Vitro Nasu

Jan Groover dies at 68. (NYtimes)

Jan Groover, whose relentlessly formal still lifes of mundane objects brought a sense of Renaissance stateliness to postmodern photography, died on Jan. 1 in Montpon-Ménestérol, France, where she had lived since 1991. She was 68.

Using a variety of camera formats to affect perception and plane, Jan Groover creates complex, abstract spatial arrangements in her still-life, portrait, and landscape photography. Her images demonstrate her craftsmanship in the darkroom with their finely-wrought delicacy. A painter by training, Groover makes reference to art history in her photographs, from Renaissance perspective drawings to Cezanne’s tabletops.

Pears from Sals Blog (Still life research)

Vintage Kitchen Still Life

Triptych (SFMOMA)

Eve Arnold a famous Magnum photographer who showed Marilyn reading James Joyce died at 99.

Parting Glance (lens.blogs NYtimes obit)

“Eve was a dynamo,” Ms. Meiselas said. “She might have been small and compact, but she was just unbelievably productive and hugely generous.”
She was outspoken, too. “She didn’t hold back in a gang of men. She was very present and encouraging and generous, in a sense — to me as a young woman, but also in a collective spirit.”

Eve Arnold self-portrait

Malcolm X

See Andy Warhol photos from Magnum collection (see him exercising, using toilet as his chair)

Guardian selection

More photos

Happy New Year 2012

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Marilyn Photos

Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961.
She was visiting his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Sandburg
As we know, Marilyn loved older men, she loved the intellectuals — and Carl was very parental with her,’ said Steckler. ‘It was a lovely thing to see.’

Carl and Marilyn

The actress died in August, 1962, and Sandburg, who won Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and for a biography of Abraham Lincoln, died seven years later.

My Best Marilyn – It arrived, I drank it, and I was gayer.

Jessica Hines who found Marilyn’s letter also visited Carl Sandburg’s home.

Thinking of Carl Sandburg and Marilyn Monroe (from the video shared by Fung-Lin), I remembered finding these two 4-leaf clovers in the yard there. Good memory. Hope they are still bringing me good luck.

Visit Jessica Hines‘s homepage which includes her award winning photography project “My Brother’s War” and many other intriguing projects.

What did Jesus do ? by Adam Gopnik + Mr. Blank and Jesus

Nuclear Christmas Tree in reverse (made in the 70′s by Tetsumi Kudo )

Happy Holidays!

Here are some photos of eleven good men whose lives were cut short with Aids. R.I.P

Klaus Nomi Derek Jarman and Tony Perkins in the middle.
Klaus Nomi died on August 6, 1983 – he was 39.
Perkins died on September 12, 1992.. Berry Berenson (Perkins’ wife), was killed on American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Derek Jarman died In 1994 London, aged 52.

Paul Thek and Peter Hujar
Peter Hujar, Paul Thek and David Wojnarowicz at Mathew Marks Exhibition
Susan Sontag by Peter Hujar

Paul Thek New York City in 1988. He was 55.
Peter Hujar November 26, 1987. He was 53.

Wild Combination Arthur was an original Michel Foucault would not mind to be paired with him.

Arthur Russell died on April 4, 1992, at the age of 40
Foucault died in Paris on 25 June 1984, he was 58.

Tseng Kwo-Chiand Herman Costa having a blast at photobooth (Thanks Herman for this photo).
Martin Wong with lunchboxes
Tseng and Martin – pride of Chinese Americans!

In 1990, TSENG died at age 39 in NY.
Martin Wong died on 12 August 1999 in San Francisco.. He was 53.

Nestor & Reinaldo Arenas
They were good friends in Cuba.
Nestor Almendros died on 4 March 1992 in NY. He was 62
Reinaldo Arenas died on December 7, 1990. he was 47.

“All these years, I’ve felt Manhattan was just another island-jail. A bigger jail with more distractions but a jail nonetheless. It just goes to show that there are more than two hells. I left one kind of hell behind and fell into another kind. I never thought I would live to see us plunge again into the dark ages. This plague — AIDS — is but a symptom of the sickness of our age.” Reinaldo Arenas

Foujita by Berenice Abbott

Foujita was born on November 27, 1886

See photos and paintings of Foujita here. (Courtesy of Mario A who has a great Foujita album on FB ).

Taking a studio in Montparnasse, he met artists such as Modigliani and is said to have studied dance with Isadora Duncan. His paintings, which initially sold well, drew comment for the milk white color of the skin of the women he portrayed.
After a stint working and traveling in South America, Foujita returned to Japan in the 1930s, where he produced propaganda art for the military. He eventually returned to France, where he converted to Catholicism and died in 1968. (via)

Foujita by Andre Kertesz

(one more by Andre K..Foujita on the phone)

Foujita’s complicated life – Dressing Up for Success (Ian Buruma)

His most famous war painting here.

Inokuma Genichiro

Guen I.
Guen (this is how he signed his art) came to live in Honolulu in the mid 70′s after he suffered a stroke in NYC. He lived in Japan in the Summer and the Winter in Honolulu. Guen became a mentor to my sister Fung-Ching Kelling during his stays in Honolulu.

In My Resume (youtube only in Japanese)

.. Inokuma and Foujita shared a house when they escaped wartime Paris. He talked about how Foujita bought the train tickets at the train station (today Musee d`Orsay) and that he only took a Matisse painting and left everything else in Paris. They stayed in the countryside more than month living in the same house.
He showed us a special spot that Isamu Noguchi loved on the island of Oahu and showed us the beauty of natural rocks.
In NY Guen Inokuma (sensei) and his wife Fumiko took my sister and I to Mark Rothko’s apartment and told us what he knew of Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Yoko Ono and Isamu Noguchi were his good friends.

His museum

Painting (via artnet)
Title : City Composition (3)
Medium : Oil on Canvas
Size : 30 x 40 in. / 76.2 x 101.6 cm.
Year : 1966 -
Contemporary Japanese Art from the Collection of B.H. Rockefeller

The museum catalog listed a painting called “Wall Street” by Genichiro Inokuma exhibited at San Francisco Museum of Art.

Photo of Montgomery Clift by Stanley Kubrick (via)

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Montgomery Clift doing a little dance at Paestum – photo by Kevin McCarthy

(Repost – see previous posts)

In Praise of Monty Clift – (Sheila’s Variations)

Wang Ningde

Oct 10 1945 – The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China

National Day in China (see more Wang Ningde here, don’t click on dead links.)

Message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street

This letter of solidarity, signed over by 50 intellectuals and activists in China, was posted to Utopia yesterday. Thanks to everyone for the translation and editing work!

Zizek Speaks to Occupy Wall Street

He steered the discussion away from the Cold War debate between communism and capitalism, noting that former communists, particularly in China, “are today the most efficient, brutal capitalists.”
The communist revolution “failed absolutely,” he said, suggesting that “the only way we are communist is that we care about the commons,” citing the environment as an example.

Apart from that Oct 10 birthday links

Harold Pinter

Julius Schulman

Theloneous Monk

Oscar Brown Jr.

Claude Simon

Ikea
(Photos Fung Lin Hall)

Photos taken from Ikea - (Founder has a Nazi past)

Childhood adventure
Fifty centimeters deep –
Witch, lion, Aspelund

POETRY FOR THE FURNITURE OF MELANCHOLY (Hikea blog)

Follow the bouncing ball – Hurricane Irene sight gag
Sight Gags” is our weekly nod to the ironic, satiric, parodic, and carnivalesque performances that are an important part of a vibrant democratic public culture. These “gags” may not always be funny or represent a familiar point of view, but they attempt to cut through the lies, hypocrisy, shamelessness, stupidity, complacency, and other vices of democratic life.
via No Caption Needed

Happy birthday David Fincher! (Fight Club + Social Network merged here thanks to Teshigahara and Abe Kobo)

Heroine Wake a ‘role model for courage’

“They could not catch her,” he said.
“Whenever somebody dobbed her in, they would go there and she would be gone. Nancy would get away from them.
“The world offered a reward for anyone who could catch The White Mouse. They grabbed her husband, Henri, and the Gestapo tortured him to death.”

Nancy Wake

Farewell to Nancy Wake, the mouse who ran rings around the Nazis
The WW2 resistance heroine, who has died aged 98, was ‘a force of nature’ who topped the Gestapo’s most-wanted list

Charlotte Gray

The story is thought to be based on the exploits of Nancy Wake, codenamed the white mouse, a member of the resistance in war time France and Pearl Cornioley, a British secret service agent.

Lee Miller (repost) by Man Ray

Documentary of Lee Miller – narrated by her son.

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Lee Miller taking a bath in Hitler’s bathroom.

Portrait of Max Ernst by Lee Miller

In Memoriam Jerome Liebling

Jerome Liebling, acclaimed founder of Hampshire College’s photography and video school, dies at 87

A Brooklyn native whose father was a waiter, Liebling was a child of the Depression who served in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II before going on to study at Brooklyn College on the GI Bill.

His students included Ken Burns

Butterfly Boy

Interview (with photos)

What were some of the things that you went out looking for when you first started?

Well—mostly just the street, and what it gave back. There were a few wonderful documentary photographers, especially Helen Levitt, who was present and whose work I saw. All of the good people were trying to bring back pieces of the world as honestly as possible.

I studied with Jerome Liebling 20 years ago (it was the semester when I realized that I should stop trying to be a photographer). He was a remarkable teacher – warm and encouraging, but he didn’t get in the way of his students, and he told the truth without telling us what to do. The same with his work. Some of the photographs he once exhibited in the college gallery have burned themselves into my brain. They were arresting and complex – visually complete, beautiful, but full of questions he didn’t try to answer for the viewer.
Artists and teachers like Liebling are rare these days. He will be missed. via

Hansmann is a Berlin based photographer.
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Photographer find beauty in lost places

A Berlin-based photographer has captured the beauty of forgotten buildings from the communist era. Ex-Soviet hospitals and dried-up German breweries are among the dilapidated settings for the stunning series of photos.

See slideshow here

Drive In Theater

The Orpheum Theatre opened on April 15, 1912 – the same day the Titanic sank. Located on Water Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts, it was part of a Beaux-Arts building that was built in 1910 by a French-Canadian group known as Le Club des Francs-Tireurs (The French Sharpshooters Club).

See more abandoned Theaters (Previous post)

Theater Stories – Hiroshi Sugimoto, Orinda theater..more musing on this subject (Previous Post)

Old dog 1
Ginger, 12 years old Devil’s Tower, Wyoming

Senior Dogs Across America photographs and text by Nancy LeVine

Eight years ago, I began traveling the United States to photograph senior dogs.

Old dog 2
Gussy Sue, 15 years old, Laurel, Montana

Photo by me
Las Vegas New Mexico – Plaze Hotel (Previous post) – and not an abandoned place.