Just saw “Bill Cunningham New York” film at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
“Bill Cunningham: the Original Street Fashion Photographer.”
Such a gem of a man…and intriguing. You leave the movie wanting to know more about him, while still overwhelmed with the scope of his work, the history he has lived, and the beauty of his inner personality.
Also made me homesick for a time period in the world that will not be seen again.
Go see it wherever you can!
Peter Marzio, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) died Thursday, December 9, 2010 at age 67. He was an amazing creative leader.
Read the whole article here…
I was struck by the following from the article…
What a wonderful expression of his initial inspiration and connection to his work:
“Although he had a poor academic record in high school, a pivotal experience at Juniata College launched his career. Seeing a projected image of Goya’s painting Forge during a lecture, Marzio was inspired to visit the real thing at the Frick Collection in New York.
“I sat down in front of it, and for the first time in my life, I thought I knew more than anyone in the world about something,” Marzio told the New York Times in 2000. “I had a sense of how it was organized and what it was about. It felt so empowering. It’s impossible to convey the feeling it gave me.”
I forgot!
As part of the MFAH show, there is an image from Richard Misrach’s series, “On the Beach” (Untitled #1170-04.)
It’s a very large image, a swimmer floating in the middle of a vast Pacific Ocean (shot from a high hotel room in Hawaii).
The image felt expansive, wonderful, uplifting to me…so therefore I was surprised to read the curator’s notes, which perceived the image as reflecting our feelings of insecurity and groundlessness after 9/11.
Hmm…not my feeling at all when looking at that image…Why don’t you go see it and tell me how it makes you feel?
After a little research, I did find some interesting background about the images and timing from the Smithsonian.com website…and also read more comments of Misrach about his project. Now I see, at least, where the Houston curator got their perspective.
However, I do want to note that Misrach himself, as well as saying that the work was about how people can endure many things, and still then go and find happiness and relaxation, said that the work, “…is much more about our relationship to the bigger sublime picture of things.”
Whew, that makes me happy. Each of the images seen here continue to make me long for the water, the beauty, the vastness of the ocean.
What about you?
Work by the Korean photographer Seung Woo Back also caught my eye and mind in the MFAH exhibition, “Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection”
“Real World” is a series of photographs taken in a South Korean theme park that features miniatures of world famous tourist places. Fake architecture and the realistic Seoul landscape coexists there, and the rather calm images evoke an odd sensation and suggest the envy that South Koreans turn towards outside countries.” (from the website of the Foil Gallery, Tokyo, upon their 2007 exhibit of Seung Woo Back’s “Real World”)
Click here for a photo of the image….
Also see artist’s site…
I liked what Woo Back is doing as an art form, and also liked what he had to say about his work:
“As the border between ontological reality and imaginary reality becomes tightly entwined in my pictures, one might begin to wonder how the world is shaped in our own imaginations,” said the artist. (From curator’s notes, MFAH gallery wall.)
Yes, I agree….a concept worth a lifetime of reflection.
The Inner Path of Photography 