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1947 . . . Fringe One
The first Edinburgh Internationl Festival, a post-war initiative to re-unite Europe through culture. Well aware that there would be a good crowd and focused press interest, six Scottish and two English companies decided to gatecrash, setting up independently and finding their own venues in which to perform by using buildings unoccupied by the 'main' Festival. There were three defining features of the first Fringenone of the performers were invited to take part, they used small and unconventional theatre spaces and were obliged to take all of their own financial risks, flourishing or failing according to public demand.
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2006 . . . Fringe Sixty
The sixtieth Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe is the largest festival on the planet, uniting the arts world and attracting thousands of international performers, press and visitors. 16,100 performers, 1,800 shows, 1.3 million tickets sold in 2005. There are three defining features of the sixtieth Fringe - none of the performers were invited to take part, they use small and unconventional theatre spaces and are obliged to take all of their own financial risks, flourishing or failing according to public demand.
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The Edinburgh, Festival Fringe. These photographs were taken August 3-10, 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The subjects are performers who take to the streets and pass out flyers to promote their shows.
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The Bunker Hill Monument and Charlestown
In late 2004 I moved to Charlestown (a neighborhood of Boston) and was immediately struck by the contrasts. They seemed exaggerated by the fact they existed within its one square mile that is so distinctly bound by the Charles and Mystic Rivers, Boston Harbor and the Charlestown Neck. There are million dollar condos and the largest housing project in Massachusetts. A multi-star restaurant and a townie bar are a few blocks apart. The waterfront has medical research and automobile importing. There are clean streets and mean streets.
As I began exploring the town with my camera the Monument appeared in many pictures. They were of two types. One was the structure, its grounds and the activities related to them. The other was its ever, but mostly ignored, presence throughout the town.
That year a groundbreaking was held for a renovation of the Monument including new lighting. This will draw new attention to this historic structure in Charlestown and all of Boston. As the gentrification continues and the townies leave a Starbucks or a babyGap seems imminent. The Monument and its visual presence in Charlestown will never be the same.
Included here are some of the images from my extensive study of the Bunker Hill Monument and Charlestown. The project resulted in an exhibit of large fine art prints, some printed on canvas. The exhibit design also included a series of 8x10 prints hung about 36” high. They are intended to challenge children to ‘find the monument’ in each image hoping it would engage them in the exhibit and thereby contribute to their visual literacy.
All photographs were shot within the town’s borders between November 2004 and September 2005. Capture was 35mm film. Positives were scanned into Photoshop and prints made with Ultrachrome inks on fine art paper and canvas.
Below are excerpts from Daniel Webster’s address at the Monument and from the introduction to a recent novel set in Charlestown. These were included as part for the exhibition.
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THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT
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AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE
OF THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT AT CHARLESTOWN, MASS.,
ON THE 17TH OF JUNE, 1825.
BY
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DANIEL WEBSTER
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PRESIDENT OF THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION
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Copyright, 1893 by Houghton Mifflin & Co.
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We rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences which have been produced, by the same events, on the general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and every age. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of its toil. We wish that, in those days of disaster, which, as they come upon all nations, must be expected to come upon us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our national power are still strong. We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden him who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of this country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit.
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PRINCE OF THIEVES
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A Novel
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Chuck Hogan
Copyright 2004 by Multimedia Threat, Inc. |
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First, a toast. Raise a glass. Solemn now:
..........To the Town.
..........To Charlestown, our one square mile of brick and cobblestone. Neighborhood of Boston, yet lopped off every map of the city like a bastard cropped out of a happy family portrait.
..........This is the heart of the “Old Eleventh,” the district that first sent the Kennedy kid to Congress. The one square mile of America that shipped more boys off to World War II than any other. Site of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the blood of revolution sprinkled like holy water over our soil and our souls. Turf and Tribe and Townie Pride --- our sacred trinity.
..........But now look at these outsiders snapping up our brownstones and triple-deckers. Pricing us out of our own mothers’ houses. Yuppies with their Volvos and their Asian cuisine, their disposable incomes and contempt for the church --- succeeding where the British army failed, driving us off our land.
..........But sure, we don’t go away so easy. “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” --- that was us, remember. This carnation here may be a bit brown at the edges --- but see it still pinned to the tweed lapel over my beating Townie heart.
..........Be a hero now, reach me that jar. We’ll have a hard-boiled egg with this last one, see how she goes down. It’s caps off, gents. Here’s to that towering spike on a hill, the granite battle monument that’ll outlast us all: the biggest feckin’ middle finger in the world, aimed right at good brother Boston and the twenty-first century beyond.
To the Town. Here’s how.
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CALHOUN ISLES SILO CONDOS
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Converting a commercial building to living space is challenging. Projects include barns, schools, storefronts, churches, warehouses, light industrial factories - even gas stations. These structures have at least some types of doors and windows, and straight walls that meet at perpendicular angles. But silos? I liked the concept and was very curious about the execution. I probably would have gone across town to watch the process but I only had to cross the street.
I moved to 2817 Xerxes Avenue in 1977. An opening in the brush on 29th Street led to a field with the abandoned silos that would become Calhoun Isles Condominiums. I'd go over occasionally to explore - always with a camera. Conversion started in 1981. Evenings and on weekends I'd go check the progress - always with a camera. KEEP OUT, HARDHAT AREA, and so on were easy to ignore to get an interesting shot. I was around the materials and equipment, inside and up the structures a number of times during construction. This was not a systematic documentation project. A few shots on every few rolls of film.
I didn't really think about putting these photos together until a day I was there taking pictures and ran into someone from the developer's firm. He asked about what photos I might have of the project. This resulted in putting together a tray of slides that was shown as part of a designer showcase in the penthouse in December of 1982.
At the time I thought maybe some future residents might like prints of these photos, but I gave it up thinking they would be hard to hang on a curved wall. It was my sister, Midge Bolt, a photographer with her own digital imaging business that suggested I dig up those old slides and see if anyone would be interested twenty + years later. Seems people were. Ten photos were purchased by the Calhoun Isles Condominium Association. Four hang in each of the two lobbies and two larger prints are in the Party Room.
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CURRENT WORK
FORT WARREN
GEORGES ISLAND
BOSTON HARBOR
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David L Ryan/Globe Staff
I’ve been out to Georges Island only three times. Once with a hell of a thunder storm, once with fog, and once with the light in these photographs. I was not prepared for the interior shots. They are hand held at ISO 400-800. There are no ferries to the Boston Harbor Islands until spring. When they resume I plan to work this great subject.
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Artist Group of Charlestown
I am an artist member and on the Board of Directors. It is important for me to associate with painters and other artists.
Bob Krist Photography
Bob Krist taught A Sense of Place which I attended at the Maine Photography Workshops the summer of 2005. Excellent photographer and great guy.
Marylou Crowley
Marylou was another photographer in Bob Krist’s workshop. An inspiration by leaving one career to pursue another in photography and doing it right by seeking the training and experience to be successful.
James R. Dean, Photographer
James R. Dean, photographer. Deaner and I have been friends since Boy Scouts and Luther League in Minnesota. His photographs reveal what is happening for him on both sides of his eyes.
Joel Meyerowitz Photographer
At a time when b&w street and documentary photographs were what was considered ‘serious’ or ‘art’, I still loved my Kodachrome and wasn’t interested in shooting people or events. Then in 1978 Cape Lights was published.
Photographic Resource Center at Boston University
I am a member but don’t take advantage of this organization as much as I should. Did get to meet Elliot Erwitt at one of its events, however.
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