My Nephew: Talon Ackerman, Dancing!

 

Talon Ackerman and his cast-mates from the Broadway tour of Mary Poppins

I had the great pleasure of seeing my nephew Talon Ackerman preform on Dancing with the Stars last night.  He was stepn’ in time with the cast of Mary Poppins as Michael Banks.  Here is a few videos of his performance and some back stage stuff.

 

See the Mary Poppins segment of the show HERE.

Talon Ackerman as Michael Banks and Nicolas Dromard as Bert

If you have the chance to see the touring cast of Mary Poppins DO IT!!  I saw them last week in Buffalo, NY and they were fantastic.  Obviously, they were invited to be on Dancing with the stars this week.  I’ll post more images of that below…

Talon Ackerman as Michael Banks and the Touring cast of the Broadway hit, Mary Poppins!

 

Congratulation Talon.  Love you!

your auntie

From the Family of Frank A. Brownell

Last week while I was researching for my upcoming book at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.  I had the great pleasure of sharing an evening with Frank Mehlenbacher.  He is the grandson of Mr. Brownell, inventor.

A “little” known fact about Mr. Brownell…

Frank A. Brownell was possibly the most influential camera designer of all time and the namesake for the Kodak Brownie camera!  Mr. Brownell was like a father to Mr. Mehlenbacher after his own father passed away when he was quite young.  He and his mother moved back to Rochester from Florida to be closer to her father (Mr. Brownell) and the rest of her family.

Brownell is a remarkable man with a remarkable grandson who is very dedicated to preserving the legacy of his grandfather and the development of the camera (and photographic history in general).

Being a professional photographer/ artist and educator, I often think of the photographers when I think of the history of photography but after an evening with Mr. Mehlenbacher I realized the dormant excitement I had for the development of the technology that allows me to do what I do.  I must say, the cameras and the original memorabilia I was able to see firsthand was amazing and inspiring.

Thank you Frank, and my awesome intern from last year Greg McDonald (Frank’s Great Nephew), for sharing!

xo

 

LaNola

 

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I Heart the LOC

The Library of Congress is am amazing place (understatement of the year)!

I have a great month ahead of me, so excited!!!  Next week I will dust of my Library of Congress researchers card and delve in to the work of master photographers in preparation for my upcoming book to be published by Focal Press and in Stores Next October (I’ll introduce the title and subject matter in a few months when it is off to press)!  As well, I will update this post with images next month.

 

Anywho…

Not to be over looked, I have also LOVED spending time in the Special Collections here at the New York Public Library – as well the plentitude of text available in the reading room.  I feel so blessed to have these amazing institutions so close by.  I’ll round off my research in Rochester at the George Eastman House at the end of the month.  YAHOOOO!!

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O.I.L. Only in Louisiana?

The thing about tragedy which we see in the news is that sometimes it hardly seems real.  ”It can’t really be that bad,” we think.  … or numbers and causalities are so high they are incomprehensible.  Often it is easier to tune out the horror we see because the magnitude of what we are seeing is just too great and, after all, what can we do about it?

I think the most powerful number is ONE.  One person has an idenity.  One person has a story.  One person is manageable and we feel empowered to help.  One person is me,  and one person is you.  One person can make a difference.

I think it is somehow easier to see children as individuals.  Sometimes it is only through the lens of childhood – humanity’s shared experience – that we both ground ourselves and are compelled to action.

This series, OBSESSION IGNITED LAMENT  or ONLY IN LOUISIANA? (OIL), warns us to take action now, honor our past, and make better decisions for the sake of our children’s future. Our pasts come in various shapes and sizes and it’s what we do with our past that defines us, not merely the past itself. Our nation’s long-standing obsession with non-renewable resources must end, and the lament from the visible destruction (especially today) ought to urge us away from this unsustainable path that risks lives and the future of the generations to come.

I think it is important to remember that people die so that we can continue to drive our cars and light our homes with fuel from nonrenewable resources.

On April 5th 2010, the big news story was about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster.  We were riveted as we waited for news of survivors.  None came.  Twenty-nine people were dead.  That number is comprised of 13 fathers, 29 sons, 14 husbands, 3 grandfathers, uncles, coaches, brothers… not to mention the other roles these men had as providers, friends, and loved ones. 24 children lost their fathers and 6 grandchildren lost their grandfathers (these numbers were hard to come by – some miners didn’t have obituaries –  and are most likely low, but the best I could figure from my research).  Many of the miners were too young to be married and start families.  One man was just 5 weeks from retirement and had booked a cruise for he and his wife in May to celebrate.  And that is just the story of one.  This was the worst coal disaster in US history since 1970.

Then 15 days later the story vanished from the headlines.

On Tuesday, April 20th 2010, an oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana.  The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 men.  Among them, 9 fathers, 10 husbands, 11 sons, uncles, co-workers… not to mention AGAIN the other roles these men had as providers, friends, and loved ones.  17 children are left fatherless as a result of this tragedy.  One child, the second child of Gordon Jones and his wife, was born weeks after his father died and will never feel his father’s embrace.

I guess that I made these images to help us remember that it’s not just pelicans and otters that get covered in our excavated nonrenewable resources.  As a culture we are neck deep in it and we, each ONE of us, needs to find our own small ways to help curb this addiction we have on nonrenewable energy.

- use less plastic (a byproduct of oil) and recycle that which you do use

- drive fuel efficient cars.  When the time comes, spend a little extra and buy a hybrid or electric vehicle (EV)

- support the development of wind and solar power

- walk when you can

- ride a bike when you can

- spend more time outside, appreciating the world we live in and less time playing video games and watching tv

- bring your own bag to the store

- recycle, reuse, reduce, and repurpose

- support locally grown food and goods that didn’t have to be shipped a long way

- use it up, wear it our, make it do or do without!

- be horrified by the waste around you – see it, it’s there

- Share a tip with a friend.  If you have a good one share it below

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A big thank you to Maia, Victoria, Taran, Kathrine, Alexandra, Jaxson, Gianna and Elizabeth for all your help and concern in making these images.

ALSO

Thank you to all the men who who work the mines and oil fields to provide energy for our country.  You are amazing and far too often overlooked and forgotten.  Know that at least one person (me) appreciates and honors what you do.  I pray for your work environment to be more safe until the day when we refuse to send the children of man into the mountains to power our indulgences.  Thank you for your courage and sacrifice.

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This is a picture of Jenny Waycaster as she waits for news of her son, Ken Lambert, following a mining accident near Montcoal, W.Va. Monday, April 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Bob Bird)

Follow this link to a video / Washington Post article about another miner.

Seriously?? Me?? …a letter from SPE

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On May 3rd I just got a letter from Virginia Morrison, the Executive Director for the Society for Photographic Education (SPE).  It was to inform me that I had been recommended as a potential candidate for the Society for Photographic Education’s board of directors.  I have only been a member for 3 months and I wasn’t sure how this happened but I thought, that is cool, but what do I have to offer, really?

Two weeks later the phone rang, it was Sama Raena Alshaibi, who is an artist/ educator from Arizona and current member of the board.  She asked if I had received the letter from Virginia and if I would consider running.

I am a big fan of SPE and their dedication to furthering the education of photographic artist young and old.

If you are also intrested in photographic education, support you local capter and attend the wonderful events.  If you are a student or thinking about futher education to expand you as a creative, go to the confrences and portfolio reviews.  There are SO MANY oppertunities at the confrence.  Consider it!

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This year the National Confrence will be in Alanta, GA

March 10-13, 2011 @ Sheraton Atlanta Hotel

THEME:

Science, Poetry and the Photographic Image

Since its inception, photography has been inexorably linked to science. The connection is not limited to optics and chemistry. The very heart of the scientific method: exploring, observing and recording, is paralleled in the working process of photographic artists. The objective is often the same in each, to come to a better understanding of and relationship to the world around us. So too is the goal of the poet, to delve into life, embodying and revealing that experience. The language of each relies upon their respective compelling and evocative qualities to convey a shared experience and understanding of our world.

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… hope to see you there!

ps.  I didn’t send in my stuff for nomination this year (I have too much going on with my book deal and all), but if I am luck enough to be considered again – I’ll throw my hat in the ring!  Really it was such an honor to be considered and to have such a wonderful conversation with Ms. Sama Raena Alshaibi. I am helping on the Adjunct Caucus in the meanwhile.  ;)

Adobe and Me

CHECK OUT THIS LINK…

I AM AN ADOBE “SUCESS STORY“

… AND FEATURED ON THE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SITE

In 1989 I was trained traditionally as a photographer.  I rolled my own 35mm film, mixed my own chemistry and still long for the “silver process” not to mention type 55 negative/ positive polaroids and 8×10 polaroids and mixing the positive with the negative in processing.  These processes bring me to a state of nostalgia from which I will never fully divorce myself but I seriously can NOT imagine life w/o photoshop and if I have to embrace digital (which I do and have) then I am SO GLAD that I fully jumped on the Photoshop bandwagon 17 years ago.  Even more, I am glad that I have revised and am keeping fresh my Photoshop knowledge through my graduate degree from the School of Visual Arts and a recent invitation to beta test for Adobe (thanks to Katrin Eismann), before the release of Photoshop CS5 a few weeks ago!

In the middle of april I downloaded CS5 and spent just 15-20 minutes on a scan from an old negative.  In no time I cleaned up the image, added a breath of wind to the little girls back and gave the image the breeze that I felt when I captured the image in the first place (had I realized that they were going to want to publish it I would have taken a bit longer on the color).

before

after

… so i shared my experience with Adobe when they called and asked me how I liked Photoshop CS5.  This linked profile resulted from that interview.

I say, “open up your film archive” and add that little something something that made you pass on an image when you first edited a particular shoot from your past.  Start a digital archive of your film images, at least the ones that really speak to you.  We all have them, the images that were ALMOST the “decisive moment,” but there is just one thing we’d remove if we did it again (and I’m not talking to the photojournalists who should stay “pure”).  It is just that there are some pretty cool tools that are offered in CS5 that will save you time and give you the courage to address “problem” images that you once passed on (and NO, they are not paying me to say this, but they should!).  I’ll consider the hours save that I don’t have to sit in front of my computer payment – which just means I have more time to conceptualize and shoot in the present, but still honor my past and where I came from.  And that is what being a photographer is all about!

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What’s in a name?

There was a great story on CNN.com by Stephanie Chen titled “Does your name shape your destiny?”

She talks about Wes Moore, the Rhodes Scholar, combat veteran in Afghanistan, and White House fellow, as well as Wes Moore, the convicted felon who was sentenced to life in prison.  The book “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes More, about his relationship with Wes Moore came out this spring.

Of course I have a rather unique name and perhaps this is why the story caught my attention and I am writing this blog inspired by it.

LaNola was my maternal grandmother’s name and I was named after her.  This wasn’t the name that people knew her as, however.  Her full name was Miriam LaNola Maxwell.    She was married and therein adopted a new last name and she then became known as Mrs. Richard Sterling Summerhays, Sister Summerhays or simply Miriam.  In fact, I too nearly became a Miriam but since my fathers mothers name was Marion (too close and might be insulting to his mom), they settled on LaNola.

LaNola is a name that begs for the question “So, what is the origin of your name?” … and I get that question a lot.  All I can really answer is that it was my grandmother’s name before me or I simply say, “It’s a family name.”  People who haven’t seen me or an image of me wonder my ethnicity.  Is she black, white, native american, european – after just a few words on the phone with me it’s obvious that I am american, but what-american?  No one can seem to place the accent (is she from the east, west, mid-west, the north… although no one has ever thought I was from the south.

If you google LANOLA I am at the top of the list.  That’s cool, not many people can say that about their first name.  It’s funny that I also share the google spotlight with The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel a small breed of Spaniel-type dog, classed as a Toy dog by most Kennel Clubs (but it is one of the most popular breeds in the United Kingdom)!  Anywho, many of those Spaniel’s (at least award Westminster Award winning ones) share the name LANOLA with me.  Just me and the dogs.

… and then there are the obituaries, not so much now, but the googlebot found loads of them ten years back.  I don’t know of many LaNola’s my own age but the name must have has some popularity around 1910 when Nana was born.

I guess that there is always that internal question of where one comes from, and I am no different.  I even made a plea for information back in 2004 to find more about my paternal heritage and the Kadau family line, but there was no reply (not that I check my Yahoo mail more than 3 times per year these days).  But all and all I am happy to know that I am the namesake of my Nana.  She was a great person who’s potential bubbled.  It’s with mixed feelings that I realize that instead of fully exploring all her talents (I don’t think that she had the confidence to do that), she turned her energy to the potential of others.

Nana and I had a special relationship.  She always encouraged me to live my dreams and reach for the stars.  It was in the quiet conversations we’d have, warming ourselves by the oven with a bowel of Cream of Wheat on surprisingly on chilly mornings in Pasadena, that we talk about unobtainable dreams.  She never let on that unobtainable was a reality, more of a choice.  With our shared name, I feel we share a destiny and share in our successes.

My Nana died just a few months after I moved to New York City in 1999.  I flew back to be with her in her last week.  There she was, at the end of her life, and her eyes as bright as ever, but her body failing her.  I am so grateful for the time I spent with my Nana and I made a promise to her that week that any success I have would be our shared success with our shared name.

So, What’s in a name?  For me my name is a constant reminder of the sacrifices that had paved the way for me to have the life I enjoy.  It’s a responciblity to be true to who I am and where I came from and yet to be what, perhaps, Miriam LaNola Maxwell would have strived for had she been living in the twenty-first century.  No man (or woman) is an island.  All our actions and consequences are intertwined in the lives around us.  I try to be someone my Nana would be proud of, and I know that I don’t meet that expectation every second but she is always in my mind and forever in my name.

December 1981 (Nana & Grandaddy in the center)

On Newsstands Today.

I have two images featured in CMYK Magazine’s: Top 100 New Creatives Contest coming out today!  The honor is especially great because Craig Cutler (an amazing photographer whose work I have followed for many years) was the one who juried the competition.  Additionally sweet is that my dear friend David Mager also had work selected.  Go us!  ;)

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MEMORIES ABANDONED:  ”Portraits of my experiences in my now abandoned childhood home in Utah – wardrobe consists of my actual clothes from my youth. Themes explored within the images are the impermanence of time, the deterioration of memory and space, inevitability of change and through it all, resilience and the ability to move and exist beyond our surroundings.”

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LUCAS:  Simple portrait of 2yr old Lucas – high key and straightforward.  I shot very minimally to show just a hint of texture.  This boy is my assistants’ (Julianne) nephew and last minute stand in!  How lucky am I, he was PERFECT!

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Thanks to Craig Cutler (hope I get the pleasure of meeting you some day)

…and CMYK magazine

…as well as my wonderful models; Kathrine and Lucas!

Home Sweet Home…

Many of you know that my apartment in NY is in East Harlem.  Actually, it’s right off East 100th Street, a very different place then it was when Bruce Davidson documented the place.  I’m practically on the UES (or will be in 5-10 more years).  Ahywho, I digress…

I have been teaching photography here in Utah for the Winter Quarter and miss my town very much.  I was so happy to get a notice of some awesome images shot just up-the-way from my place by photographer, collector, promote of the arts, and all around great great guy: Ruben Natal-San Miguel, of the Art Most Fierce Blog!

His work entitled NY, NY: Concrete Jungle is a culmination of a 5-year long survey project and is showing at The Kris Graves Gallery this month.  If you are around, head over to the opening this Thursday!

OPENING-MARCH 4, 2010 6-9PM, the show, NY, NY – The Concrete Jungle by Ruben Natal-San Miguel was Curated by Matthew Pillsbury runs through April 10, 2010.

If you love street photography, and New York, you’ll love this collection of work.  I got my first peek when it was exhibiting at Aqua Art during Art Basel Miami.  Go to the opening and enjoy!  Give Ruben a shout out from LaNola!  Congratulations Ruben, wish I could be there.  :)

20 years of Photoshop…

… well, 17 years for me.

I first started using Photoshop in 1993.  Ah, the Photoshop 2.5.  I had to use a Bernoulli Disk that was about 6″x 6″ and able to store up to 230mb of files!  Oh, yes, I was on the cutting edge!

I’d love to say I am a photoshop master, but I’m not – I just don’t spend enough time with it.  I will say, however, that thanks to Katrin Eismann and my graduate degree at SVA I am pretty darn good and can do a lot … but I still prefer to shoot, rather than be in front of the computer.  ;)

Well, my hats off to Adobe and the Photoshop team.  It’s pretty impressive what you have been able to do in 20 years.  I know that my life is better because of it!

check out their website for a trip down memory lane…

20 YEARS OF PHOTOSHOP