http://berkshirereview.net Classical Music, Opera, Theatre, Photography, Art Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:17:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Classical Music, Opera, Theatre, Photography, Art Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts no Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts editor@berkshirereview.net editor@berkshirereview.net (Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts) © 2010 Michael Miller A Podcast from the Berkshire Review for the Arts classical music, opera, theatre, dance, art, photography, literature, travel, food, wine http://www.berkshirereview.net/images/BRbloglogo.jpg http://berkshirereview.net/category/photography/ http://berkshirereview.net/2010/06/vermont-hippies-seventies-photo-peter-simon-rebecca-lepkoff/ http://berkshirereview.net/2010/06/vermont-hippies-seventies-photo-peter-simon-rebecca-lepkoff/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:57:27 +0000 The Editor http://berkshirereview.net/?p=6606 http://berkshirereview.net/2010/06/vermont-hippies-seventies-photo-peter-simon-rebecca-lepkoff/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2010/05/alias-man-ray-the-art-of-reinvention-jewish-museum-new-york/ http://berkshirereview.net/2010/05/alias-man-ray-the-art-of-reinvention-jewish-museum-new-york/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 04:45:05 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=6381 http://berkshirereview.net/2010/05/alias-man-ray-the-art-of-reinvention-jewish-museum-new-york/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2010/01/irish-travellers-tinkers-macweeney/ http://berkshirereview.net/2010/01/irish-travellers-tinkers-macweeney/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:00:23 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=2151 http://berkshirereview.net/2010/01/irish-travellers-tinkers-macweeney/feed/ 0 Brattleboro,gypsies,Ireland,Vermont Center for Photography In his important collection of anthropological photography, Robert Gardner made clear the connection between the ethnographer's record of life in western Papua or Ethiopia and the photojournalist's observation of downtown Barcelona or Dallas. Traveller Liam Weldon sings "The Blue Tar Road." --- (http://berkshirereview.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/MacWeeney4.jpg) Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More by Alen MacWeeney, Introduction by Bairbre Ni Fhloinn New England College Press, 2007 (with an exhibition at the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, Vermont, June-July 2009) In his important collection of anthropological photography, (http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/robert-gardner-human-documents-eight-photographers/) Human Documents, Robert Gardner made clear the connection between the ethnographer's record of life in western Papua or Ethiopia and the photojournalist's observation of downtown Barcelona or Dallas. Alen MacWeeney's Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More is one further document in this fluid branch of study. The travellers were and still are a constant presence in Ireland, where MacWeeney was born and raised, although, at least in the 1960's when these photographs were made, a largely unseen one—this is, on purpose. A professional need, it seems, sucked Alen MacWeeney into their society, and he remained, to observe and experience it in depth. This was not an ordinary professional desideratum, but a thoroughly Irish one. He was working on a photoessay on W. B. Yeats and was looking for a tinker to photograph. Then, on the outskirts of Dublin he found a vast camp. Now, after some forty years what he observed among the travellers has been made public. Alen McWeeney is unquestionably one of the stars of the contemporary photography world. Since his early job as Richard Avedon's assistant in New York in the 1960's, he has published his work in all the magazines where photgraphers most want to be published, and he has developed a technical virtuosity not one bit inferior to his master. He is also incredibly versatile, defying categorization. In portraiture he approaches the wealthy New Yorker and the Irish pig farmer with equal respect, and his subtle, offbeat sensibility finds the intangible, transient quality which makes them fully alive as spiritual presences before the viewer. He turns his lens to objects with fascination and passion, but preferably to objects of some age and curious allure, if not always the classic quality which would bring them into a museum. Yes, some of these things are a bit funky, but they represent in the first place the taste of the people who hire him to photograph their treasures. And MacWeeney never fails to show his fascination with both. He photographs fashion like no one else today, preserving some of the unique qualities of the couture Steichen, Horst, and Avedon had at their disposal, which has all but disappeared today. He also works with landscapes and buildings—in many parts of the world, but most often in his native Ireland. Focus, composition, color balance are always not only technically perfect, but just what the subject—and the client—need. Before Avedon, however, MacWeeney, beginning at the age of sixteen, was with the Irish Times and then for a couple of years freelancing, doing portraits, fashion, and theater photographs. In 1965 he returned to Ireland to work on a photo essay about W. B. Yeats. In search of a tinker woman as a subject, he found "a sprawling field of caravans, shed, and horses...on the outskirts of Dublin. On one hut he happened on a curious sign of a political nature, which led to the first of several long term acquaintances among the people of the camp, as well as in others. Alen MacWeeney found himself immersed in the life of the people then called tinkers, but now more respectfully known as travellers, for the next five years. These people lived in the country he had grown up in, but he knew little about them. Like the rest of his fellow Irishmen, he had ignored them, and, for their part, the travellers maintained a culture of secrecy. To MacWeeney they were like the migrant farmers of the American depression: "poor, white, and dispossessed. Michael Miller no 5:40 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/gyorgy-kepes-polaroid-reminiscence/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/gyorgy-kepes-polaroid-reminiscence/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:51:24 +0000 Richard Harrington http://berkshirereview.net/?p=5225 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/gyorgy-kepes-polaroid-reminiscence/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/edward-steichen-in-high-fashion-conde-nast/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/edward-steichen-in-high-fashion-conde-nast/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:20:47 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=5095 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/edward-steichen-in-high-fashion-conde-nast/feed/ 2 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/robert-gardner-human-documents-eight-photographers/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/robert-gardner-human-documents-eight-photographers/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:29:04 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=4972 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/12/robert-gardner-human-documents-eight-photographers/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/10/bloomsbury-photographs-photographic-editions-tuesday-6th-october-2009/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/10/bloomsbury-photographs-photographic-editions-tuesday-6th-october-2009/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:27:18 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=4563 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/10/bloomsbury-photographs-photographic-editions-tuesday-6th-october-2009/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/05/hudson-river-valley-photographed-greg-miller-stan-lichens/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/05/hudson-river-valley-photographed-greg-miller-stan-lichens/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 03:00:30 +0000 Michael Miller http://berkshirereview.net/?p=1675 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/05/hudson-river-valley-photographed-greg-miller-stan-lichens/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/01/abord-queen-mary-2/ http://berkshirereview.net/2009/01/abord-queen-mary-2/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000 Kate Hagerman http://www.berkshirereview.net/?p=834 http://berkshirereview.net/2009/01/abord-queen-mary-2/feed/ 0 http://berkshirereview.net/2008/12/meeting-charis/ http://berkshirereview.net/2008/12/meeting-charis/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:38:38 +0000 Kate Hagerman http://www.berkshirereview.net/?p=1175 http://berkshirereview.net/2008/12/meeting-charis/feed/ 0