27-JUL-2015
Restful spot, The Athenaeum, Chautauqua, New York, 2015.
Along with its huge veranda, the Athenaeum offers numerous small porches, each furnished entirely in wicker. I made image shortly after dawn. The sun is just rising over Lake Chautauqua, its rays working their way through the surrounding trees. The hotel still slumbers. The only sound is the call of gulls in the distance. This photograph is all about the mood and atmosphere of another time.
28-JUL-2015
Reflection, The Athenaeum, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
A rising sun reflecting off the glass of a window on the top floor of the Athenaeum seems to wink at us as it’s glare draws the eye towards the great Victorian dome that stills rises over the hotel. This section of the hotel is the original structure. Over the years, additional wings have been added.
27-JUL-2015
Massey Memorial Organ, the Amphitheater, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
The largest outdoor organ in the world fills Chautauqua’s 5,000 seat wooden Amphitheater with awe-inspiring sound. It was built into the Amphitheatre in 1907, and reconstructed over the years. This closely cropped image of its pipes composed itself. I moved in until the tensions and rhythms of the thrusting pipes merged perfectly within my horizontal frame.
27-JUL-2015
End of an era? The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
The Amphitheater, built over a ravine 120 years ago, is one of the most historic buildings in the United States. Reconstructed over the years, the antiquated barn-like Amphitheatre seats 5,000 people on pew-like movable benches perched along a steep incline. Such diverse figures as William Jennings Brian, Booker T. Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Barry Goldwater, and Bill and Hillary Clinton have lectured here. The Amp, as well as the entire Chautauqua Institution, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
These Chautauqua participants arriving for a morning lecture may be among the last to ever sit in the old place. The Chautauqua Institute wants to demolish the entire Amphitheater and replace it with a larger, modernized replica. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Chautauqua Amphitheatre is now one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.” Preservationists are hoping the building can be once again renovated, without demolishing it. The fate of the “Amp” hangs in the balance.
28-JUL-2015
Q&A with Ava DuVernay, The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015.
One of five lectures I attended in Chautauqua’s “Amp,” featured a lively question and answer session with Ava DuVernay, the director of “Selma,” a film about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights march. I found a seat in the front row, and from there I could make this unobstructed image of DuVernay as she responded to a question. The image not only captures DuVernay as she gestures and makes eye contact with thousands of Chautauqua participants. It places her amidst an array of geometric shapes, each symbolizing various and often opposing ideas.
30-JUL-2015
Illustrated lecture, Tom Toles, The Amphitheater, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Tom Toles is an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post. He presented one of the five lectures I attended in Chautauqua’s historic Amphitheatre as part of a week long series of events focusing on the relationship of “Art and Politics.” Here Toles discusses his cartoon commenting on the January, 2015 terrorist attack that killed eleven people in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly newspaper. I used a wideangle lens from the Amphitheater’s front row, layering the image by using the pair of floral displays at the base of the podium to echo the speaker as he brings both of his arms up at once to make a point. Another layer, comprising three rectangular overhead screens showing the cartoon in question, as well the backdrop of three green rectangular panels, adds context for meaning.
28-JUL-2015
Sound of silence, The Amphitheater, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
I made this image from the Amphitheater’s choir loft several hours before the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra offered an “Evening with Mozart.” It is an incongruous scene of chairs en mass, waiting for someone to use them. I use my wideangle lens to layer the image with the choir loft in the foreground, a stage waiting for an orchestra in the middle ground, and a vast array of empty spectator seats in the background. The sound of a symphony is nowhere to be heard. In fact, my image speaks only of silence.
28-JUL-2015
Waiting for the music, The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Concertgoers eager to choose their favorite seats sometimes show up at Chautauqua’s venerable Amphitheater an hour or two before the music begins. These women fill the time by tapping on their electronic devices. I tell the story here by placing the subjects in the upper right hand corner of the fame, and echoing their presence with the diagonal wall moving into the frame from the left. I anchor the image with a softly focused floral display, which sits upon the concert stage itself. The entire image is tied together by the rhythmic flow of empty wooden benches. They will soon be filled to capacity.
28-JUL-2015
Cellist, The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
A lone cellist practices for an evening concert at Chautauqua. I include just enough of the surrounding chairs and music stands to express a sense of isolation, yet I make him large enough in the frame to express a sense of commitment to his art.
28-JUL-2015
Camaraderie, The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Three members of the local symphony orchestra arrive together for a final practice well before the evening’s concert begins. I lead the eye to them with a curving row of three empty chairs, and offer a sense of place by relating them to the rows of empty benches in the Amphitheater in the background. They seem to be relaxed and at ease with each other, veteran musicians who express an aura of camaraderie.
28-JUL-2015
Pyramid, The Amphitheatre, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
More musicians arrive and the Chautauqua Amphitheater comes to life prior to a symphonic performance. I climbed into the choir loft to shoot down on this grouping of musicians. They form a perfect pyramid as they talk and practice, echoed by the repeated diagonal thrusts of musical instruments. A symphony orchestra is ultimately a cohesive team, and this image not only tells us that they care about their work – it shows us a symbolic geometric representation of a team in action.
28-JUL-2015
An evening of Mozart, The Amphitheater, Chautauqua, New York, 2015
Shortly before the start of the concert, I shot over the shoulder of violinist as he arranged the evening’s music upon his stand. The scene tells us that one of the evening’s works will be music from Mozart’s opera, “The Marriage of Figaro.” A photo such as this abstracts the person in the picture instead of describing his appearance. It literally puts the viewer into the performers seat.