Touching the Mekong by Andrea Baldeck /  by Todd Henson

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Cover of Andrea Baldeck's Touching the Mekong

Cover of Andrea Baldeck's Touching the Mekong

Andrea Baldeck travels the world learning about and photographing other cultures. For Touching the Mekong she “spent two long sojourns in lands touched by the Mekong,” a river formed by snowmelt in Tibet, flowing through Southeast Asia touching countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Pages 14 - 15 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 14 - 15 of Touching the Mekong

“Terrains of seductive beauty and variety provoked awe and delight: the jungled mountains of the upper Mekong, the meanders of the Irrawaddy, the placid expanse of the Tonle Sap, the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal.”
— Andrea Baldeck
Pages 32 - 33 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 32 - 33 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 52 - 53 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 52 - 53 of Touching the Mekong

The book opens with a short two-page introduction where Baldeck provides context and texture to the photographs that occupy the rest of its 156 pages. You can feel her passion for the region and its people and you can see in the photographs her early inspiration from publications such as Life and National Geographic.

Pages 74 - 75 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 74 - 75 of Touching the Mekong

“In this highly varied landscape live equally diverse peoples, a cultural patchwork vividly evident at open-air markets and religious festivals, yet also subject to shifting political and economic pressures in a region changing more quickly than can be captured by the camera.”
— Andrea Baldeck
Pages 82 - 83 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 82 - 83 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 150 - 151 of Touching the Mekong

Pages 150 - 151 of Touching the Mekong

Baldeck says her photographs in Touching the Mekong are not a compendium or travelogue, but instead “are vey much a personal account of textured, nuanced, enigmatic moments in a fascinating world.” She has created images that show aspects of the landscape throughout the region and that capture the people in their homes, where they work, and in their places of worship. She has created posed portraits and also candid shots of people going about their life. We see bits and pieces from their lives including details in architecture and in the crafts and products they create.

Touching the Mekong is a book for people interested in other cultures. It provides a way for those of us who may never visit these regions to appreciate, at least in some small way, the people and culture of these locales.

Eastern Phoebe Catching Insects for its Young /  by Todd Henson

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Eastern Phoebe looking to the left

This Eastern Phoebe was found in my favorite wetlands park, just off the boardwalk that extends over portions of the wetlands. It was common to see these birds in this section as they created a nest under the boardwalk each year.

Eastern Phoebe tilting its head towards the camera

This particular bird was catching insects to bring back to the nest. Eastern Phoebe are a species of flycatcher, and when watching them you can easily see why they fit that name, catching insects, often in the air. Amazing little birds.

Eastern Phoebe with an insect in its beak

Eastern Phoebe with another insect in its beak

According to Wildlife of Virginia and Maryland and Washington, D.C., by Charles Fergus, they eat a variety of insects, including small wasps, bees, beetles, flies, and moths. They sit on a perch and watch for flying insects, then dart out and catch them. And as with most all flycatchers, their “drab plumage makes the waiting birds hard to see, not just by its prey, but also by hawks that hunt for flycatchers and other small birds.”

Eastern Phoebe looking back over its shoulder

Many of the flycatcher species can be difficult to tell apart. Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of North America lists the following as identifying characteristics of the Eastern Phoebe:

  • downward tail-bobbing

  • no eye ring

  • no strong wing bars

  • small, all-dark bill

  • dark head

  • its song.

Additionally, the Eastern Phoebe is known to nest in sheltered spots such as under a bridge, which was exactly the case with this phoebe (or perhaps it was actually a pair).

Eastern Phoebe preening

Spending a little time standing in the same location can sometimes pay off when observing and photographing nature. Doing so allowed me to notice this phoebe flying from beneath the bridge and onto a nearby perch. I noticed it kept returning to the same set of perches after darting off to catch an insect. And it always flew back under the bridge in the same spot. When I walked over that spot I could hear the young chicks in the nest.

So stop and stand (or sit) every so often on your hikes. Just rest a while and observe. Look around and listen. Maybe you’ll notice something interesting.

 
 

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Irving Penn: Platinum Prints /  by Todd Henson

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Cover of Irving Penn: Platinum Prints

Cover of Irving Penn: Platinum Prints

Irving Penn: Platinum Prints collects together in book form the material he donated to the National Gallery of Art in 2002 and 2003. The material included 85 platinum / palladium prints and 17 collages of test prints, all beautifully reproduced in this book.

I purchased this book because I knew the name Irving Penn. But I wasn’t very familiar with his actual work, just that he was a well known American photographer who had worked in the fashion industry. I’m very much a believer in improving ones own work by studying the work of others regardless of how much their subject matter differs from your own. So when I found a copy of the book at a local used book store I grabbed it.

I have always loved the look of platinum and palladium prints, with their fantastic tonal variations, though I haven’t been fortunate enough to view very many in person. As beautiful as the prints look in the book I can only imagine how much more impactful they might be in person.

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 6: New York Still Life, 1947

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 6: New York Still Life, 1947

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 7: Ballet Theatre Group, New York, 1947. Plate 8: Ballet Society, New York, 1948

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 7: Ballet Theatre Group, New York, 1947. Plate 8: Ballet Society, New York, 1948

Irving Penn may be best know for his fashion work, having created many photographs for Vogue magazine. But the prints in this book show his interests went much further than fashion. He created still life images, portraits of well-known and influential people, and of common folk from various cultures around the world. And of course, he also produced photographs related to fashion.

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 12: Mother and Sleeping Child, Cuzco, 1948. Plate 13: Family with Mother Nursing Child, Cuzco, 1948

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 12: Mother and Sleeping Child, Cuzco, 1948. Plate 13: Family with Mother Nursing Child, Cuzco, 1948

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 37: Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France, 1957

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 37: Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France, 1957

I really like this book. The prints are beautiful with such rich tones. The lighting is gorgeous. The book is printed on a thick stock matte paper. Sarah Greenough provided an essay that describes Penn’s life and how he got into platinum / palladium printing. The book also includes a chronology of Penn’s life, a checklist from the exhibition with details about each print, and a lengthy bibliography of works by and about Irving Penn.

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 53: Four Unggai, New Guinea, 1970. Plate 54: Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea, 1970

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 53: Four Unggai, New Guinea, 1970. Plate 54: Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea, 1970

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 80: Composition with Skull and Pear, New York, 1979. Plate 81: The Poor Lovers, New York, 1979

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 80: Composition with Skull and Pear, New York, 1979. Plate 81: The Poor Lovers, New York, 1979

This book can be hard to find but if you manage to find a copy I would grab it, or at least take the time to look through it. I would very much enjoy one day seeing some of these prints in person.

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 98: Platinum Test Materials 10/17, 1989. Plate 99: Platinum Test Materials 15/17, 1989

Irvin Penn: Platinum Prints. Plate 98: Platinum Test Materials 10/17, 1989. Plate 99: Platinum Test Materials 15/17, 1989

Creating a platinum print is a very hands on process. The Met posted a short video on YouTube where Vasilios Zatse, an assistant of Irving Penn, describes how Penn created his platinum and palladium prints. Check it out if you're curious about the process.

In this animated video of Irving Penn's darkroom, Vasilios Zatse, who was an assistant to Penn from 1996 to 2009, explains the artist's innovative process for making platinum-palladium prints. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Irving Penn: Centennial, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from April 24 through July 30, 2017.

Have you ever seen any of Irving Penn’s prints in person? Are you familiar with his work? Let me know in the comments below.