AnimaMundi

Wild Wild West

The Italian Wine Guy on the Italian Wine Trail journeys to Marfa, Big Bend and the Chihauhau desert.  He is a creature of the desert so he knows its sounds and smells. Check out his slideshow for a feel for what it's like to be there. I especially like the night shot that is more than a little surreal.

Kodachrome

 

My friend Alfonso down in Dallas has put up some of his magic words and images on this digital wonderland. If you read his post you will learn that he grew up in a southern California resort where certain people frequented. He has never bragged about his meeting great and/or famous people during his lifetime. He doesn't need to. He is far too concerned with the authentic rather than the glitzy. This is one of his posts that sends me off on a nostalgic tangent. He has a penchant for that. Today we writes about perception and the camera. My father too was a photographer and home movie buff. He had higher artistic aspirations, but he was not bitter about not having attained them. He worked for two photographic studios and then for the Naval Underwater Sound Lab in Groton, CT. There he took pictures of old women breaking bottles of Champagne on the bows of nuclear submarines. After he died in 1979, I had a hell of a time getting his reels of 16mm film and my family photo albums back from his second wife. He married out of loneliness and loss rather than any love or affection. Another story that I might or not tell. The precious reels of film were stored in unkind places so much splicing was done before they were transferred to VHS tape. The reels contained footage of a very young Marco, an early 1950's Christmas, several weddings of my aunts and uncles, an aunt's high school graduation, a VJ Day parade and my parents' vacation to Rochester, NY, Niagara Falls (when The Maid of the Mist still went behind the falls). The first time that I watched the tape I noticed a highway sign at the start of the mash up of film reels. The VHS transfer was done randomly. I hit rewind to make sure of what I saw. The name on the highway sign read "Route 9W Delmar, NY" which is where we now live. A sign?

 

"If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
Brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
Everything looks worse in black and white"

     

 

 

 

 

Michael P. Smith, RIP

Photographer Michael P. Smith of New Orleans died on September 25, 2008.

The Historic New Orleans Collection mourns the recent passing of photographer Michael P. Smith (1937–2008) on Friday, September 25, 2008. His photographs of New Orleans musicians, their neighborhoods, and the institutional structures that nurture the city’s rich and varied cultural identity have defined New Orleans to worldwide audiences since the late 1960s. Michael Smith’s archive is part of the holdings of The Historic New Orleans Collection and will be the subject of an exhibition in the spring of 2009.

In the spring of 2007, the Michael P. Smith collection of negatives, prints, papers and ephemera was acquired by The Historic New Orleans Collection, along with the copyright to his work. The Michael P. Smith Collection is housed at the Williams Research Center and is available to the public on a limited basis.

Pictures of the Year 2007

Reuters Pictures of the Year 2007.

Magnum's 60th

Magnum photos was born in 1947, a product of the times, much like myself. Magnum celebrated its 60th anniversary recently. Take a look at some of their magnus opus.

Via Kottke