Speculation rife after 8ft sculpture, inscribed with name of Baltic God Perkūnas, appears on clifftop =
Mystery totem pole appears from nowhere on clifftop overnight
About
Posts by :
Meet Rita the Rock Planter, a 2nd giant wood troll sculpture in Colorado by Thomas Dambo
The sculptor is well-known for the 100% recycled giant wood troll sculptures
Three exercises to learn more about photography
Learning more about photography can be a daunting task. There are many options available, from YouTube videos, to conferences and workshops, to personal mentoring options. It can be a little overwhelming in some cases. Where to start?
Here are some ideas to help you learn more about photography. A little at a time.
What do you want to learn?
If you’re like me, you make lists. Do you have a list of what you want to learn? Great. Choose one item from that list to focus on for this exercise.
Now, create an image of what it is you want to work on or learn through photography.
Maybe it’s a technique, using a new piece of equipment or a different approach to post-processing. It can be anything you want to learn, get better at and work on at the moment.
Will your image be great? Possibly not. But, it will serve as a marker and starting place. It will be a reminder of this one thing that you want to learn to improve your photography. At some point, you’ll be able to go back to this image (or set of images) and see how much you’ve learned.
For example, I want to learn more about my camera’s ability to create in-camera multiple-exposure images. At a recent car show, I practiced this technique throughout the day. It was fun to see the results.
Learn from what you already do
Take a photo on Monday. Think about this image all week. Go back and look at it. Break down what works in it and what you feel doesn’t work. Is it composed properly? Does it tell a story? What is that story?
On Friday, retake the image and improve on the initial image you created. Take into consideration what you thought about all week. What changes occurred to you that might make it a better image?
This particular example is something that I still don’t seem to have learned: using my tripod! Seriously, it’s one very simple thing you can do to improve your photography.
Take notes from a master
This challenge will have you looking a bit deeper into the history of fine art photography. Edward Weston was one of the pioneers of presenting photography as fine art.
He has been called “one of the most innovative and influential American photographers” and “one of the masters of 20th-century photography.”
You can find more about him and his photography here.
Take a dive into his portfolio. Make notes about his thought process and what images speak to you. Then create an Edward Weston-like image.
One more example
With so many post-processing options at our disposal, learning a new one can take time. If you’re used to doing things one way you may be hesitant to even try or use a new editing app. So, do it slowly. One slider, one preset, one layer at a time.
My personal learning style is playing and asking what happens if. That’s what I did with the Luminar Neo Magic LightTM Extention. I just started moving the sliders around to see what happened.
Share what you learned
For each of these exercises, tell us what you did. What was your thought process? How did you improve by doing these exercises?
We’d love to see your results and learn from each other by sharing in the Photofocus Community. Let’s have a conversation about each of these exercises.
Front Row Seat: ‘Cherry Man’ documentary grew out of friendship between photographers
DULUTH — Walter Griffin, Dudley Edmondson and I were preparing to wrap up a video call last week. First, though, I had an admission to make. I like cherries, I told Griffin, but the pits frustrate me.
Contributed / Jeffrey Smith
“You could always get a cherry pitter,” said Griffin. “They are available even in hardware stores.” He went on to detail the year’s two cherry seasons, and offered to introduce me to golden-yellow Rainier cherries.
Technically speaking, cherries have nothing to do with Griffin’s profession: photography. For Griffin, though, sharing his love of cherries is a way of building relationships, and relationships are at the core of his work.
“With people, I love to communicate with them,” he explained. “After you’ve communicated with them for a while, then their guard’s let down, and so that’s when you get your best photographs, because then the person is not thinking about you so much, because we have had this interaction.”
A new documentary about Griffin, a short film premiering Thursday at the Zeitgeist Zinema, is titled “The Cherry Man.” It’s a collaboration between Edmondson — a Duluth photographer and filmmaker — and Griffin.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I don’t know anybody like him, in terms of who’s had as much life experience and being in the right place at the right time,” said Edmondson. “I sometimes jokingly call him ‘Black Forrest Gump,’ in that he just seemed to be right in the right place to capture images and meet people.”
Griffin, 75, and Edmondson, 61, have known each other for about 20 years, said Griffin. Both avid cyclists, they bonded during a drive to Ohio for a bike conference. “We got a lot of time to talk and learn about each other, and listen to some music and (have) a lot of conversation,” Griffin remembered.
“We both enjoy bikes, we both enjoy jazz, we’re both photographers, both Black men, so we had a lot of common ground,” said Edmondson.
As photographers, though, the two have different specialties. Griffin’s work, as seen in “The Cherry Man,” often focuses on human subjects — whether in ordinary moments of contemplation or joy, or in historic moments like U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ return to Selma, Alabama, for the 25th anniversary of the first Selma to Montgomery march.
Contributed / Walter Griffin
Edmondson, on the other hand, is best known for his nature photography. It was nature that brought the avid birder to Duluth in 1989; his Northland nature photos have been seen in numerous galleries and dozens of publications. He’s also active as a filmmaker, and travels frequently to guide birding trips and to advocate for outdoors inclusivity.
“With decades and decades, and thousands and thousands of clicks of the shutter and viewing images, you just get to the point where it’s like breathing,” said Edmondson. “You pick up a camera and you just do what you know how to do. Your muscles and brain already know what’s going on.”
“I moved to Minneapolis to work as a photographer” in 1986, said Griffin. “I opened a studio when I got here, and I got entrenched in the fabric of the community. One of the things that I did early on is, I wanted to connect with other Black photographers in the Twin Cities.” He became a mentor and community connector, while continuing his wide-ranging work behind the lens.
“The Cherry Man” highlights Griffin’s longstanding love of jazz. In the film, the photographer shares stories from years when he worked as a concert producer in Indianapolis, booking the likes of Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis. Other music legends photographed by Griffin include Betty Carter and Eddie Harris, a former bandmate of the photographer’s musician brother.
ADVERTISEMENT
“My whole life has been about photographing people and seeing music,” said Griffin. Lately, though, he’s been spending more time outdoors.
“I’m learning more about nature,” said Griffin. “Now I’m beginning to snowshoe.”
Edmondson went to Minneapolis to interview Griffin on camera for the 18-minute documentary. “The original idea was just to have Walter telling stories and then use cover footage of him making coffee or walking down the street or fiddling around in a dark room,” explained Edmondson.
Contributed / Walter Griffin
Because Griffin’s stories were “so visual,” Edmondson realized, “I felt they needed to be illustrated in some way beyond just images of Walter living his life.” The filmmaker turned to historical footage to help establish the context for Griffin’s recollections.
One day-in-the-life sequence did make it into the film, though: We see Griffin shopping for cherries. “I always ask” about a store’s cherry stock, said Griffin, if he doesn’t see the fruit readily available in a produce section. “I know it’s time for cherries, because I know what time of the season the cherries are here.”
Film viewers learn that Griffin first developed his taste for cherries as a boy growing up in Chicago, where his first job was to bag and carry groceries for shoppers who would reward him with perhaps 25 or 50 cents. The young Griffin learned all the produce prices, and knew that cherries were just 7 cents a pound.
Both Griffin and Edmondson are currently working on book projects. “I’m trying to finish up my fourth book,” said Edmondson. “This one is on people of color around the country who are doing environmental things as scientists, as environmental activists and social justice activists, and combining them all in one book.”
For his part, Griffin is working on a career retrospective volume spanning a half-century of his work. But first, he’s coming to Duluth to join Edmondson at Thursday’s screening of “The Cherry Man.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s Walter’s history, it’s American history, it’s Black history,” said Edmondson about the film. “It’s a combination of all kinds of things through Walter’s eyes and through his stories, and I think that it’s hopefully a film people will enjoy.”
“The Cherry Man” screens Thursday, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m. at Zeitgeist Zinema. The screening is free and open to the public.
The Daily Heller: A Lost Photographer of the Creative Revolution
William Helburn (1924–2020) was an American fashion and advertising photographer. He is best known for his contributions to advertising’s creative revolution in the 1950s and 1960s and his editorial work for magazines including Harper’s Bazaar, Life, Town and Country, Esquire and Charm. Helburn was a first-call photographer for Mad Ave agencies including Doyle Dane Bernbach, where he was praised by art director Helmut Krone for battling the “limits and style of the studio and the slowness of Kodachrome” to realize “a revolution in visual methods.” His photographs depict the era’s most important models, including Dorian Leigh, Dovima, Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Angela Howard, Jean Patchett and Lauren Hutton.
Helburn was born in New York City in 1924. He attended public and private schools in Manhattan and classes at The Art Students League of New York before joining the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942. Helburn served in the Pacific theater, where he and future partner Ted Croner learned to make develop film, including the first pictures of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. After the war, Helburn and Croner resolved to become fashion photographers. The two enrolled in Alexey Brodovitch’s Design Laboratory, which sometimes included Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Milton Greene, and Diane and Doone Arbus. Studying with Brodovitch led to Helburn’s first major assignment, a 10-page editorial shoot in the March 1949 edition of Junior Bazaar.
I was surprised I had been ignorant of his Midcentury Modern photography until being recently introduced through the 2014 book William Helburn: Seventh and Madison Mid-Century Fashion and Advertising Photography by Robert Lilly and Lois Allen Lilly. It was unforgivable to not have even heard his name since he worked with some of the ’50s and ’60s most famous modern art directors—Brodovitich, Cipe Pineles, Bob Gage, Henry Wolf, Gene Federico and others, as well as important clients. I was given the book almost a decade after publication. So I asked Robert Lilly to tell me more about Helburn’s career, the monograph, and how he and Lois helped revivify the photographer’s legacy.
What did you find appealing in William Helburn’s work?
In 2008 my wife Lois was working at Getty Images and was drawn to a Life magazine cover of a model (in “cancan lingerie”) that needed clearance for a Tommy Hilfiger campaign.
Clearing the picture led to Bill—and Bill’s eldest son, who told us, “No one knows who my father is anymore. Can you change that?”
Once we saw more of Bill’s pictures we were drawn to his sense of humor and the feel for the absurd he used to such great effect in pictures like Bus Top (“The Skirt’s the Thing,” Harper’s Bazaar, December 1958) and Let Them Eat Cake (“Salon Permanent Waves”—for Helene Curtis, 1962). We also loved the elegant images he created, including “Mad Hats for New Fall Outfits” (Life, 1956) and Dovima Under the El (“Dior Creates Cosmopolitan Drama,” 1955), and the more provocative, sexy images, including some we discovered later, such as Jean Patchett Primitif (for Max Factor, 1956) and Lauren Hutton (for Van Heusen, 1964). As story-oriented journalists we also appreciated Bill’s tales of his years working and living the high life in Midcentury Manhattan—not to mention racing Ferraris (Sebring, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Nassau, Havana) and other pleasant diversions.
What is it that gives his work the standout quality from others in the field at his period?
Bill’s images fall into several categories. His editorial images for Bazaar typify what he called his “shock value” aesthetic, tied to his drive to “do it different.” He told us, “Girls on tops of buses (Bus Top) was for Harper’s Bazaar. If she’s standing on a lamppost, standing on the roof of a bus—anything that’s out of the ordinary, that’s my persona or style.”
For Charm—“the magazine for women who work”—Bill shot quickly, generally in office or “work” settings, and produced some charming pictures with a documentary quality unusual for fashion photography of the era. He also turned out elegant pictures for Town and Country, Life and McCall’s.
In advertising, Bill worked closely with Bob Gage, Helmut Krone, Gene Federico, Joe Nissen and other art directors he considered the equal, in advertising, of Alexander Lieberman at Vogue and Alexey Brodovitch at Bazaar in editorial (though Bill revered Brodovich, whom he studied with and who gave him his first big break). Bill’s ads can be sexy, elegant or funny—sometimes all three. They’re bright with bold imaginative imagery that makes you look twice or three times—that is, if you can look away at all. Both advertising and fashion photography are collaborative but even in advertising, Bill told us the idea was often his—along with the model, location and, of course, execution.
Whoever he was shooting for, Bill’s pictures stand out. They get your attention. We interviewed Joe Nissen (Altman-Stoller Van Heusen From the Famous Shirtmaker for Men) for Seventh and Madison, who had this to say about working with Bill:
“Bill was a working photographer in a time of many great photographers—Avedon, Lillian Bassman and Irving Penn and half a dozen others. But they were primarily editorial photographers and working editorially gave these people a lot of latitude, a lot of cooperation from the publications, and they were strictly style photography or styled by the publications.
“Bill had all of the discipline; he had all the understanding. He had all of the style and the taste and the imagination but he was interested in the advertising business and he brought all those faculties to taking the photograph that would express the idea that was in the advertising. He combined the best of all those qualitie,s and because he was interested in both advertising and expressing ideas, he was a much better choice for me as an advertising photographer.
“If you’re set loose in Bulgaria with half a dozen models, an infinite amount of money and background, you can do interesting photographs. It’s much harder in the studio to take the kind of picture that impressed people in the two hours that you had to do the job. Bill was, in that world, the best of them.”
Why is he not as well known today as other high-end advertising photographers?
Bill liked to work and worked a lot. Midcentury photographers’ names rarely appeared on their magazine ads—Richard Avedon was a clear exception—but even when his name could have been included, Bill often left it off. Working a lot meant working for competitors—so far, we’ve logged 10 cosmetics/perfume firms and 15 automobile brands he shot for. Not being associated with any one firm made it easier to work for all of them.
Right: Model: Jean Patchett. Client: Max Factor. Agency: Doyle Dane Bernbach. Art Director: Robert Gage. 1956.
The book is beautiful. What was your goal with it?
We appreciate that very much! The book was published in 2014. Its publication was part of our effort, with Bill very much involved, to make his pictures and his extraordinary life known—and by so doing, reestablish his name and establish a market for his fine art photography.
As such, it was one step in our campaign that included getting Bill’s pictures into a photo agency (first Corbis, now Getty) so he would have an online presence, writing and producing Seventh and Madison, signing Bill with a gallery, producing fine art prints and having the gallery hang the prints in a show.
All of that has been accomplished. Bill’s work is now for sale in five fine art photography galleries in the U.S. along with two in Europe (and more to come). His pictures have appeared in gallery shows as well as the Brooklyn Museum, the Norton Museum in Palm Beach and at art fairs in Europe and the U.S. Seventh and Madison put Bill in context as a photographer who made artful pictures for editorial and advertising pages. It did its job.
Right: Life, July 23, 1956. Model: Pat Jones.
Harry and Meghan photographer shocked at racist image in Surrey shop
Harry and Meghan photographer Misan Harriman slams Surrey shop over racist plantation image showing ‘broken black men’ – after football star says he was told THREE years ago it would be taken down
One of the fashion industry’s top photographers – who’s a family friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – has revealed his shock at seeing a racist photo of a tobacco plantation being used to sell cigars in a Surrey high street shop.
British Nigerian photographer Misan Harriman, 46, who is also Chair of London’s Southbank Centre, captured Lilibet’s first birthday at Frogmore for Meghan and Harry, shared footage of his visit to Farrants store in Cobham this week – saying he was stunned to see the large black-and-white photo showing ‘broken black men and their overseers’ that hangs behind the shop’s tills.
Emblazoned with the words ‘We sell tobacco’, the heritage image shows white colonialists alongside black workers on a plantation. Customers visiting the popular Cobham store, which sells sweets, toys and magazines alongside tobacco products, face the photo at the point of sale.
After filming inside the store, Harriman, 46, spoke directly to the camera outside it, expressing his fury that a shop in 2023 could use an image of oppression to promote its products, calling it ‘triggering’ and ‘damaging to many people’.
The video has been viewed more than 2 million times.
On Twitter, England assistant football coach Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink responded to Harriman’s post, claiming he’d been previously told by the shop’s owner, David Worsfold, in 2020 that the image would be removed after he had complained about it.
In a caption accompanying the video, Harriman wrote: ‘There is a MASSIVE picture that is pride of place at the point of payment.
‘It is an image of black men, broken black men at a tobacco plantation with their overseers next to them?!?! I kid you not! This is in a family store, this imagery is massive triggering and racist. And there is no conceivable reason it should be there!
‘I’m so thankful I wasn’t with my girls. How on earth could anyone have shopped there and found that image acceptable. This is exhausting and damaging to many people.’
Former Chelsea footballer and Dutch international Floyd-Hasselbaink responded on his Instagram account, saying: ‘Stories come and go. This needs some attention @farrants_cobham, I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.’
A representative for Farrants, which has traded on Cobham’s high street since 1896, told MailOnline the store wouldn’t be making a comment on the photograph.
In September 2020, Harriman, who has two daughters with Camilla Holmstroem, became the first black male photographer to shoot a British Vogue cover in its then-105-year history.
The activist-themed cover featured England footballer Marcus Rashford and model Adwoa Aboah, with Mr Harriman working with a predominantly black team on set.
A year before, the Duchess of Sussex guest edited the September issue, which is traditionally the magazine’s most important of the year.
Photography is Harriman’s second career, after previously working in finance but he’s proved prolific since getting behind the lens.
He’s photographed everyone from Demi Lovato and Ed Harris to Elton’s husband David Furnish. Elton and David are longtime friends of Harry and Meghan.
A wedding guest at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s nuptials in 2018, Harriman captured a birthday portrait of the couple’s one-year-old daughter Lilibet’s birthday celebrations last year.
The Southbank Chair released a series of three images taken at a ‘casual, intimate backyard picnic’ hosted by the Sussexes at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor on June 4th 2022, having been invited to attend the small gathering as one of just a handful of select guests, alongside his wife and their two daughters.
Among the images shared by Harriman, was a ‘candid, spontaneous’ shot of Lilibet, which Harry and Meghan chose to share with the world to mark their daughter’s milestone birthday.
As well as the sweet snap of the birthday girl, the Nigerian-born photographer also shared two other images from the party, including a black-and-white photo of proud mother Meghan holding her daughter in her arms while posing alongside Harriman’s wife Camilla and their two daughters.
He is the same trusted family friend who took the black-and-white images that the couple used to announce the news that they were pregnant with a second child back in February 2021.
Harriman also had a hand in helping another member of the royal family announce some special news back in 2019, when Princess Beatrice enlisted him to take an engagement portrait of her and her now-husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, which they released to the world when they announced their betrothal.
How to experience California’s Native American culture
Many ceremonies and rituals rightly remain for tribal members only. However, there are celebrations organised by Native American communities that welcome anyone to attend.
The most frequent event to experience are called Pow Wows. Full of traditional singing, dancing, drumming, and elaborate costumes made from feathers, bells, beads and shells, Pow Wows are exhilarating celebrations of tribal culture from all over the country. Dozens are hosted in California throughout the year, with September being a particularly busy month. We suggest going to the website powwows.com to find an event to suit you.
Long Beach’s Moompetam Festival typically hosted over a weekend in September (9-10 September 2023) is considered a ‘gathering of the salt water people’. The two-day event celebrates indigenous California’s maritime cultures – including the Tongva, Chumash, Acjachemen, Costanoan, Luiseno, and Kumeyaay communities – with craft making, storytelling, music and dance.
Alternatively, the annual Klamath Salmon Festival is celebrated by the Yurok tribe every August (19 August 2023). Highlights include the morning Salmon Festival Parade, followed by a traditionally cooked salmon feast, but there’s also chances to watch local tribes take part in competitive Stick Game tournaments, Indian card game tournaments, plus other demonstrations and activities.
Tattoo products maker Body Art Alliance explores sale -sources
NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Body Art Alliance is exploring options including a sale that could value the supplier of tattoo and body art products at nearly $1 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Hanover, Maryland-based company is working with investment bank Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF.N) on the sale process, the sources said, requesting anonymity because the matter is confidential.
Body Art Alliance expects to generate about $70 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2023 and about $250 million of revenue, the sources added.
Representatives for Body Art Alliance and Jefferies declined to comment.
Body Art Alliance’s move to explore a sale comes amid a global surge in the popularity of body art, especially among the younger generation. More than 40% of U.S. millennials sport tattoos, according to an Ipsos poll published in 2021. The global tattoo industry is growing at nearly 10% every year, according to some market reports.
The company was launched in 2020 by the founders of four body art companies – FK Irons, Painful Pleasures, NeoMetal and World Famous Ink. It is now affiliated with dozens of global brands that sell tattoo and body art products, which include body ink and piercing equipment, to artists and customers.
Through its partnerships with distributors and other tattoo brands, the company’s products are sold in 45 countries across five continents, according to its website.
Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The Arts Scene: It’s a fact: ‘Fashion Fictions’ is fun and informative
On the road again, and as usual I am taking you with me. This time we are going to Vancouver, British Columbia, about five hours away.
The Vancouver Art Gallery is currently showing “Fashion Fictions,” an exhibition exploring experimental design practices that explore the intersection of fashion and other modes of cultural production. Featuring more than 50 designers worldwide, the exhibition shows the influence of research-based, materially driven practices on the global fashion scene while acknowledging the proliferation of creative practices that challenge fashion’s aesthetic, material and technological conventions.
The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: “Material Futures,” which explores the relationship between technological and scientific innovations in material research to create fabrics; “Aesthetic Prophesies,” which highlights the fusion of cultural traditions with speculative creations and designers who push the boundaries of wearability with extreme fashion; and “Responsible Visions,” which explores the importance of sustainable discourse in fashion culture, with designers incorporating adaptive reuse, upcycling and digital design into their explorations.
“‘Fashion Fictions’ is a timely and urgent exploration of the intersection of design, art and personal agency, in the tradition of numerous Vancouver Art Gallery exhibitions that broaden the public’s understanding of visual culture,” states Vancouver Art Gallery CEO and Director Anthony Kiendl.
“Fashion Fictions” is more than mannequins and dresses. It’s an exploration of creativity drawing on cultural traditions, science fiction, technology, and an interest in the natural world and sustainability. The curatorial approach favors the unexpected: Established and celebrated brands are juxtaposed with emerging designers; couture is exhibited alongside street wear; and objects that blur the boundaries between design and contemporary art are peppered throughout. Contributing curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe selected work by several Indigenous designers and artists addressing social and environmental issues through designs.
“I am thrilled for Indigenous fashion to be integrated into the larger conversation of global fashion with this exhibition,” said Bear Robe. “The Indigenous designers curated into the show represent such a tiny fraction of the extraordinary work being fashioned by Indigenous designers across Native North America. Many more fashion stories of the original designers of this land need to be shared.”
“Fashion Fictions” will be on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery until Oct. 9.
• David Lynx is executive director of the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley College. He writes this weekly column for Explore. Learn more at www.larsongallery.org.
Artists near completion on 200-foot Pleasant Street mural
PAWTUCKET – Artists Gera Lozano (GERALUZ) and Werc Alvarez step across Pleasant Street to get a better look at how a section of textured paint, created by Lozano using a roller wrapped in strips of paint, fits into the bigger picture.
A new 200-foot mural by Lozano and Alvarez on Pleasant Street takes public art in downtown Pawtucket to the next level, incorporating much of what has made this city great over the years.
