This is the first in a series that I will be writing from time to time. It is answers to questions I put to one of my clients where I had the privilege to photograph his wife’s pregnancy and about a month later to photograph them with their newborn son.
Here is part of our conversation: “I think in having a son, I feel I have a certain responsibility as his father to teach him how to be a man. Right now that seems a bit abstract, because he is so young, but I still have a sense of it even now. I think I learned what it means to be a man from my father, my grandfathers, and my uncles — and I’m still learning from them even to this day. I would say that these male role models instilled most of their wisdom through example, rather than by telling me how to act. I hope that is how I can be that way with my son – showing him by example.
Having a child is so demanding of time and effort and it changes your life so drastically – one day you are a couple and the next you’re taking care of an infant without much time to think about or do anything else. Once he arrived, taking care of him became the top priority for us. As he grows we will obviously be changing along with him and becoming a family together. It is definitely an evolving process.”
In New York City there is a Meet Up group for Dads. Tonight is one of their events.
Filed in Brooklyn, children, family, New York, portraits
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Tagged , Brooklyn, dad, Dads, family, father, fatherhood, infant, meet up, New York City, photography, portraits, pregancy, responsibility, role model
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In Lorna Simpson’s show titled “Gathered” at The Brooklyn Museum (I wrote earlier about this show on April 4th) are many 8X8″ photographs of two African American women posing as pin ups. What is striking is that the young woman posed for these photos in 1957. This was the time that the Civil Rights movement started. It was in 1954 that the US Supreme Court declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
To pose similarly as such actresses as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Liz Taylor can be seen as an assertion of equality and ambition. It is a brave action for this time. As a compliment, Lorna emulated the portraits of this anonymous woman in 2009 and the photos of the two women hang side by side.
I like to think that today, when women choose to be photographed in their pregnancy, they are also taking charge of their lives.
Filed in art, Brooklyn, maternity
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Tagged "Gathered", ambition, art, Brooklyn, cival rights movement, civil rights, desegregation, equality, exhibit, Feminist Art, Jayne Mansfield, Liz Taylor, Lorna Simpson, Marilyn Monroe, maternity, maternity portraits, movie actress, New York, pin up, portraits, pregnancy, pregnancy portraits, The Brooklyn Museum, US Supreme Court
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A hunting culture does not have to mean a war culture.
Why trophies and where does this tradition come from?
Filed in children, family, nature
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Tagged boys, bucks, children, culture, deer, family, fathers, food, guns, hunting, taxidermy, tradition, trophies, trophy, war
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Yesterday, April 20th, two photojournalists were killed by a grenade in Libya. Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were know for their devotion to telling the stories from regions at war. Both sacrificed a great deal in their own lives to document and make visible the hardships of conflict. Their photographs were able to transmit meaning and connection. They will be missed.
Sebastian Junger, who collaborated with Tim Hetherington, has written a beautiful memorial. Through describing his friend and collaborator Sebastian reveals Tim’s essential goal….”you told me that you wanted to make a film about the relationship between young men and violence. You had this idea that young men in combat act in ways that emulate images they’ve seen – movies, photographs – of other men in other wars, other battles. You had this idea of a feedback loop between the world of images and the world of men that continually reinforced and altered itself as one war inevitably replaced another in the long tragic grind of human affairs.”
This is a story that needs revealing. This cycle needs to be broken.
“Asha Veza” is the combining of the word in Hindi which means hope and the word in Bosnian which means connection. Ashaveza is also the name of a women’s clothing boutique where the clothes are designed and made by women designers and craft artists in India and Bosnia. The clothes are magnificent.
This wonderful shop gives all its profits back to the women who design and make the clothes. Shanti Crawford, who is the wonderful woman behind Ashaveza, has never even taken a salary.
Ashaveza will transform from a store with a permanent location to house parties on April 30, 2011. Meanwhile there are sales aplenty at the shop. Location is 69 Fifth Ave. in Brooklyn.
Filed in Brooklyn, fashion
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Tagged Ashaveza, Bosnia, boutique, connection, fashion, hope, India, sales, Shanti Crawford, women
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Not only is a fund raiser for Choices In Childbirth coming up on May 9th in Manhattan but just this past Saturday, April 9th, a panel discussion titled “Men and Feminism” took place at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. What brings these two events together is that both women and men are seeking to claim their rights for respect and are looking for collaborative partnerships. Women wish to have the best possible options for the birth of their children.
Men are seeing the damage that the domination system brings to everyone: man, woman, & child. Both have concerns about reversing the damage to our planet. No one is exempt from this.
One of the topics that the panel discussion brought out was the desire to seek new ways of parenting. A very recent phenomenon is that men are very active in the day to day parenting of their children. Men are thinking of how they differ from their dads. In NYC there is a meet up group for stay at home dads. I will be writing more about fathers and their thoughts in future posts.
Filed in art, Brooklyn, children, family, maternity, nature, New York
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Tagged birth, collaboration, ecology, fatherhood, feminism, health, maternity, meet up, motherhood, stay at home dads
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Photographs need gathering to make sense. Lorna Simpson has made exciting art works consisting of photographs both found and created by her. This post is about one of her pieces currently at The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
To me, the word ‘cloud’ is both a real physical cloud in the sky and the virtual ‘cloud’ where lives intersect online. Both definitions apply to Lorna Simpson’s “Cloud”. Her “Cloud” is heavy and the intersection is historical. In fact, this intersection applies today and is palpable.
In the shape of a cloud hang many small 3″ square photo booth portraits framed in heavy bronze interspersed with 3″ solid bronze squares and bronze framed, fuzzy ink wash drawings. The photos and bronze plaques sit as many rain drops, ready to fall.
Why are these fragile photos given this sense of memorial? Bronze is the metal of memorial plaques and statues of famous people. Why no names?
The people themselves did these self portraits. How similar to photos proliferating on the net. What are the new stories? Will many of the new faces, you receive and see, fade off to anonymity?
Then again, how will you frame your memories?
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Filed in art, Brooklyn, New York
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Tagged art, artist, bronze, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, cloud, Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art, exhibit, feminism, internet, Lorna Simpson, memorial, New York, photographs
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I am thrilled that artwork I have created to celebrate childbirth will be on display at The Concert for a Healthy Birth hosted by Ricky Lake on May 9th in NYC. This event benefits the work of Choices In Childbirth, the leader in maternity care consumer education, advocacy and outreach. Honored on May 9th will be Dr. Christiane Northrup and Christy Turlington Burns for their work for the health of women.
When I photograph pregnancy and babies, I create more than a portrait. Information leads me to make meaningful art, as art itself and for my clients. I will talk about one piece here and do several posts leading up to this important fund raiser for Choices in Childbirth.
For the portrait of this young baby girl, who was born at the time of the Magnolia blossoming in NYC, I not only did double exposure for this baby with actual magnolia petals, but I contact printed the negatives with Magnolia petal shapes. These petal shapes are like the shape of a womb. The baby emerges to her own life.
Filed in art, Brooklyn, children, family, maternity, nature, New York, portraits
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Tagged , 2011, advocacy, baby, child birth, Choices In Childbirth, Christiane Northrup, Christy Turlington Burns, Concert for a Healthy Birth, consumer, education, family maternity, health, May 9, pregancy, Ricky Lake, women
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On Sunday I walked over to The Brooklyn Museum both to see exhibits and to attend a panel: Gender and Genocide: Sexual Violence during the Holocaust and Other Genocides, moderated by Gloria Steinem. In our present time, talk centered on conflict in the Congo where the coltan for our cell phones and other devices is mined. There is a great deal of suffering for women and their families. The panel discussion was sponsored by The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. This center is not only about art but has almost weekly panels and other events to inform and educate about women’s issues both here and abroad. Participation is well worth your time. For me, I will participate in the movement toward better lives for all women.
Two of the participants represented these organizations: Equality Now and The Shalupe Foundation
Filed in art, Brooklyn, children, family, maternity
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Tagged art, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, cell phones, children, coltan, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, feminism, Gloria Steinem, Holocaust, justice, life, lives, panel, rape, sexual violence, suffering, violence, women
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The C-print is the standard color photograph. Proof prints are this type of photograph. Longevity depends on the manufacture of the paper. I ask for paper that has a life span of 75 years before fading. I also like to have custom color prints done where the printer selects the best color tonality and the full negative can be printed.
The first print here is a custom print and full frame. The second print is a standard proof print. The edges of the second are cropped and the color is “colder”.
Filed in children, family, portraits
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Tagged c-print, children, color, color negative, custom print, family, longevity, photograph, prints, proof print
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