Category Archives: Photographs

Bottega Veneta

Photographs

Now that’s a LARGE print!

It’s five years since I confessed to my liking for Really Large Prints, and I have to say that I like them as much today as I ever did.

But when Bottega Veneta, the luxury Italian leather goods store, decided to lease this space on Stockton Street in San Francisco’s ritzy shopping area, they hid their improvements in grand style!

Imagine the size of the printer required to make this ….

Stockton Street. G1, kit lens @18mm, 1/400, f/9, ISO 320.

I had to wait for ages for traffic to clear and for the pedestrians to be arranged just so. Look carefully and you can make out the front door for the construction crew.

Brown bagger

Photographs

A spot of luck.

I was gazing at this fine mural off 24th Street in San Francisco, trying to figure out the meaning of the bubble or raindrop between the fingers, when the pedestrian chanced along.

Mission District at 24th and York. G1, Olympus 9-18mm MFT @ 18mm, 1/800, f/7.1, ISO 320.

He glanced up for a moment and I had the snap.

The Olympus 9-18mm MFT lens is great for this sort of thing; it focuses almost as fast as the 14-45mm Panny kit lens and what distortions it leaves behind are easily fixed in LR3 using my custom, downloadable correction files which you can find here. The lens is an outstanding optical performer, especially given its pocketable size. Optically it is easily the equal of the kit lens, which is to say very good indeed. And at 9mm (18mm FFE) it’s as wide as you need in all but the most demanding settings. While Panny’s considerably costlier 7-14mm MFT goes quite a bit wider, there’s no way to protect the protruding front glass with a filter, so Panny’s glass does not pass my ‘throw it in a jacket pocket test’, given that I have no inclination to futz with lens caps.

The only drawback the 9-18mm Oly has compared to the kit zoom is that there’s no OIS and you have to extend the lens from its collapsed position for use. If you forget to do that the G1 will refuse to work.

Inca tribute

Photographs

Well done BART.

A trip on the San Francisco subway system – BART – is not all sweetness and light. While visionary when completed in 1972, the rider is confronted with cars that have seemingly not been washed since that year, carpets of like vintage, and a noise level well over 100dB in the tunnels. Having ridden the Paris Metro (now with quiet rubber tires), the London Underground, the NY Subway (Dante’s Inferno in the summer) and the Washington DC Metro on many occasions, I can only think it’s noise caused by poor engineering. None of the alternative systems is anywhere near as loud.

But one thing that does stand out is that the politicians funding BART did not skimp on art and I cannot think of a better expenditure of public monies. This example is at one of the exits at the 24th and Mission station and whenever I take our son to his cartooning classes at that stop, we always pause and revel in the sculptures which are so fine a tribute to Inca culture.

G1, kit lens @ 23mm, 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 320/

There are many sculptures and murals to be found all over the system and they are a joy to discover.

G1, kit lens @43mm, 1/40, f/5.6, ISO 320.

The Finger

Photographs

The moving finger, having writ, moves on.

On 24th Street, east of Van Ness Boulevard, San Francisco.

At Ms. Terioso’s. G1, kit lens @ 18mm, ISO 320.

With apologies to Omar Khayyam.

The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a Word of it.

The Stein show at SF MOMA

Paintings

Quite special.

When it came to collecting early twentieth century modern art, none could outdo the Steins. Not only was their appetite voracious, their taste was also excellent. All of this is clearly on display in the show at SF MOMA which presents most of their collections, many of the canvases and sketches now spread all over the world. The fours Steins, author Gertrude and her two brothers and sister-in-law, left America for Paris just as Picasso and Matisse were rewriting the history books of art, and started buying much of these artists’ output around 1905. While the Steins were far from robber baron rich, they could afford to buy for the simple reason that canvases from these masters ran a few hundred francs a pop. Today, Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude would likely run to eight or nine digits, though I very much doubt its owner, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, is a seller.

The show is huge and exceptionally well curated. I’m no great fan of Matisse and Picasso, but confess that seeing the original sketches for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ was enthralling. It’s one of the few mistakes Gertrude made – she bought the sketches but passed on the canvas, now largely recognized as being the dividing line between representative and cubist art. Picasso’s portrait of Stein is also really special, though my favorites were Matisse’s ‘The Girl with Green Eyes’, his ‘Woman with Hat’ and the two sloe eyed portraits of Sarah and Michael Stein. There was also an exceptional Picabia portrait of Gertrude, deeply insightful.

SF MOMA was fortunate that Sarah Stein retired in California and gave some of her best works by Matisse to the museum. Mercifully she did not live in Arkansas.

Matisse – The Girl with Green Eyes. SF MOMA collection.

Matisse – Woman with Hat. SF MOMA collection.

It’s amusing to learn about the ridicule critics laded on these works, having done the same to the impressionists not 30 years earlier. That’s what so distinguishes the Steins’ collections. They did not have great wealth, just great taste, and did not need anyone to tell them what to like. When you look at some of the great Robber Baron collectors like Henry Clay Frick (now in his mansion on 5th Ave, NYC – the collection, not the man) and Charles Tyson Yerkes (dissipated by creditors) they were all professionally advised. Someone had to tell them what was good. Figures, I guess.

The exhibition is large, but then so were the Steins’ collections. Half way through you can pop out on MOMA’s balcony and take a breather.

MOMA’s balcony. G1, kit lens.

Strongly recommended, even at $25 to get in. Despite going on a weekday, the place was full, so weekends are likely not much fun. The $250 annual membership option at SF MOMA almost makes sense, as it includes private ‘members only’ viewings of great shows like this. I would think that means fewer people crassly stepping in front of you when you are trying to enjoy a canvas on the wall.

If you want a fine biography of the American expatriate set in early twentieth century Paris, I recommend James Mellow‘s ‘Charmed Circle’. It’s out of print, but mine ran me all of $1 from Alibris.com. Or for more fun, just catch Woody Allen’s latest masterpiece ‘Midnight in Paris‘ where you can join Owen Wilson, transported back in time, to Gertrude’s salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus. A light as air confection, it’s every bit as enjoyable and amusing as the work of the artists the Steins supported.