The Huston Rockets
Main Site: www.nba.com/rockets
TWITTER : https://twitter.com/search/houston+rockets
Stats Site : http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas, that competes in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They are members of the Southwest Division of the league's Western Conference. The Rockets play their home games at Toyota Center, located in downtown Houston. The Rockets have won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles. The team was established in 1967 and played in San Diego, California, as the San Diego Rockets, before moving to Houston in 1971.
The Rockets won only 15 games in their debut season as a franchise in 1967. In the 1969 NBA Draft, the Rockets selected power forward Elvin Hayes first overall, who would lead the team to its first playoff appearance in his rookie season. The Rockets did not finish a season with a winning record until the 1976–77 season, when they traded for center Moses Malone. Malone went on to win the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award twice, and lead Houston to the conference finals in his first year with the team. He also led the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981 where they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics, led by Larry Bird and future Rockets coach Kevin McHale.
In 1984, the Rockets drafted center Hakeem Olajuwon, who would be paired with 7'4" Ralph Sampson, forming one of the tallest front courts in the NBA. Nicknamed the "Twin Towers", they led the team to the 1986 NBA Finals—the second NBA Finals berth in franchise history—where Houston was again defeated by the Boston Celtics. The Rockets continued to reach the playoffs throughout the 1980s, but failed to advance past the second round for the rest of the decade. Rudy Tomjanovich took over as head coach midway through the 1991–92 season, ushering in the most successful period in franchise history. The Rockets would reach the 1994 NBA Finals, where Olajuwon led the team to the franchise's first championship against Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks. The team repeated as champions in 1995 as the sixth seed in the West and swept the favored Orlando Magic, who were led by a young Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway. Houston became the lowest-seeded team in NBA history to win the title.
The Rockets acquired all-star forward Charles Barkley in 1996, but the presence of three of the NBA's 50 greatest players of all-time (Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley) was not enough to propel Houston past the Western Conference Finals. Each one of the aging trio had left the team by 2001, and the Rockets of the early 21st century, led by superstars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, followed the trend of consistent regular-season respectability followed by playoff underachievement as both players struggled with injuries. After Yao's early retirement in 2011, the Rockets entered a period of rebuilding, completely dismantling and retooling their roster. The recent acquisitions of franchise players James Harden and Dwight Howard have launched the Rockets back into championship contention. The Rockets, under general manager Daryl Morey, are notable for popularizing the use of advanced statistical analytics (similar to sabermetrics in baseball) in player acquisitions and style of play.
2012–present: The James Harden era; resurgence and decline[edit]
During the 2012 NBA offseason, the Rockets made significant changes to their roster. The team arrived at the 2012 NBA Draft with three first round picks, which they used to recruit Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, and Terrence Jones.[138] A trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder landed Houston reigning sixth man of the year James Harden, along with Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, and Lazar Hayward.[139] The team also signed restricted free agents Jeremy Lin and Ömer Aşık,[140][141] and had 2011 draft pick Donatas Motiejūnas arrive from Lithuania.[142] Departures included Kyle Lowry in a trade,[143] Goran Dragić through free agency,[144] and Luis Scola using their one-time amnesty clause.[145] Only four players were left from the 2011–12 roster: Chandler Parsons, Greg Smith, Marcus Morris and Patrick Patterson.[146] During the season Morris was traded for a draft pick and Patterson for Thomas Robinson.[147][148]
Harden stepped out of his previous sixth man role and into the starting lineup for the Rockets. During the season opener against the Detroit Pistons, Harden had 37 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and a block in his debut as a Rocket,[149] and finished the season with an average of 25.9 points a game.[150] As Houston hosted the 2013 NBA All-Star Game at the Toyota Center, Harden was selected as the Rockets' representative.[151] Despite being the youngest team in the NBA, the Rockets became one of the highest scoring offenses in the NBA.[152] Head coach Kevin McHale ran an up-tempo offense that put emphasis on transition baskets, shooting three-pointers, and playing at a fast pace. As a result, the Rockets became one of the highest scoring offenses in the NBA, leading the league in scoring for the majority of the season.[153] In the post-season, the Rockets fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round, losing the series 4–2.[154]
Eager to add another franchise player to their team, the Rockets heavily pursued free agent center Dwight Howard in the 2013 offseason. He officially signed with the Rockets on July 13, 2013.[155] Led by the new inside-out combination of Howard and James Harden, and with a strong supporting cast including Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, and Ömer Aşık, the Rockets were expected to jump into title contention in the upcoming season.[156] However, in the post-season, the Rockets were defeated in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers, losing the series 4–2.[157]
During the offseason, the Rockets traded Jeremy Lin to the Lakers,[158] declined to match the three-year, $46 million offer sheet that Chandler Parsons received from the Dallas Mavericks,[159] and signed Trevor Ariza for a second stint in Houston.[160]
The Rockets had an outstanding start to the 2014–15 NBA season, winning the first four games of the season for the first time since the 1996–97 season,[161] and winning each of their first six games by 10 points or more, the first team to accomplish this feat since the 1985–86 Denver Nuggets.[162] In December, the Rockets acquired Corey Brewer[163] and Josh Smith,[164] two veterans who added depth to the roster. While the Rockets had many key players miss time throughout the entire season, James Harden took it upon himself to keep the Rockets near the top of the conference; turning him into an MVP front-runner. He became the first Rocket to score 50 points in a game since Hakeem Olajuwon,[165] as well as the only player in franchise history to record multiple 50 point games in a season.[166] On April 15, 2015, the Rockets beat the Jazz to claim their first ever Southwest Division title and first Division crown since 1994, and by completing 56 wins finished with the third-best regular season record in franchise history.[167] During the playoffs, the Rockets beat the Mavericks 4–1 in the first round, and overcame a 3–1 deficit against the Los Angeles Clippers to win the Western Semifinals and return to the Conference Finals for the first time in 18 years.[168] The Rockets became just the ninth team in NBA history to win a playoff series in which they faced a 3–1 deficit.[169] In the Conference Finals, the Rockets were defeated by the Golden State Warriors 4–1.[170]
Prior to the 2015-16 season, the Rockets acquired Ty Lawson from the Denver Nuggets by sending them Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson, Kostas Papanikolaou, Pablo Prigioni, and a 2016 first round draft pick.[171] Kevin McHale was fired after a bad start where the team only won 4 of its first 11 games, and assistant J. B. Bickerstaff took over coaching duties.
There has been a recent spate of trade rumors, mostly involving Ty Lawson and Dwight Howard. The Miami Heat have been pursuing Howard in trade talks, and have been rumored to offer up Hassan Whiteside plus salary cap filler.
BASEBALL: Its' About The American Character
By Joshua Triliegi
Is baseball, the last great team sport where personality matters ?
Although baseball is and has always been called America's Greatest pastime, it's popularity has always fluctuated, based on local wins and losses, coverage and indeed personalities. It's an entertainment sport, where the mathematics of the line-up matter, just as much as any one individual player and still, personality matters. Football, basketball, hockey indeed, have their personalities, but somehow, due to the field itself, and now, more than ever the coverage vis cameras and technology,personality, in baseball, to me, is everything.
On the one hand, the player must be good at what he does, on the other hand, his idiosyncrasies, his fears, his disposition, his oddities, nerdy-ness or even downright weirdness come into play. There have always been and always will be handsome players, charming, affable, the All American boy turned man, who plays ball for a living. But, what I personally and specifically enjoy about baseball, is the transparency of character, no matter what style or exterior, there is a full on nakedness of each players feelings, each players vibe, each players quirks, that are close to impossible to conceal, and that, as a writer, as a man interested in the persona, I find fascinating.
I don't really take team priority, although, obviously living in Los Angeles, I see the Boys in Blue more often than not and still, personality, character and the great American spirit of all the individual players seem outshine affiliation, logo, name and even wether they win or lose. I look for performance, I look for style, I look for craft and when the magic happens, when an individual or a team in unison does there thing, baseball can be what it always promises to be. It can compete with Film, it can compare to Fine Art, it can be good Literature and it is and no doubt will always be, The Great American pastime. It is one of the few games actually invented by Americans, which puts it right up there with the great American arts such as Jazz music. Which also is based, very much in personality.
You can say what you will about us Americans. Yes, we lost manufacturing over the past sixty years and that un-winded our idea of productivity and it effected how we feel about ourselves in the world. Maybe we will bring that back. Yes, we did allow technology to invade our current existence, and we all pay a price for that daily. Yes, the war machine has taken something away from how we have decided to make money, and that is a larger government issue, we will eventually have to amend. But I'll be damned if they think can break the American spirit entirely. Baseball is way that we Americans display our character and no matter what they do to us, or whatever the line up, our character always shines through.
HENDRIK BEIKIRCH / BUREAU EUROPEAN ART PICK / SPRING 2016
BUREAU EUROPEAN ART PICK MURALIST HENDRIK BEIKIRCH
BUREAU GUEST ARTIST PAINTER ERIK OLSON
WELCOME to Spring 2016 Edition of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. 200 Pages of FREE Arts + Culture. Download The Entire FREE Magazine at The Links Below, This Site Contains Samples of Interviews, Photo Essays and Articles, It does not contain All of The Great Content Available. The New Edition Contains The BUREAU ICON Essay: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN . The BUREAU GUEST Artist from CANADA Painter and Sculptor Mr. Erik OLSON . NEW Interviews + Photographic Essays with Three from The United Kingdom: Street Photographers Craig REILLY, Steve COLEMAN and Walter ROTHWELL. BUREAU Dance: Martha GRAHAM, Plus Mathilde GRAFSTROM : CENSORED German Muralist: Hendrik BEIKIRCH, The CLASSICAL Genius: Daniil TRIFONOV. BUREAU NEWS: David GANS on SUPREME COURT, Plus Mexico's DR. LAKRA Daniel GEORGAKAS on HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST, The OSCARS WHITEOUT, PHOTO ESSAYS: Stephen SOMERSTEIN at The FREEDOM MARCH of 1965, Alex HARRIS showcasing The Afro AMERICANS in North Carolina in The 1970s Artist Tristan EATON + The Post Modern Paintings . BUREAU Film: TRUMBO Plus Film Reviews & New Online Articles All Year Round at The New BUREAU CITY SITES Across America and The World Through The Internet . BUREAU is an Official MEDIA Partner for The ITALIAN Film Festival Plus Our Own BUREAU PHOTOGRAPHIC Essays …
DOWNLOADABLE LINKS TO THE ALTERNATE COVER DESIGNS 200PAGES OF FREE ARTS + CULTURE
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN COVER:
JOSHUA TRILIEGI COVER:
ERIK OLSON COVER:
TRISTAN EATON COVER :
DR. LAKRA COVER :
WALTER ROTHWELL COVER :
WE CELEBRATE ART MUSIC FILM BOOKS FASHION SURFING DESIGN BIKING INTERVIEW ARCHITECTURE FICTION PHOTOGRAPHY CUISINE CULTURE +MORE
THE BUREAU ICON ESSAY : BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
By Joshua Triliegi for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine Network
Bruce Springsteen tells stories. He knits a good yarn. He knows how to handle the crowd. Like most artists, he was a few steps ahead of the audience. Looking back to his debut album, entitled, "Greetings from Asbury Park," it is now clear that, Bruce Springsteen is not just a great singer, performer and musician, Mr. Springsteen is that rare and individual voice, both on the stage and more importantly: on paper. He is a poet. When the world was still reeling from Vietnam, from the end of The Beatles, from the shadow of Richard Nixon and the slow, but steady death of the once powerful 1960s cultural revolution, this artist released an album that was miles and miles, ahead of his audience. On Jan 5th, 1973 Bruce Springsteen released an album that described life from a soldiers point of view. Broken, battered, torn and worn down. His songs described the streets in a tone and a pitch that has no sympathy for the devil. Bruce as narrator, introduces his cast of characters and their predicament, then he actually reaches into their lives, asking, hey pal, are you sure that's what you want to do ? "Hey gunner-man that's quicksand, that's quicksand, that ain't mud." While America was listening to Carly Simon's, "Your So Vain," a song written either about Warren Beatty or Henry Kissinger, and back up vocals by Mick Jagger: Springsteen was talking about life on the streets of America, not parties in The Hampton's. Roberta Flack was singing, "Killing Me Softly With His Song," Tony Orlando and Dawn were on the charts with, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree," Maureen McGovern with, "The Morning After," Diana Ross with, "Touch me in The Morning," And Jim Croce with, "Time in a Bottle." Bruce Springsteen showed up like the character, Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's, "Taxi Driver." His characters had guts, bravado, sadness, sex appeal and the onlookers were mean spirited, "Did you see that guy hit with a thud ?"
"Part Rock and Roll, part Soul, part Rhythm and Blues, part Folk, part Gospel: Got any other parts ? It's a dragster, with dual manifolds, hopped up octane, candy coated paint job, pinstripes and more chrome than anyone could imagine, and yes, there is a naked lady in the front seat."
After years of working his way up, shaping his style from the earliest inspirations, some credited to his mother's love of pop music on the radio, others to his first view of Elvis Presley on television, to his time with bands such as, The Castiles, Earth, Steel Mill and eventually, his own. The many years of visiting Asbury Park, located just twenty minutes from the place of his birth, Freehold, New Jersey, during the glory days of rock and roll, where one could find great piano players, saxophone soloists and jam guitarists, of all sorts, ready to play all night, had begun to show an original and a distinctly American voice. He is clearly inspired by the films of Terence Malick and had he not persevered, he may have become another artist who only released a handful of great albums in the same way that Malick did films. It is well known that Bruce was blown away by the power of what Van Morrison was doing with back up soul singers, a large horn section, organ players and the full regalia that eventually becomes, what is now commonly known as the, "Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band," sound. Part Rock and Roll, part Soul, part Rhythm and Blues, part Folk, part Gospel: Got any other parts ? It's a dragster, with dual manifolds, hopped up octane, candy coated paint job, pinstripes and more chrome than anyone could imagine, and yes, there is a naked lady in the front seat. Bruce is driving, sometimes recklessly. His people are not at all unlike the characters in, "American Graffiti," some will die in Vietnam, some will become bankers, some will marry farmers, most will barely struggle through middle age with kids, divorces and jobs that disappear, all are purely American. He's still out there. He's more powerful than ever. That is why, today, we honor the spirit of one of America's, and the World's, greatest living Rock & Roll Icons: Mr. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
"Part Rock and Roll, part Soul, part Rhythm and Blues, part Folk, part Gospel: Got any other parts ? It's a dragster, with dual manifolds, hopped up octane, candy coated paint job, pinstripes and more chrome than anyone could imagine, and yes, there is a naked lady in the front seat."
After years of working his way up, shaping his style from the earliest inspirations, some credited to his mother's love of pop music on the radio, others to his first view of Elvis Presley on television, to his time with bands such as, The Castiles, Earth, Steel Mill and eventually, his own. The many years of visiting Asbury Park, located just twenty minutes from the place of his birth, Freehold, New Jersey, during the glory days of rock and roll, where one could find great piano players, saxophone soloists and jam guitarists, of all sorts, ready to play all night, had begun to show an original and a distinctly American voice. He is clearly inspired by the films of Terence Malick and had he not persevered, he may have become another artist who only released a handful of great albums in the same way that Malick did films. It is well known that Bruce was blown away by the power of what Van Morrison was doing with back up soul singers, a large horn section, organ players and the full regalia that eventually becomes, what is now commonly known as the, "Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band," sound. Part Rock and Roll, part Soul, part Rhythm and Blues, part Folk, part Gospel: Got any other parts ? It's a dragster, with dual manifolds, hopped up octane, candy coated paint job, pinstripes and more chrome than anyone could imagine, and yes, there is a naked lady in the front seat. Bruce is driving, sometimes recklessly. His people are not at all unlike the characters in, "American Graffiti," some will die in Vietnam, some will become bankers, some will marry farmers, most will barely struggle through middle age with kids, divorces and jobs that disappear, all are purely American. He's still out there. He's more powerful than ever. That is why, today, we honor the spirit of one of America's, and the World's, greatest living Rock & Roll Icons: Mr. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
PAINTER : TRISTAN EATON The POST MODERN PAINTINGS
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE / 2016
All Images are Details from Mr Eaton's Work originally Exhibited at Subliminal Projects
We Highly suggest that You Download The Entire magazine for a complete View of the Art
Today, we are looking into the paintings of one, Mr. Tristan Eaton. Whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently and more than that, thoroughly enjoyed his new paintings that were briefly on display at Shepard Fairey's Art Gallery in Echo Park, California USA. Mr. Fairey, having helped to elect an American President, almost eight years ago, and since then, been sued by a number of people from the Associated Press to cities and countries worldwide, for plastering his images around the globe, has opened his own gallery, thus saving 50% of all sales to one day, send his kids to college, and to, know doubt, settle the many lawsuits from either appropriating images to placing them upon buildings and billboards which did not want those images placed.
He is a keen businessman as well as an artist and now, a gallery owner in his own right. Mr Eaton's recent exhibit, is indeed, one of the best, so far. Large, small and medium size paintings that could indeed be described as Post-Modern. Which we will soon find out, is an impossible to define word, that has saved me a hell of a lot of trouble in having to, "Tell You," what this art is all about. Beauty, as they say, "Is In The Eye of the Beholder." What does that mean exactly ? He or She who sees the beauty, owns and even possesses that Beauty. Or quite possibly, Beauty is a thing that looks beautiful, to any eye that thinks so. My last name's not WEBSTER, no worries. My own eye's indeed see much beauty in Mr. Eaton's work. I [ EYE ] also see a swift and serious improvement in his application of materials, in his ability to balance the story, in his composition and the entire range of subject matter, colors choices and serious style.
" The Paintings Vex A Viewers Visceral Verisimilitude."
Utilizing airbrush, silkscreen, hand painted and all manner of tools. Mr. Eaton has crafted, cobbled and cajoled a series of pre-existing images from a wide variety of sources, some familiar, others obscure. Like a giant bowl with hundreds of ancient matchbooks in a thrift shop somewhere along Route 66. Employing ephemera of multi-colored pamphlets, maps, newspaper cutouts and popular imagery across the American diaspora. The paintings vex a viewers visceral verisimilitude. There is no turning away from his work. The art demands to be looked at. Sometimes it is the color vibrancy : Florescent Orange. Other times it is simple line that swirls around the subjects.
More often than not, it is the painstakingly pure and eye-popping representation of a particular subject : A Native American, A Woman's Face, A Surveyor's Tools, A Horse Rearing, A Lion Roaring, The Statue of Liberty and Plenty of graphic sign painting styles that allow Mr. Eaton's imagination to enter into our own. The Newest Works have transformed from experimentation and dabbling into a realm of Mindscape/Landscapes.
These are full on visual flashbacks, as sweet as the candy coated paint job on any Low Riders 1965 Chevy and as informed and interesting as any Professor or Art historian's lectures, from Hoboken to Harvard. Not overly educated, neither overly erratic. Mr. Tristan Eaton is simply, "Blowing-Doors," [ A Surf Term which could be defined as : Knocking over all the kooks in his path. Possibly derived from the story of The Three Little Pigs and the Wolf at The Door Fable.] on wanna - be's all across the Art World. Let's forget about the definition of POSTMODERN. Mr. Tristan Eaton is a Painter, an Artist and a Storyteller with skills, style & broad strokes that cannot be denied. This is THE END.
TRISTAN EATON : The PAINTER + POST MODERN PAINTING
Exhibited SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS: http://www.subliminalprojects.com
HENDRIK BEIKIRCH / BUREAU EUROPEAN ART PICK / SPRING 2016
BUREAU EUROPEAN ART PICK MURALIST HENDRIK BEIKIRCH
Long ago, paintings and particularly the portraits of individuals were relegated to royalty . In America, The famous New York "Ash Can School," as it was commonly known, broke those traditions. In Europe, Van Gogh, Lautrec and later, Cezanne and The Fauves, did the same. These days artist's such as Germany's, Hendrik Beikirch are following in that tradition. Taking the common man and giving him or her the kind of attention and respect, through portraiture, that president's and royalty usually receive. Beikirch's work is utilized and celebrated on a grand scale. He created the, "Largest Work in Asia," in 2012, located in South Korea's second largest city, Busan. He has followed that record breaking work with the largest Work in India and continues to seek invitations across the world. Most Muralists, for the sake of accurate application, utilize grid patterns or projectors, Mr. Beikirch does not.
Tap The Link to Visit The Artist's Personal Website : HendrikBeikirch.com
BUREAU GUEST ARTIST PAINTER ERIK OLSON
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Joshua TRILIEGI : Modern Artists in today's day and age, seldom paint, yet you, a youngish artist, have taken to the medium with a 'Very Painterly Style', brush strokes abound: Why?
Erik OLSON : There is no reason to paint really. I’ve always made drawings but it was around the time that I got my first job, painting houses, that I also started trying to put paint to canvas. That summer I found a love for the medium – it’s transformative potential – and I’ve been focused on it ever since. Painting is one of the oldest, most basic and direct art forms. In the same way that we need stories, singing and dancing we need painting.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Joshua TRILIEGI : You discuss color and utilize its power accordingly. Would you talk about that power a bit theoretically?
Erik OLSON : One of painting's particular qualities is its direct connection to pure color. The relativity of color and its interplay within a canvas is fascinating to me. I try to tune my colors higher than in nature: I am not trying to make an image that is realistic, let alone photographic. I try to use color to express what it is like to think or feel. I work with images but it is color that puts me most at ease in its evocative, suggestive and flexible interpretations.
Joshua TRILIEGI : When it comes to creating bold bodies of work, I have always felt that genuine curiosity in a proficient talent can take leaps and bounds above a real pro who is seasoned to perfection.
Erik OLSON : Curiosity, at large, leads me to topics of interest, at least for myself. A body of work often begins with an open question on a topic or something I am interested in. I follow my curiosity down these roads without knowing exactly where I’ll end up. It’s a balance of heading in with intention and direction but also reacting to the unplanned and unexpected. The world is a fascinating place, if I chase the sites and situations that most interest me, I tend to end up in some pretty interesting places. I let the paintings flow from that. The need to make paintings, the need to communicate, is what drives me and yet it’s what I discover along the way that in turn informs the paintings. I try to use this process with all my work.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Joshua TRILIEGI : Give us a list of your most lucrative alliances with music, your paintings and why?
Erik OLSON :
1 Bob Dylan: If marooned on a desert island, I’d bring the Dylan records.
2 Philip Glass: The repetition keeps me on point.
3 The War on Drugs: One of my favorites these days; Great, rolling, driving, experimental rock.
4 David Bowie : Especially the early albums and the late ones.
5 La Düsseldorf : Local talent from Düsseldorf itself.
6 Recomposed Vivaldi : the Four Seasons by Max Richter & Robot Koch.
7 VietCong : Kick-ass band from my hometown, Calgary.
8 Joe Strummer : Always been a fan of the Clash, but love his albums with the Mescalero’s.
9 Amjad Ali Khan : Heard this man play the Sarod while in India. Incredible Indian classical.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Joshua TRILIEGI : Size also plays a key role in your work, yet power is seldom sacrificed, some of your smallest works seems extremely effective, ruminate on all things large and small and how they affect us.
Erik OLSON : That's one of the things about a painting, it is an image but it is also an object with a particular scale. The painting and the viewer, the relation of scale between the two is one of the variables, like color or imagery that you have to entertain within the painting. The scale of the painting and the scale of the subject matter, the dynamism between these scales is hard to describe but is something I think about and try to use. I think some of my really small portraits are some of my most powerful paintings and some of the really large pictures the most playful.
Joshua TRILIEGI : You dabble in sculpture and also have a clean-collage-like-technique when building a painting, talk about the diagonal split that we see in some of the early work.
Erik OLSON : The “diagonal split” first appeared in a painting I made of a multicolored shack that I saw on the island of Roatan, Honduras, in 2005. The shack was built from broken pieces of differently sized and painted slats of wood in what, at a cursory glance, appeared to be an utterly haphazard manner – and probably was – but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the integrity of this “spontaneous and fortuitous assemblage” has stayed with me. I have used the motif of that structure in many of my portraits, in my sculptures and even in some early landscape paintings. I’ve made many more paintings than sculptures but I also think about sculpture a lot as I paint. I like to take my time on the sculptures and have them sitting around the studio as I work. Slopping paint on them from time to time as necessary.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Does literature or design or film or philosophy enter into your process, share some impressionable works which have directly influenced the work?
Erik OLSON : I try to let it all in – literature, design, film and philosophy – Not all at once, of course... but it might be more accurate to say that wherever my interests lead me I try to leave myself open to recognizing it when it turns up, whether in film, architecture, park design, advertising, graffiti, even – imagine – when it arrives from viewing art. While I was motorcycling through India in 2010, I read 'The Living Tradition' by the painter K.G. Subramanyan. His generation of artists in the 1960's were responding to modernism and how to deal with it in relation to Indian folk art traditions. His writing explores the idea of the “living tradition”, the notion that it is possible to maintain a cultural tradition and yet allow it to grow and change by merging with outside influences. As an artist of my generation there’s something about this attitude that appeals to me. I always try to keep the artists of the past that I love in my back pocket while looking forward. It’s really this idea that if you take something from the past, combine it with something from the present you’ll end up with something new. This seems to be an approach that almost all of the artists I admire use to some degree. It is not that the point is to make something new or novel, I think that it is more important than that: I think that this is fundamental to how creativity works.
Joshua TRILIEGI : You have been working overseas in Germany, take us on a small tour of Düsseldorf.
Eric OLSON : Düsseldorf is cool place to be right now. It is a relatively small city – about a half million proper – but is right next door to a bunch of interesting cities; Cologne, Bonn and Mülheim to name a few which collaborate to create an urban area of nearly 18 million with all the attendant myriad of galleries, museums and culture you might expect in a European metropolis. However, when in Düsseldorf it's all about Kunstakademie, which is what originally brought me here. The Kunstakademie is an unusual experience. The building, constructed in the late 1800’s, is a huge neo-classical structure with vast studio spaces. It was purpose-built for painting and I think perhaps more than any other school in the world, it retains a bold posture towards avant-garde painting. In many ways it’s more a giant studio building than an art school in its gritty physicality.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Do you believe that art can change the world: Picasso's Guernica for instance, or are we here to make the place [ Earth ] look better, Papa Matisse for example ?
Erik OLSON : Francoise Gilot put it much better than I am able to in her book 'Matisse and Picasso': Matisse wanted to reach a non-dualistic, global vision of the universe as permeated by love in the broad sense of the term. His primary goal was to unite. Pablo was possessed by the desire to know, to analyze, to discover, even if that meant in part to destroy or to divide. Matisse seemed to believe that the ultimate reality in the universe was an innate thrust toward coherence in all things, and he wanted to join in, while Pablo suspected an inherent malignancy in the general scheme of things. Basically Manichean, he felt that the die were loaded, that it was incumbent upon him to find out where and why.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Do you have some advise for Younger artists ?
The BUREAU INTERVIEW MATHILDE GRAFSTRÖM
BUREAU : How did PHOTOGRAPHY originally attract You as a Medium to express oneself ?
Mathilde Grafstrom : I grew up with a father who loved to photograph, and I used to read his National Geographic magazines as a teenager. The photographs fascinated me and I began to dream of traveling around the world and becoming a great photographer someday. I would also like to share my father's interest to be able to spend more time with him, so I asked him if he would teach me the art . He quickly lost patience in me, because I am a slow learner and did not understand his explanations . But it did not take the spirit from me, I taught myself the art over the years. I must admit that I wanted to impress my father by being clever enough to create images, but I never really managed to do so, in spite of my current success as a photographer. To this day, I seek his approval, even though I know it's silly, I guess, I am, in many ways, still a little girl seeking for a fathers love and approval.
BUREAU : Could you explain your most recent project and how the cancellation of your photo exhibit thrust your photo art into the international limelight ?
Mathilde Grafstrom : My current project, which I have worked on for almost three years, openly displays what natural beauty is. I photograph a woman from her truest side and thus one sees what qualities she posesses. I do not understand the deeper issues such as philosophy or that kind, so I stick to what I do best: to show women's beauty through my lens. And maybe I can show that beauty is not what is on the surface, but what you exude when you are most yourself. Since I am a simple and self taught girl from the country side in Denmark, I do not entirely understand what the recent international breakthrough means, but of course, I hope that people out there are enjoying my pictures and that one day I can make a difference in the world with my projects. I understand now what neo - puritanism means and that it is not good for society, so if my breakthrough can change this sad trend, I am very satisfied. How my art got to the international media, was through the danish TV2 who wrote about my exhibition that was not allowed by the authorities, and this was picked up by the Independent in Britain, and after that the articles exploded all over the world!
BUREAU : How long have you been taking pictures and what is it about the female form do you think is always so ' controversial, ' according to governments across the world ?
Mathilde Grafstrom : I have photographed since I was about 13 years, but the female beauty project started 2.5 years ago. What I think makes my photographs of the female bodies controversial is that they stand in contrast to the wave of neo - puritanism which is upon us today. It feels like we are living in the 1950s in many ways. The naked and innocent body obviously cannot be tolerated by many because we have become too uptight in our attitude to the body and we judge it as being something dirty and that sexuality is something dangerous that we should not talk too much about. My work is a reminder that it is not the body itself, which is impure, but people's attitudes towards it.
BUREAU : Has the most recent intent to edit your works changed the way you look at art, explain how it has effected your work ?
Mathilde Grafstrom: The censorship I've experienced has not affected me in such a sense that I photograph any different than before. I am just becoming more aware that advertising and money has become more important than art. It's incredibly sad that art is suppressed in this way and I have set myself up to fight for my right to be an artist and to show my work, and it's not only a fight for myself as an artist, but also for other artists living in Denmark and in the world. I believe that it's important that art is higher up on the priority list than money! Politicians in Denmark, due to recent censoring from the authorities, have begun to look at whether the rules should be changed, and I am delighted by that. The police must not be a moral authority, and art should only be censored on quality not on the degree of nudity, that is absurd. Naked bodies have always been a major part of the arts, and it must remain like that despite people's prudishness.
BUREAU : Could you discuss why these images are important to you as an artist and why ?
Mathilde Grafstrom : My art is important to me in the sense that it is the work that makes me happy. And it's important to me that young women's self - image is more natural. Many women suffer from today's beauty ideal and I'm happy to be able to show images to the world of what natural beauty is, and hope that they make such a big impression that they can influence society in a healthy direction. I think it is unhealthy for women to always think they are not beautiful enough. We are naturally beautiful as we are. Why make us into something false which is not beautiful and it makes us so unhappy? I love the cliché, "Love Yourself As You Are," because it is so true. But first we must look at who we have become and then find ourselves again.
BUREAU : Let our readers know how they can view, purchase and participate in your upcoming photographic projects.
Mathilde Grafstrom: My photographs can be viewed and you can also support the project by buying a picture or contact me directly to actually participate as a model or investor.
BUREAU FILM PICK LOS ANGELES : TRUMBO
"Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane and John Goodman All Deserve Nominations by The Academy. Jay Roach and John McNamara Deserves Much more than that. This is Brave, This is Powerful, This is TRUMBO, An Important Film in 2015 or ANY year ! "
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
THE ACADEMY AWARDS & ALL PEOPLE OF COLOR
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE E - MAGAZINE JAN 23rd 2016
Film lovers, film critics, film goers, film makers and film aficionados all seem to be giving their opinions, dissertations and criticisms on the lack of diversity at this years Academy Awards. Anyone who is familiar with this publication knows how much we have been influenced by African American Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians and everyday people. From John Coltrane to Spike Lee, from Ice-T to Malcolm X, from Interviews and Essays on Compton Sculptor Charles Dickson, Oakland's JAHI, Leimert Park's Barbara Morrison, Poet Sabreen Shabazz or Baltimore photographer Kanayo Adibe, who is actually from Africa.
We at this publication are more diverse than anyone in this publishing game. If you really want to talk about diversity, at least from us, one need only look at my personal commitment to Los Angeles and it's incredible array of nationalities represented in the three year Fiction project entitled, "They Call It They City of ANGELS." I have been watching this controversy unfold and as it unravels, find it is time to join in the conversation. This is a tough one. For starters, I am from Los Angeles, so I don't have that chip on the shoulder towards the Hollywood elite that taints so much of the National and International dialogue. Nor am I overly impressed with celebrity, we see it everyday, grew up with it, even work with it on occasion. The East Coast film critic's, like A.O. Scott, whom I have always admired and many others, have found it easy to slam, dismiss and criticize the Academy. A simple assessment is any easy way out of actually thinking about and truly wondering what all this is really about. I think this issue deserves more than that. Let's see if we can take this further. Spike Lee has taught many of us, who are not of African dissent what it is like to be, 'Of Color.' Spike has given us some of the best moments ever. To me personally, these are not black moments, these are simply human experiences, but to many, Spike Lee explained what was up. The humor, the sadness, the beauty, the irony, the struggle, the defiance, the pride and the poverty, all personified, in his many films. I should explain that Spike, for many of us looking to make films in the early Eighties, us without money, was very important. How important ? Well, he was so significant to me, that on my first trip to New York City, the first thing I did, was take a cab from the airport directly to his newly opened store and purchased the Forty Acres and a Mule, his production companies name, sweatshirt, which I still own to this day. We studied his books and we knew that, maybe, we too could make films, without much money. Okay, my personal biases have been exposed, you know how long I've been in this, we got that out of the way.
"To me personally, these are not black moments, these are simply human experiences, but to many, Spike Lee explained what was up. The humor, the sadness, the beauty, the irony, the struggle, the defiance, the pride and the poverty, all personified, in his many films."
Spike Lee's catalogue is a glossary of life as he knows it with many great moments. I even remember the day, the very day that I saw the film trailer for his first movie, "She's Gotta have IT." Spike is standing on the corner selling, "Three tube socks for five dollars, three tube socks for five dollars, If you don't come and see my movie, I will still be here selling three tube socks for five dollars." I knew then and there, that this dude was someone I wanted to check out. Same feeling when I saw Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise, I thought, this cat is going to do something interesting and I am going to be there when he does, and, he did. When you are part of a community, wether it is film or art or music or design or photography or surfing or architecture or literature, something happens to you, you are drawn to a particular medium and you either, A. Go to School or B. Seek Knowledge, there are other options, I did a little of both. The point is, if you really, really love the medium, as Quentin Tarantino will tell you, "Than, you can become a filmmaker." Same rule applies for other arts, to a certain extent. Most writers of note agree that good writing can't be taught, it can be honed, but you have to have something, to begin with: experience. When I was first drawn to the Art World, I was very naive, in my mind, I pictured a world of artists and galleries and writers and thought they would all be waiting to welcome me, like a long lost family. I had no idea how treacherous, lecherous and venomous the experience could be. We all go through this experience. Spike Lee talks about waiting for the calls to come in after his first film, an after school special, anything, but the phone did not ring. I went through that with my art, with my films, with this magazine, and I'm what is commonly known as, "A white dude."
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
So, we, as people persevere and the work gets better and we continue to offer it to this thing we call a community, but, after all, it's a business and so, we straddle the monster and somehow squeeze moments, images, ideas into something coherently transformative, entertaining, sometimes educational and other times simply something that feels correct, it has a flow, an authenticity and a lasting result of some sort. It could be a film, it could be a book, it could be an image. Filmmaking in particular is an odd mixture of literature, theatre and science. There are levels of excellence and levels of experience and every now and then, even a newcomer can totally blow away those who have been in the game for decades, like Paul Thomas Anderson did with his epic entry into the big leagues with, "Boogie Nights." Speaking of discovering new levels of performing, I will never forget how brave Mark Whalberg's performance was in that film. We knew we were witnessing something very rare. As far as Spike Lee's journey goes, it has been harrowing actually, and right from the get go, controversy has been a part of his work, on and off the screen. He was a man of color entering what was considered a white mans medium.
"John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, John Huston, to name a few, all great filmmakers, telling great stories about what they knew, and what they knew, was mostly what they experienced, which was mostly from an Anglo viewpoint."
John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, John Huston, to name a few, all great filmmakers, telling great stories about what they knew, and what they knew, was mostly what they experienced, which was mostly from an Anglo viewpoint. Now, you should also know that Italian filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese also faced extremely harsh experiences when dealing with, not only the Academy and West Coast film studios, but the public's reaction to the films that he had made. Many people forget that his life was actually threatened when the nomination for a young Jody Foster in his epic film Taxi Driver, came to the fore. Eventually, the studios realized that, the public wanted to see these films and the Academy honored their originality and their craft: breakthroughs were made. Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma and John Cassavettes, took what DeSica, Fellini and Visconti had going back in Italy and rejuvenated the tradition. If you were a Swedish American, you had Ingmar Bergman. If you were a German American, you had Fritz Lang. If you were a French American, you had Truffaut. If you were an African American, you did not have a reference point per se, in Africa. You had Melvin VanPeebles, when it came to directing, but most of the time, you had, a white director, a white producer, a white writer, telling a black story.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
The black director working with the black actor, and a black writer was rare, actually, it still is rare. I am sure, through the years, from the personification of the maids in Gone With The Wind, to the criminals in The French Connection, to the entire blaxploitation films of the 1970s, that African Americans got sick and tired of seeing shit on the screen that did not, could not and would not properly represent who they were, who they are and what they were really experiencing. Imagine a young Spike Lee watching, for the first time, "Birth of a Nation," with it's blatant viewpoints. That's some motivation to tell it like it is. The so-called, 'black man,' which is a label that irks the hell out of me every time I hear it. Why do I have to use this label to discuss another human being? Check out the speeches of Malcolm X on this subject. The very fact that young people today have to REMIND America and Universities and Politicians that BLACK LIVES MATTER is a real sign of where we are at today. The fact that the Supreme Court is swaying so far as to deny the rights of African Americans is simply absurd. Black people are being shot down all across America and here we are with one of the smartest, most patient, charismatic and open minded Presidents in the history of this great land, and, oh yeah, he just happens to Not Be WHITE. So, is all of this a backlash ? Maybe it is. Are we still in denial of our history? Maybe we are. Is boycotting the Academy Awards going to make a difference? Maybe it will. But most likely, it will simply start a dialogue and, I imagine, that is what Spike Lee is doing. What many don't know is that Spike Lee was actually given an honorary Oscar Award at the Governor's Ball earlier this year and so, his defiance has a particularly stinging effect. Already the Academy is exclaiming to now expand it's membership in some new and diverse way. Okay, that's a beginning. Here is where things get tricky. Will Smith, who is really a progeny of the Hollywood entertainment industry, having started on television with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, forays into pop music and eventually taking on controversial and brave film roles such as, "Six Degrees of Separation," which was a particularly dangerous career choice that payed off well and led to his stellar performance as the Greatest Boxer, Poet and Anti War activist ever in, "ALI," has made a film this year, "Concussion," with a phenomenal performance, as an African doctor, who takes on, of all powerful entities, the National Football League, also known as the NFL. It just so happens that the SuperBowl, presented by the NFL and The Oscar Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, are the two largest advertising events of the entire year. The money to be made selling automobiles, beverages and entertainment products is unfathomable to the average person. The politics of which films gets nominated is much deeper, and complicated than any one of us can imagine. Both media events happen in February. Will Smith, who has done very well with big Hollywood, big entertainment and big advertising was not nominated for an award this year. Will Smith's lovely and articulate wife, Jada, was one of the first West Coast personalities, to come out for the boycott. Unfortunately, it appeared to many, and even to me, that Mr. Smith, having been snubbed, possibly sulking around the house wondering what more he had to do to get some recognition for outstanding work in his chosen business, complained privately, and in confidence to his life mate, who then came out against the lack of diversity at this years awards. People in the industry began to dismiss her objection. Reactions came quick and harsh, from former cast members to just about anyone. Lets face it, people are jealous of those who get the big bucks, those who get the accolades, those at the top of the pyramid. What I would like to remind both Will and Jada is that, first, you made a great film, secondly, and most importantly, the real reason you did not get nominated was not at all that you are a person with some color. Most likely, the reason you did not get nominated is clearly because you took on the National Football League in your film. It's the equivalent of my magazine writing an in depth article about how bad for your health drinking Coca Cola and eating at McDonalds is and then calling them for advertising. You made a brave film about the NFL and the entertainment industry sacked you. That is to be expected. These people play hard ball, this is big business in America folks. But, it was a brave move, so, like ALI, you gotta float like a butterfly 'cause you already stung like a bee.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
But wait, that's not all, ye old plot thickens. Conscientious white actors, such as the extremely socially active and aware Mark Ruffalo has now decided that he may not attend. Amazing since he is actually a Nominated Actor in what people call, a "Main Category." First of all people, ALL CATEGORIES at The Academy Awards are MAIN CATEGORIES. The first thing you learn as an actor or a technician in the world of Theatre and Film is the tired, but true maxim that, "There are no small parts, only small actors," The same is true for categories and awards. The fact that Mr. Ruffalo announced his concerns, prior to the Academy actually voting on a final winner is amazing. So then, Spike Lee has made a difference. But here's the problem, do we really want to have this award or that award go to someone of color because there was a boycott ? What will that do to the process over a long period of time ? Will the Academy then be forced to give a person of color a slot because we made them do it ? The token award, like the token cast member who brings in a demographic ? That could get very convoluted. And then we have to ask ourselves, where are the Latino Actors ? Where are the Asian Actors ? The fact of the matter is, many of the actors in nominated and winning slots have been from England and Australia ? Some media personalities have joked that American White Actors should be up in arms about the Academy's policies and choices. I would like to see powerful celebrities like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett stand up to the Supreme Court who are currently about to gut the rights of African Americans and women across the nation. Who cares about the gold at the top, when the people who watch your films are so damn poor, they have to watch bootlegged versions of your films on the internet ?
The Songwriter, Actor and Producer, Ice Cube, who has done very well with his film franchise, starting with the breakthrough, "Friday," which my, 'white,' nephew turned me onto years ago, has received a nomination via his screenwriters in this years film, "Straight Outta Compton." When asked recently on BBC Television, what he thought of the recent upheaval, he simply replied, in that no nonsense style, that we have come to love and respect, that he doesn't make films for awards, he makes them for the fans, he makes them for the curious, he makes them to tell a story, and if they don't get awards, maybe it's time to walk away. Then he added, "How can you boycott something that you never attended to begin with ? " Which does put a lot of this in perspective. My office is not far from South Central. I see the real problems facing my African American friends and neighbors. My work takes me into areas of Downtown where thousands of African American people live on the streets. I watch whats happening across the country. I read newspapers in almost every state of the union. The real problems of unity, diversity and justice won't necessarily happen through the entertainment industry. We as Americans need to deal with our past. We need a return to manufacturing and jobs. We need to deal with the Corporate takeover that happened years ago. We need to embrace our differences and unify through those variations. If they don't give us awards, and if Coca-Cola and McDonalds doesn't advertise in our magazine, then, we have simply got to do, what we have always done and always will do, in the words of the late great Curtis Mayfield, we've got to, "Keep on Pushin'."
THE ACADEMY AWARDS AND ALL PEOPLE OF COLOR By Joshua A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE E - MAGAZINE JAN 23rd 2016
CHI - RAQ : www.officialchiraqthemovie.com
BUREAU FILM PICK MID WEST : CHI-RAQ
"Another Tour-de-Force by One of America's Most Controversial Directors, Spike Lee. Somewhere between The Best of Shakespeare and Woody Allen's, "Mighty Aphrodite," CHI - RAQ hits you like The Wind off the Waterfront with Sex appeal, Style and unforgettable Blackness. Unapologetic in it's authority, unrelenting in it's pace and all the while, contemporary, cool and chilling. Oh, yeah, it's also got that trademark humor that only Mr. Lee and his team of filmmakers provides. The film that had the Mayor of Chicago complaining about the title and later, apologizing for his police department's policies. Maybe films will make a difference, when politicians and their promise's ring hollow, ART will prevail."
MARTHA GRAHAM
Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer and teacher, New York, 1961, By Arnold Newman, 45 1/2 x 53 1/2" Gelatin silver print ©1961 Getty Images Courtesy of Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco USA
AMERICAN SPIRIT
“A Dance Reveals the Spirit of the Country in Which It Takes Root. No Sooner Does it Fail to Do This, Than It Loses its Integrity and Significance …”
- Martha GRAHAM
American Choreographer
A Platform for the American Dance 1937
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer, It is permitting life to use you, in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless, it is inevitable.”
- Martha GRAHAM
American Choreographer
A Platform for the American Dance 1937
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Martha Graham’s creativity crossed artistic boundaries and embraced every artistic genre. She collaborated with and commissioned work from the leading visual artists, musicians, and designers of her day, including sculptor Isamu Noguchi and fashion designers Halston, Donna Karan, and Calvin Klein, as well as composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti.Influencing generations of choreographers and dancers including Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp, Graham forever altered the scope of dance. Classical ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov sought her out to broaden their artistry, and artists of all genres were eager to study and work with Graham—she taught actors including Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Madonna, Liza Minelli, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Joanne Woodward to utilize their bodies as expressive instruments.
Martha Graham was always a strong advocate of the individual throughout her career, creating works such as Deaths and Entrances (1943), Appalachian Spring (1944), Dark Meadow (1946), and Errand into the Maze (1947) to explore human and societal complexities. The innovative choreography and visual imagery of American Document (1938) exemplified her genius. The dramatic narrative, which included the Company’s first male dancer, explored the concept of what it means to be American. Through the representation of important American cultural groups such as Native Americans, African-Americans, and Puritans and the integration of text from historical American documents, Graham was able to capture the soul of the American people.
Graham’s groundbreaking style grew from her experimentation with the elemental movements of contraction and release. By focusing on the basic activities of the human form, she enlivened the body with raw, electric emotion. The sharp, angular, and direct movements of her technique were a dramatic departure from the predominant style of the time. Consistently infused with social, political, psychological, and sexual themes, Graham’s choreography is timeless, connecting with audiences past and present. Works such as Revolt (1927), Immigrant: Steerage, Strike (1928), and Chronicle (1936)—created the same year she turned down Hitler’s invitation to perform at the International Arts Festival organized in conjunction with the Olympic Games in Berlin—personify Graham’s commitment to addressing challenging contemporary issues and distinguish her as a conscientious and politically powerful artist.
JANET EILBER has been the Martha Graham Center Artistic Director since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to the Graham masterworks. These initiatives include designing contextual programming, educational and community partnerships, use of new media, commissions and creative events such as the Lamentation Variations and Prelude and Revolt. She has also remixed Graham choreography and created new staging in the Graham style for theater/dance productions of The Bacchae and Prometheus Bound.Ms. Eilber worked closely with Martha Graham. She danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertoire. Visit Site to learn more about Current Dance Projects.
CAROL www.CAROLfilm.com
BUREAU FILM PICK SAN FRANCISCO : CAROL
"Another very well produced Film by one of Cinema's best Producers, Christine VACHON and Directed By Todd HAYNES, who went from underground filmmaker to someone with an International voice. Based on the Novel by Patricia Highsmith. With Performances that are wily, subtle and in insinuatingly enticing. The script takes the Graham Green Novel, "End of The Affair," and flips it conversely into: The End of the Marriage. Twenty years ago, this film would have been categorized as, quote un quote: Queer Cinema. Thanks to progressive movements across the world, it's now simply, A Great Film about Love and Desire. Wether it's a Streetcar or Under The Elms matters not. Love is Love. And this is a nice piece of Cinema."
America Quietly Asks Itself,
"Who Owns this MuhF*ckA?"
and The Answer IS: *YOU DO:
VOTE !
THE BUREAU INTERVIEW WALTER ROTHWELL
BUREAU : What originally attracted you to Photography ?
WALTER ROTHWELL : That was a bit of a round about journey. My first interest in art came through graffiti, that led to me studying design at college, as far as I knew then, I was going to be a graphic designer. That was all going well until my college suggested I should study a ‘filler’ subject. I had recently been on holiday and bought a plastic, compact 35mm camera, I had enjoyed using it, so I decided to take photography as the filler. The course required us to use a SLR, develop and print our photos, it sounds a bit cheesy, bit I literally fell in love with the whole process. The tutor also introduced me the works of Magnum Photo Agency, Don McCullin and others, my interest in graphic design started to wane, I went on to take an arts foundation course and then onto art college to study for a Higher National Diploma in photography.
"When I started taking pictures the street seemed the natural place to be, recording the people and places around me rather than studio work and as I discovered more about the history of documentary photography, it was the direction I wanted to go in."
BUREAU : Can you remember viewing photographs with an interest early in life or did the actual subjects of life speak to you first ? Explain that process.
WALTER ROTHWELL: My father was a Fleet Street journalist when I was growing up in the 1970’s, he used to get nearly all the Sunday papers which at the time came with well put together magazines. I remember waiting until he had finished with them and then pouring over the photo essays, top photographers producing in depth work. I had no real appreciation of them at the time or that photography would go on to be my life, I liked looking at the pictures. In retrospect I suppose those magazines must have had an influence on me, I lost interest in them as documentary photography and stories about the human condition drifted more towards celebrity and lifestyle. When I started taking pictures the street seemed the natural place to be, recording the people and places around me rather than studio work and as I discovered more about the history of documentary photography, it was the direction I wanted to go in.
BUREAU : Describe how the process of viewing and wishing to capture images works for you ?
WALTER ROTHWELL : The actual process of taking photos breaks down into three categories for me. The first kind of pictures almost present themselves, everything just falls into place and with a rush like no other, the shutter can be released in the knowledge you have got something special, but they are few and far between! The more common and probably more valuable is prediction, learning how to read a situation so the camera is ready when the elements come together. The last and probably the one I use the least is waiting for the subject to come to you. I have one body of work that involves people walking through a station on a bright sunny day in december, between 12-1pm, the only time the light is right, with the correct exposure the subject is rendered in pure light with a deep black background. With the unpredictable, or maybe that should be predictable, nature of British winter weather, this project has been ongoing for several years.
"I noticed that I was repeatedly seeing scenes that I wanted to capture but without all the top and bottom information a wide angle lens brings, cropping was out of the question as, other than commercial work, all my photographs are shot on 35mm film, the image would simply fall apart."
BUREAU : Much of your work is in Panorama. Explain why this format allows you to represent your vision of the world ? If you develop your prints share that process.
WALTER ROTHWELL : My interest in panoramic started around ten years ago, we had returned to London after a couple of years in the country and I was enjoying photographing the city again. I noticed that I was repeatedly seeing scenes that I wanted to capture but without all the top and bottom information a wide angle lens brings, cropping was out of the question as, other than commercial work, all my photographs are shot on 35mm film, the image would simply fall apart. I was intrigued about why I was seeing these images, I still question as to whether the fact I am half blind has something to do with it, my eye naturally sweeps left to right and panoramic feels as natural as a classic 35mm frame. The eventual solution was a Hasselblad X-Pan, it shoots one panoramic picture across two frames in effect giving the width and quality of medium format. It sounds odd but for a camera many think of as best for capturing sweeping landscapes, panoramic can be a great way of isolating details in the city. I always carry the X-Pan regardless of what I’m doing but it takes about a month on average to shoot a roll of film, when I see a certain scene my instant reaction and thought is ‘Panoramic’.
WALTER ROTHWELL : [ - cont ] The printing side was slightly more involved, I hand print in a darkroom, for me it’s the other half of photography and as much part of the vision as the taking. Getting hold of an 80mm printing lens was straight forward, but it took a long time to track down the correct condensers for my long since out of production enlarger. The negatives are a joy to print, the jump in quality from straight 35mm is palpable and the X-Pan lenses are beautifully sharp.
"I stopped just recording things and started to really look, delved deeper into the history of photography and learned a new appreciation for the whole art. At this point, although still photographing in the streets, I also started shooting longer, more involved bodies of work ..."
BUREAU : How long have you been taking photographs and describe the journey from your first works to the current ?
WALTER ROTHWELL : Around 25 years, from my late teens until now. My early photos were pretty straightforward, as was my printing, at first the mere fact of being able to take, develop and print photographs was enough to get me hooked. A wonderful tutor on my arts foundation course first started to open my eyes to the connection between content, exposure and finally the importance of printing. I stopped just recording things and started to really look, delved deeper into the history of photography and learned a new appreciation for the whole art. At this point, although still photographing in the streets, I also started shooting longer, more involved bodies of work, I still enjoy both branches, street photography is about the moment, documentary about the story, although there is a happy overlap. In 2007 I embarked on what is my longest piece of work yet, an ongoing study of the Bedouin community that live and work around the pyramids of Giza. I feel privileged to have been welcomed into their lives, the first photographer as far as I am aware, to have done so. Their existence as a community is under threat from a government plan to bar them from the pyramids, ending a generations old way of life. Without the pyramids they will have no reason or way to stay together as a community and a unique enclave of Cairo will disappear. Street photography I do because I can’t help it! I always carry a camera, feel a bit panicky if I don’t have one to hand, it’s impossible to turn that part of my brain off so I may as well have one with me. I am a member of the Street Photography International collective, a talented group of photographers and an inspiring environment to be part of.
45 YEARS www.45yearsfilm.com
BUREAU FILM PICK THE SOUTH : 45 YEARS
" 45 Years is a quiet meditation. An elliptical, subtle and deeply moving look at relationships, commitments and the consequences of history. Charlotte Rampling has been amassing a series of performances over the past decade, from "Swimming Pool," over a decade ago, to this new project, which have given actresses over a certain age, hope, that there is no end date to your career. American audiences will remember her from Woody Allen's, "Stardust Memories," while those of us with a European bent, remember her early work in Visconti's, "The Damned." An actress with several audiences across the globe : German, French, English and American cinema goers all know and love Ms. Rampling. Tom Courtney, who made his big splash during the working class U.K. Film period of the 1960's with the stellar, " Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner, " gives a fine performance, with a script by director Andrew Haigh, one of the few Author / Directors in The Running. It's nice to know that they still make movies for Mature Audiences."
LIFE IS GOOD : WHEN YOU DO THE WORK
What Do Mark Twain, Joseph Campbell, William Burroughs, Lady Ga Ga, Confucius, John Mellencamp, Andy Warhol and Einstein, All have in Common ? Order Our New Paperback Edition of LIFE IS GOOD: When You Do The WORK By Author & Noted Life Coach, Maria Francesca Triliegi for Only $20.00 and Find out Now. Includes Shipping and Handling Direct from Us To Your Front Door. With Original Art Illustrations By BUREAU Artist Christina Habberstock.
SPOTLIGHT www.spotlightthefilm.com
BUREAU FILM PICK SEATTLE : SPOTLIGHT
"A return to the kind of filmmaking that actually reflects reality. Calm, cohesive and calculated, this could be a documentary. Painstakingly paced to provide a glimpse into the kind of reporting that makes real journalism heroic. This film should have every newspaper in America rethinking how they do business. Sometimes we forget that what Bernstein and Woodward did for America by exposing Richard Nixon, was a defining moment that we must never again accept. Now, of course, your newspapers are owned by a handful of people in power. Many whom work directly with your government. Ruffalo gives his best, in a quiet and simmering fashion. Directed with a steady hand. Well Produced with no sensationalism, or sympathetic haze, just the facts and that is a very sobering experience. Brave filmmaking at it's finest."
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
THE U. S. SUPREME COURT :
A CHALLENGE TO EQUALITY FOR ALL AMERICANS
By David H. Gans / Reprinted By Permission of The Author and The New Republic
How A legal mastermind seeks to gut affirmative action and voting rights by rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment through the U.S. Supreme Court.Ed Blum is not a lawyer. Instead, he recruits plaintiffs, hires counsel, and helps to finance litigation designed to move the law sharply to the right on issues of race and voting. Two years ago, Blum helped to bring two cases to the Supreme Court, Shelby County v. Holder, which sought to gut the Voting Rights Act, and Fisher v. University of Texas, which was designed to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. Now, with two cases from Texas, including a second trip to the Supreme Court for the Fisher case, he is hoping to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment’s broad guarantee of equality, seeking to sharply limit affirmative action on college campuses and deny unnaturalized immigrants, children, and others equal representation in state legislatures. Blum’s campaign seeks to turn the Fourteenth Amendment into an obstacle to efforts to ensure real equality, denying the government the power to redress our nation’s long history of racial discrimination.
In December of 2015, the Court heard Evenwel v. Abbott, Blum’s effort to change the rules for state legislative redistricting. Our Constitution promises equal representation for all persons, and across the nation, states draw districts that contain a substantially equal number of persons, ensuring that all persons are represented. That’s what Texas did in 2013 when it enacted its current redistricting plan. In Evenwel, Blum’s team insists that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to draw districts on the basis of the state’s voter population, not its total population. In other words, only a subset of the population is entitled to representation in state legislatures. Blum’s argument is that unnaturalized immigrants, children, and other who lack access to the ballot should not be counted for purposes of legislative representation, which would unquestionably result in a major shift in political power away from urban population centers toward the whiter, more rural areas of the state. No court in history has ever accepted Blum’s radical claim—which would wreak havoc with the redistricting process and require a new kind of U.S. census—but Blum hopes to make history in the Evenwel case.
Making such far-reaching claims is Blum’s stock in trade. Two years ago, in Shelby County, Blum spearheaded the legal challenge that struck down one of the most important and successful parts of the Voting Rights Act, which had helped countless Americans exercise their constitutional right to vote. However, Blum’s attack on affirmative action that same year proved less successful. Abigail Fisher’s initial challenge to the race-conscious admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin, which uses race in an extremely modest way to help ensure a diverse student body and provide pathways to leadership for all persons regardless of race, resulted in a 7-1 opinion sending Fisher’s case back to the lower courts for a second look. The conservative-dominated Fifth Circuit upheld UT’s admissions policy again, and now Fisher will be back before the Supreme Court.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
This time around, Blum is hoping that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues join in a sweeping ruling striking down UT’s race-conscious admissions policy as a form of discrimination against white students. Blum wants universities across the nation to abandon admissions policies that, for decades, have helped our nation realize the promise of equal opportunity for all regardless of race. The Fourteenth Amendment—which turns 150 next year—is at the heart of both Evenwel and Fisher. In both cases, Blum’s argument depends on turning a blind eye to the basic facts of Fourteenth Amendment history. Blum’s claim that representation should be based on the number of voters was explicitly rejected in the debates over the Fourteenth Amendment. Following the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment debated whether to base representation in Congress on total population or on the number of eligible voters, with many members of Congress introducing proposals to amend the Constitution to change the basis of representation from total population to voter population. After seven months of heated debates, the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment decreed that the “whole population is represented; that although all do not vote, yet all are heard. That is the idea of the Constitution.” Evenwel is urging the Court to impose on the states a system of representation rejected during the Fourteenth Amendment’s great debate over the nature of representation. No wonder no court has ever accepted this argument.
"The Fourteenth Amendment—which turns 150 next year—is at the heart of both Evenwel and Fisher. In both cases, Blum’s argument depends on turning a blind eye to the basic facts of Fourteenth Amendment history."
Blum’s attack on the use of race to foster equality ignores that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment were the originators of affirmative action. The 39thCongress that wrote the amendment in 1866 recognized that forward-looking, race-conscious measures would help fulfill the Constitution’s promise of equality, “break down discrimination between whites and blacks,” and “ameliorat[e] . . . the condition of the colored people.” In writing the Fourteenth Amendment, the framers time and again rejected proposed constitutional language that would have prohibited race-conscious measures designed to foster equality of opportunity. Faced with the task of fulfilling President Abraham Lincoln’s promise of a “new birth of freedom” and integrating African Americans into the civic and economic life of the nation, the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment recognized that the Constitution could not be simplistically colorblind. Not only does the Fourteenth Amendment’s text permit government to enact race-conscious measures to fulfill the Constitution’s promise of equality, the framers enacted many such measures. Contemporaneous with the Fourteenth Amendment, the Reconstruction Congress repeatedly approved race-conscious assistance to African Americans, passing laws that provided educational assistance to newly free slaves as well as African American soldiers, helped to ensure that African American soldiers received bounties for their service in the Union army, and provided benefits to poor, destitute African Americans. The most prominent of these federal race-conscious measures was the Freedmen’s Bureau Act, which established a federal bureaucracy whose explicit mission was to provide assistance to African Americans, including food, clothing, health care, and employment.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Opposition to the nation’s first affirmative action programs, like Blum’s opposition to the use of race in college admissions, was phrased in terms of colorblindness. Opponents denounced the Freedman’s Bureau for making “a distinction on account of color between the two races” that made African Americans “superior” rather than “equal before the law.” The law, they insisted, was “in opposition to the plain spirit” of the Constitution. The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment consistently rejected these arguments. In their view, efforts to ensure equality of opportunity and assist African Americans in securing the full measure of freedom promised in the Fourteenth Amendment were consistent with, not contrary to, the new constitutional guarantee of equality. Will the justices accept Blum’s far-reaching arguments to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equality for all? We won’t know for sure for many months, but we’ll undoubtedly get a window into the justices’ thinking by the end of the two days of argument. Blum’s attack on the basic principle of equal representation for equal numbers of people should face an uphill battle. Evenwel’s case rests on the Fourteenth Amendment, but that amendment specifically requires “counting the whole number of persons in each State” in order to ensure that everyone has a voice in government and guarantees the equal protection of the laws to “any person,” not merely voters. No court in history has ever accepted the claim made by Evenwel, and the justices—both those on the right and those on the left—should recognize that Evenwel’s claim simply has no basis in the Constitution.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Painter Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Fisher will likely be closer, and will almost certainly turn on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s vote. Chief Justice John Roberts and a number of his conservative colleagues have repeatedly voted to strike down race-conscious educational policies as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Roberts’s myopic view—announced in the 2007 case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District that limited the authority of school districts to combat racial isolation—“the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” but he has yet to find a fifth vote to strike down governmental efforts to use race to foster equality. In Parents Involved, Kennedy sharply disagreed, explaining that Roberts’s opinion was “too dismissive of the legitimate interest government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity regardless of their race.” Two years ago, in Fisher, Kennedy recognized that the sensitive use of race in admissions “serves values beyond race alone, including enhanced classroom dialogue and the lessening of racial isolation and stereotypes.” Last term, in Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project, Kennedy split with Roberts and the Court’s other conservative justices, authoring a 5-4 ruling affirming that federal civil rights laws have to be broadly interpreted to promote integration and redress our nation’s long history of racial discrimination and oppression. That ruling explained that “[m]uch progress remains to be made in our Nation’s continuing struggle against racial isolation,” emphasizing the ways that “unconscious prejudices and disguised animus” that result from “covert and illicit stereotyping” stand in the way of ensuring equal opportunity to all. The question now, heading into the oral argument in Fisher, is whether Kennedy will break from Roberts once again, and honor the judgment of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment that government may use race to help realize the equal protection of the laws.
David H. GANS is The Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program at
The Constitutional Accountability Center 200 18th Street NW, Suite 501 Washington, DC 20036
The REVENANT www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant
BUREU SANTA BARBARA FILM PICK : THE REVENANT
"This is obviously going to be Leo's year. He's been working at this for decades, his work with Scorsese has paid off pleasantly, now he has found a vehicle worthy of his desires. Though, the real talent in this landmark adventure film must go to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, his camera persons and the entire technical crew that brought this film through to it's completion. The camerawork is endlessly in motion, dizzyingly dramatic and at the same time quietly observant. An epic spectacle that could not have come to the screen if not for the fifteen year investment in a career of incredible risks by Alejandro G. Iñárritu , the films director. "
150 YEARS AFTER LINCOLN and 50 YEARS AFTER THE BIG PUSH FORWARD: Where Are WE ?
Photo Essay by Photographer Stephen Somerstein civil rights march in Montgomery, Year 1965.
Courtesy of the Photographer and The New York Historical Society Museum and Library
The BUREAU PROFILE:
DOCTOR LAKRA / AKA Jerónimo López Ramírez
Jerónimo López Ramírez AKA / Dr. LAKRA works with vintage printed materials & found objects, incorporating Images of Vintage Pin - ups and Old -Time Mexican Cultural Ephemera of All Sorts. Referencing diverse body art traditions from Latino, Pacific, and Southeast Asian cultures, in a style that is distinctive, playful, taboo related, haunting, hilarious, naughty, and often, intentionally vulgar.
Location : OAXACA, MEXICO Influences: GABRIEL OROZCO Collections : The TATE + MOMA Experience:TATTOOING ARTIST Lineage: FRANCISCO TOLDEO
Art Gallery : EL KURIMANZUTTO
Quote: " I Was Fascinated by The Idea of Having a Permanent Drawing on The Body …"
Link: www.kurimanzutto.com
STEVE JOBS www.uphe.com/movies/steve-jobs
BUREAU SAN DIEGO FILM PICK : STEVE JOBS
"Aaron Sorkin's script flies across the screen with a maddening pace that is both frenetic and brilliant, the first half hour passes in what seems like minutes. Fassbender drives the cast with a pure and muscular bravado. Kate Winslet is so F*ing amazing, she services the characterization so well that you may not even know she's there. And finally somebody had the guts to cast Seth Rogan in a straight role and his entire gravitational force comes to life. Danny Boyle puts the petal to the metal, I might just watch it again ... The Academy better take a good look at this one. "
AFRO AMERICAN in NORTH CAROLINA
Photographer : Alex Harris Hickory Nut Gap, North Carolina, November 1971
"It is the duty of the younger Negro artist . . . to change through the force of his art that old whispering, "I want to be white," hidden in the aspirations of his people, to " Why should I want to be white ? I am a Negro and beautiful … "
On Being Young and Afro American
LANGSTON HUGHES
American Author
Photographer : Alex Harris Migrant Workers, Camden, North Carolina, Summer 1972
"This land is no one's land, God made this world, And everything within, He didn't make it for one man, He made it for everyone …"
A Commentary on Woody Guthrie's Anthem
From The Best of
JOHN LEE HOOKER
American Singer / Songwriter
Photographer : Alex Harris Migrant Worker, Carteret County, North Carolina, 1972
"He lived in the dingy shacks of the white landlords and refused to pay rent. Of course, he had no money, but neither did we. We did without the necessities of life …"
On The birth of Bigger Thomas
from NATIVE SON
RICHARD WRIGHT
American Author
Photographer : Alex Harris Farm Facility, Carteret County, North Carolina, 1972
"I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither....So it seems to me that my world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger."
On Emotions in Writing Well
TONI MORRISON
American Author
Photographer : Alex Harris Migrant Farm Worker, Juke Joint, Camden, N.C. 1972
“I got my master’s [ degree] at Johns Hopkins, where I was just about the only black person in Baltimore.”
- GIL SCOTT-HERON
American Writer Poet and Musician
Harris made these photographs of substandard housing & living conditions in The 1970s , he turned to Amanda Berg, Rachel Boillot & Jennifer Stratton, former students & recent graduates of Duke’s Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts Program https://mfaeda.duke.edu – to tackle the same broad assignment. Which begs the question: Does Anything ever change in America ?
ALEX HARRIS in NORTH CAROLINA
Contributing Editor Alex Harris recounts his early years as a fledgling photographer, remembering his experiences in North Carolina in The 1970s, purging his influences and trying to find his own Visual Style. Alex Harris is Teaching at the Duke University.
" In the fall of 1971, I was just out of college and beginning my second education as a photographer. For one year, I traveled throughout North Carolina with my Nikon camera and Tri-X film. I had an assignment from the newly formed public policy program at Duke University to photograph substandard housing and living conditions in the state. This was an opportunity for a young, Atlanta-born southerner to become aware of something about the South beyond the suburbs by looking in depth at one southern state, by meeting, photographing, and getting to know people in their homes and dwellings, and at work in the fields. "
- Alex Harris / Teacher
The Center for Documentary Studies
BUREAU CINEMA FILM REVIEW:TRUMBO
Bryan Cranston in a fine performance as Blacklisted Hollywood ScreenWriter Dalton Trumbo / Bleeker Street Media
This years films, a good many, are "Based on a True Story…" as the old saying goes. TRUMBO, starring Brian Cranston as the title character and Diane Lane as his wife, tells a particularly 'TRUE' Story, that, to my mind, as a writer in Hollywood, deserves attention, deserves respect, deserves a wider audience and come awards season, deserves a few of those as well. Mr. Cranston whom has graduated as an actor, from sit-com dad to cable T.V. dad and now to Motion Picture dad has bloomed with a quiet and steadfast trajectory that, to many viewers and contemporaries, was a total surprise. He's outgrown the medium, he's transcended the material and has now found himself playing the title character in a motion picture that bravely tells a haunted and twisted truth, that many in the world may not entirely understand. His performance is pitch perfect. For those of us whom have studied this period, those of us who know the character of TRUMBO and the period in which this film takes place, Mr Cranston, Diane Lane and their team have created an important document, an entertaining experience and above all, and against all odds : A Family Film. How do you do that ? "Dad, are you a communist ?" his daughter asks early in the film ? Like a conversation from, "To Kill a Mockingbird," with Gregory Peck.
Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane play husband and wife in TRUMBO / Bleeker Street Media
Many among the creative team of TRUMBO, have cut their teeth, working in the television industry, possibly their experience in working within the strict limitations of Network TV has informed them with the kind of censorship and control that the entertainment field often demands. Films about Hollywood have become a genre unto themselves, beginning with, "A Star is Born." The Hollywood insider film genre changed entirely with Billy Wilder's, "Sunset Boulevard." The time was ripe to reveal a touch of the dark side and Wilder's film pierced the veil, it pissed off a lot of studio heads and since that time, the films about Hollywood have ranged from "Night of The Locusts," to "The Player." to "Gods and Monsters," and so on and so forth. TRUMBO, takes us inside the blacklist period of time, from the late nineteen-forties through to the early nineteen sixties. Two of the film's creators, Jay Roach and John McNamara deserve some respect here. How they were able to make this a family film, considering the fact that so many careers and families were ruined by the paranoia and political extremism of the time is, to me, amazing. It also may just make this little film, with a hard knuckle spirit and a heart of integrity, more than just a piece of entertainment. Could it be that the times we now live in parallel It ?
"That Small, Worthless Statue Is Covered With The Blood of My Friends."
- DALTON TRUMBO / An American Writer
Bryan Cranston in a fine performance as Blacklisted Hollywood ScreenWriter Dalton Trumbo/ Bleeker Street Media
Between the invasiveness of technology, the political correctness of our times and the over reaching aspects of, not just our government system, but anyone with a willingness to use and abuse their power accordingly, it is safe to say that there is indeed a new form of blacklisting happening, all across the world. Especially in the business of Media, Radio, Publishing, Television and Film. It's actually worse than a blacklist, which, at that time, meant that, you were unable to get employment, if you were too left leaning. These days, there is a full on struggle between those who have the gigs in the afore mentioned arena's and those who have a very good chance of taking their place in those employment slots. Imagine that NBC, CBS, ABC, HBO and other Media Companies and Corporations, sometimes with the assistance of an over-reaching government information retrieval device called, Homeland Security, has given them access to everything we say & everything we do. Add to that, a society that thinks it's o.k. to do such a thing. In fact, they too want to know, what you say, and what you do. A willingness to give up the very right to be and have a private life. A willingness to give up and or be suppressed, if you have a belief system, a religion, a way of living that is, out of vogue, as it were, now leads to much more than a black list. It leads to the very place we are now. And all this writer has to say, about where we are in today's society, compared to the time this fine film reflects is, "It's simply, downright, UN - AMERICAN ! "
- J. A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE
image : Dalton Trumbo and his Mate Cleo at The House on Un - American Activities Committee
The HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST
by Daniel Georgakas / Reprinted with Permission by The Author / Excerpted from The Book ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN LEFT Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992
The investigation of Hollywood radicals by the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 and 1951 was a continuation of pressures first exerted in the late 1930s and early 1940s by the Dies Committee and State Senator Jack Tenney's California Joint Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities. HUAC charged that Communists had established a significant base in the dominant medium of mass culture. Communists were said to be placing subversive messages into Hollywood films and discriminating against unsympathetic colleagues. A further concern was that Communists were in a position to place negative images of the United States in films that would have wide international distribution.
Totally ignored in the hysteria generated by HUAC were the realities of the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s. That system's outstanding characteristic was the hands-on control by studio bosses who ran their business as a strictly entertainment industry and shared Sam Goldwyn's often quoted sentiment that, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." When films did have a political edge, studio bosses were personally involved in every phase of production, including the vital final cut. This was decidedly the case with the most notoriously pro-Russian film ever made in Hollywood, Mission to Moscow (1943). The film, undertaken by Jack Warner at the request of the Roosevelt administration, combined an all-out assault on American isolationists with a complete acceptance of the Stalinist account of the purges. Warner considered his film to be a patriotic service to the New Deal in the war against fascism. Evidence of leftist images and dialog Hollywood films was extremely slim. HUAC had to resort to citing the smiling children in Song of Russia (1944) and noting that Russian workers shouted "tovarich" (comrade) as American merchant ships that had run the Nazi submarine blockade entered a Soviet port in Action in the North Atlantic (1943). Even committee members struggled to keep a straight face when Ginger Rogers complained that her daughter "had been forced" to speak the subversive line "share alike, that's democracy" in a 1943 film scripted by Dalton Trumbo. Contrary to the HUAC contentions, Communist Party policy in Hollywood had been largely defensive. Film workers were instructed that their primary responsibility was to keep anti-Soviet and anti-Left sentiment out of films, a kind of esthetic Hippocratic Oath to First, Do No Harm.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
On the positive side of the ledger, radicals were urged to advance a democratic populist ethos that was totally in accord with the New Deal popular culture. Melvyn Douglas, a leading Hollywood liberal, commented years later that the Communists had been followers of the liberals and not vice versa. Liberalism, not Communism, may, in fact, have been the true target of the HUAC investigators. The Right wished to discourage any Hollywood impulse to make films advocating social change at home or critical of foreign policy. The task of intimidation was focused on the role Communists played as screenwriters. Nearly 60 percent of all individuals called to testify and an equal percent of all those blacklisted were screenwriters. Only 20 percent of those called and 25 percent of those blacklisted were actors. When the first subpoenas were issued the Hollywood impulse was to fight back. Defense committees were formed and efforts to purge various guilds defeated. Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, pledged that he would "never be party to anything as un-American as a blacklist. The will to resist was put to the test when some of the first writers called refused to cooperate and tried to read statements condemning the committee in sessions that often turned into shouting matches.
"Melvyn Douglas, a leading Hollywood liberal, commented years later that the Communists had been followers of the liberals and not vice versa. Liberalism, not Communism, may, in fact, have been the true target of the HUAC investigators."
The result was bad press for Hollywood and a feeling by producers that their radical writers were vying with the committee for sensational headlines at the industry's expense. On November 24, Congress cited ten screenwriters for contempt. Produces meeting at the Waldorf Astoria hotel days later signaled their capitulation to the investigators by announcing that "no Communists or other subversives will be employed by Hollywood." An appeal by the "Hollywood Ten" was turned down and by mid-1950 most of them had begun to serve one-year terms in prison. HUAC returned for a second Hollywood round in 1951 but the proceedings were not true investigations. The political views of already known and those called were already known and the people they were asked to name as comrades were also known. The hearings amounted to a kind of ideological exorcism. Witnesses were expected to state that they had been misled or confused in the past and were now regretful. They could prove their sincerity by naming other who had been with them in Communist organizations or at Communist functions. Response to the hearings took many forms. Many members and sympathizers had never hidden their views but did not accept the right of the HUAC to question their right of political association. Civil libertarians could easily back this view on the basis of the First and Fifth amendments.
image : BUREAU GUEST Artist Erik OLSON / Courtesy of The BRAVIN LEE Gallery
Others like actor Zero Mostel said they would gladly discuss their own conduct but were prohibited by religious convictions from naming others. Individuals who had only been involved with antifascist groups or had left the Party for ideological reasons did not wish to martyr themselves for a cause they had never embraced or had renounced, but naming names seemed morally wrong. Other ex-Communists such as Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan felt there was a Communist conspiracy and that it was proper, if not patriotic, to expose it. Whatever one's convictions, there was little room for maneuvering once called, yet two out of three who testified were unfriendly or uncooperative. A few, like Lucille Ball, were allowed to pass with garbled and meaningless testimony, but most were pinned down. Fame was no protection. A lifelong non-Communist progressive like Sam Jaffe was blacklisted for refusal to cooperate. Jaffe, who had been nominated for an Oscar for The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and was famous for roles in Lost Horizon (1937) and Gunga Din (1939), was reduced to teaching high school math and living with his sisters. He would eventually make a comeback as Dr. Zorba on the successful Ben Casey television series. Lee Grant, nominated for an Oscar for her role in Detective Story (1951), was blacklisted for refusing to testify against her first husband, screenwriter Arnold Manoff.
"Other ex-Communists such as Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan felt there was a Communist conspiracy and that it was proper, if not patriotic, to expose it. Whatever one's convictions, there was little room for maneuvering once called, yet two out of three who testified were unfriendly or uncooperative."
Grant would eventually return to Hollywood and win two Oscars, one for acting and another for directing a documentary. The most defiant Hollywood actor was gravel-voiced Lionel Stander, who had been in comedies directed by Ben Hecht, Frank Capra, and Preston Sturgis. Active in the Salinas Valley lettuce strike, the Tom Mooney case, the Scottsboro defense, guild campaigns, antifascist work, and other left-wing causes, Stander said he had not joined the CP because he was to the left of it. He said he had been blackballed for his politics for over twenty years and that the only "un-Americans" active in Hollywood that he knew of were members of the committee. Blacklisted anew, Stander became a successful Wall Street broker, later starred in European films, and still later returned to American prominence as the chauffeur in Hart-to-Hart, one of television's top ten programs during the early 1980s. Few of those blacklisted would prove as resilient as Stander, Grant, Jaffee, and Mostel. No more than 10 percent would be able to return to careers in Hollywood. Even the biggest names were vulnerable. Larry Parks, fresh from triumphs in two films about Al Johnson, was banned for his brief membership in the CP and did not appear on-screen again until getting a small role in Freud (1962).
Charles Chaplin, the most famous face in the world, had remained a British citizen and a firm believer in the Popular Front. Although he had never been in the CP, Chaplin was not allowed to reenter the United States following a trip to Europe. He did not return to the United States until 1972, when an apologetic Hollywood honored him with a life achievement award during the Oscar ceremonies. His, "A King in New York," (1957) satirizes HUAC. In like manner, Bertolt Brecht, one of many anti-Nazi refugees working in Hollywood, had such a bad taste from his HUAC appearance that he repatriated to East Berlin to become an in-house critic of socialism. Performers who had already established some kind of name might survive through work on the stage, but those at the beginning of their careers had few options. Technical workers faced an even more difficult time, as there was no alternative industry for them to turn to, and Roy Brewer, head of the Hollywood craft unions, remained fiercely anticommunist. Ronald Reagan, then head of the Screen Actors Guild, kept in touch with the FBI about "disloyal" actors. Dozens of blacklistees lost spouses due to the hearings and even more suffered irreparable financial loss. Mental and physical distress was common. Clifford Odets never again wrote effectively and the deaths of John Garfield, J. Edward Bromberg, Canada Lee, and half a dozen others are linked to their committee appearances. The group that came to exemplify resistance was the Hollywood Ten and their writing colleagues, many of whom had been in the Party.
The Ten consisted of Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Sam Ornitz, Robert Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. They had scripted or directed hundreds of Hollywood films. Trumbo was one of the highest paid Hollywood writers and Lawson had been the first president of the Screen Writers Guild. Most of the Ten's best films had dealt with antifascist themes. These included Hotel Berlin (1945), The Master Race (1941), Crossfire (1947), Sahara (1943), Pride of the Marines (1945), Destination Tokyo (1944), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). Lardner had scripted the Academy Award-winning Woman of the Year (1942), Maltz the well-received This Gun for Hire (1942), and Trumbo the Academy Award nominee Kitty Foyle (1940). The Ten also worked on genre film such as Lester Cole's script for The Invisible Man Returns (1940). Scriptwriters had the most options to continue working during the blacklist period. Performers could not change their faces nor could directors wear masks, but writers could use pseudonyms. This proved a profitable strategy for many. Abraham Polonsky, Walter Bernstein, and Arnold Manoff wrote most of the You Are There segments, a series of historical events re-created for television with a strong focus on cultural martyrs such as Socrates, Galilee, Joan of Arc, and the Salem witches. Ring Lardner, Jr., and Ian McLellan Hunter wrote The Adventures of Robin Hood series. The phenomenon of using phony names and surrogates became the basis of The Front (1976), which starred Woody Allen. The film was written by blacklistee Walter Bernstein, produced and directed by blacklistee Martin Ritt, and featured blacklisted actors Zero Mostel, John Randolph, Lloyd Gough, Joshua Shelley, and Herschel Bernardi.
Other blacklisted writers found work in Mexico and Europe. Notable among these are Hugo Butler, who wrote scripts for Luis Bunuel in Mexico City, and Jules Dassin, who scored box-office hits with his French-made Rififi (1954) and the Greek-made Never on Sunday (1960). A few writers worked behind the scenes in Hollywood in an effort to wear down the blacklist. One of Trumbo's pseudonyms, Robert Rich, won an Academy Award for The Brave One (1956), and as the decade drew to an end Hollywood insiders became aware that Nathan E. Douglas, the Academy Award writer of The Defiant Ones (1958), really blacklisted Nedrick Young. In 1960 Otto Preminger officially broke the blacklist by crediting Trumbo for scripting Exodus. It was then revealed that Michael Wilson had written the blockbuster The Bridge on River Kwai (1957) and had completed a script that would become Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Another consequence of the investigations was a series of anticommunist films: The Red Menace (1949), I Married a Communist (1950), I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), Walk East on Beacon (1952), My Son John (1952), Big Jim McClain (1952), and Trial (1955). A labor leader modeled on Harry Bridges was the main villain in I Married a Communist, Hawaiian Communists were exposed by a two-fisted John Wayne in Big Jim McClain, and Communist defense efforts for a Mexican American were depicted as insincere political and mercenary opportunism in Trial. All of the films took it as a given that Communists were de facto agents of the USSR.
On the Waterfront (1954) had no Communist characters but its emphasis on the need to testify before federal investigating committees was widely interpreted as a reference to HUAC. Scriptwriter Budd Schulberg has repeatedly denied that connection but director Elia Kazan has stated that for him the parallel was explicit. Kazan also directed Viva Zapata! (1952), in which the visionary revolutionary anarchist Zapata is favorably contrasted with a Communist-style bureaucratic revolutionary. [There were few explicitly anti-anticommunist films in this period; one was Storm Center.] The Hollywood Left began to revive in the late-1960s and, unlike the student New Left, the new Hollywood rebels, although not connected with the CP, felt warmly toward their predecessors and occasionally worked with them on joint projects. Films with radical bite began to appear with some regularity in the 1970s and 1980s. Ring Lardner, Jr., scripted M*A*S*H* (1970), a satire on the Korean War that became the basis for one of the most popular of all television series. Labor themes were addressed in The Molly Maguires (1970), Norma Rae (1979), Silkwood (1983), and Matewan (1987). The Rosenberg case was reviewed in Daniel (1983) and John Reed celebrated in Reds (1982), a film that incorporated interviews with real-life radicals such as Scott Nearing. Nuclear power was attacked in The China Syndrome (1979) and the Vietnam War critiqued in Go Tell the Spartacus (1978), Coming Home (1978), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Full Metal Jacket (1987). Capitalism itself was indicted in Wall Street (1987) and Latin American intervention assailed in Missing (1982), Under Fire (1983), El Salvador (1986), and Latitio (1986). The blacklist itself was the subject of The Way We Were (1973), which starred Barbra Streisand as a totally sympathetic Communist married to a liberal screenwriter. The new Hollywood activists were not immune from career threats. Jane Fonda, famous for her opposition to the Vietnam War, was forced from some shooting locations by irate Vietnam veterans. Ed Asner, president of the Screen Actors Guild and a supporter of medical aid to left-wing rebels in El Salvador, had his Lou Grant television show canceled after an active protest campaign by right-wing groups. Vanessa Redgrave, a member of a Trotskyist group in England and a vocal opponent of Israel, had contracts aborted and projects threatened with boycotts by Zionist groups. Liberals Robert Redford, Jack Lemmon, and Gregory Peck were criticized for participation in film festivals held in Cuba. While such pressures were not nearly as destabilizing as the blacklist-period tensions had been, awareness of the dangers associated with political activism had its effect on how filmmakers addressed political issues, the kind of film projects undertaken for production, and the particular personnel chosen for given projects. What the blacklist entailed and its effect on Hollywood has generated a large body of writing by those directly involved. Lillian Hellman's Scoundrel Time (1976) and Dalton Trumbo's The Time of the Toad (1949) are classics of this genre. Hellman and writers such as Lester Cole and Walter Bernstein have been unforgiving of those who cooperated. In similar fashion, Elia Kazan insists in his autobiography, A Life (1988), that he did no wrong in being a friendly witness even though he writes movingly about the traumatic effect the testimony had on his life and that of others who were called before HUAC. Individuals such as Albert Maltz and Jules Dassin have commented on the terrible cost of broken relationships and upended careers with varying degrees of forgiveness for the "friendlies." Dalton Trumbo has been the most generous in this regard by rendering his final judgment that: "We Were All Victims."
BROOKLYN www.foxsearchlight.com/brooklyn
BUREAU LITERARY FILM PICK: BROOKLYN
"In a year of Cowboy and Spaceman films, Brooklyn is a return to good old fashioned human storytelling with authentic actors, great writing and subtle elliptical life forces with a touch of the Irish magic that makes our history in America and beyond simply wonderful. Writer Nick Hornby secures his position in this poetic, semi sweet tale."
The BUREAU PROFILE: DANIIL TRIFONOV
Location: NIZHNY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA Influences:SERGEI BABAYAN Instrument: PIANO Concerts: Carnegie Hall, NY Philharmonic Tokyo Opera City, Zurich Tonhalle, etc... Experience: First Performance at Age 8 Lineage: Second Generation Musician Bureau Pick: Rachmaninov's Third Quote: " In the coming years I hope to learn as many new pieces as possible…"
The BUREAU Exclusive INTERVIEW with CRAIG REILLY
BUREAU: Your Photographic Work has a very strong quality for Portraiture. How would you describe approaching a subject ?
Craig REILLY: Yes, portraiture features heavily in my work. This comes from my fascination of observing people, particularly their emotions and how they engage or interact with their surroundings or each other, and I aim to capture this within my portraits. I am lucky enough to live in London, which is not only one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world; it also has so many different areas that vary in look and feel. With so many variations of areas, people and their cultures or religions I feel a need to approach each subject differently. One thing I purposely look for in my portraiture work is for my subject to have direct eye contact with my lens. The reason I like this is because I when I am first drawn to them they are normally totally detached from what is happening around them, either deep in thought or engrossed with a task. As soon as they make eye contact, I have their attention, and I feel this enables the viewer to have some sort of connection with the subjects themselves. I haven’t yet asked a person for permission to take their shot, or intentionally tried to grab their attention to look my way. Again I do this because I want to capture them in their natural state and environment.
I use an Olympus OM-D E-M1, which has many features I utilize to maximize my chances of capturing the mood I see. With some of these features I’m also able to respect the subject's own personal space, by not having to shove the camera in their face. The Wi-Fi connection allows me to connect the camera to my iPhone via the Olympus Image Share app, which in turn allows me to shoot from the hip without holding my camera, thus drawing attention to myself. I used this option in my image titled ‘A MomenT’. On my way home from work, I was passing through London Bridge station and my attention was quickly turned to a girl sitting directly below a warm glowing light. Her blonde hair was blowing in the breeze, and with the added texture of the bare brick background, I saw a good opportunity of a shot. As she was engrossed in her phone, I knew I would have time to set up the Olympus I.S app, and get a better angle for the shot. As she was sat at a table, getting her framed was easy, I then just had to wait for her to make eye contact with the camera and tap the focus point on my phone. This was the only shot I took and I was pleased with the outcome.
I also use the patiently waiting approach, which I used with the image of the chef unpacking the boxes. Having seen him just walk away from the boxes into the open door, I assumed he would soon come back out again. I got myself into position and waited a minute or two for him to return. When he returned, and was stood in the same position for a number of seconds, I knew that was my chance. I took a sidestep right, to frame the scene correctly and waited for him to feel my presence. Thankfully he did exactly that, and as soon as I got eye contact I pressed my shutter. This was also one shot only. I then approached him and told him I had just taken his picture, and asked is it ok? His reply was, “Oh, ok.”
BUREAU : Is Capturing The Perfect Henri Cartier - Bresson - like moment a part of your mission ? If so, how long will you wait for that moment to happen, if the lighting and locale is perfect ?
Craig REILLY: As much as I would love to capture a Henri Cartier-Bresson perfect moment, I personally don’t feel I have a mission in photography per se. What I want to do in life and in my photography is to enjoy it and share it with others. Where this takes me is unknown, but I will enjoy my time doing it.
In the perfect setting you present to me here, I would first capture an image of the scene itself, if I then felt it needed something else to complete the scene I would happily stay in that location for as long as the light or mood of the scene allows. If the final component didn't arrive, I would make a point of returning to this location another time. Which is something I do on a regular basis.
This is something I have learnt to be an important part of developing as a photographer, and would encourage beginners to do the same. It's important to see rather than to look, moving around it, taking a new perspective from the ground, or standing on a bench or wall. Don’t always think you have the image you saw with your eyes in the camera within the first shot.
My favorite image that I have taken is titled ‘Maybe Alone on my Bike’. I captured the cyclist in the position of the published image, in the 2nd of four exposures. Once he had left the scene, I still circled the tree to see if I was able to get another moment before the fog turned to mist twenty minutes later.
BUREAU: Your characters live very much within their surroundings, discuss how atmosphere attracts you ?
Craig REILLY: The atmosphere or mood of my subject's surrounding is a vital component of the whole scene. Street photography isn't just about aiming your camera at a street, person, or an inanimate object, and pressing the shutter. I believe what you capture has to have something of substance. I personally get attracted to calm atmospheres, where the person is in their own moment, either reflecting on something or involved in a task.I am also attracted to an atmosphere of positivity, such as friends or lovers sharing moments with each other, either hugging, kissing smiling or laughing together. It must be clear to the viewer what you are trying to show them, so they’re able to relate to the image from their own experiences and emotions.
BUREAU : Many of your working class images employ a bit of humor, yet still retain a brevity, are you looking for these moments or are they looking for you ?
Craig REILLY: I think they must be looking for me! Seriously, this is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about street photography, and why I believe it’s an art. You never know what type of moment you will encounter from one street corner to the next. It is also the reason why I don’t get hung up about missing a shot either (I have missed a few!). There are millions of people, moments, interactions happening around us every minute, so for me there really is no reason to worry about the moments I have missed, there is always another one around the corner. Having this mindset allows me to remain alert, observant to my surroundings and also helps me to enjoy the moment I am in.
The humor in my images stems from me having a very close family, where humor was a huge part of my upbringing and of me as a person now. Due to this, I spot many things that are humorous to me on the streets, if I am able to get that across in some of my images, and the viewer has a chuckle or at least raises a smile then I guess brevity is the soul of wit! And who can argue with Shakespeare? The reason I emphasized the me in the last sentence is because it’s important to remember that what I find funny may be totally insulting to someone else. So I would suggest to upcoming street photographers to have that in mind, and not to mock or belittle someone for your own enjoyment or even worse, the wider audience online. Not cool at all. For me, Matt Stuart is the master of using humor in photography. The moments he spots are just pure laugh out loud and clever.
BUREAU : Could you site a few early influences: Photographers, exact images, films, literature, etc ...
Craig REILLY: Regarding Photographers: Being an active person in the social network community, I am influenced by hundreds of photographers. Naming specific photographers, I can include the past masters of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon especially his ‘In the American West’ series and René Burri. Of more modern times, Matt Stuart, Thomas Leuthard, Marius Vieth and all members of the Street Photography International Collective, which at this moment includes Ronya Galka, Alan Schaller, Gagan Sadana, Reuven Halevi, and Walter Rothwell. Photographers images are one thing, but I’m also influenced by how they conduct themselves, how they network, how they run their business, and how their photography journey is progressing; again naming specific influences including Nicholas ‘Nico’ Gooden, Robert Pugh, Benjamin Nwaneampeh, Iwona Pinkowicz and Wojtek Kogut. Exact images: My all time favorite image to this day is René Burri’s ‘Men on a Rooftop’ image. For me that image has everything. The leading lines of the street and traffic, the beautiful low Sao Paulo sunlight that creates the amazing shadows of the four Reservoir Dogs type characters on the roof, and of course it has us as viewers all asking the same questions. Who are they? What were they doing up there? Is it as suspicious as we think? I can honestly look at this photo for ages.
Craig REILLY: [ - cont ] Another image that had a huge impact on myself was a photo that my Great Grandfather had from when he was a POW in Japan, in WWII. It was a group photo that featured the POW’s and the torturer. You could see the fear and lack of hope in their eyes and the wickedness and hate in his. On the back of the photo my great grandad had written ‘us and Dr. Death.’
Kevin Carter’s “Vulture stalking a child’ photograph was also influential to me. This showed me the power of a single image, and what impact pictures can potentially have to millions of people’s lives or that of a single life. Of course this had positive effect on the whole world regarding the famine in Sudan, but unfortunately it had the ultimate negative effect on him.
Films: I'm not sure whether my photography is inspired by the movies I have watched, but I always love the visual style of Wes Anderson and the Cohen brother’s movies, others that have blown me away visually, include Saving Private Ryan, Her, Slum Dog Millionaire, Inception and Shutter Island.
Craig REILLY: [ - cont ] Literature: Being self-taught, I have read many photography books. There are a few books that have improved me as a photographer immensely. One that I can recommend highly is ‘The Talent Code’, by Daniel Coyle. It's about deep practice and building up myelin, [ a mixture of proteins and phospholipids forming a whitish insulating sheath around many nerve fibers, increasing the speed at which impulses are conducted ] to aid our development. I often sit at home or on the train with my camera, practicing hitting a particular focal distance on the manual focus ring, constantly starting and stopping, then looking at the position of my hand where it started, where it ended, in time all the different little practice sessions I have will help my use of the camera become second nature, and I won’t have to rely on the camera system to get it right. Another is ‘The Tao of Photography’ by Philippe L. Gross and S.I Shapiro, with quotes from some of the greatest photographers that have lived, it’s an interesting read in teaching seeing beyond seeing, and looking at the world arounds us in greater detail. Bryan Peterson’s ‘Understanding Composition’ field guide. Bryan’s books are all written in such a way, that they are very easy to understand. You’re also able to put method into practice very quickly, with positive results in a short space of time.
The BUREAU Exclusive INTERVIEW with CRAIG REILLY
THE FILM PICK BUREAU NEW YORK : TRUTH
TRUTH sonyclassics.com/truth
" Why this film has not been nominated is no secret. Kate Blanchett is absolutely superb as a 60 Minutes Segment producer. Robert Redford in his mature and efficient minimalist style portrays America's most trusted television newscaster, Dan Rather. Supporting cast includes, Topher Grace as an upstart journalist with a firm middle finger, Dennis Quaid as a retired Colonel, Elisabeth Moss, Stacey Keach and Dermot Mulroney. The film is both written and directed by James Vanderbilt, who adapted the screenplay from the book by Mary Mapes, personified in the film by Ms. Blanchett with grace, style and a realist quality that deserves some deep recognition from peers and the public alike. When She gets the attention this February, believe me, It's not just for her role in Carol. SONY Pictures did IT again. Bravo !"
THE BUREAU INTERVIEW : STEVE COLEMAN
BUREAU : When did you first find yourself attracted to the hustle and bustle of real life ?
Steven Coleman: I guess I've always been a people watcher. I grew up in a real working class village called, Haydock, in the UK. I left school with few formal qualifications and unemployment was high, so although it wasn't the most deprived or rough place in the world, it was still important to keep your eyes open and work out who was friend or foe. I moved to Liverpool when I was 22, it was exciting, the different people and cultures all in one place, I've always been the social type so I was like a child in a sweet shop! I suppose this dense population in one place (Liverpool isn't the biggest city) really woke me up. I'm always interested in the person inside or the story real, or imagined in the scene. Photography can capture life for sure in real terms and very accurately, but I prefer some imagination from the viewer. Do they think they know what a subject in a picture is thinking or doing, can they imagine their own narrative. It's like listening to your favorite song, some lyrics are explicit and speak for themselves, but the ones I like leave the story up to you, it's far more interesting to put your own ideas and meanings into someone else's work, whether its a photograph, song, painting etc… The hustle and bustle of real life is always interesting, and for me the mundane or ordinary is more interesting than the extraordinary when I think in these terms. I could sit in a coffee shop all day and imagine what peoples stories are, or at least imagine what they could be.
BUREAU : Can You remember early moments in childhood that influenced the work, If so describe those memories for our readers ?
Steven Coleman: I'd like to say that from when I was young I always took pictures, but that isn't true. But what is true is that my parents moved house a lot, so my family is spread from North to South of the UK, so I was always changing schools and making new friends. One half of my family lived in London and I remember being in awe of the size of the place. In photography terms one of my early memories was looking at pictures of my Grandparents. They died when I was very young so my memories are hazy at best, but my mother kept lots of pictures of them in a little leather briefcase. I would and still do love to look through the pictures in that case. No matter how many times I look, there's always a picture I feel like I've never seen before. That's the magic of it all. When I look now I'm much older, the memories of my childhood are entwined in it. I'm trying to say my memories aren't all that clear, I'm very much the sort of person that always looks forward and rarely back, so back to my first answer to the first question, imagined stories and memories of my childhood seem more appropriate than the reality.
BUREAU : How far back does your education, formal or otherwise trail and what would those influences be ? Literature, Film, Art, etc …
Steven Coleman: I've never been a big reader so literature hasn't played a big part in my adult creativity. Film and music on the other hand have been instrumental in shaping my view in an artistic sense. I'm jumping back and forth a little here, but when I was living at home with my parents, there was a video film rental shop not far from our house. Barely a day would go by without a trip to that place, I loved it! The front covers of the VHS boxes, the posters in the windows and on the walls, all these images take us back or forward in time or even root us in the present depending on the film of course. There's that imagination thing again, the make believe. There's a romance to the past, whether it really exists or not isn't the point, we all imagine a simpler time, when things were more real, with less distraction. When I look through my work, I notice that I seem to find one maybe two people existing in a busy place, many of my pictures where taken during busy periods of the day, but I don't want to show the chaos, rather the contemplative moment of the subjects own space within the madness of city life. The image of the little girl sat on the pavement was taken on a crazy shopping day in Manchester, but she could be sat in the middle of nowhere, and the look in her eyes made me feel like she was somewhere else. She was oblivious to the mayhem.
BUREAU : You are also a Journalist, does that professional experience inform the photographic work ? If so please explain how with a few exacting examples.
Steven Coleman : Journalism is simply the process of telling a story, and of course photography is this also, no matter the style. Landscape photography tells the story of a place, the wind in our hair, the smell of the rain against the grass and so on. Street photography also tells the story of a place, but often through the movement and emotion of the people or objects. So journalism does play a big part in what I take pictures of. I'm a broadcast journalist in radio, and it's definitely easier to tell a story in words. Getting the story across in photography is hard, and not always do people see it. Now that could be because I just haven't been good enough, nailed it or at the other end to vague about what story I'm actually trying to tell.
"I often hear other photographers emphasize the importance of a picture telling a story, whilst this is true, I’d also say it’s important that a shot contains a feeling or an emotion. Sometimes the story is less important than the feeling a picture presents. If it makes you smile, cry or get angry then you’ve achieved something as important as telling the story."
For example in the image of the protesters against fascism I took in Liverpool, the subject and story is clear, a more documentary style of an event in time, but when one tries to tell a story in a more free artistic sense maybe with one image opposed to a series of shots, it can get tricky to get the point across. I’m trying to say the emotion is as important as the story, they can exist together or alone and I think that’s important to know. Of course if you miss both these things then the picture probably just doesn’t work. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don’t, but the journey of discovery when I’m out with my camera is always the same. The process and the hunt for the magic is what drives storytellers, journalists and anyone who looks for something in others and that’s worth doing regardless of the end result.
In The NEXT LITERARY EDITION 100 REASONS WHY WE LOVE PARIS FRANCE Plus BUREAU INTERVIEWS ESSAYS . LITERARY EVENTS BOOK SIGNING and REVIEWS ADVERTISEMENTS IN BY MARCH 5, 2016 RECEIVE DISCOUNT BUREAU LOS ANGELES OFFICE LINE DIRECT: 323 734 2877
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE MEDIA SITES
LOS ANGELES BUREAU
SAN FRANCISCO BUREAU
NEW YORK CITY BUREAU
SAN DIEGO BUREAU
SANTA BARBARA BUREAU
SEATTLE BUREAU
MID - WEST BUREAU
SOUTH BUREAU
BUREAU LITERARY
BUREAU NEWS
This is an Electronic Interactive Version of BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine. Once You Download The Hi - RES PDF to Your Computer, We suggest you view the pdf in the [ Two Page with Cover ] and [ Full Screen Mode ] Options which are Provided at the Top of your Menu Bar under the VIEW section. Simply choose Two Page Layout & Full Screen to enjoy. This format allows for The Magazine to be read as a Paper Edition. Displaying images and Text in Center-folds. When reading on a computer, utilize the Arrows on your keyboard to turn the pages. Be Sure To Download A High Resolution Version at BUREAU of Arts And Culture's Official Magazine Website or any of Our Community Sites with Links Provided Below.
We Thank: Da Capo Press, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Pace/MacGill Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Georgia O'Keefe Museum of Art, Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs, Duke University, Andy Warhol Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Crystal Bridges, United Artists, Spot Photo Works, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art Huston Texas, Gallerie Urbane, Mary Boone Gallery, Pace Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Magnum Photo, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fahey/Klein, Tobey C. Moss, Sandra Gehring, George Billis, Martin - Gropius - Bau Berlin, San Jose Museum of Art, First Run Features, Downtown Records, Koplin Del Rio, Robert Berman, Indie Printing, American Film Institute, SFMOMA, Palm Beverly Hills, KM Fine Arts, LA Art Show, Photo LA, Jewish Contemporary Museum, Cultural Affairs, Yale Collection of Rare Books & Manuscript and Richard Levy.
Contributing Photographers: Norman Seef, Herb Ritts, Jack English, Alex Harris, Gered Mankowitz, Bohnchang Koo, Natsumi Hayashi, Raymond Depardon, T. Enami, Dennis Stock, Dina Litovsky, Guillermo Cervera, Moises Saman, Cathleen Naundorf, Terry Richardson, Phil Stern, Dennis Morris, Henry Diltz, Steve Schapiro, Yousuf Karsh, Ellen Von Unwerth, William Claxton, Robin Holland, Andrew Moore, James Gabbard, Mary Ellen Mark, John Robert Rowlands, Brian Duffy, Robert Frank, Jon Lewis, Sven Hans, David Levinthal, Joshua White, Brian Forrest, Lorna Stovall, Elliott Erwitt, Rene Burri, Susan Wright, David Leventhal, Peter Van Agtmael & The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi.
Contributing Guest Artists: Irby Pace, Jon Swihart, F. Scott Hess, Ho Ryon Lee, Andy Moses, Kahn & Selesnick, Jules Engel, Patrick Lee, David Palumbo, Tom Gregg, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gary Lang, Fabrizio Casetta, DJ Hall, David FeBland, Eric Zener, Seeroon Yeretzian, Dawn Jackson, Charles Dickson, Ernesto DeLaLoza, Diana Wong, Gustavo Godoy, John Weston, Kris Kuksi, Bomonster, Hiroshi Ariyama, Linda Stark, Kota Ezawa, Russell Nachman, Katsushika Hokusai and Xuan Chen
Welcome to The SUMMER 2015 Edition of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. This Edition contains The BUREAU ICON Essay on Georgia O'KEEFFE, A Photographic Profile on Robert FRANK's Classic Book The Americans, INTERVIEWS with Photographer Alex HARRIS, The Portrait Painter Jon SWIHART, The Legendary SURF Photographer Jack ENGLISH and The BUREAU Summer Guest Artist: Irby PACE. CINEMA: On The Set of The Classic Film RAGING BULL. CUISINE: PALMS Beverly Hills & Pedro INOSCENCIO, Heir to The Throne: Jamie WYETH, BOOKS: David BROWNE's Opus on The Grateful Dead. Herb RITTS in Boston, Charles RAY in Chicago, Andy WARHOL in Phoenix, Peter BLUME in Hartford, FASHION: The Dandy LIONS Photography and New FICTION by Linda TOCH. +An Interview with The Bureau Editor's Mom, Maria Francesca TRILIEGI on her New Book. We are pleased to have New Readers in The SOUTH: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Louisiana at our Newest Community Site, BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: THE SOUTH. Links to Summer Events across the USA including, The CHICAGO Blues Festival, AUSTIN Biker Festival, Scorsese Collects in NEW YORK, 4TH of July Celebrations + so much more. The BUREAU EDITORIAL DIS - Organizations: Are Groups in America Abusing Power ?MUSIC: Lets ROCK at Fahey / Klein Gallery in MIAMI, MUSEUMS: National Gallery of Art, PORTRAITS: Native American Portraits from The YALE Collection of Western Americana. Plus Links to Our Eight Different Community Sites Celebrating The ARTS Across AMERICA . The Social Media Sites serve More as a look back at Previous BUREAU Editions + Features
THE LINK TO THE MAIN BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE SITE IS: http://BUREAUOFARTSANDCULTURE.COM LINKS TO FREE DOWNLOADS OF THE NEW SUMMER EDITION BELOW. WE SALUTE OUR NEW READERS IN THE SOUTH
THE BUREAU
SUMMER EDITION 2015
EDITED by JOSHUA TRILIEGI
THE LINK TO THE MAIN BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE SITE IS: http://BUREAUOFARTSANDCULTURE.COM LINKS TO FREE DOWNLOADS OF THE NEW SUMMER EDITION BELOW. WE SALUTE OUR NEW READERS IN THE SOUTH
THIS SITE IS ONLY A SAMPLER OF THE ENTIRE 200+ PAGE MAGAZINE
THERE ARE [ FIVE ]ALTERNATE COVERS FOR THE SUMMER 2015 EDITION
HERE ARE THE FREE DOWNLOAD LINKS TO EACH MAGAZINE EDITION :
THERE ARE FIVE ALTERNATE COVERS FOR THE SUMMER 2015 EDITION HERE ARE THE FREE DOWNLOAD LINKS TO EACH MAGAZINE EDITION :
NEW FICTION THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS: THE SEASON THREE INTRODUCTION TO EPISODE ONE / CHAPTER 34 / BREAKFAST Each Chapter is Written By Joshua Triliegi in a 24 Hour Period without Prior Notes. BREAKFAST was written on July 20th 2015
BREAKFAST
The year after The Riots, life in Los Angeles continued. People went to work, children were born, time kept ticking and the story never ended. For those in the heart of the story, for those who were touched by the event, for those who lost and hurt and got burned: life would never be the same. An event that was your life, your experience, your history was being told by newscasters, mainstream publications and radio disc jockeys who knew nothing about what it was really like and never would know. The day after The Riots, a child woke, poured a bowl of Kellogg's corn flakes and watched cartoons on the television. The commercials in between told the child that when the milk was poured into the bowl, that it would, 'Snap - Crackle and Pop,' the child looked around the room, looked around the house, looked around the streets and noticed that every-thing had snapped, crackled and popped. The plastic had melted, the glass had warped, the wires lay open exposing copper, lead and silver, the perfect square box was now imperfect, corners were entirely melted off, the handle that changed the channels had broken and someone had attached a small vice grip tool in its place. The smell of burnt wood, ash and oil permeated the air. Helicopters, sirens and flashing lights became the norm. The curtains frayed at the edges and all along the sides been stained by fire, air, earth and water, the most basic of elements utilized in a fashion that created destruction, instead of construction. The rug was soaked and laden with tiny bits of broken glass, ember and grease stains. Smoke of all color and size wafted through the windows. Angry footsteps inhabited the ceiling, the hallways and alleys. A toy fire truck that lay in the backyard for years was now replaced with a real fire truck that roared incessantly passed its house, at all hours of the night and day. Police car sirens and lights engaged twenty-four hours a day, soldiers from the army reserves of the United States of America in camouflage standing on every corner, an entire world that, 'Snapped - Crackled and Popped.' And Life went on.
Houses went up for sale. Lots stood empty, Ashes piled up. Businesses were abandoned. Families were broken. Dreams were deferred. Third strikes were established by the law and people went to prison for stealing a pizza, a pair of shoes, a case of toilet paper. Men and woman in all manor, in all shapes, in all colors and sizes broke. Screaming through the streets, "Why?" But even a child knows that if you want to learn algebra, you don't ask why. You simply work on the equation, by learning the rules to the diagram, in geometry and trigonometry, there was no time to ask why. Even beer commercials directed the child to not ask why and shoe companies reenforced that ideology by telling the child to, "Just Do IT!" So the child did. Empty slogans had manipulated the population for 100s of years and so the population, in its desperation, in its pain, in it's agony and in its defiance, invented some empty slogans of its own and then quite suddenly, those slogans were inhabited, not so empty after all, for this was not a politician with a team of advisors, this was not a police chief with a speechwriter, this was not a corporation with a dozen brilliant ad executives working on a new account, this was the mother-f*cking-public, these were real people, this was a real event, this was the city of a child who ate corn flakes while watching television every morning before school and when it's family and when it's friends and when it's neighbors and when it's city began chanting the empty slogan that rang through the city like a Bell on Sunday, this child inhabited that slogan: No Justice / No Peace, Know Justice / Know Peace. Dragnet and One Adam Twelve and Police Woman and Baretta and Starsky and Hutch and CHIPS and The Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, to quote a popular phrase in poetry, "...Will not seem so damn relevant, because the revolution will not be televised," and yet, It was televised after all. The transmission of images was blast across the city in the earliest hours of the event. The Parker Center flash-point had ignited hotspots all along the vertical and lateral thorough-fairs through the city of Angels in a giant grid that only those flying in airplanes and helicopters could view. With the exception of those multitude natural forces of life known as the animals, who watched in glee as the humans failed once again at their own game. A game of self extinction, an experiment of too many mice in a maze called Los Angeles.
Hawks circle overhead, crows cawed, seagulls glanced, thrashers, bluejays, sparrows, woodpeckers, pigeons, hummingbirds and all manner of birds flew overhead, bees returned to their hives, butterfly nestled under branches, spiders strengthened their webs, ants collected bits of this and that, squirrels climbed palm trees to get a better view, coyotes howled through the hills, deer looked on pensively, mountain lions patiently waited, possums stopped playing dead and walked along the tops of fences, a family of bears escaped from the zoo, an elephant stepped on its trainer in a parking lot downtown, snakes slithered to higher ground, raccoons sensed some easy pickings on the horizon and all the while domesticated dogs and cats sat with their owners, watching television. The first time it rained after The Riot, an inordinate amount of chemicals spewed through the streets, into the gutters, down the sewers, along the pipelines and on into the ocean: Formaldehyde, asbestos, concrete, plastic, tar, asphalt, rubber, fiberglass, aluminum, glass, lead, resin, stucco, lime, drywall, and the entire contents of dozens of 99 cents stores which included: bleach, roach killer, hair spray, comet, windex, baking soda, nylon, air freshener, butane, high fructose corn syrup, polyester, lysol, both the regular scent and the new and exciting pine flavor all rolled into one giant blob of city sludge and plopped itself into the intestines of the City of Angels, rolling through the LA River and dumping itself directly into the sea. Blue fin tuna, albacore, barracuda, lobster, sea bass and even mackerel were no where to be seen. There were no shark attacks to worry about. Sharks were too smart to swim in waters infested by chemicals of that variety. Within their very organism, they have a built in mechanism that can detect one ten thousands of an ingredient in the water from miles away. This device was originally evolved, no doubt, for survival, in search of something to consume, but due to the stupidity of the human race, the callous nature of the corporations, the shortsighted views of the now angry populist, this devise was used to avoid certain areas and avoid it they did. The chemicals that trickled down through the ashes, through the soot, through the smoke and through the tears had accidentally informed the organism, transformed the organism, reformed the organism and the child, who had sensed all along that all was not well, would never, ever, be the same again. Nor would the place that they call the City of Angels.
The little plastic box that had for decades transmitted ideas somehow still worked, the device that transferred images, sound and motion on a regular basis, continued to do so. Tony the Tiger, exclaimed to the child that the food it was eating, the contents it was consuming, the simple little flakes of corn in all manner of speaking and description could be defined in a two word phrase that was simple and easy to remember: "They're Great!" The big rabbit with the floppy ears was told time and time again that he was indeed a silly rabbit and that, "Trix are for kids!" The Frito Bandito, Captain Crunch, Count Chocula and a Lucky Charm with a Shamrock were also present, representing an old school variety of corn paste, flour, sugar and salt, added preservatives and in some cases food coloring that sometimes caused cancer, with a simple reminder that if you ever ended up in prison, you would indeed have to choose a cereal that represented something familiar to your general genetic make up. And of course there was the award winning commercial that had Mike-y and his brothers, representing a product that somehow encompassed the child's entire existence, by calling itself, 'LIFE'. "He won't eat it..." his brothers exclaim, as they put a bowl of blocked wheat style cereal in front of the freckled faced child, "...He hates everything." Then, quite suddenly, the boy begins to shovel the wheat blocks into his mouth as his brothers excitedly exclaim, "Hey Mike-y! He Likes IT!" For those with simpler tastes, you had Aunt Jamima and or Quaker Oats, in case you ever forgot who founded this country and what your position in the hierarchy was to begin with. Yes, the little box in the corner with the wire in the wall and the antennae on the roof still worked. And the child watched it. The picture was not as clear, the colors not as crisp, the audio was warped, the depth was foggy, the vertical and lateral lines often separated, but the endless trail of information, disinformation and programming continued on, it taught the child and eventually, the child had learned to transmit it's own programs. The child and it's family and it's neighbors and it's city were all so busy programming, they had no time to wonder, just who exactly was actually eating the giant bowl of cereal that they were all now living in ? The entire city snapped, it crackled and it popped, surely someone was bound to eat it.
INTERVIEW GUEST ARTIST: IRBY PACE
Joshua TRILIEGI: How did the idea for the Smoke series originally come about?
Irby PACE: I had the idea of starting this project a few years before leaving graduate school in 2012, but initiating the series always seemed to get pushed back because of other priorities I had at the time such as school, teaching, etc., but it stayed in my mind and in my sketchbook. Occasionally... weekly... monthly... I would go back through my sketchbook and just absorb or contemplate new ideas or revisit old ones, even the ones that failed. After graduate school I became part of an artist run collective, 500x, which inspired me to do something new from my previous artworks.
Starting any body of work is complicated, at least for me it is, because I have a specific visual image and I have to see it come to fruition before I can continue to explore within the given work. I failed with the Pop! series more times that I can count and I continue to do so. On average I make anywhere from four to five setups for every successful one final photograph. But this challenge keeps me motivated, I feel like I’m always fighting the elements, wind, lighting, etc.
Another challenge I wanted to explore was to do everything “through the lens.” This is what keeps me on edge and it makes it all of the hard work worth it when everything just lines up perfectly. With the work I was thinking like a painter and a photographer combined. I wanted to add these clouds to these physical spaces much like a painter would manipulate a space with oils or acrylics, but the photography makes it hyper realistic because it’s actually happening. It is in these small split second moments that I really truly live as a photographer.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Experimentation and hard work are always a big part of finding an original idea in modern art, your art catalogue shows clearly that you have earned your position and yet the smoke series seems so simple. Tell our readers a bit about your ' search ' for the art image.
Irby PACE: I, and other artists, live in a time where it is seemingly harder and harder to make an original piece of “art.” Yeah I know... that’s a trite statement. Its the mantra of undergrads and artists and everyone. Well, I can’t say everyone, but how about a majority of people. But, it is surprising to me how common that statement is. Even non artistic people say that, or at least I’ve heard a few here or there say that. Maybe the old adage that “everything has been done before” really is true. Maybe it’s bullshit. Maybe we need to move on from this self imposed pity party and start trying to make some original shit happen. But how do we do this? When I hear “nothing’s original” I step up on a soapbox and let them know that every new piece of technology that is being introduced daily has the potential to be an outlet for an art making practice, tool, etc.Experimentation is what makes this process difficult. We’re conditioned to make something “right” then to continue to rinse and repeat this process. But you have to take the time to deviate from the path, to try something new, and to be willing to fail. Failing isn’t necessarily desirable, but that’s my barometer to know when I’m on to something.
To Download The Entire INTERVIEW Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION PACE:
BUREAU ART in AMERICA : TEXAS
Tap To Visit On Line: NasherSculptureCenter.org
DALLAS Art Pick : THE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
The Nasher Sculpture Center is located in the heart of Dallas’ thriving downtown Arts District. This summer, the Nasher Sculpture Center will present a major exhibition of the work of British sculptor Phyllida Barlow. Barlow employs commonplace materials—wood, plaster, concrete, cardboard, and strips of colorful cloth or tape—in extraordinary, monumental, ramshackle, hand-built structures that expound a dizzying array of novel sculptural forms. Recent projects at the Tate Britain in London and the New Museum in New York have showcased the prodigious talents of the now 70-year-old Barlow, who, after a distinguished teaching career at the Slade School of Art in London, is finally enjoying the broad international recognition her work has long deserved. Her exhibition at the Nasher will feature new work inspired by, and created for, the unique spaces of its galleries. Like several of Barlow’s recent projects, these new works will challenge accepted notions of sculpture, blurring the line between constructed form (sculpture) and constructed environment (architecture), and providing a powerful counterpoint to the refined surroundings of the Nasher’s Renzo Piano-designed building. More than simply a presentation of unique objects, the distinct sculptures in Barlow’s installations create a coherent, if varied, environment, linking to one another through materials, method of fabrication, or color palette. 2001 Flora Street Dallas, Texas 75201 214 . 242 . 5100
Shigeo Gochō, Self and Others Series, 1975–77, printed 1992, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum © Hiroichi Gochō
MUSEUM OF FINE ART HOUSTON TEXAS
The Museum of Fine Art Houston is home to The Films of Robert Frank as well as a fabulous permanent collection of Art and Temporary Exhibitions that rival any Art Institute across the United States. Currently on View through to July 12, 2015
FOR A NEW WORLD TO COME: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968–1979
The late 1960s and early 1970s marked a period of political and social turmoil in Japan. The country was struggling to forge a new identity on the world stage, and Japanese artists were seeking a medium that could adequately respond to these uncertain times. For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968–1979 explores in depth, for the first time, the role of photography in the formation of Contemporary art in Japan. 250 works: photographs, photo books, paintings, sculpture, and film-based installations. The unprecedented survey demonstrates how 29 Japanese artists and photographers enlisted the camera to make experimental and conceptual shifts in their artistic practices during a time of radical societal change.
Tap The Link to Visit: http://www.mfah.org
SUMMER OF 2015 EVENTS IN AUSTIN TEXAS
MONIKA SOSNOWSKA ART: The Stairs Opens MAY 10, 2015
On View at Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria
LAGUNA GLORIA 3809 WEST 35TH STREET AUSTIN, TEXAS 78703 512 458 8191
TAP TO VISIT: http://www.thecontemporaryaustin.org
The Republic of Texas Biker Rally June 11TH to June 14 2015
Travis County AUSTIN: Center & Sixth Street / The state's largest motorcycle Gathering of Bikers for rides, Parades and music. TAP TO VISIT: http://www.rotrally.com
The Austin Fourth of July Fireworks and Symphony
Auditorium Shores: The Austin Symphony hosts an annual concert of Patriotic Music
culminating in a spectacular fi rework display over Lady Bird Lake. www.roadwayevents.com
Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival August 23rd 2015
Fiesta Gardens : If you wanna beat the heat this summer then you gotta eat the heat! Join
The Austin Chronicle for one of the world's largest hot sauce festivals. www.austinchronicle.com
PHOTOGRAPHER: VICTORY TISCHLER BLUE
There are Rock Star Photographers. There are Photographers who shoot Rock Stars. There are even Rock Star Photographers who shoot Rocks and Stars, Victory Tischler Blue is a combination of all three. We discovered this image and knew nothing about the photographer who apparently has been a bass player for The Runaways, made an appearance in Spinal Tap and is a serious photographer with some of the most interesting images of the American Desert Landscape that we have seen lately. Ms. Blue's desert is haunted, hallucinated and hallowed. This is Sam Shepard's desert with long lost gas stations, deserted automobiles from other decades, satellite response gear, dried out cacti and ancient artifacts that still provide the mysteries that behold the great American West. Defunct signage from an old cafe that once hosted stories such as The Petrified Forrest stand defiantly like an erect statue in Time Square. And yes, as is so often the case, there is just a hint that maybe , somewhere out there, some living being has landed, will land or is just passing by on it's way to another galaxy not so far, far away. This incredible Image was originally exhibited at The Spot Photo Works Art Gallery in Los Angeles, California U. S. A.
Spot Photo Works 6679 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90038 USA
The Gallery: SpotPhotoGallery.com The Artist: SacredDogs.com The Lab: SchulmanPhotoLab.com
The PAINTER: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE
Georgia O'Keeffe, as a person, was precocious, defiant, intelligent, unwavering and spirited. Throughout her education and early years as a painter, she produced an original abstractionist style that had preceded a group of New York painters of the male variety that has, to this day, remained wholly original, breathtakingly expansive and sexually charged in a way that empowers feminine energy and iconography. O'Keeffe rejected analysis of her works from start to finish, from her early years in New York, to her later years in The West, everyone seemed to get it wrong. So then, let us look again at the paintings and life of Ms. Georgia O'Keeffe and see if we can put this incredible body of work into a new and contemporary context with a fresh eye and revisionist look at this phenomenally bold American.
Georgia O’Keeffe Black Patio Door, 1955 Oil on canvas, 40 1/8x30 in. Amon Carter
Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. (O’Keeffe 1283) © Copyright 2015 Amon
Carter Museum of American Art Special Thanks to Crystal Springs Fine Arts Center
THE BUREAU ICON : GEORGIA O'KEEFFE
Georgia O'Keeffe is born in Wisconsin in 1887 to Irish - Hungarian parents. By the time her years equal her fingers, she discovers art. Early study of watercolors leads to college, art school in Chicago and the Arts Student League in New York City. She recalled, later in life, "I only remember two things that I painted in those years - a large bunch of purple lilacs and some red and yellow corn." Subjects and colors she would return to throughout her life. By her twentieth year, she is awarded prizes and still seems to reject the praise, due mostly to the fact that her art education seems to reward technique over originality. Adding, in those later reflections, "… I never did like school." While in New York, she and a group of fellow students visit the progressive Art Gallery, 291, eight years later, her own drawings will land in the hands of 291's founder, Alfred Stieglitz, who will become one of her greatest friends, confidants and legally, her husband. In the interim, Georgia O'Keeffe quits painting for four years straight, then, at the University of Virginia and later while studying for a teachers credentials at Columbia College, she falls under the tutelage of Arthur Dow and is set free to pursue something new and wholly original. "I decided to start anew - to strip away what I had been taught, to accept as true, my own thinking. This was one of the best times in my life. There was no one around to look at what I was doing - no one interested - no one to say anything about it one way or another. I was alone and singularly free, working into my own, unknown - no one to satisfy, but myself." This particular statement is extremely important to the core of her character, as it displays O'Keeffe's disdain for any particular reactions to the work, either casually, by fellow artists or formally, by the art critics. As a woman who was decades ahead of her contemporaries, in terms of abstraction in both form and color as well as feminine energy personified freely and independently in an iconic manner: O'Keeffe took a beating by the critics. Some of the blame often falls on Alfred Stieglitz and his in depth photographic series of Ms. O'Keeffe in all her natural beauty as a young woman. Unfortunately, the public discovered Georgia O'Keeffe as the muse of an older male rebel on the front lines of intellectual battles which included, photography as art, the importance of european abstraction and American art as a whole, before they had gotten to discover the original paintings and watercolors of O'Keeffe as Artist. The timing was off and Ms. O'Keeffe, although celebrated on a national level in art circles, was also widely dismissed through the lens of new psychological trends that included the great Freudian fraud which attempted to minimize the feminine energy that Georgia O'Keeffe's work so boldly personified. Once again, from the beginning of time and written history, the female is minimized by rhetoric & ideology through the powers that be, when all along, Georgia O'Keeffe is actually winning the game. From the modern perspective of 2015, it is time to liberate O'Keeffe's eroticism.
O'Keeffe's journey into public notoriety had all started through a mutual friend in 1916 when Stieglitz famously receives a series of charcoal drawings by a young Miss O'Keeffe and immediately is smitten by the originality, the boldness and no doubt by the fact that the drawings are created by an American who is both young and female. He has seen nothing like it before and in a letter that is formally typed and mailed to O'Keeffe, he expresses his admiration. "What am I to say ? It is impossible for me to put into words what I saw and felt in your drawings. As a matter of fact I would not make any attempt to do so. I might give you what I received from them if you and I were to meet and talk about life. Possibly then, through such a conversation I might make you feel what your drawings gave me. I do want to tell you that they gave me great joy… If at all possible, I would like to show them." O'Keeffe would later describe the 291 gallery, "The things you saw at Stieglitz's place sent you off into the world, just like his conversations did… It was a place that helped you find your own road: It was the only place."
"The things you saw at Stieglitz's place sent you off into the world…"
Alfred Stieglitz and his artistic efforts had been on the verge of the vanguard since the early 1890s. In the beginning, through his own photography in New York City and later in Austria, Italy and Germany. His trips to Paris and his friendship with Edward Steichen had exposed him to the works of Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Rodin, all of whom would later be exhibited at 291 Gallery. Culturally speaking, there was a fight for the new and Stieglitz had taken the side of The Moderns, "The search for the truth is my obsession." he describes, "The camera fascinated me and photography became my life." While many people enjoyed the new found art of the photograph, there were purists, such as Baudelaire, who hated photography. Although, at the same time, a new group of painters, also in search of truth on American soil, began to create a new type of painting, which became known as the Ashcan School, painters such as Bellows, Shin, Luks and Sloan, who did not shy away from everyday people, subjects and locations of the populist working class lifestyle.
Alfred Stieglitz walked the streets of New York from 1893 to 1895 capturing photographic images of everyday life. He came from a wealthy family, married into another wealthy family & soon found incompatibility, he took refuge into photography. In 1902 Stieglitz started a magazine, opened a gallery and founded a new group of photographers with Edward Steichen called The Photo Secessionists, by it's very name and definition, it was a rebel act of separation from the norm and it began a steep and unsteady incline towards a peak of cultural defiance that would slowly lead upward to the very top. At the start, Alfred Stieglitz's fight was for photography as art and he indeed found supporters and subscribers. Eventually, he began to fight for modernism at all levels, which included much of the art from the newest and most outrageous European painters. In 1907, while on a ship headed for Europe, Stieglitz has an epiphany through a photographic image that, as he describes was, "A Step in my own Evolution."
Georgia O'Keeffe Pedernal with Red Hills 1936 oil on linen, 19 3/4 x 29 3/4 inches. Collection of the New Mexico M.O.A Bequest of Helen Miller Jones
While in Paris, Alfred Stieglitz photographs Rodin, he views Cezanne's new cubist watercolors and Picasso's paintings, including, "Madame's De Avegnons." A year later, in 1908, his exhibition of the sculptor Rodin's drawings causes a stir by their very nature and erotic simplicity, again, he is ahead of the pack and slowly loses the photographic subscribers who originally supported 291 Gallery and the magazine. In 1911, Stieglitz's Gallery is the first American gallery to exhibit the drawings of Pablo Picasso.
"Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery is the first American gallery to exhibit the drawings of Pablo Picasso"
The public reaction to Picasso's new modernist and primitive approach is abhorrent and with only a single sale, Stieglitz felt obliged to purchase a work himself. His magazine, "Camera Work," was the very first to publish the writings of Gertrude Stein, who would go onto become a modernist wonder of literature and a champion of Picasso's work around the world. Then in 1913, The New York City Armory Show pierces the veil of modernism and justifies many of Alfred Stieglitz's prior decisions. Soon he realizes that the struggle for American Art is lagging behind the europeans and his next cultural battle is for the validity of an American modernist art form by American artists.
%2C%2B1931%2C%2Boil%2Bon%2Bcanvas%2C%2B16%2B1%3A2%2Bx%2B36%2B1%3A2%2Binches.%2BCollection%2Bof%2Bthe%2BNew%2BMexico%2BMuseum%2Bof%2BArt.%2BGift%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMuseum%2Bof%2BNew%2BMexico%2BFoundation%2C%2B1984.jpg)
Why all this history, you wonder ? I thought this was an article about Georgia O'Keeffe, you ask ? Yes, dear reader, it is, but to comprehend the importance of the beauty, the freedom and the defiant nature of Ms. O'Keeffe's work, you must first understand the fight that preceded her grand entry and the very importance of the simple fact that Georgia O'Keeffe was a very solid American woman with ideas and images stirring inside her imagination that would come into existence and be related directly with a man that had been searching for just such an ideal for over a decade.
"Everyone began talking about the search for… The Next Great American Thing."
When Stieglitze found Georgia O'Keeffe, he had found: "The Great American Thing." As Georgia O'Keeffe herself had described time and time again, looking back at those heady times, "Everyone began talking about the search for the next Great American Novel, the next Great American Poem, the next Great American Painting, The next Great American Thing." Well, my dear readers, I am very happy to inform you that Georgia O'Keeffe not only filled that void, she had been working on the equation, without actually defining it as such, from the time she was ten years old. Now she was twenty-nine years old, had been discovered by Stieglitz and was about to take center stage.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) Yellow Cactus, 1929 Oil on canvas, 30x42 in. Dallas Museum of Art Texas. Courtesy Colorado Springs FAC
The world of the 1920s and it could be argued, that the world of today, is a male dominated world, where woman are subjugated to second class citizenship. Georgia O'Keeffe along Steiglitz's other contemporary painters including John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove helped to define a new and original abstract form in painting that had never, ever, been expressed before. Ms. O'Keeffe did not copy, she did not follow, she did not supplicate, she Invented a whole new 'Thing' and it had all been based on her inner life, her female power, her very sexual and erotic nature.
"The Interesting thing about O'Keeffe is her ability to learn from the Steiglitz gang and the opposing faction of artists commonly called the precisionists ..."
It was new, it was beautiful, it was bold, it was sensual, it was exciting, it was tempestuous, it was authentic, it was avant-garde, it was unblemished, it was purely Georgia O'Keeffe and above all: It was a New American Art Form. The Interesting thing about O'Keeffe is her ability to learn from the Stieglitz gang and the opposing faction of artists commonly called the precisionists group, which culled inspiration from factories, architecture & machinery, leading the way into modern pop such as Andy Warhol's work. O'Keeffe's work includes both a very personal inner emotional and naturally inspired oeuvre and a very precise and overall interest in architecture & modernism. She won by simply using techniques, ideas and methods that did not devote themselves to any school or group.
Pelvis IV, 1944 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on Masonite 36 x 40 (91.4 x 101.6) Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
But not so fast, there is still so much to say, so much more to explain, this is really just the beginning and yet, due to O'Keeffe's consistency, in both style and technique, the works she will produce, from 1918, when she moves to New York, up to her big abstract art exhibition in 1923, compare, very much in power, in expression and in composition with the works she will produce for the rest of her life: Amazingly so. Georgia O'Keeffe the artist, was seldom in search of a style, if anything she had abandoned her own original approach briefly, only to return to it and then held steadfast to what has now become the O'Keeffe method, with a clearly recognizable iconic brand in todays contemporary world of art. Her move from teaching in Texas to living with Stieglitz in New York happened relatively easily and her adjustment to the big city, where she had briefly studied was seamless. Having been promised by Alfred Stieglitz that she could work for a year straight, without interruption, the original vow had turned into the pledge of an entire lifetime. Though, there were times when his photographic objectification not only was a hinderance to her personal space, it did ultimately damage her perception in the public's eye and personally, she was hurt by the mainstream reaction, especially by the critics. Two years prior to her one person abstract exhibit, Stieglitz displayed 145 new photo works, many of them were of his new muse and lover, Georgia O'Keeffe.
Pelvis Series, Red with Yellow, 1945 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on canvas 36 1/8 x 48 1/8 (91.8 x 122.2) ) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
The images of O'Keeffe are comparable, in modern times, to that of, say, a celebrity power couple such as Jay-Z and Beyonce'. The sexualization of Georgia O'Keeffe had begun. Lets remember, this is by no means the 1930s with Clara Bow or the 1940s with Greta Garbo or the 1950s with Marilyn Monroe or the 1960s with Bridgette Bardot or the 1970s with Raquel Welch or the 1980s with Madonna or the 1990s with Sharon Stone or the 2000s with What's - her - name: This is 1921. On top of that, we are talking about a very serious artist, not a broadway showgirl, not a singer, not an actress, an intellectual visual artist who, in the words of Arthur Dove, one of the male painters in the Stieglitz art gallery stable, "…Is Actually Doing What All The Guys are Trying to Do." O'Keeffe's Abstract Art show is more than impressive, but due to the harsh criticisms, she gives up abstraction for the next few years and switches to representational objects. Though, her choice of subjects such as fruit and flowers is a rather subtle change. If we look closely at the psychology behind this maneuver, we can see that it was entirely calculated and was actually a bold move toward flipping the script on the subjective mind-scape that had pervaded the times via Freudian theories that were trendily in vogue. By creating representational works that still contained a fierce and even blatantly sexually charged nature, Georgia O'Keeffe was tempting critics to fall on their own swords. The critics had originally tried to intimate that she was a sensual animal, expressing her hidden desires through her paintings. Two years later, when O'Keeffe showed up with pears, apples, flowers and the like, all incredibly and beautifully rendered, with the definite possibility of being interpreted as orifice - like shapes and feminine curves that one might taste or touch, she had set a trap for the critics and still marched on into the next sixty years doing exactly as she had from the very start.
Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur, 1930 Georgia O’Keeffe Oil on canvas 30 1/8 x 40 (76.5 x 101.6) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
On the one hand, O'Keeffe had won the battle, on the other hand, we still must wonder what might have been, had the critics not been so foul. It seems that in Georgia O'Keeffe's very nature, there was a sly, humorous, independent human being with a philosophical bent that took each challenge, like a boxer might take a rap on the chin, she simply shook her head and got right back in the ring. A year later, Stieglitz handed her a different type of ring and the two began a journey that would last up until his death in 1949, he was twenty-three years her senior. Many years after his death, O'Keefe described their relationship in the simplest of terms, "I was interested in what he did and he was interested in what I did: Very Interested." Decades later, Georgia O'Keeffe had also taken a much younger lover and partner, shocking those around her and creating the same type of stir that had originally started her career in the first place. Her life had come full circle. Georgia O'Keeffe's first visit to New Mexico in 1929, five years after their marriage, started a new love affair with the landscape, which included annual summer stays and eventually a permanent home that would provide an entirely new style, technique and viewpoint which harkened back to her earliest works, before the critics had tried to sexualize, demonize and project a nasty glaze over her very robust, sensually charged paintings that, to this day, will get just about anyone thinking about the beauty of love. If I find myself looking at an O'Keeffe for very long, well, there is no other way to put it, I get turned on. Anyone who says different is either sexless, afraid or most likely, simply too young or a virgin. O'Keeffe's images simply approve of passion, desire and the art of lovemaking. It is also safe to say that, were she alive today, O'Keeffe would most likely dismiss this entire analysis. The fact of the matter is, for a painter so, 'In Love with Color,' language, words and any verbal communication seemed almost rudimentary compared to the purity of visual expressions by a genius.
The BUREAU ICON : Georgia O'Keefe / Summer 2015 / Written By Joshua A. Triliegi
To Download The Entire MAGAZINE ARTICLE FOR FREE SIMPLY Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION O'KEEFFE
GEORGIA O'KEEFE EXHIBITIONS AND RELATED LINKS
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Georgia O’Keeffe: Line, Color, Composition
May 8 – September 13, 2015 TAP THE LINK: www.okeeffemuseum.org
PHOENIX ART MUSEUM: From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism June 7—September 7, 2015 TAP THE LINK : phxart.org
FINE ARTS CENTER COLORADO SPRINGS: Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and
Still Life Art in New Mexico June 27 – Sept 13 2015 TAP THE LINK: csfineartscenter.org
SCHEINBAUM & RUSSEK LTD: Representing Photographs by Todd Webb & Myron Wood
TAP THE LINK : www.photographydealers.com
TACOMA ART MUSEUM: TAP THE LINK : www.TacomaArtMuseum.org
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART : Georgia O'Keeffe in The Permanent Collection
TAP THE LINK : www.DMA.org
ALEX HARRIS : PHOTOGRAPHER
Alex Harris's Photographs are Quintessentially and to the Core: American. He is a Master Photographer with decades of consistently important, relevant and revelatory images. From the early Nineteen Seventies with a socially conscious black and white portfolio and a degree from Yale, Harris captured images on the front lines of culturally significant moments. In The Nineteen Eighties he founded the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In the Nineties, he co founded the groundbreaking photographic magazine, Double Take. He has received fellowships from The Guggenheim & Rockefeller, has published fifteen books and is a Professor for the Practice of Public Policy and Documentary Studies at Duke. His work in CUBA was very Influential to many of his contemporaries. We are very pleased to bring you the very first of several Photographic Essays Celebrating The Art, The Experience and The Conversation of One of America's Best and Brightest Living Photographers, Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Mister Alex Harris.
Joshua TRILIEGI: What initially attracted you to Photography ?
Alex HARRIS : I was attracted to photography before I really had the words to express that attraction. My grandfather Alexander Eisemann, used his camera with great wit and precision to chronicle my mother’s life before I was born, and then the life of her young children and family – me included. I was so attracted to the stories he told with his pictures and the albums he put together, the stories of an intact family living together, full of joy and humor. In fact I was more attracted to that story than the reality of my family life, which must have been fraught with difficulty as my parents separated and divorced by the time I was six and moved to separate homes. When I graduated from high school, I can’t think of one family in my neighborhood that had remained intact or remained in their original homes. Looking back I see its not an accident that my first projects as a required me to immerse myself in some of the most intact, long-lived communities in the United States, the Hispanic villages of northern New Mexico and the Inuit villages in Alaska.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Describe how one image leads to another in creating a Series.
Alex HARRIS : I began shooting color landscapes and interiors in New Mexico in 1979 with the premise that I didn’t want the photographs to be about color so I would try to ignore color with my camera entirely, to photograph color blind. And for about six months I successfully photographed colorblind while making absolutely uninteresting color photographs! One evening at dusk I saw the way the light was hitting my neighbor George Romero’s yellow front porch, and I stopped to photograph it. The porch post visible in the picture was painted blue, white, and red. A shadow from a second post off-camera made it appear that shadows were falling in the wrong direction. I allowed myself to respond to this scene and to color. From then on I looked for color as an aspect of culture, as an essential part of the way the people express themselves with their homes. I was able to go back to the people, homes and fields I had visited over the years as a black-and-white portrait photographer and to photograph would have been the backgrounds to those portraits, now as the foreground and subject of the picture, making what I began to see is another kind of portrait, a portrait without people. I tended to work with one theme at a time:, so bedrooms and other interiors of homes, close-ups of objects and possessions, photographs of villages from a distance, landscapes with signs of human presence, landscapes as seen through automobiles. And I would move back and forth between those series.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Lets talk about this series we are currently sharing with our readers. Tell us how the dashboard images came about and describe the juxtaposing the interior with the exteriors.
Alex HARRIS : When I had the idea to photograph the landscape of northern New Mexico through the interiors of the cars of people who lived there, I’d been living in northern New Mexico on and off for almost 15 years and working in color there for about five years with a view camera. I saw myself as making the portrait of this region without including any actual people in the pictures. So I photographed extensively inside homes, whose decoration was primarily the domain of women, and the outsides of homes and in the fields, which was primarily the domain of men. In photographing these spaces, in a sense I was portraying the people who had created or shaped those spaces over the years. I wanted to represent the younger generation, and the spaces they controlled and decorated were the interiors of their cars. It seemed uninteresting simply to photograph the dashboards and interiors wherever the cars happened randomly to be parked. I had the idea that if I could balance the light inside and outside the car, I could use my camera to make a connection between the car interior and the landscape that person lived in or often drove through. I thought my pictures could represent what it felt like for people in the villages to see their own landscape and community, for the viewer of the photograph to see their world through the frames they had decorated and that they themselves often peered through. The best portraits make a connection between a person’s interior world – in a sense their life history – and the world that surrounds them. That’s what I was looking for in these pictures.
To Download The Entire INTERVIEW WITH A FABULOUS PHOTO ESSAY AND TEN QUESTION INTERVIEW WITH ALEX HARRIA Tap This Link : SUMMER EDITION
Archie Thompson and Albert Rudin American, active c. 1935 Shoes, c. 1940 watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paperboard overall: 32.3 x 42.4 cm (12 11/16 x 16 11/16 in.) Courtesy of National Gallery of Art Washington D.C. USA
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
In Washington D.C. deep inside The Archives of The National Gallery of Art lay objects, images and great works of art that have defined who we are as Americans. For some modern day Americans, a defining object might be the washer and dryer at the local laundromat or a half a gallon container of homogenized milk for the baby or the metropolitan bus that takes them from one end of town to another. The significance of an object is sometimes related directly to the importance of that object in relation to the Artist who creates the portrait, the drawing or the work of art, be it a drawing, a musical composition or a piece of literature. We have chosen several images from the gallery for no particular reason, other than the very fact that these everyday objects are indeed a part of our American history, which we can never forget. The Artists in America have become the heroes of this country, not because they died in it's defense, not because they were forced to actually sacrifice their lives to be remembered, but because they simply loved, adored, reflected on and represented an object, an idea, a rendition of their life in America, in Art, in Music in Words.Today, We salute The Artists of America.
Daniel Marshack American, active c. 1935 Woman's Gym Suit, 1935/1942 watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard overall: 45.5 x 30.2 cm (17 15/16 x 11 7/8 in.) Archives of The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. United States of America
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE: CINEMA
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL
By Joshua TRILIEGI
A man in a hooded, leopard skin robe walks down a long hallway while a group of men push aside those standing in his path. We hear a crowd of thousands cheer the man on, "Jake Jake Jake …" they begin to chant. He is wearing boxing gloves, this is a championship fight, the crowd is dressed in their finest, the men are wearing suits and hats, the women are wearing jewelry, the place is filled with cigar and cigarette smoke, sailors, businessmen, middle aged characters scream the man's name over and over, the women smile as he passes by, his trainers walk in front of and behind the man as he walks down the pathway toward the ring, the volume of the crowd amplifies as the man gets closer and closer to the large roped off square canvas at the center of the arena. The man in the leopard skin robe enters through the ropes, a nondescript fellow with a microphone introduces the man in the robe, the crowd goes wild with frenzy, people are shouting, clapping, everyone is yelling something and then, suddenly, a quiet gent behind a camera yells, "cut" and the place goes silent, the action ceases, everyone settles and a pensive discussion between the crew behind the camera ensues. A few changes are discussed, several people make notations and we do it all over again. I am barely a teenager. It is a first time experience and I am collaborating with the finest in the business. My father and I are working together on the film set of a classic piece of cinema with the Actor Robert DeNiro and Director Martin Scorsese. This is On the Set Raging Bull, thirty-five years later & this is all true.
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
I get home from school and, once again, my parents are having a debate and it is about me. This has happened a few times, once, when my brother wanted to take me to an important surf contest on a week day and another time, when we got stuck at the border of Mexico and America late one Sunday night and didn't get home until early Monday morning. Today's negotiation is all about what is more important ? For me to attend school or for me to participate in making a film? The prior debates were also surrounding weather a day in real life would mean more to my education than a day at school. My dad had always felt that real life events had a gravity that would inform much more than the controlled environs of a formal education. In the past, his debating skills would convince mom that this was true and after some heated discussion, he wins her over. Now, we have to figure out how a thirteen year old kid with shoulder length hair is going to fit into a film that takes place in the late 1940s and early Fifties. First, he offers to cut it and I say no. Then, my hair is tied into a pony tail and stuffed up into a woolen cap that my old man had worn since he was a barber down on Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Back then, my mother had found herself single, with three kids, she was italian, she was beautiful, she was liberated and although the barber had barely begun his own life as a bachelor and hadn't entered college, when my mom walked in to get my older brother's hair cut, he fell for her and at six months old, he and I become pals. Through the years, we seldom had to deal with any of the father & son bullshit that can ruin a great relationship, we were often, simply friends or roommates or just happened to be living together. We both had to answer to the same lady, for him, it was the love of his life, for me, it was my mom, who made me clean my room, do chores, wash my own clothes and do my homework before running out for the day and get back by nightfall.
Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play The La Motta Brothers in RAGING BULL / United Artists
We have been through some tough times together as a family and come out unscathed. But things are about to get really rough. In about six months, mom is going to move back to Milwaukee for a stretch, my brother and I will stay in California and my sister will go with mom. We did fifteen years without a separation, but my mom is coming into her own and my dad is freaking out. We get up at five in the morning and drive downtown to the Olympic Auditorium, where my old man is moonlighting nights as a security guard. The Olympic was the place, back in the day, where boxing matches happened every weekend. The great American boxing tradition was much bigger and wider spread than most people realize today. A few kids from just about any working class neighborhood, would start fighting in the ring, very early on, certainly kids my age did. There was the Golden Gloves, usually sponsored by a local newspaper and there was the Diamond Belt, often played live on local radio stations. My grandfather fought for these competitions in the late 1920s & early Thirties. He and his friends even started a boxing club, the Battling Bombers. They'd get up in the morning, run along the lakefront, work out at the gym and then go to work all day. He was a great fighter, he naturally had the correct build, could take a punch, had a mean right hook, but one thing he didn't have, was the reach. And if you can't reach your opponent, nothing much matters. In any event, my dad was very aware of my grandfather's history as well as the talent that lay in director Martin Scorsese. My parents had seen Scorsese's early films, but when, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," was released, both my parents had noticed that my precocious behavior compared that of Alice's son.The big screen rapport between the boy and Alice had undertones of my own relationship with mom.
Actress Cathy Moriarty plays Jake LaMotta's Wife, Vicki in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We get to the set and already thousands of people are filling the auditorium. I am dressed in jeans and suspenders, a cap and tennis shoes. He is wearing a suit and tie. Because my dad is actually an employee, we have all access. The scene we are shooting today is a famous 'single take' that Martin Scorsese will later make into one of his trademark style techniques. A favorite example of which would be the incredible scene in, 'GoodFellas' when Henry and Karen walk into a nightclub through the kitchen, to avoid the lines out front. They stroll through the door, down a hallway, into the kitchen, where Henry greets the chef, past a couple, who Henry chastises for always meeting here and on into the club, where a table is placed directly in front of the entertainer, who then sends Henry and his date a bottle of champagne. It is an amazing and exhilarating piece of cinema. The scene we are about to shoot uses similar elements. The first time we shoot the scene, the camera is behind Jake and he walks from dressing room to hallway to entryway of the arena and down the long path to the ring, where he makes a sharp left, past the judges and a right into the ring. My father and I are seated just above left of camera, the crew is situated below us, to our right. In between takes, and I can only assume that because my dad worked at the auditorium, or because it was meant to teach me something, or because he thought I would 'be discovered,' he began to call over production techies and assistants, asking questions about this or that adjustment. All these years later, having worked on films, directed and produced, I still can't believe what guts my dad had for the way he participated in the actual filming of the day. I mean, we were just extras, actually, we weren't even that, we were bum rushing the entire experience and here he is actually, 'participating' in the filmmaking process.
Actors Frank Adonis, Joseph Bono and Frank Vincent in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
The first, 'adjustment,' we notice, is when Martin Scorsese moves an extra on the right hand side of the scene from visibility. The man is dressed to the nines, in suit and hat. This is a crowd scene with thousands of people. At any one time, the camera is taking in from twelve to twelve hundred people. This is Mr Scorsese as a master oil painter, creating a giant fresco, placing each individual exactly where he wants them, every now and then, within the single take, an individual character may express an action that will end up on the screen for maybe a second or two. An older, portly man in the hallway, reaches out to Jake outside his dressing room, a middle aged man in a mustache, turns to his left while Jake passes by, clapping, a young woman cheers Jake on as he turns to the left towards the ring. When my father calls over one of the crew members and inquires about the particular change of position, the man simply looks at my dad, then looks at me, then gets on the talkie and finds out. A few minutes later, he comes over to inform us that the well dressed man is in an outfit that resembles one of the main characters and could be confusing to the overall film. This is the first of several inquiries that alerts the crew that either one of Marty's close pals is in the audience or a renegade security guard with kid in tow is taking notes. For now, we are still flying under the radar. We do the scene again, this time, the camera is in front of Jake, the sound of the arena is deafening. This is the moment, in the story & script, where Jake LaMotta finally gets the title fight he deserves. After several editing techniques of a wide variety, mostly, extremely fast and short clips, his shot at the title is pronounced, with this extended, single take and in the final film, it works out beautifully.
Joe Pesci and Nicholas Colasanto, The Neighborhood Don in in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We break for lunch. The entire auditorium is practically full with thousands of extras and somehow, my dad is able to situate me right next to Robert DeNiro. To this day, I still don't know how he did that, but I have a few ideas why. All these years later, looking back on that very important day in my life, I can see clearly that he wanted me to have the opportunities that existed here in Hollywood. As it turns out, he was a natural born bum rusher, who, on several occasions had done this type of thing before. One example, that stands out, is the time he got backstage at a concert and handed Waylon Jennings a tape with a bunch of songs he had written with his cousin. I should also say here that my old man was definitely a gambler, but he also had talent, he wrote poetry, painted, he knew music very well, was a master craftsman, he had charisma and the gift of gab, he was handsome and had a great heart, but to me, back then, he was simply the guy I had lived with, that my mom had loved, since I was six months old. That said, here I am, eating lunch with a silent Robert DeNiro, who is donned in hood and robe, no one else dared to sit at that table. While I am chowing down with Bobby, my old man is chatting up the crew, he's, no doubt, getting that high that can easily be had when on the set of a great film, probably doesn't even realize it. I look up and he is now talking to the real life Jake LaMotta, getting his autograph, introducing me to people, we are no longer, under the radar. After lunch, a crew member stops by and explains that because I am not an adult, and there are no tutors on the set, the law requires that half day rules apply to actors under eighteen and so, we will not be able to stay for the full day. My old man tries for a second or two to appease and convince, then realizes, ultimately, that we have already succeeded, it has been a great day at the roulette wheel of life. We walk back to our car and drive home. Ten years later, I buy my first film camera, write my first screenplay & produce my first short film. The screenplay is a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival's writers workshop and the short film wins nominations elsewhere.
Academy Award © Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
Raging Bull, as a film, is ahead of it's time. The critics, who had, just a few years earlier, lauded Sylvestor Stallone's, 'Rocky' as a winning, feel good boxing film, did not know what to do with a film as brutally honest and unapologetic as Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. The film was actually, a project that Robert DeNiro had been working on, for quite some time. After the success of The Deerhunter and Godfather II, he was able to put projects together which suited his goals and challenged the audience. For the first time in film history, an actor had gained a record amount of pounds, to play a character in a 'later in life' sequence, setting the bar several notches higher for techniques utilizing one's physique. Even the best film critics are not quite ready for the honesty of Martin Scorsese. America wanted another feel good film about boxing, and what it got, was a stark, reality based film that exposed the brutality, realism and masochism that surrounded Jake LaMotta's life. Not to mention the art house aspect of filming the entire project, with the exception of a few color home movies, in classic black and white. A bold, artistic decision that has, since then, garnered "Raging Bull" the reverence and deep respect of film lovers and cinema creators around the world. All one needs to do is study the film stills and camera work of Michael Chapman to realize why this film is a work of Art on almost every level. Even the sound design is especially mesmerizing, specifically how each crucial punch, in every single fight scene, is given a special mix of audio effect. It is a mesmerizing work of art and a testament to great cinema, without a doubt. At that years Academy Awards © Ceremony, Robert DeNiro walks up the isle, people are cheering, they reach out to him, applaud his performance and he gladly accepts the Oscar Award for Best Actor. Although my dad is unable to read this, I would like to thank him, Marty, Bobby and the Academy: We Made IT.
HERB RITTS : THE PHOTOGRAPHER
25 YEARS:NOW A CLASSIC
ON VIEW NOW THROUGH TO NOVEMBER 8, 2015
The Herb Ritts catalogue is now over twenty-five years young. A recent Exhibit at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts gives us a chance to reassess the work of a fundamentally commercial photographer who wanted dearly to shatter the worlds perceptions of Art, Commerciality and Fashion. He had access to the worlds best models, personalities and locations and through it all, had the simplicity and potency to create iconic imagery that harkened back to the earliest days of photography. In looking at The HERB RITTS catalogue, we can see the influence of another great American photographer, Walker Evans, whose work was first celebrated 50 years before Herb Ritts would go onto create some of his most exemplary images that actually defined the times he lived in. Although Walker Evans subjects included the downtrodden and the disparaged, due to the very struggles that occurred economically in the 1930s, Ritts takes that clean, straight ahead style and points his camera at celebrities and clothing in the way that Evans might document a wrench or a trowel. The excesses of The 1980s allowed Ritts, budgets and portfolio commissions, that to this day, seem extreme. And yet, he filtered it down into something very basic, taking a creative note from the architect Mies Van Der Rohe's ever famous quote: "Less IS More."
Considering other influences, we must also mention photographers such as Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz who had both fought a tedious battle to affirm that photography, in the hands of an artist, could indeed be an 'art' and that the by product of this new instrument called a camera, was indeed an Art-form which could rival and compare to great paintings created by great painters and therefore photographs could, should and would be considered: a great art.
The very fact that Herb Ritts' work is now residing within the walls of an institute such as The Boston Museum of Fine Art is a testament to those early battles.It is often said that an object becomes valuable and collectible at its 25 year mark. Many of the images in this exhibition were valuable the day they were taken, but we can also see, with that mellowing, like a good whiskey in the barrel, that yes indeed, The Herb RITTS Portfolio is gathering a value that is now vintage value and all the while his works are earthy, sleek, deceivingly simple & purely classic.
Madonna, Tokyo Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) 1987 Photograph, gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts © Herb Ritts Foundation
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mick Jagger, London, 1987 by Photographer Herb RITTS at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1.Naomi Campbell, Face in Hand, Hollywood, 1990 2. Backflip, Paradise Cove, 1987 3. Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen, Long Island, 1987 Images Related to this Bureau Article : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts © Herb Ritts Foundation Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
image: Guest Artist Irby Pace Courtesy of Gallerie Urbane
SO MANY ROADS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD
By Joshua TRILIEGI
David Browne has written a grand opus of a book on, of all things, the greatest rock & roll accident that has ever occurred: The Grateful Dead. No other band in Rock & Roll history can be compared to 'The Dead,' as they have been commonly known by fans and professionals alike. From the early days in Palo Alto California to the later days across the entire world, Mr. Browne has fashioned an exhaustively researched book into an easily readable tome of sorts. The writer for Rolling Stone magazine has taken an original and interesting approach and given us a portrait of the band through a very straight forward concept that fits well with his style, his experience and his day job, writing about music in digestible amounts. Mr. Browne breaks down the careers and characters that make up the Dead, from start to finish, by simply creating complete and utter portraits of various days in the life of The Grateful Dead. Days in which Mr Browne felt that a significant window into the soul of the band could be glimpsed. It is a smart concept considering that Mr. Browne was not an insider. He did not tour with the band, so he was well aware that this book would not compare, nor did he wish to compete with the previous books which have preceded this fine piece of history. Through his research methods, which seem to be exemplary, without all the show off style that can sometimes leave a bitter taste in the reader, and his experience at Rolling Stone magazine, Browne takes us into the forming of the band, their many transformations and delivers portraits of each member with the greatest care and delicacy available. Its a complex story, told with an exacting style.
By the fifth page of The Prologue, the reader is hooked. I personally cannot think of a more easy reading style, chocked with so many actual facts, insights and observations in a very long, long time. Sometimes his acuity is just as strange and off the cuff as the formulas and elements that make up The Grateful Dead's original and one of a kind style of music. For instance, Jerry Garcia's early concerns and fears regarding the Cuban missile crisis in America is a real eye opener, which on first impression seems slightly heavy handed, but upon consideration of Garcia's age and experience, entirely fitting. Browne interviewed surviving members, had access to The Grateful Dead Archive in Santa Cruz as well as a multitude of interviews directly from his office job at Rolling Stone magazine. But he didn't stop there, apparently there has been more literature in connection with the Grateful Dead than one would ever imagine. From sources as diverse as Tom Wolf'e, Electric Kool - Aid Acid Test, written in 1968 to the source that broke Watergate, The Washington Post. Everyone has seemingly spent some time ruminating on the indescribable elements that make up the iconic sound that originated such classic pillars of Rock & Roll History like, Truckin', Casey Jones & Uncle John's Band. Mr. Browne has received attention previously for writing about, brace yourself: The 'Importance' of John Tesch. Lets not hold that against him, maybe, like The Grateful Dead, he was intoxicated or simply mixing and matching inspiration and improvisation. Either way, this author has delved deep down into the facts, the myths and the fiction surrounding Garcia and his band of bad boy compadre's and has surfaced with a nice read that newcomers as well as hardcore fans will surely dig. Mr. Brown has also written about: Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley and James Taylor. As a writer who occasionally hitchhiked to and from preschool in Northern California, with my mom, and on more than one occasion received rides home from members of The Dead: I wholeheartedly approve of this
book. Now available on Da Capo Press. Worth every dollar spent on the 482 pages it offers readers.
ANDY WARHOL IS IN ARIZONA !
How a genuinely curious and simply child-like Individual took over the entire Art World… Is Probably how I would begin a story describing Andy's entire career and trajectory into and then out of the stratosphere of Culture. He used genuine experiences, friendships, new technologies, interest's and even phobia's to reflect on and represent what he saw, but most of all, he used and honored: the experiment. Willing to fail but determined to succeed and sometimes achieving both concurrently. A personal failure could easily become a professional championship win in Warhol's World. A professional failure could lead to personal triumphs. Andy used the world and the world's inhabitants returned the favor. The Story of Andy Warhol can never be told in a single sitting, nor should it be. All good artist's should simply be viewed one image at a time. That is the nature of art and artists, stories and writers, photographs and photographers, musicians and music: One word, One Note, One Image at a time is as ample a device as any to experience what need be.
ALL ART IMAGES: Courtesy of The PHOENIX ART MUSEUM and The Andy Warhol Museum,
Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Phoenix Art Museum 1625 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004
Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Phoenix Art Museum 1625 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004
TAP TO VISIT MUSEUM EXHIBIT / ANDY WARHOL PORTRAITS at : phxart.org
What is Sacred ? What is Holy ? What is Original ? What is American ? They tell me that Football, McDonalds & The Automobile are American. Although, the only thing that seems to me that is holy, sacred, original and also American is: The Native American. The original ecologists, with a deep understanding of the natural sciences, including astronomy, keeping time, recording natural and spiritual occurrences in regards to evolution. They are the storytellers and record keepers in tune with nature, animals and the planet earth. We are Americans and we are now out of balance. We are struggling with our identity, as a country, as a people and beyond that, as human beings. How will we make peace with one another ? How will we solve the riddles of our history ? In 1492, "Columbus sailed the ocean blue…" 500+ years later, we are left in the dark, regarding race relations, regarding peaceful understanding of our diverse lifestyles, regarding the history of Slavery, regarding how we all speak different languages, regarding our different religions and the fact that all our official political representatives have boiled down each and every argument into a request and or a bequest of financial gain or loss. We are in denial, ecologically, ideologically and in general. Native Americans lost much of this great land and what it meant to them, they sacrificed and they survived. Will we as modern day Americans also experience a similar take over of this Beautiful Country by handing it over to Big Business ? What will be left in the aftermath ? Take a look around, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's happening now or maybe it already did.
ROBERT FRANK: VISUAL POET
Photographers around the world revere Robert Frank's contributions to the image pool. Museums of the National and International variety create anthologies, catalogues and booklets attempting to put into perspective the precise importance of Mr. Frank's work. Art galleries and private dealers invest tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in reproducing and reselling the Robert Frank catalogue to new collectors at higher and higher prices each year. Robert Frank's photographs have become iconic, the images are American to the core and yet, he was an outsider, a beatnik, an immigrant, a visual poet. It is almost impossible to define why and what and how the impetus, the formula, the motivation surfaces within an individual artist, but within the example of Mister Robert Frank, it is safe to say that this honest man, with a most basic and unadorned tool in hand, was indeed on a quest for that rare and delectable entity known quite simply, plainly & rather straightforwardly as: The TRUTH.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Robert Frank travelled the United States in search of America and Americans: he found both. Seeking the truth, leads to knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibility, with responsibility comes wisdom and somewhere within the wisdom, sits some version of truth. What if the truth you find has something in it that is just the slightest bit askew ? What if your parents fled a dictator for a place that was safe and secure and then you were to gamble all that away for a place that spoke of a much larger idea and when you went out to find that idea, it didn't actually exist ? Like many immigrants, like my ancestors and many of your ancestors, we as a people came to discover America and quickly, we realized that America didn't really exist in the way we thought it did. Within that realization also comes a comprehension that although America is not everything we were told, it is now ours and as Americans, we can collectively & individually make a contribution, and in that offering, in that very active step forward into our lives, we make America what it is: You and me. Frank turned his eye on America and took its picture. He did not flinch, he did not turn away, he did not judge, he did not separate, he did not categorize, he did not modify, he did nothing but document, and in that study and within his vignettes, his so-called snap shots, something quite real surfaced, it expounded well beyond the veneer and eventually he found what many of us can only hope to fathom: Mister Robert Frank had simply discovered America & made it his own. He was not the first to, 'discover,' America. Columbus had discovered America in 1492. Washington and his boys followed suit and decided they liked the place more than they did their own homes. Who could blame them ? This place is awesome. The big difference with Robert Frank's discovery is that he did not conquer, nor did he enslave, he just simply captured the image and after all: image is everything. When America actually viewed it's own portrait shortly after World War II and in the decade to follow, it was somewhat shocked at the signs of poverty, the segregation, the somewhat disheveled look. The melting pot of life had seen it's own reflection and turned away, blaming the mirror. The Portrait of America and Americans by Mr. Robert Frank has gone onto have a lasting effect on the populist, the politics, the entire cultural landscape, which in the mid fifties was about to undergo a major shift in values. These images of America immediately influenced an entire generation of writers, artists and activists that had both preceded and coincided with this very new and emerging America. A recent exhibition presented by The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University unveiled many works from Mr. Frank's famous AMERICANS Series that had never been publicly displayed.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
At seventeen years of age, Frank learns to develop and print photographs with a neighbor who also introduces him to modern art, the apprenticeship lasted a year. At about this same time, fascism and the rise of Hitler's influence in Germany, where his family emigrated from, his father is German, his mother Swiss, effected the young man's perspectives. Frank, who was of Jewish descent, surely knew, growing up in Sweden, that he was different. His parents were both culturally astute, his father could quote Goethe in two languages, his mother created drawings. When a cousin of Frank's came to visit, her parents, who had stayed behind were eventually victims of the holocaust. The memories of Frank's parents recoiling from the sound of Hitler's hatred remained with him forever. In 1942, Robert Frank studied at Wolgensinger studio in Zurich, where he became influenced by the New Photography and an ethic that, in his teacher's own words, "Photography is the representation of reality - its mission is to convey essence, form and atmosphere." Frank learns to light, print and organize his works as well as contact sheet his 2 1/4 negatives. Two years later, he lands a job developing works for the largest photo studio in Switzerland, by day, he prints their work, by night, he prints his own. By 1946 Frank produces an impressive portfolio entitled, simply 40 Fotos. With the end of World War II, he travels to Paris, Milan and Brussels and by 1947, with a rebellious streak of independence and stories of American culture engrained in his psyche by literature and world events, Mr. Frank boards a ship to America. He recalls sitting between a wild, gangster-hatted American who eats with his hands and a Bishop with rosary and red sash: a scene straight out of a movie. Frank briefly worked for Harper's and a year later, he travelled to Peru and Bolivia. By 1949, he was back in Europe traveling to Spain, France, Italy and later that year is published in Camera magazine, with a prophetic declaration, "We believe Robert Frank can teach us how to see …"
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Robert Frank travelled between Europe and America several times in the early nineteen fifties. He married, had a child, applied for and received a Guggenheim grant & drove across the United States documenting a very real America. He had already captured iconic images in England, Scotland, Peru and Spain, including top hatted Londoners, coal miners in Whales, workers in LaPaz, bullfighters in Barcelona. He was now in search of the American image, outside of the big cities, rural America. It is fitting that the author of, "On The Road," Jack Kerouac and Robert Frank would eventually collaborate on a film. Kerouac also wrote the preface to Frank's seminal mid fifties survey work that was eventually published in 1958, entitled simply, "The Americans." Mr. Franks entry into America in 1947 and his many travels coincided exactly with author Kerouac's own pursuit and invention of a New Prose language in America. It was the perfect alignment. Frank's search for the truth in images, his abhorrence of commercial situations, where he quickly realized that, "There was no spirit there … the only thing that mattered was to make money," was in total unison with the emerging beatnik movement. Which eventually led to the cultural revolution and a new generation of values that included women's rights, civil rights and alternative lifestyles. Frank was also very much in line with the new school of painting that had taken hold by the likes of New York action painter Jackson Pollock, who had graced the cover of time in 1947, the year Frank first arrived in America. He states, regarding the new found style, after a conscious exodus from his New York commercial assignments, "I was very free with the camera. I didn't think of what would be the correct thing to do. I did what I felt like doing. I was like an action painter… I was making a kind of diary."
The tools Frank selects become even simpler when he begins using a point and shoot 35mm Leica, suggested by his boss and mentor at Harper's Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, rather than his 2 1/4 inch box camera. It is very possible that Robert Frank was one of the few modern photographers to be fully conscious of his intuition, utilizing a philosophy of following one's heart as opposed to one's mind. The 35mm camera made this very particular and personal transition that much easier. Frank was also very aware of the myths that had surrounded photography since World War II, with the adventurous roving journalist tradition of photographers such as Robert Capa, who later co-founded Magnum Photo Agency, the first agency to be run by and for photographers. There were times in Frank's early career when lack of sales and rejection from the large magazine publications only fueled his motivation. He strived to break free of the style, story concept and basic mainstream presentation of imagery that pervaded the publishing industry: the beginning, middle & end formulas that LIFE magazine so heartily represented. Frank began to present his layouts and book design works without many words or narration and juxtaposing images such as Christ on the cross with a Ballon at a parade, titled : Men of Wood & Men of Air. Though, even more effective and minimalist are images presented with no text at all and no image juxtaposed, simply an image on one page and a blank page next to it. In this way, Robert Frank elevated the conversation by allowing the viewer to do some thinking, to read the symbols, to project themselves into the image and decide for themselves what was going on. By doing so, he also added a much needed element that had been missing from the photography of the nineteen fifties, Mr. Frank brought back a sense of curiosity to photography and in doing so, he created a new visual poetry with various meanings to each viewer.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
No Less than ten minutes into the documentary entitled, "Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank," Mr. Frank rejects the films process, unveiling a glimpse into his very true character as a kind of idiosyncratic jazz purist. Up to this point in the film, the filmmaker's have decided to do a, 'connect the dots' biographical take, asking Mr. Frank to discuss and recall all the known biographical facts that have been so well explored before in books and catalogues, such as the very detailed essays by Sarah Greenough of The National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C. where much of Frank's photographic work resides for future study. These biographical essays can also be found in the very extensive book entitled, "ROBERT FRANK Moving Out" on Scalo Press. In the middle of a question and answer session, Mr. Frank is asked to repeat an earlier observation, because the film crew had actually run out of film. He responds with a fiery exchange: "Well, look, forget it. Look, I'm not an actor, you know. I can't go through this shit, you know. I mean… theres no spontaneity in this, it's completely against my nature what's happening here. So, if the crew can't get it together with the film, let's go out to Coney Island, lets play a Beckett play there and lets look at the landscape with my photographs and see that this man is looking for something he did fifty years ago." In the next shot of the film, Mr Frank is seen on the street in Coney Island asking a cop on a horse, "Sir, do you know where this is ? I took this picture almost fifty years ago," The cop answers, "No, I don't know." Mr Frank turns to the camera in response, "Let's find a real old guy, he would know." Suddenly we get some authenticity and a peek into what it Is that Robert Frank does so well: He connects with real people. Eventually, a young african american man points out the location, "It was right there," he points across the way, "So then, you knew it as a kid ?" Frank asks and the young man answers, "Yeah." There is a very heart felt parting glance, Franks says, "Thanks a lot." Then, suddenly, the young man reaches out his hand and Mr. Frank grabs the young man's wrist, their eyes meet and they relate. It's a small, yet beautiful moment where two strangers have connected. We get the sense that
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Mr. Frank's pictures, his early and entire catalogue were also indeed created with this special human need, for a man, alone with his art and his ideas, to connect with his people, with his immediate surroundings and with the world at large. At another point in the documentary, Mr Frank is riding a bus, looking out the window, recalling an earlier series of works taken from the windows of moving buses. He looks out the window quietly reminiscing in a solitary manner. As an admirer of Mr. Frank and his work, to watch him with no camera in his hands, was literally, for me, quite painful. When a human being you love turns ninety years of age, as Mr. Frank currently has, it is high time to celebrate his life, his work, his experiences. It is also time to ensure that this human being has everything he needs, that he knows how very well loved, well respected and well deserving he is of life's gifts. When both of my Grandfather's had turned ninety, I dropped everything I was doing and focused on them, we made documentary films together, we created images, we conducted interviews, we ate together, we discussed their lives, we set the story straight. Now, both of those men no longer walk the earth, they have moved on to another world. As I look at Robert Frank's world of images, as I look at Robert Frank's life, as I look at Robert Frank's experience at my own 'middle age', I get invigorated, I get inspired, I get turned on to life again and a new phase of creating begins. The power of the Individual is awe inspiring. Very few singular Artists, Writers or Filmmakers have set the bar to a new standard in the way in which Mr. Robert Frank has done. He is stubbornly passionate, defiantly individualistic, decidedly authentic, unabashedly truthful, culturally curious and it is very safe to say that Mr. Robert Frank did not sell out. He influenced and continues to influence The Arts, Advertising, Musicians, Writers, Filmmakers and of course photography, every single decade since his first appearing on theses shores. He is a living legend and most likely, he would shun that appraisal. Which is neither here nor there, the fact is, he did his job, the images remain, end of story.
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
ROBERT FRANK
VISUAL POET : In His Words
ON PHOTOGRAPHS: "I like images and so to make images became kind of natural."
ON PARIS: "I never really had a concept for something. It was really the intuition before I really saw it. So, Paris was very good for me.
ON LONDON: "It was wonderful, because, they didn't pay any attention to you. Which, today, they would tell you to fuck off or turn away, you know."
ON NEW YORK CITY: "New York is a very good city, wherever you look around, it has a character. and you know, It isn't a pretty life, it isn't a sweet life, it's, it's the real life, that I looked for, and that I got.
ON AMERICA: "In America I wanted to do it differently. There was no more romanticism really, a look at a country that I didn't really know, I had only been here a couple of years. The Americans was the first time I made a trip across the country… I really felt something very strong from the people. I looked at poor people, how they tried to survive, what a lonely time it can be in America, what at a tough country it is."
ON EARLY INFLUENCES: "You grow up in a place and the culture of that place or your parents or your situation, it influences you. There was a war going on, Switzerland was a place that was closed off from everywhere, you couldn't get out and you were afraid that the nazi's would invade … so of course, it had an influence on a jew."
ON RACE RELATIONS: "Also, I saw for the first time the way blacks were treated, it was surprising to me, but it didn't make me hate America, it made me understand how people can be. You know, you learn a lot traveling and you learn a lot when you are a photographer and thats what probably what makes the difference, if you have some brain and some feeling for people, you are going to be a good photographer."
ON PERCEPTION OF HIS IMAGES: "The reaction surprised me, because people thought it was an anti-American story, so then, it took ten years till that changed, but I do like America, so I became an American and thats what I know best."
ON CREATING PICTURES : "The Pictures have to talk, not me, and so be it."
All Photos © Robert Frank / Courtesy of The Stanford University and The Cantor Arts Center
Mr Robert Frank is Represented by The PACE / MacGILL Gallery In New York City N.Y. USA
Mr Robert Frank's Images are Archived in The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. USA
THE BUREAU CUISINE : PALM
The Palm Restaurants have been around since the early Nineteen Twenties, first in New York City and then the world. There are very few American establishments that can boast existing for three generations, being owned and operated by the Original Family and retaining a reputation with new trends in cuisine. Palm in Beverly Hills, their newest flagship, does all this and more.
We recently visited with Chef Pedro Inoscencio over dinner to discuss the Palm in Beverly Hills. The new space is an incredible improvement from the former location in West Hollywood. The Palm regulars will feel they have some spacious new breathing room, while newcomers will simply enjoy the vibe. Comfortable booths, high ceilings, private dining sections, a quiet table in the back, or front and center and a bar that has you easily chatting over the best cocktails money can buy. Many of the famous trademark celebrity artworks and drawings have been tastefully transferred to keep the original flavor intact as well as the tried and true recipes and yet, Chef Pedro Inoscencio, who has worked at Palm for twelve years, climbing the ladder, one rung at a time, is always looking for new ways to entice his budding clientele. Beverly Hills has always been about retaining a tried and true customer with new and consistently healthier recipes. Executive Chef Inoscencio knows very well, from experience, how to do so. "Food is really an Art," he explains over a glass of Fourteen Hands Merlot and a hearty salad made of baby kale, pine nuts, currants and romano cheese tossed in oil, dijon & lemon, "I found out early on, how much I actually enjoyed creating food and so, after working in the kitchen on a summer job, I went back to school and got a degree in the culinary arts." His first job out of school was with the Ritz Carlton, working with the best in the business inspired the young up and comer to continue honing his craft, that was over fifteen years ago and now he is at the top of his game. It's inspiring & a pleasure to discuss cuisine with the best in the biz.
CHEF: PEDRO INOSCENCIO
One of the newest aspects of Palm Beverly Hills is a returning original tradition of the freshest meat and steaks available by having an in-house butcher and closely watched aging process. Chef Inoscencio describes the advantages of this capability, while I simply marvel at and enjoy both the New York Steak and the local selections. "Everything is done in-house, drying and selecting here makes the end result much more tender. All of our meats are hand selected by the president of our company." One of the advantages of working in the culinary industry from entry level to Executive Chef, Inoscencio relates, is a deep comprehension of the entire business, "I appreciate everyone's job, because Iv'e done it, I know what it takes, I know how hard it is and I understand." It is this mix of humble know how and skilled expertise that makes Inoscencio someone special to Los Angeles. An example of Pedro's modest attitude would be the time he was offered Head Chef position and declined. "I simply wanted to learn every aspect of the management side, so I could be successful at the executive position, so, I turned it down." Luckily, Palm's management was patient enough until Inoscencio felt he had mastered his craft and some five years later, he was offered the job again, this time, he was ready. Pedro comes from a large family, he was born in Mexico and travelled to America at twelve years of age. The very fact that his position as Executive Chef has coincided with this new location makes this particular progression that much sweeter. We have to hand it to both the Palm's management for allowing and nurturing an entry level employee to work their way up to the top as well as Chef Pedro for waiting until he felt his time had come. Watching him walk from the kitchen to our table with the gravitas of a seasoned pro, one immediately observes, first hand what over fifteen years in this industry provides: Inoscencio simply belongs here."This new location in Beverly Hills has been a goal and dream come true to the owners of this company for a long time and to be offered this position at this location is an honor and I feel pretty proud of it." As he heads back into the kitchen, I walk into the bar, thinking to myself, "Someone very cool has just made it."
" I appreciate everyone's job, because Iv'e done it, I know what it takes, I know how hard it is and I understand. "
- Pedro INOSCENCIO
Executive Chef
PALM Beverly Hills
PALM RESTAURANT IN BEVERLY HILLS
267 N CANON DRIVE BEVERLY HILLS CA 90210 PHONE : 310 550 8811 FAX : 310 278 5334 THEPALM.COM
North Carolina Museum of Art
James Prosek, American Bison, 2014, oil, acrylic, and mixed media on panel, 45 x 56 in., Courtesy of the artist and Schwartz Wajahat, New York, © 2014 James Pros 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27607 www.ncartmuseum.org
Image: Martin Scorsese in London England 1996 Photographer: Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photo
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL By Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine / 2015 SUMMER Edition
TAP LINKS BELOW TO VIEW RAGING BULL FILM CLIPS RELATED TO THIS ARTICLE
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: Scorsese Collects
THE FILM and ART PICK NEW YORK: May 30 – October 25, 2015
In celebration of New York City director Martin Scorsese’s enduring commitment to the preservation of international film culture, MoMA presents 34 works from the Scorsese Poster Collection. The installation is centered around a rare, billboard-size poster for the 1951 film Tales of Hoffmann, and features other large-format pieces representing the work of directors such as Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, 1948), Max Ophuls (The Earrings of Madame de..., 1953) and Jacques Tourneur (I Walked with a Zombie, 1943), and key designers, such as Italy’s Anselmo Ballester and Britain's Peter Strausfeld. In addition to European art house and American genre films, Raoul Walsh’s silent classic The Regeneration (1915) and Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932) (represented by a rare lobby card) are included. The Film Poster Art Exhibition will be accompanied by the Film Series, Scorsese Screens in August 2015.
MOMA: The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 Tap To Visit On Line : http://www.moma.org
THE BUREAU PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY: YELLOW
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY : YELLOW ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © TRILIEGI STUDIO 2015 LOS ANGELES CA USA
Image by Guest Artist : Irby Pace Courtesy of Gallerie Urbane
THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS
The Original Fiction Series: " THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS," began two years ago with Season One. An interesting experiment that originally introduced five fictional families, through dozens of characters that came to life before our readers eyes, when Editor Joshua Triliegi, improvised an entire novel on a daily basis and publicly published each chapter on-line. Season Two was an entire smash hit with readers in Los Angeles, where the novel is set and quickly spread to communities around the world through google translations and word of mouth. Season Three begins in August 2015 and the same rules will apply. The entire final season will be improvised and posted publicly on a weekly basis beginning, Friday August the 7th 2015 and continuing each friday to the stories final completion of Book One. "Improvised," in this instance, means: The writer starts and finishes each section without taking any prior notes whatsoever and publishes the completed episode on all Community Sites. Season III is The Finale'.
READ A NEW EPISODE EVERY FRIDAY IN AUGUST 2015
BEGINNING ON AUGUST 7TH / 14TH / 21ST / 28TH
INTERVIEW : JON SWIHART
THE PORTRAIT PAINTER
Joshua TRILIEGI : Lets discuss, Commissions. You were recently commissioned by Brad PITT to create a portrait in relation to his wife's new film project on the American war hero Louie ZAMPERINI. Discuss how this came about, how you approach the assignment and how much time you may spend on a daily basis for each overall portrait.
Jon SWIHART : The whole experience surrounding Louie Zamperini really felt like kismet, because before I was commissioned by Brad Pitt to paint Louie, I had been approached a few months earlier to paint his portrait for an organization. At that time, I read Unbroken and was enthralled and clearly envisioned how I would portray Louie dressed in his old WW2 bomber jacket and officer's cap, his body deteriorating but his spirit still resilient and unbroken. So,it was hugely disappointing when that first commission fell through. Then out of the blue, fate gave me a second chance when Pitt saw my recently completed portrait of the artist Don Bachardy, which gave him the idea of having a portrait of Zamperini painted as a talismanic gift for Angelina Jolie. Laura Hillenbrand had written the book, “Unbroken”, telling the amazing story of Louie’s life through WWII. After spearheading efforts to bring this epic story to life on the big screen, Angelina Jolie was also directing the picture. While doing her research, Jolie became very close to Louie, admiring him and taking strength and inspiration from his indomitable spirit. I went to Zamperini’s home to do the photo shoot and had the opportunity to visit with him for a bit. It was obvious that behind the 96 year old façade was the same determined and precocious young man from the book. Even in his frail condition, he exuded a zest for life that was inspiring in itself. Louie was known to those close to him, for an expression in his eyes, so with the family’s help, I was able to capture this expression for the painting. Now, inspired by the book, but even more so by the man himself, I set out to do the painting. I was extremely honored and excited, but also, a little intimidated by the task at hand.
I was confident about getting a likeness, but unsure about striking a balance between the reality of his frailness and the dignity of the man and his history. For instance, in reality the bomber jacket was much larger on Louie’s shrunken frame, so I had a friend come over and pose in a similar leather jacket so I could accurately compromise between reality and the painting. The portrait took 6 weeks, working about 8 hours per day. When the painting was completed, I brought it to Louie’s home so he could see it in person and I could get his feedback. I thought I was confident about the final result until I got a big thumbs-up from Louie and felt this huge wave of relief flow over me. His family was also very happy with the portrait, which meant a lot to me. Formalities over, I spent the next hour listening to Louie tell stories and had the opportunity to ask him questions. I had been wondering about the ethereal music he heard late in his time on the raft while marooned at sea and wondered if it would be recreated in the movie. Louie said he did remember the tune for some time afterwards and had been whistling it in the prisoner camp when another prisoner who was a musician asked where he heard that wonderful piece of music. Over time, he forgot the melody and, unfortunately it hadn’t been written down. I made one more visit to bring Louie a framed photo of the painting for his 97th birthday. He was in good spirits, making plans for a birthday dinner and happy to have more visitors. Unfortunately, this would be the last time I saw him. This commission was the most meaningful of my career. I have painted many ‘famous’ people, including ex-presidents, movie stars and astronauts, but I felt that in honoring Louie, in my small way, I was also honoring all of the thousands of men and women in uniform with untold stories of courage, determination and character.
TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE JON SWIHART INTERVIEW WITH PORTRAIT IMAGES AND TEN QUESTION SIMPLY TAP THE LINK
THE BUREAU LITERARY SITE
Literature has a Power and a Scope All It's Own. We originally founded the publication and the magazine to become part of the great history of writers, editors and publishers of the world. Interviews with writers Luis VALDEZ of ZooT Suit and La Bamba Fame and The Great Fiction Writer T. C. BOYLE have been instrumental in grounding that original goal. The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Literary Site gathered readers quickly through Google Member Readers and followers/subscribers. We wrote about writers as diverse as Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, Ernest Lehman and offered resources for Writers, Publishers and Booksellers around The World from London to Paris and beyond. Our Coverage of The Los Angeles Book Fair brought us in touch with Art Book makers and small press publishers around the world. We interviewed authors and artist from Germany, Portland, The U.K., and plenty of East Coast booksellers. Now we also create the BUREAU Literary Edition which is e-mailed directly to 100s of Bookstores in the USA and abroad. Contact us with your next Literary Event or Book Reading or have your Publisher or PR firm Request The Bureau Interview.
LITERARY SITE http://TheyCallItTheCityofANGELS.blogspot.com
JAMIE WYETH : AMERICAN PAINTER
There are very few American Artists, who are self taught, third generation and bent on creating works that are studied, intuitive and strikingly original, Jamie Wyeth, Son of Andrew Wyeth, Grandson to N.C. Wyeth is one of the rare few. In a show that originated at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and has since then travelled to The San Antonio Museum of Art and will next be in Bennington Arkansas at Crystal Bridges, Mr. Jamie Wyeth exhibits a survey of works, from the earliest drawings to recent projects with a stunning series of paintings and drawings that display a life's work of the highest magnitude. The Wyeth Legacy is one of America's greatest contribution to the arts and through Jamie Wyeth, that legacy is alive and well. I recall my father describing the first time he had viewed a Painting by Jamie Wyeth depicting a man on a motorcycle, facing the viewer head on. He had studied the works of Andrew Wyeth and had grown up reading the literature which N.C. Wyeth had illustrated, but upon viewing the masterwork of Jamie Wyeth, he gladly handed over the reins to young Jamie, then he looked at me and smiled. Since then, I have always respected the Wyeths and their family, their lives, their art at a level which can only be described, not in words, not in metaphor, but simply as it is.
Tap The Links: https://www.mfa.org https://www.samuseum.org http://crystalbridges.org
Maria Francesca Triliegi is an Author with an upcoming book, a personal counselor to a very wide variety of people, from everyday working class folks, to some serious public figures that include both the worlds of politics and entertainment. Maria also happens to be The Editor of this Publication's Mother. So then, the other day, I called my Mom and we discussed her new book, her career and what it is like to do what it is she does by personally counseling people.
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE: BOOKS
Let’s discuss the new book that is being released later this summer. Although you have been working on a number of book projects recently, you decided to release The book of forty essays entitled, "LIFE IS GOOD: When You Do The Work". Why this book first and why now?
Maria Francesca Triliegi: I have been doing my work as an astrologer, teacher and retreat leader for over 30 years and have had a myriad of clients with so many different challenges and life changes as well as a curiosity for understanding themselves. Each time I meet with a client, I am excited to share with them their individuality and yet through it all I have noticed we human beings are so similar. There are basic tenets in life that remain certain and trustable. These are what we humans have a tendency to take advantage of and these are essentially what the essays describe. I adore words. I always have. I’ve been a reader since childhood and have kept journals through the years. The reason I decided to write and release LIFE IS GOOD now is because with the speedup of time we can easily lose track of what makes life good.
"There are basic tenets in life that remain certain and trustable. These are what we humans have a tendency to take advantage of and these are essentially what the essays describe."
No matter our circumstances, situations or challenges there is much about our lives that, if we are willing to pay attention and notice more about who we truly are, collectively and individually; as well as how much the Universe, God, Goddess or whatever we call the essence of life we have been given; we will find that it is possible to choose to live with the mantra that LIFE IS GOOD. The added tagline “When You Do the Work” is, I find, a necessary component in how to live one’s life respectively, responsibly and with a consciousness of alive integrity and passion. The beauty surrounding us in the natural world along with the compassion and kindness innate in each of us is in itself something to strive to protect and enjoy. After that there is so much one can do to pay closer attention to how to honor the gifts each one of us is given. The essays are my way of expressing my thoughts collected through the many years of being an observer of all of life. I see with eyes that care deeply about the simple pleasures that we all have access to. I want my book to be a reminder of how to observe, appreciate, enjoy and take responsibility for all that we have been given at what seems to be very little cost.
TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH MARIA FRANCESCA TRILIEGI SIMPLY TAP THIS LINK AND RECEIVE THE ENTIRE SUMMER EDITION FREE :
The Italian Straw Hat, 1952 Oil on paper on board, 22 1/4 x 30 3/8 in.Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, The Schnakenberg Fund, 1955.32 Art © The Educational Alliance, Inc./Estate of Peter Blume/Licensed by VAGA, New York
Peter Blume
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
600 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Tap to Visit : http://www.thewadsworth.org
THE BUREAU IN SAN DIEGO
SAN DIEGO is another one of those Cities that unless you visited more than a few times, you might not realize what a great Community it actually is. As a Photographer, I find the place to have a very special sort of light that keeps me returning again and again. La Jolla, Mission Beach, The Lamplight all with something to offer tourists, locals and professionals. As a writer, visiting San Diego is a boon of simple and earthy characters, with a fine mix of working class individuals, retired professionals and a bevy of wealthy folks. The magazine has taken readers into original design interviews, the Museum of Modern Art, Photographic Essays into Old Town San Diego, Interviews with local Theater Productions, An In Depth Surf Interview with Community Surf Hero Bird of Birds Surf Shack in San Diego, Inside The La Jolla Athenaeum and a constant relationship with Dennis Wills of D.G. Wills Bookstore a legendary location visited by The best Writers in the world. It's been a wild ride San Diego. Next Up: A Photographic Essay of The Coastal Walkabout from Solana Beach to La Jolla, Articles on Eateries such as The Cottage, Mary's English Kitchen and Juice Crafters, Plus an Interview with Roman Palacios Local Opera Singer and Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire ...
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE
presents
SURF INTERVIEW: JACK ENGLISH
Joshua TRILIEGI: Your catalogue is beautiful, diverse and modern and yet, at the same time, your images have an original and purist aesthetic that harkens back to the 1970's. Discuss style in surf photography and explain how you go about 'picturing ' images.
Jack ENGLISH: I love being different and getting a different shot from the next photographer which in the surfing world is so very challenging. If your on the North Shore of Oahu and their are 20 pros out well you're going to have at least 20 photographers on the beach and 20 in the water shooting the same shot and for the most part shooting the same angle. When I do my shoots here in California I always make sure I am the only photographer or if I show up to a place like Malibu on a big swell and their might be 3 other photographers there I will try to sneak down the beach and get an angle in which they aren't getting in hopes that I picked the best location in or out of the water. Every photographer has their own style, but I always try to imagine the shot I am going for months in advance for a specific surfer or location. I rarely show up to a spot and just start shooting. I put everything together with the surfer before he goes out in the water. It's like he is my model and I communicate to him or her what type of shot or move I would like them to do. I like to be involved on what their wearing or what board their riding. I like to direct my shoots and be just as much involved if not more then the surfer. I am not like go out and surf and I will take your picture - it's not like that for me. I am a director of my own shoots.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Surf culture is now a worldwide thing, for those of us on the West Coast, who grew up with it, it was and is a way of life. For the audience, its exotic and a commodity of sorts. Explain how you view the trajectory of Surf culture in the recent decades .
Jack ENGLISH: Maybe it's not safe for me to say this based on [ the fact that] I eat, breathe and sleep surfing and surf photography, but it's kind of boring now to an extreme. Kind of like everything has been done. To me, the late 80's into the early 90's was the best. The 80's had the bright fluorescent wetsuits and the early 90's had the momentum generation: Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Ross Williams, Rob Machado, etc… They took surfing to it's highest level. These guy's weren't trying to dress all groovy, they just ripped at surfing. They we're untouchable. You have guy's now that pretty much suck at surfing, but they try to dress the part kind of like, hey I am not that good at surfing, but I will try to be the hipster or groovy guy that way I can still get paid to surf. Companies fall for it for whatever reasons based on their are so many dam brands nowadays and all of them want or think they need to sponsor someone.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Share your views regarding Digital versus Film and the future of photography.
Jack ENGLISH: Digital is such a f*cking copout. It's like a musician who needs all these machines to make their music for them. Take someone like an Elton John who just needs a piano and he will kill it. All these digital photographers became photographers because it was easy, cheap and mostly no cost for film and processing. I have one friend who told me he would never had shot photos if it we'rent for digital. I think in the past before digital you had the true photographers who really loved photography. The photographers that loved going to the photo lab dropping off their film and then hours later racing back to the photo lab praying they nailed the shot. The photographers that loved the smell of the photo labs or the smell of film. On the flip side I can't speak for the digi guy's and say they don't really love photographer or their not really photographers, that's not it. I mean if I was brought up after the film era I to would most likely just be shooting digital and always question what is film. But I was brought up int he film era and my heart is for film. I have passed a point where I hate digital. I hate hard drives, cords, cards, all that shit just bugs me and then have to worry if my hard drive crashes I loose everything. I can't handle that. How am I suppose to shoot so many wonderful images and then I am to rely on some hard drive not to crash, fuck that. I much rather have a folder full of tangible slides or negatives on my shelves and be done with it.
TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW AND MAGAZINE FOR FREE
WITH SURF PHOTOGRAPHER JACK ENGLISH ON COVER TAP LINK:
Santa Barbara California is a very Beautiful Community. Recently, I was asked by someone in the big city, "Why did The Magazine focus on a City such as Santa Barbara ?" I found myself having to defend, rather easily, a place I have grown to Love. So many of our greatest writers and actors have also fallen in love with Santa Barbara, but it's rather difficult to describe why. There is a first class Film Festival, top of the line Wineries, A Coastal Beauty that compares to any coast, in any country around The World. And all the while, It's laid back. With lots of Surfers, Bikers, Real people, living their lives everyday. No matter how respected this magazine gets in New York City or Los Angeles or even overseas, I personally spend more time in cities such as Santa barbara, more quality time than I have ever expected. After all is said and done after the work is over, there is nothing quite like a Glass of Wine or a Swim in The Oceans at Santa Barbara County. So far, we've brought readers into The Santa Barbara Winery with Photo Essays, Audio Interviews at The Lost Horizon Bookstore and Adama Vegan Cuisine and an in depth Interview with Santa Barbara's Award winning Board Shaper Wayne Rich.
SANTA BARBARA http://BUREAUofARTSandCULTURESantaBarbara.blogspot.com
BUREAU EDITORIAL DIS-organization[s]
What has happened to today's organizations ? There was a time when being 'organized' meant doing something that improved life for the group of people you were associating with. Is today's society embroiled in a power struggle that allows Members Only to be favored exponentially ? Are organizations and associations wielding their power in a manner that could be abusive ? Have you noticed that individuals and heads of particular departments, including the mouthpieces in media outlets and those in the public eye are using their platforms in a disingenuous manner ? If you have answered, 'Yes' to any of these questions, you are not alone. From Churches to Non - Profits, from Television networks to Newspaper publishers, from Markets to Corporations, from Neighborhood to Region, from States to Cities & Counties: we are now experiencing a shift in the ideology of a Group vs The Individual.
Of course there are the exceptions, sometimes within an organization, one will find a partial, fair and exemplary individual & even the occasional entire organization as a whole. Though, we should always remember that many clubs, schools, religions and membership style affiliations are exactly created for the sake of empowering that particular group and sometimes rewarding it's members for their behavior within the group. A membership radio station will reward it's listeners with occasional gifts, a membership film festival will rewards its members with discounts to events, a membership museum will allow priority access to its members and a membership religion will go as far as offering jobs, counseling, a social activity and sometimes even life after death. The membership markets offer admission and discounts to products, all sounds fair, yes ? Well, maybe. What happens when non members wish to participate in a related event ? What happens when non members wish to promote or interview or even celebrate something related to this group, be it, radio or museum or marketplace or film festival or even religious ? There is room for abuses of power here and often times exclusive privileges depend on the very rejection of outsiders, non members and 'interlopers.'
There are times when actually making an example of an individual is all part of the membership and organization game. Either on the grand scale, for instance, when someone like Edward Snowden is admonished for sharing secrets, he is made to no longer freely live in America as an American, he is forced to make choices which drive him away from his country of origin. On a smaller scale, due to the many facets of groups and group thinking that have slowly but steadily spread into industries such as entertainment and publishing, being a member, is now being offered as entry into an industry, acceptance as an artist and eventually: success. Thats a very dangerous game. I recall visiting a small community on a tropical island, where the original group of natives had been, for many, many 100s of years affiliated with a particular religion. Because I was a visiting person with business contacts in the West, many of the people I met exclaimed how they had converted to a religion which is very popular in the West. I saw how there was a connection between business opportunities for converts and it startled me. Since that time, I have become more and more aware of this dilemma and must confess that I would personally prefer failure to success due to affiliation through a group of members of some sort. There are entire Arts Publications whose only contributors are members, graduates and teachers and or students of that school of thinking. There are entire theaters that exist solely to exhibit the talents and works by graduates of a certain school where people have studied art or film or music.
So then, the financial aspects of this debate now creep into the room. If your parents can pay for your entry into a school or a University, then, talent allowing, you may have a chance. The problem with this dilemma is that, eventually, it sets up a much larger paradigm wherein a whole other group is conversely created, one in which non whites or non asians or non mexicans or non _________ [ Fill - in - the - blank ] are excluded. Thus creating a world of clubs, cliques and collectives without respect, regard or reward for non members. Unfortunately, I believe we have now arrived at this particular destination and within the very borders of each city, state and country, the infantile philosophies surrounding this way of thinking are handicapping our ability to progress as a society, a country a planet: we are in trouble people. Had I not been raised in Los Angeles or travelled throughout the world or even been respectful, curious and a learned student of International films, art and music, maybe I would not even be fully aware of this dilemma. Editing and creating a magazine that seeks to speak with the best artists, actors, filmmakers, culturally aware individuals has indeed been an education in this regard.
"Every now and then, I meet an incredible individual
who seeks only to offer the beautiful thing that
their institute is actually there to offer…"
As was mentioned, every now and then, I meet an incredible individual who seeks only to offer the beautiful thing that their institute is actually there to offer. An example of that would be every image you see in this edition of the magazine from a gallery or museum. Though, unfortunately, more often than not, we receive a cold reception or worse a manipulated, contrived and down right embarrassingly false set of circumstances that include denial of full access, a series of bureaucratic levels which hinder the goal or simply being lied to or delayed or ignored, resulting in a particular due date having since than expired, thus creating the inability to sponsor, participate or include a contribution of some sort. Sometimes, non members are offered some form of limited access, which is than manipulated to show the 'non-member,' how great life could be, if only they joined the club of conformists, believers, non-believers, etc… Playing the game to get what you want. These social traps are set on a daily basis. More often than not, walking away is the best bet, though, as a publication, with a goal oriented schedule to promote, affiliate and sponsor social events that surround art, music, film, science, culture and eventually receive advertising dollars to provide a service to the institutes, organizations and companies or non profits, my concerns sometime lead me down the path to investigative journalism: where I am often aghast at the quote un-quote 'members' of some of these organizations. Sometimes this includes a local market or a non profit or an art gallery or even a member of my own government. How far will all of this member versus non member go before it blows up in our faces ? Or is that the point ? Look around at your world. Look around at your organizations. Look around at your own religion, your own so - called group. If you like what you see. Cool. But, if you notice that your superiority is based on the fact that you are a so-called 'member' of a group, that is either based on belief, income, non-belief or lack of income, race, color, age, sex, education, admission fee, a particular lifestyle or some other in-crowd superficial aspect, it may be that you are not superior at all. Quite possibly the exact opposite may be true.
Norman Seeff : The Ramones New York, 1977 © Norman Seeff Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
LET'S ROCK
Now Through JUNE 13, 2015
Rock & Roll Music has always been affiliated with the medium and Art of Photography. Performances only last a few minutes, hours or the duration of the current tour. Musicians found early on that the power of the image from last years tour could sell tickets and albums to next years tour and the fusion or marriage between the camera and the music was complete. Let's Rock, the current exhibit at Fahey / Klein's new Gallery in Miami, Florida takes us through the History of Modern Rock and Roll with photographs by the best in the biz. Including: Jim Marshall’s iconic shot of Johnny Cash flipping the bird, Barry Feinstein’s image of fans peering into the window of Bob Dylan’s limo, Frank Stefanko’s Bruce Springsteen at the beginning of his career and Harry Benson’s playful photograph of a Beatles’ pillow fight.
Led Zeppelin (In Front of Plane) New York, 1973 © Bob Gruen, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
Lets Rock, is an important photographic exhibit because it balances the grit with the glamour, the guts with the glory and the guys with the gals in all that bare truth that Rock and Roll Music was originally meant to express. Lets not forget that this was a music in touch with it's anger, in touch with it's passion, in touch with it's feelings, it's roots, it's working class upbringing. Surely Mick Jagger is the face of the Stones, but without a working class pal such as Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones might just have been another Hermans Hermits. As Rock & Roll becomes more and more appropriated by millionaires, museums and extremely wealthy non profit entities, it may be a good time to remind them all, that Rock & Roll, belongs to The People. We saw these same trends with William Shakespeare, who originally wrote for the people and Classical greats such as Ludwig Van Beethoven.We The People Own Rock & Roll, we own Rap, we own Country, we own The Blues, we own Jazz. This is All Peoples Music, much of it originated in America, so then, we own America. Take pride in great music America, you made it happen. It's Yours : Lets Rock.
Norman Seeff Keith Richards Los Angeles 1972 Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery Miami
Gered Mankowitz : Jimi Hendrix (Classic), 1966 © Gered Mankowitz, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Miami
FAHEY / KLEIN GALLERY in MIAMI 4025 Northeast 2nd Avenue Second Floor Miami Florida 33137 U.S.A
On 2nd Avenue, between 40th and 41st St. In the Miami Design District. Across 2nd Ave from the newly established Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Fahey/Klein Gallery Miami is on the Second Floor of the Chrome Hearts building. Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am – 7pm.
The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Seattle Community Site will be featuring neighboring Cities such as Tacoma and Portland's Museums, Galleries, Music Events and Special Cultural happenings as well as ALL The Subjects that The Magazine brings you regularly: ART . FILM . MUSIC . DESIGN . CULTURE . ARCHITECTURE . ECOLOGY . INTERVIEWS + More …Coming Soon : Exclusive Interviews with local Artists, Musicians and Museums Including Rock Hushka Chief Curator at The Tacoma Art Museum. In Depth Articles on Seattle & Washington's Cultural Touch points including: Jimi HENDRIX, ECOLOGICAL Concerns, The PORTS of Washington, Native American Issues and Historically significant Moments in it's History.
BUREAU FASHION: The DANDY LIONS
Dandy Lion: (Re) Articulating Black Masculine IdentityNow Through July 12, 2015
All too often in America and across the world, we are exposed to a negative image regarding people of color. Within the mainstream media and often times in films and publications, we are given cliched versions of life on every level. Stories and images are pushed in our faces with a determination to send a larger message to the populist about the populists.Anyone who is pretty hip can see through this device and yet, after a while, we have to simply oppose this tool by simply showing the world a whole other side of the coin. These images from the Exhibit, Dandy Lions:(Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity, are on View at The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Dandy Lion: (Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity features work from emerging and renowned photographers and filmmakers from the US, Europe and Africa, including Hanif Abur-Rahim, Jody Ake, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Rose Callahan, Kia Chenelle, Bouba Dola, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Russell K. Frederick, Cassi Amanda Gibson, Allison Janae Hamilton, Akintola Hanif, Harness Hamese/Loux the Vintage Guru, L. Kasimu Harris, Jamala Johns, Caroline Kaminju, Charl Landvreugd, Jati Lindsay, Devin Mays, Terence Nance, Arteh Odjidja, Numa Perrier, Alexis Peskine, Radcliffe Roye, Sara Shamsavari, Nyugen Smith, Daniele Tamagni, Richard Terborg and Rog Walker. This exhibition is guest curated by US-based independent curator Shantrelle P. Lewis.
The Museum of Contemporary Photography Columbia College in Chicago 600 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60605 USA Tap to Visit the Exhibition online Now : http://www.mocp.org
Charles Ray: The American Sculptor
Charles Ray is one of the very few artists alive today to combine both humor and pathos in a way that is equally foreboding as well as strangely understated. Unlike Jeff Koons, who is considered one of Ray's contemporaries, Mr. Ray comes off as just a bit more modest, not just in scale and subject, but in the actual, 'Selling' of the idea. Mostly due to the size, surface and finishing styles of the actual sculptures. Mr. Koons, whose work is magnificent in the same way as, say, a Salvador Dali, is what we might call a 'Hard Sell'. Koons' candy coated surfaces are reminiscent of a famous 1950's Car Commercial by Earl Scheib who promised to paint any car for $39.95, of course the prices went up as time went on and so too for these Sculptors. Ray is represented by Matthew Mark$ and Koons by Larry Gago$ian. This retrospect entitled Charles Ray: Sculpture 1997-2014, had us thinking he passed away last year. But, like The Art World, the title is deceiving & this is simply a survey of those years. Charles Ray lives in Los Angeles and as Dr. Frankenstein exclaimed, "IT'S ALIVE!"
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Charles Ray: Sculpture 1997 - 2014
Images Related to this Bureau Article : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Herb Ritts
© Herb Ritts Foundation Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
NEW FICTION: KAZUO ALONE
A Short Story by Linda Toch / Little Tokyo Story Contest Winner 2015
Kazuo embraced Mondays like no other and that was because of its silence. Mondays were sweet, a sweep of semi-peace in the streets of Los Angeles. The typical street-crawlers were in school and the typical tourists at their nine to five jobs, and so Kazuo chose Monday to roam, map, conquer his neighborhoods unperturbed. Mondays were a convenience only when eighty five of your years had passed and your company along with it. It was nice timing for those who desired solace. The old man had fit this criteria to a tee. People talked about him, of course; no one who walks alone can keep his name out of others’ mouths. They say he had a wife once. They say his marriage was a spectacle, a whirr of harmonies—he, a striking man, she, an incandescent beauty—he, solemn-faced, she, the embodiment of joy. She was his joy. Small talk still lingers about their wedding to date, a legend left for the gossip mill to disperse. 100 brown doves. That was how many they released that day.
Rumor had it, the birds swirled around the couple, drawing a ribbon with their synchronized bodies before soaring up and beyond sight. They called this God’s miracle, God’s blessing on a beautiful union. A year later, when the wife’s cheeks ran out of ruby colors to make room for pallor, they called it God’s apology instead. His solemn face turned sorrow. He hadn’t remarried since. Years past and people trickled in and out of his life, and Kazuo never put forth the efforts to make them stay. He, ever the true Buddhist, held no attachments. Religion had nothing to do with this, of course; he simply couldn’t be bothered with anyone else to begin with. Yet in spite of this, there was something that drew him back to Little Tokyo time after time. Kazuo knew his streets well, but he was mindless when he walked. He lived in his head, in a world far detached from realities, from earth—perhaps that was the sole reason why he enjoyed his solo strolls. When he returned, unaware of the lefts and rights he chose, he found himself wound up on First or Alameda. Always. He’d spot the museum’s large puzzle cube, listen to the paper lanterns crinkle above his head, feel the gust of wind as children breezed by him with an excitement so distantly familiar to him… it was the way wide streets became smaller and then wider again, and the way the tiny shops were cramped so closely. He’d be a dead man before he admitted it, but Little Tokyo had wormed its way into his heart.
The streets were by no means empty on Mondays, but Kazuo didn’t need to bump and squirm his way through crowds among crowds. It was mostly college students flocking to the modernized corners, anyway. The sushi joints. Yogurtland. Anything with bright letters and an appearance that promised a good time. Kazuo rested in a quieter area, a little sector of a street filled with mom and pop shops. He sat in front of a bakery store of the Japanese Village Plaza, listening to a performer improvise a song for a family next to him. The singer’s voice, mellow and pleasant, was a charmer. It was as if people paid for the happy ambience his keyboard brought instead of the performance itself. The tip jar was filled to the brim. High school ditchers passed by him, the corners of their mouth dribbled with ice cream. The infectious bliss that came from the musician seemed to make them younger and younger. Such a gift, to be able to have your keyboard turn the elderly to adults, the adults to teens, the teens to children…and the teens laughed joyously, ecstatically, their heads thrown back the way a seven year old’s would.
Kazuo’s heart stung a little. He remembered how it was, to be young and enamored. No one else existed but the person by your side; nothing else was tangible except the hands brushing against your own. “And you, sir!” the performer called, suddenly, index finger pointed straight at Kazuo. “What is your name?” “Ah, I…no, I didn’t tip you,” Kazuo responded sheepishly, waving his hands to the artist. “No money.” Smiling, his inquirer replied, “I’m here to talk, not much else. How are you?” His words reverberated from the microphone and bounced around in Kazuo’s ears. I’m here to talk…when was the last conversation Kazuo had? It was with his insurers, wasn’t it? Or his doctor? The nurses? “I…I’m fine, thank you.” It felt like all of Little Tokyo stared at him, their eyes digging into his skin. Even the pigeons that scattered among the Plaza seemed to look into the old man. Seemed to look into how he sat, crookedly. How his back hunched and his teeth yellowed even more in bare sunlight. How his forehead wrinkled and sagged his face downward into a perpetual frown. He finally felt like his age in his skin, and he’d never been more aware of eighty five years than that day. “Ah, before I launch into a song, do you want me to dedicate it to someone?” the performer continued. Again with the questions. “A loved one, maybe?” he pressed. Kazuo merely shook his head. “No, no one. There’s no one.” “You were in love, weren’t you? I can tell by the way you look down.” The performer pressed a few keys, his fingers cascading over them with a feathery lightness. The sounds floated melodiously into the air, drawing in more and more of a crowd.
Kazuo shuffled his feet in embarrassment. “Let me ask an easier question, then. How did you meet?” The grin the musician gave coaxed an answer out of the reluctant Kazuo. He stuttered, yelling it half-heartedly, just loud enough for the other man to hear. “We met by the Aoyama tree!” Too loud, Kazuo thought, cringing. I was too loud. Too much noise… The performer’s eyes glinted, and his smile widened. He continued pressing down more keys, more and more, a stream of gorgeous sounds making way to Kazuo’s ears. But he sang nothing into the microphone. Kazuo was startled by the silence, but sat still to enjoy the music regardless. A minute had passed before the man proceeded with more questions. “The Aoyama tree…what a beautiful place to meet a beautiful woman, no?” Kazuo nodded. “It was,” he agreed softly. “It was.” His mind drifted back to a time when his heart was filled with inexplicable emotions, a mesh of pain and thrill, hope and fervor and ultimately: heat. There was the sting of leaving his family behind. He could not touch his mother’s face anymore, or help his father walk in old age. But on another hand, he had made his way into LA. The city of the greats. The giants. The powerful, the dreamers. The city to get lost in, to get found, to be anonymous, to make a name—LA. It was an achievement all on its own, making it there. And then there was her. He remembered meeting her perfectly: the clumsiness that ensued, the awkward exchange of greetings that followed. He stumbled, and she tripped, and he fell, and she toppled over. And he said hello. And she gifted him a smile. “I’ve seen you a couple times, sir,” the performer continued. “You come here often. I want to give thanks for showing love to our little world.”
Kazuo remembered the shops, the nooks and crannies found in them, and the entanglement of histories and modern culture. The celebrations, the festivals. The morning prayers. Kazuo remembered all of it. And he remembered her traversing by his side the entire time, exploring the ‘little world’ that only seemed to get bigger the more they stayed in it. And he remembered the happiness. Where was the crying child in Little Tokyo? The frowning human? They didn’t seem to exist. The streets were flooded with happiness, a happiness like no other. And it was still flooded today. But the idea of joy was so faint in his heart, as time wrung out the euphoria in all his memories, that Kazuo only now began to feel again. There was bitterness locked inside of him, a bitterness that never left him since her passing. And so he exhaled this bitterness with the timing of the music. In and out. Just like the morning meditations she used to accompany him to, around the temple near their precious love-tree. He breathed in the piano notes and breathed out the heaviness in his heart. “The Aoyama tree,” the performer started, “is a sign of resilience. It’s a sign of forever. Of going on. It’s an old, old survivor in the city…much like you, I’d imagine.” Again, the performer smiled. “And much like your love. The tree is entwined with your past, my friend, and that’s a beautiful honor.” Kazuo lifted himself up slowly and walked toward the performer. His hands shook. He leaned forward and put a five dollar bill in the tip jar. It was all the money he had. “Thank you. Thank you. I feel light again,” Kazuo whispered. The performer shoved the microphone out of the way, and whispered back, “Your joy is long overdue…you needed to visit your roots again. Back to where it all started. No thanks are needed for that, my friend.” But with a twinkle in his eye, he added, “I thought you had no money, Kazuo.” It was Kazuo’s turn to smile. He made his way to Aoyama Tree, this time, his mind clear of directions. Somehow, his feet remembered the paths he had taken with her decades ago. Back to the tree’s roots, back to his roots, back to the roots of his first and only love. He felt his heart pump vigorously to keep up with his pace. A part of him wanted to touch the bark. Stroke it. Carve initials into it. He wanted to interact. To feel. But he stayed behind, admiring the piece of art nature invested into this land.
What made Little Tokyo magical was the people around it, he realized. The children, the teens, the adults, the families, the couples. The performer. Her. And him. He was a part of it, the city, the culture. He always was. It was six o’clock by the time Kazuo finished. His legs tired of the walk, he walked in a daze, a wonderment of the new Little Tokyo he was seeing. With every street was a new memory he uncovered once more. There was no more pain heaving down in his chest. He walked a little straighter, stood a little taller. He would visit the tree next Monday, he decided. And the week after that, and the week after that. And forevermore. He would visit the tree for as long as the tree stood there, and as long as he stood alive. There was no more remorse in his reminiscence. Just joy. Kazuo grinned as he thought of the performer. He relived the entire ordeal in his head as he made his way back home. And then it struck him—how did the performer know of his name in the first place? How did the performer know anything at all? And, most importantly, did any of that matter? His spirit felt rejuvenated, youthful. Twenty years old at best. And that was the greatest gift anyone had ever bestowed on him since her smile. For that alone, Kazuo didn’t need the answers to his questions. The sunset settled down and the darkness cloaked the colorful skies with black. He stepped into his house, exhausted by this Monday’s elongated walk. The loneliness always kept on his shoulders had all dissipated by then. Certainly he lived by himself, but that didn’t mean he was alone, no. Not any longer. And before he could lock the door shut, Kazuo could swear he heard the faint coo of a dove outside… a sound that made his eyes dampen. He pressed his palms against his cheeks, surprised. The tears were his own. The emotions were his own. Where was the crying child in Little Tokyo, anyway? Where could you find the frowning adult? He sunk into the comforts of his home and drifted into sleep, his ears filled with the sounds of music and doves. The man was at peace at last.
Linda Toch is a writer and a 2015 Winner of the Los Angeles CA USA Little Tokyo Story Contest.
CHICAGO EVENTS SUMMER 2015
The CHICAGO BLUES FESTIVAL : June 12 - 14, 2015 Grant Park FREE The largest free blues festival in the world and remains the largest of Chicago's Music Festivals. During three days on five stages, more than 500,000 blues fans prove that Chicago is the "Blues Capital of the World." Past performers include Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, B. B. King, the late Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy and the late Koko Taylor.
The SHEFFIELD Music Festival & Garden Walk : July 18 & 19, 2015 Sponsored by the Sheffield Neighborhood Association (SNA), a non-profit community organization. The "Summer's Best Festival" features self-guided tours of more than 80 Gardens, guided Architectural Tours, live entertainment by some of Chicago's and North America's finest bands, food and drink, and activities for children at the Kids' Corner. http://www.sheffieldgardenwalk.com/
The CHICAGO TRIATHLON : AUGUST 30, 2015 : The new bike course will allow Elite participants the ability to start first, providing unobstructed space along previously congested Lake Shore Drive.The swim is held in Monroe Harbor, with the start line at Balbo Dr. and Lake Shore Drive. International swimmers first head south, swimming parallel to the sea wall.The run course begins at the grass reserve just south of Randolph. http://www.chicagotriathlon.com/
THERE ARE FIVE ALTERNATE COVERS FOR THE SUMMER 2015 EDITION HERE ARE THE FREE DOWNLOAD LINKS TO EACH MAGAZINE EDITION :
THE GEORGIA O'KEEFFE:https://www.dropbox.com/s/9vmexjpu97uzwzg/2015%20SUMMER%20EDITION.pdf?dl=0
THE JACK ENGLISH :https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4to8i7ahdcjdv8/2015%20SUMMER%20English%20Cover.pdf?dl=0
THE BUREAU SUMMER EDITION 2015 EDITED by JOSHUA TRILIEGI
WE CELEBRATE ART MUSIC FILM FASHION SURFING BIKING INTERVIEW ARCHITECTURE FICTION DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY CUISINE BOOKS CULTURE
When You Download The FREE Edition it will open on your computer or device, It is an Electronic Interactive Version of BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine. We suggest you view the pdf in the [Two Page with Cover] and [Full Screen Mode] Options which are Provided at the Top of your Menu Bar under the VIEW section. Simply choose Two Page Layout & Full Screen to enjoy. This format allows for The Magazine to be read as a Paper Edition. Displaying images and Text in Center-folds. When reading on a computer, utilize the Arrows on your keyboard to turn the pages. Be Sure To Download A High Resolution Version at BUREAU of Arts And Culture's Official Magazine Website or any of Our Community Sites with Links Provided Below.
We Thank: Da Capo Press, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Pace/MacGill Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Georgia O'Keefe Museum of Art, Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs, Duke University, Andy Warhol Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Crystal Bridges, United Artists, Spot Photo Works, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art Huston Texas, Gallerie Urbane, Mary Boone Gallery, Pace Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Magnum Photo, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fahey/Klein, Tobey C. Moss, Sandra Gehring, George Billis, Martin - Gropius - Bau Berlin, San Jose Museum of Art, First Run Features, Downtown Records, Koplin Del Rio, Robert Berman, Indie Printing, American Film Institute, SFMOMA, Palm Beverly Hills, KM Fine Arts, LA Art Show, Photo LA, Jewish Contemporary Museum, Cultural Affairs, Yale Collection of Rare Books & Manuscript and Richard Levy.
Contributing Photographers: Norman Seef, Herb Ritts, Jack English, Alex Harris, Gered Mankowitz, Bohnchang Koo, Natsumi Hayashi, Raymond Depardon, T. Enami, Dennis Stock, Dina Litovsky, Guillermo Cervera, Moises Saman, Cathleen Naundorf, Terry Richardson, Phil Stern, Dennis Morris, Henry Diltz, Steve Schapiro, Yousuf Karsh, Ellen Von Unwerth, William Claxton, Robin Holland, Andrew Moore, James Gabbard, Mary Ellen Mark, John Robert Rowlands, Brian Duffy, Robert Frank, Jon Lewis, Sven Hans, David Levinthal, Joshua White, Brian Forrest, Lorna Stovall, Elliott Erwitt, Rene Burri, Susan Wright, David Leventhal, Peter Van Agtmael & The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi.
Contributing Guest Artists: Irby Pace, Jon Swihart, F. Scott Hess, Ho Ryon Lee, Andy Moses, Kahn & Selesnick, Jules Engel, Patrick Lee, David Palumbo, Tom Gregg, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gary Lang, Fabrizio Casetta, DJ Hall, David FeBland, Eric Zener, Seeroon Yeretzian, Dawn Jackson, Charles Dickson, Ernesto DeLaLoza, Diana Wong, Gustavo Godoy, John Weston, Kris Kuksi, Bomonster, Hiroshi Ariyama, Linda Stark, Kota Ezawa, Russell Nachman, Katsushika Hokusai and Xuan Chen
Contributing Writers: Robin Holland, Jamar Mar(s) Tucker, Linda Toch, Maria (Mom) Triliegi
INTERVIEW: BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE EDITOR: JOSHUA TRILIEGI
Writer Joshua Triliegi discusses his most recent Fiction Project, "They Call It The City of ANGELS," creating beliEvable characters and the challenges therein. Season One & Season Two are available on line at most of the 10 various BUREAU of Arts and Culture Websites & translatable around the world.
Discuss the process of writing your recent fiction project, " They Call It The City of Angels ."
Joshua Triliegi: I had lived through the riots of 1992, actually had a home not far from the epicenter and experienced the event first hand, I noticed how the riot was being perceived by those outside our community, people began to call me from around the world, my friends in Paris, my relatives in the mid west, childhood pals, school mates, etc... Each person had a different take on why and what was happening, I still have those recordings, this was back in the day of home message recorders with cassettes. So, after 20 years, I began to re listen to the voices and felt like something was missing in the dialogue.
" I noticed how the riot was being perceived by those outside our community ..."
Some of my friends and fellow theater contemporaries such as Anna Deveare Smith and Roger Guenvere Smith had been making bold statements in relation to the riots with their own works and I realized that there was a version of original origin inside of me. I felt the need to represent the community in detail, but with the event in the background. Because, I can tell you from first hand experience that when these events happen, people are still people, and they deal with these types of historical emergencies differently based on their own culture, their own codes, their own needs and everyday happenstances.
You originally published each chapter on a daily basis, explain how and why ?
Joshua Triliegi: I had been editing The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine for a few years, we printed thousands of magazines that were widely distributed throughout Los Angeles and San Francisco and had created an on-line readership.The part of me that had dabbled in fiction through the years with screenplays and short stories had been ignored for those few years. On the one hand, it was simply a challenge to create a novel without notes, improvising on a daily basis, on the other hand, it gave the project a freedom and an urgency that had some connection with the philosophy of Jack Kerouac and his Spontaneous Prose theories. One thing it did, was forced me, as a creator, to make the decisions quickly and it also, at the time, created a daily on line readership, at least with our core readers, that to this day has strengthened our community sites and followers on line. Season One was a series of introductions to each character. Season Two, which happened the following year, was a completely different experience all together.
Describe Season Two of They Call It The City of Angels and those challenges.
Joshua Triliegi: Well first of all, the opening line of Season One is, " Los Angeles is a funny place to live, but those laughing were usually from out of town, " That opener immediately set up an insiders viewpoint that expresses a certain struggle and angst as well as an outsider — looking — in — perception that may be skewed. In introducing characters throughout season one, I was simply creating a cast of characters that I knew somehow would be important to set the tone surrounding the riots of 1992 in Los Angeles. With Season Two, and an entire year of gestation, which was extremely helpful, even if it was entirely on a subconscious level, I had a very real responsibility to be true to my characters and each persons culture. I had chosen an extremely diverse group of people, but had not actually mentioned their nationality, or color in Season One. By the time season Two rolled around, I found it impossible not to mention their differences and went several steps further to actually define those differences and describe how each character was effected by the perception of the events in their life. This is a novel that happens to take place before, during and after the riot. The characters themselves all have lives that are so complete and full and challenged, as real life actually is, that the riot as a backdrop is entirely secondary to the story. I was surprised at how much backstory there actually was. I also think my background in theater, gave me a sense of character development that really kicked my characters lives into extreme detail and gave them a fully realized life.
How do you go about creating a character ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, there is usually a combination of very real respect and curiosity involved. Sometimes, I may have seen that person somewhere in the world and something about them attracted my attention in some way. In the case of They Call It The City of Angels, I knew the people of Los Angeles had all been hurt badly by the riots of 1992, because I am one of those people and it hurt. One minute we were relating between cultures, colors, incomes, the next we were pitted up against one another because some people in power had gotten away with a clear injustice. So with season two, I personally had to delve deeper into each persons life and present a fully realized set of circumstances that would pay off the reader, in terms of entertainment and at the same time be true to the code of each character. Once they were fully realized, the characters themselves would do things that surprised me and that is when something really interesting began to happen.
Could you tell us a bit more about the characters and give us some examples of how they would surprise you as a writer ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, Jordan, who is an African American bus driver and happens to be a Muslim, began to find himself in extremely humorous situations where he is somehow judged by events and circumstances beyond his control. I thought that was interesting because the average person most likely perceives the people of that particular faith as very serious. Jordan has a girlfriend who is not Muslim and when he is confronted by temptation, he is equally as human as any of my readers and so, he gets himself into situations that complicate his experience and a certain amount of folly ensues. Fred, who is an asian shop owner and a Buddhist, has overcome a series of tragedies, yet has somehow retained his dignity with a stoicism that is practically heroic. At one point, in the middle of a living nightmare, he simply goes golfing, alone and gets a hole in one. Junior, who is a Mexican American young man recently released from prison really drives the story as much of his backstory connects us to Fred and his tragedies as well as legal decisions such as the one that caused the city to erupt as it does in the riot.
You talk a lot about Responsibility to Character, what do you mean and how do you conduct research ?
Joshua Triliegi: Well, if I make a decision that a character is a Muslim or Asian or Mexican or what have you, if I want the respect of my readers and of those who may actually be Muslim, Asian or Mexican, it behooves me to learn something about that character. As a middle aged man who lives in Los Angeles and has done an extensive amount of travel throughout my life, there is a certain amount of familiarity with certain people. But for instance, with Fred, I watched films on the history of the Korean War and had already respected the Korean Community here in Los Angeles for standing up for themselves the way they did. I witnessed full on attacks and gun fights between some of the toughest gangsters in LA and I think even they gained respect for this community in that regard. Fred is simply one of those shop owners, he is a very humble and unassuming man, in season two, he finds himself entering a whole new life and for me as a writer, that is very gratifying and to be totally honest, writing for Fred was the most bitter sweet experience ever. Here is a man who has lost a daughter, a wife, a business partner and he is about to lose all he has, his shop. Regarding Junior and Jordan, I grew up with these guys, I have met them again and again, on buses, in neighborhoods at school. Jordan has a resilience and a casual humor that has been passed down from generations, a survival skill that includes an ironic outlook at life. He also has that accidental Buster Keaton sort of ability to walk through traffic and come out unscathed. Junior on the other hand is a real heavy, like any number of classic characters in familiar cinema history confronted with the challenges of poverty and tragedy. He is the character that paid the biggest price and in return, we feel that experience. There is a certain amount of mystery and even a pent up sexuality and sometimes a violence that erupts due to his circumstances. In season two, within a single episode, Junior takes his father, who is a busboy at a cafe and repositions him as the Don or boss of their original ranch in Mexico.
There seems to be a lot of religion in They Call it the City of Angels, how did that occur and do you attend church or prescribe to any particular faith ?
I never intended for there to be so much religion in this book. But, if you know Los Angeles like I do, you will realize how important faith is to a good many people and particularly to the characters I chose to represent. With Jordan being Muslim, it allowed me to delve into the challenges a person might have pertaining to that particular faith. Fred's life is so full of tragedy that even a devout buddhist would have trouble accepting and letting go of the events that occur in his life. Junior found god in prison as many people do, upon his release back into the real world, he is forced to make decisions which challenge that belief system and sometimes go against his faith, at the same time, he finds himself physically closer to real life events and objects of religious historical significance than the average believer which brings us into a heightened reality and raises questions in a new way. As for my own belief system, I dabble in a series of exercises and rituals that spring from a wide variety of faiths and practices.
You discussed Jordan, Fred and Junior. Tell us about Cliff and Charles and Chuck.
Joshua Triliegi: I don't really believe in secondary characters, but in writing fiction, certain characters simply emerge more pronounced than others. As this project was a daily serial for the magazine, I did try my best to keep a balance, giving each character a fully realized set of circumstances and history. That said, some characters were related to another through family, incident or history and later, I felt compelled to know more about them and see how they would emerge.
Charles is one of those legendary rock and roll guys who was on tour with music royalty and simply disappeared. He's the missing father we all hear about and wonder what would happen if he were to suddenly return into our lives ? His son Mickey, his wife Maggie, his daughter Cally have all gone on with their lives, when Jordan, accidentally runs him over while driving his bus, Charles returns home and a new chapter in their lives begins again.
Chuck is a cop who just happened to marry Juniors sister and they have several daughters. When Junior returns from prison, he and Chuck clash simply because of their careers and history. I felt it was important to include authority in this story and once I decided to represent a police officer, I wanted him to be as fully realized and interesting as any other character, though, clearly Junior drives much of this section of the novel and Chuck is simply another person that complicates Juniors arrival. I should also explain that the arrival of Junior from years in prison is really the beginning of events that lead up to the basic thrust of the story and somehow almost everyone in the novel has a backstory that connects in some way.
Cliff is absolutely one of my all time favorites. He is a mentally challenged boy whose father happens to be the judge on the case that develops into the unjust legal decision and eventually the actual 1992 riots. I have always felt that challenged individuals deserve much more than the marginalized lifestyles that we as a contemporary society provide. Many ancient societies have relegated what we dismiss as something very special. Cliff is challenged, but also happens to be a very intuitively gifted human being whose drawings portend actual future events. Even though his parents are extremely pragmatic, they are forced to consider his gifts.
Cliff is a young upper middle class white boy who is entirely obsessed with the late great comedian Richard Pryor and at very inopportune times, Cliff will perform entire Richard Pryor comedic routines, including much of the original risqué language. Cliff is an innocent who pushes the societal mores to the edge. I have found through fiction the ability to discuss, develop and delve into ideas that no other medium provided me. And as you may know, I am a painter, film maker, photographer, sculptor, designer, who also edits a magazine reviewing art, film and culture.
As a man, do you find it challenging to write female characters ?
Joshua Triliegi: To some extent, yes. That said, I have spent a good many years with women and have had very close relationships with the female gender, both personally and professionally, so on average, I would say that I am not a total buffoon. In They Call It City of Angels, Jordan's girlfriend Wanda and his mom both appeared and bloomed as fully realized characters that I really enjoyed writing for. Cliffs mother Dora is also a very strong female character that I am very proud to have created. Season two presented a special challenge with dialogue between characters that was new territory for me. I have written screenplays in the past, sometimes with collaborators, once with my brother and more recently with my nephew and in Angels, I found it, for the first time, very easy to imagine the conversations and action in a way that was totally new to my process. I would most likely credit that to my own relationships and possibly to the several recent years of interviewing and writing for the magazine in general.
When will we see another season of They Call It The City of Angels ?
We have set a tradition of it being the Summer Fiction Project at the Magazine and since August is a relatively slow month for advertising and cultural events, we will most likely see a Season Three in the summer of 2015. As you may know, I do not take any written notes at all prior to the day that I actually write the chapter, so the characters simply develop on a subconscious level and then during the one month or two week process, I pretty much do nothing at all, but ponder their existence, day to day. This can sometimes be nerve racking as I do plot things out in my head and sometimes even make extreme mental notes, though even then some ideas simply don't make it on the page. During Season Two, I omitted a section of a chapter and later revealed another chapter into a different sequence of events, but besides that it has been a rather straight ahead chapter a day experience that simply pushed me to invent, develop and complete the work of fiction that might have otherwise never existed or possibly taken much more time. I am curious to see how my next project will develop.
What is your next project ?
Joshua Triliegi; I am working on a couple of things of historic importance. Though I can't say much about them. One is an actual event that I have been given permission to portray by the actual estate and I don't know yet if it will be an ' Inspired by ... ' type of Novel or if it will be creative Non Fiction. The other is a fiction piece I have been developing for sometime now.
" I have been writing consciously since I was fourteen, stories, journals, poetry, lyrics, screenplays, but as far as fiction goes, They Call It The City of Angels is probably my first successful project with a major readership and I am very thankful that it happened. Better late than never. "
After that I have a sort of family opus that is probably the most researched project I have ever undergone. I have been writing consciously since I was fourteen, stories, journals, poetry, lyrics, screenplays, but as far as fiction goes, They Call It The City of Angels is probably my first successful project with a major readership and I am very thankful that it happened. Better late than never.
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE LOS ANGELES . NEW YORK CITY . SEATTLE SAN FRANCISCO . CHICAGO . SAN DIEGO SANTA BARBARA . BUREAU LITERARY + More
Tap the Titles and Links BELOW to Join THE BUREAU Magazine Cities and Sites:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.