Video

Making a video for "Respecting My Elders".

I've been working with my husband the past two weekends trying 

to make a short video "sell" of the project  I will be proposing to UnitedStatesArtists.org, to create a website  and a printed catalogue 

of portraits from this series I've been working on for the last few years. 

I've been working on and off; I had/have a very busy teaching schedule (and I was picked for Grand Jury duty for two weeks this past August, which put a crimp in my free time this summer). So I've slowed down a bit on the shooting part while I regroup and organize the future of this endeavor.

I'm the one being filmed; I'm neither photogenic nor a good actress, but I'm trying. We're up to Take 22......hoping to finish it by the end of the month, to post on their website. Making a video is a different animal than a still. 

I hate being on the other side of the lens. It's giving me some extra sympathy and understanding for my subjects. Especially the people who have politely refused my request to photograph them.

unitedstatesartists.org

I am happy to report I have been accepted into unitedstatesartists.org,
a national organization that supports artists and helps fund-raise for projects. I am in some very good company!

http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/community
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/user/ellenwallenstein

You will be seeing updates about my photography project
"Respecting My Elders"very soon, - stay posted!

Bel Kaufman, writer, b. 1911.

A warm wonderful and with-it lady who is 100 years old/young. She lives on upper Park Avenue in a light-filled modern apartment, with her husband (a younger man of 94). She has every honor a writer can have and then some, and a bookcase filled with every book by Nabokov, in every language.

photos © ellen wallenstein 2011

herbert j. wallenstein (1917-1996)

today would be my father's 94th birthday. happy birthday, daddy.

last pages from "book of my ancestors" 1985

i miss him a lot, if not daily; from time to time; often. i wish i could give him a hug, show him my pictures, read him my writing, ask for advice.

last time i saw him was about a week ago: he appeared in my dream holding his hands out and shrugging his shoulders, as he did in life.
i wish i knew the question he wasn't answering.

spring, archive

just going through the tons of pictures i've taken,
this one jumped out at me.

from below the cherry tree, lower yard, spring 2011.

al mutanabbi street lament

i have just published a 'zine about the 2007 bombing of a bookstore in baghdad. available from magcould.com 
it's only $10.

                 

   

     al mutanabbi street lament Issue 1:      al mutanabbi street lament    

   

     20 pages. collages of xeroxes with reproductions of paintings from art history. made in response to the 2007 bombing of a bookstore in iraq. showing in  "the photograph un/framed" a group show at the center for book arts in new york city, july 2011, and will be part of a group show at the baghdad m…    

   

                       

Platon/Power

Attended the Platon lecture tonight @ the SVA theatre.

"Power" is an interesting concept.

Platon, (or as some referred to him, Mr. Platon, no need for first names) is quite cute. (Literally; he's like 4'8". We shook hands, he was shorter than me). I understand why people let him get so close.

A slight man with presence and wit, British, so the charming accent always helps. The stories he had about his subjects were funny and touching and told in various voices. 

I gotta say though, I don't like his photographs very much. 
I really wanted to.

They are too fish eye, too stylized, with some awkward cropping -  
Come on, you can get the whole hat in-- don't leave off the left side!

But who doesn't love celebrity, I say? 

His pictures of leaders from the UN were compelling, but not as good as the stories he told about them. But, I do think his heart is in the right place and that is comforting. 

As you can imagine I did not buy the book.

Pictures, Overall - pretty okay. a B, bordering on B+. 
Good but not Excellent.
His Heart, Overall - A+, Bravo. 
Keep taking those photos, Mr. P.