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Category Archives: Culture
Wednesday July 21, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Today was packed with activities. Meetings in the morning, a business lunch and cooking all afternoon for a dinner party at home. I was planning on getting my picture for the day at dinner, but realized after the last guest had left that I had gotten so involved in conversations that I hadn’t picked up a camera. 11:00 PM and no picture. I’ve vowed never to post a picture of our dog, so that’s out. I tried shooting out the window at the dark city scape without much success. Finally I shot a pair of images on our wall by Penny Umbrico – blown up images from a curtain catalogue. Here’s a link to Penny’s work: Penelope Umbrico
Curtain catalogues
Nikon D700 with 85mm f1.4 lens.
Monday July 19, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I stopped by a framer, APF Master Framemakers to get an estimate on reframing and restoring a painting.
Picture
Leica M9 and 50mm Summilux lens.
Saturday July 3, 2010
NEW MILFORD CONNECTICUT – I went to Clamps, a roadside burger stand on route 202, for a burger for lunch, arriving just before the 2:00 PM closing, in time to place an order. By the time that I got my wits together to reach for camera the closed sign had gone up.
Clamps is a dying breed: a roadside hamburger stand that’s seasonal, has limited hours and isn’t part of a chain. The following is from Roadfood: ”The business card of Clamp’s Hamburger stand says, NO SIGN, NO ADDRESS, NO PHONE, JUST GOOD FOOD. In fact, there is a sign about the size of a license plate on the side of the wood-frame hut: “Clamp’s Est. 1939.” Despite the lack of a billboard and a street address, you will have no trouble finding this place because there are cars and people crowded around any time it’s open … which is late April to early September every day from 11am to 2pm and from 5pm to 8pm.
“Edwin and Sylvia Clamp started the business sixty-six years ago, and now their great-nephew, Tom Mendell, is the boss. Tom told us that since 1939 Clamp’s has never advertised and never had a phone (and therefore was never in the phone book), and while it did have a prominent sign, when the sign blew down in a windstorm back in the 1960s, it was not replaced.”
Clamps
Tuesday June 29, 2010
CAYAMBE ECUADOR – This town hosts a week-long festival for Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) and Taita Inti (Father Sun) around the summer solstice. This guy’s costume bears no relationship to the prevailing native garb at this festival – he probably looked as odd to the Ecuadorians as he does to us. His mask looks like it was made from a child’s bib, but on close examination it’s actually finely beaded. He’s sufficiently odd that I’ve adopted him in the header for my site.
Cayambe festival
Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron.
Saturday June 26, 2010
HACIENDA ZULETA, ECUADOR – We visited Hacienda Zuleta a few hour drive north of Quito.
I’ve paraphrased the history of the hacienda from its web site. In the late 16th century, King Charles gave the Zuleta region to the Jesuits, who implemented Spanish methods of farming and cattle and sheep production. In the following years a small wool mill was established. And by 1691, the Hacienda house, granary and chapel were completed and the farm was in full operation. In 1713 the property was confiscated and transferred to Canon Gabriel Zuleta, making Zuleta his seventeenth hacienda. The farm became known as Cochicaranqui de Zuleta. After the Canon’s death the farm passed to the Posse family,who restored the hacienda back to its 17th century grandeur. The estate was sold to Jose Maria Lasso in 1898 and passed through two generations to its current owner, Galo Plaza Lasso, the ex-President of Ecuador.
We attended the feast of San Juan at the hacienda – this is Mr. Plaza Lasso catching an offering from a local village.
Chicken offering
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph.
Friday June 4, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I spent a few hours today getting to know some new equipment. Most of the images on this blog are taken with a Leica M9, which has the advantage of sensational image quality but is very much a traditional Leica. The manual rangefinder focus and limited high ISO capacity has presented issues for me in poor light like Martha McPhee’s book party. I also shoot Hasselblad digital medium format, but it’s unwieldy at parties and events. I’ve been experimenting with a Nikon D700 and fast prime lenses for parties and events – this is the new (to me) equipment that that I referred to above. This is a torture test for lens flare but I liked the image well enough to post it. An Andrew Moore photograph, a Venini ice cream glass, a Venetian candle stick form 1914 or so and a Deruta cachepot.
Link to Andrew Moore
Link to Venini
Link to Deruta
Andrew Moore and Murano Glass
Nikon D700 and Nikon 35mm f2.0 lens.
Tuesday May 25, 2010
WASHINGTON DC – I traveled to DC today to attend a party given by a friend, Gus Schumacher, helping the James Beard Foundation in launching a new initiative. This is a small part of Gus’s model train collection.
Collection
Nikon D700 with 50mm f1.4G.
Wednesday May 5, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A party at Antonio Monda’s for Gay Talese and Michael Cunningham. Nan Talese shot with a Nikon D700.
Nan Talese
Tuesday April 20, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Well here we are back at Tom Sach’s statue, Hello Kitty, in the sculpture garden at Lever House. This is a real urban oasis As I’ve noted elsewhere Hello Kitty is a Japanese toy character owned by Sanrio. Here’s a link: Sanrio
Posted in Culture, Street, Urban
Tagged Art, Lever House, New York, Park Avenue, Sculpture, Urban
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Sunday March 28. 2010
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – Emmet Gowan, Nancy, Danville Virginia, 1969. Nancy is now 47 or so – probably just starting to experience hot flashes. The physics of how photos freeze time is well understood, but odd, nonetheless.
Emmet Gowan, Nancy, Granville Virginia, 1969
Thursday January 28, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back to the real world. Hughues de Montalembert at a book signing party for Invisible.
Hughues de Montalembert
Posted in Culture, Events and holidays, Family and friends
Tagged Books, de Montalembert, Urban
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Sunday December 20, 2009
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE – We’re spending Christmas week in the ancient high dessert city in central Mexico. There are post card images in every direction. This is from an arts center out of the center of town.
Posted in -Woody's Picks, Culture, Interior, Travel
Tagged Gallery, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, Sculpture
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Thursday December 10, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We went to the opera Thursday evening: The Met’s riveting production oF Richard Stauss’s Elektra. Susan Bullock had her Met premier singing Elektra, Deborah Voigt broke new ground for herself as Chrysothemis, and Felicity Palmer did a sensational job as Klytemnestra. I went to Lincoln Center early to do my photo of the day – my one potentially good image was spoiled as a security guard got in the way. You evidently can’t shoot with a tripod in the Lincoln Center plaza – not even a very small one. I’ve substituted the same point of view and time of day from a few days earlier. I hope not to have to do this again.
Lincoln Center Fountain and the Metropolitan Opera House
Posted in Culture, Landscape, Urban
Tagged Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Urban
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Monday November 23, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A tough day for photographs: meetings all morning followed by a large lunch in a dark restaurant. Ugly, gray light outside. Late in the day I found myself uptown near Frank Lloyd Wright’s Gugenheim Museum. I have an ongoing project shooting iconic buildings as if one happens upon them at random – the objective is to try to capture the surprise of seeing them for the first time. The Gugeneheim is iconic but it’s hard to “happen upon” it – it’s cut off from Central Park across Fifth Avenue by a wall, and it’s hemmed in on the other three sides by larger buildings and the Manhattan grid. I ended up shooting details, and got this as it was getting dark. Not my best work.
The Gugenheim Museum, Manhattan
Posted in Culture, Icon, Urban
Tagged Frank Lloyd Wright, Gugenheim, Museum, New York
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Monday November 9, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Annual gala for Words Without Boarders at the Czech consulate.
Words Without Borders
Posted in Culture, Events and holidays
Tagged Czech, Fund raisers, New York, Words Without Borders
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Tuesday November 3, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Party for Patrizia Chen at New York University’s Casa Italiana launching Patrizia’s new book, It Takes Two.
Patrizia Chen
Monday November 2, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – The Corner Bookstore
Corner Bookstore
Friday October 16, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This is a daily photo blog. I’m posting one image each day from now until I run out of space on my server. The “each day” refers to when the photograph is taken. Uploads will happen whenever I have the time.
On October 16 I had a meeting in the Wall Street area. Afterwords I wandered in the rain over to One Chase Manhattan Plaza. Still an impressive urban space even though the bank is no longer an independent entity. There is a Jean DeBuffet sculpture called “Four Trees” – a half dozen tourists were hanging around it snapping with their iPhones.
Anyway, here’s my first post:
Posted in Culture, Landscape, Urban
Tagged Art, Chase, Debuffet, New York, Sculpture, Wall Street
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