I’ll be participating in this show that opens today:

The Hayward Area Park and Recreation District’s PhotoCentral Gallery presents

25 Views: A Photographic Journey

This exhibition features the work of the members of the 2009 Photographic Portfolio class at Foothill College under the direction of Kate Jordahl including Wendy Akers-Ghose, Arthur Benjamin, Susan Carnahan, Shannon Chan, Tamara Danoyan, Lisa DeNeffe, Robert Filman, Noa Grant, Sassan Hazeghi, Rafael Hernandez, Susan Elting Hillyard, Oliver Klink, Hana Krulova, Bob Mazawa, David Lee Milgram, Arnona Oren, Samuel Perez, Duc Bieu Pham, Meggi Raeder, Christina Salangsang, Timothy Sandstrom, Jennifer L. Spencer, Helen Tindall, Julia Weber, and Barbara Zaslow.

All are invited to a reception and portfolio viewing on Friday, June 26 from 6:30-9:30 pm.

The exhibition continues through August 29, 2009.

For more information on this exhibition, visit PhotoCentral on the web at www.photocentral.org or email 25views@photocentral.org.

Dates: 6/26/09 – 8/29/09

Reception/portfolio viewing: Fri, 6/26, 6:30-9:30 pm
Gallery Hours: Monday 5-10 pm or by appointment with an artist
25views@photocentral.org • www.photocentral.org

You can see the book at 25 Views: A Photographic Journey

Come one, come all!
I will be participating in the AVArtFest 2009 this Saturday June 6th.
The event is taking place at Pioneer Memorial Park in Mountain View, CA. I will be sharing a large booth with two other photographers, we’ll be in booth 34.
Google map here.

The face is a natural rock formation that shows the profile of a stern face when seen from a certain angle. It is best seen at the top of the Ollantaytambo ruins.

Modern Inca people earn their living near the Inca ruins playing traditional folk music, or selling food, water, t-shirts to tourists flocking to see the ruins.

The Tree and The Hands (although it looks more like a little chicken to me).

The Hummingbird. The ravine can give an idea of the scale. Interestingly enough, there are modern artists like Vik Muniz doing geo art like that. See Muniz’s Earthworks 2002 gallery.

The Spider.

The Monkey.

I’ll be participating in the Silicon Valley Open Studios 2009 (SVOS) at Foothill College. I’ll be at the photography studio and room 6107 on Saturday 5/2 most of the day and at Studio F 4 at Cubberley Studios in Palo Alto from 11am - 3pm on Sunday.
5/3.
More info about SVOS here.

Today is the Opening Reception of the De Young College Night Outreach Program in joint partnership with The Art Institute of California-San Francisco’s Beyond Warhol’s Imagination exhibit.

I will have 2 pieces that explore the issues of copyright and appropriation in art, and in particular in photography.

Curated by Robert Melton. Assistant Curator: Rumin Jehangir
April 24th - June 5th, 2009

Opening Reception
April 30th, 2009
5:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
1170 Market Street
San Francisco

Due to their sheer size and the fact that only from the air one can really appreciate the figures and lines archeologist, for the longest time, have been puzzled regarding the technology that was needed to create these lines. Apart from the crackpot theories of alien spaceships, some have suggested that Nasca people knew how to make hot air balloons. Although some scholars have had partial success making a hot air balloon with the technology available to the Nasca people there is no real evidence they ever built one or knew how to. Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky has been able to prove that all the figures could be drawn just using simple tools (wooden sticks and ropes) and techniques, without the need to fly over them.

One thing about the Nasca figures is that they are huge, some of them spanning 200 yards or more and so only by flying overhead can one really see them. On the ground they are just lines and it is hard to discern any shape or figure. This one, drawn on the side of a hill, is the Astronaut, although, most probably, it is just a fisherman. If you were anything like me you probably read Erich von Däniken when you were growing up in the 70s and 80s. He argued in “Chariots of the Gods?” that the lines where actually an airport for alien spaceships, I kid you not. It took me 30 years to visit this “spaceport” since I first read about it and reality actually surpassed fiction.

Nasca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an nondescript town on the South coast of Peru that wouldn’t warrant a second look if it weren’t for the amazing archeological sites around it. The area around Nasca was inhabited by the Nasca culture for over a thousand years starting around 200 BCE. Some of the archeological sites include aqueducts that still carry water, pyramids being excavated and the most striking of all, the geoglyphs in the Nasca desert. Also known as the Nasca lines, there are over 800 geoglyphs. Most of them are lines of various lengths and widths that are thought to have religious and astrological significance. Besides hundred of lines there are also over 70 giant figures like a whale, a monkey, a spider or a hummingbird.
Here is the whale.

Church in the Plaza de Armas. It was heavily damaged during the earthquake and, obviously, closed to the public.

On Wednesday August 15, 2007, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook the central coast of Peru. Some of the most important cities south of Lima, like Ica and Pisco, were almost leveled. Although the Peruvian goverment responded quickly to the tragedy at the time the reconstruction effort has dwindled down and now advances at a very slow pace. Pisco, a site of historical and archeological interest due to being linked to one of the most ancient civilizations in Peru, the Paracas culture. It is also a site of natural beauty, because of the concentration of marine animals and birds at the Paracas National Reservation, and known to the world for the famous Pisco Sour. Almost a year and a half later Pisco is still a shadow of its former self.

Somewhere over the rainbow. Same feeling, different plane.

One of the downsides of a world-wind trip is that after a while all airports look the same. In particular if they are small, non-descript and it’s raining. Was this Baltra? Iquitos?. Who knows? and more importantly, who cares?

Don’t miss the exhibit at KCI. Great photography by very talented photographers in the Bay Area.

Frames of View
An exhibition of the Foothill Photographic Portfolio Class under the
direction of Kate Jordahl

April 6 - April 30, 2009
Reception: Monday, April 20 - 5-8pm
Foothill College - Krause Center for Innovation

Wendy Akers-Ghose, Arthur Benjamin, Susan Carnahan, Shannon Chan, Tamara
Danoyan, Lisa DeNeffe, Robert Filman, Noa Grant, Sassan Hazeghi, Rafael
Hernandez, Susan Hillyard, Oliver Klink, Hana Krulova,
Bob Mazawa, David Milgram, Arnona Oren, Samuel Perez, Duc Bieu Pham,
Meggi Raeder, Christina Salangsang, Timothy Sandstrom, Jennifer Spencer,
Helen Tindall, Julia Weber, Helaine Yeo, Barbara Zaslow

Foothill College
Krause Center for Innovation (Downstairs)
12345 El Monte Road
Building #4000
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
open: Mo - Fr 12-9pm - Sat 12-5pm
www.foothill.edu/kci

Parking Permits Required - $2.00
Park in Lot #4

My dreamscape portfolio is finally finished. This image is the representative image I will be showing at the Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) at Foothill College show in April. Details to follow.

Finally, my last entry at PhotoCentral.

For those of you that cannot make it to PhotoCentral. This is another of my entries. Taken in Alaska in Kenai National Park on Velvia 50.

Last night was the opening night for PhotoCentral Spring Show 2009. The turn out was amazing. This photo of mine - Iguazu - got one of the four People’s choice Awards. Yay!

Other Iguazu pics here and here.

I am participating in the Photo Central Spring Exhibition 2009. Hope to see you there!

Exhibit: PhotoCentral Spring Exhibition 2009
Location PhotoCentral Gallery
Lower Level, Hayward Area Park and Recreation District
Offices, 1099 E Street, Hayward, California, 94544
Dates: March 13 to April 11, 2009
Reception: Friday, March 13, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Gallery Hours Monday 5 pm -10 pm, Tue & Thur 10 am - 1 pm, Sat 12 - 3
pm and by appointment.
Contact Person: Geir Jordahl, 510-881-6721, info@photocentral.org
Hayward Area Recreation District’s PhotoCentral presents the PhotoCentral
Spring Exhibition 2009. This eclectic group show is an annual event for
PhotoCentral and features a wide variety of works from over 50 artists.
There will be a public reception on Friday, March 13 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM.
The event is free and the public is invited. The exhibition continues through
April 11.
The PhotoCentral Gallery is located at 1099 E Street, Hayward, California
and is open Monday from 5 pm -10 pm, Tuesday and Thursday
from 10 am - 1 pm and Saturday from 12 - 3 pm and by appointment.
PhotoCentral offers quality artwork in its gallery and outstanding facilities
for the dedicated photographic artist with classes, workshops, darkrooms
and a matting facility. Expand your creativity in a supportive community!
Visit PhotoCentral today. For more information, please call PhotoCentral
at 510-881-6721. You can also contact us via email at info@photocentral.org
or visit PhotoCentral on the web at http://www.photocentral.org
where you will find information on classes, workshops and
other events.

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Hiking on the Salkantay trail.

First day of hiking the Salkantay trail on our way to Machu Picchu.

On your way to Machu Picchu who needs an ipod when you can listen to indigenous live music?