LA-based photographer and cinematographer Joe Capra spent seventeen days during the month of June this year traveling alone around Iceland. During his 2,900 mile solo adventure he shot an astounding 38,000 + photographs. The result is this stunningly beautiful film of one of the world’s most amazing landscapes.
You can see more of Capra’s work, and purchase prints, at his website Scientifantastic.
Let’s face it, when we travel we all become tourists. But are we all destined to become tacky tourists, who take tacky tourist photos ? The hilarious website Tacky Tourist Photos, curated by Darren Garnick and Peter Koziell, seems to suggest that we are all at the very least vulnerable to the temptations of tacky tourism.
The site, which has photos from more than a dozen countries and twice as many U.S. states, is dedicated to tacky tourist photographs, tacky tourist poses, tacky tourist attractions and just plain tacky behavior by travelers.
Long before Rick Steves and Peter Greenberg showed us how to travel, Burton Holmes was delighting audiences with original travelogues and short films. The fascinating Burton Holmes Archive has a treasure trove of information about early travel writing and the earliest travel films.
“The Burton Holmes Archive is the world’s largest repository of films, photographs, programs, scrapbooks, and other ephemera related to the life and career of Burton Holmes, the “Father of the Travelogue”.
Burton Holmes coined the term “Travelogue” in 1904 to advertise his unique live stage presentations combining stories of his travels with slides and motion pictures. Sophisticated and elegantly attired, Holmes became the world’s most famous traveler during the first half of the 20th century through his books, magazine articles, lectures and films. Born into a prosperous Chicago family in 1870, Holmes turned a chance encounter in the early 1890’s with John L. Stoddard, the then reigning 19th century travel lecturer, into a lifelong career. Each summer for over fifty years Holmes would roam the globe and then tour American auditoriums in the winter; during the 1945-46 season alone, at age 75, he gave 157 two-hour lectures. Slowed by ill health and television, Holmes retired to Hollywood in 1952 and died there in 1958. His company, Burton Holmes International, survived into the 1970s.”
You can discover some of Holmes’ film clips from the 20s and 30s on Youtube.
Many thanks to Gabrielle Schaffner, Executive Director of Fort Point Arts Community, for this guest post.
Each year the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) in Boston’s downtown waterfront neighborhood presents a series of temporary public art produced by local artists.
Claudia Ravaschiere and Michael Moss’ Street Cathedral is a jewel-toned sculptural installation anchored to the light poles at several locations in Fort Point. These pieces engage the public by invoking the reflective quality of cathedrals with a post-modern sensibility to share the public presence of art and celebrate the urbanscape of Fort Point. They evoke the contemplative character of stained glass with a sense of whimsy and discovery as pedestrians travel through the Fort Point neighborhood FPAC’s 2011 Fall Public Art Series is funded by a grant from The Fund for The Arts, a public program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible by generous support from anonymous donors.
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Fort Point Arts Community’s temporary public art installations celebrate annual Fall Open Studios, which took place October 14-16.The work of public art serve to engage the public, highlight the Channel, the Fort Point neighborhood and its creative community, and promote Open Studios.
About The Fort Point Arts Community: The Fort Point Arts Community, Inc. of South Boston (FPAC) is a non-profit founded in 1980 to enrich the Fort Point area with an artists’ live/work population that contributes to the district’s and the City of Boston‘s cultural life. In Fort Point, artists not only create art, we present two Open Studios events each year, develop and support permanent studio space, organize art lending programs, run galleries and a store, produce temporary public art, and are active participants in determining the future of our neighborhood. We encourage new ideas, collaboration, connections, and economic growth.
Last Friday’s post, Paris…Art on the Street, featured a monumental wall mural that’s actually called Chuuuttt !!! . The work, which can be found at the south side of the Pompidou Centre by the fabulous Fontaine des Automats in Place Stravinski, was created by Jean-François Perroy, who is better known as Jef Aérosol. The Lille-based First-Wave street artist is famous for his compelling spray paint portraits of cultural icons and celebrities. Chuuuttt !!! is Jef Aérosol’s call for calm,quiet and serenity in the heart of Paris.
The busy, tourist-packed Place Stravinski is rarely calm or serene, but it is wildly amusing and entertaining with it’s fountain filled with sixteen whimsical, moving, waterspouting sculptures by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.
Every Fall Paris attracts serious chocoholics for the annual Salon Du Chocolat at France’s largest exhibition center, the Porte de Versailles. The delecious show covers the world of chocolate from the cocoa bean growers based in Africa and South America to the chocolatiers of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Japan. Iconic candy makers, patisseries and retailers present gorgeous displays and offer generous free samples of mouthwatering products. There’s even an over-the-top Chocolate Dress Fashion Show. When I could stop stuffing my face with chocolate samples, I managed to take a few photos.
London Curiocity is a map/magazine (or magazine/map) and website dedicated to the history and mystery of London. It offers unique and quirky angles on exploring Britain’s greatest city.
The clever magazine is folded like a pocket map and fits in your hand. It explores new ways of discovering and encountering London based on contributor essays, stories and illustrations. And, when it’s turned inside-out it reveals a fab centerfold map.
The project was launched in September and promises to be a fun way for residents and visitors to engage London.
Hat-tip to Evan Smythe of London
In the Philly region, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are famous for their spooky art installation Pandemonium in Cell Block Seven at the über-scary old Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. But they rubbed some booklovers the wrong way with their installation titled The House of Books Has No Windows, which was constructed out of antiquarian books. But this video, which explains that they actually rescued the books from the pulp mill, should assuage bibliophiles’ concerns. Better art than pulp.
Postcards to Alphaville (my adopted hometown) is a very clever project dedicated to film characters featured in guest artist made illustrations. The founder of the project, Paul Paper, invites participants to view a film and to make a postcard portraying one significant character.
Paul plans to turn the project into a book at some point with the help of viewer support.
Now someone needs to create a Lemmy Caution postcard.
Travel Between The Pages 