The Amateur
I always tell people I’m ‘practising’ photography and would not, could not describe myself as a professional.
But how I’ve felt about being too ill to make photos for several days has reminded me that ‘love’ is the root of the word ‘amateur’.
Here’s to the amateur.
The key for you to understand here with the work of James Nizam. In order to get these photographs, in order to create these wonderful light installations, James makes incisions into the structure of a house to manipulate sunlight into light sculptures. That’s right, its the sun …
These are incredible in our book, and the amount of time and engineering involved must be a major task. The series is called Trace Heavens, and Nizam has an exhibition at Gallery Jones in Vancouver at the moment… worth a check for sure. (via booooooom)
Oh I love it! A gallery with no sculptures, only a cloud floating within the space. ‘Nimbus’ is a new installation of Amsterdam-based artist Berndnaut Smilde, who refuses to explain how he managed to create a real cloud
Bloom: 28,000 Potted Flowers Installed at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Installation by Anna Schuleit.
Also interesting! I do love reading all the comments! :)A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
(Photo of Joshua Bell by Eric Kabik)
Actually? It’s probably because he sucked at busking. There are professional buskers who know what kind of music to play for what kind of crowd, they know how to connect with their audience directly, and many of them are by far talented enough to play “professionally” like Mr. Bell. People assume that musicians on the street aren’t as talented as someone who sells concert tickets, but what’s really selling the tickets for people who have never heard Bell play? His reputation, and the prestige of seeing a “world-class” musician in person. They ignore him on the street because he doesn’t grab their attention, because past a certain point in his career he’s never had to work for attention.
Just because busking isn’t prestigious it’s dismissed as a skill, and it’s one Bell doesn’t have. The conclusions drawn from this experiment shouldn’t be people ignore art because we’re in a hurry, it should be people ignore art because society tells them art takes place in a concert hall and not on the street.
