMR and various Leica R lenses
A couple days ago
the following poetograph arrived,
uninvited, to my mind:
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I announced its viewability on twitter and received a request for a poetic collaboration from Parasputin.
I went to his site and reviewed the last year’s work; the following poem struck my visual mind:
I must say that these twitterized collaborations truly hold promise for international, creative communications — let’s keep them alive and healthy.
