PENTWATER — The Pentwater Arts Council celebrated its second year of three years of its Sculpture Walk Saturday evening at Park Place in Pentwater.
Pentwater Arts Council celebrates second year of sculpture walk
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The Harn Museum of Art’s Museum Night celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day – The Independent Florida Alligator
The vibrant colors and sounds of the beaded jingle dresses and feathered headdresses and the beat of the drums gave a Harn Museum audience a dynamic show for all the senses. This was only the beginning of the festivities for the celebratory holiday of Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Harn Museum of Art Thursday night.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday that celebrates and raises awareness of the many cultures of Indigenous people. It acknowledges that Native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas and deserve to be recognized, represented and empowered.
Gainesville is the only city in Florida to change the name of the holiday from Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day in 2018, making Gainesville a huge hub for the community. While 574 tribes are federally recognized, there are several more nations across the country.
Generations of people enjoyed an array of activities and events, all curated to celebrate the rich cultures, histories and contributions of Indigenous People. Multiple tabling partners showcased community resources and information with the common mission of highlighting the beauty of Indigenous culture.
Many indigenous people gave museum-goers a taste of culture through different art expressions. From beaded clothing to clay pottery, each table presented a piece of different tribes from across two continents.
Duana Whitehorse, a 76-year-old from the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma, makes unique clothing and moccasins for every occasion by hand. Using deer hide, feathers and colorful beads, each intricate piece takes days to create.
His wife, Maria Irizarry Whitehorse, a 73-year-old from the Taíno tribe in Borikén, modeled her husband’s handmade designs. Maria’s modest tea dress was designed to give women the ability to breastfeed children while they work on the fields and place them in the back when their child is done eating.
“It feels good to make our own [clothing] because we’re proud of it,” Maria said.
The scheduled events for the night included two choreographed dances and a drum and dance demonstration with Maria Irizarry Whitehorse, Duana Whitehorse and Terrell Anquoe. Little bites and refreshments were offered all night long.
The performance was opened by the Indigenous Peoples Task Force who works to educate people about the existence and presence of indigenous people. One of their goals is to permanently change the name of the holiday everywhere.
The lively dance and drum performances are an outlet for storytelling. The dances, labeled incorrectly by many as war dances, are dances of prayers. Duana Whitehorse explained the motions of the dances and the differences in regional dancing traditions which differ from the clothes they wear to the style of dance. There are four different styles of women’s dancing and six different styles of men’s dances depending on age group.
Artists and friends Silvestre Hernandez-Reyes and Mario Mutis exhibited their handmade crafts alongside each other. Ten years ago, they started creating projects together and learning from each others’ crafts.
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Hernandez-Reyes is a 46-year-old metalsmith and jewelry designer from the Comanche and Totonac tribes. He works to educate people about the jewelry making process and how to be proud of it. He incorporates symbols like the warrior jaguar, the frontier and the moon which is representative of the cycle of women into his pieces. Hernandez-Reyes sells his jewelry at local farmers markets and galleries.
Mutis, from the Muysca tribe, is a 34-year-old 3D arts professor at Santa Fe College. He creates functional hand-painted clay pottery with various uses including musical, spiritual, or educational. The pieces he creates are not for sale because they act as a form of expression and communication. He creates his art and gifts it to family and friends.
“My job in Santa Fe teaching feeds like my belly, right?” Mutis said. “And this stuff feeds like my spirit because I’m happy giving it to somebody.”
The metal casting technique he uses is a communal process done by Muysca people
that requires the breath of several people to reach the temperature required to create the clay pottery.
“Teaching that process is just as exciting as giving somebody a thing because you’re transmitting knowledge,” Mutis said. “And you know that whatever happens to me, that knowledge stays alive.”
People are identifying as indigenous more than ever. The Native American population count more than doubled since 2000, despite being enumerated since the 1860 Census. Now, people are taking DNA tests and recognizing and identifying with their ancestry. Despite this, there are still large stigmas and misconceptions surrounding the Indigenous community.
“It’s pretty bad because everybody’s realizing that they can say yes [to their Indigenous identity] but my mom will not say she’s indigenous,” Maria said. “Because she says they think we’re savages.”
The first misconception people have about indigenous people is that they exist in the past context or do not exist at all anymore.
“A lot of people have their understanding and their relationship with those people is through media or movies, or books,” Mutis said. “We have to remember that we’re still existing, we’re still thriving. We’re still struggling, but we still exist.”
Another misunderstanding is that Indigenous people are only native to the United States or Canada. Hernandez-Reyes’s family comes from North Mexico while Mutis’s ancestry is from the Cundiboyacense region of Colombia.
A massive common error people make is homogenizing Indigenous peoples’ identities and believing they are all the same and part of a one group. In reality, they have very different values, traditions, religions and practices. Maria and Duana Whitehorse have learned to compromise in many ways because of their different backgrounds and traditions. The Taino is a matriarchal tribe, while the Kiowa is patriarchal. Maria grew up on fish and vegetables while her husband eats deer and buffalo meat.
Despite all the differences between the tribes and nations, family and community is an essential value to everyone.
“We will fight back as hard as a man or harder because when it comes to defending your child or your family [you do] what you got to do,” Maria said.
There are many ways to learn more about each tribe. While the internet is a great resource for many, Hernandez-Reyes urges the importance of travel.
“You need to go into the deep of the land. That is when you really see the diversity,” Hernandez-Reyes said.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an important holiday in recognizing, appreciating and learning from the indigenous people and their rich histories.
“It [Indigenous People’s Day] means everything because we’ve been denied for so long. “Bringing it out now makes us proud that we’re there, that we’re doing something,” Maria said.
The Harn Museum MUSEs, volunteers of the Museum Undergraduate Student Educators, ran and organized a large portion of the event. It executed several activities and crafts in order to give museum-goers an interactive experience. In preparation for the museum night, the MUSEs visited the Florida Museum of Natural History’s exhibit on indigenous communities.
Another resource available to attendees were the docents. The volunteer museum educators gave brief art tours, a more approachable option of exploring the new exhibit. The four “Art Blast Tours” lasted about 15 minutes each and gave groups a snippet of what the collection has to offer. The tours explored the Florida Impressions Exhibition and the Modern Gallery.
This event was made possible by UF Student Government support whose funding gives students free memberships. The Harn’s Museum Nights occur every month and are free to the public.
Contact Molly Seghi at mseghi@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @molly_seghi.
The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.
Molly Seghi
Molly Seghi is a first-year journalism major at UF and a Fall 2023 Avenue Reporter. When not writing or journaling, she can be found at a live music event or working on her podcast “An Aural Account.”
Klean Exhibition brings unique cars, photographers to Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – Over the weekend, dozens of car enthusiasts showed off their unique rides in Myrtle Beach.
The Klean Exhibition welcomed nearly 200 cars throughout Pelicans Ballpark.
But beyond the chrome and engines, the event also attracts photographers from across the country who capture these cars in a different type of setting.
WMBF News Photographer George Hansen talked to several of the photographers applying their craft on Saturday. Check out the video above for more on this story.
Click here for more information.
Stay with WMBF News for updates.
Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.
Striking bike crash sculpture is making motorists “drive noticeably slower,” says artist
The rather unique traffic-calming measure, located at a notoriously dangerous junction, is the brainchild of Belgian artist Hilaire Smet, who wanted to convey the dangers of distracted driving
Giraffe sculpture is being honored at Klutho Park
Springfield Preservation and Revitalization presents a special ceremony in honor of artist Melissa Russell and the Klutho Park Giraffe Sculpture.
Robert Doisneau, the wartime years: Paris show hails photographer’s ‘spirit of resistance’
French photographer Robert Doisneau is celebrated for his portrayal of Parisian street scenes and pioneering photojournalism. A new exhibition looks at his lesser-known career forging documents in Nazi-occupied Paris, his photographs of wartime France, and his series on the underground printers who played such a vital role in the French Resistance.
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In 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris, a Polish refugee knocked urgently at the door of French photographer Robert Doisneau. Serge Dobkowski desperately needed fake papers and he’d heard that Doisneau was the man for the job. Usually it took Doisneau 48 hours to make a false identity card. But Dobkowski was being followed and there was no time to waste. So Doisneau quickly took and printed his photo and glued it to his own identity card. Dobkowski was now free to cross the demarcation line out of occupied France and spend the rest of the war as Robert Doisneau.
This generous gesture is one of many “acts of resistance” documented in a new exhibition at a museum near Paris on the celebrated French photographer Robert Doisneau.
Long before he became known for his 1950 photograph, ‘Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville’, where a dashing young couple embrace on a busy Parisian street, Doisneau worked as a forger during WWII and documented daily life during Nazi-occupied Paris.
By 1940, Doisneau already had form as a forger. He frequently doctored his time card when working as an industrial advertising photographer for car manufacturer Renault before the war to cover up for his repeated lateness. (He was later fired for always being late).
After a short spell in the army in eastern France in the early days of the war, he began forging papers at the start of the German occupation of Paris in June 1940.
Drawing on his training as an engraver and lithographer, he started making passports, identity cards and Ausweise (visas used to cross from Nazi-occupied territory into the Free Zone), to help out his friends and those “in the shit”.
In June 1941, a “Monsieur Philippe” (an alias for the painter Enrico Pontremoli) contacted him and asked him to reproduce a police inspector’s card. Satisfied with the results, he asked Doisneau to reproduce more official documents. Without knowing it, Doisneau was now working for the Communists and the major resistance networks – the Comet Line and the United Resistance Movement (MUR), which later became the National Liberation Movement (MLN). In his southern Paris studio in Montrouge he reproduced official Nazi stamps and made fake membership cards for Vichy’s loathed paramilitary milice.
If discovered, he risked deportation or execution. He hid his work in progress in the roller blinds in the glass roof of his studio and destroyed his negatives and prints once the work was done. His flat was searched for compromising photos three times during the war.
‘Petrified of the sound of German boots’
Although he helped to protect numerous people persecuted by the Vichy regime and the occupying German army, Doisneau didn’t like to be thought of as a hero. He just wanted “to be of service”.
He said he “was petrified of the sound of German boots on the cobblestones”, recalled his daughter, Francine Deroudille, 76, the youngest of Doisneau’s two daughters, at the opening of the exhibition at the Museum of National Resistance in Champigny-sur Marne.
But despite the dangers – and a July 1940 law banning all outside photography in the French capital – he continued to quietly chronicle daily life in Nazi-occupied Paris: German soldiers strolling under the Eiffel Tower, immaculately dressed Parisians sheltering from the air raids in the metro, a resistance fighter on a bicycle scattering illicit tracts like confetti in the streets of the French capital.
He bartered for film on the black market to snap the queues outside sumptuous shops with little on the shelves and a grocer weighing out minuscule amounts of butter on his scales. A ration card for coal is shown against a background of streets thick with snow.
There are portraits of the “popular, anonymous, secret hero” Paul Barabé, the concierge of Doisneau’s building, with his enormous pet rabbit. When the Germans raided the building, Barabé took advantage of their lunch break to burn a register containing the names and addresses of some fifty communist activists in Montrouge.
Molotov cocktails and manning the barricades
Doisneau also captured more joyful occasions. Friends and family gathered in a cellar around a dark-haired girl clad in white to celebrate her first holy communion. When the air raid sirens rang out, the precious leg of lamb procured on the black market to mark the ceremony was among the first items to be sheltered, Doisneau recalled.
Then from August 1944, when resistance fighters rose up to battle the occupying Germans, he was free to cover preparations for the Paris uprising with a frenzy.
He captured Parisians tearing up paving stones, lifting asphalt, moving vehicles and collecting sandbags. Insurgents of all ages form a human chain and build the barricades. Professor Audibert of the Collège de France mixes Molotov cocktails with a wry smile on his face, as if preparing drinks for a party.
Then a week after the Liberation, Doisneau began work on a sequence of photos for French weekly Le Point to pay tribute to the clandestine printers who had played such a vital role in the French Resistance.
To photograph the men and women who had printed and distributed tracts, reports, posters, poems and other kinds of resistance propaganda during the war would have put them at huge risk.
But now Doisneau, who had respected workers’ fraternity since his days at Renault, was free to work on a reconstruction of their underground work: machine workers setting type in a cellar, an editor examining a poster calling for a “Parisian insurrection” and when the power cuts out, a typist on a bicycle keeps the back-up generator going. He takes portraits of the key figures involved: the printer Paul Elie Harambat and the painter Pontremoli confer on the next edition of an illicit print job and he captures the underground atmosphere at Claude Oudeville’s print shop – a location that lends itself perfectly to clandestine work with its double entrances.
In his later years, the mild-mannered, unassuming Doisneau was incensed at being considered part of the French Resistance.
“I very rarely saw him angry,” said Deroudille. “He was always in a good mood … but he was absolutely furious at being ranked alongside people who had risked their life for the Resistance.”
A streak of gentle rebellion
“He had known the resistance fighters during the war,” said Deroudille. “He thought it was fraudulent … to be considered a resistance hero.”
She finds it appropriate, therefore, that the exhibition frames his wartime work within his broader “spirit of resistance” and the streak of gentle rebellion that runs like a vein throughout his life and work.
Doisneau rebelled against what he considered his stiflingly bourgeois childhood in the southern Paris suburb of Gentilly to become a photographer, working his own hours at Renault so he could find time to document life in the streets. The same streak inspired his post-war work with Swiss-French modernist writer Blaise Cendrars in the suburbs of Paris and his solitary, dangerous work as a forger for the Resistance.
Dobkowsky, known as “Dobko”, survived the war and became a great family friend.
“There was so much emotion in his voice when he spoke to us and he was so very affectionate with us, that sometimes it annoyed me,” confessed Deroudille.
“Then my mother said to me one day: ‘you must always be very kind to Dobko because his nieces were killed [in Poland] during the war’.”
Doisneau was always reluctant to speak about the war and the part, however discreet, he had played. The stories of ‘Dobko’, and the atmospheric images in this exhibition are a fitting tribute to a quiet, mischievous man and a great humanist photographer.
‘Robert Doisneau: l’esprit de résistance’ is on display at the Musée de la Résistance from October 15, 2023 to April 28, 2024.
SCAD unveils its new Graham-Scott photography education building
Creativity is the reason for the Savannah College of Art and Design.”This is the most creative environment in the world; just by working here, you get inspired all the time, from month to month, week to week, year to year. You’ll be inspired to do better,” said James Graham.Graham and Tray Scott have been at the university for creative careers for over thirty years and are being recognized for their commitment. “It’s extremely amazing and exciting just to know that we were honored by having our name placed on the SCAD building solely on this amazing tribute and honor kind,” said Scott.The two lifelong Savannahians are now the names behind SCAD’s Graham-Scott photography building.The new facility has classrooms, studio spaces, and art galleries to enhance the student learning experience. As students will soon start to use the space, they are hoping seeing their names will be a reminder to keep working hard. “I was hoping it inspired the future and the people that come behind me, that hard work pays off, and I’ll just keep that door open for the next generation to come through,” said Graham.
SAVANNAH, Ga. —
Creativity is the reason for the Savannah College of Art and Design.
“This is the most creative environment in the world; just by working here, you get inspired all the time, from month to month, week to week, year to year. You’ll be inspired to do better,” said James Graham.
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Graham and Tray Scott have been at the university for creative careers for over thirty years and are being recognized for their commitment.
“It’s extremely amazing and exciting just to know that we were honored by having our name placed on the SCAD building solely on this amazing tribute and honor kind,” said Scott.
The two lifelong Savannahians are now the names behind SCAD’s Graham-Scott photography building.
The new facility has classrooms, studio spaces, and art galleries to enhance the student learning experience. As students will soon start to use the space, they are hoping seeing their names will be a reminder to keep working hard.
“I was hoping it inspired the future and the people that come behind me, that hard work pays off, and I’ll just keep that door open for the next generation to come through,” said Graham.
What Will It Be Like to be a Wedding Photographer in the Future?
It’s fascinating to look back over my 10+ years as a wedding photographer and see the evolution the industry has gone through. That’s not to mention all the drastic changes that happened before my time. It makes one wonder what it will be like to be a wedding photographer in the future.
If my experience is any indication, wedding photography will continue to be more competitive and competition will continue to drive innovation. Wedding photographers will continue to raise the bar on quality wedding photography as other aspects of running a business become more streamlined. What this actually means though will probably depend on a lot of factors.
Marketing is changing too, it’s never been easier for anyone to reach an audience and yet those audiences have never been harder to reach. Will the advancements in technology give dedicated photographers the chance to stand out from the competition? Or will it become even harder to justify the expense?
Increasing Expectations Leading to Stronger Wedding Photography
I’m seeing increasing expectations for what wedding photography can and should be which, I believe, is leading to stronger and more impressive wedding photography. With the advances in technology, the quality of wedding photography has increased and so has the quantity of photographers. Therefore, even just in my decade as a wedding photographer, I’ve noticed an increase in both expectations for wedding photos and results due to both technology advancements and higher competition.
With the affordability of high-quality cameras, it’s getting easier to take high-quality photographs which makes becoming a wedding photographer appealing and accessible. But because of that, it’s also getting more competitive which is driving expectations even higher. Therefore, those of us who have been in the business for a while are constantly trying to raise the bar so that we can stay ahead of the competition and continue to charge sustainable prices for our business.
And it’s not just professional camera technology that’s playing a part, as cell phones get better, wedding photographers have to continue to ensure that their images are better than the ones all the guests are capturing. It’s becoming even more essential that we don’t just get the shot but that we capture everything better than the wedding guests can, otherwise, we’re replaceable.
Digital Consumption of Photos
This is one area where I have more curiosity than predictions. Is the digital consumption of photography increasing or decreasing the value of photography? On the one hand, everyone is constantly posting photos and videos of their lives on social media and texting images back and forth to their friends. On the other hand, are people still printing photos for their walls and albums and paying a premium for them?
When it comes to photography, wedding photography is still the one time that most individuals hire a professional photographer. It’s the one day that they deem worthy of investing money in photography. And our argument has always been that the only thing you have left after the music is turned off, the guests have gone home, the copious amounts of food and alcohol have been consumed, and the flowers have been preserved or died, are your photos.
So hopefully the digital consumption of photography will elevate photography in general in the minds of the public. And then, hopefully, we as photographers can still educate our couples to print their wedding photos so that they don’t get lost in the gigabytes of phone photos. Time will tell and we’ll adapt regardless of what the market demands.
Changes in Marketing
Marketing is constantly changing as well. Some of the old ways of getting wedding clients are still viable and effective but the number of ways to reach a potential audience is constantly increasing.
As an entrepreneur, I’m extremely grateful for the ease and simplicity of modern marketing. I love that I can build a website, start a business, and grow my platform. But similarly to the problem of camera technology becoming more accessible, anyone can be a photographer and anyone can start a business. Again, competition increases.
It’s always been important to set yourself apart from the competition and to strive to be hired for your unique vision and unique style. It’s probably even more important now and in the future to not only set yourself apart from other photographers but to be heard among the noise of marketing in general. How can you help potential clients remember you?
More Efficient Business Practices
Most of the topics I’m covering might feel like they can go either way. Technology is getting better making our job both easier and harder. Marketing is getting easier and more difficult at the same time. But one area I’m feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about is the impact technology can have on the rest of our business.
You’ve probably seen pie charts about how wedding photographers only spend a fraction of our time actually shooting because we have to spend time on marketing, accounting, editing, business development, and more. While that’s true, all of my business processes are getting more and more efficient with the help of technology. Before AI takes our jobs away it will make our jobs significantly easier which will help us be more efficient and effective.
Editing is faster than ever before. There are more efficient ways than ever before to do everything from album design, and tracking accounting, to following up with leads. You can even have your online client galleries make sales for you and ship everything directly to your clients.
Changes I’ve Made in My Wedding Photography Business
I know that if we hadn’t already been on the path to diversifying our business, the pandemic would have pushed us even more in that direction. There’s always been a bit of gospel around the importance of specialization and being the best at your specific and particular niche. But after the uncertainty of 2020, diversification is looking like a much smarter play.
When it comes to marketing, I don’t feel that I can or that I have the desire to compete on social media. It’s my hope and belief that referrals, reviews, and recommendations, which have always been important to us, will continue to help set us apart. Our best clients come from our best clients and I can only hope that is a more sustainable plan than trying to keep up with whatever the latest social media platform is.
We are, however, constantly trying to push the boundaries and create higher quality work so that our clients are willing to allocate a chunk of their wedding budgets to us. We’re adding value wherever we can to what we’re offering including adding videography options that allow us to book bigger packages. The goal is to build a sustainable business and be able to continue to grow alongside the industry.
piet niemann captures remnants of germany’s expo 2000 site two decades post-event
piet niemann unveils expo 2000 – 20 years later
Hamburg-based photographer Piet Niemann unveils his latest work, Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later, a photobook that offers a nuanced visual retrospective of the Expo site in Hannover, Germany, two decades post-event. Honored at the 2023 European Architectural Photography Award, Niemann’s collection not only offers a glimpse into the past, but also prompts contemplation on the contemporary and future landscapes of our built environment.
At a time when the construction industry shoulders approximately forty percent of global CO2 emissions, and concerns like the circular economy, material scarcity, and reuse are prevalent, Piet Niemann’s photobook becomes a timely catalyst for dialogues on sustainability and accountability in construction. ‘Expo 2000 was a symbol of a promising, sustainable future. But how has that promise evolved over the past two decades?’ he questions. His photographs from 2020 not only document the tangible remnants of Expo 2000 but also challenge viewers to ponder the realization and fulfilment of the optimistic vision it once represented.
central view onto the Expo-Plaza from the German Pavilion | all images © Piet Niemann
the photobook chronicles the evolution of the site
Piet Niemann, having contributed to renowned architectural firms like Zaha Hadid Architects and Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, distinguishes himself as an architectural photographer with a penchant for macro-sociological projects. Characterized by detached and sober observations, Niemann’s approach captures the social and architectural evolution of our surroundings. In Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later, he employs this perspective to chronicle the transformations on the Expo site across 128 pages. His lens not only captures the abandoned pavilions but also the traces of nature that have gradually reclaimed the site, underscoring the fragility and resilience of the built environment.
In the foreword to Niemann’s book, architecture journalist Benedikt Crone writes: ‘Niemann’s photographs show the state of things in 2020 in fog-shrouded honesty. The photographer happened upon the concrete skeleton of the Netherlands Pavilion, the student dormitories arranged in rows in front of an open landscape, and the abandoned, bright-yellow pavilion of Lithuania, behind which, separated by a meadow, an IKEA outlet is now located in corresponding colors.’ In his essay The Beauty of a Ruin, Jacob van Rijs of architectural firm MVRDV provides an overview of the Dutch pavilion’s origins and development up to its transformation into a contemporary legacy. Of the current transformation of the pavilion, he says: ‘we are turning a temporary project into a permanent building, while keeping the original spirit of the design. […] Maybe that’s why I find Piet Niemann’s photos so special. They show an intermediate moment for the pavilion; you don’t know whether it will stay or go.’
an upper level of the pavilion featured a forest through which visitors could walk
the Netherlands Pavilion, once the unofficial emblem and crowd-drawer of the Expo 2000
Instead of renovating the misaligned stairs leading to the subway station, the access was permanently blocked
the eastern exit of the subway station that leads to the planned municipal district is only now being built
the Lithuanian Pavilion was celebrated as the second architectural highlight after the Netherlands Pavilion
Piet Niemann, an architectural photographer of public buildings
project info:
name: Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later
photographer: Piet Niemann
publisher: Kerber Verlag
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: ravail khan | designboom
Glasgow museum loses £3m Auguste Rodin sculpture
One question that Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker could put his mind to is the fate of another of its creator’s sculptures, after museum officials admitted they ca
