Bedtime reading

Yöpöydälle on ilmestynyt uutta lukemista. Luin erittäin kiinnostavasta valokuvanäyttelystä Los Angelesissa, ja oli pakko tilata näyttelystä julkaistu kirja.

Näyttelyssä on esillä Vanity Fair -lehdessä vuosina 1913-2008 julkaistuja potretteja. Kuvaajina muunmuassa Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Helmut Newton.

Useat valokuvista ovat kuin renessanssiajan maalauksia. Niin upeita että henkeä salpaa. Näyttely on varmaan käytävä katsomassa paikan päällä, onneksi kestää maaliskuun alkuun saakka.

En oikein piittaa Julianne Mooresta näyttelijänä, mutta tuossa kuvassansa on kyllä jotain aivan uskomatonta hehkua. Omat kintut kyllä kalpenee rinnalla.

There is a photography exhibition in Los Angeles, showing portraits published in Vanity Fair during 1913-2008. Some of the portraits are like renaissance paintings. So beautiful I think I must make it to LA before the exhibition closes in March.

Polaroiding

Photography has been a part of my life for a long time. What I find really thrilling about it is that you can keep experimenting with different formats, alternating between digital and older methods, mixing it with other media.

These two things are from my new Polaroid transfer class. The upper one is an emulsion lift, the lower a Polaroid transfer.

It is an exciting class, you never know what you will get. In any case a perfect image is never the goal, rather something that turns out a little scratched, was exposed strangely, or has unusual colors. These can then be manipulated further, for example by adding some handcoloring.

Back to school

The kids have fallen pretty easily back to the routines of school and daycare. In addition to the regular day schedule, the twins get to have an art class once a week. And the eldest takes French lessons every Wednesday. I hope it's not too much; the school days are much longer here for first graders than they are in Finland.

I'm also back in school. I found a really interesting place in La Jolla, a private membership library that also offers art classes. Every Wednesday I drive to school to work on Polaroid transfers. There were a number of interesting classes to choose from, most of them painting or drawing classes. Maybe I'll finally have the courage to take a watercolor class.

This place is pretty fantastic. The membership fee is very reasonable: for 40 dollars a year members can borrow all the material they want. They have a large collection of books varying from interior design to architecture, painting to photography. I found four books on Frida Kahlo's life, just to give an example! There are also lots of art magazines to browse, and DVDs and videos to take home.

I was in a hurry to get back home so this time I only grabbed three books. One of them is a Minor White photography book. Minor was one of the photographers we examined in class, back when I was taking film photography classes and developing my own prints in the lab. Oh what fun that was.