art
Since there's a solid chance you're currently in GIFT-OPENING mode, we wanted to throw one more prezzie on the pile: an end-of-year, gratitude-filled phone background (in brown or blue), from us to you. Happy, happy holidays!
click to view + save the blue HAVE A NICE YEAR background
click to view + save the brown HAVE A NICE YEAR background
Your life looks good here. #aCreativeDC
Photo credit: Ben Fonarov
"MY NAME IS Jeffry Hesse, and I’m a Product Manager. More importantly however, I’m someone who wants to inspire others to care for the planet. From the time I was a young child to today, I’ve felt connected to the world around me. This connection has taken me a number of routes in life, one of the most recent as being a Product Manager at National Geographic. While I felt a very deep connection with what I was doing there, I didn’t feel that it was enough. I wanted to give more.
Byron Glacier Ice Cave Ceiling, November 2015. Delta 3200, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon.
Moulin on Matanuska Glacier. Shot on Thrukon in July of 2015. Velvia 50, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar
Ice wall on Matanuska Glacier, Josh and Chelsea from AMS setup fixed ropes to practice Glacier Rescue techniques, August 2015. Delta 400, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon
Rob Burrows, Kevin Slotemaker, Rachael Mariko and Ella Van Sickle. A glaciologist, a bartender, two teachers and a computer nerd all walk onto a glacier. Click here to find out what happens next! This is from four or so miles up the glacier, immediately beneath the snow line. Getting to this point was important, as it tells us the health of the glacier, by indicating at which point snow is surviving from year to year, and eventually becoming glacial ice. Middle Fork Toklat Glacier, Denali Wilderness Area, August 2015. Delta PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon
Water rushes through a glacial stream on the Middle Fork Toklat Glacier. In the upper right, a tributary that fed into the Middle Fork Toklat is now disconnected and receding further back. You can read more about the health of the Middle Fork Toklat Glacier here.
Picture shot August of 2015 while collecting more data on this glaciers health. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon.
Kevin and Sandra, Portraits in the Wild. Moments prior to this photo, we had been digging in the ground on the glacier to uncover debris and measure how deep the debris above this “dirty” part of the glacier was. Kevin is a bar tender, and Sandra is a glaciologist in training. Together our rag tag group was generating valuable information that tells the story of a changing glacier. August 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon.
Rob Burrows, a glaciologist working at Denali National Park. Rob has had the foresight to expand Citizen Science efforts, and bring others along to gather data and help tell the story of this changing world. Affectionately known as “Robopop” by us, he patrols the glaciers trying to keep them safe. August of 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon.
Kevin Slotemaker is a bartender, a comedian, and someone who cares about the planet. Here Kevin sits mere meters away from a large crevasse on the Middle Fork Toklat Glacier, adding his photographic styles to help tell the story of a changing world. Yet another soul who didn’t go to school to become a scientist, but someone who wants to help regardless. August of 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon.
I’ve always been drawn to the arts, even if I was primarily minded towards the sciences, and at some point I realized I really liked photography. Over the past three or four years, I’ve spent a lot of time shooting photos of the world around me. At points it was just to document how beautiful it is, at other points it was to capture the beauty of others in the world, and at more recent points it is to show the world changing.
I’ve decided to try and make a difference.
We continue to watch the world rapidly change around us, whether it’s socially, culturally, or physically. Sometimes, and I think most of the time we feel helpless to do anything and if there is something I’ve come to realize about being a millennial, it is that the world is full of so many problems. You don’t know where to start. You don’t know if you can start. Isn’t the work of saving this place best left to those who took exhaustive hours of schooling? Why is it my place? Can I even make a difference?
Kevin walks the ridge of the tongue of the Middle Fork Toklat Glacier, as he makes his way back from taking measurements with Sandra and I. This was such a small area of the glacier but gives a feeling of the immense scale we are dealing with, even with tiny glaciers, which the Middle Fork Toklat is. August of 2015. Velvia 50, Olympus Stylus.
MY GRANDMOTHER HAS lived in Alaska since 1963. As a child I would occasionally come to visit from Southern California, and I’d see sights that were mind blowing. Massive mountains covered in snow. Gigantic moving creatures of ice formed by the snow deposited on these mountains. I can’t remember the first time I fell in love with glacier, I surmise it was early. I can certainly remember when I became reconnected with my love.
In the meantime, the talks around climate change have “heated up” to use a really bad pun. A lot of great work has surfaced in the meantime such as “Chasing Ice” featuring one hero of mine, James Balog. However, there appears to still be some confusion as to what is occurring in the world. Something I’ve believed for quite some time is that we need to lead by example, and if we can’t change others around us to understand the changes we are making to the world, we need to at least make the evidence clear. I’m not an accomplished scientist. I dropped out of high school to be precise. However, I’m someone who wants others to see what is happening to this world, if only because they have to see it through me. In the past year I was lucky enough to obtain a job where I can work from any corner of the world that has reasonable internet, and where I’m willing to wake up at certain times. I’ve used every spare minute aside from work and every extra dollar I’ve had for the past few years to try and continue to amass more and more photos, film, whatever, of a world that continues to change in front of my eyes. I’m bringing the story to the people around me, and instead of politicizing it, I’m just showing it the best I can.
AS HAPPENS TO some children who become adults, you can get disconnected from your family. I luckily was able to reconnect with them in 2010 when I was brought to Arizona by an interesting circumstance. No matter how interesting the circumstance, I ended up spending time having fun with my Grandparents. They invited me to come visit more often in Alaska, so I took them up on that offer. I’d fly up in winter, spend a couple weeks with them, and then fly back. The first trip back up, I coaxed my Dad into driving me down to Portage Glacier near Whittier, Alaska. On the trip down from Anchorage, you pass one beautiful sight after another until you get sick of it, kidding of course. Finally, you arrive at an area where you can hike around. Unfortunately, you cannot see Portage Glacier from this area. Disheartened, I trudged through hip-deep snow, and hiked back to a lesser known glacier to the side of Portage called Byron. What I saw was deep blues peeking from beneath packs of snow, and it was breathtaking. I knew I’d just seen something that would change my world forever, much more powerful than anything I’d seen before.
Fast forward a few years, I'm still obsessed with glaciers.
Three frame panorama of the Middle Fork Toklat Glacier. Stitched together later, this is a reproduction of a shot by Stephen R. Capps in the year 1919. I was excited to have the opportunity to mimic his work, and to show a new view of the Toklat, using similar technology to what he had. Stephen likely shot his photos with a large format box camera, so I brought along my fully manual Hasselblad to try and recreate the experience the best I could. Shot handheld without a tripod, I kept thinking to myself “aw man this isn’t going to come out, you hosed this!”. I was excited to be able to work with the negatives later to piece this together. This shot will be in Rob Burrows upcoming report on the Toklat, and is the first real piece of science I will have contributed to the world. August 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Distagon.
Photo pair generated by Robert Burrows.
I want to show the world that just an average person can also help, and inspire others to take their privilege or opportunity, and use it to help. I most importantly want to show the most important people in my life the changes in the world around us, so that maybe they can also feel inspired to help.
Spencer Glacier as seen from a raft while on Thrukon with Errin Vasquez and Nathan Napolitano. Spencer is in a harder to reach portion of Alaska near Portage Glacier, and requires taking a train or some other form of transportation that does not include a car to reach it. It was pouring rain as I took this photo, and I thought for sure I’d ruin all my gear. July 2015. Velvia 50, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar.
Nathan and Errin in the raft on the way to see the Glacier. What makes Errin and Nathan special is that they put together a whole trip to Alaska by way of adventure motorcycle to see glaciers. Why are these beasts so special? Here they both get soaked with me as we go out to see Spencer. None of us are trained glaciologists, yet felt the need to explore glaciers. We wanted to tell the world of the beauty a glacier contains, and that we should work to save them. July 2015. Velvia 50, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar.
Errin pauses as he walks down a ridge on Matanuska Glacier. Errin and Nathan linked up with me through our collective love of bicycles, and my uploading pictures of glaciers to Instagram. I served as their local Alaskan guide, but in many cases, learned more from them. In this little area on Matanuska, we practiced ascending glacier walls, setting anchors, and made coffee. July of 2015. Velvia 50, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar.
Nathan takes a photo of Matanuska Glacier on top of a ridge. If there were a heart to Thrukon, it was certainly Nathan, and to this day he keeps me pumped to do even more exploration with him and Errin. July 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar
Matanuska Glacier is a beast, and the largest glacier I’ve been exploring. You can walk 27 miles further back this glacier to it’s beginning somewhere on Mount Marcus Baker. To think you can walk 27 miles on ice is a real crazy thought. As you can see, the land around this glacier is not snow capped, at points I was wearing a T shirt and practically sun bathing. The amount of power contained within this ice is remarkable, and that they’ve survived as long as they have is incredible to think about. However, they are retreating very quickly, which makes one wonder why? If they have survived thousands and thousands of years, why in the span of fifty are they pushing backwards at incredible rates? July of 2015. PanF+, Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm Planar.
Glacier Grey, Torres Del Paine, Patagonia, Chile. One of the windiest days of my life, or as I screamed to others as I passed on my way back “Viento mas fuerte!”. One of the most amazing sights in the world is this glacier, to me. In my limited travels, I find myself coming back here often. This year I plan to return, and hopefully retake this shot to see visually if any change has occurred. Part of why I take these pictures, and repeat them, is to show a change year over year to those around me. March 2014. Velvia 100, Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm Sekor
Themes in my current work as a photographer are the power of the glacial systems and how it affects us; feminism, and the radical ladies of Science/Adventure (Sandra, Chelsea and Dorothy, I’m looking at you!); [and] climate Change and how it is affecting low elevation and smaller glaciers. In the past year I’ve gone on the following expeditions, joy rides, and otherwise to help tell this story:
Self Guided - Patagonia, Torres Del Paine, O Circuit, February 2014
Self Guided - Byron Glacier, Alaska, November 2014
Self Guided - Patagonia, Torres Del Paine, W Circuit, March 2015
Self Guided - Byron Glacier, Alaska, June 2015
Thrukon Expedition - Spencer and Matanuska Glaciers, July 2015
Alaska Geographic Citizen Science Expedition - Middle Fork Toklat Glacier, August 2015
Glacier Traversal and Crevasse Rescue Course - Matanuska Glacier, August 2015
Self Guided - Portage Glacier, Alaska, August 2015
Self Guided - Milk Glacier, Alaska, August 2015
Self Guided - Byron Glacier, Alaska, November 2015
Hanging glaciers in the French Valley, Torres Del Paine, Patagonia, Chile. March 2015. Velvia 100, Mamiya 645 PRO TL, 80mm Sekor.
I really dig shooting portraits in extremely wild places and only using natural light. I’m not adverse to flash, but I enjoy coming to learn how to harness the power of the sun as it pertains to photography. I as well really enjoy using negative space to call attention to other structures as of late. In general, I like to do things in what I consider an odd way. I’m not a contrarian but I grew up punk, and so a desire to do things left of center I feel has arisen as a result. While this doesn’t dominate my choices on approach, it certainly has influenced it.
I shoot only film for photography nowadays, for a multitude of reasons. For one, I want to use a format with the most information density available to document these sights. I’m a student of Ansel Adams in many ways, and I also use some of the same cameras that he used to document the world around him, like the Hasselblad 500C/M, and now, Large Format. For two, the aesthetic breathes old life into familiar concepts. There is something about seeing a Velvia photo of a glacier that I just can’t replicate with digital.
Peering up through a hole in the ceiling of an ice cave on Byron Glacier. The floor was littered in gigantic chunks of ice, and as I stood there I wondered if another would come crashing on me. Ice caves are not places to feel comfortable, so I did my work and was out as quick as I came. You however are certainly conflicted as you sit in a very beautiful place, wanting to stay longer. This particular ice cave has collapse a number of times, moving further back into the hill over the past three years. Based on the glaciers retreat, new areas open up, each as unstable as the one before it. It becomes a lottery on if you will be able to step inside one from month to month. November 2015. Neopan Acros 100, Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm Distagon
IF YOU LIKE my photography, you can purchase prints of some my photos here.
Proceeds go to charities that benefit glacier research (and the occasional burrito for me).
I’m on Instagram at @aygueyguey
and Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/130892829@N08/
"Carrie Fisher," photograph by Brian Griffin
We've had our tickets for this weekend's May The Art Be With You: A Tribute to a Galaxy Far, Far Away for a while now; the Star Wars-themed group show opens at Studio Sohy on Saturday, and it sounds like a WHOLE LOT OF FUN. We caught up with the Bronwyn King, one of Studio Sohy's co-founders, for a little background on the show (and the goods on why we should all be spending more time in Hyattsville):
Martin Swift "Midnight Raid," ink on board
Can we get a brief "about" for Studio SoHy? Yes! We are an art and performance space located inside of Vigilante Roastery in Hyattsville. Our goal is to bring a diverse variety of art, artists and experiences to this community and to greater Prince George’s County. So far, our events have blended visual arts, music and great food to give folks an overall “experience”. In between the larger events, we also want to offer more intimate shows that are focused solely on the art and in giving people free access to new and interesting artists.
The shows you have always sound so fun! And in large part because of the group dynamic, but also because there always seems to be an element of additional programming, whether it be live art or food + drink. What does a "typical" Studio SoHy event look like? To date, the events have looked pretty wet. We had flash flooding at one and a hurricane threat at another. Yet, the weather doesn’t seem to dampen the mood. While Black Masala played to the crowd at the last event, the artist Howard Connelly cleared the space and rode his Big Trike sculpture around with 10 kids hollering off the back. Yes, kids, not only can you touch the art, you can ride it, too! I may come to regret that statement. In all seriousness, we could not be better situated to do these shows. The Hyattsville community is truly the best! Super supportive and always the last on the dance floor.
MAY THE ART BE WITH YOU. Talk a little bit about how this show came together, from concept to curation? Star Wars is one of those cultural touchstones that almost everyone enjoys, or, at the very least, can reference. I think artists really enjoy creating within the framework of the Star Wars universe and putting their own spin on it. With the new film coming out, we thought, why not? Not only will artists enjoy the theme, but the audience will have so much fun. What better way to say “happy holidays” than gifting your loved one with a one of a kind piece of Star Wars art.
"Head Space Case," collage by Cobra Wu
We're digging the artist lineup - any pieces we should keep an eye out for? Tough one. The artwork really is so diverse that it would be hard to pick just one! We have everything from a Star Wars book to Chewbacca VANS (mens 9.5 fyi…) For the hardcore fans, we do have four original Star Wars cast photos from the photographer Brian Griffin. Definite collectors’ items.
And if people aren't able to score tickets for Saturday, how long will the show be up for? The show will run through the end of January, but we are trying something new this time around. Our web guru, Chris Suspect, has built an online store that will open when the show opens. If you are stuck at a holiday party, but want to buy some Star Wars art, just log-in and create an account. Taking it a step further, each piece of art will have a QR code located directly on the artist’s label. Just scan the QR code with your smart phone and purchase that one of a kind piece before someone else gets it!
"Optimist," photo by Serli Lala
If someone wanted to make a whole Saturday out of the greater Hyattsville area, what are your recommendations? Love it!! Get things started with a pour over at Vigilante. The vibe at Vigilante can’t be beat. After that, stroll over to Franklin's and check out their General Store. Fill up a candy bag and pick out some craft beer from their diverse selection. Grab a quick bite and head over to Community Forklift where treasures abound. Don’t forget to check out all of the artists working in the area. From the Washington Glass School and Red Dirt Studios to the Brentwood Arts Exchange…there is a ton of art! Finish off your day just across the line at one of my fave spots, Nido. The food is delicious and the space is beautiful.
Thank you Bronwyn!
Tickets are $12-$15, and available here
artwork courtesy Studio Sohy
by Brian Griffin | Martin Swift | Cobra Wu | Serli Lala
