Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

Early last week I had the good fortune to have a day off of work and traveled to see the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a perfect day to travel to the city. I drove up to the burbs and parked along the Burlington tracks, and took the Metra in to Union Station. The Cultural Center is a quick 1.5 mile walk from the station, and with all the energy in the Loop, you find yourself arriving there in no time.

 I was taking this photo when security stopped me :) There is no photography allowed at the exhibit. I don't think there is much to see here, so I figured I can get away with posting it.

The show was amazing! For those that don't know, Vivian Maier was an unknown photographer that took street images in Chicago and other urban areas in the 50's and 60's. She had other images, but  this is the predominant focus of her work. She was a nanny working for families in the Chicago area, and was a self taught street photographer.

Her images were sold at an auction and discovered by John Maloof. He has over 100,000 negatives, prints and rolls of undeveloped film by Ms. Maier as well as personal effects like news clippings, hats and her cameras as well.

This is the unfortunate tale of an artist: she was discovered only after she passed away in 2009. The body of work is immense, and with all the negatives, prints and undeveloped film left behind by Ms. Maier it will take years to figure out and decipher her life's work.

A blog that describes the discovery of her work can be found here.

A video about the discovery of the images can be found here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7297794n

I found her work to be on par with other great documentary photographers of the day. The fact that she was producing this work, and kept all the images to herself is quite amazing. There is an intimacy she has with her subjects. She took more than a photograph, she revealed  her subject's personality through the images she created.

I would highly urge anyone with the time to see this exhibit before it is finished on April 3rd. The web is a great place to see her work, but to see the prints in person is simply amazing.

A quote by Ms. Maier from the gallery flier sums it up: "We have to make room for other people. It's a wheel- you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place. There's nothing new under the sun."

Maple Syrup at Forest Glen Nature Preserve

As family we traveled to Forest Glen Preserve near Westville on Sunday to see how maple syrup is made.

Forest Glen Preserve is the third largest producer of maple syrup in Illinois. They have staff on hand during this open house to explain how the sap from maple trees is boiled down and turned into syrup.

Today was just a demo, however, as the real syrup harvesting and boiling took place in February when the temperatures started to fluctuate above and then below freezing. This fluctuation is what makes the sap flow into the bags and buckets attached to maple trees throughout the preserve.

The first stop was the pancake and sausage dinner served in the Gannett Outdoor Education Center. Mmmmm giant plate sized pancakes served with butter and real maple syrup produced at the preserve!

After pancakes and sausage, we needed a walk, so we headed up the hill to the building where the maple sap is evaporated and made into maple syrup.

 

Inside the building they call the "sugar bush" staff was on hand to explain how maple syrup is made from the sap collected from the trees. An evaporator is stoked with cord wood, and allows the sap to evaporate off the water vapor and eventually turn into maple syrup. 

The syrup harvest was actually quite good this year, with over 150 gallons of syrup produced. Last winter, only 50 some odd gallons of syrup were able to be made, so it fluctuates from year to year depending on the  temperatures outside.

To give you an idea how much sap is needed to make syrup, the staff pointed to 55 gallon drums in the corner of the "sugar bush" building. It takes 43 to 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup! We were really amazed at the ratio.

 

 In and around the Forest Glen Preserve, the staff left up the buckets an bags from the last sap harvest to show how it is collected. This sap isn't any good for syrup making and was just for demonstration purposes. The bags are preferred over the buckets because they can be used for the season and then thrown away, as opposed to cleaning and storing all the buckets. There are some smart squirrels out there though, who have figured out how to nibble the corners of the bags and drink the sweet maple sap :) In one day, the staff said that the squirrels can undo that day's work through their craftiness. 

All in all it was a beautiful day to be outside, and we all learned a lot about syrup making. The best part was eating pancakes in the afternoon!

Model Mayhem!

I have a lot to accomplish this year! One of my goals  is to do more modern portrait work with my digital cameras as well as the wet plate process. As most of you that have had your images taken at living history events know, the process is an amazing combination of art, science and creativity. When the Gods are smiling and the timing is right, the work just sings.

Modern subjects just look cool in wet plate  :)

To try and network with more photographers and models, I joined  Model Mayhem in February, and I now have my very own MM number! MM# 2105260


I have a very small portfolio at the moment, since most of my work over the years is owned by the folks I used to work for. I plan on building up my images with both digital and wet plate work this year.

If anyone is interested in doing portrait work with me, let me know. I have to work my photography around my full time job, so my nights and some weekends are taken. I plan on having fun and making portraits this year, so just let me know if you are interested.

So enough of the snow already! Let's get some portrait work going!

steve