Upside Down – the World from a Whale’s Perspective
December 13, 2009
Most of the photographs in Time Magazine’s “The Year in Pictures 2009″ are, not too surprisingly, rather depressing. They capture images of war, politics, funerals, the recession and natural disasters. At least one however is worth a moment’s consideration – a photograph printed upside down of a humpback calf just beneath the surface, tiled, appropriately enough, Upside Down. Click on the link or the thumbnail to see a larger image.
Photographer Kate Westaway went underwater to take this image of a humpback whale calf off the coast of Turks and Caicos. “I was really terrified at first, she says. “I was in snorkel gear, and this humpback calf was brushing me with his pectoral fin. He would slap the water with his tail and then go to his mother, who was sleeping nearby, then return to us. I came eye to eye with him a few times. Maybe he was fascinated by his reflection in my fish-eye lens.” The photograph is printed upside down. Westawaly says she wanted to show the world from the whale’s perspective.
Great Maritime Photography Competition: Wish You Were Here 2009
December 5, 2009
The Daily Express has teamed up with Old Pulteney Single Malt Whiskey in sponsoring its “Great Maritime Photography Competition - Wish You Were Here 2009.” Amateur photographers are invited to enter:
TIME TO FOCUS ON OUR GREAT MARITIME PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION: WISH YOU WERE HERE 2009
We are looking for striking images…that epitomize Britain’s coastal landscape and our nation’s relationship with the sea. Every picture must have a maritime theme. From a classic photograph of a yacht sailing into the sunset, or a surfer catching the perfect wave, to a rugged image of fishermen coming into shore, they must be high quality, creative images that have a story to tell.
Over the years our contest has grown to become the UK’s biggest marine photography competition. Old Pulteney, known as The Genuine Maritime Malt, has worked in partnership with the Sunday Express since 2004. The challenge we set is for ordinary, non-professional photographers to help revive the great British tradition of the seaside postcard.
The competition is supported by Amateur Photographer Magazine, RNLI and VisitBritain and offers a fantastic prize of £2,500 for the winning shot as well as a trip for two to the Pulteney Distillery, which is the most northerly distillery on the mainland in the far north of Scotland where the winner will personally fill a bottle of Old Pulteney.
Remembering Fulton Fish Market
November 18, 2009
The Fulton Fish Market, at the end of Fulton Street next to the South Street Seaport, on the East River in Manhattan, was the largest and oldest fish market in America. Depending on which way the wind was blowing, you would catch a whiff of the fish market from blocks away. It was pungent and salty, but not at all a bad smell. The fish were always fresh and so was their smell carried on the breeze. Started in 1822, the market finally moved to a bigger facility in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx in 2005.
The sights, sounds and smells of the market may have left Fulton and South Streets, but they have not been forgotten. When I visited Naima Rauam’s REMEMBERING FULTON FISH MARKET ART EXHIBIT at the @Seaport Gallery the other night, all that missing was the smell. In oils, watercolors, pencil sketches and charcoal, Rauam captures the constant motion – the hustle, the bustle and the simple beauty that was the fish market. A wonderful exhibition. If you are in the area, it is well worth a trip.
The show runs through November 22nd and culminates with FISH MARKET DAY on Sunday, November 22nd, starting at 1 PM. Jack Putnam, an educator and historian at the South Street Seaport Museum, will read from the work of writer Joseph Mitchell and will talk about his own first-hand Fish Market experience. Terry Walton will share Market and Seaport stories from her new book, Harbor Voices, New York Harbor tugs, ferries, people, places, & more. Lifelong sailor and maritime editor Terry Walton has written about New York Harbor for 30 years. Sal Polisi, the South Street Seaport Museums’s Master Carver-in-residence will demonstrate woodcarving and and retired fish market worker, Sal Sclafani, will speak of his life on South Street.
To see more of the art of Naima Rauam, click here. The @Seaport Gallery is located at 210 Front Street (corner of Beekman), South Street Seaport, NYC.
Hidden Histories of Exploration
November 4, 2009
Thanks to Joan Druett for pointing out a fascinating exhibit at the Royal Geographical Society – Hidden Histories of Exploration, running now through December 10th. For those of us not in Britain, the website is more than worth a visit.
Hidden Histories of Exploration takes a new look at the extensive Collections of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), by highlighting the role of local peoples and intermediaries in the history of global exploration. The Society’s Collections constitute a unique record of the history of global exploration and cultural encounter.
The exhibit is a series of galleries of drawings, painting and photographs which illuminate the dependence of European explorers on locals for support, labor and local knowledge; of the uneasy partnerships between the Europeans and the locals. The exhibits also focuses of the “Art of Exploration“, the drawings made by Europeans of their hosts as well as images of maritime exploration. There is also a fascinating gallery of painting by Thomas Baines as he traveled across the Eastern Archipelago.
It is an easy exhibit to get lost in, even on-line.
The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs
October 28, 2009
The New York harbor waterfront is fascinating for both what it is and what it was. Pamela Talese beautifully captures this mix of beauty and decay in her current exhibit, “Rust Never Sleeps – Corrosion and Renewal in Maritime/ Industrial New York” which we recently reviewed . A new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York , “The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs,” takes a different but complementary approach to looking at the harbor’s edge . They document the waterfront’s transformation over the last century by pairing historical photos with contemporary images by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel.
The New York Times has a wonderful selection of the photos from the exhibit. Click here to view the portfolio.
Rust Never Sleeps – the art of Pamela Talese
October 23, 2009
Pamela Talese gets it. Her paintings of ships, drydocks, cranes and industrial buildings manage to capture the essence of the waterfront - the inexorable wasting away balanced against the stubborn resilience and abiding strength of these structures, afloat and ashore. I stopped by the Atlantic Gallery this week to see her new show “Rust Never Sleeps – Corrosion and Renewal in Maritime/ Industrial New York.” Check out her website to see her other paintings. Her Working Waterfront , Navy Yard and 718 galleries all capture the beauty and decay of monuments to days past.
See also Tugster’s blog for a side by side presentation of some of Will’s photos and Pam’s paintings, here and here. The Brooklyn Eagle also features a recent interview. Click on the thumbnails below to view a larger image.
Falls of Clyde – Beauty, Like the Devil, is the the Details
September 26, 2009
Falls of Clyde at the Dock
Susan Yamamato has been posting some wonderful photographs from aboard the Falls of Clyde on her blog, Notes from the Wooden and Iron World. Beauty, like the devil, is often in the details. Click here to view the gallery.
Falls of Clyde is the only surviving iron-hulled four-masted full rigged ship and the only surviving sail-driven oil tanker in the world. She is currently berthed at Honolulu Harbor.
Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.
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- Falls of Clyde at the Dock
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- View through holes in the forward bulkhead
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- Tank Ladder
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- Deck Planking
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- Windlass Gear
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- View along the waterline
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- Images in Shattered Glass
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- Deckhouse Stairs
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- Bolts & Shackles
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- Rigging
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- Cabin Panel
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- View of Deck
2nd Annual Great San Francisco Schooner Race
September 1, 2009
The MoreMarin Blog has a great photo gallery of last weekend’s 2nd Annual Great San Francisco Schooner Race. Click on the image to see more.
Magnificent schooners race in SF bay
Several classically beautiful schooners, big and small, were out on the SF Bay yesterday for the 2nd Annual Great San Francisco Schooner Race sponsored by the Belvedere-based San Francisco Yacht Club.
Our personal favorite was the colorful, 70-foot Aldebaran with her brick red sails in photo above.
Sixteen boats were entered, including the Santana—once owned by Humphrey Bogart–which came in second in the Marconi category after Scorpio. In the Gaff rig category, the Jakatan came in first. Here is the complete list of results.
The Golden Age of Dutch Seascapes
August 16, 2009
Anyone who has the opportunity to visit the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts should be sure to catch their current exhibit, running through September 7th: The Golden Age of Dutch Seascapes. If you can’t see it in person, check out their online gallery. Beautiful work.
The Maritime Art of Hans Breeman
August 6, 2009
I have an inordinate fondness for the freighters and cargo liners that disappeared with the advent of containerization. The breakbulk ships of the 50s through the early 70s had a particular grace and charm, lost in the industrial efficiency of wholly cellular ships. Hans Breeman, a Dutch artist who grew up in Rotterdam, helps to keep the history of the Dutch and English merchant marine of the 50’s and 60’s alive in his watercolor and oil paintings. Definitely worth a visit.
A.J. Meerwald Gallery
July 26, 2009
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- Meerwald sailing toward the Statue
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- Pilgrim crosses astern
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- Main & Fore Sails
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- Bow watch
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- Furling the Main
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- Striking the fore sail
The Art of Alex Alampi, Jr. and the Cashier
July 20, 2009
Cashier
Recently, I was introduced to the art of Alex Alampi, Jr. In addition to very much enjoying his paintings of the Delaware Bay region and the rural countryside of South Jersey, I was intrigued by one painting in particular - that of the “Cashier“ an “Old Style” Delaware Bay oyster schooner, which earned its keep working in one form or another for almost 150 years.
Alex Alampi Jr., a lifelong resident of Southern New Jersey, has been a professional artist since 1993. He works in the challenging, but beautiful medium of transparent watercolor. His work includes studies of Delaware Bay lighthouses, coastal and rural scenes. He also offers a series of limited edition giclee prints.
Alampi’s “Cashier“, a 2007 watercolor painting shows the Cashier docked at Bivalve, NJ, in 1999, the schooner’s last year of service.
The Cashier is the oldest schooner in the USA. She was launched in 1849 at the Duffield Yard in Cedarville, NJ, on the Cedar Creek. She was built with a high topmast and allowed a working topsail in light winds, carried the classic clipper bow, and may have carried an extended jib boom. Her masts had a sharp rake or angle to them. She had a counter stern, which was replaced with a round profile in the 1930’s due to severe rot in the original.
Last week, we posted about the A.J. Meerwald, also a Delaware Bay oyster schooner. By the time the Meerwald was launched in 1926, the Cashier had been oystering for 79 years
Cashier worked dredging oysters, under sail alone, for 66 years (until 1915) when the first of four engines, a 16hp gas plant was installed. Her final engine, a 110hp 4-71 Detroit Diesel, was installed in 1954. During this time period she changed from two masts to one and finally to power only. Her remaining spar was a small stub mast forward to assist the working of dredging gear.
Cashier is the only known surviving example of the “old style” Delaware Bay oyster schooner. Her primary use during her continuous working life (1849-1999) was the harvesting of oysters.
In late 2000, the Bayshore Discovery Project, which also restored and operated the A.J. Meerwald, purchased the Cashier. They are currently making plans for her preservation and restoration.
To view more of the Alex Alampi, Jr’s art click here.
The Child of Krakatoa
July 13, 2009
Krakatoa, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia, exploded on August 26-27, 1883, with a blast 13,000 times greater than the explosion of the attomic bomb at Hiroshima. It is therefore with a mix of awe and trepidation that we post this beautiful photo of Anak Krakatau, the Child of Krakatoa, which since the 1950s, has been growing at an average rate of five inches per week. The photograph is NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day . Click on the image for a larger view.
Ebb & Flow – Paintings by Miguel Hernández
July 3, 2009
Cloud underneath
We met Miguel Hernández when we bought one of his paintings, which captures perfectly both the look and also the sense of one street corner in our city neighborhood. It is a wonderful work of art. I have admired his other urban works and am pleased to discover that Hernández is not limited to cityscapes. From his website:
Ebb & Flow, a series of new oil paintings by Miguel Hernández, takes the maritime culture of Nantucket Island as its subject, in particular it’s boats and water.
Hernández, an urban-dwelling artist, takes regular pilgrimages outside of his city habitat to refresh his art and body and to absorb energies that are unique to the places he visits.
Miguel is a quiet man of few words and is not one to run on in conversation; there is not much he will tell you about himself. Miguel is most fluent in visual language and it is through his painting that he speaks. When he does speak, he speaks about environment and the inseparable relationship between people and their surroundings, whether they are natives to a place or visitors. Miguel believes that all people have a duty to be stewards of the places that they visit. If people honor this duty they will reap the rewards that a healthy environment can return: peace and solitude, healing and harvest. The paintings in the Ebb & Flow series depict these rewards in the light and color that is captured in them and reflected back off of the canvases. They are images for reflection and contemplation that provide a space in which to relax and heal.
See more of Miguel Hernández’s Ebb & Flow
Frederick LeBlanc’s New Book –
WINDJAMMERS DOWNEAST
June 3, 2009
Frederick LeBlanc’s new book, WINDJAMMERS DOWNEAST, is a pictorial tribute to the boats of Penobscot Bay, which make their living carrying sight seers and eco-tourists along the coast of Maine. ‘The images in this book are termed “photographic impressions”—paintings created from photos and software, using a stylus as the paintbrush, resulting in a unique form of artwork. In addition to the beautiful images of these boats—fourteen schooners and a ketch—Fred provides a bit of background on each of the craft. Bonus: five Maine Lighthouses. ‘
