Storyboard

February 12, 2013 4,990 notes

Exploring the Crystal Desert: Antarctica Through a Photographer’s Lens
Christopher Michel doesn’t like to sit still. Despite a career that includes gigs as a Naval flight officer, tech investor, entrepreneur, journalist, and government science advisor, Michel has managed to steady his hands long enough to also hone his skills as a photographer. His pursuit of the perfect image has taken him from Mount Everest to Papua New Guinea to the Korean Demilitarized Zone — and even, in 2010, to the edge of space (inside a U-2 spy plane). His most recent journey, however, is to a place he deems most magnificent of all: the frigid waters of Antarctica’s so-called “Crystal Desert.” On board a giant ship chartered by Harvard (his alma mater), Michel photographed icebergs as they froze, melted, and refroze. We managed to slow Michel down long enough to ask him a few questions about his polar voyage.
What kind of photography equipment do you recommend for extreme environments like Antarctica?
Antarctica and camera equipment aren’t friendly. From the inevitable Zodiac sea spray of the Southern Ocean to the battery-draining deep freeze, a smart photographer needs to come prepared with backup equipment, extra power, and protective everything.
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You’ve had a number of careers — U.S. Naval flight officer, photographer, entrepreneur. How would you describe what you do?
Apparently I have a bit of wanderlust. I’d say I’m focused on spending time with interesting people on problems that matter. I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly remarkable people in so many fields — from government to business to science and art.
What are some of the themes you try to explore in your photography?
A recurring theme is the intersection of man and nature — whether it’s struggle or symbiosis, there are incredible stories to be told in almost every corner of the globe.
How did this particular trip come about?
This is my third trip to Antarctica, this one hosted by Harvard University. We traveled aboard the Corinthian II, a 57-cabin ship accommodating up to 114 guests. It was chartered by Harvard for an expedition led by Michael McElroy, one of the nation’s leading climate scientists. Of all the trips I’ve ever taken in my life, Antarctica is, by far, the most compelling — it’s nature at its rawest, without the heavy hand of humans.
What kind of clothes does one wear for a trip to a place that cold?
Temperatures ranged from 20-40 degrees Fareinheit — positively balmy compared to points south. The right gear is essential to photograph on the continent. The key there, as well as anyplace cold, is layering … thermals, fleeces, outer layers … as well as excellent boots, gloves, and eyewear. The sun’s UV rays are particularly strong in Antarctica and require constant vigilance to protect against eye damage.
What was the most difficult shot for you to take, and how did you make it work?
There wasn’t one most difficult shot, but there was certainly a most difficult shoot, and that was a sunset that lasted hours and hours in the freezing winds of the Lemaire Passage on the deck of the ship. I probably shot 5,000 images and nearly suffered frostbite to capture one of the most incredible sunsets of my life along a graveyard of icebergs.
— Jeremy Kressmann

Exploring the Crystal Desert: Antarctica Through a Photographer’s Lens

Christopher Michel doesn’t like to sit still. Despite a career that includes gigs as a Naval flight officer, tech investor, entrepreneur, journalist, and government science advisor, Michel has managed to steady his hands long enough to also hone his skills as a photographer. His pursuit of the perfect image has taken him from Mount Everest to Papua New Guinea to the Korean Demilitarized Zone — and even, in 2010, to the edge of space (inside a U-2 spy plane). His most recent journey, however, is to a place he deems most magnificent of all: the frigid waters of Antarctica’s so-called “Crystal Desert.” On board a giant ship chartered by Harvard (his alma mater), Michel photographed icebergs as they froze, melted, and refroze. We managed to slow Michel down long enough to ask him a few questions about his polar voyage.

What kind of photography equipment do you recommend for extreme environments like Antarctica?

Antarctica and camera equipment aren’t friendly. From the inevitable Zodiac sea spray of the Southern Ocean to the battery-draining deep freeze, a smart photographer needs to come prepared with backup equipment, extra power, and protective everything.

View post 4,990 notes

December 4, 2012 5,042 notes

Art at a Snail’s Pace
You’ve finally made it, after a breathless climb up the winding marble staircase, to the upper terrace of the Duomo di Milano — the famed Cathedral of Milan, Italy, and the fourth largest in the world. You flip through your guide book. A towering forest of ornate spires, the same ones that enchanted the literary likes of Mark Twain and Henry James? Check. The hundred gruesome gargoyles, staring down from their marble perches? Check. There is the precious white marble, quarried from Candoglia, and a view of the Italian Swiss Alps in the distance (amid the smog). And yet, if you happened to be one of thousands of tourists who visited the Duomo two months ago, there was also something out of place — a bit of modernity sticking out among the 14th-century Gothic masterpiece.
There, slinking across the cathedral’s steps and roof, were dozens of bright blue plastic snails.

No, this wasn’t a new architectural addition to the cathedral (though the Duomo did help place the sculptures) — but a kind of call to action staged by an artists collective known as the Cracking Art Group. Made up of six artists from Italy, France, and Belgium, the group’s goal was to draw attention to the Duomo’s slow structural decay, and to ask for public donations to help to restore it. It was an act praised all across Milan, where the Duomo has made headlines for putting its famed spires up for adoption in an effort to bring in dollars. But it’s all part of a larger mission by the Cracking Art Group, who use colorful plastic animal sculptures as their messenger.
Over the last two decades, the group’s giant creations have invaded more than 600 art galleries and public spaces from New York to South Korea, as well as more unusual spots like supermarkets and highways. They placed two giant orange rabbits at a Paris museum; 34 bright yellow penguins at another in Prague. There was the time they suspended a flock of plastic seagulls midair, and another, when they invaded the Venice Bianelle, a bi-yearly contemporary art exhibit, with 1,500 golden turtles (the golden coin turtle is one of the most endangered species in the world).
“We were the first artists to talk about the environment on the international scale,” says Marco Veronese, one of the group’s founders, when I meet him for coffee in Istanbul, where he lives. “We use animals because they are the innocent victims of this environmental destruction … and they usually are the ones most hurt.” By taking over spaces where they don’t belong, he says, the animal sculptures are calling out for help.
Veronese’s romantic zeal for preserving the environment — he almost loses me talking about the symbolism of his turtles’ golden shells and how they emulate the energy of the sun — makes some sense when you learn about his background: He’s from the bucolic Biella region of Italy, a mountainous area in northern Piemonte that is rich with unspoiled meadows, lakes, and cheese. It’s made him hypersensitive to the environmental ills outside his hometown: climate change, pollution, loss of wildlife. “Deforestation, erosion, air and water pollution. We are single-handedly killing our planet,” he says, noting that the problem is often that we move too fast to notice.
It’s there that the snails come in, he says. “We need to adopt a new speed. We need to become more like snails,” says Veronese, waxing poetic about blurring the lines between artificial and natural life. “When we’re traveling that fast, we can’t see the landscape clearly. It’s blurred, hazy. How can we notice a problem or understand how to fix it if we can’t even see it? We move on auto-pilot and don’t consider the consequences.”
All of this is where his collective comes in. Founded in 1993 to inspire dialogue about the importance of recycling, most of the group’s protests are environmental in nature, but occasionally they tackle art. Their title — the “cracking” part — comes from the process of transforming crude oil into plastic, it’s also known as “depolymerizing.” To Veronese, that process represents a sort of middle-road approach in tackling today’s most pressing environmental challenges. He wants his own plastic installations (made of recycled plastic, of course) to be used in an intelligent, sustainable way. It’s why the group’s latest campaign, under which the Duomo protest fell, is called “RE-generation”: unlike their real-life counterparts, these snails don’t leave much of a trace. And that’s sort of the point.
And yet, can placing a bunch of colorful plastic animals in otherwise ordinary public spaces actually make a difference?
If what happened in Milan is any indicator, it can.
With the help of the a local arts management group and gallery, Veronese and his snails have raised 90,000 euro for the restoration of the Duomo — in particular, its 357-foot high main spire, which holds the famed statue of Madonna. Urban pollution is mostly to blame for the degradation of the spire’s decorative marble surfaces.
“They’ve been very powerful in grabbing people’s attention,” says Veronese of the snails, each of them roughly 30 pounds in weight. “The toy-like blue against the white Gothic cathedral — it was stunning.”
Snails, it seems, have never been so revolutionary.
— Alyson Neel

Art at a Snail’s Pace

You’ve finally made it, after a breathless climb up the winding marble staircase, to the upper terrace of the Duomo di Milano — the famed Cathedral of Milan, Italy, and the fourth largest in the world. You flip through your guide book. A towering forest of ornate spires, the same ones that enchanted the literary likes of Mark Twain and Henry James? Check. The hundred gruesome gargoyles, staring down from their marble perches? Check. There is the precious white marble, quarried from Candoglia, and a view of the Italian Swiss Alps in the distance (amid the smog). And yet, if you happened to be one of thousands of tourists who visited the Duomo two months ago, there was also something out of place — a bit of modernity sticking out among the 14th-century Gothic masterpiece.

There, slinking across the cathedral’s steps and roof, were dozens of bright blue plastic snails.

View post 5,042 notes

November 9, 2012 3,180 notes

At the Coney Island Aquarium, Sea Life Goes On
It was just a few short weeks ago that the New York media was gushing over the arrival of Mitik — the adorable baby walrus — to the New York Aquarium, where he seemed to be loving city life. But when Hurricane Sandy hit last week, sending more than 12,000 water animals into darkness, the aquarium, just off the boardwalk in Coney Island, faced the biggest challenge of its life. The aquarium’s basement flooded with 15 feet of water, damaging generators and cutting electricity. Tanks full of freshwater fish were doused with murky storm overflow, while the ground floors — home to the major exhibits — filled with up to three feet. For four days straight, aquarium staff worked around the clock to make sure the animals were safe — many of them neglecting their own damaged homes. Eighteen stayed through the storm. “It was an intense couple of days,” says aquarium director Jon Dohlin.
The aquarium is now closed indefinitely, and struggling to recover — with generators powering the exhibits’ environmental controls. We went behind-the-scenes to see firsthand.
This story was produced in partnership with WNYC. The aquarium is taking donations here.

—This story was produced in partnership with WNYC. Photos by Jeremy Johnstone.

At the Coney Island Aquarium, Sea Life Goes On

It was just a few short weeks ago that the New York media was gushing over the arrival of Mitik — the adorable baby walrus — to the New York Aquarium, where he seemed to be loving city life. But when Hurricane Sandy hit last week, sending more than 12,000 water animals into darkness, the aquarium, just off the boardwalk in Coney Island, faced the biggest challenge of its life. The aquarium’s basement flooded with 15 feet of water, damaging generators and cutting electricity. Tanks full of freshwater fish were doused with murky storm overflow, while the ground floors — home to the major exhibits — filled with up to three feet. For four days straight, aquarium staff worked around the clock to make sure the animals were safe — many of them neglecting their own damaged homes. Eighteen stayed through the storm. “It was an intense couple of days,” says aquarium director Jon Dohlin.

The aquarium is now closed indefinitely, and struggling to recover — with generators powering the exhibits’ environmental controls. We went behind-the-scenes to see firsthand.

This story was produced in partnership with WNYC. The aquarium is taking donations here.

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October 22, 2012 3,933 notes

Jill Greenberg on Capturing the Horse as Supermodel
One might say there are two Jill Greenbergs. First, there is Jill Greenberg the commercial photographer: She’s done work for corporations like Disney and Coke; her editorial photos have appeared on the covers of Time, Fortune, New York, and others. But it’s Jill Greenberg the artist who gets people talking. From sinister shots of John McCain under the text “WARMONGER” to closeup portraits of children crying (after being offered candy and then having it snatched away), her images have been called “repulsive,” “grotesque,” and have elicited death threats. Her latest project, a book called Horse, is more, shall we say, tame.
You were harshly criticized for the McCain photos you took during the last election, under a strobe light, which made him look almost devil-like. It was an Atlantic assignment, but you doctored the outtakes as an art piece. Was it hard to find editorial work after that?
That incident’s backlash really surprised me, considering I delivered their cover image exactly to their specifications. I don’t really know, but I think the Atlantic was afraid that McCain might be elected and needed to cover themselves. Photographers own all their images when shooting for magazines. The contract actually said you will use all means within your reach to publicize the images and shoot, including your own website, which is where I posted my agit-prop political cartoons. The incident got them an unbelievable amount of traffic, right before they relaunched the magazine with a redesign.

But could you understand the journalistic shock?
What I did was an outside-the-box thing to do. But political cartoons are everywhere. It didn’t occur to me that I was not allowed to have a voice … I thought of the McCain thing as the artist Jill Greenberg appropriating the photographer Jill Greenberg’s work. Obviously some others did not agree.
Your latest project focuses on glossy portraits of horses. Why?
My obsession with horses began at the early age of six. I drew them, painted them, sculpted them, collected plastic models of them, read stories about them, and rode them. When I saw the same happening with my young daughter, I decided it was time to return to my primary muse. What is it that makes young girls project so much onto these gorgeous animals?
You’ve said you tried to capture the horses like supermodels. What exactly does that mean?
The horses were cast for their physiques, muscle tone, figures, and long flowing manes. The photographs focus on the animal’s body; on cut, striated muscles under shiny, cropped hair; on crimped manes and windswept forelocks; on the strong shoulders and hindquarters.
The images are incredibly detailed. How did the shooting process compare to other animals you’ve photographed?
It was a nightmare. Horses are much more dangerous than trained bears and young apes. Most of the horses were not trained to be photographed at all, unlike almost every single animal I had photographed previously. We all got covered in dirt and dust … the cameras and computers got quite dirty. The lights had to be fenced off to protect them from horses if they decided to bolt.
You’ve got another project at the moment — a gallery show called Legitimate Rape. That’s quite a title.
My husband actually thought up the name. I am one of six artists who are showing at the Katherine Cone Gallery in LA. I’m exhibiting a video piece I shot in April with the phantom camera, so it records very slow motion. I hired seven older white men and dressed them in suits. I wanted them to look like rich assholes and directed them to laugh directly into the camera with contempt and mockery. The work was projected onto a steakhouse during the RNC.
Does it ever bother you to be at the center of such controversy?
It’s quite stressful, yes, and it’s unpleasant to receive death threats, comments about your children, comparisons to Hitler and Michael Jackson.
— Jessica Bennett

Jill Greenberg on Capturing the Horse as Supermodel

One might say there are two Jill Greenbergs. First, there is Jill Greenberg the commercial photographer: She’s done work for corporations like Disney and Coke; her editorial photos have appeared on the covers of Time, Fortune, New York, and others. But it’s Jill Greenberg the artist who gets people talking. From sinister shots of John McCain under the text “WARMONGER” to closeup portraits of children crying (after being offered candy and then having it snatched away), her images have been called “repulsive,” “grotesque,” and have elicited death threats. Her latest project, a book called Horse, is more, shall we say, tame.

You were harshly criticized for the McCain photos you took during the last election, under a strobe light, which made him look almost devil-like. It was an Atlantic assignment, but you doctored the outtakes as an art piece. Was it hard to find editorial work after that?

That incident’s backlash really surprised me, considering I delivered their cover image exactly to their specifications. I don’t really know, but I think the Atlantic was afraid that McCain might be elected and needed to cover themselves. Photographers own all their images when shooting for magazines. The contract actually said you will use all means within your reach to publicize the images and shoot, including your own website, which is where I posted my agit-prop political cartoons. The incident got them an unbelievable amount of traffic, right before they relaunched the magazine with a redesign.

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June 15, 2012 16,812 notes

Pusheen the Cat Tells All

Like most members of the feline family, Pusheen the Cat enjoys sitting on warm computers, long petting sessions, and many other quintessential feline activities. But she’s not your typical tabby. Adopted from a shelter in her youth (hence the name, based upon the Irish word for kitten, puisín), Pusheen has since grown into one of Tumblr’s furry sensations.

Her human-like snacking abilities, love of dress-up, and abnormally adorable on-screen bop have garnered hundreds of thousands of fans. She already has a line of merchandise and is working on her first book. And yet, despite all this fame, Pusheen remains her modest, friendly, yarn-loving self. How does she stay so grounded, amidst all the adulation? Pusheen answers, in typical fashion.