Empress of the Seven Hills – a Review

Tags

ancient period, Ancient Rome, emperor Trajan, Empress of the Seven hills review, Kate Quinn, Roman history

Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn

Gorgeous book! Thick in action and detail, crowded with rounded characters, who change with time and yet remain true to their nature. The Empress is full of love-and-hate relationships and this is the relationship it invokes in the reader, too. The characters are all both lovable and despicable, maybe with the exception of Titus and of course the honorable Marcus Norbanus.

I loved Vix for his bravado and courage, so closed my eyes to his shortcomings; loved Sabina and vouched for her and hated her at the same time; Loved Mirah, the wife character, who was also daring and sassy in her own way, a match for Vix, unlike Demetra – and yet wished her dead, but then was so glad that she survived. Hadrian was maybe the best of them – good and evil, cunning and sincere, a man of art and subtlety and cold sagacity at the same time – perfect representation of what we know the real Hadrian to have been – a controversy. I was glad that his preference to men, like Trajan's, wasn't central to the depiction of the character, which often happens in ancient period adaptations – really this wasn't that rare or that important as we would have it now. I loved Titus, too – such a great and funny character. Trajan is of course easy to love with all the praise he gets from everyone, as Plotina is easy to despise. I loved the cameo of Marcella and the reference to her scheming in the Daughters. The ending had me hopeful that a sequel is due but then I reread the beginning where Vix laments his killing the best friend he's ever had on the orders of the worst man he's ever known – so I guess he did kill Titus and this kind of makes sense.

The Empress teaches a very comprehensive history lesson with its masterfully unrolling story. It makes you feel at ease ‘walking’ the roads of the Roman Empire and almost eye-witnessing an enthralling period in Ancient history.
The book deserves praise on another account as well – it depicts an age that is often being overlooked. It’s so refreshing to read about someone else besides Caesar. This goes for the whole series by Kate Quinn. I am immensely grateful to her for bringing to life so many interesting historical figures. Somehow the period after August and Nero is easily forgotten. I actually discovered a lot of people thought the roman Empire started to fade after Caesar’s death. Nevermind a Golden Age or two. Maybe because this is the period when Christianity starts to become an important factor and hence the attention of history textbooks shifts towards it. Maybe because Hollywood is firmly settled on filming hardly anything before Spartacus’s revolt and after the burning of Rome (Gladiator being the notable exception).
The Empress turned out much more than the guilty pleasure I thought it would be. Strongly recommended!

All Art Is Quite Changed

Tags

art, Dorian Gray, literature, Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde quotes, Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, the artist

Having kept silent for a while I think it’s the perfect time to post my favorite part of my favorite book – the Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Although it’s an answer to the wide criticism, directed at the morals of the book and the then considered scandalous ‘depravity’ of the author and thus not an integral part of the work itself, I find it very important for the literary and artistic discourse since the 19th century.

I would have every street style blogger, industrial or graphic designer, social platform curator and any other ‘modern artist’ read it aloud and look for themselves. Art has lost it’s identity, we no longer distinguish the artistic from the creative, we look for art everywhere and boast it. Is Wilde’s take on the purpose of art even relevant or is it just a list of aphorisms for us?

I would have the word ‘artsy’ disappear from collective memory, too.

Cannes Poster – Graphic Design’s Class Act of the Year

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cinema, entertainment, Festival de Cannes, film, graphic design, Paul Newman and joanne Woodward, poster

Once a year I get to take a break from looking at over-photoshopped movie posters and oversexualized, sometimes borderline offensive, ad campaigns. Trying to capitalize on the Super Bowl ratings and struggling everyday to win over the clutter by adding some more to it, advertising has long forgotten how to be just plain appealing.

Once a year I get to simply enjoy and admire a beautiful piece of graphic design – Festival de Cannes’ promotional poster. A work of art in itself, it doesn’t try too hard to get attention or to push a sponsor’s agenda. It is just glamorous and classy – the aristocrat of graphic design among a world of socialites.

I was reluctant to love last year’s installment, because Marilyn Monroe is probably my least favorite Old Hollywood actress. However, the poster was touching as a symbolic gesture honoring the 50th anniversary of her death; and the execution with fading letters around her was as subtle and beautiful as always.
The 2011 poster, however, had me gasping in awe. There is nothing about the Faye Dunaway shot, the geometric layout and the symbolic intertwining that falls short of extraordinary.

Paul Newman and wife Joanne Woodward, a shot from A New Kind of Love (1963)

And here we are – 2013, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, A New Kind of Love, oblivion and restrained use of negative space. The poster was created by the Paris agency ★ Bronx as an embodiment of the spirit of cinema. “The breathtaking embrace of Newman and Woodward on the poster of the 66th Festival de Cannes conjures up the very spirit of American cinema,” says the official website of the event. And indeed, both the on- and off-screen story of Newman and Woodward is a perfect metaphor of the love for and love within cinema, a frenzy, an irrational bedazzlement that has captivated hearts and elevated spirits for over a century.

photo credits: ★ Bronx (Paris). Picture : Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward 
© 1963 by Paramount Pictures Corporation and Llenroc Productions.

The Tiger’s Wife – a Review

Tags

Balkans, literature, Tea Obrecht, Tiger's Wife, writing style

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

This book won me over with writing style. However interesting and moving the story, it is the mastery of the author’s voice that captivates. The fact that this is Téa Obreht’s first novel adds to the amazement.
It is so rare nowadays to hold a book, which is written neither in simpleton English, nor in mannerisms, pretending to be high literary style. If you are picky when it comes to the voices you allow in your head and ‘he said – she said’ narrative makes you violent, here comes the new hope for modern fiction.
The story is great and sincere, faithful to the sound of magical realism and conspicuously heartfelt. It constitutes of a myriad of subplots, but there is one uniting theme – war. Everything that happens in any of the temporal realities of the plot does so because of or in spite of a war conflict. This repeating motif is the real connection to the author’s Balkan origins – not the names of the towns or the cultural references, but the positioning of war as a background, as a moving force, as an explanation.
Do not let any negative reviews discourage you from taking up the Tiger’s Wife. It is a superior work of literature and will leave you eagerly waiting for whatever Obrecht has in store next.

Daughters of Rome – a Review

Tags

literature, rome

Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn

After enjoying immensely Mistress of Rome, I was disappointed. This prequel fell short of providing a continuation to the readable, yet thick and intense narrative. It turns out to be the chick flick I was afraid the Mistress would be – something like the Sex and the City set in Ancient Rome. I loved how the details of the setting, the clothing and the scenery were described with subtlety in the previous book, providing a beautiful and believable stage for the characters, whereas here they are forced in the spotlight. We get lost in a sea of characters, too flat and cliched for anyone to care much about (the respectable, the naughty, the rebellious and the cunning – these are the heroines, and each has a specific, recognizable and easy-to-deduce hair color). I understand the attempt at creating a family epic and it would have been an amazing story but for the Sex and the City approach.
Yet there is much positive to be said, too. The historical facts are masterfully entwined in the plot – Rome itself becomes a character, much more intriguing, rounded and exciting than the human ones. I loved how everything falls into place at the end – Marcella’s fate is the cherry on top – to fit perfectly with the Mistress. Domitian was again the most interesting character for me, although he was secondary for the most part.
There was one historically confusing moment. Throughout the book Christianity is referred to (without being even named) as a hardly familiar and easily dismissed religion. In the context of Nero’s burning of Rome and his blaming and persecuting of the Christians for it, it seems improbable that our socialites/patricians would be unaware of the religion’s notoriety. However, Kate Quinn has proved a thorough researcher, so I guess there is a factual ground for this.
Overall the book was enjoyable and I cannot wait to get my hands on the third one!

Mistress of Rome – a Review

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books

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn

This book was a great and splendid surprise. I really took it up as a light read and was afraid it would turn out an annoying poorly written chick-flick. It did not – instead I was impressed by the storytelling – quick-paced but layered; by the tone – light and unpretentious enough to engage the modern reader and even crack them up at times; and most of all – by the multidimensional, evolving and believable characters. I was most impressed with how the Emperor was not instantly pointed out as the monstrous villain, but shown gradually, in different contexts, to the end of exposing his true and yet dubious nature – the effect of this methodical depiction is much stronger. The love story is at times a bit cheesy, but it adds to the appeal of the main protagonists. And after all no one should expect from a love story to not be about love. To sum up – this book is a treat for every fan of historical fiction and Ancient Rome in particular and a rare occasion to enjoy modern literature where captivating story and great writing actually co-exist. (I would have given it 4.5 if that was possible).

The D is Silent, Django Is Not

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Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino, Soundtrack

Django Unchained is Tarantino at his best. Of course he could take a spaghetti western and turn it into the most entertaining and controversial adventure of swagger, mockery and gore, what did you think? Add superb acting by Jamie Foxx, DiCaprio and Christopher Waltz and a virtuoso contribution by Samuel L. Jackson and you get cross-eyed and tongue-tangled in attempts to spell out your content.

There are so many cool-looking movies you would like to say you like, because they are so deep and require above average understanding of the cinematic art. But they are boring. They are silent. So instead of wasting time, a sensible person eventually decides to hate the haters hating mass culture, who pretend to be liking this quiet three-hour-long ordeal, shot in all shades of greenish grey. Here comes Django, the movie to deliver the Holy Grail of us self-proclaimed snobby critics – something with cool factor of a zillion but easy enough to digest. The movie has stirred debate about historical correctness, so you can pick a side and argue to your heart’s content. You also get to say Tarantino this, Tarantino that – a lot.

Besides the Tarantino coolness, what else multiplies a spaghetti’s western swag? Some serious dirty rap bangers of course! However awesome the rest of the production, the soundtrack got me from an approving eye to a devoted fan. Maybe you have never considered how Rick Ross’s husky rhyming would sound, mixed with western tunes and some real-life horses instead of the May-bach-music. 100 Black Coffins (written by Jamie Foxx) is your chance. Playing this while a bunch of tough guys is riding and looking ominous could have made the most impressive moment had the final shoot-em-all scene not been set on Tupac. You also get to hear John Legend’s nice and easy devil-may-care Who Did That to You. The subtitles roll on RZA’s Ode To Django (The D Is Silent), which tells you outright that you just watched a real badass western. I still cannot decide on a favorite among these four, the slower Freedom and Lo Chiamavano King, and the obligatory Ennio Morricone pieces, also included in the official soundtrack. No, Django, is definitely not silent.

photo credit: Physical Flaws via photopin cc

photo credit: Physical Flaws via photopin cc

photo credit: Pink Cow Photography via photopin cc

Silver Linings Playbook: Silver Lining for the Genre

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cinema, oscars, Silver Linings Playbook

After watching this obviously very high-profile movie I gave it an IMDB rating of nine – for reference, as the app reminded me, I have rated suit The Intouchables, The Flowers of War and Last Night and the only 10 I’ve given was for Seven Pounds.

I remember watching the Jessi J video and wondering what the movie was. It looked like a nice rom com/dance flick to cozy up with so I added it as to-watch. Later on I a review mentioned it as a drama with some complexity to it. And then it got Oscar-nominated like crazy so here I am – praising for the win.

Silver Linings Playbook is about love and about relationships. It’s about the hard times more than about the good, but while watching it you somehow feel optimistic and hopeful, even though the main characters seem lost and broken.
The movie in a way calls out the fake rosy romantic cliché. It feels more realistic in its absurdities and more beautiful in its awkward moments, than a typical romantic drama. The protagonist is not perfect, he acts out and is hard and easy to love at the same time. The movie gives an almost intuitive explanation of his behavior and makes it easy to put oneself in his shoes. Tiffany is even more likable, she is like every woman who has suffered and been broken by love and then tried to repair herself through giving too much to others, hoping, without even realizing it, to get something in return.

Silver Linings Playbook suffers from a weakness, familiar to modern cinema, a plague that has made us skeptical about well-marketed movies and even more so about indie ones. The action in non-action movies lately (especially when it comes to Oscar nominees) has become a bit slow; like nobody cares about the plot, as if making up an entertaining story was an unworthy cause. Seems like everybody is worked up creating multidimensional tortured characters and showing them off through long dialogue and even longer quiet nothing-happens staring-through-a-window moments.
Director David O’Russel made the rom com/drama genre a huge favor, coming up with a movie that is funny, touching and not cheesy; one that even guys might actually like.

I read some negative reviews of Silver Linings Playbook (very few, most people are ecstatic), pointing out the movie created inaccurate image of bipolar disorders. That might be true, I am not familiar with the matter. However, my impression was that the craziness of the characters was more of a metaphor of love and what it could turn us into – both romantic love and the one we have for our families, however dysfunctional they might be.

I hope this movie gets all of the Oscars it has been nominated for. Of course, I would love Hugh Jackman to get the Actor in a Leading Role one for Les Miz (still haven’t seen it), so I will remain neutral there. I don’t believe Jennifer Lawrence is bringing the statuette home, either, although she totally erased the memory of the flat uninteresting Hunger-Games girl-with-a-bow.
It would be very refreshing to have a more ‘normal’ movie (funny, but the crazy-people drama feels closer to home than the typical nominees) win for Best Motion Picture, rather than the longest, darkest, mutest and most politically relevant one as is often the case. And do I need to mention – Robert De Niro was brilliant!

photo credit: moviesinla via photopin cc

New Year’s Resolution-ing

Tags

2013, New Year's Resolutions

make a wish.. ahh, list I mean

Hate it or love it, New Year’s resolutions make for the number one topic to flood the Internet after the red-and-mistletoe-y Christmas uproar and before the red-and-heart-shape-y Valentine’s cheesiness. The imposing shadow of the matter is thick, but short, so I am not postponing it anymore, lest I need to invent First Day of Spring’s Resolutions.

My strategy to making achievable NYRs was to not refrain myself with the list as long as I keep it in my mind only. Then I stuck with the ones I hadn’t forgotten when the hour struck – figured the rest were unimportant (or so unattainable my brain decided to subconsciously delete them from any records). So here is the surviving minority – just three very simple little tiny rules (no fitness hours included) to make me happier this year.

Number 1: Less Facebook. Totally failing on this one for now, but the intention stands. First of all it is time-consuming, life is short, we are young only for so long, etc. I am easily distracted and I will need my remaining attention span to finish reading that book I started months ago. I love reading and I haven’t finished anything longer than a three-page article since the summer.
Also there are things I don’t want to know about people and they are right there on my Home page, shoved in my face, commented, liked and tagged plenty.
The worst part is the twisted reality Facebook creates out of bits and pieces of communication that mean nothing in particular when out of context, which by default they always are. If you have a problem with over-thinking (read, if you are a woman) out-of-context is very bad for you. Next thing you know you will be creating contexts of your own, while someone is devising a disorder acronym.

Number 2: Put Myself First. Turns out this is a well-known must for happy people. Sounds like a good advise if you often feel spread too thin and giving too much. Giving is good and fulfilling but you won’t bribe people into caring about you. Trying to please everyone usually ends with people holding you accountable for everything that didn’t work out.

Number 3: Take a stand. I used to be this opinionated girl, who would always hold her ground. I was aware a lot of kids didn’t love me for that but they voiced their opinions, too and somehow we always worked it out. You would expect this decision-making process to be optimized in an adult context. Not in my world. At some point I started hearing others’ opinions before voicing mine – not because I was afraid to differ, but because I was trying to find the path of least resistance and weigh towards it. If you’ve been doing the same, chances are things never work out exactly the way you would like them to, it takes ages to reach a consensus and at the end everyone makes jokes about you being manipulative, always having things your way. So I have decided to go back to the opinionated girl, she had a better fun to hard work ratio.

And the most important one, which I always to hold on too, New Year or not – show the people who matter you love them. Happy New Year!

photo credit: Shandi-lee via photopin cc

Happy New Year!

The Diminishing Importance of News

Tags

civil society, facebook, news, social media, society

Social media, Facebook in particular, has changed dramatically the way we  understand news and the world, the way we seek, get and, most importantly  interpret information. At the beginning it seemed genius to have everything that interests you and you only – your own customized live feed to provide plenty of immediate, diverse information. An added benefit was the ability to share it with friends, to see who endorses it and to subconsciously engage in a discussion with them while still reading the news for the first time. Now however, this way of not seeking but having the news delivered to us through different channels and in random order comes to the detriment of our civil society.

It is only logical that apathy and hate are dominating the social media discourse to the disadvantage of constructive discussion and cooperation. This sounds a lot more preachy than I meant it to, but it still holds true. First of all, consider the everyday trends, that trigger waves of shares, fits of annoyance by those who have seen the shared post one too many times already and then, of course, a post-wave of memes mocking the whole craze. It happens when celebrities die, when Obama is elected, when the weather sucks, either because of Sandy or just due to a trivial snowfall. There always is one to ten extremely fashionable items/news of the day that we all at some point get sick of seeing. The bigger problem however is that it is easy to forget these ten ‘freshies’ are not necessarily the most important thing happening around us. Maybe there is something going on in the office next door, which matters to you much more than the fake Facebook privacy notice that you have been seeing reappear at the top of your feed throughout the day. There sure are much more important things going on in the world – politically, economically and culturally. Once upon a time newspapers would have all the information and they would sort it out from most to least important; they would make sure to leave something fun for the last pages; something new and trendy for the fashion pages – everything will be there for us to browse.

Now the information is endless and so are the channels. This makes it hard for ascribing importance and at some point you start paying the same attention to a stupid meme as to the news of a cease-fire in Gaza or the budget drama in the EU. Of course young people are apathetic – they have one flat  - that is not ascribing importance - channel of information, comprised of hundreds, even thousands smaller and still flat ones. At one point you go to a news channel, a reliable one, like BBC or The New York Times and you see the leading news, the scoop – at present it is Kate Middleton and Prince William expecting their first child. This is important international news, maybe not as economically crucial as the price of petrol and the crisis of the euro, but still diplomatically important. It is also a happy news for a couple we somehow have grown to like and sympathize with – for their amiable characters, for their fairy tale romance and for her fabulous style. And my first emotion was of neither happiness for them, nor excitement of witnessing history in the making (a future queen or king is about to be born). No, instead, I felt tired and overwhelmed of what was about to happen on the white and blue online front – a zillion re-posts, updates and salutations going on and on and on – and then the baby e-zine features, how-to articles, tables of possible names, etc.

I don’t need or want this negative and apathetic emotion. I want to be able to see the news as such, not to fear being drowned by their constant repetition.

And let’s be honest  Even though you realize the importance of certain matters, your personal life will always ring closer to home; the fun things will always stick longer in your memory. So when you are scrolling down the feed, from international news through your friend’s wedding pictures to a funny 9gag re-post it is likely that you ascribe equal importance to them at that moment. But the pictures you will most likely remember; the meme you will probably share. And in the company of other creatures, whose awareness of the world comes mainly from Facebook, which of those three is most likely to be mentioned in a real, face-to-face conversation  I bet on the 9gag meme. Unless the friend with the wedding is present.

photo credit: Mike Bailey-Gates via photopin cc

Harvesting Grown-up Emotions

Tags

becoming a better person, growing up, self imrovement

Growing up is mostly associated with reaching some temporal limit, which coincides with major physical changes – the kid becomes and adult. It is also associated with the abstraction of growth - reaching a level of maturity in reasoning and action. But let’s talk about emotional growth. It sure is linked to the other two – because hormonal levels are different in an adult and they influence emotion; and because mature reasoning should have some effect on emotions.

Well, it doesn’t, not always. I have come to realize that adults are very often infantile when it comes to emotion. Maybe looking like a grown-up and acting like a grown-up looks good enough for us to proclaim ourselves legit adults. Precisely this belief makes it alright for us to not evolve emotionally. And this, I daresay, is a thing of our age, a trend very much exacerbated by social media, where your boss is very likely to be as concerned about getting lots of likes on his ‘fav song’ post as is your 13-year-old sister.

Another major reason is the profanity and the selfishness of our times. Once upon a time there existed larger notions of proving oneself. Today we are all set on being successful, getting the job, the house, the car, the lifestyle – this is the common goal, the omnipresent virtue. Few speak of honor, of getting over oneself, of becoming the better men. Besides the witty memes about love and kindness, how often do we ask ourselves whether we have evolved as persons, whether our heart is true and just. Who cares? And we wouldn’t have it any other way, not until the popular attitude towards everything outside our comfort zones is a mixture of apathy and neutral hate and the ‘coolest’ expression of character is calling the general public ‘losers’.

Our present values are all derivatives of our desires. ‘I want’ has become the king of all aspirations, the prism through which we view the world, the factor by which we multiply our success and compare it to that of others. So it is no surprise when people, who might look and usually act as adults, start stamping their feet screaming to themselves ‘I want, I want, I want’. This immediate need, much like the one of a child craving  cotton candy or a new toy, numbs all reason and becomes an underlying emotion. The problem is that this nagging little egoist is very familiar to us all. Think about it next time you are indulging him – his petty demands might be transparent and making you look weak and ridiculously childish.

There must be a reason left in this world for us to grow up emotionally, to widen our capacity for caring beyond the I. And until this reason is made clear, I will just pretend to have one and get on with becoming better.

photo credit: What Indie Nights via photopin cc

Channing ‘Magic’ Tatum vs. Demi ‘Striptease’ Moore

Tags

Channing Tatum, Demi Moore, Magic Mike, steven soderbergh, stripping, Striptease

Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer all “suited up”

“Striptease” and her relationship with Bruce Willis kept Moore at the forefront of 90s spicy gossip

I watched Magic Mike at a girls’ sleepover last week. It was a logical choice and didn’t disappoint. To be honest I had already seen it, but who would refuse a replay of Channing Tatum, all abs and dance moves.. : )

I rediscovered Ginuwine’s song Pony and learnt that Tatum actually sported the red string on stage as a real life stripper. There are some bad quality videos on the Tube to prove it – check them out for a good laugh. He is way skinnier there and strips to YMCA among other classic retro hits. There also was a pseudo tribal dance, which I am struggling to erase from my memory.

A guy friend noted later that he would like to see the version of Magic Mike, where the strippers are girls. Someone noted that that has been out there for quite a while – it was called Striptease (1996), starring a voluptuous Demi Moore.
I thought there was hardly any comparison between the two, but I am still wondering if the difference comes from gender-based social and cultural context.

Stripping in Magic Mike is presented as the Holy Grail of young studs – they go out on stage and revel in the admiration of a quite frantic female audience. The get the money, the party and the chicks. The Demi Moore stripper though is not proud or happy with her occupation, it’s more like a trial she is going through to provide for her kid. I am wondering if they do a remake of Striptease, would it still be ridden with assumptions about fallen women or would it look more like Magic Mike.

Anyway, I am still pondering this, but here is a short comparison of the two movies and the underlying features of the lead characters.

Magic Mike (2012)	Striptease (1996)
Biography | Comedy | Drama	Crime | Drama | Thriller
allegedly loosely based on Channing Tatum’s stripper days	big hit and signature movie for Demi
IMDb rating 6.2	IMDb rating 4.1
Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich (2000), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Solaris (2002))	Directed by Andrew Bergman (no remarkable titles to refer to here)
No awards/nominations yet	6 Razzies and Worst Picture of the Decade
Strips for pleasure and status	Strip because she has no other option
Collects money for a business start up	Collects money to raise her daughter
Personal internal drama, saves himself from himself, with the help of a girl he likes	External drama, saved from the bad guy by the good guy

photo credit: Movie-Fan via photopin cc
photo credit:Patrick Peccatte via photopin cc

Math and Art – Friends or Enemies?

Tags

art vs. math, brain hemispheres, everyday logic, literature, logic vs. creative

There is a popular perception that math cancels art out and vice versa. The scientific proof to that seems to lie in the anatomy of the brain – two hemispheres, one controls the creative,  the other – the logical thinking. Art as a product of creativity and math as a product of logic might seem just as opposite, but the thing is they overlap – there is logic in Art and creativity in Math – no one would deny that. So the hemispheres argument actually explores the juxtaposition of wider concepts. At the same time we have another inadequate comparison – the too narrow one: Math, e.g exact numbers, is nothing like Art, e.g rhymes and brush strokes.

The reason I am ranting about this is that I have come across quite a lot of reviews lately – of books and movies – which argue that the respective work is not good enough, because it does not make sense and is not logical; because people in real life would never do that, therefore, the movie/book was complete bullshit/too cheesy/unworthy. There obviously exists an underlying inability for people to understand that art is logical even if it’s not. When something unlikely happens in, say, a movie, it doesn’t mean the movie is bad, since it doesn’t follow everyday logic. Precisely the ‘illogical event’ is Art’s parameter, which should be used to solve the equation. Just like in Math you have a, b and c, which you use to find the variable x, y or z, the Creator, be it writer or movie producer, shows you something (a, b, c), which by being different from what you know by experience, should lead you to see another reality, an unknown x, which is not like your everyday life; to understand another person, who is not like yourself; and in the end, to feel an emotion, which although not your own, resonates with you. Here the circle closes up – you see people you do not necessarily sympathize with, who experience things you have never experienced, but end up feeling something or coming to understanding of something, which somehow resonates with you. You just need to be able to perceive the analogy and if you don’t it doesn’t mean it’s because the movie/book is illogical, it’s most probably because you lack the creativity to grasp it beyond the superficial details like where and who is doing what how.

I am not saying if you don’t like a piece of art it’s because you don’t understand it. There is a good chance it sucked. Stupid movies are like bad math – a problem can be solved straightforwardly but every once in a while there is a ‘posh’ second way of doing it. It might be juicy and swag-y or just redundant. Sexy math is just like sexy art – great or annoying, genius or snobby.

The notorious question – ‘What did the author want to say?’ is never asked by anyone who actually understands or studies or writes literature. The author most probably has said whatever he wanted very clearly, it is up to the reader to ascribe an exact ‘value’ to it. And before you say ‘Ahaa, exactly!’ I would like to remind you of solving parameter equations yet again. The whole solution depends on values of a you prescribe in advance and the result can also be anywhere from, say, 2 to plus infinity given the value of a is, say, negative. This is the same thing – you see the ‘unlikely thing’ we talked about through the prism of subjective moral and background and work out its meaning within this initial context to end up with a result which is not always black and white, but usually, within a quite well-defined gray area. Of course, words, forms and sounds are not so universally recognized like numbers, but this I daresay is conditioning. Just try to explain to a four-year-old why two plus two is not five, like he says. Quite the reality check. :-)

photo credit: RabiD Son via photopin cc

Spectacular Photography: Ballet Dancers by Richard Calmes

Tags

ballet, ballet dancers, photographing dancers, photography, Richard Calmes

Ever since my Photojournalism class in university, I learned to understand photography as a long calculated process, requiring great preparation, equipment and social skills. Even astounding spontaneous shots are the product of previous experience and preparation. Pushing the button is the easiest thing, therefore of least importance. This perception quite changed the way I see photographs. They don’t touch me very easily, because I don’t allow myself an immediate impression – I instantly see the making-of shot, the photographer taking the image, external flashes, umbrellas and acrobatic posture in place. I think of the circumstances that got him there, the people he talked to.

One day, quite by accident, I came across photos of ballet dancers by Richard Calmes and I really saw them, not the process and the hard work behind them. Maybe it was the forceful dynamism or the hypnotizing geometry of the movement, I don’t know, but these photographs got me mesmerized and I couldn’t wait to share them with you. The images stand out most of all because of the dancers themselves – their athletic bodies convey incredible power and you feel certain exclusivity for being able to see them frozen in a movement which lasts a fraction of the second. It’s almost like stopping time to take in the beauty of a moment, which would otherwise remain buried in your subconsciousness, praised only for its underlying emotion. Dramatic light, occasional splashes of bright color and imposing symmetry are other characteristic elements of Richard Calmes’s ballet dancers shots.

I admit I am not an expert on great photographers – I can list Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Ellen von Unwerth, David LaChapelle and probably recognize a few more and that’s about it. So I spent quite some time on the website educating myself about the photographer who made me see actual photographs again.

Richard Calmes started out as a combat photographer in Vietnam (you can see the gallery here). Ballet may seem a very unlikely theme to follow that and a career as an architect, but it has a personal spin – his daughter, who grew up dancing. His first project was almost accidental – his wife was the marketing director of a ballet company and needed some photos.
Calmes has a great understanding of the hard work behind ballet dancing and it is quite easy to tell from his photography. The emphasized athleticism in the dance images is combined with extensive visual coverage of rehearsals. In an interview in front of Fred Schaad, he says: “I learned a lot about the dance world and how difficult a profession dance is. Anyone may be able to sing (opera aside) and become a hit, but to dance requires daily training and work…hard, painful, injury prone work over a lifetime.” In a way his work has become a mission to educate the public about this side of dancing.

From what I know about celebrity photographers, I would suppose hiring him costs a lot of money, but Calmes says in the same interview that he does it for free: “I have not taken any money for all of the dance images I have shot. I do it for the incredible challenge and to help get their story in front of the world.” In another interview -  for Arts Critic Atlanta, he  indicates his interaction with dancers and the effect his photographs have on them as defining for his work: “…when I photograph dancers, it is a total collaborative effort. Any shot I have tried to do has been better because a dancer has added something to it.”

Now go have a feast of the eye at http://www.richardcalmes.com/

Photography Essentials: How to Capture Motion

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aperture, iso, light painting, photographing motion, photography, shutter speed

The greatest stills, paradoxically, are the ones that show movement; the ones that freeze the most dynamic motion; the ones that would look weird if we didn’t have the background knowledge to recognize a man running or a beast jumping. Our ability to create a past and a future for the captured moment makes it all the more special. I am most fascinated with images of dancers – stolen glimpses of articulate complicated movement, which we hardly see separated from the overall choreography.
So I asked Asen Petrov, a photographer and a friend, to explain the behind-the-lens magic and feeling of capturing motion. Hopefully, this will be useful for beginner photographers, too.

The best photography captures spontaneous moments. Sometimes you have to convey the dynamics of a movement, sometimes to freeze it. How do we do that and preserve the emotion and the atmosphere? You can take such photos at sport events, in the street, at a kid’s birthday party – the options are countless.
Generally, there are three distinct ways to photograph motion, although you can improvise with each one or mix them up.

aperture f 6.3; shutter speed 1/160 s; ISO 1250; focal length 17 mm (plus external flash)

Let’s first take a look at the frozen moment – images of swimmers, in which every drop of water is visible; of a ball stopped halfway in the air during a soccer game; or of the ribbon floating over the rhythmic gymnast.
The aim when taking this type of photos is to show a moment we would otherwise never see but for an instant. For this you will need to do a couple of things. Most importantly – fast shutter speed, 1/500 s or more. This, however, requires larger aperture to allow sufficient light on the sensor. If the maximum aperture does not give the necessary exposure you need to increase the ISO, that is the light sensitivity. Sometimes you need to consider using a flash or an additional source of light to get the optimum exposure for your shot. With all this in place you are all set to freeze the rain, the flight of a bird or the speed of an arrow.

aperture f 22; shutter speed 1/20 s ; ISO 200; focal length 40 mm

The second technique is widely used in street photography to recreate the feeling of movement. We have all come across portraits or shots of moving cars, where the background of people walking by is blurred, while the car remains sharp. To get this effect you need a shutter speed of around 1/30 s or longer, depending on the desired intensity of the blurring. The rest of the settings depend on the specific conditions. The same approach can be used in landscape photography if you want to blur the foreground and get nice and sharp background.

aperture f 9; shutter speed 10 s;ISO 100; focal 24mm

The third approach to movement is suitable when you want to shoot a river, a spring, the sea as well as in light painting. You’ve certainly been impressed by photos of brooks, where the rapids look like silk. To do this you will need longer exposure time (10 seconds or more), the lowest possible ISO and minimum aperture. In extremely sunny days, however, this is not enough and you might need ND or CPL filters to allow for the prolonged exposure time. With light painting you can use higher ISO and larger aperture, since it is usually done at night or with ambient light.

I am going on a mini around-the-block photo trip next week to try these tips out. I hope they will be useful for you too, whether you are taking up photography as a hobby or you just want to take a good photo of your kid at the school talent show. If you know any additional tricks, please share in the comments :)

About Those Lemons

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lemons, motivational, opportunities, sayings, when life gives you lemons

If you don’t like the lemonade, you haven’t squeezed the lemons right

Repeating the good old saying “When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade” gives a sort of edgy reassurance and every time I come across it, rather than roll my eyes with an underlying ‘Not Again!’ feeling, I get an uplift. This is because it is a well-programmed lie, which only looks like giving you life advice when it actually tells you to feel good about getting it bad.

Say you have been ditched by that one and only awesome guy – the lemons distributor – and you pour your soul into a heartfelt semi-autobiographical novel, which eventually becomes a best-seller – therefore, a lemonade. I know it sounds  too made up but so it should, if only to stress on the fairy tale dimension of the saying. The original fault of the cause-effect here is that it makes us think the happiness we could derive from misfortune is always the greater of the two. It almost makes you wait for the bad luck, the failures, the lemons – before you can reach your potential. So I am making a mental note here to take this saying and any derivatives as a warning that bitterness could be diluted to a more likable state, but – alas – you can never get champagne out of lemons.

Here lies the other problem with the lemons settlement – it’s become outdated.Once upon a time when people started to refer to lemonade as the by-product of some marvelous ingenuity, which allows you to take the best out of the worst, it was a clear symbol of something simple but good and refreshing. Now, however tasty homemade lemonade might be, it remains a symbol of the goodness and freshness of more simple past times. Whether like it or not, the modern ingenuity is much more complicated and takes more than lemons. Today we need to be able to make mocha latte out of every burnt coffee bean and for this you need a lot of chocolate. Squeezing and some sugar is no longer enough – you need the resources to get chocolate and milk. The more important part, however, is the end result. Not just sweet refreshment, but a recharging drink – the fuel to even greater achievements. It’s never enough now, the most important gain is the opportunity to go on, to innovate further. This modern reality is our crate full of a whole lot of lemons. And I think we better bite into them.

photo credit: Creature Comforts via photopin cc
photo credit: Nina Matthews Photography via photopin cc