Nature Photography

Happy Birthday Ansel!

/ Amie Inman / 2 Comments
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite national park, California, about 1937

Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite national park, California, about 1937

Ansel Adams has become almost synonymous with the environmental movement in general and Yosemite National Park in particular. He first visited the park when he was 14 and the impression he had at that age would last a lifetime. His photographs played a seminal role in convincing Congress to place that amazing landscape under federal protection.

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters…

— Ansel Adams, The Portfolios Of Ansel Adams Continue reading →

Le Macchine E Gli Dei

/ James Zainaldin / Leave a comment

Machines and Gods: Dionysus at MCCM

The Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini is an interesting place, to say the least: it combines Italian machinery of mammoth proportions from the Industrial Revolution with ancient Roman statuary. These statues include the monolithic “Fortuna Huiusce Diei” (“Fortune of This Very Day”), various Greek gods (Venus, Dionysus as pictured above, and others), Roman emperors, famous statesmen, and lesser known wealthy citizens; the machinery, on the other hand, consists in titanic pieces of metal that when whirring generated tens of thousands of horsepower. Continue reading →

Mumbai In Gotham Perspective

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Sometime in recent months we discovered a blog on the New York Times website called India Ink.  It is meant to keep the readers of that newspaper apprised of important information from the world’s largest democracy (and the world’s largest English-speaking country).  Most days, for those of us living and working in India, we have already seen that news in the newspapers here.  Also, most days most of the posts on that blog tend to the dark side of India’s news–always important news but not enough of the positive, vibrant stuff we see each day here. We tend to pass on 90% of the posts, but the other 10% are always worth a look.  Today’s keeper is here:

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Tracking Fracking

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For reasons we never fully understand, an old post suddenly gets a large number of views.  It happened yesterday with this one. Okay, we get that people are interested in understanding as much as possible about environmental issues such as fracking and they pursue as many sources of information as possible to stay apprised.  Search engine algorithms connect them on occasion to items our cabinet of curiosities. The news stories, photos and videos and personal accounts collected on this blog–are meant to add up to something, but we do not fret about the calculus. We just keep on looking, gathering, posting and expect the points to make themselves.  It may be the occasional coincidences that fuel our commitment to this improvisational approach.

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Obelisks in Rome

/ James Zainaldin / 1 Comment

The Obelisk at Piazza Navona

Rome is renowned for (among many other, er, more important things) its vast “collection” of obelisks. These obelisks, most featuring hieroglyphics running their length, typically came to Rome through conquests in Egypt. Victorious generals and emperors Continue reading →