SAN ANTONIO – In the heart of Broadway, a timeless and magnificent testament to artistry and history graces the landscape—the life-sized lion sculpture that has
PHOTOS: Century-old lion sculpture watches over Lions Field on Broadway
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Century-old lion sculpture: A majestic tribute to artistry, heritage, and community spirit in the heart of Broadway
SAN ANTONIO – In the heart of Broadway, a timeless and magnificent testament to artistry and history graces the landscape—the life-sized lion sculpture that has
Best Things To Do This Weekend In Los Angeles And SoCal: Sept. 8
View the work of artist Kara Walker. Celebrate the past, present and future of trains and Union Station. Attend the Mexican Independence Day Parade and…
Marie-Laure de Decker obituary
The French photographer Marie-Laure de Decker, who has died aged 75 of heart failure, was one of the first women to gatecrash the male-dominated world of photojournalism. As a young woman she endured being in front of the lens, as a model, to help her meet her goal: to be behind it. She had to fight to succeed, and said: “If you’re a woman you’re never taken seriously.” Yet she reported from the Vietnam war, the struggle for independence in Mozambique, riots in Chile and the oppression of apartheid in South Africa.
She did not photograph the horrors that she witnessed. Instead, she brought her compassionate eye to bear on the victims of conflict: the displaced elderly, combatants in quiet moments, women and children. She said: “I am proud not to show blood. I censor myself as soon as the shot is taken. I have moral principles.”
She had a deep love for Africa, having been born in the then French colony of Algeria. Arriving in Chad in 1975, she met the Toubou rebels fighting against the Chadian and French armies. She lived with them for two years in the heart of the Sahara, taking black and white portraits of the fighters posing proudly. “Colour is never as beautiful as in real life, so it’s in black and white that people’s souls show,” she said. De Decker walked and suffered with the Toubou and they respected her, embraced her and renamed her “Marie de l’or”: Mary of Gold.
The youngest of three sisters, Marie-Laure was born in the Algerian city of Bône (now Annaba), to French parents, Michel de Decker and Marie-Antoinette (nee Le Sourd). Michel was a war hero, having fought in the Spanish civil war and the second world war. Later he found work in the French colonies, including taking his family to spend a year in a remote village in Ivory Coast, where he searched for gold.
They moved to Paris, where Marie-Laure attended boarding school and spent her free time in the Louvre museum, the only place she was allowed to visit unaccompanied. School was not for her, and she dropped out at 15. She enrolled at Penninghen School of Art in 1963 and discovered freedom and photography. With piercing green eyes and a noble beauty, she reluctantly turned to modelling to earn money. At the cinema, she saw the Oscar-winning documentary The Anderson Platoon, about an American unit in the jungles of Vietnam, and was inspired.
After a brief flirtation with film-making, she chose photography. She admired the courage and storytelling of the photojournalist Gilles Caron of the young French photo agency, Gamma, and she resolved to join it.
Friends lent her Leica cameras, and she shot the May 68 Paris protests and took a series of portraits of her heroes, the forgotten men of surrealism. She tracked down Man Ray, Luis Buñuel and Marcel Duchamp and took her work to a magazine editor who told her: “Come back when they’re dead.”
Undeterred, she saved up her modelling fees and bought her own Leica and, in 1970, aged 23, a one-way ticket to Saigon. There she worked for the US magazine Newsweek for two years, travelling around the country on a motorbike with a Vietnamese friend, named “Twiggy” after the skinny British model.
On her return to Paris she was accepted into Gamma. De Decker was the agency’s sole female photographer and, when she arrived, one man asked if she was there to do the cleaning. She felt “very despised. I was surrounded by macho photographers who thought they were being clever.” But she was courageous and determined. She took portraits of politicians; most famously of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing watching himself win the 1974 election on television (he subsequently wooed her desperately, despite their ideological differences); and celebrities such as Charlotte Rampling and François Truffaut. She reported from Yemen and Bolivia and then, in 1975, she went to Chad.
While staying with the Toubou rebels, she and a fellow photographer, Raymond Depardon, were instrumental in securing the release of a French hostage, the archaeologist Françoise Claustre, and the women remained friends. De Decker also spent time with the Wodaabe tribe, nomadic cattle herders in the south of the country, “people who love each other, who have nothing to do with our world. They produce what they need and use only what they can master. It’s the total opposite of us.” Although she had 50 rolls of film seized by the French army – the return of which she sought unsuccessfully – a book of her work, Pour Le Tchad, was published in 1978.
In 1980, following work in Mozambique, Russia and Tibet, she left Gamma. Her early enthusiasm for the agency had gone, and she wanted to be independent: “I want to photograph only the ones I love.”
In Paris, she had met Teo Saavedra, a Chilean revolutionary, and their son, Pablo, was born in 1983. Later that year, the couple travelled to Santiago: Teo organised attacks with the armed resistance, De Decker documented unrest during the 10th anniversary of Pinochet’s coup.
She shot fashion for Glamour and Harpers & Queen magazines and took memorable portraits of Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve. De Decker visited South Africa in 1985, and would return there regularly, recording the struggles of ordinary people living under the brutal yoke of apartheid.
In 1986, now separated from Teo, she met the criminal defence lawyer Thierry Lévy, and they had a son, Balthazar, the following year. Together they published a book, Garçons et Filles, in 1987, her portraits from around the world accompanied by his text, and she continued to work, shooting for clients including Yves Saint Laurent. Then, in 1993, she travelled to Bosnia to cover the civil war. It was a mistake. She later said: “Since Bosnia, there’s a side of my job I can’t stand. Bosnia was too sad, too hard. It killed me.”
She retreated to Rabastens, on the river Tarn, a place she knew and loved from childhood. Until 2007, when her health was affected after a car accident in Chad, she took her boys to visit the Wodaabe people every year. She wanted to record the tribe’s culture and celebrate their lives: “They are people I admire, and I have decided to photograph each and every face.”
In 2001, the first major exhibition of her work, Vivre Pour Voir, opened at MEP (the Maison Européenne de la Photographie) in Paris, with another show at the Visa Pour l’image festival in Perpignan in 2006. When Gamma folded in 2009, De Decker became embroiled in legal battles to try and have her material and copyright restored to her. The cases were long and arduous, and left a bitter taste.
In 2013, her outstanding work depicting the realities of war was acknowledged with the Albert Kahn International Planet prize.
Levy died in 2017. De Decker is survived by her sons.
Franconia Sculpture Park names new executive director
Minnesota native Alex Legeros is the nonprofit’s third leader since its founding in 1996.
Art, music, and fresh produce are featured at Saturday’s Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington Parks and Recreation Fair of the Arts event is on Saturday, September 9th from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
The event at Fernandez Plaza at 401 North Morton Street in front of Bloomington’s City Hall will feature artistic talents.
The event is free to attend.
Shop for art and fine crafts handmade by local and regional artists.
The event is held in conjunction with the Saturday’s Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market.
For more info: bloomington.in.gov/parks/events/a-fair-of-the-arts.
Music at the Market
The Market welcomes back Ross Martinie Eiler this Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
Ross is a hand-hammering, key-slamming, rock’n’roll piano man. He has headlined 1950s-themed theater shows around the country. He currently plays with Martinie’s Boogie Three (Joe Donnelly – saxophone, John Valdez – drums).
Ross explores the rock’n’roll side of blues & boogie-woogie piano and celebrates the high-energy dance music of the 1950s. It’s a flurry of bounce that combines original works with crowd-pleasers by Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Ray Charles, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Mayor at the Market
Mayor at the Market is a community outreach program that invites Market-goers to interact with the mayor and various department heads from the City of Bloomington government.
This week, Holly Warren, Interim Director of Economic and Sustainable Development Department will be greeting the public and answering questions at the Market from 10:00 a.m. until Noon.
They Want it All: Freddie Mercury collection smashes expectations at Sotheby’s
It had, without a doubt, been coming. Following one of the most hype-filled buildups to an auction in recent history, the evening sale of Freddie Mercury’s personal treasures at Sotheby’s London last night lived up—on the most part—to the sense of drama and surprise synonymous with the man himself. Cruising beyond its pre-sale estimate of £4.8m-£7.2m to total £12.2m, the white-glove auction was a testament to both the enduring allure of the Queen frontman and the power of personality in today’s art market.
The 59 lots on offer represented the crème de la crème of the collection drawn from Mercury’s Kensington home, Garden Lodge, which he had bequeathed to his lifelong friend Mary Austin. In the run up to yesterday’s sale, it had all been on view in an exhibition at Sotheby’s that drew in an astounding 140,000 visitors in just one month, with queues snaking around the block for much of that time. Wednesday’s evening sale alone—part of a series of live and online auctions that will conclude on 13 September—had attracted 2,000 registrations, a record at Sotheby’s and likely beyond.
The evening, fittingly then, began with a clamour just to get through the gates, as bidders fought it out for 25 minutes for the garden door from the singer’s South Kensington home. The object, covered from top to bottom in fan tributes, sold to a phone bidder for £350,000 (£412,750 after fees), far exceeding its £25,000 high estimate.
The Garden Lodge door
Courtesy Sotheby’s
Several impressive results followed, including a Tiffany “Lily” table lamp that reflected Freddie’s love for Art Nouveau, and which sold for £48,000 (£60,960 after fees) against a high estimate of £12,000. A Fabergé vesta case, which reportedly resided in Freddie’s bedroom, performed even more impressively—going for £75,000 (£95,250 after fees) to an online bidder.
Notably, given the venue, it was fine art that brought an early lull. Italian artist Eugene von Blaas’s portrait of a woman theatrically posing with a rose only mustered £55,000 (£69,850 after fees) against a low estimate of £70,000, while a tender picture by James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot of his lover Kathleen Newton—the last work of art Freddie bought—came in below its £400,000 low estimate to sell to an online bidder for £380,000 (£482,600 after fees).
Auctioneer Oliver Barker, for his part, remained in a jovial mood throughout—“we’ll have to do a Freddie refrain while we wait,” he said after a specialist lost connection to their bidder—and this was matched by buoyant reactions from the crowd when things inevitably picked up. A contender for Joan Miro’s print Le Matador (Dupin 510) drew laughs as she asked if she could take a closer look at it from her seat, while loud applause echoed around the room as a collector on the floor acquired a Showa period screen—one of several objects conveying Mercury’s penchant for Japanese culture—for £150,000 (£190,500) against a £12,000 high estimate.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake | (Ohashi Atake no yudachi), Edo period, 19th century
Courtesy Sotheby’s
A striking woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige stole the show from an art historical standpoint. Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Edo period, 19th century) depicts rain lashing down on pedestrians crossing a bridge. It was a work highly coveted by Mercury and a fine example of Hiroshige’s output, which would inspire Vincent van Gogh among others. It sold for £230,000 (£292,100 after fees) against a high estimate of £50,000.
It is perhaps unsurprising, however, that the most thrilling battles were saved for those objects that Mercury would have touched, grasped and danced in. There were gasps of excitement when his silver snake bangle, worn in the music video for hit ballad Bohemian Rhapsody, soared past its high estimate of £9,000 to sell for £550,000 (£698,500 after fees). Barker was on form again as a series of outfits worn by Freddie came up for their turn. “It’s like a Friday night in Blackpool,” he remarked as bidding went wild for a wrap-around top and satin trousers worn by the frontman for the cover shoot of Queen’s second album, Queen II (it sold for £40,000, or £50,800 after fees).
The atmosphere among specialists and public alike was buoyant throughout the evening
Courtesy Sotheby’s
It was indeed an unusually carnivalesque atmosphere for Sotheby’s, and the biggest cheers of the night were saved for draft lyrics to hit Bohemian Rhapsody, which surpassed the six figure mark to sell for £1.1m (just short of its £1.2m high estimate). Earlier, a Wurlitzer jukebox, bought for Freddie’s kitchen, achieved more than 20 times its low estimate when it was acquired by a bidder in the room for £320,000 (£406,400).
Mercury’s baby grand Yamaha piano—on which he wrote world-famous songs including Don’t Stop Me Now, Somebody to Love and Rhapsody—was the highest-achieving lot, selling for £1.4million (£1,7m after fees), albeit against a £2m low estimate. But the crowning moment of the evening was, arguably, the arrival of the crown and cloak that Freddie had worn on Queen’s Magic tour in 1986. The crowd was raucous as the plush, velvety ensemble–with its imitation ermine, gold and jewels– sold for £500,000 (£635,000 after fees) to a buyer in the room.
Mercury’s baby grand Yamaha piano
Courtesy Sotheby’s
There was still time for the remaining lots to send the auction out on a high—a particularly worn-looking pair of Adidas trainers selling online for £100,000 (£127,000) after fees, against a £5,000 low estimate, and intimate photographs of Freddie achieving a similar sum.
Proceedings ended with a rendition of “We Will Rock You”, specialists banging their hands against their desks. A victory for Sotheby’s, perhaps, and for a good number of Freddie Mercury’s most affluent fans. For the rest of us, a reminder of the pull of an icon, and a prompt to consider where such auction house spectacles might be going next.
Landmark China exhibit arrives at Cleveland Museum of Art
Gmeiner seeks entries to Regional Juried Exhibit
The Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center announces the return of its Regional Juried Exhibit, to be held Dec. 2-23. Any artist, age 18 and older, located within 150 miles of
Bride agitated as maid of honour asks to borrow photographer for her own photoshoot
Vrinda Jain
Sep 07, 2023 03:38 PM IST
As the bride shared about her situation with netizens, she also asked people if she is being selfish about it.
A bride was left questioning herself if she was being selfish after her maid of honour wanted to get her photoshoot done right before the wedding. She took to Reddit to share about the incident and asked for people’s opinions.
The post was shared on Reddit by user ‘NoSoulHereKikiMora.’ She wrote, “My sister, who is the maid of honour, recently asked me if she can ‘borrow’ my wedding photographer for her pregnancy photo shoot, which would be right before my wedding after she has her hair and makeup done by the professional paid by me.” (Also Read: Bride demands refund after groom’s affair with wedding photographer)
She further added that the maid of honour is willing to pay for the photoshoot. But the bride doesn’t want “her to have pictures in the same style, in the same place, on the same day, and with the same makeup and hair” as her wedding pictures.
She lastly asked people if she was wrong in her thinking.
Take a look at the post shared by the Redditor here:
This post was shared one day ago. Since being posted, it has received close to 4,000 upvotes. Many even took to the comments section of the post to share their thoughts on the situation between the bride and the maid of honour.
Here’s what people are saying about it:
An individual wrote, “Would there even be time? Usually, the photographer is taking pictures even as people start to get ready.”
A second added, “Sister shouldn’t be trying to take advantage of the photographer that way. The photographer was booked for a wedding only, and it’s extremely disrespectful to the professional to even ask. Seriously, this is their JOB and how they make a living. It’s two separate events, period.” (Also Read: Bride pulls off WWE move on groom. Watch)
“Your sister can hire the photographer for another day, maybe the next day to preserve makeup. She’s being selfish to ask if she can do a photoshoot on your wedding day. The photographer is going to be busy shooting for you! Don’t let your sister do this,” expressed a third.
A fourth said, “No, actual professional wedding photographer would entertain the sister’s request.”
