Tibet

Photographs of the Worlds most remote peoples before they die.  

Looking at these photo's it almost seems as if we have stepped through a time portal. We have traveled thousands of miles to cultures that time has passed by and perhaps kindly so.  For not all that is new is progressive and not all that is new best.  This photo is almost haunting in its dramatic expanse  of landscape and the stalwart men on horseback.  It easily could be another time, another place.

If anyone identifies the Photographer please e-mail me and I will give them credit.

Tibet              Photographer unknown         From google image only for the purpose of Education and art advocacy

The Generosity of Artists is Powerful

I wanted to personally thank Eric Laffrogue and many artists I contact about using their images or highlighting their art.  And I want all the readers of the Rabbit Moon Studio Blog to know every effort is made to contact artists, if possible, when their images are used or they are honored in with a post.

Photography by Eric Laffrogue ,  permission of the artist for sharing  given

  Our effort here is art advocacy and art education.  I share my art with you and my processes and other art to help everyone gain an insight into the mind of an artists, to feel as if you are with us step by step.  I also want you to understand not all art is beautiful, realistic, or meant to be.  

Eric Laffrogue, Ethiopia 

Art has many purposes, and this is a journey to help everyone see and understand that very fact.  You can love classical music and not see the value of improvisational jazz or other forms of music. Whether you like jazz, classical or another form of music, the point is they all have value and I see it as part of my journey as an art educator to help everyone understand that.  

Again it is because of people like Eric Laffrogue and so many other generous artists I can share their work with you.
  
If you want to delve deeper into African politics may I  recommend a standard text written by my brother and sister in law,  Don and April Gordon  Understanding Contemporary Africa.

TWO FINISH PHOTOGRAPHERS WOW US WITH THEIR UNIQUE APPROACH

 "EYES AS BIG AS PLATES" 

KAROLINE HJORTH                      RIITTA IKONEN

                                                       from google for education only

 The art show opened in Oslo before going to Helsinki and most presently, Brooklyn New York. 

The pictures by these two remarkable photographers are fresh, creative and quite amazing. They show old Finnish People wearing weird things in their hair in a very serious way.  All the things they wear are from nature which seems to integrated into the soul of these hearty stalwart people.  

I am not sure which photo I like best, each one appeals to me in a different way. I think of my almost 101 year old Mother and know she would have had a good time being a part of this.  She too was wed to nature as an inherent part of herself.  I hope you find these photos as interesting and unique as I did.  In a way they are humorous and in another way they are living sculptures to take seriously. I think the subjects seriousness carries this off so well…an almost elegance, as if wearing ermine royal robes sitting on a throne!

                                                                                          From Google image, only for educational purposes and art advocacy

"Inspired by the romantics’ belief that folklore is the clearest reflection of the soul of a people, Eyes as Big as Plates started out as a play on characters and protagonists from Norwegian folklore. During a one month residency at the KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film in the South West of Norway, the Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth and I collaborated with sailors, farmers, professors, artisans, psychologists, teachers, parachuters and senior citizens." From an article written BY Riitta Ikonen

                                                                                                 from google image 

                                                                               from google image only for the purpose of education and art advocacy

THE ARTIST NO ONE KNEW

The Secret Photographic Art of Vivian Maier 

photographs found in a box by an unknown photographer, the lost talent of Vivian Maierr  

Vivian with her Rolleiflex 

There is many a fascinating hidden story in art history, but this is one of the best I have run across.  An unknown photographer discovered after her death by the discovery of a lost box of negatives. 

A treasure of art was found. Vivian  was  an intensely private individual who did not share her art with anyone. She wandered through her neighborhood with her Rolleiflex taking pictures that captured her attention.  The people seem to be looking directly at her, but the double lens of the handheld camera can make one think it is not really aimed at a person.  So they may never have been aware their picture was being taken. She captures the essence of humanness and a wonderful honesty of life. She took over 100,000 photo's in Chicago and in her travels. Why she did not share her art we may never know, but when she died at 83 she left us a wonderful gift that  could have gone undiscovered, but for the curiosity of a man who found a box and bought it at an auction for $400 not knowing what was inside!   

Vivian Maier 

Vivian Maier was a nanny who took care of other peoples children and had none of her own. She lived alone and kept to herself except for her journeys in her surrounded area and travels with her camera.  Toward the end of her life three of the children she had taken care of in turn pooled together and took care of her, getting her an apartment and helping to support her. They were never aware of her lockers of 100'000 negatives she had amassed over the years.  After her death some of her goods and lockers were sold at auction.  A historian bid on a box that he bought unseen and didn't know what was inside. To his surprise his $400 dollars bought an art collection by an undiscovered unrecognized master of American photography.

Vivian Maier/Street Photographer

The work of Vivian Maier                                                                                             from google for education purposes only

THE ART OF HENDRIK KERSTENS

Hendrik Kerstens is a Dutch artist whose photography is quite extraordinary.  I think you will agree when you view them as well.  He is a new artist to me and perhaps to you, but he is quite worth of us learning more about.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF HENDRIK KERSTENS                     FROM GOOGLE SOLEY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

Hendrik Kerstens   

"when hendrik kerstens decided to dedicate himself entirely to photography in 1995, he turned to a model very near at hand: his daughter paula. he wanted to document all the important moments in her life, to ‘be there’, to capture something of the fleeting moments that fade from memory all too quickly. the inquisitive eye of the photographer plays an important part in the process: he sets out to catch a glimpse of his subject’s secret being and tries to understand what it is he sees.

  Google Image  for educational purposes only

he is fascinated and amazed by the fact that every human being, no matter how familiar, is ‘other’, a mystery that can never be completely unravelled. the project became known as ‘paula pictures’, one of which went on to win the panl-award.

something else is going on in kerstens’ photographs. time and time again he uses his daughter as a model, immortalizing her, as if to stop time and oblivion.

Hendrik Kerstens   for educational purposes only

not only does he picture her in relation to events in her own life, he also projects on her his fascination with the dutch painters of the seventeenth century." source  Wizenhausen Gallery Biography.  

Henri Cartier Bresson/ The Decisive Moment

Bresson's The Decisive Moment 

Click on the arrow on the screen to view

                                                                                 from you tube

Henri Cartier Bresson
Father of Modern Journalism

There is a wonderful exhibit of Bresson's work presently at the Tampa Museum of Art.  It is an expansive exhibit with 5 rooms of hundreds of photographs and two videos running clips continuously.  It is its last stop in the United States and is likely a one time event.  If you get a chance to see this exhibit organized by Magnum then by all means do.  I promise you will not be disappointed.
Tomorrow we will begin to look closer at Bresson's work, his influence on photo journalism, and his ideas.

from google image

NEW ARTIST SERIES

Diego Arroyo(click)
Photographer

Diego Arroyo   Kenya                                                                                                       from google image

I love finding new artists to share with you.  Today I ran across this photographer on another art site and just think his work is exceptional enough to share with you.  He is based in Amsterdam, but travels the world taking photo's.  Check out his work and give him a hello, nice job, like your work...let him know you found out about him on Rabbit's Moon Studio Blog.  We believe in art advocacy and lending a helping hand to all artists.  
When you are an artist there is nothing more important than affirmation and the thought your art and creative spirit is appreciated by someone somewhere. So Diego we love your work, it says so much about the human spirit and life!

VIGNETTE

 a short impressionistic scene that leaves one with a sense of character, that is how wikapedia defines the word and that is how I chose to take the photograph.  I am drawn to scenes like this in photography..things that tell us more, that almost seem like a portrait, but aren't.  This was taken at the architectural salvage store in Asheville called the Screen Door.
  

Allegorical Vignette By Elizabeth Gordon  

Art of the Olympics

Ackroyd and Harvey(click)
British Photographers

Another two amazing artists of the Olympics.  There work is innovative and fresh....literally fresh-it is grass!  They have a method of putting detailed photographic images on who canvases of grass.  As unbelievable as it sounds, these stunning art works can last up to a year with living natural grass.   The discovery that led to two photographers working with images on grass happened accidentally.  They had an installation with grass and had left a ladder in front of the area...they noticed after the exhibit was over the ladder had left an impression, so began their experimentation. Artist are so similar to scientist for it is often an area of discovery, trial and error.  Think of who invented the crayon, or the idea of a fresco, or using ground bone for paint...artist experiment and create.  Ackroyd and Harvey are members of that fine tradition of artist experimenters!

Ackroyd and Harvey, British Photographers                     from google image

Typographic metal rings at London Olympics designed by Ackroyd and Harvey                                 from google image

The 7 rings designed(click for link) by Ackroyd and Harvey are through the park.  They have typographic letter in the metal and are designed to grow into the trees!  So fascinating.  It will be a permanent image of the 2012 Olympics.

ANDY'S LAST RIDE

ANDY'S LAST RIDE                    JUNE 13, 2012                          photo by elizabeth gorodon

As you know through my posts, I have been in New Orleans to be with my partner and her Father while he was ill with bone cancer.  The journey is now complete.  And this post is to honor a man, his life, and the journey of a family taking their last journey with their loved one.
Andy was from a generation of extraordinary people. He and my Mother were born in the same small township area in rural Southern Mississippi just with in a few short years of each other, thought they never knew each other growing up.  They lived through WW II and a great depression.  They were people who learned to depend on their own individuality and survival skills.  If they couldn't do it themselves, it wasn't going to get done.  They grew up on poor farms in a rural poverty stricken area, but both came out as extraordinary people with great strength of character. I admire them both, and recognize my generation did not quite get their strength of character. So this is a tribute to a wonderful man, a family's journey with pain and illness, and the trip we all take with our loved ones at some point.  But mostly it is a tribute to Andy, a man who chose to be there for his family, and a man who chose to have strength of character like cowboy heroes of old...Roy Rodgers and that ilk...the man with the white hat riding into the sunset.


Rise at 6:00 am
Ready himself for the day
with soldier like discipline
shave, shower, breakfast
off to the mall, his family waiting


a family of friends waiting for coffee and a day's greeting
conversation of the day's events, jokes, laughter, who is ill, who has died,
friendship bonded in daily caring and fending off aloneness


the days are made one by one,
with a smile, a hug, a joke, and a flirt
pretending you are young once again,
Boggy and McCall-ness, and hope of more,
of youth, of love, and worth and purpose


Sundays' church man walks down the isles,
a tred worn on carpet 50 years, collections taken,
salvation asked for, and faith shown not with pomp and circumstance,
but like an old coat worn and comfortable, lived in and known


Rock strong, this man, family caretaker, family provider, always there,
aways dependable, never giving up


now the time is waning and the afternoon light in long shadows, the last ride is upon him,
he mounts his steel pony, and heads in once last time to laugh with his friends, his mall family,
now it is his last, bravely so, he tilts his hat, and with great humor takes the road upon him.

Reflections of China

Photographs by April Gordon

April Gordon is a multi talented person who is my sister-in-law. She is a professor of sociology and women's studies, she writes books on African politics, throws fantastic pots, grows a wonderful garden, raised two fine boys, and is a fantastic cook.

We share exactly the same birthday, month, day, and year. I told my brother it was his Karma! April and my nephew, Jared, went to China a couple of years ago with a university trip organized by Furman University. (Greenville South Carolina)

It was an extensive trip traveling all the way across China to Mongolia. I thought you would enjoy these photos. April takes wonderful shots and this is only a small sampling. As China grows towards the future, I hope it will hold close to its arts of the past as they are are so masterful and exquisite.

I particularly love the portrait of this man below. I am going to guess this Mongolia. In this man's there is such wonderful character, it is as if a wonderful portrait painting.