Carnac megaliths

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A “marking” on stone, Carnac. Photograph by Stephen Miller.

Stephen Miller’s dramatic photos of Megaliths in the Carnac region of France capture a certain kind of spell over the whole area, hard to pin down, maybe like an echo remaining from a time we have no ‘memory’ of.

Miller writes Carnac: eleven rows of standing stones stretching for 12 kilometers. Date and origin, unknown. And for scores of miles in all directions, scattered throughout the forests, in the fields, in the midst of human settlement, the dolmens, menhirs, circles, and alignments of an unknown age before history.
Here and there, inside a dolmen, a carving on a wall stone. A torso or womb shape? Some emblematic, some, like the walls of Gavrinis, shamanic, and some like the first glimmer of pictographic writing.

Carnac: In Egypt there is a Karnak too, the ‘temple of the sun’. In India, there is Koranak, a temple of the sun, home of the universal calendrical stone featured on the old Indian 10 rupee note. And I remember that the spaceship in Gurdjieff’s enigmatic “Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson” was also named Karnak. Local mythologies surrounding the stones abound. These are said to walk to the water sometimes, those to move or dance under the moonlight. They are almost always associated with fertility and enchantment.

These black and white photos remind me very much of Ismo Luukkonen’s photos of Swedish standing stones, as I wrote about last February.

There is more on Carnac at Vicki Sherwood’s The Megaliths of Carnac.

(Thanks to wood s lot)

Writing-on-Stone

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Petroglyph: The Hunt – Photograph by Ray Rasmussen

On my daily rounds of the blogs today, I was thrilled to discover at wood s lot a photo and link to the site of some wonderful photographs taken by several photographers in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta.

Why thrilled? Some readers may recall that I wrote about our plans to visit Writing-on-Stone earlier this year, which got cancelled because of heavy rains and floods. (I also wrote about the source of the word hoodoos.) Access to the Archaeological Preserve and majority of rock art is limited to guided tours (mid-May to early September only). We weren’t able to make it for September, but there’s next year.

Anyway, back to this excellent site. I really enjoyed the slideshow of the uniquely eroded sandstone and of the petroglyphs, the best pictures amongst the few I have found on the web. At the end is a list of links to additional great photographs of rock erosion including hoodoos, at Dry Island Buffalo Jump, a Provincial Park located in the Red Deer River Badlands. The site also has a good information on visiting the sites.

Noticing that Ray Rasmussen has taken most of the photos and is the web designer, I found that he has his own photography and Haiku web site that I shall be exploring further.

By the way, there are also a couple of images of works by Antoni Tàpies on the wood s lot page. It suddenly struck me how they resemble the petroglyphs in some way – the way he scrapes marks out of his textured surfaces. These made me recall how excited I was to see a large exhibition of Tàpies’ work in a museum in Germany several years ago.

Borneo rock art

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Stone Gallery Photograph by Carsten Peter

I’m really enjoying this month’s issue of the National Geographic magazine, particularly the beautiful article ‘Hands Across Time, Exploring the Rock Art of Borneo’, also found on NG’s website.

Deep within the cliffside caves of eastern Borneo, 10,000-year-old paintings featuring the hands of the artists themselves may offer clues about ancient migrations. Thus begins an excerpt of the article, well worth reading. Then view the photo gallery.

The interactive image is magical and powerful. Ghostly hands–many decorated with dots, dashes, and other patterns–reach out from the wall of Gua Tewet in the rain forest of eastern Borneo. Dated back to more than 10,000 years ago, the stenciled hands may suggest initiation or shamanistic rituals, perhaps related to prehistoric Aboriginal art in Australia. The French-Indonesian expedition team called hands connected by long curving lines, at right, a “tree of life.” The design may symbolize ties that connect individuals, families, territories, or spirits to each other.

Luc-Henri Fage, the author of this story, wrote on the occasion of this, his ninth expedition:

I’d thought back to my first expedition here 17 years ago. A documentary filmmaker and magazine editor, I had set out on a 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) trek from one end of Kalimantan to the other with a few caving friends. Halfway across the island, taking shelter under a rock, we found ancient charcoal drawings on the ceiling. When I returned to France, I was surprised to learn that no such rock art had ever been reported in Kalimantan. I returned in 1992 with Jean-Michel Chazine, a French archaeologist and specialist in Oceanian prehistory. Two years later we discovered prehistoric paintings in East Kalimantan. In 1995 Pindi Setiawan, an Indonesian anthropologist, joined our team, and together, year after year, we found dozens of caves with paintings throughout the region, some with unique designs hinting at a mysterious forgotten people.

They have found about 1,500 hand prints in 30 caves.

And then there is their marvellous website Le Kalimanthrope, about past expeditions and amazing photos of exquisite prehistoric artwork. Most of it is in French, but the numerous pages of photos with almost 40 photos of Gua Tewet speak for themselves.

Adriel Heisey desert photos

After blogging about cuneiforms last week, I happened to go its source, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. I noticed this announcement:

“FROM ABOVE: IMAGES OF A STORIED LAND,”Adriel Heisey’s Aerial Photographs of the American Southwest Desert Offer a Unique Look at Ancient and Modern Landscapes. It looks like a fascinating exhibition, on until October 2, 2005, so if you are in Philadelphia…

Chaco Canyon, Casas Grandes, and the Aztec Ruins National Monument are among the places photographed by Adriel Heisey, whose dramatic pictures are captured from a unique vantage point: his homebuilt, one-man, ultra-light airplane.[…] Heisey’s photographs offer viewers an uncommon opportunity to explore the complicated, curious, and often breathtaking patterns that people have imposed on the land over the years. The ruins of living structures and ritual facilities, remnants of roads, dry rivers and canals, and images carved into desert gravels that are featured in these images carry a wealth of information about how past generations of humans have pursued their basic needs. They mark important transitions such as the move from the migratory life of the hunter/gatherer to the more sedentary village life of early farmers and traders. At the same time, there is a juxtaposition of modern elements – new homes, cars, highways, fences, power lines, and even footprints – that remind the viewer of the unceasing nature of change and the ongoing impact of human interaction with the earth.

Disappointed that the museum website only features one image, I’ve been doing a bit of virtual exploring to learn more about Adriel Heisey. There’s an exhibition catalogue available, and National Geographic also has an article, photos and videos by Heisey on an earlier project, but not too many photos of this exhibition that I could find.

Inspired by the long list of sites photographed by Heisey, I went exploring and found many riches. Here are a few: Ancient Observatories: Chaco Canyon, Casas Grandes, which is also on the World Heritage List, and Aztec Ruins National Monument.

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Una Vida petroglyphs – from Chaco Culture National Historical Park

The American Southwest is an area I’ve never been to, but has numerous fascinating natural and manmade features that I dream of visiting and photographing myself one day, now re-inspired by Heisey. Hmm, I wonder why most archaeological sites seem to be in hot, dry places? (I’m heat intolerant.)

Update August 7.05: Here’s a review Art/Air Show by Edward J. Sozanski including a mention of a slide show of some of Heisey’s work.

Art in Nature

Doesn’t this scene look very magical and surreal, with the strange almost man-made looking sculptural forms scattered about in the landscape?

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Photo from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), via BBC

It is the desert floor of Wadi al-Hitan, or Whale Valley, south of Cairo, littered with fossils of the last whales known to have legs. The remains reveal the transition of whales from land-based to the ocean-going mammals we know today. It is one of eight areas of natural beauty that have been put on the World Heritage list by Unesco (do look at them all).

National Geographic also reports on this, stating that “Egypt’s Wadi Al-Hitan (“whale valley”) reveals one of the iconic transitions in the record of life”. Have a look at this photo of a whale, and another at UNESCO World Heritage Centre where you can also visit all the sites around the world on their list. Check out how many are from your country.

a gift

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This morning’s mail brought me an exciting packet from London, England – from artist-blogger pal Karen D’Amico!** I was thrilled to find about a dozen wonderful 18 x 14 cm. black and white photographs of closeups of rocks that Karen had taken herself and offered to me to use in my work if suitable. In addition, she has included a lovely postcard image of one of her works “Burnt Offerings” that I like very much, AND a copy of TANGENT, her newly launched art-zine.

The photos are really beautiful, Karen, thank you so much for your amazing generosity!! I look forward to having them in my image library to use when serendipity strikes as I play around with ideas and materials. Above is my favourite photo that I’ve just scanned in tonight to share with my dear readers.

By the way, Karen and I had an interesting virtual conversation recently that you might like to read, in case you missed it.

** Reedited March 15th, 2013 during a blog tidy-up: Karen has not been at this blog address for some years, so link had been removed. I have now quite accidentally found her new eponymous website: Karen Ay

Land of the Saame

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Photo by Pekka Antikainen, in “Land of the Saame”

As my dear readers know, I’m fascinated by the northern indigenous cultures, in particular the Saami people of northern Europe who are a branch of the Finno-Ugric family. Some time ago I came across a Finnish photography website Leuku.fi that includes a book by Pekka Antikainen: Saamenmaa or Land of the Saame. It is viewable as a PDF (7.9 MB). It’s full of gorgeous yet honest photographs and stories of the land and the people, with text in both Finnish and English.

He writes,

It was in 1982, as an enthusiastic student of photography,
that I made my first photographical expedition to Lapland.
The imposing scenery of Enontekiö made a great impression
on me, but it was in the village of Raittijärvi that I realised
something that eventually led me to produce this book on
the Land of the Saame, although I could not have imagined
then that it would take me a whole twenty years to complete.

I highly recommend a read and look for an understanding and appreciation for this unique part of the world through the eyes of this empathetic observer.

(Oh, and it is available to purchase for 34 Euro, just click on the lower image and an email window opens. No, I have nothing to do with it, but just noticed that this page has no English for non-Finnish buyers.)

Arthus-Bertrand in Helsinki

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Yann Arthus-Bertrand over Helsinki – photo from Helsingin Sanomat

I’ve been really enjoying browsing through some fantastic aerial photos by celebrated French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. He has an extensive summer exhibition, Earth From Above, in Helsinki, including a World Map spread out in Kamppi Square. One of many currently on display in Europe and beyond, the exhibition contains 120 large aerial images of different corners of the world. Upwards of 50 million people have seen it before it reached Helsinki.

Arthus-Bertrand is also captured in action (above photo) as he took the opportunity to fly over Helsinki for more aerial photos.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s website Earth from Above shows over 200 photos out of 300,000 taken in over 150 countries! You can select which country to view, such as his native France ( wow, I did not know France looked like that! ). There are a only a few (yet!) of Finland and Canada. And there are even more of his projects and working methods to view at his very extensive website, so do go and enjoy!

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Heart in Voh, New Caledonia – Yann Arthus-Bertrand

yesterday morning

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One of the photos I took yesterday morning – can you guess what it is? **
Compare it to these photos taken about 6 months ago on December 5th, 2004.
** Check out Answers.com

Edward Burtynsky revisited

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Edward Burtynsky: Nickel Tailings No. 32
Sudbury, Ontario 1996

About a year ago I wrote a bit about the achievements of Canadian photo-artist Edward Burtynsky (unfortunately the link to the news article has since expired). This year he has won a TED prize of US$100,000! But, wait, go read his website on where the money is going, and have a look at his beautiful yet disturbing works. He exhibits widely, presently in San Diego and later this year in New York.

I like what Tyler Green has written in an interesting review of his work at Modern Art Notes. I’m fascinated in how Burtynsky’s life experience with the deathly effects of oil has informed the subject matter of his photographic works, and how he is using his success to further the environmental cause. Do visit Tyler’s blog post and the many related links.

UPDATE:
More at News Grist and some multimedia at Cybermuse