Chen Man, a renowned Chinese photographer, filmmaker, digital visual artist, and painter, is credited with contributing to the evolution of China’s beauty aesthetic. Prominent celebrities from Asia and beyond have graced her highly stylized, otherworldly shoots, which often fuse traditional Chinese aesthetics with contemporary elements.

Her solo exhibition, “Dynamic Balance,” is at the Bund Financial Center until March 9.

“The exhibition, featuring a motif of water running through it, presents my multidimensional artistic expressions ranging from painting to photography, sculpture, and installations, offering a unique and immersive experience,” Chen said. “This marks my second solo exhibition in Shanghai in the past 12 years.”

In her exploration of “water as object, subject, and noumenon,” Chen constructs a dialectical landscape that not only captures the essence of the contemporary environment but also conveys the emotions and creative impulses that have defined her career.

Ti Gong

The first installation, “Playground,” positioned at the entrance, symbolizes the experiential introduction to the exhibition with the “Memory Brick” series. Memories, akin to water, freeze, melt, and fade.

“Each ice brick conceals a vibrant mind stone. These stones, representing the seven colors of the visible spectrum, symbolize the innate ability bestowed upon us by nature to perceive the world,” said Chen. “This piece encourages us to embrace a childlike curiosity, daring us to experiment and engage with the world like water.”

Ti Gong

On crossing a narrow path and stepping over an exit, visitors are greeted by a vast square wheat field. Two white pillows rest within the field, enveloped in mist against a rainbow backdrop.

Stepping into the wheat field feels like entering a sanctuary of memories and imagination, where human nature is nurtured, and aspirations are safeguarded. Visitors will experience a sense of relaxation and tranquility, according to Chen.

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

The second part of the exhibition features portraits captured by Chen of pop icons such as basketball legend LeBron James, acclaimed singer Rihanna, actress Zhang Ziyi, and heartthrobs Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo. Many of these portraits revolve around the theme of the dragon.

After inputting a six-digit password, visitors are led into a dimly lit room where vivid depictions of two dragons that Chen created for an 800-year-old temple in Japan adorn the wall.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is “Memory Brick.” On one side of the wall, portraits of nine international celebrities are displayed, while on the opposite side, their corresponding memory bricks are depicted in paintings. Positioned beneath each portrait is a headset through which visitors can listen to the stars’ personal reflections and life perceptions.

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

One of the portraits captures martial arts icon Jackie Chan making a heart gesture. In his memory snippet, Chan reflects: “I was wild and bold; my worth was gold, 60 cars at hand, everyone at my command … It took me far and wide. And I checked the arrogant stride. I am thrifty now; I can use a tissue many times.”

Actress Shu Qi candidly shared her apprehensions and anxieties while confined in an elevator, yet on stepping out, she found release, emphasizing that no obstacle is insurmountable.

“Through these pieces, I aim to encourage young people to embrace life fearlessly, much like water does. Water is open to experiencing all facets of existence,” Chen said.

Exhibition info:

Date: February 23-March 9

Venue: Bund Financial Center

Address: 600 Zhongshan Rd E2

中山东二路600号

Twenty members of the al-Farra family are gathered for the photo, but no one is smiling for the camera.

The scene is deceptively tranquil as they sit around a bare wooden table under the trees of the Stella Maris monastery on Mount Carmel, high above the port of Haifa. But it is April 1948, and below them the city is under siege and bombardment by the Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary organisation that later became the core of the Israeli army.

Much of Haifa’s Arab population fled, but the al-Farras stayed put at the monastery. After the city fell and became part of the newly established state of Israel the following month, they returned to their home to find it had been taken over by a Jewish family.

We learn no more of the fate of the al-Farras after 1948 in a new book Against Erasure: a Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba. But we do see glimpses of the family’s life in the years leading up to the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, in which about 750,000 Arabs were forever forced from their homes during the war that followed the partition of Palestine and led to the birth of modern Israel.

Against Erasure is not the first collection of photos from the era of Turkish and then British rule. But in the midst of the bloodiest Israeli attack on Palestinians since the Nakba, with civilians accounting for the majority of the 28,000 dead in Gaza, 2 million people forced from their homes and entire neighbourhoods destroyed alongside schools, hospitals and factories, the book stands as proof of life of a Palestine many in Israel want to pretend never existed.

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Against Erasure was first published in Madrid by two Spanish women with experience of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – Sandra Barrilaro, a photographer, and Teresa Aranguren, a journalist – to push back against an Israeli version of history that not only erased Palestinian society but also works to wipe out its memory. The original title in Spanish translates as Against Forgetting but that was already taken by a poetry book. The English-language publishers settled instead on Against Erasure.

It’s a title that feels more pointed not only because of the present war in Gaza but after years of what Israeli human rights groups describe as the regime of Jewish supremacy in the West Bank intended to erase any possibility of a viable Palestinian state. A system that has worked hard to make Palestinians living under occupation, confined behind the vast and winding West Bank barrier or caged in Gaza, largely unseen by ordinary Israelis except when called up to do their periodic military service enforcing the occupation.

The version of the book in English and Arabic was commissioned for Haymarket by Róisín Davis. “Most people don’t learn about the Nakba in school. They don’t learn about the history of this land, of these people. And they certainly don’t encounter a sense of what Palestine looked like,” she said.

“The book is a visual testament to Palestinian society, to what existed. The power of this book is in the images representing the breadth and richness of Palestinian society before the Nakba, pre-1948. They show a full society, a rich society and an abundant land. They also show the diversity of society which goes a long way to counter the Zionist narrative that it was a land without a people, for people without the land.”

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The pages introduce us to the boys of Hebron’s school for the blind in the early 1940s and the staff of the local hospital toward the end of the war. Arab, Jewish and British employees of the Haifa customs department pose on its steps.

There are the kinds of photos that once filled local newspapers. Of football teams, school plays and Boy Scout troops in various kinds of headdress from wide brimmed hats to keffiyehs.

Members of Haifa municipal council – Jews, Arabs and British nationals – line up for an official portrait. A group of women pose for a class photo with their diplomas from teacher training college. In an altogether different picture from 1930, a woman lounges the length of a couch in her evening dress.

We see the work of Karima Abbud, the first female Palestinian professional photographer who ran studios in Jerusalem and Haifa. Two girls from Nazareth pose for her in 1928 with stares that suggest a wariness of the camera.

Many of the pictures were dug out of family archives by the historian Johnny Mansour who lives in Haifa and has spent years collecting oral histories and photographs of the Palestinian experience.

Mansour describes his Palestinian parents fleeing the 1948 war and his childhood in “one of the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods in Haifa”. He has since spent his life gathering the evidence of what once existed.

“I firmly believe that while the people of Palestine lost their land, they refuse to lose their history. As one of the children, the survivors, of this people, I know how sincere our relationship is with the land, its past, its history, its images, its documents. Taken together, they return to us what we need the most: our homeland,” Mansour writes in the book.

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Alongside that, Against Erasure reminds us that Palestine was never free. It was occupied two empires, the Ottoman and then the British, before the Nakba.

One picture captures two men in front of a sign for Imperial Airways at Gaza airport in 1935. Others show the darker side of imperial rule and that the Israeli military was not the first to indulge in collective punishment. We see British army engineers standing amid the rubble of houses in Jaffa destroyed to punish the families of those who took part in the Arab revolt in 1936.

Amid the routines of daily life is the Palestinian realisation that a storm is gathering and the first inklings of the Nakba. Black flags inscribed with “Long Live Palestine” are pictured hanging in the Jerusalem bazaar on the day of the Balfour declaration in 1917 – the British government’s commitment to “a national home for the Jewish people” in the territory just seized from the Ottomans.

Pictures from two decades later capture the Great Revolt over sharply rising Jewish immigration and land ownership, and fears that the British would deliver on the promise of the Balfour declaration.

Against Erasure lists 418 Palestinian villages depopulated during the Nakba and either destroyed or taken over by Jewish residents and given Hebrew names in an act of what the book calls “sociocide” but which might well be described as ethnic cleansing.

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In places, the Palestinian population was murdered, perhaps most notoriously in Deir Yassin. The book quotes Jacques de Reynier, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation, after a visit to Deir Yassin as describing the massacre of Arabs “without any military reason or provocation of any kind; old men, women, children, newly born were savagely murdered with grenades and knives by Jewish troops of the Irgun, entirely under the control of their chiefs”.

The al-Farras were spared that fate but the life they lived before the Nakba, glimpsed on the pages of Against Erasure, was over.

The family clearly liked travelling. Two men are pictured in suits sitting stiffly under stalactites on a trip to Lebanon’s Qadisha caves in 1935 when trains still ran from Palestine to Beirut.

Alongside their picture is a copy of a passport belonging to a member of the family, the pages dotted with visas and border post stamps. It stands as its own testament against erasure. In English, Arabic and Hebrew, the document states that it is a Palestine passport, and that the holder is a Palestinian citizen.

• Against Erasure: A photographic memory of Palestine before the Nakba, edited by Teresa Aranguren and Sandra Barrilaro, is out now

A picture is worth a thousand words, but for one local photographer, it could soon be worth a lot more than that, as Tyler Smiley has had two photos selected to advance to the final round of the prestigious Bird Photographer of the Year competition.

“I saw an email come through from them requesting high-resolution files for one or more images I entered in the contest, and it didn’t register what that meant at first, to be honest,” Smiley said, adding that he had to re-read the email a few times before realizing he had advanced to the final round of judging.

Smiley entered a variety of bird images into the competition, including an osprey, pelican and screech owl. The two selected for the final round, however, were both of a smaller species – sanderlings. One of the images was captured at Fowler Beach in Milford, and the other at Cape Henlopen State Park, Lewes.

Since it is a global competition, Smiley said even if he doesn’t place or advance further, he can take pride in the fact he made it this far. “It is no small feat to reach this round of the competition, that’s for sure. When I entered, I don’t think I could have ever expected it, but I am extremely proud that it happened,” he said.

The Bird Photographer of the Year is an annual competition that was conceived to celebrate the amazing array of bird species found around the world. It features several categories, including black-and-white, best bird portrait, bird behavior and more.

For more information on the competition, go to birdpoty.com. To view more of Smiley’s work or purchase his prints, go to tylersmileyphotography.com.

Two Haverhill women with an eye for capturing evocative images excelled in this year’s Essex Heritage Commission’s photo contest.

The contest encourages photographers of all levels to capture the living landscapes, unique places and vibrant communities of Essex County.

In 2021, Kathy Diamontopoulos took the grand prize for her photo of a plover chick in a clam shell. She titled her image “Beach Baby” and captured it at Sandy Point State Reservation in Ipswich.

She won the grand prize again this year for her photograph of a parent plover with chicks under its wings. She titled it “Precious Plovers” and also shot it at Sandy Point. The grand prize includes $300 in cash plus a $75 gift card to Hunt’s Photo.

“I was stunned when I was informed that I’d won a second grand prize, and again with an image of plovers,” Diamontopoulos said, adding that piping plovers winter in the Gulf Coast and other southern areas and spend their summers in this part of New England and other northern areas.

Diamontopoulos, a customer service representative for Middleton Electric Light, considers photography a “fierce hobby” and one that is very therapeutic.

To capture her 2021 winning “Beach Baby” image she used a Nikon Coolpix 1000 with a telephoto lens, but for this year’s winning photo she used a Nikon D7500 with a 500mm lens.

“The zoom lens allows me to get a close-up photo without disturbing the birds, which is my No. 1 priority,” she said. “Last summer, I laid flat on the sand and waited for the plovers to pass by and hoped for the best. I kept a safe distance as they are a threatened bird.”

Diamontopoulos said people walking the beach will often ask her what she’s doing, and a conversation about the plovers will often ensue.

“Education is a good way to help us coexist with nature,” she said.

People’s Choice Award

This year’s People’s Choice Award winner, Alison Colby-Campbell, has been entering the contest on and off for the last 10 years with great success.

Her winning photo for this year’s contest, titled “All is Calm,” shows a rabbi checking the operation of an electric menorah in downtown Washington Square during the past Christmas season.

“I liked the image as it represented what I think is one of the best parts of Haverhill, and that is multiple cultures being able to share space peacefully,” said Colby-Campbell, a marketing and advertising professional who founded the Heartbeat of Haverhill on Facebook. “Haverhill is an underestimated city that has a lot to brag about.”

Her first entry in 2014, a first prize winner in the downtown category, showed ice flows on the Merrimack River with a backdrop of the former Woolworth Building. Also in 2014, she was honored with a People’s Choice Award for an autumn photo of Winnekenni Castle.

She won a People’s Choice Award in 2023 for an image of the Basiliere Bridge at night and taken during a riverboat sunset cruise.

“This year there were more than 30 images up for the award,” Colby-Campbell said. “I put the word out and people in Haverhill were very responsive and supportive of my images.” Her prize, to be awarded March 6, includes a $50 gift card to Rockafellas in Salem, and a one-day pass for admission and half-day canoe rental ($30) at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.

“I would not have won this contest for a second time if it had not been for friends and family,” Colby-Campbell said.

Her 2014 images were captured with Canon and Nikon digital cameras, while last year’s and this year’s images were taken with a Samsung smartphone.

From rocky coasts and rural farms to historic downtowns and parks, photographers vividly captured a variety of special places in Essex County for this year’s contest. All photographs were taken within the Essex National Heritage Area in 2023 and fell into the categories of “Buildings, Blocks, and Neighborhoods,” “Celebrating Our Communities,” “Four Season,” and a themed youth category which asked young people to show us why they love where they live.

2023 Essex Heritage Photo Contest Winners

Grand Prize Winner

“Precious Plovers,” by Kathy Diamontopoulos of Haverhill, taken in Ipswich

Category: Buildings, Blocks, and Neighborhoods

1st Place – “Man at the Wheel,” by Jason Kennedy of Nashua, N.H., taken in Gloucester

2nd Place – “Pink House, Half Moon,” by Catherine Grassello of Wakefield, taken in Newbury

3rd Place – “Lollipop Trees,” by Karen Hosking of Salem taken in Manchester-by-the-Sea

Category: Celebrating Our Communities

1st Place – “Ice Breaker,” by Francisco Urena of Marblehead, taken in Boxford

2nd Place – “Jackson Cup,” by Mark Katz of Marblehead, taken in Marblehead

3rd Place – “Enjoying the Show,” by Rick Matthias of Salem, Mass., taken in Salem

Category: Four Seasons

1st Place – “Springtime Eaglet — It’s Your Turn to Feed,” by Carin Macnamara of Wakefield

2nd Place – “Cygnets Amidst Fall Hues,” by Deric LePard of Salem, taken in Andover

3rd Place – “River Snowfall,” by Brian Searles of Topsfield, taken in Topsfield

Youth Category

1st Place – Merrimack River in Lawrence,” by Dante Cutietta of Tewksbury, taken in Lawrence

2nd Place – “Grasshopper,” by Georgana Cauthers of Gloucester, taken in Gloucester

3rd Place – “Mushroom Meadow,” by Jameson Dick of Ipswich, taken in Topsfield

People’s Choice Award Winner

“All is Calm,” by Alison Colby-Campbell of Haverhill, taken in Haverhill

Photo Contest Reception and Exhibit

The public is invited to attend an in-person Essex Heritage Photo Contest Reception on Wednesday, March 6, at 6 p.m. at the Salem Armory Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty St. The reception is free, open to the public and light refreshments will be available. The 14 winning images are on display at the Center through the end of March.

See winning photographs on the Essex Heritage Facebook page or at essexheritage.org/programs/photo-contest/.

Support for the Photo Contest was generously contributed by North Shore Bank, DeIulis Brothers Construction, Geller MicroAnalytical Labs, Groom Construction, and the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission. Other prize sponsorships were donated by Hunt’s Photo & Video, Ipswich River Watershed Association, REI, SEE Shore Photography, The Trustees, Mass Audubon, Harbor Sweets, Rockafellas Restaurant, and Atomic Café.

Submitted by the San Juan Islands Museum of Art

San Juan Islands Museum of Art announces the Spring Show featuring three exhibits running March 8-June 3. San Juan Island artist Tom Small will present six large stone sculptures outside in the orchard as well as sculptures in SJIMA’s North Gallery – works that recreate architecture and human structures to open up new conversations about how we build and live on Earth.

The Shades of Compassion exhibition features 41 international photographers addressing Compassion within three themes: Environment, Humanity and Spirituality. The exhibition’s primary goal is to promote compassion worldwide through inspirational, thought-provoking photographs. Dr. Kolkin, an internationally recognized photographer, educator and physician will present a talk at the museum on the medical benefits of compassion, Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama shared this about Dr. Kolkin, “Jon Kolkin admirably captures the essence of a life devoted to calming and focusing the mind so it can dwell upon developing compassion and wisdom”.

Seattle-based artist OctoEyes, integrates light, fire, and interactive elements into his sculptures, inviting audiences to engage with his creations and explore their own agency within the artwork. Exhibited in the Atrium, the work amplifies naturally occurring forms and alters their contexts in an immersive experience.

About Tom Small

Tom SmalI shared, “I think of my art as a translation of the Earth’s energy – the shape of the land is taken in through my feet and moves through my body and soul to emerge as art.”

Tom Small grew up near Kirkland, Washington. His early visual impressions included drawings of buildings on his father’s desk, skeletal frames of buildings under construction, and trees against the sky. As a child, he carved everything within reach and began carving wood in earnest in high school and at that time he also began exploring and backpacking in the Cascade Mountains.

He went on to study casting, welding, and wood carving at the University of Washington, graduating with a degree in sculpture in 1984. Looking to deepen his relationship with the wilderness, he purchased a remote piece of property atop Cady Mountain on San Juan Island.

He began working with galleries in 1985 and many of Tom’s larger works have been commissions that are featured in spaces across the United States. His sculptures live in collections throughout North America.

About the Shades of Compassion photography exhibit:

Participating photographers: Ansel Adams, Wolf Ademeit, Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher, Daniel Beltra,Niki Boon, Phil Borges, Nick Brandt, Ernest H. Brooks Ii, Kevin Bubriski, Tom Chambers, Imogen Cunningham, Virgil Dibiase, Tj Dixon & James Nelson, Melinda Hurst Frye, Maurizio Gjivovich, David Gonzalez, Misha Gordin, Robert & Shana Parke Harrison, Michael Kenna, Angela Bacon Kidwell, Marla Klein, Jon Kolkin, Lisa Kristine, Joey Lawrence, Ruth Lauer Manenti, Rania Matar, Beth Moon, Nasa / William Anders, Wayne Quilliam, Chris Rainier, Antonio Aragon Renuncio, Manjari Sharma, Maggie Taylor, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry Uelsmann, Dave Walsh, Alice Zilberberg and Zoe Zimmerman.

Shades of Compassion is an immersive exhibit created to engage at all levels and includes a curriculum developed to encourage engagement for middle and high school teachers and students. This is a unique, thought-provoking exhibition experience.

Drawn from a diverse roster of international fine art photographers, the fifty exhibition photographs encompass a broad spectrum of perspective, subject, and artistic expression.

Curated to engender a nuanced experience of compassion, the exhibition invites the viewer to dig deeper into their understanding of compassion, an opportunity for growth and exploration. The photographs are sequenced and organized into three theme groups: Environment, Humanity, and Spirituality. Opportunities for engagement sparked by the photographs for exploring and experiencing compassion, are wide-ranging – recognizing planet Earth as our collective home, an expansive inter-dependent web of life containing microcosms of diverse wonders; weighing the fragility of endangered species and the complexity of human interactions with kindred life forms; witnessing isolation and alienation as well as the power of love, nurture, caring touch, inter-generational support, and transformative spiritual revelation. Compassion is inherently relational, interpersonal, and even communal. SHADES OF COMPASSION provides compelling portals for a broad spectrum of compassionate connections.

Coordinated educational programming for facilitated deeper compassion-centered exploration for Adult and K-12 groups is also provided (text guides). Materials for the self-guided Pause Stations and the facilitated curriculum was created under the guidance of leading experts, including senior MoMA and Minneapolis Institute of Art educators, Emory University’s Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning program for K-12, and Life University’s Compassionate Integrity Training for adults.

Compassion is the foundation for non-violent conflict resolution, equity, sustained social engagement, and addressing the needs of this planet and all its inhabitants. Extensive research in neuroscience and medicine also suggests that individuals who engage in acts of compassion toward themselves and others, benefit personally, achieving greater physical and emotional health and well-being, while living happier, more productive lives. Making a clear distinction between compassion as a motivator for social change, and affective empathy, ‘feel my pain’, which leverages distress, anger, and fear as the catalyst for action, the SHADES OF COMPASSION exhibition relies on positive, constructive emotions as a means to achieve its primary objectives. It strives to provide an immersive, safe, contemplative environment.

Shades of Compassion Artist Talk: Living A Balanced Life Guided by Compassion and Wisdom

Dr. Kolkin, an internationally recognized photographer, educator and physician will present a talk on the medical benefits of compassion, Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. All Welcome. Register at SJIMA.org

“The key to achieving true happiness is compassion for others, balanced with compassion for self, guided by wisdom.” —Jon Kolkin

“Jon Kolkin admirably captures the essence of a life devoted to calming and focusing the mind so it can dwell upon developing compassion and wisdom”. —HH The Dalai Lama

Shades of Compassion Symposium with participating photographers is planned for April 27. Details to follow. Please refer to SJIMA website for further information.

About OctoEyes

After a successful career as a software developer, OctoEyes is primarily self-taught in creating interactive installations. Driven by a passion for experimentation OctoEyes aims to inspire curiosity, wonder, and self-reflection through his work.

His fascination with the vast shapes inherent in nature serves as the foundation of his artistic exploration. Through his work, OctoEyes amplifies these natural forms and alters their contexts to offer viewers an immersive experience and as an intersection between artistry and audience participation.

“Myxogastria (aka slime mold) are common, but are so small, that they go unnoticed; yet they have incredible beauty. The first time I saw the fruiting bodies of these tiny wonders I was struck by how sculptural and otherworldly they are. I was inspired to play with scale and create these works which seem alien but are anything but.”

OctoEyes infuses interactivity into his sculptures, inviting audiences to engage with his creations and explore their own agency within the artwork. He has exhibited at events including Burning Man, Portland Winter Light Festival, and Oregon Zoo Lights.

Spring Show In-Kind Sponsors include Browne’s Home Center, Printonyx and Harbor Rental.

About San Juan Islands Museum of Art:

At the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, we celebrate artists, creativity, community and generosity through exhibits, education, and events. Located on beautiful San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest, SJIMA connects islanders and visitors from around the world through powerful and timely museum exhibits and programming. Learn more at SJIMA.org

Contributed photo
“Dance of Our Ancestors” by Wayne Quilliam

Contributed photo
“Ship of Fools” © Maggie Taylor

Contributed photo
”Nurtured” © Jon Kolkin

Interested in improving your photography skills? 

If so, try joining the recently created Photography Club on campus. 

All you need is simply any kind of camera. Many students are already members of the club, each with different equipment, different knowledge and/or different photography styles. This allows everyone to learn from each other and develop new skills. They learn through weekly meetings, a Discord server and even small shoots that they sometimes do for other clubs.

Club President Jordan Joyce has been into photography for about five years and even ran a photography club in high school. He said he enjoyed running it so much that, after discovering MSU didn’t have a photography club, he immediately jumped at the opportunity to start one last November.

At the moment, the club is still young and quite small. Joyce talked about the struggles he faces because of the low number of members, altering how the club is running. For example, lately they haven’t been able to have their weekly meetings because most of the students in the club don’t have the time in their schedule to make those weekly meetings.

“We can’t exactly do the club how I would like the club to be run at the moment. We just don’t have enough people at those meetings to do the kind of workshopping stuff that I want to do,” Joyce said.

Recently they’ve been participating in fairs and advertising to gain new members. Joyce said he wants to do a fundraiser this semester to raise the group’s profile.

Joyce also talked about the importance of photography and why he felt it was necessary to start a photography club.

“It’s an important art because it allows a lot of people to see parts of the world in a way that they never would have been able to see it before. Traditional art allows you to see everything through the artist’s lens. The artist will show you their view of the world. In photography, I believe you get a much more objective stance,” Joyce said.

“It all sort of just boils down to the point of: The camera doesn’t lie. So 90% of the time, what you take a photo of is what you see in the world, and I believe that’s quite an important perspective to have,” Joyce said.

The Photography club is always open for students to join. 

“Regardless of if you have a proper camera, just being able to take some slightly better photos or just have a little bit of knowledge around editing and things like that, I feel is just quite beneficial regardless of what you do,” Joyce said.

Write to Jack Harding at jack.harding@mnsu.edu

Header Photo: This photo of an elephant taken by club president Jordan Joyce is one of the many photos students in photography club shared during meetings. (Courtesy Jordan Joyce)

Related

As thousands gather in Arizona for Spring Training, baseball fans and art lovers alike will also have the opportunity to view the amazing photography works of one of baseball’s greatest players.

Beginning February 23, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts will showcase photographs taken by former professional baseball pitcher and longtime photographer Randy Johnson that will be on display throughout the Spring Training season. The exhibition, “Storytelling with Photographs,” will run through April 28 and showcase many of Johnson’s works that capture the scenes and wildlife of African Safaris and other environments that the athlete has encountered throughout his travels.  

Known in the sports world as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, Johnson earned many accomplishments throughout his 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, including winning the World Series in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and later becoming a Hall of Fame pitcher. 

While the all-star athlete led a career in baseball for two decades, sports wasn’t his only passion. Johnson is a longtime photographer and studied photojournalism from 1983 to 1985 at the University of Southern California where he had a full athletic baseball scholarship. Upon retiring from his baseball career in 2010, Johnson re-dedicated his time to photography and traveled the world, capturing everything from motorsports and major musical artists to majestic wild animals, such as the one displayed in his “Gentle Giant, Amboseli National Park, Kenya,” photograph that can be seen in the Scottsdale exhibit.  

“Photography has taken me on an amazing journey, but it’s only just beginning,” Johnson said in a statement. “I look forward to visiting places I’ve never been, shooting things I’ve never seen and getting better each and every day.” 

Johnson’s photography encapsulates the same intensity and dedication to his craft that can be seen throughout his baseball career. His works have been featured in multiple publications, including Rolling Stone, Spin and Metal Hammer, as well as in concert tour programs, posters, books and websites. 

The “Storytelling with Photographs” exhibition featuring Johnson’s works will be located in the Center Space gallery inside the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts starting February 23 through April 28, 2024. Guests can join Johnson himself for a free opening reception event at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, February 23 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Click here to RSVP for this event and learn more about the exhibition.

architecture studios captured by marc goodwin in japan

Expanding his documentation of workspaces in different corners of the world, Archmospheres photographer Marc Goodwin takes us today on a tour of architecture studios across Japan. This latest series is rooted in a personal project by architect, writer, and model builder Samuel Michaëlsson, who approached Marc to shoot several Japanese practices following the autumn of 2019, just before Covid 19. During that period, Michaëlsson traveled to Japan to interview the participants featured here. The collection of videos combines clips from Samuel’s interviews with Marc’s new work. ‘I’ve been working on a project for a number of years now, documenting (mostly) young Japanese architects and looking at how the architectural landscape there has changed drastically from one generation to another. I have conducted around 20 interviews over a period of three years,’ he tells designboom. From Kengo Kuma and Associates to Akihisa Hirata, Terunobu Fujimori, and Noiz, explore below the daily atmosphere of 16 different studios across Japan. 

all images © Marc Goodwin | @archmospheres

Atelier Fujimori

Marc Goodwin (see more here) begins his photographic tour in Japan, jointly with Samuel Michaëlsson, in Minami Aoyama, Tokyo. There, architect and historian Terunobu Fujimori found shelter for his current atelier in 2017, transforming the spaces of a converted residential building from the 1990s. Operating solo within the 815 square-meter structure, Fujimori is seen below, deep in focus with a pencil in hand, sketching out his latest ideas. 

Atelier Fujimori

Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office

The next stop is the Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office in the Nishi-azabu district of Minato-ku, Tokyo. The practice, founded in 2005, unfolds as a 323 square-meter space within a building erected in 1985. The structure itself holds a rich history, having served as both an office and residence prior. Today, Hirata is joined by a team of 21 dedicated creatives. 

Akihisa Hirata architecture office

Atelier Tenjinyama

Established at the intersection of architecture and art, Atelier Tenjinyama by Ikimono Architects is a five-people practice situated in Takasaki City, Japan’s Gunma Prefecture, occupying 62 square-meter within a relatively new building (erected in 2011).

Atelier Tenjinyama

Kengo Kuma & Associates

In Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Marc Goodwin captures the atmosphere of Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA), nestled inside the BY-CUBE building erected in 2003. With iconic projects spanning 40 countries, the globally praised architecture studio taps into the relationships between nature, technology, and human beings. Over 300 individuals contribute to KKAA’s vision, tackling a wide array of architectural forms, including urban planning. 

Kengo Kuma & Associates

Tsubame Architects

Tokyo-based Tsubame Architects describes its specialization as ‘social tectonics’. Founded in 2013 by Takuto Aando, Motoo Chiba, and Himari Saikawa, the firm features two divisions: the studio, where they perform the architectural design work, and the lab, which focuses on research to refine the framework in the design phase and devising ways to activate them in the post-construction phase. The studio’s work mainly focuses on interior design, including residential projects and workspaces.

Tsubame Architects

Tomito architecture

In the city of Yokohama, tomito architecture transforms a former house-office into a snug architectural workspace. Eight people collaborate within the 65-square-meter office, tackling projects ranging from stores and beauty salons to welfare facilities, residences, and gardens.