JULIAN WASSER

Julian Wasser, Famed L.A. Photojournalist, Dies at 89

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Wasser’s iconic photographs of the 1960s and 1970s L.A. demimonde captured the city and its popular culture at a moment of reinvention.

Photographer Julian Wasser, who captured multiple shades of light and dark during the cultural upheaval in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 70s, died on Wednesday night. He was 89.

As a teenager, Wasser began photographing crime scenes in Washington, DC, borrowing his father’s Contax 35mm camera. His striking skills in composition led to his recruitment as a West Coast contract photographer for Time magazine, among other major publications of the era. Along the way, he captured iconic images of Steve McQueen, the Fondas, Hugh Hefner, Joan Didion posing with her Corvette Stingray, and a closeup of a still-glowing Marilyn Monroe applauding at the Golden Globes in 1962.

Julian_Wasser_Marcel_Duchamp_and_Eve_Babitz_Hilton_Asmus_Contemporary
SEX AND RAGE: Babitz and Marcel Duchamp at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1963. The now-famous photo was her revenge on the museum’s married director, with whom she was having an affair. (JULIAN WASSER, PASADENA ART MUSEUM, 1963)

In 1963, assigned by Time to cover the landmark Marcel Duchamp exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, Wasser shot the conceptual artist playing chess with a nude woman. As Duchamp’s naked opponent, Wasser recruited 19-year-old Eve Babitz, later an acclaimed L.A. writer, who happened to be dating the married curator of the show, Walter Hopps.

“Well, [Duchamp] was into chess and he did the Nude Descending a Staircase. So you get a nude, chess, a girl with giant tits. Why not?” Wasser told Los Angeles last year as part of an exclusive oral history of Babitz. “I photographed Eve before. She was a total exhibitionist, so anything could happen.”

Julian Wasser in the mid-1970s
Julian Wasser in the mid-1970s BRAD ELTERMAN

The image became one of Wasser’s most famous photos, but it was just one of many assignments over the decades that captured moments of high pop culture with style and skill at a highly competitive time in photojournalism. The 60s in particular was a special time in Los Angeles, long before TMZ and an army of paparazzo commandos descended. Celebrities were more accessible then, Wasser recalled, and the pictures were better because of it.

He was as comfortable on movie sets with Jack Nicholson and Alfred Hitchcock as he was visiting Rodney’s English Disco on Sunset Blvd. for a fiery performance by Iggy and the Stooges. He captured now-classic portraits on sound stages for Charlie’s Angels to Rosemary’s Baby and mingled easily with the pop stars of the moment: the Beatles, Beach Boys and Byrds in the 1960s; Bowie, the Jackson 5 and the New York Dolls in the 1970s.

For years, Wasser worked out of a pair of apartments (across the hall from Leslie Caron) on Young Drive in Beverly Hills, surrounded by police scanners to alert him to scoops, and owned one of the first mobile phones in Los Angeles.

“He was one of the most unique individuals I ever met: brilliant, funny, charming, charismatic, educated, self-taught,” says photographer Brad Elterman, who met Wasser in 1976.

“My father lived life on his own terms. He was a very interesting, talented, funny, character. I’m very grateful to be his daughter,” artist-actress Alexi Wasser posted of his death on Instagram. “Whether in L.A., New York, Paris, Berlin, or London, he lived to hang out! He loved meeting people, making wisecracks, flirting, being inappropriate, taking photos, watching movies.”

JULIAN WASSER
JULIAN WASSER

In 2014, Didion told Vogue that Wasser’s photograph of her with baby daughter Quintana Roo in 1968 was “my favorite picture ever. Julian took beautiful pictures. Anybody who had their picture taken by Julian felt blessed.”

Wasser is survived by his daughter, Alexi, and son, James.


David Bowie passed away on January 10th, 2016. My exhibition DAVID BOWIE UNSEEN paid tribute to his legacy. The Look, New York, 2001, seen here at LICHT FELD Gallery in Basel, Switzerland.

The Final Step: Turning My Photos Into Prints for Galleries Around the World

BY: MARKUS KLINKO

JAN 05, 2023

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Une trentaine d'œuvres, à la fois physiques et digitales, du photographe américain sont exposées dans la boutique Versace de Bruxelles.

Creating a successful photograph is a process that has numerous stages. Printing the work masterfully, usually the last portion of the endeavor, is paramount.

As I enter my 29th year as a documentarian of pop culture (often referred to as fashion/celebrity photographer), I have seen my work move from the covers of magazines onto the walls of art galleries, museums, and private art collections.

Now getting ready for new shows in Houston, Texas, and Ventura, California, it is time to talk about the all-important aspect of printing.

After all, the print is what everyone sees, and what the photograph will be judged by. So why not pay a little tribute to the people that make this all happen?

There are many ways to make a gorgeous print, and choosing the ideal paper is critical. For my work, I prefer a glossy luster, so Fujicolor Crystal Archive Digital Pearl is my paper of choice.

It has a distinct metallic reflection effect that suits my work to perfection. I also love Fujiflex Crystal Archive Printing Material, for its razor-sharp rendering, vibrant colors, and impeccable whites.

I do not print my own work — after many trials and errors, I have had the fortune of collaborating exclusively with the great master printer, John Weldon of LA’s famous Weldon Color Lab. After working with John for many years on dozens of solo exhibitions, group shows, and art fairs, I recently sat down with John for a bit of a recap of his career, and to hear how he applies his talent and great experience to my work.

I asked John about his journey to becoming one of the world’s premier printmakers and how it all started.

“My freshman year in high school I found an old telescope in the closet and my dad, an engineer on the first Apollo missions, told me I’d be able to see the craters on the moon,” John says. “It was so amazing that I put my camera up to the eyepiece and when I got the film back from the drugstore it came back with a note on it: no charge – no images. So I shot it again and put a note on it that the photos were of stars and planets, and the white dots on the film were the actual photos. The roll came back with another note: no charge – no images.

“My dad saw this and for Christmas gave me an old darkroom set-up so that I could process the photos myself. Next thing you know I started processing color prints in the darkroom I’d built in my bathroom! When I showed some neighbors my photos pretty soon they started bringing me their negatives to print.

“While still in high school by chance I discovered a black and white rental darkroom in the neighborhood, and soon they offered to pay me to do color printing for them. Ten years later, in 1989, my fascination with photography inspired me to open my own photo lab at our current location where I began specializing in Cibachrome printing. As the technology has continued to evolve, so too has the lab continued to grow. We are currently one of the only labs in the world with top expertise in Lightjet printing.”

John says the challenge of helping photographers achieve their vision is the “secret ingredient” behind what allowed his lab to develop its reputation as one of the premier printing companies in North America.

The lab has grown to offer a very wide range of services for photographers.

“We do it all at Weldon – from film development to scanning to printing and mounting!” John says. “Our state-of-the-art Lightjet printing offers an amazing level of vibrancy. And our archival inkjet prints allow for a complete range of unique papers and surfaces to choose from to complement any type of photograph. We develop film in our custom black-and-white film-processing lab with great care by hand, utilizing traditional archival development.

“Our scanning department offers a range of services, including high-resolution drum scanning, and flatbed scanning, and our digital photography can accommodate reproduction of large-scale paintings.”

I asked John whether most of his clients have specific requests regarding the printing process and the paper used, or whether he helps to direct artists to their eventual choices.

“While we do assist clients new to photography every week select the best options for their images, the majority of our clients are professional photographers, museums, and galleries,” John says. “Professionals usually know what kind of style they want, but are always happy to hear about the latest innovations.”

David Bowie, Meditation B&W, New York, 2001, the first print made from the Bowie Platinum Edition, will be on display at H Gallery in Ventura, CA, from January 7th to March 5th.
David Bowie, Meditation B&W, New York, 2001, the first print made from the Bowie Platinum Edition, will be on display at H Gallery in Ventura, CA, from January 7th to March 5th.

Weldon Color Lab recently introduced the historic art of platinum palladium printing, which inspired me to release my David Bowie Platinum Edition — a platinum print I have included in my STARMAN show.

“Platinum-palladium prints are unrivaled by any modern printing technique, both in appearance and performance,” John says. “One reason the prints, created on Hahnemuhle paper, are favored by art collectors is due to their longevity, achieving an archival rating in excess of 1,500 years. And in terms of appearance, the prints create an added sense of depth, and the tonal range of the prints is unmatched.

“Dating back to the 1870s, this handmade photographic-printmaking technique was created through contact printing, meaning the photographic negative matches the size of the final print. As a result, photographers of the times were more limited to what size they could make their prints. Now we can make ‘digital negatives’ up to 40″ wide! Currently, we are printing up to 24×30″ and are excited that later this year will be able to print 30×40″ platinum-palladium prints.”

John says his lab is currently looking to expand its platinum services to serve galleries and museums around the world.

About the author: Markus Klinko is an international fashion/celebrity photographer who has worked with many of today’s most iconic stars of film, music, and fashion. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Klinko’s work on his website and Instagram.


Joan Didion - Yellow Corvette

Joan Didion Remembers the Day Julian Wasser Took Her Portrait

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Vogue spoke with Joan Didion and Julian Wasser about his portraits of her, now in Wasser’s new monograph, The Way We Were.

Shortly after Slouching Towards Bethlehem was published, in 1968, Timemagazine commissioned portraits of Joan Didion by the photographer Julian Wasser. You know the series: a young Didion in a long-sleeved dress and sandals, standing in front of her Corvette Stingray, a cigarette dangling from her right hand. Two of these portraits appear in Wasser’s new monograph, The Way We Were, published recently by Damiani, alongside many of his other seminal photographs: Steve McQueen exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke; Robert F. Kennedy five minutes before he was shot; Roman Polanski kneeling near the entrance of the house on Cielo Drive, the word PIG,scrawled in blood by the Manson family, faded but still visible on the door.

Of all the pictures he took during those years, Wasser says, speaking by phone from Los Angeles, the ones of Didion were “a big event in my life.” “I’d read her fiction,” he says. “It was very L.A. She didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion on the Strip and at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a very nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to. It was like a dream. Quite nice and relaxed. No Hollywood phoniness.” Vogue asked Didion, too, for her memories of the shoot.

These portraits were commissioned by Time in 1968, just after Slouching Towards Bethlehem was published to great acclaim. What do you remember about this moment in your life?

I think someone said that the picture had been taken under circumstances that it hadn’t. What do I remember? I can’t say what I remember. I had a baby. I was living in a rented house in Hollywood. It was kind of a wonderful period of my life actually. Not because I was in a rented house in Hollywood. But just in general.

As a writer and reporter, was it strange for you to be the subject of a story? To be appearing in Time?

I don’t think it was the first time I’d been written about. The whole thing was strange. Yes, it was strange to be written about. But that probably wasn’t the first time. I loved having pictures of me with the baby. The one where she has sort of—the one that shows her hair pulled up tight? I love that picture. I love that picture. That was also at Franklin Avenue. Most of what Julian Wasser took was at Franklin Avenue.

Was this the first time you met Julian Wasser? Were you familiar with his work?

I was very familiar with his work because I was writing for magazines then and he was at the Time bureau. Any time anyone was shooting in L.A. for Time and Life, they were shooting with Julian. He was just somebody I knew very well.

What details do you remember about that day? Does anything in particular stand out to you now?

I can’t remember anything specific that stands out about the day. I don’t know how we decided to include the Corvette. It must have been some whim of Julian’s.

Joan Didion and daugther Quintana Roo Photo: Julian Wasser
Joan Didion and daugther Quintana Roo Photo: Julian Wasser

He said it was not his whim. He said, “You don’t tell a woman like that what to do.”

[Laughs] Oh, really?

Had you thought about what you were going to wear, or were the long dress and sandals just what you happened to have on?

I remember the long dress. I remember being out on the Strip in a long dress. Why, I can’t imagine.

Do you remember buying the Stingray?

I very definitely remember buying the Stingray because it was a crazy thing to do. I bought it in Hollywood.

What color was the Stingray?

The Stingray was Daytona yellow. Which was a yellow so bright, you could never mistake it for anything other than Daytona yellow.

Did you like these photographs of you?

The picture with the baby—I would say that was my favorite picture ever. Julian took beautiful pictures. Anybody who had their picture taken by Julian felt blessed.

How did you feel about the article?

I don’t remember the article. I remember the pictures.


gq

How we photographed David Bowie with wild wolves

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Renowned photographer Markus Klinko tells the story of how he came to photograph the legendary David Bowie with wild wolves for British GQ's October 2002 issue.

It was the late spring of 2001 when I met Angelina Jolie’s famous make up artist, Paul Starr, on a shoot for Interview magazine in New York. He asked me if I had ever worked with Iman, another client of his, and suggested that he would take my portfolio over to her house, just a few blocks down the street from my studio.

The next day, Iman called me on the phone and said that she wanted to meet me and talk about a project. I was very excited to see the legendary supermodel in-person and was anxious to hear what she had in mind. When she arrived at the studio, I was shocked that she was even more stunning than the photos. She was very complimentary of my work and explained that she had been working on her first book, I am Iman. She had contributions from virtually every great fashion photographer in the world already, from Helmut Newton to Steven Meisel, but she wanted me to shoot the cover of the book. I couldn’t be more flattered, but also felt the pressure to create something amazing with her. We scheduled the shoot for the following week.

Read more: How we photographed David Bowie with wild wolves

The session was very successful. She wore fabulous dresses sent over by Alexander McQueen. Iman took on the role of a fierce warrior Goddess and embodied it completely. A couple days later, Iman returned to the studio to take a look over the edits with me, and to my great surprise, David Bowie came along to help choose the cover. He was every bit as charismatic and extraordinary as one can imagine, but really kind and lovely to talk to. David was very involved in the selection process and had a great eye for imagery. Both of them loved the photos.

During the editing session, David casually mentioned that he might be working on a new album and that perhaps he would call me to talk about shooting the cover for it. That sounded a bit too good to be true, and while I was hopeful that this could happen, I did not get my hopes up too high.

Meanwhile, the terrible events of 9/11 took place less than a mile from my studio, and for a little while I even forgot about the prospects of shooting my first David Bowie album cover. Yet, a few weeks after the tragedy, true to his word, Bowie called me. He is one of the very few celebrities that I have worked with who personally got involved, and was extremely communicative and very hands-on in the process. He asked if I could come over to a Broadway recording studio and listen to some tracks. I went over the next day. I wandered around the old, understated recording studio to find Bowie and his producer, Tony Visconti, in one of the rooms. Bowie said that wanted to play some of the new songs for me before discussing the album art. The mental image of Bowie sitting by a window, smoking cigarettes while his producer played the rough mixes from the board, is a memory that I could never forget. After listening to almost the entire album together, we started talking about the shoot. He had many ideas and was very precise about them.

David was very eager to get it all set up as quickly as possible and to shoot within a couple days. He returned to my studio the next day, and brought a series of early Man Ray images that he was very interested in referencing in some way or another. He wanted to be styled in Forties’s suits and wanted to get into the character of a blind man. At that time, most of my work was very colorful, but David was profoundly visionary and believed that it would be interesting for me to produce a series of mainly black and white album images, as well as some color images for press.

Read more: How we accidentally told David Bowie to f*** off

He is one of the most photogenic stars ever, and almost every single shot looked incredible. Bowie knew exactly what poses and expressions to do in order to portray the character we discussed. He was very carefree and fun to shoot.

During the following weeks, David often came by the studio to select and edit the photos. One day, he stopped by while I was shooting a British GQ editorial with a lot of male and female models running around in towels and he said, “This reminds me of the Seventies! And I remember nothing from the Seventies…” and then he laughed.

Heathen was released in 2002, and Bowie went on tour to promote the album. Around that time, I got a call from GQ in London, asking me to shoot David for their prestigious “Men of the Year” cover. Since Bowie was busy with the tour and was not available for a shoot within the deadline for the magazine, a creative solution had to be found.

I called up to David and asked him if he would trust me with creating a series of complex photocompositions, using a body double and several wild wolves. He immediately loved that idea, and said that I had carte blanche. My agent called the modeling agencies, and I decided on a young guy who had very much the stature and body shape of Bowie.

Next, I needed to find a bunch of wild wolves and get them to my Soho studio. Luckily, a prominent handler of wild animals for film and photo shoots was a huge David Bowie fan and agreed to bring the gorgeous beasts to New York. Our male model proved himself quite brave, as he worked it with the energetic and sometimes aggressive wolves. While his face looked nothing like Bowie, he was able to channel him through his body language. The images of David from the Heathen session and the shots of the body model and wolves were later combined by my post-production studio and have since become a favorite in GQ’s iconic history.

In the years following the Heathen and GQ shoots, I continued working with Iman on a regular basis, and saw David a couple of times. Once at Iman’s birthday party, he was running around their home and putting on great music to set a fun mood for everyone at the party. I brought over a huge print of Iman as a gift and they both loved it. It was very obvious how much he adored Iman. After his heart attack in 2005, I did not see him anymore.

Outstanding Achievement Award, 2002. Read our interview with 2002’s Outstanding Achievement Award recipient, David Bowie, here.Markus Klinko

Fast forward to 21 May 2013: at this time, I had moved to Los Angeles and was finishing up at the gym when I received an email marked “URGENT” from Bowie’s manager, letting me know that David wanted to speak to me. I rushed home to take his call, and was elated to learn that he wanted me to direct a video for his new single “Valentine’s Day.” Years earlier when we shot the Heathen artwork, I told Bowie that I would love to direct a video for the album and he said that it would be great but his new music was not mainstream enough to play on MTV so he didn’t see the point in making any videos. During those days, music videos really depended on MTV.

As I chatted on the phone with David for over an hour about his new video, it was just amazing how surprised he was at the success of this latest album, The Next Day. He said that he was not expecting that at all. With the creative freedom of Vevo and Youtube, he was excited to create videos again.

We did an animated portrait shoot, since many of his fans really wanted to be able to just watch him “without all the bells and whistles.” We shot the video in two days in New York. The song was about a mass shooting, and he wanted to reference the violence in a very subtle way. I had the idea to insert a flying bullet for a split second and if you look closely, there is a shadow of a person holding a machine gun.

My coffee table book, Icons, had just come out a few months prior to the video shoot featuring both David and Iman, with Iman writing the foreword for the book. David wanted a few copies of the book, and signed some as gifts. His spirits were very high and he was in a great mood. It was wonderful to work with him again after so many years, and see him full of creativity, energy, and excitement about the future.

Markus Klinko’s “Bowie Unseen” show opens in Basel, Switzerland on 24 March at Licht Feld gallery until 9 April and in LA at Mr Musichead gallery on Sunset Blvd on 19 May.


The Protector

Markus Klinko’s Amazing Never-Before-Seen Photos of David Bowie

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They're outtakes from a 2001 shoot that involved a pack of wolves.

In 2001, Markus Klinko was invited to photograph David Bowie. Now, in the wake of the beloved singer and artist’s unexpected passing, the unpublished images are finally coming to light, and are currently on view in”Bowie Unseen” at LA’s Mr MusicHead Gallery.

The photographer shot the album cover for Bowie’s 2002 record, Heathen, an eerie black and white image of the singer as a blind man. The current exhibition includes that photo, as well as over 20 never-before-seen outtakes from that day.

“It was a 9 to 5 shoot,” Klinko recalled in an interview with ABC. “We got so much done and, you know, I will never forget this session.”

Once we did the cover for Heathen—which took several hours and which he had very precisely mapped out in his head what he wanted—he then turned very playful and allowed me to have fun,” he added.

On the strength of that work, Klinko was asked to create the cover image for GQ‘s “Man of the Year” issue honoring Bowie. The resulting image shows the rock star fearlessly posing with a pack of wild wolves. Due to Bowie’s busy schedule and lack of availability for another shoot, Klinko was forced to use a body double with the wolves, carefully adding in the singer’s face from the photos taken for Heathen during post-production.

One of Markus Klinko’s photos of David Bowie. Courtesy Markus Klinko.

“Our male model proved himself quite brave, as he worked it with the energetic and sometimes aggressive wolves,” Klinko recalled in GQ earlier this year. “While his face looked nothing like Bowie, he was able to channel him through his body language.”

A portion of the proceeds from all works sold during Klinko’s exhibition will go to Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research, in honor of the singer, who died from liver cancer.

See more of Klinko’s photos of Bowie below.

Markus Klinko’s “Bowie Unseen” is on view at Mr MusicHead Gallery, 7420 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, May 19–June 15, 2016.


versace klinko

Versace et Cube Art Fair exposent les œuvres du célèbre photographe Markus Klinko

by Katie Lister

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Une trentaine d'œuvres, à la fois physiques et digitales, du photographe américain sont exposées dans la boutique Versace de Bruxelles.

Considéré comme l’un des photographes les plus prolifiques des années 2000, Klinko a capturé des personnalités légendaires de la musique et du divertissement, notamment Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Jay Z, Janet Jackson et David Bowie.

versace klinko 2

L’exposition organisée par la Cube Art Fair et orchestrée sur le plan curatorial par Vogelsang Gallery, qui représente Klinko, coïncide avec le Uptown Tour, un parcours qui promeut l’art et le design dans des lieux d’exception de la capitale européenne.

Natural Villains
Titre: David Bowie, Natural Villains, BW (2002)

Les œuvres photographiques tendance de Klinko sont en parfaite adéquation avec Versace, dont l’ADN extravagant et créatif et sa définition du luxe se marient avec les tirages d’art contemporain colorés et audacieux de Markus Klinko. Les personnages emblématiques dont il capture les esprits ne sont pas seulement connus pour leur savoir-faire artistique, mais aussi pour la façon dont ils repoussent les limites de leur sens du style et de leur identité de mode.

Britney, The Forest (2004)
Titre: Britney, The Forest (2004)

Cube Art Fair occupe habituellement l’espace public de manière spectaculaire en présentant des œuvres d’art contemporain dans les rues de villes comme New York, Miami ou Bruxelles. Ses expositions, diffusées sur de gigantesque panneaux digitaux de 2000 mètres carrés sur Times Square, ou projetées sur des gratte-ciel de 120 mètres de haut à Miami, ont valu à la foire lors de ses neuf précédentes éditions l’acclamation de la presse internationale qualifiant “The World’s Largest Public Art Fair” (la plus grande foire d’art publique du monde). Aujourd’hui c’est en occupant les murs de la boutique Versace, que la Cube Art Fair a décidé de faire vivre les œuvres de ses artistes.

Titre: Beyoncé, Dangerously in Love (2003)
Titre: Beyoncé, Dangerously in Love (2003)

Versace est à la pointe de la créativité dans le domaine de la mode, et je suis ravi que notre collaboration avec Cube Art Fair apporte le meilleur de la créativité dans l’art contemporain au sein de leur boutique. La curation de l’exposition Markus Klinko a été un processus passionnant, ses œuvres capturent véritablement l’esprit Versace », déclare Gregoire Vogelsang, fondateur de Cube Art Fair et propriétaire de la galerie éponyme Vogelsang Gallery.

39th Annual Smith Nature Symposium Awards Dinner

Pharrell Williams (2002)
Titre: Pharrell Williams (2002)

Markus Klinko est un exemple de la façon dont les photographes – et les créatifs qui travaillent dans le monde commercial – peuvent réussir aussi bien, sinon plus, dans le domaine des beaux-arts : Ses œuvres se vendent à des prix record et il est représenté par plusieurs musées et galeries internationales. Plus tôt cette année, le Fotografiska Museum de New York a présenté son travail.

Lady Gaga, Hello Kitty (2009)
Titre: Lady Gaga, Hello Kitty (2009)

« Je suis honoré que Cube Art Fair ait choisi d’organiser cette exposition en collaboration avec Versace. Je suis tombé amoureux de Versace dans les années 1980. J’adore la marque, et avoir mon travail dans leur magasin phare de cette capitale européenne est un rêve devenu réalité !“, a ajouté Markus Klinko.

Jennifer Lopez (2006)
Titre: Jennifer Lopez (2006)

Son travail sera présenté dans la prochaine série HBO, The Idol, du créateur Euphoria James Levinson, et mettant en vedette The Weeknd (qui, nous dit Artnet, est également un collectionneur du travail de Klinko).

Les œuvres sont en vente via Vogelsang Gallery: info@vogelsanggallery.com | +1.646.322.7935 ou +32 485 148 845

Versace Bruxelles:
Adresse : Bd de Waterloo 7, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
Heures d’ouverture :
du lundi au samedi : de 10h00 à 18h30

Diane Kruger (1998)
Titre: Diane Kruger (1998)
Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
Titre: Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
Jay Z, The Clock (2004)
Titre: Jay Z, The Clock (2004)

Inspiring Change: SeaLegacy’s Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen Honored at Brushwood Center’s Smith Nature Symposium Awards Dinner

On September 30, the Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods hosted its 39th annual Smith Nature Symposium, “Inspiring Change,” at the Greenbelt Cultural Center in North Chicago. Nearly 200 people attended the event to honor the extraordinary leadership of Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen and their impact on ocean justice and conservation as photographers, marine biologists, and founders of SeaLegacy.

Every year, the Smith Nature Symposium celebrates nature and those who have made a meaningful contribution to the conservation of the natural world. The first award of the night, the Environmental Youth Leadership Award, went to Nalani Hill, a 16-year-old student from Lake Forest Academy nominated by Brushwood Center partner, Cool Learning Experience (CLE).

nalani hill
Nalani Hill and Amy Heinrich, Smith Nature Symposium Host Committee Co-Chair

Later in the night, Mittermeier and Nicklen earned the Distinguished Environmental Leadership Award. The two, who are partners in life and business, work on the front lines of conservation. They started SeaLegacy in 2014, a non-profit to propel ocean conservation through visual storytelling, impact campaigns, and funding projects.

Mittermeier and Nicklen are photographers creating stunning artistry and advocacy for their environment through their work. Evolve, the photography of Mittermeier and Nicklen, is available for viewing at the Brushwood Center Gallery until October 30, 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ciab72NL0hj/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

“Each year, we honor those making an environmental impact. But also try to bring in award recipients who have an art practice because Brushwood Center focuses on health equity and well-being through accessing nature and the arts,” says Mirja Spooner Haffner, Director of Development at Brushwood Center. “The fact that [Mittermeier and Nicklen] touched upon those two themes is significant for our annual fundraiser.”

The Smith Nature Symposium is Brushwood Center’s largest fundraiser. They raised $140,000 to benefit Brushwood Center’s programs for children, families, professionals, and veterans throughout the community. Of the total funds raised, $53,000 came from the night’s paddle raise, which is double what they received from their last in-person fundraiser three years ago. There was also a match opportunity through a Chicago Community Trust grant for up to $25,000, bringing the in-room total to $78,000.

The evening started with a cocktail reception followed by the dinner procession with entertainment from Seven Springs Drums. The event, led by acclaimed emcees, television journalist Bill Kurtis and producer Donna LaPietra, included a land acknowledgment by Michael Pamonicutt and welcoming remarks from Host Committee Co-Chairs Disha Narang and Amy Heinrich.

paul and christina
Catherine Game, Executive Director of Brushwood Center with Donna LaPietra, Bill Kurtis, Paul Nicklen, Board of Directors Chair Gail Sturm and Cristina Mittermeier

Numerous esteemed guests attended the dinner, including Vicky and George Ranney of the Ryerson family, who donated Brushwood Center’s building and the land of Ryerson Woods. Also in attendance were SeaLegacy CEO Jack Lighton and their Board Chair Ryan Kissick. The night also welcomed Arica Hilton and Sven Asmus of Hilton|Asmus Contemporary, who, thanks to the work of Brushwood Center Chair Gail Sturm, partnered with Brushwood to present Evolve.

Rob Heinrich, Brushwood Board Member; Jacalyn Ramdin Johnson, Brushwood Board Member; Carl Johnson (husband of Jacalyn); and Lorra Rudman, Brushwood Board Member.
Rob Heinrich, Brushwood Board Member; Jacalyn Ramdin Johnson, Brushwood Board Member; Carl Johnson (husband of Jacalyn); and Lorra Rudman, Brushwood Board Member.

Out of respect for the vegan honorees who work to support the environment and ocean, all of the food from the night’s dinner were gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan and came from local farms. The local farms included Temple Organics Farm in Old Mill Creek, Illinois, Mick Klug Farm in St. Joseph, Michigan, and Herban Produce Farm in Chicago, Illinois. There was also a strolling dessert buffet with assorted mini cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and a Mexican cinnamon churro station.

Seven Springs Drums
Seven Springs Drums

The support of generous sponsors made the night possible. Ambassador sponsors included Amy and Rob Heinrich, Michael M. Levin and family, Jean Meilinger, John Schneider, Adele Simmons, A. Gail and William Sturm.

Program sponsors included The Chicago Community Trust, John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Illinois Humanities, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Oberweiler Foundation and more.

39th Annual Smith Nature Symposium Awards Dinner