Tony Soprano on the Boardwalk in Asbury Park, NJ. c. 2000. All photos by Paul Goldfinger taken from the TV. Click once to enlarge.
Sopranos (L to R) Paulie, Hesh, Big Pussy, Patsy, Christafuh, and Silvio on the Asbury Park Boards.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net. from our series on the Sopranos at the Jersey Shore.
Late in the second season of the Sopranos, Tony is having nightmares. He is under the care of Dr. Jennifer Melfi, his shrink. The scenes on the Asbury Boardwalk portrayed a dream sequence with a talking fish over by Convention Hall.
The weather that day in June was a rare spring snow storm.
David Chase created the series which had six seasons and 86 episodes, and it ended in 2007. There were over 500 New Jersey locations during the Soprano years. Steven Van Zandt (Silvio) is an actor and musician from New Jersey and is a member of Springsteen’s E Street Band. Despite his name, he is Italian and he grew up in Middletown after the age of 7. Perhaps he had something to do with the Asbury location.
James Gandolfini portrayed Tony Soprano. He was from Westwood, NJ, and he died in 2013 of a heart attack. Re-post from 2016.
We went to the Barbara Mann to see the Book of Mormon. It had received many accolades, but we didn’t care for it very much. The subject matter was often pretty gross and unpleasant, plus it was anti-religious, especially towards the Mormons; as well as condescending and/or obnoxious towards a variety of groups including blacks, gays and women.
However, the musical song and dance numbers were often wonderful, such as “Hello” which opened the show (see below).
The show is about the pairs of young men who are sent on two year religious missions all over the world to try to gain converts to the Mormon Church. In the opening number, a group of missionaries dressed in their usual black pants, white shirts and ties, with name tags, perform this lively number called “Hello.” The song is about how they go from door to door, ringing doorbells, with their sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement.
They try to interest people in their religion with the ultimate goal of baptizing them. This show is set in a primitive village in Uganda, so the young Elders have their work cut out for them.
The Barbara Mann Theater has a high, grand entrance-way illuminated by the lights shown in the photograph above. The packed house seemed to love the show and gave it a standing ovation with whistles and cheers, although some folks around us left at intermission.
ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST OF BOOK OF MORMON with the opening number “Hello!”
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography Editor at BLOGFINGER.net. Re-post from 2016.
The new ICP (International Center for Photography) at 250 Bowery will open the inaugural show on June 23. 50 artists will be exhibited for a show called “Public, Private, Secret.” It is about “privacy in today’s social media driven culture.”
Cindy Sherman was born in 1964 in Glen Ridge, NJ. She has had a very successful and innovative career and is best known for her images where she dresses up and roll plays, photographing herself, as in the photograph above where she is polishing her toe nails. Other themes include her series on black and white movie stills and on exploitation of women.
TONY BENNETT. “Have You Met Miss Jones” from the Complete Improv Recordings
“The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood” 2015. Alabama. By Lauren Henkin 2015. From PhotographMagazine. Is this image deserving of a showing at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama?
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography Editor at Blogfinger University, Blogfinger.net.
I am about to say something from left field about art appreciation, particularly regarding fine art photography. It’s been on my agenda for awhile.
In the beginning (I mean after the invention of photography, not the creation of the world) somebody took a picture of a naked woman or an apple, and then a critic showed up to judge if that’s art or what? And since then there have been many schools of photography and many ideas about the art of the photographic image. Early on, there was even a debate about whether photography could be art.
But when it comes to critics, sometimes I think they are taking us for a ride. After all, aren’t we all critics? Does one have to be a student of art appreciation to have an opinion about art? Do we really need a pretentious analysis to tell us what to like? When I saw the piece above from the exhibit “What’s Lost is Found,” I thought “Really?”
The definition of art is a matter of opinion. One dictionary has 15 definitions. For me, art happens when an artist expresses his feelings and produces a tangible result like a painting or a sculpture, or even a drawing in the sand. Then others can judge if they appreciate the result. So by this definition, we are all exposed to art every day, we all engage in art criticism, and we all can be artists.
Having said that, it is true that experts on art are more sophisticated and have more to say on the subject, and knowing about art helps inform one’s opinions, but sometimes those expert opinions seem unnecessarily elaborate and devoid of meaning for many of us.
I mostly ignore the academics and apply my own standards of beauty and significance., and so can you. Don’t be intimidated by the artsy crowd.
That brings me to an exhibit currently showing at the Birmingham Museum of Art. It’s called “What’s Lost is Found” by Lauren Henkin. She has been engaged in a project to photograph rural Alabama. Henkin said she felt “grounded in Alabama- the darkened soil acting as magnetic pull.”
Aware of being an outsider from Maine, she said, “I knew I would never be able to take ownership of the place, but I could remark on its lush landscape, its humble people, its primaries of reds, blues, and greens.” That’s how art critics and some artists talk.
Speaking about her experience in Hale County and the photographs she made while there, Henkin said, “The place itself is sacred terrain, drawing artists from near and far, trying to define a place and people that carry a history of the medium. It is a region filled with a rich complexity that cannot be explained or dissected.”
So take a look at the sample above from that Alabama exhibit, borrowed from the magazine Photograph. The experts at the magazine chose that photograph. It has been called “art,” but I don’t get it. All the artsy explanations will not convince me that this is a beautiful and/or meaningful image. On the other hand, experts have found something profound in it and they will insist that we must look at the entire exhibit in context, but I think that an image worthy of a museum show should be able to stand on its own.
Diane Arbus is a famous photographer, and I like her work very much. She is best known for her images of ordinary people and she has had exhibits at the Met in NYC. But the critics* see much more than that; they also say that she “desired to see the diviness in ordinary things.” And they add that she had “a deep and poetic understanding of space.” Below is an image from the 2016 Met show. It is called “Lady on a Bus…1957.” I like it, but “diviness” and “poetic understanding of space?”
“Lady on a Bus” 1957,by Diane Arbus. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection.
*Quotes are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art critics who commented on Arbus’ work in 2016.
THE NEVILLE BROTHERS They take art very seriously.
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography editor @ Blogfinger. Original post 2013. Ocean Grove, NJ.
I found this “Season’s Greetings” photo card at a flea market/art show. I was intrigued by it. Clearly the work was by a serious artist. The name George Hukar sounded familiar, and a Google search revealed that he was a photographer and painter from California.
George (c. 1895-1975) was a founding member of the San Dieguito Art Guild. He taught painting and photography and he published an article about dark room work in the 1940 Christmas edition of Popular Photography . (Note the cover below.)
It is a bit of a “leap of faith” to believe that the George Hukar from the San Diego area is the one who made my 1931 holiday card, but I am going to assume that it is so.
This is not an ordinary “Season’s Greetings” card. It actually is a limited-edition hand-made silver-gelatin photograph which was sent as a card in 1931. I suspect that George Hukar was known to his friends as someone who would send out an original work of art each December.
The color of the print indicates that he tinted it with some darkroom chemical (toner) such as selenium or a variant of sepia or gold. The lighting makes the image. The model’s face is made dark using a darkroom technique called “burning.”
Perhaps this image was the inspiration for “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” I also like the idea that George would make his own Christmas cards in the darkroom. I have been doing that myself, in small limited editions, inspired by George’s work, although I have never photographed a nude subject other than my kids bathing in the kitchen sink. (That would be when they were very small.)
George Hukar’s article is mentioned along the left side.
Years ago, when all photographs were black and white, there were many creative things that could be done in the darkroom. George Hukar’s article in Popular Photography was called ” Studio Tricks,” so I can see why he did so well with this photo card.
Editor’s note: The post above is originally from 2013, and since then we have heard from others who knew George Hukar.
In 2018 we said this:
In 2013 I spoke to a woman from the San Dieguinto Photo League in California. But she had no record of this photo, however, we could verify George Hukar’s roll in the League.
Today (4/29/16) we got a comment from someone who recognizes our George Hukar as the artist who did the Christmas photo card.
Then, re-posted on September 15, 2018, it’s not every day I get to write about photography, solve a photo mystery, and post a nude on Blogfinger. We did get some additional information then.
July 28, 2020. We just received the following letter from Chrystal Snyder who is in Tempe, Arizona where it was 115 degrees yesterday, and 109 degrees today.
Hello, Paul
I just happened upon your Blogfinger post from 12/26/2013 that mentioned George Hukar of the San Diegito Art Guild. George was a friend of my father, Dick Snyder. He became an informal “uncle” to me and my sisters from the time he moved to San Diego in about 1960, becoming a key part of our extended family.
George was part of the Taliesin Fellowship in Spring Green, Wisconsin, in the 1930s. Through Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, George became a student of the teachings of Georgy Gurdjieff. I heard many stories of his time at Taliesin during my childhood.
My dad and George were friends and fellow commercial photographers in Chicago in the 1950’s. I haven’t seen the 1931 Season’s Greetings card you posted so I can’t confirm whether that one is his. I can say that George was a wonderful mentor to me. I spent countless hours with him in the darkroom and countless more roaming the city, the beach, the zoo and botanical garden, studying light and shadow and getting lost in the thrill of capturing a composition that expressed my own slant on the world.
Chrystal included a rare old photo of George.
Thanks for an unexpected opportunity to relish memories of a beloved friend and mentor!
Chrystal Snyder
Thank you Chrystal for adding to our collection of George Hukar information…a far cry from picking up a photocard at a flea market.
Paul @Blogfinger.net
FRANK SINATRA.
THE JACKSON 5:
Attn Grovers: You will recognize the name Tali Esen Morgan, the long time musical director in Ocean Grove. His beautiful house stands today on Abbott Avenue, the Tali Esen Morgan House.
“Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe.” (Lunch on the grass 1995) oil on canvas by Yue Minjun. Photographed by Paul Goldfinger at the Princeton University Art Museum. This is a re-post from 2015.
Yue Minjun (b. 1962) grew up during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s in China. As an artist, he is a member of the “cynical realism” school. Yue Minjun lives in Beijing and decided to create a laughing matter out of Manet’s 1862 work of the same name. This painting sold for $1.2 million recently. It is currently on display at the Princeton U. Art Museum. It’s rare that I find myself laughing while viewing serious art. I feel like Woody Allen.
That is until later lightening struck twice. I picked up a copy of the Daily Princetonian on Nassau Street where a front page photo shows a campus art display with some unusual accoutrements attached by mischievous students. The caption read, “An unknown group of students has placed hundreds of condoms on the student art project known as “The Nest.”
I wonder if they received a Federal art grant to pay for those decorations. Who says that sky-high SAT scores might diminish the tendency for college students to engage in low humor?
This outdoor Japanese multi-chambered climbing kiln is from the Joyous Spring Pottery in Monterey, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The American potter Michael Marcus had studied as an apprentice in Japan for four years under master potters and kiln makers and he learned how to build his wood-fired kiln which is named after the Japanese town of its origin, where unglazed ware called yaki-shime has been produced for over 1,000 years.
It is constructed out of 10,000 fire-bricks and built on several levels, with a firebox on the bottom and a flue on the top. It is 43 feet long. The potter places all his unfired clay pieces on shelves, and when the kiln is loaded, large amounts of firewood are placed. The firing of the kiln only occurs occasionally, perhaps only once per year, and it is cause for great celebration.
Diagram of the Bizen Nabori Gama kiln named for the Japanese town of its origin. (from the Joyous Spring brochure)
Flame and smoke belch out the chimney (Joyous Spring photo)
Marcus would use 10-12 cords of hardwood to fuel the sustained kiln fire. The firing must be watched 24 hours per day. The interior temperatures reach up to 2,500 degrees F. As Michael Marcus describes it, “It is fired for ten consecutive days and nights until it roars alive in a firestorm of belching smoke and flame. It fires its load of raw, unglazed wares, imparting a spontaneous decoration of running flame and melted ash.” The effects of the molten ash and the fire interacting with the elements of the clay create unusual patterns, colors and textures. When complete, it would take a week to cool down and a week to unload.
Marcus worked as a potter for 25 years and then closed Joyous Spring to pursue his vocation as a chef. Michael Marcus is a skilled Japanese sushi chef and he still has his gourmet restaurant BIZEN in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. See his note to Blogfinger in the comments section below.
The Musée D’Orsay is an art museum on the Left Bank in Paris. It has a large collection of Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic masterpieces.
Those bare breasted women in the image above, probably early 20th century beauties, are relaxing in the Paris sunshine, proudly displaying their loveliness. And the other three women, the warm blooded variety of today, are enjoying their company without evident embarrassment.
The photograph above shows that nothing changes—that everything old is new again.
From time to time we show the work of artists–painters—who love to portray the beautiful town of Ocean Grove. One time, painter Diane Hutchinson used one of my photographs to re-create a scene inside Nagle’s (see the links below.) That was a great thrill for me because her work is first rate.
Now we have heard from Martha Kelly, an artist from Point Pleasant, who used a tent photo of mine for the acrylic on canvas shown above. This is what Martha has to say about this painting:
“I love your photos. When I saw this one I had to paint it. I studied art in college but never pursued it as a profession. Recently I began to paint more because that is what I truly love. I’m sure you know as you get older what is most important becomes clearer. I paint in acrylics on canvas, usually in the 8×10 to 16×20 range. I have shown in an art gallery in Westfield.
“I live in Pt. Pleasant, but my family and I love Ocean Grove. We love the beach and strolling around town.”
We thank Martha for sharing her beautiful painting with us.
Sopranos (L to R) Paulie, Hesh, Big Pussy, Patsy, Christafuh, and Silvio on the Asbury Park Boards.
James Gandolfini portrayed Tony Soprano. He was from Westwood, NJ, and he died in 2013 of a heart attack. Re-post from 2016.
