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Flickr is still screwed up, but I managed to log in using Opera. Still frustrating, since I’m writing this post in ScribeFire, which is in Firefox. But doable.

My last day (for a while, at least) of posting daily pictures from PhotosNormandie. I’m back in school full time as of yesterday, and I’m also hanging a show in both of Angels Gate’s galleries, so I’m stupid busy until at least next Sunday.

I like ending on these photos. They really demonstrate just how broad this collection of images is.

Above - Canadian performers as part of Invasion Revue. Why does this shot of the crowd make me think of the USO show in Apocalypse Now? Must be the combination of panty shots and war.

From PhotosNormandie -

Trois comédiennes font leur représentation sur scène en tenue de cow-girls.
Reportage de 10 photos (p010871 à p010880 dont une en double) sur une représentation du spectacle canadien “Invasion Revue “, le 30 juillet 1944 à Banville.
Banville au sud de Graye-sur-Mer (secteur Juno) est libérée le 6 juin 1944 par les canadiens. Le 25th Royal Engineers Airfield Construction Group, service de la RAF chargé de l’aménagement et de la réparation des terrains d’aviation de campagne y établi son PC.
L’ALG B-3 est à proximité immédiate.
DOUBLE: idem photo p010880

Above - Love that lighting. This is a truly great photograph - you’ve got great focus, faces in different kinds of shadows. I only wish I could read the long caption better to know what was going on.

From PhotosNormandie -

Après l’Operation Cobra, les troupes américaines ont reconverti des soviétiques qui appartenaient à des bataillons de la Brigade “Bounyatchenko” ou à des bataillons de travail, en ” travailleurs libres “. Nous voyons ici deux photos prises près de Coutances le 8 août 1944.
- ils aident au transport des munitions. p011787
- séance récréative le soir après le travail. p011788
Il s’agit en fait de photos de propagande, tous ces prisonniers furent livrés à l’Union Soviétique, inéluctablement, selon les accords signés entre les Alliés occidentaux et orientaux.
Comme le note l’historien Jürgen Thorwald : ” Pour éviter des troubles dans les camps, les autorités américaines affirmèrent à plusieurs reprises que la remise des prisonniers à l’Union soviétique n’était aucunement prévue. Nombreux furent ceux qui s’accrochèrent à ces promesses. (..) Leur tour vint quelques mois plus tard. (..) Il y avait encore à la fin de la guerre 700000 citoyens soviétiques portant l’uniforme allemand, d’après les registres du commandement suprême de la Wehrmacht. Aucun document ne permet de connaître le petit nombre de ceux qui ont échappé aux Soviets, et l’histoire demeurera muette à ce sujet ” (in ” L’illusion “, p. 306 et 307, Albin Michel Ed. 1975). Les officiers seront exécutés, la troupe finira dans le Goulag. Beaucoup de ces prisonniers préférèrent le suicide au moment de leur livraison.
Voir d’autres soviétiques à Cherbourg: p000889
Référence : page 228 de La guerre des GI’s Normandie 1944 de Georges Bernage et Georges Cadel chez Heimdal, 1994

Technorati Tags: PhotosNormandie, Normandy Invasion, WWII, World War II, war, war photography, military photography, photography, history, military history, dancing girls, panty shot, guitar player, Invasion Revue

Having a weird Flickr problem so I’m not posting any photos from PhotosNormandie today, unless I manage to fix it, or at least get less frustrated with it.  It appears to be some kind of cookie related crisis, possibly caused by the fact that I access both my Flickr account and the Angels Gate one from the same machine.  Grrr…

Anyways, on that MOCA front.  So a week or so ago, I wrote about how not only does MOCA want me dead, but they can’t spell my name right.  Lo and behold!  Yesterday, I return home from my office, and amongst my mail is a thick envelope from MOCA, containing a brand new pair of membership cards, with my name spelled correctly…  So I guess someone over there reads this thing.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, MOCA

My dear, continent and ocean away, friend, Allyson Shaw is really raking in the wealth of British culture.  There seems to be no end of major museums with crazy collections over there - I’m seriously jealous.

The above, seen in the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford, is the iron fist you’ve always wanted.  Bring on the Iron Man jokes…  etc…  Described as Artificial Hand, possibly from the 16th century, this beautiful item probably once belonged to the era’s most stylish dictator.  The fingers are operated by a spring located inside the hand.

Also worth checking out is this image of the museum’s pocket globe.  I seriously need one of these to hang from my Blackberry like a charm.

Oh, and Ally, this one’s for you, straight from the OC, on the Hirst front!  Imitation is the best form of flattery, huh?

Technorati Tags: Artificial Hand, 16th Century, hand, iron fist, iron, pocket globe, Allyson Shaw, Damien Hirst

I haven’t been out to see it yet, but Will Campbell, LA’s seemingly everywhere cyclist, has an awesome photoset on Flickr of Chris Burden’s Urban Light installation at LACMA.  I like the pictures I’m seeing of it, and I have a feeling I’m going to like it more when I see it, and besides, Angelenos need more reasons to get out at night, anyways.  To be honest, I’m a bit LACMAed out right now - I’m taking a “I’ll catch up with you after the hoopla has died down” perspective on the BCAM opening.

Technorati Tags: site specific, Chris Burden, Will Campbell, LACMA, BCAM, Flickr, Urban Light, art, lamps

Upon finding the above in the PhotosNormandie stream, I really had no idea how to characterize it, only that it’s stupid, funny and sad.  The people in this photo are from both the British military and the American military.  The caricatures on the bomb were drawn by Tex Avery.

It has a long caption -

Des soldats se bouchent les oreilles à la vue de leur camarade qui
simule l’allumage d’un énorme faux pétard à l’effigie d’Hitler et de
l’amiral japonais Yamamoto croqués en caricature façon Tex Avery.
On peut distinguer :
- deux Caporaux britanniques du Royal Corps of Signals sur l’épaule
voir l’insigne du calot => Field service cap (le plus à gauche semble porter le patch du VIII Corps, l’autre ?)
www.flickr.com/photos/mlq/2153962339/
www.flickr.com/photos/mlq/2172415008/
-un britannique du Royal Armoured Corps avec un béret noir portant le
cap badge du Royal Tank Corps/Regiment (note il porte le Service strip
du RAC et semble porté la corde du 1st RTR et l’insigne du Southern
Command dans sa variation pour le RAC peut être un instructeur ou un
soldat détaché à ce command)
www.flickr.com/photos/mlq/2154695886/
www.flickr.com/photos/mlq/2154695882/
-des marins américains, un US Coast Guard
-un soldat portant le liner, Helmet liner M1
En arrière plan l’USCG-60 Cutter 83516 (servira au D-day en secteur britannique)

Technorati Tags: Tex Avery, caricature, Hitler, Tojo, PhotosNormandie, Flickr, WWII, World War II, military photography, photograph, photography, history, military history, bomb

Today, Thursday, February 7

Charles Gatewood, Wall Street & Other Pictures @ Robert Tat Gallery in San Francisco.  I came of age “highly inspired” by the fetish photography of Robert Gatewood.  I probably won’t be back up in the city until this show is over, but you may be.  I’ve never seen any of his Wall Street images, and I’m envious of our NoCal friends who get the opportunity.  Opens today, but reception is next Saturday, the 16th, 2-5 PM.

Friday, February 8

Yuichiro Roy Kunisaki & Kyoko Hishida Kunisaki, Seeds @ FT Art Gallery.  Roy is a good friend, and Kyoko is his new bride.  Roy is an amazing potter who works at Angels Gate.  Over the past eight years, I’ve watched him grow from a struggling artist, doing valet jobs to keep afloat, to a full-time potter, aspiring to mastery.  He’s brilliant at his craft, and for every piece I buy from him, I want to buy five more.  Kyoko is a painter - I think her style is rubbing off on Roy and that both of their works will benefit by their partnership and collaboration.  Reception is 6-9 PM, FT is at 1176 Sunset, LA, CA 90016.

Saturday, February 9

Brody Condon Performance Modification (Nauman) @ Machine Project. As mentioned last week, repeated here, Brody was the man behind 2004’s Untitled War, also at Machine Project. This performance is based on Bruce Nauman’s 1973 piece Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up and Face Down,
only it involves folks in “medieval/space/fantasy armor” and “high
volume binaural beats reputed to induce out of body experiences”. Good
times… 8 - 10 PM.

Yasuhiro Hazama & Tomoki Hayashi, Tanaka Shinpei @ ANDLAB. I admit, I was suckered in by the kawaii card.  What can I say?  Expect bright colours in this collaboration between artist Yasuhiro Hazama and poet Tomoki Hayashi.  Reception is 6-8 PM.

Fatally Yours @ Crewest.  I’m recommending this for one reason only, my one and only true love, John Michael Gill, and his dear lady, Sophia Pottish, are in the show.  I’m so out of the street art scene at this point that I have little to know idea who most of the other artists are, other than I presume they’re from the hats & Pabst crowd. Man, I’m getting old… Reception is 6-9 PM.

Innocent Until @ Angels Gate Cultural Center.  We started a play reading series last year, and it really took off.  Playright Doug Cooney’s Innocent Until starts off this year’s series with a bang, telling the story of a 12 year old boy who shoots a cop with his own gun and the ambitious state attorney who prosecutes him.  Based on four months of research into a real incident.  My co-worker Heather Dundas really puts in the time to make this series happen, so props to her.  At 2 PM in Gallery A, $5 for member and $10 for non-members.

Sunday, February 10

Takashi Murakami Closing Talk @ MOCA.  Everyone’s favourite tempest in a teapot, mid-career retrospective closes on Monday, preceded by a talk with the man himself on Sunday.  Your last chance to ask him why did he let MOCA climax a really terrific show of his work with a tepid installation focusing on the least interesting part of that work, a Louis Vuitton kiosk, stealing the spotlight from his newest paintings?  It’s $20 for non-members and $15 for members.  At 4PM, at the Geffen Contemporary.

Technorati Tags: Charles Gatewood, Robert Tat Gallery, Yuichiro Roy Kunisaki, Kyoko Hishida Kunisaki, FT Art Gallery, Brody Condon, Machine Project, Yasuhiro Hazama, Tomoki Hayshi, Fatally Yours, Crewest, John Michael Gill, Sophia Pottish, Innocent Until, Angels Gate Cultural Center, MOCA, Takashi Murakami, art, LA Art

I think I’m going to keep posting images from PhotosNormandie through the weekend.  I just keep finding so much good stuff, again, in threes.

Above - The icon of the enemy.  Shattered, like Hitler’s dream of dominion over Europe.

PhotosNormandie caption -

Un soldat décroche un portrait lacéré de Hitler.

Above - The enemy, up close and harmless.  The look on this young Luftwaffe corporal’s face is timeless.

PhotosNormandie caption -

P.hotographie allemande - (col. Normandie Mémoire)
Un Obergefreiter (caporal chef) de la Luftwaffe (LW)

Ce soldat est celui qui est au centre de la photo p004536

Above - The fate of the enemy. I just love this image - the composition
and depth of field suggests, to me, that the photographer is cautious
about taking the picture - that these men are still capable of being a
threat.  It really captures the energy of the moment.

PhotosNormandie caption -

Des soldats de la Wehrmacht se rendent les mains en l’air.

Le taret de Ravenoville appartient au réseau hydrographique des marais
littoraux de la côte est cotentin. Les différents tarets de cette côte
sont équipés à l’exutoire, de portes à flot ou de vannes destinées au
maintien du niveau d’eau permettant notamment une valorisation agricole
de la zone humide par la fauche et le pâturage. En période de basses
eaux ce rejet semble véhiculer des eaux assez saumâtres. Une auto
épuration s’effectue dans le marais où le fonctionnement hydraulique
des cours d’eau est difficile (Source : Service Santé/Environnement
DDASS de la Manche)

Technorati Tags: militray photogaphy, war photography, PhotosNormandie, Normandy Invasion, WWII, World War II, war, Germans, Nazi, Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, corporal, surrendering, surrender, Hitler, portrait

I know, I know.  I’m a pathetic shill.  But trust me - for every Getty related post I do, there are a dozen things they’re doing that I don’t write about.

Got the E-mail today. The Getty has acquired Irving Penn’s master set of prints from his series, The Small Trades.  It’s almost as if they know what I’m into and are dead set on pleasing me.  So thanks for stroking my interests, Getty.

I’ve been working with labor photographer Slobodan Dimitrov for almost seven years now, he was the first artist I worked with at Angels Gate, on the Apron Strings exhibition, where I hung about 60 portraits of apron clad workers that he shot.  So being around Slobodan, becoming aware of the history of labor photography, obsessing over it, etc… makes me really excited about the Penn acquisition.

There are 252 photos of 215 subjects in The Small Trades, a project that grew out of a 1950 assignment to shoot Paris workers for Vogue magazine.  Penn followed up his Paris assignment by photographing subjects in London and New York.  He shot the workers in the studio, against a neutral background, using high speed roll film, to get a grainy effect.

The prints go on display in September 2009. To my knowledge this body of work is unpublished (as a whole) in book form, but a catalog is planned for the exhibition.  So wait patiently my friends…

A side note - being kind of a Web 2.0 guy, and working at a small institution with six employees (including two facilities/maintenance people), I’m mystified and fascinated  by the PR processes of the Getty.  I recently received the California Video PR kit, and it came with a disc with a teaser video, and a list of available still promotional images.  I presumed from looking over the list of images that they would be included on the disc, but they’re not - If I want them, I have to request them.  Why not just throw them on the disc? For this announcement, they attached a .pdf indicating available press images.  I requested two images, but the copyright agreement only allows one image per publication, and when the requested image arrived in my mailbox, it was accompanied by its own .pdf, explaining that I can only have it on my site for a year, only for the purpose requested, and that it must be accompanied by the appropriate copyright and collection info.

At Top: Deep Sea Diver (B), New York, 1951, gelatin silver print, Irving Penn, copyright 1951 (renewed 1979) by Conde Nast Publications Ltd., Partial Gift of Irving Penn, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Technorati Tags: Irving Penn, Deep Sea Diver, diver, Slobodan Dimitrov, photogrpahy, photograph, Getty, Getty Center, worker, labor photography

Trevor Paglen is an artist who’s work I keep thinking about - it’s right there at the boundary of art, research and journalism, a dicey area that just show how far we are from the “are you a sculptor or painter?” mainstream of art practice.  I’m most attracted to his Code Names piece, a wall graphic of the names of classified military programs.  It’s an exercise in how almost senseless language can arouse serious thinking and investigation on the part of a viewer.

Anyways… Paglen did a talk, Techno-Historical Collusions: The Making of a Trojan Horse, at the Transmeidale conference in Berlin recently, and although I’m lamenting the lack of online video, the kids at We Make Money Not Art have an excellent breakdown of his talk and of his work in general.  There’s also a post on the conference blog echoing the IRC chat during his talk, which is somewhat abstract.

At top: mysterypatch, from the Flickr stream of Bruce Sterling.

Technorati Tags: Trevor Paglen, Transmediale, classified programs, black ops, Code Names, patch

More from PhotosNormandie.  Rituals are the strings that connect us to home, and to ourselves, in times when the extraordinary becomes ordinary.

Above - American troops receive communion in the field

PhotosNormandie caption - Libération de la Basse-Normandie pendant l’été 1944, en secteur américain. Des GI’s reçoivent la communion.

Above - A prisoner of war shaves.

PhotosNormandie caption - Libération de la Basse-Normandie pendant l’été 1944, en secteur américain. Un prisonnier de guerre se rase au moyen d’un miroir de poche accroché à un piquet de barbelés.

Technorati Tags: Photography, Normandy Invasion, WWII, World War II, history, Prisoner of War, POW, prisoner, shaving, communion, Catholicism, religion, ceremony, ritual, war