semillerimages.com Image of the Week 4.11.06 Philharmonic
Steve
Oh what a weekend I have just had. I might just not have a more
compelling artistic weekend for the rest of my life in fact. I was
supposed to shoot some wine bottles for Laetitia Vineyards this last
saturday at their estate house, but at the last minute, the venue was
changed to Los Angeles. Bel Air actually, to be exact. The owner of
Laetitia is a prime supporter of the LA Opera and they were to have a
tasting after the opera on Friday night at the Omni Hotel in downtown
Los Angeles. Just two blocks from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, one
block from the Disney Concert Hall. I was asked whether I could go to
LA to shoot the "beauty shots" of some selected varietals at the
owner's house in Bel Air, with the added benefit of being able to
attend the opera "Le Nozze di Figaro" (The Marriage of Figaro). I of
course accepted, and all of my extremely important appointments with
Uptown Espresso, my computer, and my own bed were subsequently
cancelled. (This is all of course tongue in cheek for those who cannot
understand sarcasm via text only) It actually took all morning on
Friday to prepare for the expedition down to LA. I had to gather all of
my lighting elements, strobes, white boards, flags, light stands, etc
into my car along with my one and only suit and a couple of new shirts,
plus the general essentials one needs when spending the night away from
home. I planned on a 2pm departure, with distinct knowledge of LA
traffic on a friday night - this gave me enough time to get to the
hotel and have my shirts pressed while making the start time of the
opera exactly. I ate a big breakfast with all of this experience in
front of me, because I knew I would not be able to have dinner nor
really even lunch if I expected to arrive on time.
I left my apartment with a little hesitation, as I loathe driving in LA
traffic. I hit some stop and go in Santa Barbara for no apparent
reason, and then again about 10 miles north of the intersection of the
infamous 405 and the 101. I was actually pleasantly amused with the
traffic though, and it caused no frustration as I slogged along the 101
at 10mph. As I sat in my car and listened to Opeth (an incredible band
from Sweden) I wondered why all these people on the freeway weren't at
work somewhere and I gazed in fascination at the interesting buildings
with the even more interesting graffiti covering their bases. I admired
the deft lane changes made by the natives, and the trepidation
exhibited by the non-natives on a traffic soaked aisle of asphalt. I
would pass them slowly, they in turn passed me in a constant shuffle
back and forth. I have never been more content in traffic. The only
regret was that I did not have my camera at ready, because I could have
gotten some very cool shots of people in their cars and the interesting
graffiti on the walls as I oozed through northern LA. By the way, if
you are not familiar with LA, and want to avoid the traffic I had,
coming from the north, take the 23 east out of Thousand Oaks, to the
118 through Simi Valley, then either the 405 south or the 5 south... or
if you want to bypass the quagmire LA is, the 118 east to the 134 which
will dump you off in Pasadena... a shortcut through the Southland which
is much faster for the most part.
I arrived at the Omni hotel right as the ladies from Laetitia arrived,
I had the pleasure of escorting two beautiful women to the opera that
night... what could be better? We got our cars parked by the valet,
checked in, went to our rooms and dressed. A little food prevented us
from arriving at the opera on time, but c'est le vie. Since we arrived
late, we had to wait till a lull in the show to enter, so we took that
to our advantage and had a quick drink on the upper levels of the hall.
When we were finally escorted in, I discovered I went in on the wrong
side for my seat in the orchestra area, so I had to go all the way
around to the back and through the other side. By the time I got to the
other side, the opera was again in full force, so I begged the official
escort I had to let me sit in the back row. He finally acquiesced, but
told me I would have to move to my proper seat at intermission. I was
nicely ensconced in the back row, clear view of the stage and the
translation screen. I had no intention of moving. Later, they let in
people that were even more late, and a beautiful blonde woman came in
and sat one seat over in my row. I leaned over and told her the back
seats were the best anyway, and much to my surprise she told me she
rather sit right next to me! I was so overtaken by the her move, and
the opera going at full force, I could not even look over at her until
intermission... she thanked me for allowing her to sit next to me, and
we both departed, myself to the restroom and her to an unknown
destination. Just like the Cal Poly Performing Arts center, the
restrooms are on the bottom floor. I entered, did my business and then
exited and saw the extensively long line that had formed to women's
restroom. I smirked, then passed through the women's line while
excusing myself and was happy that I was a man. Sorry ladies :) I
exited the building to have a smoke, and was wonderfully surprised by
the wild fountains in the middle of the opera house and the theatre. In
an absolutely random circumstance, I saw the woman who was seated next
to me across the plaza. Quite emboldened in my fine suit, I walked over
and introduced myself. She told me her name, and in my usual dumbness,
I promptly forgot it. Why I do that, I do not know. I guess it didn't
really matter though, as when the chimes went off indicating the second
half of the performance, she went off to her seat with her friend.
C'est Le Vie.
I cannot say enough good things about my first opera experience. The
music, the voices, the stage, the lighting of the stage, the sets...
incredible. Absolutely incredible. The only bad thing was having to go
back and forth to the translation screen and the performace. A horrible
distraction. I think one must have to see something like this twice,
once to understand what is going on, and then again just to appreciate
the talent. The performance was apparently the next to last performance
featuring Kent Nagano, the acclaimed conductor. Only when I went back
to work at the castle and discussed the performance with one of my
supervisors did I find out that this world famous conductor was once a
tour guide at Hearst Castle about 30 years ago. Wow, there is hope for
me yet.
After the performance, I walked back to the hotel with my two
companions. I was absolutely overcome by the Disney Concert hall. Frank
Gehry strikes me again. Way back in the January of 2004 I did an image
of the week on my experience there. I had a conflicting emotions of
whether, while quite tired, I should go back and take some pictures of
the hall at night or drink some wine and go to bed. My internal
motivator got the best of me and I went back... I shot various pictures
of the hall in the non-light of midnight and was utterly fascinated.
What am awesome structure. After a time, I began walking back to the
hotel and in the process, I saw my image of the week. Sometimes, they
just jump out at me... and this week it did, forcefully. More on this
later.
The next day, I had a new experience. My Laetitia companions and I
drove to the owner's house in Bel Air for our photo shoot. I had never
been in Bel Air before, and it was VERY interesting. Winding
boulevards, high hedges, massive gates. The upper crust of Southern
California. The house we arrived at, looked over upon the LA Basin from
above the Bel Air Hotel. Massive, life size scupltures of wild animals
dotted the 'front yard', including one particularly incredible life
size bronze portrait of an elephant that the owner had seen in Namibia.
The house was no larger that one of the guest houses at Hearst Castle,
so all is relative here. It was very nice though, and the owner was
exceedingly pleasant, along with his hostess and his houseman Pedro
from Chile. The place exuded great wealth, but it's occupants were
humble and quite down to earth. We had pizza from California Pizza
Kitchen for lunch. (on a side note, the California Pizza Kitchen frozen
pizzas are the best available, take this from a true frozen pizza
connoisseur) The photo session was much shorter than I expected, but I
managed to make out a few pretty good shots in the time allotted.
When the end of the day came about, I crammed all my equipment into my
car, jammed down to Sunset Blvd., sat in traffic on the street, then
again on the 405 south to the 10 East on my way to Santa Monica to see
the vaunted "Ashes and Snow" photo exhibition on the beach in it's
portable museum. In many ways, a truely spectacular display of images,
weakened by conflicting emotions elicited by the various images and
movies shown within the exhibition. I was inspired, almost brought to
tears, by the images in the display, but then again was brought back to
earth by this photographer's conflicting vision. Gregory Colbert, has
produced an immense exhibition of human interaction with animals, that
seems to not only domesticate various wild creatures, but also deify
them. It is a show to be seen certainly, but with a cautious eye. I
think he did well with his still prints, but the combination of the
movies, he caused a rift in his display, he reached too far when he did
not have to essentially. My own opinion of course. Nonetheless, a very
worthwhile time spent seeing his display, even though in the end it was
rather overtly commercial. It was almost like saying "Have this
transcendent experience, but make sure you buy something to remember it
by". The exhibition opened onto a marketplace of souvenirs. Don't get
me wrong, I enjoyed it all, but my critical sense came forth also...
Good luck to him, I wish I could have an exhibition like that someday.
Not likely.
I drove for the first time up HWY 1 from Santa Monica to Oxnard. The
mystique of Malbu was completely diminished. Who would want a house
right on top of the ocean, with a garage that necessitates backing onto
a busy highway? Apparently some do. Not I.
It was an interesting drive, I intended orginally to stay in Southern
California for the night, but my bank account decided against it. I
arrived back home at 10:30pm, looked over my images for the day. Slept,
then the next day I went to the movies with my friends Forrestt and
Jason. A triumvirate of art: An opera by Mozart, a photo/video
exhibition by a vaunted modern photographer Colbert, and then a movie
by The Wachowski Brothers 'V For Vendetta'. Visually connected, yet 120
degrees seperated. A perfect weekend of art, including my own. I
arrived back at home to a package from The End Records containing the
newest albums from Aeternus of Norway, Keep of Kalessin from Norway,
and The Union from Poland. Mozart would be proud of my musical
selections, whether you want to believe it or not. The Wachowski
brothers probably would be too. Dunno about Colbert.
The kicker of the whole Image of the Week this week was the sighting of
a book at the Barnes and Noble in San Luis Obispo last week. I saw this
book of photographs by Abelardo Morell last week and was immediately
fixated. I bought the book tonight. I was incredibly humbled. I was
down on both knees humbled... of all my art experiences of this last
week, this book stunned me more than all the other experiences. The
book also emboldened me. Morell's photographs in this book are so
simple, yet so perfect... it's hard to express. I flipped page after
page and each time I gasped at his imagination, complex simplicity,
perfect technical mastery. Amazing. His images made me decide this
image of the week.
I had shot various perspectives of the Disney Concert Hall, and I made
some very nice images indeed, but it was not until I was walking way
that I saw this image I give to you tonight/today. A shadow of a
handrail over the words PHILHARMONIC. The shadow strings of an
ochestra, simply complex. I was hesitant to showcase this image until I
bought Morell's book, I think he would like it.
http://semillerimages.com/iow-link/iow-4-11-06.html
If you would like a print of it, send me an email!
*steve