New York Almanack

News and Views from the Empire State

Documentary

Virgin Blacktop: A Rockland Skateboard History Doc Showing

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virgin blacktopCharlie Samuels’ first feature documentary film Virgin Blacktop: A New York Skate Odyssey is set to screen at the Adirondack Film Festival in Glens Falls, on Saturday, October 19th at 3 pm.

Virgin Blacktop is an uplifting story shot over four decades about the lives of a disparate crew of kids from Hudson River towns who had almost nothing in common when they met in the 1970s. Virgin Blacktop uses the vehicle of skateboarding to tell the story which. Skateboarding will make its world debut as an official Olympic sport in Tokyo in 2020. [Read more…] about Virgin Blacktop: A Rockland Skateboard History Doc Showing

Motion Imagery of Ellis Island Revealed in Stereographs

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Emigrants detained at Ellis Island - Keystone-Mast CollectionStereographs were the latter day virtual reality, an inventive means to immerse the viewer into another place and time. Two photographs are exposed simultaneously but from slightly different perspectives. When the final print is viewed through a stereoscope a depth of field is introduced that brings the photograph more to life.

In 2018 I digitally re-imagined many dozens of American Civil War scenes using an animation process that essentially reveals that same depth of field but on more common 2D screens. In doing so, the need for specific viewing equipment is eliminated and the immersive nature of the stereoscope is maintained. [Read more…] about Motion Imagery of Ellis Island Revealed in Stereographs

Copyright & Fair Use in Early America

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ben_franklins_worldIn the 21st century, we are all creators and users of content. We take original photos with our smartphones, generate blog posts, digital videos, and podcasts. Some of us write books and articles. And nearly everyone contributes content to social media.

Given all of the information and content we generate and use, it’s really important for us to understand the principles of copyright and fair use, principles that have an early American past. [Read more…] about Copyright & Fair Use in Early America

New Book On Adirondack Photographer J.S. Wooley

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JS Wooley adirondack photographerA new book edited by Richard Timberlake and Philip Terrie, J.S. Wooley: Adirondack Photographer (Syracuse University Press, 2018) tells the story of Jesse Sumner Wooley, a gifted and prolific Adirondack photographer at the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1880, Jesse Sumner Wooley, an energetic and entrepreneurial thirteen-year-old farm boy from Saratoga County, took a job as an errand boy for a pair of town photographers. The summer job led to a career that would define Wooley’s life. From that early start, he went on to become a prominent businessman and inventive photographer in Upstate New York. [Read more…] about New Book On Adirondack Photographer J.S. Wooley

1970s Photos of New York Seascapes Exhibit, Reception at Jay Heritage

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Manhattan Seascape Jay Heritage Center has announced an exhibit by Robert Gambee, “Manhattan Seascapes,” at their 1907 Carriage House on Saturday, December 15 thru Sunday, December 16, from 2 to 5 pm.

A Champagne Reception, Book Signing and Prints Sale will take place from 2 to 5 pm on Saturday, December 15. The exhibit will also be open for viewing and print purchases on Sunday. Exhibit is free and open to the public. [Read more…] about 1970s Photos of New York Seascapes Exhibit, Reception at Jay Heritage

New Documentary on New York Governor Mario Cuomo

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The Historians LogoThis week on “The Historians” podcast, Matt Ryan of WMHT public television discusses his documentary, “Mario Cuomo: Poetry and Prose,” that features interviews and archival video from the long-running statewide program “Inside Albany.”

You can listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about New Documentary on New York Governor Mario Cuomo

Hudson Valley Ruins Photo Exhibit Opens at NYS Museum

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NYTrapRockCorpThe New York State Museum has opened “Hudson Valley Ruins,” a photography and architecture exhibition.

On display through December 31, 2017, the exhibition features over 80 photographs by Robert Yasinsac and Thomas Rinaldi documenting forgotten historic sites and cultural treasures in the Hudson River Valley.

The exhibition is based on Yasinsac and Rinaldi’s 2006 book, Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape. In addition to great river estates, the book and exhibition profiles sites meaningful to everyday life in the Hudson Valley: churches, hotels, commercial and civic buildings, mills, and train stations. The exhibition explores many of these abandoned places and also revisits several sites that have changed in the past ten years since the book’s publication. [Read more…] about Hudson Valley Ruins Photo Exhibit Opens at NYS Museum

Corset Portraits of the Loves of Aaron Burr

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Madame+Jume_RGB.BillOrcuttArtist Camilla Huey has a close to the skin interpretation of founding father Aaron Burr. While we know about his schemes to gain and keep political power, Huey tempts us to think about Burr’s gender politics. Was the former Vice-President who shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel, a full-fledged Lothario, or might there be another story?

The film “The Loves of Aaron Burr: Portraits in Binding and Corsetry”  premiering at Symphony Space at 95th St. and Broadway in Manhattan on Saturday, November 14 at noon offers a much more complicated and nuanced view of the man and his significant female others.  As Thomas Paine wrote in that revolutionary era “If we take a survey of the countries and the ages… we will find the women adored and oppressed. Man who has never neglected an opportunity of exerting his power,  in paying homage to their beauty has always availed himself of their weakness… at once their tyrant and their slave.” [Read more…] about Corset Portraits of the Loves of Aaron Burr

Harlem: Life in Pictures

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Malcolm X- Rally for Birmingham, 1963. by Larry Fink. All images courtesy of Ilon Art Gallery
Malcolm X- Rally for Birmingham, 1963. by Larry Fink. Images Courtesy of Ilon Art Gallery

“If new thought can enter the mind, even for a moment, then change has a chance,” writes JT Liss. His photographs search for those figures and visions that allow us to see new ways and think new thoughts.

Ilon Gallery’s show Harlem: Life in Pictures on view in a classic 1890s brownstone, demonstrates how historic images of figures that have become iconic can acquire new resonance when displayed along fresh takes on a neighborhood that has been a cradle of creativity for well over 100 years. [Read more…] about Harlem: Life in Pictures

Erie Canalway Photo Contest Seeks Entries

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2015_ErieCanalway-PhotoContestEntries are being accepted through August 28, 2015 for the 10th annual Erie Canalway Photo Contest. Winning photos will be featured in the 2016 Erie Canalway calendar, which is available free of charge in December.

Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit images in four contest categories: On the Water, Along the Trail, Canal Communities, and Classic Canal. [Read more…] about Erie Canalway Photo Contest Seeks Entries