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Barkley L. Hendricks Was a Powerful Portrait Painter Whose Exceptional Photography Practice is Coming to Light
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Untitled,” circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image); 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS (1945-2017) had an incredible eye. His latest gallery exhibition reveals what he saw. A little girl wearing a plaid dress and knee-high socks standing with one leg slightly in front of the other, replicating the pose of an unclothed mannequin perched on the sidewalk beside to her. An image of Abraham Lincoln displayed in a car window in such a way that it appears the storied President is a passenger in a vehicle manufactured a century after his assassination. The curve of a woman’s calf sheathed in artfully torn pantyhose, her arched foot in a backless, high-heel shoe.
During his lifetime, Hendricks was recognized primarily for the striking portraits he painted of his stylish friends and acquaintances, works dating from the 1960s and 70s. Meanwhile, a major aspect of his practice was little explored until a few years ago. Hendricks was also a prolific photographer, rarely seen without a camera around his neck. He made studies for paintings, shot self-portraits, and notably captured a spectrum of images showcasing his unique interests and visual perspective through ironic juxtapositions, tight cropping, and creative use of mirrors and reflection.
“Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York features more than 60 photographs, both color and black-and-white images spanning four decades, from 1965 to 2004. A selection of dozens is being shown publicly for the first time, having come to light through a cataloging process overseen by Susan Hendricks that revealed her late husband’s expansive photographic archive.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1980 (archival inkjet print, 24 x 16 inches, image; 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
The inventiveness and preoccupations of Hendricks are on full display in “Myself When I Am Real,” which closes today. Mannequins, cars, store windows, and women’s shoes appear frequently in the exhibition. In a suite of 1979 images, Hendricks captures himself and a woman reflected in his bedroom mirror. She is nude; He dons a white robe. The entire space is painted red—the door, the walls, and the bookshelves. Even some of the bed linens are red and all of them are rumpled.
Another image depicts the same woman from the bedroom scene standing on the street with Hendricks beside her snapping their picture as it is reflected in a round, black-framed mirror, presumably from a store window display. He revisits the same artifice in several other images, including a self-portrait, framing his reflection in a store’s convex security mirror.
Artistry and sly humor define the great majority of the photographs. One series of television screen images delves into politics and touches on race, including footage of Rodney King being beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1979 (archival inkjet print, 26 x 39 inches, print; 27 x 40 x 2 inches, framed. | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Concentrating on a TV screen with little else in the background, Hendricks made time capsule images in the 1980s and 90s, keenly representing American pop culture and current events through key figures of their time.
He captured everyone from Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and O.J. Simpson to Julie Child, Big Bird, Muhammad Ali, Brock Peters as Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker from “All in the Family,” and Denzel Washington in the role of Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s film. Hendricks dispatched with the cast of curious characters navigating the Yellow Brick Road in the “Wizard of Oz” and instead documented Dorothy’s red sparkling slippers.
Most of the TV screen photographs were taken at Dutch Tavern, a local haunt Hendricks frequented, where an old-school television was installed in the corner, high on the wall. In his wide shots, a rack of potato chips, decorative ceiling tiles, and a deer head mounted on the wall can be seen. Dutch Tavern is located in New London, Conn., where Hendricks lived, worked, and taught at Connecticut College for 38 years.
Installation view of “Barkley L. Hendricks, Myself When I Am Real,” 2023, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W 20th Street, New York, N.Y. | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Dan Bradica
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1992 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 18 x 26 inches, paper size; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
THE FIRST CAMERA HENDRICKS USED was a Brownie that belonged to his mother. He also worked with a Polaroid camera that his next-door neighbor, John Floyd, let him borrow, Hendricks said in an oral history interview with the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, conducted by Kathy Goncharov in 2009.
When he was an undergraduate student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Hendricks was awarded two travel prizes allowing him to spend three months in Italy and another three months in Northern Africa, visiting Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. Hendricks purchased a range finder for these trips and then “graduated” to a single-lens reflex camera, he said in The Archives interview.
He went on to Yale where he earned a BFA and an MFA. While he studied painting at Yale, he took photography classes with Tom Brown and Walker Evans.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1991 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1988 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Nigel Freeman asked Hendricks about his photography during a conversation at Swann Auction Galleries in New York in 2014. “I’ve taken my camera damn near everywhere,” Hendricks told Freeman, director of Swann’s African American Fine Art Department. Then the artist explained how he trained himself early on.
“The situation with my being introduced to a darkroom was in Philadelphia. When I got a studio, the man who had the place previous to me was a photographer and he had to get out of town quick and he left all of his equipment there. I had the opportunity to start a rudimentary area of self-education as far as chemicals and darkroom use and enlargers and that kind of stuff,” Hendricks said.
“It was sufficient enough for me to get into my first photography class at Yale and once I got into that, the next year, I started to hang out more with the photographers and I was able to put together a portfolio that I presented to Walker Evans and I was able to get into his class. As one could say, that the rest is kind of history of sorts.”
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1980 (silver gelatin LE print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1995 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
SINCE HENDRICKS’S DEATH IN 2017, his estate and the gallery have embarked on an effort to present a fuller sense of the acclaimed portrait painter’s practice. A recent publication series dedicated individual volumes to his works on paper, landscape paintings, geometric basketball paintings, and his photography.
“Barkley Hendricks: Photography” (Skira) includes an essay by Anna Arabindan-Kesson, an art historian and Princeton University professor. She interviewed Hendricks and observed him photographing people he encountered on the street. He also photographed her.
“It was through photography that Barkley L. Hendricks got out into the world. He was an observer of people, places, scenes, and also, as he expressed to me, an observer of the medium,” Arabindan-Kesson wrote. “Photography enhanced his ‘eye,’ it helped him better understand how to look: as in looking at a scene to understand how it came together, and learning how a scene, a way of looking, could be arranged.”
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Eggs,” 1976 (hand-tinted gelatin silver print drymounted on card, 5 1/4 x 7 9/16 inches, print; 11 x 14 inches, card; 13 7/8 x 15 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1980 (silver gelatin LE print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
In a video made by the Tate in London, Hendricks said, “My camera I call my mechanical sketch book. It allows me to get information. I’m fast, but I am as fast as a camera.” He has also described his camera as a tool.
Last year, “‘My Mechanical Sketchbook’ — Barkley L. Hendricks & Photography” was organized by Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. The exhibition explored the artist’s photography and considered how his images functioned in relationship to other aspects of his practice.
The description of “My Mechanical Sketchbook” summarized the show: The exhibition “focuses on the significant and multifaceted role of the camera and the photographic image within Barkley L. Hendricks’s artistic practice. The show presents Hendricks’s photographs as autonomous artworks, models for oil paintings, and as ‘mechanical sketchbooks’—to cite the artist’s own words—that helped Hendricks capture and recall sights and insights. The exhibition illuminates the deep connections between Hendricks’s myriad forms of creative expression with photographs, Polaroids, paintings, and works on paper.”
Now Jack Shainman is presenting “Myself When I Am Real,” focusing entirely on the late artist’s photography. The exhibition is the gallery’s fifth solo show with Hendricks.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1985 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1992 (archival inkjet print, 26 x 39 inches, print; 27 x 40 x 2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
A DECADE AGO, Jack Shainman mounted its first solo exhibition with the artist. “Barkley L. Hendricks: Heart Hands Eyes Mind” was on view in spring 2013. The show featured new and recent portrait paintings and a pair of oval landscapes alongside 25 photographs, including Polaroids.
The press release for the show noted the significance of the artist’s photography. “Hendricks has always worked between the realms of photography and painting, having studied with Walker Evans at Yale. He was introduced early on to portraiture through the perspective of the camera’s lens,” the release said.
Introducing a new crop of the artist’s famed portraits of cool, confident subjects, the paintings might naturally be considered show’s headliners. When I visited the exhibition, however, it was the photographs on view, one image in particular, that drew my attention and stayed with me long after I left the gallery and continues to come to mind years later.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1970 (gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches, print; 13 3/4 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
A large, 35 x 52-inch print of “Airport TV” was on display at the beginning of the show. The 1985 photograph depicts two women sitting side-by-side in an airport lounge in an era when televisions were built into the seating and people dressed up for airline travel. Both are wearing fur coats and heels and they have dozed off in nearly identical positions, each with their legs crossed and head resting on the side of their chair.
Even asleep, the women possess what Duke University Art Historian Richard Powell called a certain “elan,” when describing the subjects of Hendricks’s painted portraits, as featured in the exhibition “Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool” in 2009.
The contents of the photograph represent the artist’s discerning eye and many interests and proclivities. He was drawn to subjects with presence, authenticity, individuality, and “elan”; had a penchant for duos and trios in his compositions; and possessed an enduring adoration for women’s legs and shoes. After seeing “Airport TV” and the other photographs on view in the exhibition, I was eager to see much more.
Installation view of “Barkley L. Hendricks, Myself When I Am Real,” 2023, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W 20th Street, New York, N.Y. | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Dan Bradica
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1991 (archival inkjet print, 26 x 39 inches, image; 27 x 40 x 2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
THE RECENT PHOTOGRAPHY-BASED EXHIBITIONS and publication have been welcome developments. However, since his photography was under-emphasized and under-studied when Hendricks was alive, so much remains unknown.
When Hendricks gave lectures or was in conversation before public audiences, he invariably discussed some of his works, usually his portraits paintings, in some detail. He explained how the portraits came about, who the subjects were, decisions he made about the visual presentation, and other meaningful factors.
Speaking at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016, his entire presentation was a journey through his portraits. He showed images of the paintings and provided insights and commentary about each of them. On March 21, 2017, less than a month before Hendricks died, he gave a similar presentation at Harvard Art Museums, before sitting down for a Q&A with a professor.
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1967 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
It would be invaluable to hear Hendricks offer narratives about his photographs, particularly those in the current exhibition—all but one of which are untitled—and learn the cities and specific locations where they were made, and how he would have titled them.
Questions abound. Who is the little girl standing next to the mannequin on the sidewalk? Was it a true random moment Hendricks encountered or was the entire scene creatively staged? What about the black pumps he photographed on The Great Wall of China? Did the shoes belong to his companion, who removed them to get the shot or were they brought along specifically as props in anticipation of making the photograph? Did Hendricks regard the images he made employing mirrors and reflections as references to Vermeer and Velázquez? What about the three young women he captured sitting together on a bench? Did he engage in a conversation about photography with the one in the middle who has a camera around her neck?
Early in his career, Hendricks painted cocksure, nude self-portraits. Decades later he represented himself through his clothing and accessories. In “Untitled (Self Portrait),” a photograph made in 1975, he wears a trench coat, patterned kufi, and a silver ring featuring a sizable sans serif “H,” with his camera held up to his eye, obscuring his face. Look closely at how he has positioned himself. What would Hendricks have to say about the faint white ring on the wall behind him that hovers just above his head like a halo? CT
Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” is on view at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, N.Y., from April 13-May 26, 2023 June 17, 2023
“Barkley L. Hendricks in New London” is on view at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Conn., from May 27-Sept. 3, 2023
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled (Self-Portrait), circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 24 x 16 inches, image; 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Installation view of “Barkley L. Hendricks, Myself When I Am Real,” 2023, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W 20th Street, New York, N.Y. | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Dan Bradica
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1965 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 18 x 26 inches, paper size; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1980 (silver gelatin LE print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, 1994 (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 18 x 26 inches, sheet; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Installation view of “Barkley L. Hendricks, Myself When I Am Real,” 2023, Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W 20th Street, New York, N.Y. | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Dan Bradica
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, n.d. (archival inkjet print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1970 (gelatin silver print, 5 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches, image; 8 x 10 inches, print; 12 3/4 x 15 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, Untitled, circa 1980 (silver gelatin LE print, 16 x 24 inches, image; 16 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
BOOKSHELF
“Barkley L. Hendricks: Photography” is part of a series of recent publications shedding light on lesser-known aspects of the artist’s practice. “Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool” documents the traveling exhibition organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Portraits by Hendricks were featured in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and one of them appears of the cover of the exhibition catalog. Another exhibition catalog, “Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at The Frick,” is forthcoming in September.
Watch: Wildlife Photographer Captures Intense Moment Leopard Spots Him
The clip accumulated more than 244,000 likes and over 2.4 million views.
Nature is a gift that keeps on giving. Now, thanks to the internet, we have the opportunity to explore facets of our environment, flora and fauna that we would not have been exposed to otherwise. The latest on the list of such popular nature posts is a video of a leopard that has left social media users stunned.
The now-viral video was shared by wildlife photographer Shaaz Jung on Instagram. In the short clip, a beautiful big cat can be seen lying down, licking its paw peacefully. And then at one moment, it is then seen looking directly at the camera and spotting the photographer hiding behind the bushes.
“The eye of the leopard, between the leaves, always watching, always your first observer,” Mr Jung wrote in the caption of the post.
Watch the video below:
Mr Jung shared the video just a few days back but he did not disclose the location where it was shot. Nevertheless, internet users were quick to react to the clip. They flooded the comment section with all kinds of emojis. While some called the clip “absolutely mesmerising”, others asked how the photographer was able to record the video without being attacked by the wild animal.
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“How do you take these videos without getting attacked,” wrote one user. “Ever got chased by one? Lol looks like she has her eye on you,” jokingly said another.
A third user commented, “That footage, absolutely incredible”. “Oh my god! It’s incredible, how do you capture these insane shots? Don’t they attack?!? Just curious @shaazjung,” asked another.
“Scary and beautiful at the same time!” wrote one user.
Since being posted, the clip has accumulated more than 244,000 likes and over 2.4 million views.
Click for more trending news
Stagwell (STGW) Announces New Headliner for Sport Beach at Cannes Lions 2023: Acclaimed Filmmaker Spike Lee, in a Special Talk with Jordan Brand CMO Shannon Watkins
Lee to Receive the Festival’s Inaugural ‘Creative Maker of the Year’ Award Supported by Black at Cannes
NEW YORK and CANNES, France, June 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Award-winning filmmaker and cultural icon Spike Lee to Sport Beach, its flagship venue at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – the largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry – for a special conversation with Jordan Brand Chief Marketing Officer Shannon Watkins. Sport Beach is built for brands, platforms and athletes to tap into the cultural zeitgeist of sport and explore the power of fandom.
Led by Damaune Journey, global chief growth officer at 72andSunny, a premier global creative agency in Stagwell’s network, “Spike Lee’s Influence: The Intersection of Creativity, Sport, and Culture” will feature a candid talk with the creative genius-turned-advertising darling through the lens of his iconic commercials, and his role as a filmmaker and cultural icon.
Shannon Watkins and her team oversee brand strategies and campaigns for Jordan Brand, which has a deep and rich history with Lee. A 20+ yr. veteran in the brand world, Shannon is also a leader for diversity and inclusion within the marketing and advertising industry, has been named one of Adweek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports, and is the winner of a Clio and a Cannes Lion award.
“We could not be more honored to host a talk with award-winning filmmaker, culture creator, and sports icon, Spike Lee. His creative genius is unquestioned and his impact on the sports marketing landscape is profound. Paired with Shannon Watkins, a marketing expert and industry juggernaut, attendees are in for a real treat,” said Journey.
The session will take place at 1:30-2:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, on the Sport Beach main stage. A valid pass to Sport Beach is required for admission.
About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.
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Photography Website Mistakes to Avoid
Few things are more crucial to a photography business than the website, as it is the place where most potential clients will go to see your work, to decide if you are the right fit for their wants and needs, and to initiate contact with you. As such, your website deserves careful attention. This excellent video tutorial features an experienced commercial photographer sharing some common website mistakes and how to fix them.
Coming to you from Scott Choucino of Tin House Studio, this great video tutorial will show you some common mistakes photographers make with their websites and how to fix them. By far, the most common mistake I see photographers make is simply putting form over function with their websites by making them overly complex to navigate or slow to load in an attempt to make things look fancy. People tend to have very short attention spans on the internet, and if they do not find your site intuitive and easy to work with, they will probably simply move on to the next option. Generally, it is better to stick with more straightforward designs and let your photos speak for themselves. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Choucino.
Hampton Sand Sculpture Fireworks Canceled Because of Plovers
A record number of pipng plovers are nesting in Hampton Beach and Seabrook this year.
California artists, chefs find creative ways to confront destructive ‘superbloom’ of wild mustard
While ripping out yellow blooms blanketing hillsides in Los Angeles, Max Kingery has been questioned about his fervor for killing flowers.
But the clothing designer who used the plants to dye his spring and summer lines said he takes no offense at being accused of pillaging this part of California’s “superbloom.” Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to raise awareness about a destructive flower that proliferated in the state following an unusually wet winter: wild black mustard.
Mustard was among the most prominent of wild flowering plants that seemingly popped up everywhere in California this spring. As temperatures warm it is starting to die, making it tinder for wildfires in a state that has been ravaged by blazes. Its stalks can act as fire ladders, causing flames to climb.
Mustard also smothers native plants, transforming the landscape. Its leaves and roots inhibit the growth of other species, creating a mono-thicket that spreads rapidly. There are numerous kinds of wild mustards in California, but black mustard or Brassica nigra is considered among the most pervasive.
Kingery is part of a growing group of artists, designers and chefs, who are tackling the invasion by harvesting the plant to use in everything from dyes to pesto.
Foragers have led edible hikes to pick its peppery flower and munch on its leaves. There have been workshops and instruction guides on how to turn it into paper, fertilizer and a spicy version of the well-known condiment by the same name.
Kingery’s line, aptly named “Pervasive Bloom,” features sweatshirts, pants, tank tops and other items dyed naturally using mustard. On the website for his company, Olderbrother, a model embraces the uprooted weed while donning a mustard-dyed jacket. Other photos show the clearing of the land.
The Olderbrother store in Los Angeles is decorated with a huge panel of the plant’s stalks, leaves and flowers that were woven on a loom by designer Cecilia Bordarampe. The material came from the first harvest when Kingery said his team initially harvested about 450 pounds (204 kilograms) to make the dye. They have continued, removing more than a 100 pounds (45 kilograms) a week ever since, mostly from public land in Los Angeles.
Even that amount is only nipping at the problem, Kingery said.
The plant from Eurasia was first brought to California in the 1700s — it has been found in the adobe bricks of missions. But its presence exploded this year after a record amount of rainfall from December to April. Years of wildfires also created more spaces for the plant that thrives in disturbed lands.
State and local agencies remove mustard from managed lands, but it’s spread to places beyond.
At its peak bloom this spring, undulating swaths of yellow lined freeways. Hillsides jutting up from urban landscapes glowed. Sidewalk cracks were abloom.
“Physically, it’s been demanding,” Kingery said. “And yes, there seems in sheer volume, if you zoom out a bit, that there could be enough wild mustard here to make salads and dyed sweatshirts for everyone in the United States.”
But when Kingery sees native plants sprouting in plots that have been cleared, it makes it all worth it, he said. And, he added, to get the hues that he wants requires a lot of mustard, which in this context is a good thing.
“We don’t want to rip a bunch of plants out of the ground for no reason,” Kingery said. “The idea of something being utilized that is growing out of the sidewalk is a pretty cool concept.”
Artist Erin Berkowitz of Berbo Studio makes dyes from invasive species, including the dye for Kingery’s clothing line. She has offered classes along with a chef who crafts pesto from the mustard greens and mashes the flowers into dressing.
“This is an abundant art supply that is all around us.” Berkowitz said.
She said her work with Kingery showed the possibilities of what can happen if more people become aware of its uses.
“Visually we watched a whole hill of a park be denuded of mustard, which was a very hopeful thing,” she said.
Underneath the towering stalks of mustard, which can grow more more than 8-feet (2.4 meters) tall, blue lupine, poppies and other native plants were fighting to reach sunlight. “One public space, one whole neighborhood, returned to having healthy, functional native ecology,” Berkowitz said after the harvest in the working-class neighborhood of El Sereno in east L.A.
Jen Toy of Test Plot, an organization that partnered with Kingery and Berkowitz and helps people restore biodiversity to their neighborhoods, said “it’s really about broadening what we mean by land care, and getting other folks who might not see themselves as like environmentalists interested.”
To that end, ecological horticulturist Alyssa Kahn and artist Nadine Allan made a zine, a digital magazine, about the uses of black mustard, including to make paper, a face mask and even a kind of natural pesticide to till into garden soil.
Kahn said she was motivated to act in part because she has friends who lost nearly everything to wildfires.
“We wanted to incentivize people to do something about it,” she said, and educate them.
“They just look so pretty,” Kahn added. “They have those yellow flowers, and if you don’t really know kind of what’s happening on a larger scale, you might say, oh they’re just a sea of yellow flowers.”
Jutta Burger of the California Invasive Plant Council applauds the ingenuity and suggests people contact land management agencies to gather left-behind seeds when areas are cleared.
“You’ll never completely get rid of it, at least where it’s been established for a long time,” she said.
Still, Burger said similar efforts to creatively use something have made an impact. For example, she said, when chefs started crafting recipes involving the predatory lionfish and serving it in restaurants, its population decreased in areas, and it became widely known that the species was a threat to native marine life.
“One thing we would like to make sure people know is those yellow fields out there, they were once fields of not just yellow — they were fields of yellow, purple, pink, and blue,” Burger said.
How to Light and Photograph a Wine Bottle
Wine bottles can be a real challenge to light and photograph, particularly with their curves and reflective glass. Nonetheless, you can learn quite a lot from the process. If you would like a fun weekend project, check out this great video tutorial that will show you everything you need to know to create a professional wine bottle product image.
Coming to you from Daniel Norton Photographer, this excellent video tutorial will show you how to light and photograph a wine bottle. Even if you are not a product photographer, this is a tremendously valuable exercise that will likely benefit you in whatever genre you do shoot. Product photography takes a lot of precise lighting skills and a good dose of problem-solving for just about every shot, making it a great way to quickly and effectively hone your skills, plus you can do it easily from the comfort of your home with things you have around the house. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Norton, and give it a try this weekend!
If you would like to continue to learn about product photography, check out “The Hero Shot: How To Light And Composite Product Photography With Brian Rodgers Jr.!”
Kate Pryor
Medium/Art Form: Visual
When and how did you start making art?
I’ve been into art since my earliest memories of drawing with crayon and pencil. Landscapes, architecture and animals were my first adventures in drawing, but as I moved into high school I became interested in abstraction. Heavily
