On the Scene - RUBY walk's across America

Earlier Today the "Ruby Walk's America Tour" made an appearance at the Santa Monica Pier.

Ruby Gettinger made her debut on the style network last year as a 500-pound obese woman working to change herself or face dire consequences. Now she's traveling across the country working to motivate & inspire others to take the initiative as well.

The crowd beamed with teary eyed smiles as Ruby's fans anxiously awaited their chance to hug their hero. I have to admit I was a little awestruck with the woman's inspirational charm.

All in all, it was a pretty ordinary stroll through the pier, minus the mob & media

On The Scene: Aperture Foundation: Abstraction in Photography Forum

So, as mentioned earlier today, I attended the Aperture Foundation's forum Abstraction in Photography, at the Hammer Museum. I was actually surprised to see the strong attendance. The seats were nearly filled as the 7:00 hour came.

The forum was moderated by Lyle Rexer, who recently authored the book The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography. His panel consisted of artists James Welling and Susan Rankaitis, and UCLA professor and art critic George Baker.

The forum began with an ambling outline of the history of abstract photography, as told by Mr. Rexer. While informative, it seemed -through no fault of Mr. Rexer- to be a bit like trying to condense Homer's Odyssey into two paragraphs.... Its just too big of a topic.

Following our crash course in photography's abstract history, The panel was opened up to a discussion about what exactly abstract photography encompasses, where it began, its meaning, etc. To say the least, it was deep, it was wordy, it was very difficult, and it was ambiguous.

Thats not to say that it wasn't informative, or interesting.. Its just to say that these four extremely well read individuals could have easily harped for hours on a singular question, much less a subject as broad as this. By the time the panel was finished, it felt as though the surface had hardly even been scratched. I would have loved to spend an hour interviewing each panel member individually on the subject as they each carried a vast ocean of knowledge on the topic... But thats not going to happen.

Overall, I left feeling perplexed, intrigued, and entirely exhausted. This panel was deep... real deep, but it definitely got me thinking. Driving home in the darkness (all the power was out in Westwood.. even stop signs) I began to think about what had been discussed. My thoughts are uuh.. abstract at best at this point, but still, things are formulating.

If anything, this forum made people look at the subject of abstract photography in a different way. Urging us to look deeper. That, in and of itself is a success in my book.

Thanks Hammer... Thanks for being so deep.