The Queen Portraits (2004)

This short video, taken from a documentary, offers a fun look at the Queen during a photo shoot at the Palace in 2004.

In 2004 Chris Levine was commissioned by the Island of Jersey to create a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The portrait was to commemorate 800 years of allegiance to the crown by the Island. A body of work was shot at Buckingham Palace over two sittings and the title works Equanimity and Lightness of Being have been widely acclaimed worldwide.

EQUANIMITY, the first holographic portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, was displayed at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, in 2004.

Jersey Heritage Trust commissioned light artist Chris Levine to create a portrait of Her Majesty to celebrate 800 years of loyalty to the English Crown. Having originally seen his work in a British Council Touring exhibition, the Jersey Museum decided that Chris’s work was so original that they commissioned him for this historic celebration. Jonathan Carter, Director of Jersey Heritage Trust, said: “We think Chris’s work exemplifies the 21st century and the links between Jersey and the Crown. It is a tribute to Chris that he has created such a fascinating piece of contemporary art.”

To create the over-life-size three-dimensional portrait, Chris Levine took over 10,000 images and 3D data-sets of Her Majesty during two sittings at Buckingham Palace. The final hologram is mounted in glass and illuminated by a strip of blue LEDs. The work shows The Queen wearing the Diamond Diadem, created for George IV and worn by Her Majesty for the procession to her Coronation in 1953.

EQUANIMITY was displayed at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from 17 July until 3 October 2004 with the exhibition George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste (until 9 January 2005).

The Jersey Museum, St Helier, Jersey exhibited  EQUANIMITY from 23 June until 2006, when the work went on permanent display at the historic Mont Orgueil.

ROYAL COLLECTION, BUCKINGHAM PALACE / Press Release

Guardian TV Interview

Happy Birthday Ansel Adams

This week marks the 110th birthday of the late photographer and environmentalist, Ansel Adams (Feb. 20 1902 — Apr. 22, 1984). For more breathtakingly beautiful images, click here.

Follow the link below for more on the Ansel Adams photos in the National Archives.
http://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams/

Every Doorway Has A Story

This image of a mystery door was taken by my dear friend Susan, on her recent trip to Creede, Colorado.

I'll leave the door metaphors to you, clever readers!

Is This Spring?

Earlier this week, my dear and talented photographer friend Susan sent me this photo. I marveled at the colors, her composition and the oddly sweet juxtaposition of tulips capped with snow.

When I spoke with her later that day, I casually asked how long ago she had taken the photo with the flowers and the snow. I knew they had experienced a big white winter this season. Had their April showers brought more snow last month?

She quickly clarified that the flowers dusted with snow were the scene she'd captured that Sunday, on the first weekend of May near her home in southwestern Colorado.

I didn't want to mention that we had been enjoying unseasonably warm and sunny weather all week. Fruit frees are flowering and shrubs are blooming. Even people seem to be happier.

Still Life Distilled

In her recent work, photographer Sharon Core has beautifully rendered still life paintings in the style of Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825), one of America's early masters in this genre.

His still life paintings featured perfectly articulated everyday objects: ceramic tableware, glassware, fruit and flowers.

Core has recreated Peale's tableaus with collected antique serving pieces, vegetables and ripened fruits. Her brilliant attention to composition, scale, color and lighting produce a visual feast for modern and traditional tastes alike.



More images from Sharon Core's "Early American" series may be found here and here.

Interior Details

In this photocollage from the 1860s, the artist painted the interior scene and added photographs of 14 family and friends (including the pooch) to liven things up a bit.

Some nice details to admire include the curtains hung over the mirror above the mantel, the lovely blue carpeting and matching hearth rug, the openwork, woven plant stand with greenery and the oval frames hung from the decorative, maybe wallpapered, picture rail and ornamented with ribbons and bows.

Thank you Lady Filmer for sharing your real or imagined Victorian parlor.

Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Mary Georgiana Caroline, Lady Filmer (English, 1838–1903)
Untitled loose page from the Filmer Album, mid-1860s
Collage of watercolor and albumen silver prints; 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (22.2 x 28.6 cm)
Paul F. Walter

Victorian Photocollages

With advances in photography in the mid nineteenth century, sharing and swapping inexpensive photo booth style portraits became so popular it was called cardomania. The availability of photo portraits inspired amateur watercolorists and artists in the 1860s and 1870s to include cut outs of these images and insert them onto scenes or create scenes around them.

Photocollages, which were predominantly made by English women of leisure, created a new form of creative expression for the Victorians. An selection of these delightful works on paper is currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 9.

The image above, reminiscent of an 18th century conversation piece painting, is an untitled page from the Sackville-West album, made by a great aunt of Vita.

Photo: Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film

Photo Cube - DIY with Paper

Photo cubes for Mother's Day by Perri Lewis. Photograph by Natalie Naccache/Guardian

Perhaps spring is inspiring you to get crafty. With 6 photos, card stock, scissors, a ruler and glue, you can whip up a little 3-d gift and practice your geometry skills, too! I'm sharing this from Perry Lewis at the Guardian. She tells it best:

Like any handmade present, it can be personalised and it shows you've done more than dropped into Tesco on your way to visit. What's more, it might bring back floods of happy memories of all the wonderfully rubbish stuff you made for her from egg cartons, washing-up liquid bottles and crepe paper as a nipper.

If you're not going to see your mum on Sunday, don't worry. Make a small photo cube and send it, unfolded, with instructions on how to assemble it.

Photo cube

What you need

A piece of thin card
Pencil
Ruler
Craft knife or scissors
Six photos
Spray mount or a glue stick
Double-sided tape
Sticky back plastic (optional)

What to do

1. Draw a cube net on to a piece of thin card, or download one of these ready-made ones (pdf) and print it out.

2. Cut the cube net out: a craft knife and ruler will give you the cleanest cut, but you can use scissors if you don't have one to hand. Score each line carefully.

3. Choose six pictures for your photo cube. As each photo needs to be the same size as the face of your cube net, you need to either a) use photo editing software to make each picture the same size, then print them out, or b) print the photos out first, then cut them to size.

4. Glue one photo to each face of the cube net, on the side without the black lines. I thoroughly recommend that you use spray mount for this rather than a glue stick - you will get a better, more even coverage with no little lumps, so your pictures will have a smooth finish. A can costs about £7, but it lasts for ages and can be used for all sorts of paper craft. Of course, if you don't have any spray mount, use a glue stick or double-sided tape.

5. This step is entirely optional, but if you want make your photo cube a little more study, cover the whole cube net in sticky back plastic.

6. Add strips of double-sided tape to the tabs and assemble the cube. Again, I prefer not to use a glue stick – double-sided tape is far less messy - but use whatever suitable adhesive you have to hand.

Thank you Perry and a very Happy Day to all Mothers in the U.K. and other places celebrating Mother's Day this weekend.