Friday 16 April 2010

Penn's Room with a World

"I share with many people the feeling that there is a sweetness and constancy to light that falls into a studio from the north sky that sets it beyond any other illumination. It is a light of such penetrating clarity that even a simple object lying by chance in such a light takes on an inner glow, almost a voluptuousness. This cold north light has a quality which painters have always admired, and which the early studio photographers made the fullest use of. It is this light that makes some of these early studio portraits sing with an intensity not bettered by later photographers with more sophisticated means at hand. Electric lights are a convenience, but they are used, I believe, at the expense of that simple three-dimensional clarity, that absolute existence that a subject has standing before a camera in a north-light studio."


A magnificent Methuselah of central Dahomey, 1967 (image via).

A young Berber shepherdess of the Aït Yazza people in the High Atlas, with a newborn lamb.


"Taking people away from their natural circumstances and putting them into the studio in front of a camera did not simply isolate them, it transformed them. Sometimes the change was subtle; sometimes it was great enough to be almost shocking. But always there was transformation. As they crossed the threshold of the studio, they left behind some of the manners of their community, taking on a seriousness of self-presentation that would not have been expected of simple people. ...the one characteristic all these various people seem to have in common is that they rose to the experience of being looked at by a stranger, in most cases from another culture, with dignity and a seriousness of concentration that they would never have had ten or fifteen feet away, outside the studio, in their own surroundings.

 
The studio became, for each of us, a sort of neutral area. It was not their home, as I had brought this alien enclosure into their lives; it was not my home, as I had obviously come from elsewhere, far away. But in this limbo there was for us both the possibility of contact that was a revelation to me and often, I could tell, a moving experience for the subjects themselves, who without words - by only their stance and their concentration - were able to say much that spanned the gulf between our different worlds."


Two Peruvian country children, brother and sister, dressed for a visit to Cuzco. The piano stool tells something of their tiny size (originally intended as the cover photo of Cahoots).

Cuzco Children, Peru, Christmas (1948)

*All images and text above from Worlds in a Small Room by Irving Penn, Grossman, 1974.


Irving Penn (1917~2009), taken by another great American portraitist, Bert Stern, in the 1960s. (image via)

Rose, Colour Wonder (London), 1970, by Irving Penn (image via).

Thursday 15 April 2010

Princesses of Ming 明


All exquisite jewellery below by Ming Design, London.


Qing Dynasty royal emerald snuff bottle, 19th Century. 
十九世紀 御用翡翠饕餮紋鼻煙壺 (image via 寒舍藝術中心)
Chinese Princess: Lantern Earrings
Pavé-set diamonds, black & green enamel, 18ct white and yellow gold


The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, lit. "Under a Wave off Kanagawa"), by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎).

Japanese Princess: Hokusai Water Earrings
Brilliant-cut diamonds, marquise-cut sapphires, blue enamel, 18ct white gold


Chinese Princess: Pagoda Ring
Onyx, square-cut emeralds, 18ct yellow gold


Tibetan Monastery (image via)
Tibetan Princess: Monastery Ring
Natural imperial jade, 18ct yellow gold


明 隆慶 甜白雙龍戲珠紋碗 (image via)
Chinese Princess: Dragon Chasing Flaming Pearl Earrings
200 pavé-set diamonds, rubies, Tahitian pearls, 18ct white gold


 傳統藝術 蝙蝠剪紙女紅 (image via)
Chinese Princess: Happiness Bat Earrings
108 pavé-set diamonds, white gold


Tibetan prayer wheels (image via)

Tibetan Princess: Open Ring
Pigeon's blood rubies, 18ct yellow gold


Kusho 1, by Shinichi Maruyama

Film still from Gion Bayashi 祇園囃子 (1953), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

Japanese Princess: Tourmaline Ribbon Ring
7.64ct oval-cut Brazilian tourmaline, brilliant-cut diamonds, 18ct yellow gold


 Details of an Indian miniature painting (image via)
Indian Princess: Paisley Earrings
27cts emerald drops, 3.66cts brilliant-cut diamonds, 18ct white gold


an albinistic peacock
Japanese Princess: Swan Hoops
590 pavé-set diamonds, 18ct white gold


 Phoenix Hall (Amida Hall, or 鳳凰堂 hōō-dō), Byōdō-in (平等院), Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan {image via}

Tokyo Imperial Palace
Japanese Princess: Aquamarine Drops
30cts pear-shaped aqamarines, pavé-set diamonds, 18ct white gold


The Lake Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India (image via)

Indian Princess: Lake Palace Cuff
Natural yellow brilliant-cut diamonds, 18ct yellow gold


Tuesday 13 April 2010

Collected Quotes: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau


By Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

“Goethe always said that life must be like art somehow. It is for him only bearable if it is art. Otherwise it cannot be lived.”

“Art itself nourishes me as an inner vision. It has provided – and continues to provide – a possibility to lift oneself up to another level.”

“An intellectual singer is unthinkable, because a singer, like almost no other creature on earth, represents the proposition that there can be something approaching a unity of body, soul, and mind, at least in a symbolic fashion.”

“It is important to know that we are not the master of our will, that the intellect does not come first. First comes the will to expression – the drive to express oneself, to express artistic things. Only after that comes the critical distance that channels it.”

“In everything you do, you establish a kind of moral framework. You can never start too close to the basic principles.”

“I’m still very bound to the word, you know: committed to making the text more alive, more understood, closer to the audience than it may be on the printed page.”

“Performing music is more a question of serving, but painting is a dialogue from the start. You make only one stroke – and from that moment you are in discussion with your subject.”


On Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

“You’re not a singer, you’re a bard!” (Paul Hindemith)

“He is a marvellous combination of intellectual power and wonderful vocal technique, and above all, he has a tremendous imagination.” (Gerald Moore)

“Fischer-Dieskau made a greater impression on the history of singing in the 20th century than any other performer.” (Hilary Finch)

“All of Fischer-Dieskau’s artwork is a mere accessory to his music making, only part of his adamant urge for ultimate self-expression. He scales artistic Matterhorns because they are there.”

For the Love of Josephine Foster...


It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eter­nally justified. (Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy)
+++

An die Musik, by Franz Schubert

Lyrics (original poem in German by Franz von Schober)

Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden,
Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis umstrickt,
Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Lieb' entzünden,
Hast mich in eine beßre Welt entrückt!

Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!

Oh lovely Art, in how many grey hours,
When life's fierce orbit ensnared me,
Have you kindled my heart to warm love,
Carried me away into a better world!

How often has a sigh escaping from your harp,
A sweet, sacred chord of yours
Opened up for me the heaven of better times,
Oh lovely Art, for that I thank you!


Franz Schubert composed his lied "An die Musik" (German for "To Music") in March 1817 for solo voice and piano, with text from a poem by his friend Franz von Schober. In the Deutsch catalog of Schubert's works it is number 547, or D547. It was published in 1827 as Opus 88 No. 4 by Weigl.

A hymn to the art of music, it is one of the best-known songs by Schubert. Its greatness and popularity are generally attributed to its harmonic simplicity, sweeping melody, and a strong bass line that effectively underpins the vocal line.  (Source: Wikipedia)


American modern folk singer-songwriter Josephine Foster did a swooningly beautiful rendition of this song, which is included in her 2006 album A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing as the opening track (a live performance below). Be sure to click here and download the full album version - it is seriously too gorgeous to miss.

 



Dame Janet Baker sings Schubert's An die Musik, piano accompaniment by Murray Perahia, Covent Garden, London.




My absolute favourite baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's interpretation...



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