Photographing Tarik Currimbhoy’s Kinetic Sculpture

I have had quite an adventure lately shooting my friend architect/sculptor Tarik Currimbhoy’s wonderful kinetic sculptures.  The works I have been photographing are tabletop size, sleek forms in stainless steel and bronze called Rockers.  The trick was to convey movement.  I shot some video, which will be on Tarik’s website http://www.tarikcurrimbhoy.com in due course.  The challenge was to photograph these elegant pieces, which are narrower at the top, in a way that would convey movement.  First I shot stills of the various versions:

But  Tarik needed photographs to use in print materials.  I experimented with various sorts of double and triple exposures, and I think I nailed it!

My Historical Archives Part II: FDR to National Park Service Resource Center

Over a five-year period, I made thousands of photographs of sculptor Neil Estern creating the full-round statues of President Roosevelt, Eleanor and their dog Fala for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Park in Washington, DC. Dozens of the images were reproduced in the book Shaping A President: Sculpting for the Roosevelt Memorial, written by Kelli Peduzzi; and a large group of black & white darkroom prints and color photographs appeared in solo and group exhibits across the United States. (Many of these images are on my website.)

I followed Estern working on this historic project as he sculpted the tiny maquettes and larger scale models in clay in his Brooklyn studio, enlarged them in clay at Tallix Art Foundry in Beacon, NY, and supervised the many phases of bronze casting.   At each stage of creation, I was struck by the forceful personae emerging out of inert substances. Neil’s concentration was total. The figures, even in armature form, seemed to interact with him and appreciate his perfectionism.

I felt like a fly on the wall. I endeavored to illustrate the unfolding emotional relationship between the sculptor’s artistic intensity and the complex personalities of the President and First Lady emerging from armature and clay.

The Memorial Park was inaugurated in May 1997.

Last summer, I contacted various government archives to find a home for my archives. I was thrilled when they were accepted by the National Park Service. Their offices and storage facilities are located in Washington, CD and Maryland, where objects related to the monuments on the National Mall and Memorial Parks in this area of the country are preserved.  Here are the materials in my studio before I packed them up:

I still retain the copyright, however, and sets of exhibition prints.  My husband and I drove to Maryland earlier this year to deliver them to Curator Laura Anderson.

The next day we were given a tour of the facility by Tom Sonderman, Director of the NCR Museum Resource Center,. It was fascinating.  Along with historical documents, there were objects left at the Vietnam Memorial by visitors, furniture from historic homes and all sorts of interesting ephemera.

I am honored that these historic materials – negatives, slides, darkroom notes, work prints, shooting diary, etc. are now part of this wonderful archive, where they are available to the public for research and exhibitions.  2017 will be the 20^th anniversary of the monument park and there is talk of an exhibit.  Meanwhile, I am on to new projects!

My Photographs at Art/Omi Benefit

A year or so ago I photographed a beautiful sculpture created by architect/sculptor Tarik Currimbhoy for the Fields Sculpture Park at the Omi International Arts Center in Columbia County, NY.  The work is called Ellipse and is made of white marble that has no hardware joining the pieces together.  Here is what it looked like in autumn:

Isn’t this fabulous?  There are 3 entryways, each facing a totally different view of the field and the swamp.

Now, the benefit.  Tarik is now on the board of Art/Omi and is establishing a music scholarship in the memory of Rajshekhar Parikh.  I am honored to be one of the seven artists invited to participate in an exhibit of our work.  The sale of the artwork will benefit the scholarship fund and the artists will get a percentage of the proceeds.  This is quite thrilling and fair, since so frequently artists are simply asked to contribute work with no understanding of what it takes to create it.  (The only tax deduction for an artist is the value of the materials used to create the work.)

The opening party, which should be great fun, is Friday, April 9th from 5-9, and the work will be available for purchase through April 11th.  If you are interested in information so that you can join in the festivities, please send me an email through this blog or my website and I will forward an invitation to you.