Major Route 66 exhibit coming to Autry Center in a year June 11, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Books, Events, History, Museums, Photographs.4 comments
I just got this news release today. Some of you folks already know about it. But for those who don’t …
We are one year away from the opening of a major exhibition on the history of the Mother Road. “Route 66: The Road and the Romance” will open on June 7, 2014, at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.
The exhibit will focus on the role Route 66 has played in American history, literature, fine art, photography, popular culture and the “art” of the roadside attraction.
Some the remarkable objects the exhibit will bring together include John Steinbeck’s original hand-written manuscript of “The Grapes of Wrath,” the oldest existing Route 66 shield (compliments of Jim Ross), a 1960 Corvette, Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother,” Jack Kerouac’s “Scroll Manuscript” of “On the Road,” Thomas Hart Benton’s painting “Boom Town,” a display about the making of “Cars” and so much more.
The exhibit will run from June 7, 2014 until Jan. 4, 2015. Look for information to appear at theautry.org.
The Autry Center emailed the preview poster shown above.
Those who are heavily involved say the Autry’s Route 66 show will really be something. So you’d better mark your calendars.
Route 66 photo exhibit set for Joplin festival June 4, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Events, Photographs.5 comments
The Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau and The Route 66 Alliance are creating a Route 66 Photography Exhibit in Joplin, Mo., in conjunction with the International Route 66 Festival in early August.
One Best of Show photograph will be selected by a panel of judges. The winner will be announced from the Main Stage on Saturday, Aug. 3, during the Route 66 Alliance presentation, at 6:30 p.m. The photograph will be featured in a future edition of Route 66 Magazine.
According to a news release, “The meaningful part of this exhibit is about capturing those images that tell the story, life and history of Route 66.”
There is no entry fee, and it’s open to amateur and professional photographers. A detailed list of requirements for submissions can be found here.
Entries must be submitted by July 15. The photographs chosen for the exhibit will be displayed at Joplin City Hall from July 29 through Aug. 23.
On the trail of Ed Ruscha June 2, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Books, Gas stations, Photographs, Road trips.2 comments
Students from the University of Oklahoma traveled Route 66 to find the remnants of gas stations portrayed in photographer Ed Ruscha‘s influential 1963 art book, “Twentysix Gasoline Stations,” according to the Kingman (Ariz.) Daily Miner.
The effort is part of Road to Ruscha, a two-week course that offers three college credits and a road trip on Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles.
Ruscha lived in Oklahoma City from 1941 to 1956, then moved to Los Angeles to attend Chouinart Art Institute, but frequently drove Route 66 to visit family back home.
“This is part of a project to figure out what gas stations are still there on Route 66,” said Gary Gress, a professor in the school’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability. “We went to each site, whether it was still a gas station or a field, and did investigative research.
“We were detectives looking for clues. We wanted to see how the landscape along Route 66 had changed and get a sense of community. We found Kingman to be one of the strongest, friendliest and most open communities with ties to Route 66.”
The Miner article quotes Route 66 author and authority Jim Hinckley, who assisted the group in trying to find the site of a Flying A gas station in Kingman. The Flying A, which later became a Hobbs Truck Stop, was torn down a few years ago.
The class’ interactive website, Road to Ruscha, can be found here. Many images from Ruscha’s original book can be seen here.
You can buy a copy of the book here, but it’ll cost you. Even later editions of “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” go for hundreds of dollars.
Photographer discusses his techniques for his Route 66 images May 24, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Photographs, Road trips.2 comments
Photographer Rick Sammon talks about photo techniques, using his trip on Route 66 as a springboard, during a recent Google+ Hangout session.
You’ll see cool images from the Mother Road during this 38-minute presentation.
Some of Sammon’s Route 66 gallery can be seen here.
Photographer sending Route 66 Polaroids to contributors April 17, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motorcycles, Photographs, Road trips.add a comment
A couple that will honeymoon along Route 66 for three weeks in June will send unique Polaroid photographs to contributors of their Kickstarter campaign.
The campaign already is a success, with more than $1,200 raised. The fundraising goal was $1,000, and 29 days still remain in the campaign. However, those wishing to receive the photos can by contributing with pledges ranging from $10 to $250.
Eric Swanger, who is traveling the route with his fiancee Sarah, wrote:
Rather than self-publishing a book of our photos via a vanity press many months after the trip, we want to send the original, one-of-a-kind photos to you from one our many stops along Route 66.
We want to travel Route 66, take photos with vintage Polaroids and send them to people – friends, family, even strangers. Each photo will necessarily be a one of a kind, you will have the only copy in existence. We won’t even have one! . Each will be taken along Route 66 and will in some way capture the essence of the old road.
This isn’t the first attempt to document the Mother Road with Polaroid images. Christopher Robleski published his “Fading Nostalgia” book of Route 66 signs.
Still, Swanger’s bid to essentially give away the images is unique.
If Swanger’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he traveled Route 66 in a Vespa scooter in 2008.
Mother Road Revisited exhibition opens Friday April 2, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Events, Photographs, Road trips.add a comment
Natalie Slater’s “The Mother Road Revisited” photography project, where she melds old images of Route 66 with modern-day ones, opens Friday at Living Arts of Tulsa.
Living Arts is at 307 E. Brady St. (map) in Tulsa’s Brady District. The opening reception that day runs from 6 to 9 p.m. The Dilly Deli restaurant a few blocks away also will host an after-party that night from 9 p.m. to midnight.
The final day of Slater’s exhibition is April 25.
More about her project:
The Mother Road Revisited consists of about 100 photographs taken in the 1950s which I have paired with photographs I shot along the modern day Route 66, many taken as I traveled the route in my revamped 1964 Shasta. The biggest hurdle I have encountered is finding the exact location where each historic photograph was taken and setting up my own shot from the same vantage point. I then study the differences between the old photograph and my view before I combine the two pictures into a single image that shows both the new parts and vintage aspects of the scene. The resulting collage dramatizes the transformations that have shaped the Route over the years: once one-way streets now show two-way traffic, and swimming pools brimming with guests have given way to abandoned lots. This project is an effort to show what America has done to its once booming American symbol, the “Mother Road.”
Samples of Slater’s Route 66 artwork can be seen here.
This video shows Slater’s project quite well:
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UPDATE 4/5/2013: This report by KOTV in Tulsa shows how the exhibit will be interactive:
NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |
A new way of seeing the Santa Monica Pier March 9, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Photographs.1 comment so far
I’ll bet you’ve never seen the Santa Monica Pier this way before:
Santa Monica Airlines from robert mcintosh on Vimeo.
The video was created by Robert Macintosh, who specializes in aerial photography. When asked how he threaded the camera through the Ferris Wheel, he confessed: “I just held my breath and tried not to blink.”
Though not technically on Route 66, the pier has become the traditional endpoint of the Mother Road.