Campus Stillness
Exams ended on Friday. Fall commencement concluded this past weekend. Stillness wafts through campus.
(photograph taken on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill)
Self Preservation
(photograph taken on the corner of Franklin and Columbia streets in Chapel Hill, NC)
Under the Banner
“I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
The banners in the above two images appeared for a brief time during Carrboro's July 4th Celebration near the corner of Greensboro and Weaver streets in Carrboro. Below, two images of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's confederate soldier, dubbed Silent Sam, partially cloaked in a white wrap after the controversial statue was defaced with graffiti reading "black lives matter," "KKK" and "murderer." Media news outlets peppered the lawn near the statue, which was erected in 1913 as a tribute to UNC alumni who died in the Civil War and also UNC students who fought on the side of the Confederacy.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Silent Sam controversial statue of confederate soldier dubbed Silent Sam.
(photographs taken in Carrboro and Chapel Hill)
UNC Gymnastics: No Place Like Home
Stills captured from the seats at UNC's victorious meet against the William & Mary Tribe on Saturday, February 7th at the UNC Carmichael Arena. The team's first home meet since January 9th began with the vault, on to uneven bars, next balance beam, and culminated with floor exercises accompanied by music thundering from the arena's speakers. Catch the Tarheels next weekend when they take on No. 9 Georgia at 1 pm February 14 in Carmichael Arena on UNC's campus.
(photograph taken at UNC Carmichael Arena off of South Road in Chapel Hill)
Galoshes of Franklin Street
“Susie’s Galoshes
Make splishes and sploshes
And slooshes and sloshes,
As Susie steps slowly
Along in the slush.
They stamp and they tramp
On the ice and the concrete.
They get stuck in the muck and the mud;
But Susie likes much best to hear
The slippery slush
As it slooshes and sloshes
And splishes and sploshes,
All round her galoshes!”
(photographs taken on the corner of Franklin and Columbia Streets in Chapel Hill)
Chapel Hill: Guiding Picasso
Age and ability are a moot point. The Ackland Museum offers affordable hands-on art workshops for those who lean into pencils or pastels, sculpture or still life. The image above captures the Drawing for Tweens program for 10- to 13-year-olds. An instructor demonstrates techniques using the museum's collection as the classroom.
(photograph taken at the University of North Carolina Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill)
Photography Crops up in Color
One
Two
Three
Et voilà!
Push the button. Peek in the box. Voilà! Behold one of the first available forms of color photography: autochrome.
The photography world gained momentum in color photography in the early 1900s using a starchy crop, the common potato. The autochrome process produced images using glass plates spread with a thin film of dyed potato starch -- red/orange, violet and green -- and sealed with a tacky varnish. Once prepared, the plates were fitted into a camera and the shutter opened enabling light to pass through the diaphanous grains, forming an image that was subsequently developed into a positive transparency. The process produced a radiant color picture that could be viewed when held against light. The photographs had an ethereal quality resembling pointillist-style paintings, a result of the potato particles. Compared to today's split-second camera snap, autochrome images had exposure times of up to 60 seconds requiring subjects to remain still oftentimes unveiling majestic-looking photographs.
This autochrome photograph above, "Group of Female Nudes" (c.1910 Louis Amédée Mante & Edmond Goldschmidt), is one of 150 photographs stretching methods, years and style on display at UNC's Ackland Art Museum. "PhotoVision: Selections of a Decade of Collecting" reveals a collection of photographs the museum acquired over the course of the past 10 years. The exhibit, which can be seen through January 4th, is part of the Click! Triangle Photography Festival which runs this month throughout the triangle -- Chapel Hill, Durham, Hillsborough and Raleigh. The festival provides a forum for exhibits along with locations for photographers to discuss and feature their work.
(photographs taken at the University of North Carolina Ackland Art Museum, PhotoVision: Selections from a Decade of Collecting, in Chapel Hill)
On the Street: Weather Together
(photograph taken on the corner of Columbia and Franklin streets in Chapel Hill)
In the Twinkling of an Eye
(photograph taken on the corner of Colombia Street & Cameron Ave in Chapel Hill)
Chapel Hill: Pulitzer Prize Winner Junot Díaz
"Stop smoking crack. For real. Cut-the-[expletive]. Immigrants ain't even on the top ten. Yeah, how about the fact that my nephews have been on military duty non-stop for ten years? How about the fact that we as a country seem like we can't spend six months not at war? Or the fact that our economic elite have basically immiserated the majority of the nation? Or that there's less financial aid for students than there is financial aid for oil companies? (cheering from crowd). Like, c'mon. These issues have real bone-breaking effects on those being victimized. But on those who mobilize them, they're nothing more than obfuscation; obfuscation of their own elitist economic promise." Junot Díaz is candid. Especially when it involves immigration in this country and the government's prioritization of the issue.
Clad in a hoodie and jeans, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author spoke and gave a reading at "An Evening with Junot Díaz" Saturday at UNC's Memorial Hall as part of Hispanic Heritage month. Throughout his talk he alternated between pontificating on Latino issues, and joking with the audience, often in slang as characteristic of his writing. The audience embraced him, even those who had not read his work.
Junot is arguably one of the most acclaimed Latino writes of his generation. He is best known for his books The New York Times bestseller, This Is How You Lose Her, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The Dominican Republic-born, New Jersey-raised author also is an activist on behalf of the Latino community -- critical of immigration policy in the United States.
Like Junot, his characters are honest and uncensored. He often writes in the "you" when his narrators speak, weaving cultural Spanglish phrasing. One student, discernibly an admirer of his work, politely questioned his cultural authenticity -- for example, the use of colloquialism. Junot's response was lighthearted and, not surprisingly, blunt:
"The thing is this, right, it's that here is the joke. The joke is that it is fiction. It is ALL a gimmick you guys. This isn't me pretending to be me. In other words the thing is a [expletive] lie. How can there be claims of authenticity?...The best way for folks to think about it is that it is already an act of fiction."
Booya!
(photograph taken at UNC Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill)
On the Hunt: UNC Surplus Store
Tucked in a warehouse near the corner of Estes Drive and MLK Jr. Blvd in Chapel Hill you'll find great deals on castoff desks, chairs, shelving, even electrical equipment. Remember overhead projectors? You can find these here. Outdated Macs, film reels, projection screens, oversized bulletin boards, preowned cellphones. If you're lucky, you can score old UNC baseball jerseys, lab coats, or a framed map of Orange County. UNC Surplus Property Retail Store can be a treasure trove for those on the hunt. When UNC departments or residence halls discard items no longer used, they head to the surplus store. An old wooden table can run about $20, and an ottoman with a mod flair about $15. Inventory changes daily. Open Tuesdays and Fridays only.
(photographs taken at the UNC Surplus Property Retail Store near Estes Rd & MLK Blvd in Chapel Hill)
In Another World
This was a simple, yet sweet moment. I was walking by the Friday's on the Front Porch event at the Carolina Inn when I spotted this child engrossed in a book, oblivious to the rhythmic bluegrass music and the chattering crowd.
(photograph taken at Fridays on the Front Porch at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill)
Along for the Ride
Spotted this British beauty on UNC's campus this week. The Carolina blue Morris Motors vehicle in pristine shape was on view and in tow in a lot near the Carolina Inn. Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company that was subsequently incorporated into larger corporations. The Morris brand name remained until 1984 when British Leyland’s Austin Rover Group shifted its focus to the popular Austin brand.
Railroad stations often used these vehicles for luggage and petty shipments, hence the name "station wagon." Typically those with wood trim in the rear portion of the car were referred to as a "woodie." In the 1960s & 1970s, California surfers were drawn to Morris vehicles because they were cheap and could cram a bunch of people and surfboards making the "woodie" the vehicle most commonly associated with a surfer.
(photograph taken near West Cameron Avenue & Ransom Street in Chapel Hill)