A three-day printmaking workshop and a two-day pottery workshop organized by the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi concluded with participants receiving participation certificates.
Three-day printmaking workshop concludes in Chandigarh
Ottawa’s latest foray into public art: A dead crow statue made of old tires at the side of a road
When the Rubber Meets the Road is made from recycled tires. The artist notes: ‘The worst thing that can happen is that it gets ignored’
Mayor Harrell releases blueprint to ‘activate’ Downtown Seattle
The mayor hopes the investments will bring more people back to the city’s greater Downtown area after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the activity from daily office workers, visitors and tourists. According to the Downtown Seattle Association, in-person office work is back to about 48% of its pre-pandemic levels. At the height of summer last year, tourist visits were just shy of pre-pandemic numbers.
Harrell wants to build on this progress by making Downtown more attractive for both visitors and locals.
The Downtown Activation Plan is split into seven goal areas: public safety; residential occupancy; retail recovery; Downtown work; arts, culture and events; tourism and local visitors; and environmental efforts. It also includes a few bigger ideas, which Harrell calls “Space Needle thinking,” that the city is exploring, but isn’t committed to implementing.
City staff did not have an estimate of the cost of implementing each of the dozens of proposals. However, Office of Economic Development Director Markham McIntyre said, “One of our design constraints was to try to do [it] low-cost, within our budget. Everything you’re seeing here we believe we can do, not necessarily within this budget [cycle], but well within the city’s pocketbook.”
Public safety
To address public safety Downtown, the Seattle Police Department will continue targeting drug dealers and trying to reduce gun violence. The mayor intends to extend funding for the Third Avenue Project pilot through the end of 2023 and try to secure additional dollars during this fall’s budget cycle. The project involves concerted outreach efforts with people engaged in the drug economy and those experiencing homelessness around Third Avenue and Pike Street, a decades-long issue in Seattle.
The city also plans to establish an opioid recovery center that paramedics and social workers can take people to, similar to existing sobering centers, to reduce the strain on Harborview hospital. They are also launching a “contingency management” drug program that provides incentives for sobriety.
The plan includes other quality-of-life initiatives such as a one-time $1.7 million boost to the Downtown Seattle Association’s Metropolitan Improvement District program for cleaning; the hospitality and downtown ambassadors program; improved street lighting; and graffiti cleanup.
Downtown living
To replace some of the lost in-person office workers who’ve switched to hybrid work, the city wants to increase the number of residents living Downtown. In service of that goal, the mayor’s plan includes upzoning Third Avenue from Union Street to Virginia Street to allow taller residential buildings and to waive state environmental review requirements for residential construction Downtown. The new maximum building height would be 440 feet, up from the current 170 feet, or about 17 floors.
The mayor also has proposed creating a density bonus on Third and Fourth Avenues in the Downtown core for residential developers who include a child care or educational facility in ground-level space. Tim Burgess, the mayor’s director of strategic innovations, said this could help provide Seattle Public Schools with space to build a Downtown school someday.
The city also wants to pass regulatory changes to make it less expensive for developers to convert office buildings into residential spaces.
In addition to upzones, the plan includes bringing more farmers markets Downtown, encouraging more grocery stores to open, improving alleyways for pedestrian use and more.
Retail
In June, Harrell launched The Liberty Project to support Black and other business owners from underserved communities with their small businesses. As part of the Downtown plan, the Office of Economic Development will support those business owners in opening or maintaining Downtown businesses.
The mayor also wants to expand the Seattle Restored program which places pop-up businesses and art galleries in vacant retail spaces.
Downtown work
Although a portion of the plan is dedicated to repurposing vacant office space, the mayor still wants people back in the office. He plans to bring together public- and private-sector business leaders to encourage return-to-office policies as well as create “effective” hybrid work policies.
The plan is to have a series of networking events for Downtown workers such as June 28’s Black Tech Night.
Arts, culture and events
The mayor plans to create a new director-level position to lead on special events in the city as well as hire a “creative economy” manager.
The activation plan also includes $700,000 for new murals in the greater Downtown area.
The city wants to temporarily waive fees for street use fees for food trucks and small-to-medium street and sidewalk events. On July 26 at 6 p.m. the city will host a viewing party in Westlake Park for the USA vs. Netherlands Women’s World Cup match.
Tourism and visitors
To make Downtown a better place to visit, the mayor wants to install a network of digital navigation kiosks, open the proposed Tribal Interpretive Center in Waterfront Park, improve connections from Downtown to the waterfront, and modify the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area to provide more money for advertising and marketing.
Environmental improvements
The reactivation plan includes goals of improving existing Downtown parks, exploring the use of Pier 48 as a new open green space, and similar green efforts. The mayor also plans to keep half of Pike Street between First and Second Avenues closed to cars, to serve as a pedestrian-only space. The eastern half of the block between the alleyway and Second Avenue will remain open.
‘Space Needle thinking’
Finally, the reactivation plan includes several bigger-picture ideas for improving Downtown that the city is committed to exploring, but not necessarily implementing.
They include constructing the First Avenue streetcar to connect the existing streetcar lines and creating an arts and entertainment district along the route; building a year-round indoor/outdoor sports facility downtown; renovating Westlake Plaza with interactive art installations and year-round programming; building a new market dedicated to businesses run by Black, Indigenous and other people of color; and more.
The Oval Summertime Pop-Up Is Returning to the Parkway in July
The Oval will feature seven weekends of music, family fun, movie nights, and a giant Ben Franklin-inspired mural.
Archaeologists Uncover a Fresco in Pompeii with a Cheesy Pizza-Like Dish Served on a Silver Platter
All images courtesy of Archeological Park of Pompeii
Pompeiians—they’re just like us! Hungry for pizza.
Earlier this year, archaeologists excavating a block of houses in Regio IX of the Vesuvian city uncovered a fresco that shows a round, doughy dish resembling the modern favorite. Researchers were quick to point out that pizza, as we know it today, hadn’t been invented when the 2,000-year-old painting was created, although the ancient civilization did enjoy foccacia, a cousin of the tomato and cheese-covered pie.
This dish appears topped with pomegranate, spices, and a cheesy pesto known as moretum. Served on a silver platter accompanied by dried fruit, yellow strawberries, and a chalice filled with wine, the focaccia likely represents a “gift of hospitality,” according to the Archeological Park of Pompeii. These offerings to guests emerged from the Hellenistic period and the Greek practice of Xenia, which also describes the genre of paintings depicting this tradition.
Approximately 300 frescoes of ancient food have been found around Pompeii, although this still life is particularly well executed. While the work offers insight into what the buried civilization ate, director Gabriel Zuchtriegel says it also has implications for how we understand the evolution of food and wealth, sharing:
I think about the contrast between a modest and simple meal that reminds us of a sphere that stands between the pastoral and the sacred on one side, and the luxury of the silver trays and the refinement of the artistic and literary representations on the opposite side. When considering this matter, how can we not think about pizza, also born as a ‘poor’ dish in southern Italy that has now conquered the world and is served in Michelin star restaurants.
This discovery comes three years after archaeologists in Pompeii uncovered an impeccably preserved snack shop that served up fish, fowl, and of course, plenty of wine.
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CNM Student Brings Home Gold Medal in Welding Sculpture at SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference
Scott Schneider’s uniquely New Mexican welding sculpture of a bugling elk on a rocky cliff captured hearts, and an end result “better than I ever could have imagined.”
Photographers Stand Their Ground as Bear Charges Them
A group of photographers shooting photos in Alaska bravely stood their ground as they were charged by a brown bear.
The terrifying moment was captured on a camera and posted by Scenic Bear Viewing, a company that organizes bear tours from Homer in Alaska.
In the video, the photographers can be seen on a beach area with large brown bears nearby. They are whispering quietly and can be heard judging how far away one of the animals is. “About 25, 30 meters,” a man can be heard saying.
The scene is already tense when another bear from further away begins running at speed directly at the group. Very smartly, the group screams and roars at the charging beast who quickly has a change of heart and reels away from them.
“Never run from a charging bear, even though your instinct is to run. This is a bluff charge. They are just trying to get you to run. They have a natural chase instinct,” Scenic Bear Viewing writes on its Instagram post.
“Don’t get close to bears in the wild. Make sure you have an experienced guide with you! We do not get closer than 50 yards. These bears came to us.”
The post goes on to say that the company has been bear-guiding for over a decade and it is not the first time they have dealt with a charging bear.
“We are trained exactly for this situation. We are a professional bear guide operation. Although we will try to avoid this at all costs,” it writes.
“In this area, the bears have been visited by humans for over 30 years. It’s a part of their daily lives in the summer to see us every day of their 20-25 year life.
“These bears are not fed or hunted by humans. No harm is being done to these bears and we want to keep it that way.
“We take photos of the bears and leave no trace. We want the bears to stay protected. There has never been an attack in this area in the 30 years people have visited. We follow a strict set of rules while guiding and bring protection.”
Image credits: Scenic Bear Viewing.
Women Photograph and Makers Yard exhibit works from 26 global women and non-binary photographers
Moon is a new exhibition from the non-profit organisation Women Photograph and Makers Yard, an artist-run, grassroots communication project space in Frome, Somerset. Opening today, 28 June, the exhibition features 26 women and non-binary photographers from across the globe. It is part of Photo|Frome, a photography festival throughout the small rural town of photography exhibitions, workshops, talks and events.
Specifically, the Moon exhibition is one that “celebrates the unique perspectives and cultural narratives from a diverse group of both internationally acclaimed and emerging photographers”, a press release explains. Throughout the exhibition, you’ll discover an immense range of work on display; with intimate portraits, surreal staged shots and images from wider documentary projects. Featured are shots from Charlotte Yonga’s photographic exploration of love Naam Na La, Lydia Garnett’s series on Butch style, and Lydia Metral’s portraits of queer individuals, including many others like Arielle Bobb-Willis, Christina Stohn, Eva O’Leary, Jane Stockdale, Laura Pannack and Yumna Al Arashi.
Here Is How I Upgrade My Gear as a Professional Photographer |
There are infinite ways of upgrading gear as a photographer. Moreover, camera companies market their next product as the next best thing in the industry. All this results in a lot of confusion, speculation, and simple ambiguity. If we could, we would all upgrade everything at once, but money is a limited resource that we need to allocate with a high degree of efficiency. Throughout my career as a professional photographer, I have designed a system that helps photographers upgrade while thinking less. When I started out, I had no idea what to buy, how to spend my money, and where to get the money to spend on gear. As I progressed, I knew what I wanted and how to spend my money on it. However, I still had no money to spend on gear. Whenever I had to upgrade, I always thought twice before purchasing something, and I frankly didn’t purchase something I didn’t need. That’s the sad reality, and to this day, I look with surprise when someone mentions that they spent thousands of dollars on something and never use it. Upgrading is hard. In this article, we will look at how to spend the limited resource with the highest degree of efficiency and impact on your work.
The system is designed to work for people whose setup includes off-camera lighting. While working strictly in fashion now, I am no stranger to other genres of photography. Before finding my niche in photography, I was a generalist and shot everything from interiors to wildlife to portraits. Off-camera lighting is a widely applicable technique, far beyond portrait photography. With this out of the way, let’s dive in and see how I upgrade my gear as a professional photographer.
Modifier
Assuming you already own a couple of light modifiers, this would be the first thing on your list. Photography is about light. The word itself literally translates to light painting/drawing. This is why I consider light to be one of the key elements in photography. The wrong lighting can ruin an image before it is even taken. Having a wide selection of modifiers is far more important than having the right light for it. The modifier you use should be of the highest quality if you want mind-blowing results. For example, if we consider the most primitive tier of photography—mobile photography—we eliminate the need for a camera and a lens. All you have to do is shape and create light. There are several ways you can do this. The easiest one is to turn on your phone’s flash. A step further would be to introduce an off-camera flash. An even further step would be to throw a modifier on that flash. As soon as you introduce a variety of modifiers to your flash, mobile photography becomes far better. The opportunities open even wider with good light.
Light
This would be the second thing on my list. Truth be told, I use both Profoto and Broncolor equipment. The Broncolor flash is somewhat dated, but it’s a ring flash, which is far more affordable than Profoto and performs well. If we speak about Profoto alone, plenty of photographers use the old Pro-7 packs from 1998. I hope to become one of them by purchasing one. This is a professional-quality light that outperforms anything similar on offer. The only competitor I would imagine this light to have is the Godox P2400 system, which I hear is quite good. If you’re interested in a review of the Godox P2400, let us know in the comments! I digress. Good light paired with a good modifier will make the image quality far superior to a better camera. This is because the camera is made to capture what is placed in front of it. If it’s a poorly-lit scene, it will capture exactly that, in great resolution and detail. The thing is, if you take a high-resolution camera and place a bad scene in front of it, it will make the whole thing look even worse than before.
Lens
If you already have great lighting, look at upgrading your lens. This is what I will eventually do, as my lens is starting to show signs of aging. Unlike wine, it gets worse. That’s not to say I will stop using it before it breaks. Lens technology has improved significantly in the past years. A lens from two decades ago won’t perform nearly as well as a modern example of the same lens. Not only this, lenses are a tool used for composition, framing, and seeing the image. Assuming you have good lighting, an appropriate lens will capture the scene with detail and sharpness. It is far better to have a superior lens and a bad camera than vice versa. With this over, let’s get to our last part — the camera.
Camera
I see cameras as black boxes with an image-sensitive bit inside. While every single camera brand will lynch me for that definition, it is what a camera basically is. The core functionality of a camera has not changed since the thing was released more than a century ago. The features and other fancy bits and bobs. Truth be told, I have never checked my camera’s menu, and I had the exact same thing for 3 years at this point. Upgrading a camera is something I am unwilling to do as it won’t have a significant impact on my work. Unless you are using something that predates 2010, consider upgrading everything else and only after the camera.
Closing Thoughts
Here we go, the upgrade algorithm that works: Modifiers will have the most noticeable impact on how your images look, which is why I own more modifiers than cameras and lenses combined. Next is the light; it will influence the quality of the lighting. Good lights are underrated. Lenses will then take the light and produce a high-end image circle, which can all go on a bad camera or a good one. There hasn’t been a bad camera in the past decade.
How do you upgrade your gear? Do you have a system? Let us know in the comments below!
DMTV Milkshake: Ceramicist Bob Dinetz on Finding the Beauty in Chance
As a graphic designer, Bob Dinetz has worked for some of the world’s biggest companies – the ones in many ways determining how we spend our time: Apple, Adobe, The New York Times Magazine, and many more. Good graphic design, he says, is about boiling the brand down to its essence, and responding appropriately – and at that level, it shares certain similarities in his approach to his highly successful line of ceramics for the home: “A lot of times in graphic design, which I still do, it’s about distilling a problem down into the elements that are easily understood,” he says. “It’s about communication and clarity, and that’s what I’ve tried to bring to ceramics. A lot of the shapes I make are quite simple – they just have a few simple ridges or rims that react to glaze and to light. There’s quite a parallel between the work I do in graphic design and in pottery.”
[embedded content]In this week’s Milkshake, Bob shares several pieces of his own, showing work that combines a patient yet experimental approach to color and glaze – one that’s perfectly suited to a practice like ceramics, in which happy accidents (and even some unhappy ones) can lead to aesthetic revelations. “For me, color is really the mixture of clay and glaze together – which sounds like an obvious thing, but it took me a while to figure it out,” he says. “Earlier on, I would think of glaze as just like paint – a treatment over a surface. But really, in the type of firing that my work is in, the clay reacts with the glaze and the atmosphere and the kiln, and [the color] comes through the glaze. What happened was one day I just mixed a glaze too thin, and a lot of the clay came through the glaze and it created an interesting effect. I learned over time to control that and refine it.”
Also in this week’s Milkshake, Bob shares the biggest challenges of his work – ”The setbacks that happen in pottery [are] pretty common, but take a while to get used to,” he says – as well as what he does to ensure that his art world expands rather than shrinks over time. (It involves Instagram) For that and more, tune in!
Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.
Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.
