Through the Alps Into Italy

I'm sitting in the Da Carlos hotel in Lucca, Italy typing this. I'm 7 miles from the "Pisa Torre" or "Leaning Tower of Pisa" and 45 minutes from Firenza (Florence). Jean and Summer are in the room getting ready for the day. It's 10:40AM September 2, 2007.

We left Germany yesterday (early) morning and drove through Switzerland (Alps) and into Italy. It was a gorgeous drive. The Alps and Tuscony are a visual that I will never forget! We hit a couple of snags along the way; the Autobahn was closed between Karlsruhe (Germany) and Baden Baden (Germany), that was a 20 - 30 minute detour. Then the big one was a Stau (traffic jam) in the tunnels of the Alps. That was another 1.5 hours. No big deal, like I said, it was a beautiful drive!

Today we plan to see the Torre and then train into Firenza. The girls have an opera to go to tonight - La Bohème - it was the inspiration for RENT. Lucky and I will hang out in Florence and maybe do another blog entry with photos from today.

Italy is gorgeous, the people are friendly and the language is awesome!! So passionate!!! BELLISIMA!! Wish you were here! (Click to enlarge the photos)


Driving through the Alps in Switzerland.


The view from our room at the Da Carlos.


Our waiter shot this at dinner last night. We had two bottles (one white and one red) of wonderful local wine. Seafood is the dish here for dinner. I had Sea Bass, Summer had the "fried plate" with squid, octupus, little fish and big fish and Jean had the clams and pasta. It was excellent!



Summer was curious about what she was eating.



The Sea Bass was outstanding!! I loved it!!


Salute! Jean drinking the local white wine (it was YUMMY!)


The (thinking) sexy beast himself sampling the local fruit of the vine.



Lucky enjoying the Lucca morning sun today at breakfast.

My M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts)!

Well, there it is! I have my M.F.A.!!! A little hard for me to believe, but I see the photo and I have to believe, it's a photo!

Thanks to everyone that helped me get here! I know I didn't do this on my own! The last three years of my life have been some of the best. I've learned so much about myself and others, it's been a beautiful and mysterious trip!

With all of this free time now, I plan to continue to make photographs, play my guitar more and learn the German language. Of course, we will travel more and see as much of the world that we can.

Marigny le Châtel, France

Saturday July 14, 2007 - Marigny le Châtel, France!
We took off Friday after work and ended up in Marigny le Châtel, France! Me, Jean, Summer, Denise and Lucky loaded the camera gear and piled in the car and took off for the weekend. It was one of the best (if not the best) trip I've had.
Marigny le Châtel is about 1 hour southeast of Paris. It's a small village in the country. The people are nice and the wine and food is yummy!


Katrina brings more wine as Thierry and Jean wait patiently for another glass.



I really like this image - Jean, Denise, Lucky and I were out walking before breakfast Saturday morning and I saw this reflector disc - I love to shoot picture in them - this one made it so painterly!


A wet plate (5x7) Ambrotype of Dr. Thierry Queinnec. He is a retired medical doctor that worked with amputees and handicapped people in his village for 25 years. He wanted to learn (and see) the wet plate process. We met him last month at the Paris Foto Show. He told us that the "tripod" of France is bread, wine and cheese. Look at the relection in his glasses in this image. I like that connection!


Denise and Thierry having coffee after lunch.

A cool French butcher sign I saw.


Having coffee after a seven course French meal - it was unbelievable!

Denise and Summer checking out a plum worm - it came from a fresh plum from the tree.

Jean says, "Prost" enjoying a couple of different French wines.

 

"The French Table" wife Katrina (left) and daughter Judy. Wet plate 5x7 Ambrotype.

Talking shop with Thierry - I can't speak French but I can say - Oui, Oui - Merci!

The gang having coffee Saturday morning with croissants! Magnifique!



Driving into the village.

The hotel we stayed at - we will be back again!!!

 

Experiencing Europe

We are thinking out loud here and planning our adventures. Here's what we've done so far:

2006
We explored Ladenberg, Heidelberg, Lorsch, Weinheim and Heppenheim, Germany.

2007
February 2007: Prague, Czech Republic
March 2007: Trier, Germany & Luxembourg
April 2007: Koeln, Germany & Masstritch, The Netherlands
June 2007: Paris, France & Koeln, Germany

Here's what we have planned for the rest of the year:

July 2007: Marigny le Châtel, France New York City (Quinn & Summer; Quinn graduates with his MFA!)
August 2007: Straussbourg, France
September 2007: Lucca, Italy (Tuscony), Florence, Pisa
October 2007: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
November 2007: Reus, Spain
December 2007:

2008

January 2008:
February 2008:
March 2008: Dublin, Ireland
April 2008: Berlin, Germany
May 2008: Glasgow, Scotland
June 2008: Barcelona, Spain
July 2008:
August 2008:
September 2008: Berlin, Germany
October 2008: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
November 2008:
December 2008:

We'll update this as we travel and plan.

The Paris Foto Fair

Greetings & Salutations,

We just returned from a weekend in Paris. We drove over Friday (about 4.5 hours) and attended one of the largest photo fair/exhibits in Europe. We met up with a friend from Belgium named Carl. He introduced us to several other (alt) artist/photographers from Paris, Brussels and The Netherlands.


Saturday night we had dinner at Martin Becka's house in Paris (7 minutes from the heart of the city). Becka is a famous French Calotypist (he makes large negatives on paper and then contact prints them c.~1840s). He and his wife, Sophie, were very kind and generous. There were eight of us at his house. Everyone ate, drank, talked and shared/showed work. We didn't leave until after midnight - a truly wonderful Parisian lifestyle that I could embrace very easily.

Below: Jean and I in Bievres, France - Sunday, June 3, 2007.


Sunday morning we all met for coffee at a cafe in Bievres (suburb of Paris). After espresso (eXpresso if you are from Utah), we wandered the photo show for a few hours. We met up for breakfast at 0900 (Champagne, bread and a rice dish). Wandered the show again for a few hours and then met for lunch. After lunch, we said goodbye.

It was a fantastic time. I feel very, very blessed to be having these experiences. Who would have ever thought that I would get invited to share photographs, eat good food, drink good wine and talk art in Paris with a bunch of well-known artists?? Not me! It reminds me of that scene in "Wayne's World" where Garth is always saying, "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy," when in the company of Heather Locklear *grin* (no, I don't idolize them, but it is a treat to share work, drink and food with them.. remember; I'M FROM UTAH!)

Below: The photo fair/show was loaded with 19th C. gear. I know where to go when I need another wet plate camera, lens, et al.



 


Above: This is the European Alt Photo/Artist gang.

They come from all over Europe to attend this show. This is an annual thing for them and now we are a part of it! Next Saturday, we are on way to Brussels. I had a mobile darkroom built (fits in the trunk of the Passat) and need to pick it up. We'll meet up with Carl (to the left of me in the photo) and Luc Saturday for lunch. I'm looking forward to some of that Belgium beer *grinning*

Oh, one more thing, driving in Paris is a real challenge - if you've never done it, you should give it a go sometime. It gives new meaning to "driving".

Below: When you are in Paris you have to get a Nutella Crepe! It's Parisian law!! They were so good!!!

Der Metzgerei

You've got to love the local signs here. I'm not sure if they "get it" or if I'm just over "Freudian" about these kinds of things; but the idea of a pig holding a piece of Wurst like that and the owner's name below.. hmmmm... he might be trying to say something here about his meat. I think it's BIG TIME funny.

We live very close to this Metzgerei (metz-gur-eye). They have excellent Weiss Wurst (it's Bavarian, you boil it for 10 mins and server with sweet Mustard and Preztles - OMG!!) and serve the famous "halbe meter (Kleine) Wurst" at Fest time.

Der Killer & Bild


I picked up a copy of Bild at lunch today (and made a picture of it, see above) because I was taken by the coverage of this event and the layout/content of this paper.

Germans are reacting to this tragedy with a kind of "I told you so" attitude. You don't have access to weapons here in Germany like that guy did (or so it appears). I'm not sure if that's good or bad, I'm conflicted. When things like this happen, I tend to be "German" on the gun control laws.

Moreover, I thought the "naked lady picture" (which is on every cover of Bild everyday) made a strange bottomfold image in relation to this event on the top; look at her "looking up" and "laughing". Weird and disorienting!

Köln, Germany & The Netherlands

I needed to take break from writing my thesis/portfolio this weekend. Jean, Summer, Denise (a friend), Lucky and I took a trip to Köln, Germany and then went into The Netherlands to Maastricht.

The weather here has been in the 80s and very beautiful so the drive was gorgeous. It was a 1.5 hours to Köln and another 45 minutes or so to Maastricht. It’s amazing to cross (country) borders without even stopping!! In that way the EU is very cool.

We left Viernheim at about 8AM and got to Köln at 9:30AM so we decided to people watch and have a cup of coffee. Köln is a wonderful city. The people are friendly and the city is extremely “art friendly”. The waitress asked where we were from and I made some crack comment about Denise being a hillbilly from "West Virginny, USA" (she's not, she's from Washington D.C.) and the waitress said something like, “It doesn’t matter to people in Köln, we accept everyone” – Whoaaa! That blew me away, that’s not the Germany I know! I knew Köln was very different the minute I drove in.

August Sander (1876-1964), a well-known photographer of the 20th Century was born in Köln and did a lot of work here, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to see the city. He created a body of work called, “People of the 20th Century” – I have it. It’s a seven volume set of books, some 1400 pages. He classified the German people into groups. For example, “Artists”, “Farmers”, “Scientist” etc. and then made portraits of them. His seventh and last volume is called “Die Letzten Menchen” or “The Last People”. This is what I am most interested in. I wanted to know what it was like to see Die letzten Menchen on the streets of Köln like Sander did. And I did. Unfortunately, his portrait work is on tour. We only got to see a small collection of his landscape work. It was nice, but not in the league of Die letzten Menchen!

I haven’t been to a city or village in Europe I didn’t like yet. Köln is a place I will return to for sure. Simply for the fact of its connection to photography/art and it’s friendly vibe. The beer is good (Kölsch) and is exclusive to Köln, we had a nice lunch at an open air café called Casablanca and we saw a few of the more popular sites of the city (Köln’s Gothic Catherderal, Köln Turm, etc.) too.

Then it was onto The Netherlands. The border was about 20 minutes from Köln and you could tell you were in The Netherlands immediately. All of the signs were in Dutch (of course), it is a strange and difficult language to hear, read or speak (I tried years ago). In other words, you can’t even begin to guess what the road signs are saying. On top of that, the landscape changed, the look of the houses, the colors, everything – it was wild! The Netherlands are beautiful and the people are very, very friendly. They are an open and progressive people. We had a family (husband, wife and daughter) sitting next to us at a café telling us about how the Dutch feel about Americans. They said the Dutch people will never forget what America did for The Netherlands in WWII and believe that most Americans are good people. However, they don’t care for the current administration and have serious concerns about Iraq etc. but I think even most Americans are waking up to that fact now. We had a nice conversation with them about current world events and national identity. Very enlightening!

Onto the photos....

Yes, you can legally smoke hash, and marijuana in The Netherlands. The places are called "Coffeeshops". They are all over The Netherlands.

I really liked this cup. One side DREAMS, the other side CONFLICTS - this embodies the feeling of the cities in The Netherlands - very creative and art friendly.
Are we in Holland yet? Where are the bicycles???


Dutch signs... an easy read!

I couldn't resist this "Winnogrand" moment in Maastritch! I love this image!

A license plate.. hmmmm, why did I put this here?? It's different from ours in DE.



"Die letzten Menchen" - Heribert, on the streets of Koeln. I could only make out a few words... he was listenign to music and shared some with me. He handed me an earbud covered in blood.

I'm not sure what he was drinking... whatever it was, it was strong.

This seems out of palce, but this is the only thing we drank. Great beer! Made in Koeln.

The "new" RCA Dog in Media Park in Koeln. Lucky loved it and Jean and Summer thought it was kool too!

The August Sander Museum is in this building. They had a Lee Friedlander show and a Wessel show going.. no photographs allowed. This is where we saw Sander's landscapes.

This is another image I really like... the refelctions of two women in the glass, the red hair of the woman next to Denise and Denise's expression.


Starting our day in Koeln with coffee, chocolate muffins, brownies and people watching.


The Streets of Prague

Here are a couple of people pictures from the streets of Prague. I should be writing my portfolio and I'm messing around organizing my travel photos... no worries.. keine angst!



"Ringing like the change in the legless man's Dixie cup..." From a Mike Doughty song. That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this guy (yes, he was legless). He spoke no English, I don't speak Czech, so I just dropped 20 Krone in his cup to hear it "ring" and asked how he was.



There's a lot of color in Prague. I really like it when it's the people - the contrast of it all.