@ The Strand

Two of my favorites: Hank Willis Thomas & Michal Chelbin @ Strand

Women Rule & Storytelling (This one is for you Eileen)

Emily Shur at Work © Lydia Burkhalter

Head over to the Nymphoto blog for the posting in our newest series: Nymphoto Op-Eds. We are starting this feature with a post by none other than the talented & prolific Emily Shur (who also happens to be my buddy extraordinaire, let me add proudly).


From Domesticated © Amy Stein

I know I said this before, but I think this will be a great year for Nymphoto. We certainly started the year on the right foot: at 12:01 AM on January 1, 2009 we published a conversation with the amazing Amy Stein. If you haven't read it yet, you can find it at: www.nymphoto.blogspot.com. (And while you are at it, why not revisit the conversation I had with Emily in 2008, you can find that interview, here.)

Amy Stein is a great example how the artist is an artist no matter what. Amy is relatively new to the photographic medium, but once she set her course, she became unstoppable, much like Zoe Strauss. And I don't think Amy "became an artist", I think she always was!


from Ultraviolet Beauties © Cara Phillips

Cara Phillips posted a great quote by Henry Holmes Smith on her blog Ground Glass that speaks about the importance (for the artist) of being a human being first. I think that is good advice. The rest will fall into place.


from Intervals © Margot Quan Knight

Fellow "Nymphette" Margot Quan Knight just sent me a beautiful quote by Duane Michaels tonight that feels very apropos: "show me something I've never seen; tell the story only you can tell."
Get to it. Godspeed, I say. Tell your stories.

Temple In The Village

Most of the time when I step into a vegetarian restaurant, and particularly a vegan one, a feeling of comfort comes over me. In that sense I guess being a vegetarian is akin to being religious. I imagine that a religious person might feel something similar when stepping into a place of worship.
Today I grabbed a little food at Temple In The Village, a small and simple Asian vegetarian buffet near NYU at 74 West 3rd Street. The food is well priced and you can load up on lots of steamed vegetables, indulge with a little fried vegge paddy or spring roll too and listen to a bit of Chopin while doing so (heavenly!). The service is also good and I always get a smile with my food.

Civility

Perhaps this is just a pet peeve, but I like 'please' and 'thank yous'. Whether it is at the grocery store, in an email, at the airport or if you ask me to pass the salt. Add the 'please' and 'thank yous' where you can, I say. It just makes life a little nicer. Same goes for adding a smile. If you don't already do this, try it next time you are at the grocery store, the post office, at a restaurant or wherever.
My parents always say "Bitte, soviel Zeit muss sein" which roughly translates to "please, you must make the time for it". Or if I forgot when I was really little and I asked for something not so politely, they would say "What's the magic word?". It's "Please".
Works like a charm.

Phitar: Picture of the Day

honey, we have a guest © Phitar

Like the rest of the web, Flickr has a lot of information to share and sorting through is not always easy, but the rewards can be great. Phitar shares his photography on Flickr, and it is always a treat.

Daniel Cooney's 2nd Emerging Artists Auction

© Nina Buesing

Head over to www.igavel.com to see the latest Emerging Artists Auction curated & presented by Daniel Cooney. The works are also available for viewing at Daniel Conney Fine Art in Chelsea.

I am grateful to Dan Cooney, and flattered to be included in this auction along with the talented Juliana Beasely, Toni Pepe, Pixy Liao, Shane Lavalette, Nadine Rover, Nyra Lang, Sam Falls and others.

My image in the auction is from a stay in Ubud, Bali. Travelling to Indonesia and the island of Bali without a doubt was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My friend Andrea, whose mother hails from Indonesia, set things up so that we would be there during the holiday of Galugan. A perfect time to visit, because the island's mysticism is in overdrive during this celebration and I felt as if I had transcended to Middle-earth or something.

I recommend travelling to Bali, but if you can't, maybe my print can bring a little of Paradise-like Bali to you ;)

The auction ends January 21, 2009. Happy Bidding!

Hello 2009!

Here it is: 2009! I am excited.


© H&M (HH)

My dear friends H& M send me the best video this morning, above you can an see an excerpt. And I also received a great New Year greeting from another cherished friend: Fiona. You can see her pic below.


© Fiona It's not too late to get your copy of Fi's Placencia Calendar

After a mellow evening at home with the husband and the cats, today we greeted the year with spending the day with my parents. My family has a tradition of visiting the water New Year's day and spitting in water for good luck (it's a Hamburg thing). If you can't be near open water, I say spit in the toilet. Water is water.