Sweetheart’s mama and I went to MoMA on Friday, for f-r-e-e! We got on what was both the longest and quickest moving line I’ve ever seen, and made it the three blocks into the museum in less than 5 minutes. At one point we were actually running. Amazing! A new exhibit (American art Hopper to O’keefe) was opening that very day so the place was slammed, but lucky for us, our plan was to bypass that madness, scoot past a couple of pretty stunning Pollocks and go to the Walker Evans American Photography show. It was glorious. Stark. Telling. Honest. Graceful.
Tag: Photography
Found Birds
Waiting on pictures from the grand festivities of this weekend, in the meantime, it’s officially fall and my need and want to nest has escalated to epic proportions. I am especially coveting Katherine Wolkoff’s amazing photographs of FOUND BIRDS. The silhouettes are striking, austere—sort of like an Audubon mug-shot—and each has the description of where the bird was found, under what circumstances (brought down by a storm, taken from a cat etc. and by who. There is something sort of morbidly curious but also noble and honoring about the series. As always, it’s the story behind them that makes them matter most.
Above: left: Black-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus. Killed by flying against a lighted window, presented by Alice Northup. May 6, 1925. right: Yellow-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus. Killed by South East Lighthouse, salvaged by Charles Rogers Jr. September 23, 1935
Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis. Found beneath wires by Stanley Stinson. December 11, 1929.
Barn Owl, Tyto alba. Blind in one eye- telephone wire victim. Found by George Grime. December 25, 1943
Great Blue Heron, Ardea hernias. Found dead in road by Richard Conley. November 15, 1947
Great Egret, Casmerodius albus. Brought to Block Island by Captain Alfred Jacobsen. Alighted on fishing vessel “Friars” at Georges Bank during N.E. storm. April 2, 1931
Greenbacked Herons, Butorides striatus left: Immature: taken from a cat by Mr and Mrs Herb Winsor. September 23, 1944. right: Male, Wired victim found by Mary Elizabeth Lewis. May 18, 1944
Found in Nature
On our way out to spend Memorial Day at Sweetheart’s house in Rockaway we drove past Floyd Bennett Field. I’ve always had a bit of a love affair with the old airfield (see here and here). How interesting, then, to discover this amazing photographic series “Found in Nature” by Barry Rosenthal: collections of items and objects found out at Floyd Bennett Field. This weekend, on that brilliant, sunny, fresh-hot birth of summer day, they had a carnival set up: a Ferris Wheel, a funny purple roller coaster, big fat circus lights and cotton candy. How many new contributions must have been left behind…
Read more about Barry Rosenthal and his art here and thanks to Things Organized Neatly for the heads up (man I love that site).
The Novo Project
I’m loving the divine Miss Mia’s newest endeavor, The Novo Project. Mia is one of those magnetic souls, a student of the possibilities and the positive, a gatherer of beauty and feathers and magic. She’s one of those rare people who seems to burn a bit brighter and hotter than most everyone else- but not in a consumptive way, in the best way, the way that casts light and shadow, that shows a relief of what is and a glimpse of what could be. So, when she says that her Novo Project “will be sharing stories, profiles, and images that are tender / wise / outrageous courageous / quirky / beautiful / insightful of–––authors / artists / designers / educators / healers / athletes…etc.”, I’m inclined to stop whatever I’m doing and listen. Check it out here.
ps. I can’t get over how much Mia looks exactly like her mama here.
Vivian Maier=Robert Frank+Lady-Sartorialist
Get this: a man purchases a box of random photo negatives at an auction, inside finds the work of Vivian Maier, an unknown Chicago street photographer. The images turn out to be starkly beautiful, sometimes sensational like Weegee (but quietly, almost accidentally), full of humor and honesty and humanity. The whole story is wonderful, and I simply can’t stop looking at these photographs:
See more pictures here.
Feather By Feather 