Category: Photography

Hollywood portrait photographs

There was a great exhibit of these photographs at the Museum of Modern Art in 1980-1981.

More pictures of the exhibit are here.

I also recommend the books by John Kobal.

Laurel Hill Cemetery

I was watching Creed II and saw Adrian Balboa’s grave marker. I wondered if it was really in a cemetery. It is! It’s in the really odd Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia which I visited on September 2, 2011. It’s got General Meade (Northern general who won Gettysburg) and Confederate soldiers. It has a store which sells stuff like Death Mints. It has Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas’ grave and a museum-style collection of his memorabilia. You have to see the grave. It has Veterans Stadium seats (which you can still get from Archer Seating) and a giant microphone.

Here are my pictures and clips I found on YouTube.


https://totalrocky.com/filming-location-guide/laurel-hill-cemetery.html

Flowers

I like gardening.

From my experience:

Daffodils are easy.  They also multiply a lot.  Tulips are hard and not worth the trouble.

Irises are great but may take until the second year until they bloom.  Once they get acclimated, they produce lots of flowers.

I get all of these from White Flower Farm that was recommended by my uncle Sam many years ago.  Their stuff isn’t cheap but the quality is great.  I especially recommend Thalia, a daffodil which has several small flowers on each stem.

At my old house, I grew roses.  They were a pain in the ass.  Great flowers but the plants caught lots of diseases.  There are a few photos here of the variety Tropicana.

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Signs of Life: Symbols in the American City

The best museum exhibit I ever saw was “Signs of Life: Symbols in the American City” at the Renwick in Washington in 1976.

It was created by architects Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.  Their description, with many photos, is here.

The exhibit had lots of neon and furniture and architecture labeled with their historical influences.

I learned about several outstanding artists from this exhibit.

John Baeder paints realistic pictures of diners.

Photographer Stephen Shore was the subject of a recent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. He was commissioned to take photos for the 1976 exhibit.

The New York Times review is here.

“Invention and Tradition” – an essay by Denise Scott Brown, one of the exhibit’s creators.

Update 8/1/18 on one of their buildings:

Update: 9/21/18

Robert Venturi passed away.

The image at the top is the Guild House in Philadelphia designed by Venturi.

William Eggleston’s “Red Ceiling”

This excellent article from the Oxford American discusses the William Eggleston photograph known as “Red Ceiling”.  The photo was used on a Big Star album cover.

Whitney Museum notes

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a copy.

The album cover is now available as a t-shirt.

I recommend the film about him which is on DVD:

Diane Arbus

The New York Times just published an obituary for photographer Diane Arbus who died in 1971.  Remarkably, they didn’t print one when she died.

Arbus is one of the greatest American photographers.

Here’s a link to an article about a recent biography.  I haven’t read this book but I did read the 1984 biography by Patricia Bosworth.

This book was the first major collection of her photographs and was published soon after she died.