Face to Face

Thanks to NetGalley, I get the opportunity to review some gorgeous art books. The latest is a photographic essay, Face to Face, by Alison Wright. Ms Wright is a superlative photographer, and you can see her work at her website.

Face to Face is simply a gorgeous book.  A timeless facebook, is how it is described in the introduction – and yes, faces are timeless but this book goes far beyond mere social media. These faces are unforgettable, from the very young to the very old. Wright has spent a lifetime trying to capture the elusive human spirit in her portraits, in many parts of the world. She seeks the unguarded moment, and often touches something deeper, like the seemingly casual portrait of the Dalai Lama reaching out to touch the hand of one of his guards – a hand that is holding a gun. The loving expression of compassion makes even the weapon seem inconsequential. What power does it have over an uncorrupted human spirit? Yet it is there because of the corrupt human spirits who seek to harm others.

The other images are no less arresting – a young Cambodian monk in his saffron robe is a vivid contrast to the ancient stones of the Bayon Temple; the expressive eyes of a Tibetan monk; a beautiful Tibetan child gazes anxiously as the camera gazes at her; a Nepalese girl carried her sister on her back. All of these portraits, right at the beginning of the book, set the mood. The colours are deep and rich, the light has a Rembrandt quality, and the subjects encompass humility and humanity. These are not camera wise fashion models, they are people reaching through the lens to connect with the viewer.

From the Himalayas to South America to the African Continent, these are the faces of our brothers and sisters on this world. Their faces tell their stories if we could only read the expressions in their eyes, the curve of their mouths, the body language they unconsciously express. It isn’t really about where they come from, if they are rich or poor, if they live in places that look like paradise to us, or a city, or a geisha house – they are us, they are hopeful, wise, apprehensive, calm, direct, joyous and restless. Wright focuses on the eyes, in almost every portrait, and reminds us that eyes truly are the windows of the soul.

Through the lens, they come into our consciousness and we enter their world for a moment. This book is about the power of the lens to bring us all face to face, unable to avoid the fact of our common humanity. Notion of, and preconceptions about, beauty fade from the mind – confronted with character, and beauty that is utterly natural like the portrait of Goite, the first in the book, we study each face for the clues it gives to the soul behind it. This is truly a life’s work to be proud of, and a book to treasure.

Face to Face is available from Amazon.

Voices of the Earth by Maureen Dudley Review

Across the centuries, two women face each other off on a plateau, surrounded by animals and birds of many different species. Wary, distrustful, they have a deep need to communicate with each other, to understand each other.

 It’s a powerful image that author Maureen Dudley creates in her novel Voices of the Earth, the first in her Plateau trilogy about Keitha, whose present is our future, and a bleak one it is; and Catherine, whose present is one we know well, fractured by horrific events – the London bombings, Hurricane Katrina. Behind these events a natural disaster fueled by environmental terrorism is unfolding – the destruction of the environment and the extinction of species.

 It is a frightening thought, that while we concern ourselves with temporal affairs, this extinction event is occurring in our town. Many species are already extinct, or are on the endangered list, and others that we know nothing about may already be on the road to nowhere. Dudley weaves compelling fiction around these inconvenient truths.

When these two women are pitted against each other, or we are following Keitha through the details and relationships of her damaged world, sparks can fly, and it helps that Keitha is surrounded by some fascinating characters. The two children, Skyler and Phelan,and the two dogs, Murphy and Addy, who share a connection even stronger than Keitha and Catherine, were characters that I particularly enjoyed.

 There are faults with the book. There is a great deal of explanation and exposition, and I like action in my fiction. I am not sure about the shadowy villains called the Machiavellians either, who interfere with the timeline for their own nefarious purposes. I’m not sure if they were necessary when the real villains are the corporations and politics that are shaping the future Keitha lives in. But I do like the idea of DNA being the key to communicating with ancestors and descendants as Keitha and Catherine do.

This is a fascinating start to the trilogy and I am certainly interested to see where it goes next. Obviously those Machiavellians won’t give up and have to be exposed, and we are left wondering how the events in the last part of the book will impact the future and the present.

Voices of the Earth at Amazon

Virtual Book Tour Thursday May 16

This blog is taking part in the Virtual Book Tour for Maureen Dudley’s Voices of the Earth, the first in her Plateau Trilogy. I am currently reading the book and will be posting my review here on Thursday. Between now and then, the book tour will be at Literary Lunes on Mother’s day (Sunday May 12); at Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf on May 13; at Booksnatch on May 14; and at Mythical Books on May 15. After May 16 you can follow the tour itinerary here as it continues until May 22.

This is the first time I have taken part in a book tour, and Voices of the Earth is proving quite a compelling read so far.

What else have I been reading, and am in the process of reading? Game of Thrones has to top the list. I have only started the first book of George RR Martin‘s mighty saga, so I have a long way to go yet. Like many others, I was drawn into it by the HBO TV series, falling in love with many of the characters as they are portrayed on the screen, such as Tyrion Lannister, played so brilliantly  by Peter Dinklage, who also played Trumpkin, one of my favourite characters in Prince Caspian; Arya Stark, played by Maisie Willliams, who quite frankly I adore, because she reminds me of me at that age; Eddard Stark, played by the gorgeous Sean Bean; and of course Danaerys, the mother of dragons. Who couldn’t love her?

I was a bit wary of getting into the books, because of all those memes pointing out the differences between the characters on screen and the characters in print, and, frankly, because there so many of them. But I needn’t  have worried, Martin is a magnificent story teller and the characters I love are even more compelling in his words. It those characters and the world of Westeros that I have fallen for,which is a bit of a relief because just liking it for the actors seemed so shallow – unless it’s Sean Bean, of course.

I have also just finished the Hunger Games trilogy. I held out against this for so long, having been warned off of some YA novels  by Twilight and books like Divergent which are so badly written and an insult to their genres, but actually Suzanne Collins is a pretty good writer. I enjoyed the second book,Catching Fire, most, and the last one, Mockingjay. least. Up to the last book, everything was fine, but inexplicably, Collins kept her heroine Katniss out of the main action in the book, breaking the cardinal rule of show, don’t tell. I’m not sure why she did this, but it really spoiled the last book for me, especially as her writing was still very strong. Oh well. I am putting these reviews up on Goodreads, so if you want to know what I think of them, follow me there.

In the meantime I will get back to Voices of the Earth and will post my review on Thursday. Happy reading!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Signs

For Cee’s Fun Foto challenge this week, this sign at our local animal park is still one of my favourites. This is in Queensland, Australia, mind you, not somewhere you would expect to find Ingrish!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

One of my favourite places in Brisbane is the Queensland Maritime Museum at South Bank in Brisbane. Looking down on the gallant HMAS  Diamantina in dry dock is looking into history. She carried Japanese officers to the surrender of Tokina in 1945 and was present at the surrenders of Nauru and ocean island. She spent one year at war, for which she received a battle honour, and became an ocoeanographic survey ship after 1959, surveying hot spots such as the Montebello Islands after the British atomic bomb tests, and finding the Diamantina Deep, named after her, the deepest part of the Indian Ocean. Quite a gal.

 

Daily Prompt: Art Appreciation

The Starry Night, June 1889, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Daily Post asks Do you need to agree with an artist’s lifestyle or politics to appreciate their art? To spend money on it?

I used to think that an artist’s personal choices did not affect my appreciation of his or her art. It seems that Chanel was a Jew hater and a Nazi, but I still love wearing Chanel No 5. Of course, I can justify that by saying that technically she did not create it – her perfumier did – and it no longer belonged to her anyway when she sold it to a couple of Jewish business men. But I still like all things Chanel. She was an inspired clothes designer, even though she wasn’t a very nice person. But it seems even I have lines I won’t cross.

The Frantic Blogster makes a good point. I’ve never felt the same about Arthur C. Clarke since 1998, when he was accused of being a pedophile who preyed on young Asian boys. The accusations have since been refuted, but it jarred me badly at the time, especially since I had always thought I made no connection between a person’s actions and their art.

How much would I tolerate? I am not such a great fan of Clark’s books that it would be have been an inconvenience to boycott him. 2001 was neither my favourite book or movie. I could live without Chanel No 5 if I wanted to make that statement. There are many other lovely perfumes – I would wear Yves St Laurent‘s Opium. (And yes, I do consider a perfume to be a work of art – there is as much art in blending aromas as in blending paint.)

But what of the artists I do admire absolutely? The painters whose work inspires me, like Vincent Van Gogh? Do their personal lives affect the way I see their art?

Vincent van Gogh is seen as more of a victim of his times than an outright sinner – he had a venereal disease, he consorted with prostitutes, he had manic episodes such as when he cut off his ear, he clearly was suffering some mental illness or environmental reaction, such as lead in the paint he used, or the absinthe he put away (quite a lot of it, containing a toxic herb called wormwood). But if some far worse accusation were leveled at him, such as pedophilia, would it make his paintings less harrowingly, heartbreakingly beautiful? Would it make Starry Night less lyrical? Would the art that he created have less impact, less meaning?

Vincent was a great artist, a misunderstood genius. He painted from his soul, his pores, his brain, his heart. He threw every facet of himself, and his life, at the canvas. Quite honestly, if he had been a serial rapist, child molester or power hungry fascist, he would not have been able to hide it. It would have been all there on his canvases. Look at them,and you will see the absinthe, the loneliness, the mania and the desperate search for meaning (he was a very religious man who lost his faith) all right there in the swirls of paint. And the viewer would have recoiled,and turned the paintings to the wall, never again to meet the naked eye. Vincent was brutally honest – that  is what makes his art so great.

In the end, I think nasty comes through – and it repels all but a certain kind of art voyeur. A true artist cannot hide his or her identity in what is created, not if it is created with truth and passion. I think of the artists I admire most, and I see that their essence comes through in their work – there is no problem or paradox here. The great are great inside as well as in their art. That’s how I see it anyway.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

This gallery contains 9 photos.