Lately, I have been experimenting with different presentation options for projects. Viewing the slideshows on a handful of websites inspired me to produce my own. Here are a few that I’d like to share….
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The East Side Gallery, Berlin
One of the most popular tourist attractions in Berlin, after the Reichstag, the Brandenburger Tor and the Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz is the East Side Gallery. It is popular because it represents the political and social divisions that the Berlin Wall maintained between its construction in 1961 and its fall in 1989, after a peaceful revolution of the East German people. Artists from all over the world were commissioned to paint murals on the once white-washed Eastern facing side of the wall. The photographs displayed in the slideshow are not a complete representation of each section of the gallery, but instead a selection of a few personal favorites, chosen because of a particular composition or color pattern. The former presence of the wall, mentally and socially, becomes less and less apparent over time. It wasn’t long before the Western world imposed its capitalist presence and strategic marketing displays on the once-communist former East Berlin. The mental divisions and social customs of the East and the West are still working together to find a common ground and I imagine will continue to for the foreseeable future.
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School Closings
I worked on an editorial photography project in 2010 on the closings of many of the schools in the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD). Many of the schools had been in operation for the better part of a century. These buildings are architecturally amazing and it is unfortunate that the city has not been able to find a way to put them to good use. Citizens have proposed a handful of usage ideas, but none have yet to find a solid future foundation.