Asako Narahashi

Kawaguchiko, 2003 From the series half awake and half asleep in the water C-Print © Asako Narahashi, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A friend just came back from Japan and told me that she had to do a whole review about her idea of what 'culture' actually is. She basically had her mind blown by the culture and civilisation of Japan. She hadn't really grown up with the idea that it is actually culture which immortalises a civilization, not Australian rules football, as so many Australians believe I'm afraid!

I always get a really good feeling about a culture/time/values etc from the photographers who live and work in that place/time etc. So I just went surfing on the web, and found this wonderful Japanese photographer who it looks like, has just had a book published called 'half awake and half asleep in the water', from the exhibition which happened at the Yossi Milo Gallery in NY.

Edward Steichen 'Lotus' and Spirits search for itself

Edward Steichen 'Lotus' 1915

words from Parabola Magazine

“The struggle to know who I am, in truth and in spirit, is the spiritual quest. The movement in myself from the mask to the face, from the personality to the person, from the performing actor to the ruler of the inner chamber, is the spiritual journey,” wrote Ravi Ravindra in our Fall 2004 issue: The Seeker. "

These words remind me of the daily practice of unlayering what we put on the day before to be in the world, and then need to 'deconstruct' on a regular basis to find that deeper inner self again. And even though there is so much resistance, and one has to discipline oneself to do this it, it is the most 

nourishing and deeply restorative practice available, no matter what form it takes (eg Yoga, meditation,

prayer, journal writing etc etc).

elegance in the thick of it ~ South Sudan: The World's Newest Nation

(Steve Evans, photographer, click on image for link to Life Force Magazine, where I found this image)

How elegant is this beautiful woman from South Sudan?! Even though she's standing in front of a war machine, she holds her own in her beautiful subtle coloured drapery. The combination of prints, which

look like indigenous traditional patterns (but I don't know that for sure), the way she is standing, so feminine and graceful..

And there she is standing in front of the brutish looking tank, on dusty dry ground, probably barefoot (but I don't know that for sure either). Inspiring...

Patrick Demarchelier invigorates and inspires

I was just browsing around some of the sites I've collected lately, 

just quietly in the late afternoon, suffering a little from what I call 

'late-afternoon-lag' (not unlike jet lag, only there's no excuse), 

when I came across these beautiful pictures of Patrick Demarchelier's, 

from his site. I felt like I'd drunk a strong espresso laced with theta frequencies

 and the delights of an image which just gets everything right in the fashion

 and photography stakes. And that's not even talking about the movement/dance 

Spiritual and physical expression!

sunset at North Pole, a rare and beautiful sight

This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point earlier this year.

A scene we will probably never get to see in person.

The sun is also below the moon, an amazing photo and not one easily duplicated.

I find this photograph quite hypnotic in its silvery beauty. It reminds me of a mystical

or sacred vision of some kind. It evokes quiet and profound thoughts and feels dreamy and

mysterious.

Happy 85th birthday Marilyn! ♡

She still brings tears to my eyes! When I was a child I thought she was a kind

of Goddess, and ofcourse she was. I was so inspired by her, and cried when

she was found dead in her Hollywood home. I realised all of a sudden that the

world I was living in couldn't accomodate someone as luminous, intelligent, funny

radiant and ofcourse vulnerable as Marilyn. This photo was taken by Cecil Beaton,

in my opinion, the master portrait photographer, amongst other things.

Paul Strand & Alfred Stieglitz

This is an unusual photograph for Paul Strand, usually his photos seem to be a take on social realism. I think here he had a a more ethereal moment perhaps..

"It is not art in the professionalized sense about which I care, but that which is created sacredly, as a result of a deep inner experience, with all of oneself, and that becomes 'art' in time."

Alfred Stieglitz

a breathtaking photograph of Istanbul the Bosphorus at dawn before leaving for the inspection of Macka.

When I saw this picture it drew some  kind of ancient memory or dream from my subconscious. Somehow the ancient light and the merging of a casual cafe scene with the sea and boats is so beautiful and unexpected.
I don't know who took the photograph, but here is where I found it.

Inspiration from a master photographer: Patrick Demarchelier

As nearly always when I see a photograph that shifts some deeper ingrained notion I have about the role fashion, the media or celebrities play in our lives, Patrick Demarchelier's photographs pull the rug from under my feet.

Here we see an image which on the surface could almost be a photograph of 1920's flapper getting her portrait taken on her way to a soiree.
On closer inspection one finds the theatre of a Japanese Geisha girl, or the wild and woolly outrage of a girl today defying her parents wish for her to be the ingenue of their dreams.

I continue to be inspired by his photography as I have for the last twenty years or so.

Ellen Von Unwerth and Lady Gaga

Talking about bunnies! I love the humour and fun of this photograph.

Ellen Von Unwerth takes wonderful photographs of feminine erotica, without it being yucky or salacious.

I have admired her fashion photography for many years and see now that it is another important key in unwrapping female sexuality ~ a liberating and also stylish expose´...

Tango 1926 by Jacques Henri Lartigue

Not only to I love Jacques Henri Lartigue's photographs, but I adore the tango.( I got this photo from here).

The tango must be one of the hardest things I've ever tried to learn! Not only do you have to keep all your senses alive and sensing, but you have to rigorously follow the difficult and precise steps and moves which make up this wonderful structured dance.

I truly believe it to be a form of Tantra because the male and female roles are so very clearly defined and to do with those very archetypal actions.

a sentient being

I found this picture on a website by a woman called Robbie Kaye. She has it in her 'Portraits' section, under 'self portraits'. She saw herself reflected in this beautiful creature maybe? She has certainly captured the Being of this horse. She writes about 'the beauty of wisdom' on twitter where I found her. Her quotations are inspiring and heartening, and sometimes have made my day.

We are all becoming One with it all, and here is testament to that.

Amsterdam - the late fifties

This is a photo my father took of his sister Katinka Bruin-van Rood and me when we were visiting 'home'- Holland in about 1959 I think. It was Amsterdam, my grandmother's house, as far as I can remember.

My aunt was also known as Toos, and much loved by all of us. You can see here what a very beautiful woman she was. Full of life and intelligence. She loved her brother (my father, as you can see here too).
She was a great sculptress,  and probably inspired my to take the career path I have taken. My parents would leave us in her
studio for a day, and she would give us clay and set projects for us.
I once spent a whole day making 'a glass of water' out of clay. I was so excited that you could make anything, anything out if this wonderful pliable substance. I can still smell that wonderful earthy smell when I think about her studio. And the pale Amsterdam light flooding in through the tall windows.

On the left here is one of her bronze cast sculptures which I treasure. She adored cats, and always had them in pairs.
But even though that's what this depicts, there is a lot more going on, it has something about it which reminds me of the 'Tree of Life', something ancient and magical.

Katinka lives on in all who knew her, she was luminous and unforgettable.

wow in 1936 Edward Weston rocked

And not only with this photograph or in this year!
I first came across Edward Weston's work when I was at art school (about three hundred years ago..hmmm) and was struck by how his nudes had a painting sensibility about them: his eye somehow stroked every surface, rather like the brush wields paint to bring light and dark to the senses...a tactile surface translating into a vision of the Soul inhabiting the flesh..oh, I can't find the words...
I suggest you just allow your eye to linger over this image for a minute, or any of his images for that matter, and your Soul will be nourished.
The 'design' of this, imbues the elegant, rhythmic minimalism of that time, but could also have been taken today.

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• Edward Weston Photos & Biography (brighthub.com)

a moment in Paris 1911

I saw an exhibition of Jacque Henri Lartigue at the Pomidou Centre in Paris when I was last there in 2003.
I loved the life and humour his photos were full of. And in this photo, you could just change the fashion, and it could be a scene from any city today, the rush and movement. And  guess the fashion is rather like 'slow food' or 'slow music', it would have taken more time to make, more time to put on, more time to take in all the details. Such was the way of that world.

Ferry ride from Queenstown '95

I took this photo with my old Nikon F2 in 1995. Today it feels perfect as a reflection of darkish mood
I find myself in.
It also brings back memories of filling Sundays up with my teenage son somehow, to
keep some kind of connection going, struggling against all odds, as he pushed the boundaries to individuate, cutting his own path, however wild-and-woolly it seemed at the time. I'm sure today he's glad that I was able to let him explore, but I always kept a safety net suspended there (covertly). The dark and the light, the ambivalent tenuous hold one wants.

The ARt of Robert Frank

Yesterday was my birthday and my brother took me into my favorite bookshop and told me to choose whatever I wanted. So I chose a beautiful little book: Robert Frank - Paris. I wasn't familiar with his images of any European city. I've always associated him with America. (the above image is not in my book). So now I will spend the next weeks dipping in and out of these exquisite minimal images, evocative narratives.

Alfred Stieglitz

I read an article about Alfred Stieglitz in the Australian yesterday, there's going to be a show of his in Sydney later in the year, I was attracted initially to him, because he was Georgia O'Keefe's husband, and I find her such a remarkable painter, her erotic works of nature. Then I looked into her husband's photographs, I just googled his name and 'images', so I still don't know a lot about him, except for the article and the images I've just been exploring. I realise that he is amazing too, that you can see how his photography has influenced so many other artists, including artists that are better known than him, to the likes of me anyway. (eg Ansel Adams).

flower from out-a-space?

This is an African daisy and I just searched online for it, because I was looking for something outrageous from Nature, a statement about how innovative and out-of-this-world she can be.  I wanted colour and dynamism. This picture delivered!

the extraordinary images of Willy Ronis

Place Vendome, Paris, 1947

 I came across Willy Ronis, because I kept thinking about Brassaii today, and how he has influenced the way we think about Paris to this day I believe. I didn't know about this photographer, he was around at around the same time as Brassaii and Lartigue, and had a strong style of his own. More lyrical perhaps, less of social commentary, I'll get back about this, as I need to investigate him more.