VENICE – I got up early, packed a toothbrush and clean underwear into a backpack and took a train to Venice and checked into the Gritti Palace – an overnight side trip based on tips from Italian friends that the Venice Biennale is a must see this year. Indeed it is. There’s a theme this year: art and obsessive compulsive disorder (my paraphrase). Very cool. I spent the day touring the national exhibits in the Gardini. All images with my Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens, except the last one which was taken with my iPhone.
Venice!Biannale IBiannale 3Biannale 2Biannale 4Biannale 5Biannale 6
On this day last year: Dinner party. The vintage Venini object in the foreground was subsequently broken when Basil the Norwich Terrier jumped up on the table to scrounge food. The perils of pet ownership.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A rushed day getting ourselves collected for our trekking trip to the Dolomites. I snapped a shot off with my iPhone on my way to Paragon to top up on some gear – rushing to get something before going into travel mode, because my work on travel days in uniformly terrible.
I’m actually posting this on July 25, more than two weeks after I took this image. i planned on traveling without a computer to save weight; the iPad that I’m traveling with doesn’t have quite enough horsepower to maintain this blog. On June 27 I actually posted my entry for June 17 and had written and warehoused posts for June 18 through June 27 so all I have to do with my iPad is actually publish a post out of the inventory on a roughly daily basis. As I write this on July 15 I’m back at my computer scrambling to write the posts from my time in Italy.
WASHINGTON DC – I’m leaving out the ironic references to “Our Nation’s Capital”. It’s sad to see this disfunctional sprawl close up. But this is a lovely time of year here with the magnolias and cherries in blossom so let’s enjoy the chance to photograph. I spent this afternoon at the Smithsonian American Art Museum guided by the Museum’s director, Betsy Broun. The courtyard, pictured below, is one of my favorite spots for a casual lunch in Washington, but this was my introduction to the collection, which is splendid. It shares the former Patent Office building the the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. Anyway, the courtyard:
Courtyard
On this day last year: Birch madness. I think that almost everyone who has a camera ranks birches as nearly as irresistible as dogs and babies. I have posted no fewer than 11 pictures with “birches” in the title since a started this project. None of them is much good. Repeat after me: “I won’t shoot birches. I won’t shoot birches. I won’t shoot birches . . .”
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A new camera. I’m shooting today with a new Leica, the Leica M, which is the successor to the M9. It’s one of the few in the country at this point. (I sold my M9 a few months back in anticipation of this.) The changes from the M9 are incremental but important. The shutter release is smoother and quieter – very similar to the Leica M3 which set the standard for smooth and discrete. It has better high ISO performance and is weather sealed. It’s a joy to shoot with.
I found my self in Foley Square this afternoon to attend the investiture of a former partner, Lorna Schofield, as a Federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York. A moving ceremony, but I couldn’t photograph it because cameras are not permitted in the courthouse. Outside, in the rain, I found this behind the New York Supreme Court building at 60 Center Street: a statue (evidently of justice) carrying a shield emblazoned with the seal of the State of New York. It’s an odd figure. Her face and posture signal defeat and depression. This is probably why she’s been placed on a little-used walkway behind the courthouse.
Justice
On this day last year: Mottled light in early Spring. This is an image from Central Park which was in full bloom on March 27 of last year. This suggests that Spring is more than a little bit late this year – it was cold today and there’s not a sign of a bloom anywhere.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our local Presbyterian church in New York, Brick Church, celebrates the beginning of Advent every year with a ceremony on the Church steps lighting the trees all up and down Park Avenue, and singing carols. We’re members of Brick but not currently that active because of our weekends in Connecticut. When our children were younger we were very active – I joked at that time that at one time or another I held every non-paying job at the Church. A lovely community. Anyway I took my Leica Monochrom and Noctilux lens to this year’s carol sing.
Carols
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Today we sasa terrific performance of Verdi’s Masked Ball at the Metropolitan Opera. Actually I hated the production and loved the singing with Sondra Radvanovsky, Marcelo Álvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky leading the cast. I’m still buzzing from the performance almost a week later as I write this. Here’s a member of the audience with my iPhone. A break from my Leica Monochrom.
The Opera
NEW YORK NEW YORK – There’s a relatively recent new installation at Lever House: a large bronze version of the inflatable giant rat that labor unions inflate outside of sites using scab labor. This is a work by a collective called The Bruce High Quality Foundation. Because of the material and the site the work is gently ironical – one assumes that the creators were hoping for more emotional impact. Taken with my Leica Monchrom and 28mm Summichron lens.
Big RatBig Rat
On this day last year: Martini. Having fun with my iPhone.
