Ron Phillips RIP

Was more than saddened to hear the news today that Ron Phillips died recently. As Club Secretary of Queens Park Rangers FC, he had the habit of giving photo passes to aspiring young photographers, and printing their pics if they were decent. As one who benefited from this scheme, Ron had a massive influence on the trajectory of my career, and I will always be grateful for his kindness. 

These pics were taken at the Baron's Court Theatre in 2015 when MP, MH & I interviewed Ron for a fanzine. I wonder if the memoir he showed us will ever be published - he certainly had some great QPR stories. Meanwhile, two particular contributions he made to the club history were the checkered programme covers and the removal of the apostrophe from the club's name. May he rest in peace, and my condolences to his family and friends.

Drawing Together Ends 2021 Brightly

The Graphic Medicine's monthly Drawing Together group met again today. After losing the plot a couple of meetings ago, when I got stuck once again on my lack of technical drawing skills (and yet I still don't try hard enough to improve them!), I was encouraged to return by the artist leading this month's session.

The Zoom invitation included a few words from Judith:

"Learning to draw, or more accurately, realising how to look at things, for me marked the beginning of being an artist.

For this Drawing Together session, I have prepared a sequence of prompts with which you will explore when you learned how to draw and how you formed a unique sense of yourself as an artist.

As the New Year begins and the days grow longer, let's draw closer to the light, together."

Asked to recall our first memory of ourselves, what came to mind was sitting on the floor in our flat on W 116th Street, watching Bugs Bunny on TV whilst eating a piece of cheese. We had just under 2 minutes to draw this one.

The second prompt (4 mins) was a bit more difficult at first - I had absolutely no memory of the first time I knew that I liked to draw. I started to get anxious again but, thank goodness, other options were then offered, including "whatever it is that makes you you". And I looked back and saw my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, and remembered how much from as far back as I go that I love taking pictures.

[the earliest QPR pic of mine I've found was taken with an Instamatic!

]

Judith concluded with a story about a woman she'd visited in a nursing home who had told her a story. The story made the woman very happy. She told it again. And again. In the end, it was the only story she told, but it always made her happy. Judith spoke about keeping ourselves in the light, and asked us to draw a favourite memory, perhaps the one story that we would tell when we were in the home.

Dithering about which memory would steal drawing time, and we only had 10 minutes, so I took the first that came to mind.

It was the day a congregant invited my dad to view the local derby with neighbours QPR in an executive hospitality box at Stamford Bridge. I happened to be a QPR photographer on the pitch that afternoon. In those days there were few, if any, women shooting football matches, so I usually got a lot of abuse from the crowd. However, the R's fans began to recognise me after a while. At half-time I walked towards the away end, and some fans began chanting my name. My father was so proud and excited - his favourite team, his first-born on the pitch, her name being sung by several hundred fellow fans. I sometimes wonder if this was just a bit better than the day he blessed me in front of the ark when I was ordained. So, this is the drawing. And even though it probably wasn't on that day, I drew the floodlight, shining down on the away end.

In between each prompt we got the chance to look at each other's drawings, and hear the stories behind them. I love this group - people are kind and supportive and encouraging. I hope it continues in 2022!

PS Sorry about the faintness of the pencil. You might see the drawings better if you click on them. They get bigger too!

The Greatest Photo I Never Took

QPR photographer has a prime view of Andy Sinton's goal celebration

1990 FA Cup 4th round. QPR had drawn the first match at Highbury vs the League Champions, and now faced a reply at Loftus Road. Under the floodlights, it poured with rain, which in pre-digital days made action photography quite difficult. To relive the joy of beating Arsenal, there's a link below to some YouTube footage. As for my photographs, you can see in the screenshot above that when Andy Sinton scored in the final minutes to make it 2-0 and seal the victory, I had the rare opportunity to take some unique close-up shots of his celebration which, despite my excitement as a fan, I did.

A few minutes later, the game was over and I was packing up my things. I went to roll the final film back into its canister, ready for developing when I got home, and had a terrible shock - THERE WAS NO FILM IN THE CAMERA. To this day I don't understand what happened. Never did it before. Never done it since. That night, I did it. I shot a roll of stunning pictures, with no film in the camera. I can still see the photos in my head. But they do not exist. Andy's face full frame, fists clenched in victory above his head. Or not. Unbelievable. Still feel gutted every time I think of it. How could it be, and how could I not have noticed? NO BLOODY FILM IN THE CAMERA. Sigh. So the pixelly screen grab above is all that remains of that moment.

Hard to believe also that this took place 30 years ago. Looking at the screenshot again, I am amused to note that it happened in front of an ad for Panini football stickers. I now live happily in the city where the stickers are made. That's my taste of lemonade!

The Bee Project - Do Drop In

Artists in Spritz last week was a success - Yoshino introduced her new book about George Frideric Handel, and somebody told the story of King Solomon and the Bee ... in Italian!

If you have time to kill before catching a train from Kings X, Casa Tua is only a few minutes away. Why not pop in for a snack, a coffee, and some Bee photographs. 

Bees of Summer

June bee in Finchley

At the beginning of the summer the ravaj got a new camera. She thought it might help her to learn the capabilities of this machine if she could find a photography project. Somehow, a flowering bush full of bees on Essex Park caught her eye, and she began to shoot them. Next came the bees that visited the lavender in the garden by the flats, and those around the buddlea on the platform at Finchley Central station.

July bee in the garden

Standing in the bushes at the station did get her some funny looks, including a woman who thought she had fainted and came to check if everything was ok. With much practice and a lot of patience, the project appears to be progressing.

Bees are not that easy to photograph. They are so fast - 1/2000th of a second sometimes catches the beat of their wings. When they are still, their faces are usually in a flower and all you can see are their bottoms. So the first challenge is to get the bee still, in focus, and with its head visible. Next is to get it facing you, and after that to get it in flight (in focus and facing you!).

To bee continued ...

all photos © Ariel J Friedlander

Action Bee

been trying to shoot some bees recently. A group of them seem to like hanging out in the weeds outside Finchley Central station. Thus you will find me, back to the road, ankle deep in empty beer cans and fag packets, learning how to get a decent pic of a bee. After a few weeks of this, here is my first halfway decent shot of a bee in the air (rather than resting on a flower having a drink).

Photo of the Week: Looking at a Leica

In the 1930's, when Nazi laws limited the amount of money Jews were allowed to take out of Germany, Aunt Judith invested in a couple of Leica cameras. She was allowed to take them out of the country, and she held on to them just in case.  She bequeathed them to Auntie Dorrit, who also held onto them just in case. When Aunt ravaj became a photographer, she was given the cameras, but held onto them just in case. The case is now here, and our Leica friend came over today to assess the situation. It looks promising, and we shall see!

A Little Something for the R's Among Us

There's nothing like a cold winter night and a bad referee to get one shouting and to work out any emotional issues that may be clogging the pores. The little corner of Loftus Road that currently belongs to me was thus a source of loud derision for 95 minutes this evening. That experience plus a 3-0 win was most healing.

This was a view from my seat early in the second half. Strangely enough, while it is too dark to be able to take decent action photographs and get anyone and/or the ball in focus, videography seems to work quite well. The main problem is having enough memory on the card to catch the vital moment. I was lucky tonight and just made it.

COYRS!

Triumph and Disaster

Love this photo - wish I'd taken it. England win. New Zealand lose. End of.

2008 World Press Photos of the Year

There are some incredible photos in various categories. I looked at the selection offered here by the Telegraph and picked the above for my favourite. It is by an American called Callie Shell and it won for the People in the News category. It was taken during the Presidential campaign.

One of the major reasons for my quitting a career as a photographer was that I could not be objective when something was going on. In the middle of something terrible, like the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 when I was just starting to establish myself, I realised (although I was not actually there that day - I was at another match) that I could not shoot pictures of pain and misery. That was why I concentrated on sport and theatre - events where there was a previously-established agreement that it was ok to watch. The other? I just wasn't wired that way. However, I still look at the pictures other people take, and some of the best are part of these awards.

is this real, or is it photoshopped?

yahoo has posted this pic of mccain's reaction to heading the wrong way off the set after the debate last night. while i do love the camera for being able to isolate a nanosecond that may otherwise go unnoticed during the action, it is hard to believe that such a perfect moment really occurred.

alexandra boulat r.i.p.

i had never heard of alexandra boulat until today. then i read the following in the new york times:

"By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: October 6, 2007
Alexandra Boulat, an award-winning photographer known for a clear, descriptive style and a knack for making emotionally moving, often idiosyncratic images of people affected by war, died yesterday in Paris. She was 45. She died after suffering a brain aneurysm in June and falling into a coma from which she never emerged, her friend Gary Knight said.

Ms. Boulat’s work appeared in many publications, including National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Paris-Match. For most of the 1990s, she photographed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Her picture of Kosovar women surrounding a flag-draped coffin was a runner-up in the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography presented by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and she won many other awards for her work. Before the current war with Iraq, she was in Baghdad for National Geographic and gave attention to the lives of affluent people at a time when most photographers were interested in showing only Iraqis’ misery. During the war she took pictures that told about death in different ways, like a body wrapped in a white sheet. “You can show a war without showing a gun,” she said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shortly after the United States invaded, “and that’s interesting — in only one photograph.” She published two books, “Paris” and “Éclats de Guerre,” both in 2002.

Alexandra Boulat was born in Paris in 1962. Her father, Pierre Boulat, was a photographer for Life magazine for many years, and Ms. Boulat began as his assistant. Her mother, Annie, founded the Cosmos photography agency, based in France. The younger Ms. Boulat studied graphic art and art history and worked as a painter before turning to photojournalism in 1989, when she joined Sipa Press, a French photography agency. In 2001 she helped found the VII Photo Agency, which dedicated itself to documenting conflict — environmental, social and political. In addition to covering the wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq, she reported on the fall of the Taliban. Occasionally, she ranged far afield from war: Her coverage of a Yves Saint Laurent fashion show won accolades. For most of the last two years, she lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah. American Photo magazine in 2005 said that her photographs of Arab women “reveal cultures more diverse than many Americans imagine.”

Ms. Boulat is survived by her mother; her sister, Antoinette; and her partner, Issa Freij."

we are/were just about the same age. i look at all she did in her life, and maybe it can inspire me to make a little more out of the time i still have. i hope so.

london times obit here.

fat is beautiful

i got a bit excited today to see an article in the ny times about a current exhibition of the photographs of leonard nimoy called "the full body project" (at least, that's the title of the book of the photos that will be published). the nude subjects of the photographs are plus-sized women.

the article covers the development of mr nimoy's sensitivity:

"(he) admits that before he began this project, it had never occurred to him that beauty might be culture driven, that a fat body in Africa is treated quite differently from one in the United States."

what a pity then, that the piece concludes with these words:

"And what of his own attitude toward fat women? “I do think they’re beautiful,” he said. “They’re full-bodied, full-blooded human beings.” He doesn’t necessarily find them sexually attractive. “But I do think they’re beautiful.”"

... and the answer is:

according to albert kaplan this young man



grew up to become this gentleman:



young abe was kicked in the head by a horse when he was 10. according the article, the definitive proof appears to be cranial damage that appears similar in both faces.

guess who?

this is somebody incredibly famous, in the western world at least. i did not recognise him, but the experts say that this is definitely a photograph from the early part of his life. so who do you think he is?

posting photos on the blog

at first, i only knew how to blog pictures from flickr. but i am cheap/poor, and didn't pay them so i had a limit to how many pix i could store there.

today blogger suggested i upgrade to their new version. hmmmmm, i thought, maybe now i can do better with uploading pix! i am descended from luddites and yet i was somehow able to find my way to the faq. i couldn't, however, make any sense out of what i read there. there was supposed to be a button to press, but i could not find it (story of my life ;-) ).

OH DEAR!



a kind poster in the help group suggested that i abandon my beloved safari and switch to firefox, and that should solve my problems.

i did.
and it did.
feeling like i'm something pretty special at the moment!



hip hip HURRAH.

the last post of the year

german graffiti
Originally uploaded by ravaj.

neither philosophy nor reams of resolutions.

in the words of e.t., and my teacher, rabbi dr. a. stanley dreyfus:

BE GOOD!

wishing you all a healthy and fulfilling 2007
shalom
- the ravaj.

a view from the art institute

chicago skyline
Originally uploaded by ravaj.

it's funny how physical reality fades in memory even if your mind knows what it should be like. what am i going on about? i know quite a bit about the architecture of chicago, at least i'm supposed to since i studied it at university and also have a book about it from paula dietz. i have been to chicago quite a few times, and looked at lots of buildings. nevertheless, the other day, standing in the first nipple-crumbling cold of winter, i saw this view. the intensity of seeing it in person was quite surprising. it's not that it is so particularly amazing ... i was just struck by the variety of styles in such proximity. my kind of town :-)

remembering the dead

monument to dead gi's in iraq
Originally uploaded by ravaj.

i found this photograph online this week. the helmets, rifles and dogtags of these dead soldiers have been planted by their comrades in memory of their sacrifice.

the photo makes these items look like the aliens that came out of the ship in 'close encounters', or e.t. himself.

and for what did they die?

bring our troops home!

weekend of remembrance

omaha beach by maira kalman
Originally uploaded by ravaj.

from kristallnacht to poppy day our thoughts are directed towards the world wars of the 20th century. we mourn those who gave their lives voluntarily through military service, and those who were unwilling victims of hatred and persecution.

the question for me is, however, will such thoughts and ceremonies have any effect on the wars and persecution of today?

rumsfeld is gone. hurrah. the troops, however, are still dying in iran and afghanistan. look at the graves. what next?