In photos: Heavy snow hits Sierra Nevada
Indigenous artists, writers come together for Labriola Center open mic – The Arizona State Press
The Labriola National American Indian Data Center may seem like a quiet collection of books nestled within Hayden Library, but on Feb. 29 it turned into a vibrant space for spoken word and artistic expression at the Indigenous Open Mic Poetry Night.
“I think it’s necessary to give space to Indigenous creators and make room for them on a campus that is situated on ancestral lands and different Indigenous tribes,” said Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, a graduate student studying creative writing.
Blaeser-Wardzala, one of the featured writers, read a short story about a girl who is left to grapple with loss after her Native father dies, leaving her with her white mother.
“I write primarily about Indigenous identity and the cross of being mixed and female,” Blaeser-Wardzala said. According to her website, she is an Anishinaabe writer, beader, fencer and Jingle Dress Dancer.
The bi-annual Indigenous Open Mic Poetry Night, hosted in collaboration with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, begins with readings by invited Indigenous poets from ASU and around the country, followed by opportunities for members of the community to step up and perform.
“We’re really open to all sorts of different genres and we don’t really have a theme this year, we’re kind of leaving it up to whatever people want to bring to the table,” Yitazba Largo-Anderson, the program coordinator of the center, said.
Largo-Anderson said attendants for the open mics usually include students, members of the Phoenix community and families of poets. In the past, there was even a father-daughter performance.
“My favorite part (of performing at open mics) I think is just being able to share in community, and keeping the oral tradition of storytelling and poetry alive,” said Ayling Dominguez, a graduate student studying creative writing.
Dominguez is an educator with roots in the Nahua culture from the Mexican state of Puebla and Santiago de los Caballeros, in the Dominican Republic.
“(The poems are) all kind of just talking about reconnecting to a lot of my Indigenous lineage,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez performed a set of original poems at the open mic, including one dedicated to missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Yitazba Largo-Anderson, the program coordinator of the center, said the Labriola Center was established in 1993 to hold national and international collections of books about and written by Indigenous authors. In addition, the center hosts events to engage with the local Native community.
READ MORE: Native American veterans practice Indigenous art, connect through shared experiences
The open mic didn’t just feature writers, some participants performed music.
Nataani Hanley-Moraga, a senior studying American Indian studies and a student worker at the Labriola Center, is known as the center’s “resident beat-maker”. He DJs and produces music for events such as the open mic, Lo-Fi study sessions and community music workshops.
At the open mic, Hanley-Moraga, who is a Diné, Húŋkpapȟa and Chicano Indigenous producer, took up the microphone to perform a rap with an original beat he created earlier that day.
“The nice thing about these open mics is, it’s not really a judgmental space,” Hanley-Moraga said. “So even if I don’t get my cadence right or maybe this beat is not mixed to where I want to put it on a CD or something like that, it’s all ok. What’s important is just being able to share my story.”
Edited by Alysa Horton and Shane Brennan
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How to Get the Film Photography Experience With Digital Cameras |
Oftentimes, film photographers cite the slower, more considered pace and style of shooting film as one of the biggest reasons to shoot it. While that may be the case, it’s a limitation that you can bring to the digital world with little lost in the process.
Adam Karnacz of First Man Photography explains how, in his estimation, he’s able to duplicate 90% of the film photography experience with his digital camera. Instead of using a film camera to capture his images, he imposes much of the same limitations (and none of the cost) associated with that medium on his modern-day cameras.
For instance, film often had 24 or 36 exposures, and so his first order of business is to limit himself to only shooting that many photos in a day of shooting. It’s an artificial limitation in digital, for sure, but as you watch him on his walk through nature, the limit that he’s imposed on himself forces him to think about every shot he’s taking. The end result that he shares in the video above is an absolutely incredible set of photos with a hit rate far higher than just carpet bombing a scene with hundreds or thousands of photos. If you think that you may not have the discipline to shoot this way, the other way to do it could be to throw a 2 GB SD card Canon EOS R5, and then, you’ll really be limited.
The other major limit is not being able to preview your photos. Karnacz turns his digital screen at the back of the camera off, but if you’re really not capable of that either, you can always gaff tape an index card or something else to block your screen and change your settings with the top LCD panel.
Of course, the main draw for any film photography is bringing prints into the physical world. Like Karnacz, I’ve always advocated for printing your photos, and while I’m still using my trusty Canon Pixma Pro-10, though these days, if you’re looking for a similar pigment-based system, Canon is up to the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 in that line.
There are some amazing photographs that Karnacz created during his “film” experiment in the video above, and he also discusses what’s missing in the process. While it’s cheaper to do it this way, it’s not the full experience, and Karnacz explains why above.
What do you think of these “hacks” to shoot digital as if it were film? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Two Lives Intertwined, on Both Sides of the Camera
DOUBLE CLICK: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines, by Carol Kino
I’m going to toss out some names: Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Erwin Blumenfeld, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Lee Miller, Irving Penn, Man Ray, Edward Steichen, Franny McLaughlin, Fuffy McLaughlin. If you recognize everyone but Franny and Fuffy, you know something about photography. And if, by chance, you recognize them all, then you’re probably Carol Kino, the author of “Double Click,” a book ostensibly about Franny and Fuffy.
Franny and Fuffy were identical twins born in Brooklyn in 1919. After their father, Frank, died in the flu pandemic, their mother, Kitty, “consecrated them to the Virgin Mary and dressed them up as living dolls, always in showy, perfectly matched clothes.” They were often photographed like that.
In one picture of the twins, aged 10, they pose “with an old Kodak, Fuffy holding it and smiling and Franny affecting a fashion model stance, with one hip jutting out.” This photo foretold the girls’ path. They spent their lives on both sides of the camera, having their pictures taken together, making portraits of each other and eventually working as fashion photographers. Fuffy, whose given name was Kathryn, became a freelance photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Junior Bazaar, Charm and Mademoiselle. Franny was the first female staff photographer in the Condé Nast studio, working for Glamour and Vogue.
From birth to marriage, Franny and Fuffy led lives that were inseparable and practically indistinguishable. Both graduated at the top of their Connecticut high school class, befriended a young John F. Kennedy, and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in an era when product design, corporate identity and Surrealism were all the rage. They had matching clothes and matching careers; before they made it as photographers, the twins even shared one camera, a Voigtlӓnder Brilliant. At one point, they also shared a boyfriend, “the sexy lensman Jimmy Abbe,” whom they both called “Daddy.” (His analyst made him pick one; he chose Fuffy.)
Little Falls Antique Center is ‘worth the trip’
LITTLE FALLS — A magic lantern and an early Kodak camera, a doll-sized rush rocker, toys, books and games — some recognizable to those who grew up in the 1960s and 70s — tools, kitchen gadgets and glassware, a vintage oil can, a cherry corner cupboard, and a 1930s-era cooking range are only a few of the items visitors might see as they check out the vendors’ displays at the Little Falls Antique Center at 25 W. Mill St. in Little Falls.
And that’s only on the ground floor.
How to safely photograph, and experience, April’s solar eclipse
NEWS RELEASE
BROCK UNIVERSITY
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When the total solar eclipse takes place over North America on April 8, many people will naturally reach for their phones or cameras to capture the moment.
Brock Associate Professor of Visual Arts Amy Friend, an internationally recognized photographer, is offering tips on documenting the rare phenomenon safely while also encouraging the public to consider different ways of experiencing what for many will be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
The chair of visual arts at Brock first points to taking safety precautions for viewing and documenting the eclipse, which can be found on Brock’s Eclipse on the Escarpment web page. Friend says it’s crucial to have a proper solar filter on any camera, including on a smartphone.
“Solar filters for traditional cameras and cell phones are available online from several retailers, but consumer research is key to ensuring the purchase of an international standard filter (full-aperture and off-axis) with regulated qualities, making it safe for photographing the eclipse,” she says.
According to the award-winning photographer, practice is also key. Practise beforehand by photographing the everyday sun, without looking directly at it, Friend
says. Taking photos of the sky on a sunny day will help determine appropriate aperture and shutter speed for such bright light. She also suggests getting comfortable with outdoor night photography.
“During totality, when the sun is fully blocked by the moon, turning the sky dark, the camera will need adjusted shutter speeds and aperture settings to take a successful photo,” Friend says.She recommends experimenting with the high dynamic ange (HDR) setting on cameras, which
captures high-contrast photos. With this setting, many photos of the eclipse could be put together to create one image.
“The visual effect of this is very interesting as the second-to-second variations in the sun flare created by the eclipse combine creating a beautiful image capturing unique details,” Friend says.
For those looking to get creative, there are other ways to view the solar eclipse, including pinhole projectors or building boxes that filter the sunlight and create a projection of the sunlight onto a nearby surface.
“Using this approach, the person would be looking at the projection instead of the eclipse itself,” Friend says. “What they would see is a darkening circle in the form of a crescent, which is the moon starting to cover the sun.”
While many people will want to capture a photo of the eclipse themselves, photographers throughout history have cautioned against photographing the celestial phenomenon, as it is difficult for the average person to achieve a great photo.
“We know what it will look like, and yet we still want to photograph it. But we don’t want to miss an incredible experience in the process,” Friend says.
Through her research into the role of photography as proof of experience, however, Friend says the desire to personally capture the moment is very natural.
“There is also the excitement of going online and sharing your photo — the ‘after’ of the experience — that can be quite engaging and stirs up response and dialogue, simultaneously amplifying the experience and documenting it in popular culture,” she says.
Friend is fascinated by historic images of people experiencing celestial events in group settings as a visual time capsule into the culture and technology of the time.
“I think there is something quite beautiful about that moment, where we all just stop and view something rare and spectacular in the sky together,” she says. “The sun and moon have paused life for a moment.”
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