The fiber in complex carbohydrates-grain, fruit, and vegetables can reduce the body's absorption of fructose, even from fruit which is naturally high in the sugar. USDA photo by Keith Weller.

  

Leiden

June 2012

The Netherlands

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.

I will remove them...

New pictures from an old piece of work (late 90ies, I'd say) that still has its charm and is kept on display.

This 8x8" base with a street scene was inspired by the Patlabor 2 movie. It shows/presents Ohta's Ingram #2 on patrol in the Tokyo suburbs, after public terror warning has been given.

A military armored patrol car supports the police team in the background - and two officers with gas masks are dealing with the traffic.

 

The Ingram was built mostly OOB; kit improvements include added hydraulic rams under the head, but that's all.

 

The pose I chose for the Imgram is supposed to express: "Oh, it is snowing..." ^^

 

The armored vehicle to the right is actually a converted ESCI 1:72 Humber Mk.II kit.

Changes include different wheels ans suspension (bigger and broader, actually from an old Takara Dougram kit) and external details like the IR camera pod on the turret. Its paint scheme is standard JGSDF scheme (bronze green and dark earth), plus a coat of snow (see below), which crumpled down very naturally, giving the small tank a realistic appearance.

I also had the typical 1:60 Patlabor police buggy in store, but that was used in the Tokyo street base for Ingram #1. It's just a prop for the background, but I took some detail shots of it.

 

The figures with gas masks in fronmt are also from ESCI and actually 1:72 - but due to their size, they match well with 1:60 scale Japanese people... They come from a ground crew kit from an airplane model.

 

After consulting some reference pictures, the traffic lights were built from scratch, as well as the power pole and the rad barriers. The barbed wire is just thin, painted wire. The wood fence to the left is made from balsa wood, painted with a water-based dye.

The billboard is a scan from a movie ad from a Japanese magazine (it looks SO trashy!).

The tree is also self-made, from a real piece of wood and some islandic moss, plus snow on top to cover it up.

 

All the snow on diorama and kits was made with sieved white joint filling, some water and a hard brush. It is, up to date, the best stuff I found in order to simulate clumpy snow in scales around 1:35-72. And it is also stable in color, it does not turn yellow over time and with humidity absorption like plaster.

NTHU

Hsinchu/Xinzhu

Taiwan

2013

 

My wife's campus resembles the set of a Star Wars movie!

 

Urban Life in Taiwan

 

Ricoh GR Digital IV

 

Hoi!

If you are looking for an all-weather streetwise documentary photographer and journalist look no further; I am your man! Hit me up for publications, prints, assignments or collaborations: Check out www.daanloeff.nl or www.instagram.com/daanloeff (Based in The Netherlands)

South Padre supposedly has THE best sand for sand castle building. "Professional sand sculptors" rate it the highest based on many factors-- moisture absorption, grit, fineness of grain.

Title: Andrew Robinson testing UV-634 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Varian Techtron, 679 Springvale Road, Mulgrave

Author / Creator: Sievers, Wolfgang, 1913-2007 photographer.

Date: 1974.

  

Subjects:

Robinson, Andrew.

Varian Techtron Employees.

Atomic absorption spectroscopy Calibration.

Atomic absorption spectroscopy Instruments.

Laboratories Victoria Mulgrave.

Laboratory technicians.

Gelatin silver prints.

 

Index terms:

Australia; Victoria; Wolfgang Sievers; Varian Techtron; laboratory technicians; Mulgrave; atomic absorption spectroscopy; Andrew Robinson

 

Notes: Job number inscribed in pencil on reverse of image: 4314 AN

Vintage print with the photographer's studio stamp on reverse.

Title taken from information supplied by Varian Australia, courtesy of the photographer.

Printed by Wolfgang Sievers at an unknown date from his negative made in 1974.

 

Copyright status: This work is in copyright

Conditions of use: Copyright restrictions apply.

For Copyright queries, please contact the National Library of Australia.

 

Source: SLV

Identifier(s): Accession no: H2000.195/247

Source / Donor: Purchased 2000.

Series / Collection: Wolfgang Sievers collection.

 

Link to online item:

handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/308690

 

Link to this record:

search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1fe7t3h/SLV_ROSETTAIE18...

search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1fe7t3h/SLV_VOYAGER1757467

Black pepper is added to the ginger turmeric energy shot for greater absorption of turmeric.

Schiphol

Februari 2012

The Netherlands

 

Candid shots in and around the Public Transport in The Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

Appreciate the awards and scripted comments

But I will remove them...

 

All rights reserved

Den Haag

The Netherlands

2012

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GR Digital IV

self-absorption

Vrije Universiteit

March 2012

The Netherlands

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely i will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

All rights reserved

I have used the calibrated Sekonic meter to scale measurements made with an Ocean Optics NIRQuest (900 – 2,500nm) spectrometer.

 

I first did a relative intensity-wavelength calibration of the NIRQuest using a measurement of a quartz-halogen lamp that operates near 3000K. The ratio of the Planck function to the spectrometer counts was then scaled to fit an extinction-corrected spectrum of the solar emission at the Earth.

 

In this case the intensity (irradiance) calibration is tied to that of the Sekonic meter which, in turn, it tied to a NIST standard.

 

The description of the spectra in this plot follow the description in the previous post.

 

The pale grey line is the solar flux outside the atmosphere (from the Hubble calibration database). Although the legend says 'scaled', the scaling factor is unity.

 

The blue line spectrum is the extinction-corrected solar flux for an airmass of 1.58. The observation was made with a very milky sky and the model used a much lager aerosol value than the measurement in the previous post.

 

The thick red line shows the Sekonic C-7000 data in the visible and the NIRQuest data in the infrared from 900 - 2,500nm.

 

The strong absorption bands in the infrared are dominated by telluric (formed in the Earht's atmosphere) water vapour but also include contributions from carbon dioxide, methane and the O2*O2 and O2*N2 dimers (the dip just above 1,250nm).

 

O2*O2 collisionally induced absorptions (CIA) also appear prominently in the visible spectrum when the Sun is low in the sky and are formed mostly in the low atmosphere (see the comment below).

 

[2020-03-30, Ozone changed from 2 to 1.6]

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have free tickets to the Braque expo at the Grand Palais. I didn't know this artist before and was very happy to discover his work which has a very wide variety of styles. If you have the opportunity, go discover!

 

Having just done the series of 6 photos where there was indifference also, it was interesting to see yesterday that everyone was absorbed! I've decided to do this series in black and white to focus on the people rather than the art. However, I'd definitely recommend this artist to you :)

 

Hier j’ai eu la chance de pouvoir aller gratuitement à l’expo Braque au Grand Palais. Je connus pas cet artiste et fut heureuse de découvrir son travail qui a changé en plusieurs styles très différents tout au longue de sa vie. Si vous avez l’occasion, découvrez-le ! (Demain c’est le dernier jour au Grand Palais.)

 

Puisque j’ai fait très récemment cette petite série « immersion et indifférence » j’étais très sensible aux autres visiteurs … et cette fois-ci tout le monde était immergé ! J’ai décidé de montrer ces photos en noir et blanc car j’ai voulu mettre en valeur les personnes et non pas l’art. Mais je vous recommande vivement cet artiste :)

 

If you recognise yourself in these photos and prefer they are not here, just let me know (or if you would like a copy of the photo).

 

Si vous vous reconnaissez dans cette photo et préfériez que la photo ne soit pas publiée, dites le moi (ou bien si vous aimeriez en avoir une copie).

Schwarz: Bezeichnung der Farbempfindung, die entsteht wenn kein Farbreiz wahrgenommen wird.

Schwarz ist die Absorption aller Spektren des Lichtes. Abwesenheit von sichtbarem Licht jeglicher Wellenlänge - und somit die Abwesenheit von Farben.

Schwarz ist eine unbunte Farbe.

Die Buntheit der unbunten Farben ist Null.

Durch verschiedene Helligkeitsstufen des Unbunt ergeben sich die Schattierungen von Schwarz über Grau bis Weiß.

Pigmente und Färbemittel, die mehr Licht absorbieren als reflektieren ERSCHEINEN schwarz.

2008 wurde die bisher schwärzeste Materie der Erde geschaffen - sie reflektiert nur .045 % Licht

 

Part of: "An Exercise: Fools Tower, One Thousand and One Sights ~ Narrenturm Tausendundeine Ansichten, eine Übung" I asked for learning - he does not find it worth the effort to answer. / Narrenturm Farben - Narrenturm ungezählt

 

Originalfoto (Narrenturm): DMC-G2 - P1760446 - 2014-02-11

#red #rot #schwarz #black #weiß #white #lieblingsfarbe #stencil #schablone #schnittmuster #sewingpattern #schnitt #schneiden #gugelhupf #rosine

Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Central Building of the Brooklyn Public Library is located on one of Brooklyn's most prominent sites, facing Grand Army Plaza at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway. Initially proposed in 1888 when Brooklyn was still an independent city, the municipally-financed central library took nearly six decades to build. Of the several cultural institutions in the vicinity of Prospect Park, it was the last to open to the public in 1941. Ground was broken in 1911 for architect Raymond F. Almiralls Beaux-Arts scheme.

 

However, by 1929 the project stood only one-third complete, a victim of both city politics and finances. In 1935 the architects Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally were commissioned to redesign the building, while retaining the existing foundations and steel skeleton. Their monumental design is a limestone-clad Modern Classical structure with impressive Art Deco detailing by the sculptors Thomas Hudson Jones and C. Paul Jennewein. The most striking feature is its fifty-foot high entry portico, set into the concave facade which reflects the elliptical configuration of Grand Army Plaza.

 

An expression of both civic pride and public embrace, the design was widely praised for being both impressive and practical. Its plan is shaped like an open book, and the inscriptions and sculpture that decorate the spare exteriors express the educational purpose of the library. Passed by thousands of pedestrians and motorists each day, the Central Building of the Brooklyn Public Library is one of the borough's best known and most heavily used public buildings.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

Libraries in Brooklyn

 

During the mid-nineteenth century several private libraries were established in Brooklyn, primarily in Brooklyn Heights. Although some were associated with existing institutions, several developed enough support to construct their own buildings, including the Brooklyn Apprentices Library (1825) at Henry and Cranberry Streets, the Brooklyn Atheneum and Reading Room (Field & Corregio, 1853) at Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Street, and the Mercantile Library Association of the City of Brooklyn (P. B. Wight, 1869) on Montague Street. At these subscription libraries, readers paid an annual fee to use the facilities and borrow books.

 

Following the Civil War, the city of Brooklyn grew rapidly, expanding its borders and accommodating thousands of new immigrants. During the late 1870s and 1880s interest grew in creating a free library system, one that would serve all Brooklyn residents and neighborhoods. Brooklyn's earliest free library was privately funded and was located in the main building of the Pratt Institute, a private school in Clinton Hill founded by Brooklyn oil tycoon Charles Pratt in 1887. Within a few years, he established a second facility, the Astral Branch in Greenpoint, not far from the site of Pratt's kerosene refinery. These libraries were immensely popular, and in 1896 the original Pratt facility moved to new and larger quarters on Hall Street, designed by the Brooklyn architect William B. Tubby.2

 

Brooklyn's Public Library

 

The Brooklyn Public Library was created on May 3, 1892, by an act of the New York State legislature. Five years later, in December 1897, the first branch opened in Bedford Stuyvesant. Located in Public School No. 3, the municipally-financed facility featured separate reading rooms for men and women and open stacks for browsing, a new innovation.

 

On January 1, 1898, the city of Brooklyn was consolidated into Greater New York. Despite considerable interest in pursuing a similar merger of the new city's various independent library systems — especially, with the announcement in 1901 that industrialist Andrew Carnegie would donate $5.2 million for the construction of sixty-five branches — such an alliance failed to occur.3

 

The New York Public Library, established in 1895, was privately funded and conceived as a centrally located reference collection, formed by the merger of the Astor Library, the Lenox Library, and the Tilden Trust. The Brooklyn Public Library, on the other hand, was founded as a decentralized system, created to serve a broad range of constituencies and communities. Unlike the New York Public Library, Brooklyn's board of trustees consisted of a number of elected officials, including the New York City Mayor, comptroller, and the Brooklyn Borough President, who opposed the merger in order to retain influence over future plans and construction. Furthermore, many influential Brooklynites feared its absorption into a larger system, arguing that the borough and its citizens would be best served by its own independent library. Carnegie, who initially favored a merger, acceded to their wishes, and in 1901, the Brooklyn Public Library received $1.6 million to construct twenty branch libraries.4

 

The Site

 

Brooklyn's Central Library is situated on a triangular lot at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue. It was originally part of the so-called "east-side lands" which were acquired by the City of Brooklyn for the construction of Prospect Park. These lands, which extended as far east as Washington Avenue, included the Mount Pleasant reservoir (today the site of Mount Prospect Park) that officials hoped would be integrated into the park's design. The park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, however, convinced them to abandon this scheme and acquire land to the west instead. Not only were the dimensions too small, but they believed that Flatbush Avenue, a major thoroughfare, should not bisect the future park. In their 1866 report, they speculated on the site's use, writing that "the lots on this part of Flatbush Avenue, will probably, in course of time, be occupied by handsome buildings, the objects of which will in some way be connected with the education system of the city."

 

The city-owned property remained undeveloped for twenty years. In 1888, a special committee of the board of park commissioners composed of the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, General John B. Woodward, and Daniel M. Somers suggested how the vacant site might be used: "When a large public library is established free to all comers, no place could be more fitting for it than on the large triangle facing the Plaza and in front of the reservoir grounds, accessible from different quarters and passed already by thousands of people everyday."6

 

Beginning in 1889 a number of improvements were made to the area near Prospect Park. Most of these civic projects on and facing Grand Army Plaza had a strong classical character. These included the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch (John H. Duncan, 1889-92; alterations, 1894-1901, McKim, Mead & White) and four fifty-foot tall Doric columns topped by bronze eagles and two tempietti (McKim, Mead & White, 1894-1901). In 1889, the property east of the reservoir was given to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In 1893 McKim, Mead & White designed what would have been the world's largest museum building, and construction began four years later. At this time the area, from Prospect Park Plaza (Grand Army Plaza) to Washington Avenue, became known as Institute Park.

 

In 1895 the site of the future library became a park, lined with benches and planted with bushes and trees. In 1903, a bronze tablet mounted on a granite boulder was installed on the lawn near the reservoir. Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the circular medallion featured a relief portrait bust of Henry W. Maxwell (1850-1902), a banker and Park Slope resident.7

 

In 1902, the Brooklyn Public Library merged with the Brooklyn Library (formerly the Mercantile Library), a private subscription library with a limited endowment and a significant reference collection. Such growth, as well as a persistent rivalry with the New York Public Library (its main building was then under construction), inspired the trustees to rethink the library's mission and purpose. In February 1904, former Brooklyn Mayor and library president David A. Boody (1837-1930) and the board of directors announced its intent to build a "great library building for Brooklyn."8 Many sites for the proposed central library were considered, including properties owned by the city on the north side of Eastern Parkway, on Plaza Street between the Parkway and Butler Place, as well as near the Brooklyn Academy of Music (then under construction), and on Joralemon Street near Brooklyn Borough Hall.

 

In April 1905 the plaza site was selected. Civic groups and public figures attacked the site for its modest size, odd shape, and proximity to the reservoir. Elijah R. Kennedy, former Park Commissioner, warned that such irregular shaped lots lead to the construction of "monstrosities."9 The Brooklyn Daily Times editorialized that such a costly central building should not be constructed until after the branch system was complete.

 

In response to these objections, Mayor George B. McClellan invited the architects of the New York Public Library, John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings, to evaluate the location. In their report of November 1905, they concluded that the plaza site was a "fine setting" and that "there is no reason why it should not be selected."11 After considering their recommendations, a formal resolution, signed in December 1905 by both Mayor McClellan and Brooklyn Borough President Martin W. Littleton, designated the property as the future site of the Brooklyn Public Library.12

 

The Library's First Architect

 

Raymond F. Almirall (1869-1939) was chosen as the library's architect in July 1906.13 Born and raised in Brooklyn, Almirall studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, and for four years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Some of his surviving works include: the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (1908-12, a designated exterior and interior landmark), 51 Chambers Street, Manhattan; the Brooklyn Public Baths No. 7 (1906-10, a designated landmark) at Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street; and St. Michael's Church, School and Rectory (1905) at 4200 Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park. A consulting architect on the committee for the construction of the Carnegie Gift Libraries, he worked closely with the library's administration and had already designed several brick and masonry branches in Brooklyn, including the Bushwick Branch (1904-08) at 340 Bushwick Avenue, the Pacific Branch (1902-03) at 25 Fourth Avenue; and the Prospect Branch, now Park Slope Branch (1906) at 431 Sixth Avenue.

 

Almirall, A. D. F. Hamlin, consulting architect and Columbia University Professor; and Frank P. Hill, the chief librarian, were sent to study contemporary library design in Europe. In October 1906, after visiting twenty-four examples in nineteen cities, Hill summarized their findings in a forty-six page report which described various models for adaptation to the triangular site.15

 

In November 1907, Almirall presented his ambitious scheme to the public which incorporated a central library building as well as "the larger problem of the appropriate architectural treatment of the whole Plaza."16 His grandly scaled Beaux-Arts design was quickly approved, by both the board of trustees and the Municipal Art Commission of the City of New York (predecessor of the Art Commission).17

 

Construction began in 1911, and in June 1912 the cornerstone was laid by Mayor William J. Gaynor. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the library would be built and paid for in stages and completed no earlier than 1917. With the election of each new mayor came new debates regarding the library's worth and value to the city. For instance, in spring 1914, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel refused to support further appropriations. The New York American supported the mayor's change in priorities and suggested that public funds could be better spent on parks, bath houses, schools, and playgrounds.18

 

Between 1915 and 1927 construction slowed even more.19 Nevertheless, the library's board remained committed to Almirall and his design. Although there had been occasional suggestions to abandon the plan as early as 1925,20 only with the death of David A. Boody, the library's president for thirty-three years, and the retirement of Frank P. Hill, who had been chief librarian since 1901, was an alternative design seriously considered.

 

In October 1930, the trustees chose Milton James Ferguson (1879-1954), the former chief librarian of California, as Hill's successor. At the time of his appointment the library stood only one-third complete. Thousands of pigeons had made the shell of the unfinished Flatbush wing their home. The New York Post called it a "Roman ruin" and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a "hideous old wreck."21 Despite Borough President Henry Hesterberg's attempts to secure $9.2 million in public funds to complete the library, neither the Board of Estimate in 1931, nor the Public Works Administration in 1933, chose to support it.

 

A New Design and Its Architects

 

Chief librarian Ferguson recognized that if Brooklyn was to finally obtain its central library, a new strategy was required. He found a supportive ally in Raymond V. Ingersoll, who was elected Brooklyn Borough President in November 1933. With finances a serious concern, they boldly advocated a new, modern design which would cost less and be more appropriate for contemporary library needs.22 The library looked east to the Brooklyn Museum which was being transformed into a modern institution.23

 

The museum's new Director, Philip Youtz, was an innovative administrator and trained architect who believed that architecture must "keep pace with social growth."24 During his six years at the museum, from 1933 to 1938, he instituted many innovative (and now controversial) changes, particularly the creation of a new ground level entry and circulation hall. After 1934 Youtz, Ingersoll, and Ferguson communicated almost weekly. In his

 

self-described "informal relations as advisor," Youtz helped choose the library's new architects.

 

Alfred Morton Githens (1876-1973) and Francis Keally (1889-1978) were selected by Youtz from a list provided by Ferguson in February 1935. Youtz forwarded a letter and photographs of their work to Ingersoll, describing Keally as a "young architect of good reputation" and Githens as "the best single architect in the library field. "25 Although the two architects had not worked together before, their interests and expertise complemented each other. Of the two, Githens was better known and had a proven track record as an architect who had designed numerous public buildings in the neo-classical style including churches, post offices, and libraries. After attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1903 to 1905, he studied at the American Academy in Rome.

 

He received his early professional training with the architects Cope & Stewardson in Philadelphia, as well as with Cass Gilbert and McKim, Mead & White in New York. His works include the Currier Gallery of Art (with Edward Tilton, 1927) and the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland (1933) that Youtz called "the outstanding large library recently constructed."26 Githens later co-authored (with Joseph L. Wheeler) The American Public Library Building: Its Planning and Design with Special Reference to its Administration and Service (1941).

 

Keally, the younger man, was much more responsive to modern materials and ideas than his partner. He had built few buildings at the time of the library commission and was principally known as an educator and journalist. He had traveled extensively in Europe and during the 1920s taught at several architectural schools in New York, including Columbia and New York Universities. In articles published in such magazines as American Architecture and Country Life, he promoted a modern architecture tempered by tradition. For the New York World's Fair of 1939, Keally designed the Communications Building with architect Leonard Dean. Like the Brooklyn library, it featured a monumental curved entry facade.

 

In September 1937 a plaster model of Githens and Keally's new library design was unveiled at the 0WPA Federal Art Gallery. Composed of three stories, rather than the four in AlmiralFs plan, the new structure would be clad with large, unornamented limestone slabs arranged horizontally. Set back behind a small plaza, the new library would feature two nearly identical elevations with simple piers and recessed windows joined at the western end by a monumental entry facade decorated with reliefs and sculpture.

 

Praised for its modern character, the design, nonetheless, owed a great deal to Almirall. To keep expenses to a minimum, Githens and Keally re-used as much of the existing structure as possible. They retained the original foundations and structural piers wh ile removing nearly all of the masonry and classical detail and one story of the steel framing for the original fourth floor, giving the library's interior layout and public spaces a strong, though abstracted, classical character.

 

The New York Times praised the new design, writing: "as it turns out, the delay has not been totally unfortunate. . . the architects who have revised the plan have saved money and added to the general utility of the library plant by getting rid of most the Graeco-Roman ornaments. . . The new library might be called a walk-in, inviting patrons to enter without making them climb unnecessary steps."28 Githens and Keally designed a gently terraced plaza, featuring broad shallow steps. Furthermore, the curved entry facade extends, rather than competes with, Grand Army Plaza's elliptical configuration.

 

In November 1938, the Board of Estimate approved plans for a $1.88 million structure.29 Construction began in February 1939, and in November 1939 the library's administration began to relocate its offices to the nearly completed facility. On February 1, 1941 — after almost thirty years of construction — the Children's Room and the Central Circulation Room were opened briefly for public inspection. More than twenty-five hundred people visited and two days later, the library began service.

 

The Brooklyn Public Library was formally dedicated on March 29, 1941, with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Borough President John Cashmore in attendance. And on September 17, 1941, a memorial inscription dedicated to Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll was unveiled in the plaza on the granite capstones that flank the central stairs. (Ingersoll, who did much to secure funds to complete the library, did not live to see its completion, dying in 1940 during his second term.)

 

The library's design was praised by architectural critic Lewis Mum ford, who wrote that when compared to other libraries, including the New York Public Library as well as buildings at Harvard and Yale Universities: "Brooklyn's new one is tops." He particularly admired its "bowed-in front" which he said "create[s] a sense of happy expectation."31 Other contemporary writers admired its spacious interior, especially its open plan and lofty light-filled circulation hall.32

 

Architectural Decoration

 

The library's ornament was chosen to express the building's function as an institution for knowledge and learning. Above the triple doors is a forty-foot bronze screen decorated with fifteen squares, each containing a relief character from American literature, including Tom Sawyer, the Raven, and Moby Dick, as well as a portrait of Walt Whitman. Above the grid are two gold owls, wings spread, standing on small globes. The screen was designed by the sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones (1892-?) who studied at the American Academy in Rome and is best known for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. Jones was also responsible for two reliefs, each depicting a squirrel, on the entrance gates to the Children's Library.

 

The fifty-foot pylons which flank the entry are decorated with a series of gilded curved bas-reliefs by the German-American sculptor C. Paul Jennewein (1890-1978).33 These images depict the evolution of science (at the north) and art (at the south). He was also responsible for the decoration above the doors on the British Empire Building in Rockefeller Center (620 Fifth Avenue, designated New York City Landmark, 1932) as well as the entrance enframement to 19 East 72nd Street, an apartment building designed by Rosario Candela in 1936. He also contributed the figures on the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C. (c. 1922).

 

Instructional inscriptions are found in three locations: on the capstones dedicated to Raymond V. Ingersoll, on the walls near the steps flanking the main entry, and on the green Virginia albarene stone spandrels set above the first floor windows on the Flatbush and Eastern Parkway wings. The quotes on the concave main facade were composed by Roscoe C. E. Brown, a library trustee since 1908 and its president from 1940 to 1942. On the Eastern Parkway wing the spandrel quotes are taken from Roscoe C. E. Brown, Thoreau, Horace, Thomas a Kempis, and Shakespeare. On the Flatbush Avenue wing they are from Thomas Carlyle, Francis Bacon, Joseph Conrad, Alexander Smith, Goethe, and Shakespeare.

 

Description

 

The Central Building of the Brooklyn Public Library, occupying a triangular site at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue, is set back on a terraced plaza. Three stories high, it is faced in limestone. The building's most dramatic feature is its smooth concave entrance facade. Where it nears the pavement, it curves slightly to meet the gray granite base on which it sits. On either side of the entrance are deeply recessed windows which are arranged vertically with spandrels made from green Virginia albarene stone. On the second and third floors are single pane windows; below they are divided into four fixed vertical panes.

 

The terraced plaza is reached by three sets of broad shallow granite stairs with non-historic wrought-iron railings, flanked by waist-high granite blocks, rising from the curve of Grand Army Plaza, Eastern Parkway, and Flatbush Avenue. At the two corners are small landscaped areas separated from the sidewalk by a metal fence. A white flagpole and metal Brooklyn Public Library sign are located at the north side of the plaza.35 At either side of the wide central stairs, which rise in four shallow stages, are two of the plaza's six bronze lighting fixtures (each with three globes) and chest-high granite capstones inscribed and dedicated to Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll. Facing the library, the right blocks are inscribed in three sections, facing west, north, and east:

 

IN MEMORIAL/TO COMMEMORATE THE DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE OF/RAYMOND VAIL INGERSOLL 1875-1940

 

A PHILOSOPHER WHO/STROVE UNCEASINGLY/TO QUICKEN THE PUBLIC/SENSE OF CIVIC DUTY INGERSOLL MEMORIAL/RAYMOND VAIL INGERSOLL SERVED/HIS CITY AS BOROUGH PRESIDENT 1934-40/AND COMMISSIONER OF PARKS 1914-1918

 

The left blocks are inscribed, facing west, south, and east:

 

INGERSOLL MEMORIAL/RAYMOND VAIL INGERSOLL SERVED/HIS CITY AS BOROUGH PRESIDENT 1934-40/AND COMMISSIONER OF PARKS 1914-1918

 

AN INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATOR OF ABIDING JUSTICE/RARE WISDOM AND/UNFLINCHING COURAGE

 

IN MEMORIAL/TO COMMEMORATE THE DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE OF/RAYMOND VAIL INGERSOLL 1875-1940

 

The central portion of the main entrance facade rises above the three-story level of the Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue wings. On the roof, set back from the main elevation, are two cubic stair towers. These symmetrical limestone towers, which are barely visible from the terraced plaza, are clearly seen from a distance.

 

Directly above the main entrance is carved: Brooklyn Public Library. At either side, steps with bronze railings lead past a set of inscriptions carved into the facade to a semi-circular landing and three sets of bronze doors. Above, from left to right, are cast in raised relief the following inscriptions:

 

FARTHER THAN ARROW, HIGHER/THAN WINGS FLY POET'S/ SONG AND PROPHET'S WORD

 

WHILE MEN HAVE WIT TO READ/AND WILL TO KNOW THE DOOR TO/LEARNING IS THE OPEN BOOK

 

THE WORLD FOR MEN WITH ALL/IT MAY CONTAIN IS ONLY WHAT/IS COMPASSED IN THE MIND

 

These, as well as the inscriptions beside the stairs, were composed by library's president Roscoe C. E. Brown. On the stairs, the first two lines of each inscription are framed by a pair of rectangles that suggest open books. At left:

 

THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY/THROUGH THE JOINING OF MUNICIPAL/ENTERPRISE AND PRIVATE GENEROSITY OFFERS TO ALL/PEOPLE PERPETUAL AND FREE ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND THE/THOUGHT OF THE AGES.

 

At right:

 

HERE ARE ENSHRINED/ THE LONGING OF GREAT HEARTS/AND NOBLE THINGS THAT TOWER ABOVE THE TIDE/THE MAGIC WORD THAT WINGED WONDER STARTS/THE GARNERED WISDOM THAT HAS NEVER DIED

 

Directly above the doors, set in the ceiling of the recessed entry, are three recessed lighting fixtures. Like a star, each is surrounded by rays of light cut deeply into the limestone. The forty-foot tall bronze screen is divided into fifteen squares, each containing a relief set in a small square framed by fountain-like decorations and abstracted rosettes. Behind all but the top row of squares, is bronze-tinted clear glass installed in 1997. Outside the Trustees Room, above the grille, at the level of the third floor, are two owls that stand on globes. These globes sit on square bronze bases decorated with rosettes. Each base extends out over an engaged fluted column that rises from the entrance pavement. The doors are then framed by two fifty-foot tall columnar pylons, each decorated with gilded bas-reliefs. (See Architectural Decoration above.) Just to either side of the entrance are non-historic freestanding book return containers.

 

The library is built on a gentle slope which rises toward the east. Consequently, close to the plaza its base is quite high, and near the east end it disappears almost entirely. On the Flatbush Avenue wing, where it joins the main facade, is the building's cornerstone. Here "1938" is carved into the granite base. To the right is a set of stairs that lead to a basement service entrance with two metal doors, marked with small raised bronze letters: SERVICE. A yellow "Fall-out" sign is also attached above. Between the cornerstone and the service entrance is a freestanding air-conditioning unit. On Eastern Parkway, a ramp descends to a pair of similar bronze doors marked STAFF.

 

On both wings the architects have employed large windows, most of which appear to be original to the building. There are eleven sets of windows on Eastern Parkway and thirteen facing Flatbush Avenue. While on the second and third floors, the central panes are fixed, on the first floor most are divided into four horizontal panels. The muntins extend without break from the first to third floors. The side panels on each level are divided into four parts; the lower pair of windows swing out, and the upper pair swing up. Between each floor are dark green stone spandrels. These panels are etched with quotes, star-shaped motifs set in checkerboard-like borders, and classical ornament.

 

At the rear of the Flatbush Avenue wing is a small three-story extension. The window-less limestone portion on the first floor was built in 1940 as the Branch Distribution Room and curves northeast toward the parking lot. The upper two stories, however, have a completely different character, consisting of cast concrete blocks with incised lines and spare rectangular single pane windows. This wing, added in the early 1990s by the New York City Department of General Services, features abstract classical ornament and details that imitate the book-like forms employed in some of the adjacent spandrels. Beyond this structure is the library's present service entrance, providing access to the garage and loading docks. From Flatbush Avenue, this elevation is not easily visible to the general public.

 

Both of the library's two wings are set back from the sidewalk by a lawn planted with trees and bushes. On Eastern Parkway, a number of on-grade vents interrupt the plantings. Adjacent to the stairs that rise to Mount Prospect Park is the library's second public entrance. Set at ground level, it also provides access for users with disabilities through two gates that are painted black, each decorated with a relief depicting a squirrel. The side gates have vertical bars over a concrete base, and the ironwork on the moveable doors is arranged in a crisscross pattern. Across the top of the fence are ten raised stars. There are also letters cut into the metal that once could have been illuminated. They read: CHILDREN'S LIBRARY.

 

Inside the gate, there is modest garden (designed 1993) which leads at right to an entrance above which is again etched in the dark green stone: CHILDREN'S LIBRARY. The door and three sets of windows above face east and are arranged as they are on the library's three other facades: in a single recessed vertical strip punctuated by green spandrels.

 

Through a second set of iron gates, the library's various post-1941 additions are visible, including the book-loading area, the curved garage and parking lot, as well as the high retaining wall with classical ornament and iron fence that separates the library property from Mount Prospect Park.

 

Two air-conditioners have been installed in the library's windows. Both serve a mezzanine in the children's library. They are located between the first and second floors in the easternmost window of the Eastern Parkway elevation and above the entrance to the children's library.

 

Subsequent History

 

Few changes have been made to the main facade of the building. As the number of branch libraries in the Brooklyn grew, the system became increasingly centralized. These developments put great pressure on the libraiy's administration and the central building where it was located.

 

During the early 1950s the second floor reading rooms were finally completed. Soon after, in 1960, the Chief Librarian, Francis R. St. John (1908-71), asked Keally to prepare additional plans to expand the library based on his original drawings. This included the construction of a new garage in the rear and the creation of new and larger reading rooms by extending the central portion of the first and second floors into what was once was the library's courtyard and garden. Completed around 1964, these changes mask the original rear facade.

 

During the early 1990s a two-floor addition was built on top of the curving, window-less extension that housed the library's original Branch Distribution Room and loading docks. In 1993 the bronze screen above the main entry was cleaned and re-gilded and a small garden was planted outside the entrance to the children's library on Eastern Parkway. A project for the restoration of the roof parapet is underway.

 

- From the 1997 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Édouard Schuré was born in the old cathedral city of Strasbourg on January 21, 1841. As a young boy he experienced certain events which, as he described them many years later, "left traces upon my thoughts, to which my memory returns ever and again." The result of these events he called "inner vision, evoked by impressions of the external world." The first of these experiences occurred shortly after the death of his mother, when he and his father visited a resort in Alsace. On the walls of one of the buildings the ten-year-old boy saw a remarkable series of frescoes, depicting the world of undines, sylphs, gnomes and fire-spirits. Before these representations of what men of the Middle Ages called the Elemental Beings, here shown in vivid, wonderful artistic form, the boy was transported, as it were, into another world, the world of creative fantasy. Like a talisman, the pictures awakened the magic forces of wonder in the child’s soul. The artist’s creative fantasy called to the fantasy slumbering within the boy, and the result was a new perception. For, as Carlyle wrote, "Fantasy, being the organ of the Godlike, man thereby -- though based, to all seeming, on the small Visible, -- does nevertheless extend down into the infinite deeps of the Invisible, of which Invisible, indeed, his Life is properly the bodying." From this time, "the infinite deeps of the Invisible" seemed to draw the boy ever and again into the cathedral at Strasbourg. There, in the hush of the crypt, the majesty of the great nave, the glory of the music, the awe-inspiring mystery of the service, the holy calm of the candle-flames, the wreathing fragrance of incense smoke ascending into the dimness, he felt a kind of inner satisfaction, a longing fulfilled. Something of the spirit of the great mystics, Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler, whose lives were connected with this place, touched the soul of the boy, and he felt the transforming peace of the Friends of God of Strasbourg. Finally the moment came when the world of the spirit opened itself before his enraptured eyes. It is perhaps prophetic of his future activity that again it was a work of art that was the external cause of this second milestone on Édouard Schuré’s path to the spirit. One afternoon he was sitting in a corner of the lofty gallery of the cathedral, gazing in deep absorption at the light streaming through a great rose window. Like Dante when face to face with the Celestial Rose of the Paradise, the boy beheld the Figure of the Risen Christ, surrounded by an aureole of sublime glory. In that instant, cathedral, men, women -- all his earthly surroundings -- vanished, swallowed up in a heavenly influx. From that moment, for the rest of his long life, Édouard Schuré was convinced that his destiny was linked with the service of the divine world. Parallel with these experiences of soul and spirit, Schuré’s early years were devoted to formal education. Eventually he received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. He visited Germany, remaining there for a few years, during which time he wrote Histoire du lied, published in 1868. In this book he expressed his love for music and poetry, which had been enhanced by his personal acquaintance with Richard Wagner, then living in Munich. Schuré counted his relationship with Wagner as one of the three most important friendships of his life. In his Richard Wagner, son oeuvre et son idee (1875), Schuré recorded his deep appreciation of Wagner’s efforts to reconstruct in modern times and in contemporary musical form pictures from the spiritual history of humanity. Because of this book and many articles he wrote on the same theme, Schuré is remembered as a pioneer in developing an appreciation of Wagner’s work on the part of the French public. Shortly after his return from his travels in Germany, Schuré married the sister of his friend, the composer Nessler. He and his wife moved to Paris, where Schuré continued his writing and studies, making friends with some of the most important men and women in the cultural life of France of his time. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Schuré and his wife went to Italy. "What fascinated me in the history of Empedocles was the torturing riddle of the Beyond, as it presents itself to the individual man through his emotional life. But what terrifying vistas are produced by this enigma when stated for the whole of humanity! What is mankind’s origin? What is humanity’s destination? From what abyss has humanity escaped, only to plunge into what annihilation, or into what Eternity? What relation does mankind bear to the cosmic powers working behind the apparent chaos of the universe, in order to produce so marvelous a harmony? In the dense darkness where the alarming materialism of our age wallows, it is no longer a matter of merely restoring the link between the visible and the invisible for individuals, but of demonstrating how fruitful is the working of the omnipotent Beyond in the history of all humanity. "With these thoughts a new and ardent desire came to birth within me. I was filled with the impulse to trace the connection between the revelation of Eleusis and that of the Christ.

"In order to build a bridge between the lost Paradise and earth plunged in darkness, was it not necessary to reconstruct the living chain of the various religions, to restore to Hellenism and Christianity their original unity, to reconcile once again the whole tradition of East and West? At that instant, as in a flash I saw the Light that flows from one mighty founder of religion to another, from the Himalayas to the plateau of Iran, from Sinai to Tabor, from the crypts of Egypt to the sanctuary of Eleusis. Those great prophets, those powerful figures whom we call Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato and Jesus, appeared before me in a homogeneous group. How diverse in form, appearance and color! Nevertheless, through them all moved the impulse of the eternal Word. To be in harmony with them is to hear the Word which was in the Beginning. It is to know and experience the continuity of inspiration in history as an historical fact. "Could not this lightning vision, this moment of consciousness become a new bridge to traverse the abyss separating earth from heaven? It was as if I had found my Novum Organum. This work, coming to me from the very center of things, was sufficient to last me for the rest of my life, and far more. A new life opened, filled with work on The Great Initiates and the inspiring help of Margherita Albana Mignaty." Today, when one reads page after page of fascinating details and vivid impressions drawn from the spiritual life of mankind, one may believe that the whole of The Great Initiates flowed easily and rapidly from the pen of the author. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though Schuré’s achievement ultimately brought him great joy, the writing of The Great Initiates was an arduous effort. His penetration into the spiritual world involved a constant inner struggle, and the entire task of writing the book required ten years of strenuous work." (...) Previous to the advent of Christianity man would exclaim: -- ‘My soul is indeed rooted in the Divine. It is the Divine quality alone which can extend the vision and bring unto me true enlightenment [through the powers of those who have a deeper knowledge of spiritual matters].’ But now he is learning to say: -- ‘If thou would’st truly know where thou canst unveil the profoundest depths of all that is Divine and active throughout the world; then look of thyself within thine Ego, for therein lieth the channel through which cometh unto thee the Word of God. His voice will break in upon thy conscious state if thou but rightly understandest that because of the Mystery of Golgatha, the powers which are of God have entered into mankind; and if thou wilt but realize that then indeed was a glorious initiation truly consummated -- to stand forth as a grand historical event. But especially does God speak unto thee, if thou but exaltest thyself and makest thy soul to be as an instrument, able and fitted, to apprehend that which is of the spiritual realms.’

Before that supreme act came to pass at Golgatha, the way of those who would enter upon the life of the spirit, lay through the deep mysteries of the Temple Sanctuaries. The actual awakening of the Divine consciousness which speaks through the Ego is the very essence of the Christ-Impulse; and the growth and development of the ancient Initiation-Principle paved the way and made it possible that this great impulse should come to humanity. During the whole future course of evolution, because of the Mystery of Golgatha, there will enter into men’s souls an ever-increasing clarity of understanding and discernment of the Divine Spirit to which man is so truly united. That same Holy Spirit which even now speaks through the Ego, when man has indeed freed himself from all earthly conditions and circumstances. He who can understand the Gospels from this point of view will realize the wonderful evidence of racial development and preparation for those coming events which were brought about in the past by the powers of the Spirit-World. It will be apparent that throughout the ancient Hebrew evolution, mankind was ever being made ready to hear the voice which would later speak through the deep centre of man’s being, the Ego-centre; even as the spirit of the old Hebrew race spoke to Judaism. The Christ had brought into the world that Principle of Divine Spirit which each individual man, because he is man, may find if he but seek steadfastly in the very centre of his being. It was because of this transcendent deed that, henceforth, mankind would enter into ever closer contact with the very heart of Christianity. Then would this most sacred principle rise up supreme, and while overcoming all diversity and error, bring about the realization of that universal quality which all may discern who but look deep within.

The Gods of old were national gods -- gods of the peoples -- and had relation to certain racial peculiarities. We still find something of this nature in the East among the Buddhists. But the God who stands revealed through Christianity is One who will raise mankind above all human discord and divergence, and lead him on to that which he truly is, because he is indeed MAN. He who would gain knowledge of the fundamental character of the Christian Doctrine must necessarily regard those spiritual powers and impulses which have guided supreme events in world history as realities [he cannot aver that all was begotten of mere chance actions and purely human mental activity]. He must break away from previous concepts of what is basic and of primary historic import; for happenings which have long been so regarded are in reality but upon the surface of the world’s actual growth. Underlying and controlling all human progress and development are beings far above man’s normal powers of sense-perception who are just as real as is the animal and the man in our material world. Supreme and preeminent among those spirit mentors who govern and direct the growth and development of mankind is THE CHRIST -- that Christ, who, according to the ancient gnosis, was active in the body of Jesus of Nazareth during a period of three years. (...)"

" (...) The prophet Elijah shines forth as one of the most resplendent stars in the firmament of man’s spiritual evolution, and that great illumination which he brought to humanity in olden times has endured even to the present day. The deeds, the characteristics, the greatness of this outstanding personality as portrayed in the ancient Biblical records, make the profoundest impression upon the hearts and feelings of mankind; but, nevertheless, this significant figure appears difficult of comprehension to external history. We are about to consider Elijah from the stand-point of Spiritual Science. Viewed in its light, we find in the very nature of his being an indication that the most important causes and motives underlying the circumstances connected with earthly existence during man’s evolution are not merely dependent upon those ideas that may be consciously apprehended, and the results of which can be recognized externally as forming a part of life’s history; for we learn that those very impulses which move us to actions of greatest import are born within the confines of the soul. In order that this truth which sheds so great a light upon the world’s history may become clearly apparent to our spiritual vision, we need only recall the fact that Christianity owes its foundation, for the most part, to that profound psychic incident experienced by St. Paul [Saul], which found outward expression in ‘The Vision near Damascus’ (‘Ereignis von Damaskus’), Acts. ix, 3. No matter how much we may argue concerning the reality and nature of this external happening, it cannot be denied that the true origin of Christianity is intimately connected with what then took place in the soul and spirit of that great Apostle and righteous founder of the Christian Faith; and the knowledge and enlightenment which came to him was passed on to mankind through the medium of his flaming words and self-sacrificing deeds. In many other cases it can be proved that primary causes and impulses underlying events which happen during the historical enfoldment of human existence, cannot be identified with normal external occurrences, for their inception may oft-times be traced to the hearts and souls of mankind. We are now about to consider an example of this very nature in connection with the personality of Elijah and the period in which he lived. Since, however, my lecture must of necessity be both brief and sketchy in character, although treating of a subject covering so wide a field, the question as to how far the matter presented will elucidate and provide new evidence concerning the progress of man’s historical evolution in this special instance must be left for your further consideration, but your thoughts should at all times be guided by the deep promptings of the soul. The object of my discourse is not merely to supply information concerning the personality and significance of the prophet Elijah, its true purport is at the same time to present an example of the manner in which Spiritual Science weighs and regards such matters and, in virtue of the means at its disposal, is enabled to shed fresh light upon facts connected with the growth and development of mankind, which have come to our knowledge through other sources. With this end in view, we shall employ a special method in dealing with our subject. In the first place, statements that are the result of the investigations of Spiritual Science, and have reference to the personality and significance of Elijah, will be as independent as possible of all connection with the Bible as a source, and such references will only occur when they seem essential in connection with names and descriptions. We shall therefore endeavour to portray all pertinent events first as they actually happened and later draw attention to the manner in which they are depicted in the ancient Biblical records. The occurrences will be set forth just as they are revealed by the researches of Spiritual Science, which researches have formed the basis of the various portrayals presented both in the lectures of this series and in others of previous years. A large number of my audience who, through long years of experience with the methods of Spiritual Science have gained confidence in its power and proved substantiality, will accept from the very first all that I propose to bring forward, and regard it as entirely trustworthy and as the result of conscientious investigation; and this will be the case, even though my subject must of necessity be treated in a somewhat sketchy manner, because an exposition involving detailed proofs would require many hours for its complete presentation. To those of my audience who have had no such experience as I have mentioned, I would suggest that they look upon all that is said concerning the authentic historical narrative that I am about to unfold, as if it were in the nature of an hypothesis, underlying which is a substratum of positive evidence; and I am certain that if they will but do this, and make a reasonable and understanding attempt, in moderation and without prejudice to obtain the required evidence, that all my statements will ultimately receive entire confirmation. What now has Spiritual Science to say concerning the personality and significance of the prophet Elijah and his period? To understand this we must go back in thought to those ancient Hebrew times when the brilliant epoch that marked the reign of Solomon was passed, and the kingdom of Palestine was enduring many and varied forms of privation.In olden times such manifestations were much more in evidence and more widely spread than is the case in these days. There were occasions when Ahab himself experienced visions and presentiments, but never to any marked extent, and they occurred only when he was confronted with some special matter connected with human destiny. At the time to which I refer, a rumour had spread throughout the land that a remarkable spirit was abroad. In reality, this was none other than he who, in the Bible records, bears the name of Elijah. Few there were among those living, as one might say, in the outer world, who knew precisely in what place the personality that bore this name might be found -- nor did they know in what way, or by what means, he exerted so powerful an influence upon contemporaneous people and events. We can perhaps best describe the situation by saying that throughout the widest circles any reference to this mysterious being, or even the mention of his name was accompanied by a thrill of awe, and because of this it was generally felt that this spirit must possess some singular and hidden attribute of greatest import. But no man knew rightly, or had indeed any idea, in what way this unusual quality might manifest, or where it might be sought. Only certain isolated persons, whom we might term initiates, had true knowledge of what was really taking place, and they alone knew where, in the physical world, they might find the outer reality of the actual individual who was the bearer of this mysterious spirit. There was still a belief in One God -- in One Great Spiritual Being in the cosmos, Who rules over the superperceptual realm, and Who by means of its forces makes His influence felt, and affects both the evolution and the history of mankind. It was further realized that the time was approaching when there would be an ever greater and more significant understanding of the Jahveh-Being, among those who were the most advanced and perfect of the descendants of the old Hebrew race. It was well known that in truth the religion of Moses contained the germ of all that one might term the Jehovah-Religion, but this fact had been grasped by the nation in a manner more or less after the fashion of a people yet in a stage of childhood or early youth. The old faith with its upturned vision toward a supersensible God may only be described by saying: -- ‘It can be likened to nought else than to an awareness of contact with that which is invisible and superperceptual, which comes to man when he indeed apprehends and realizes his own true Ego’ -- and it was this consciousness of the supersensible which had descended upon the people. But the concept which they had formed, as far as they could form any concept at all, was as we might put it, based upon an attempt to picture to themselves the workings of the God Jehovah, as conceived from their experiences of the external phenomena of life. In those days it was the custom to say that Jehovah acted with regard to humanity, in such a manner that when all nature was luxuriant and fruitful, it was a sign that He was rewarding mankind and showering benefits upon the nation. On the other hand, when the people suffered from want and distress brought about by war, scarcity of food, and other causes, they cried out that Jehovah had turned his face away and was consumed with anger. At that time about which we are speaking the nation was enduring the miseries caused by a period of dearth and starvation, and many turned aside from the God Jehovah, because they could no longer believe in His works when they saw how He treated mankind, for there was a terrible famine in the land. If, indeed, we can speak of progress in connection with the Jahveh-conception, then the progress destined to be made by these ancient Hebrew people can be characterized in the following manner: -- The nation must henceforth form a new Jehovah-concept embodying the old thoughts and ideas, through which must flow a fuller and a higher order of human understanding, so that all might say: -- ‘No matter what shall take place in the outer world, whether we live in happiness or are beset with sorrows and privations, we must ever realize that such external events are in no way an evidence of either the wrath or the benevolence of Jehovah. True devotion to God and a proper comprehension of the Jahveh-concept implies that mankind shall at all times gaze upward unswervingly toward the invisible Deity, uninfluenced by the contemplation of outer happenings and things, or the apparent reality of material impressions. And even though we meet with the direst want and affliction, nevertheless, through those inner forces alone which dominate the soul, man shall come to the sure conviction that -- HE IS.’ This great revolution in religious outlook was destined to be consummated and wrought through the power of the prophet Elijah [and, as will be seen later, his spiritual force operated at times through the medium of a chosen human personality]. When it is ordained that some great momentous change shall be brought about in the concepts of mankind, as was the case in Elijah’s day, it is necessary in the beginning that there be certain fitting personalities at hand in whose souls can be implanted the germ, so to speak, of those things which it is ordained shall later enter into the history of mankind. The manner in which the seed thus laid finds befitting expression, is ever that of a new impulse and a new force. If you will not misunderstand my meaning, I would say that it was decreed in accordance with the preordained fate of the nation, that the individuality known as the prophet Elijah should be the chosen one whose soul should first grasp the Jehovah-concept in the form which I have described. To this end it was essential that certain singular and very special forces be called up from the hidden depths of his soul – deep-seated powers as yet unknown to mankind, and unguessed at even by the teachers of that time. Something in the nature of an holy mystical initiation of the highest order, through which might come the revelation of such a God, must first take place in the innermost being of Elijah. It is therefore of the utmost importance, in order to describe in characteristic manner the way in which the Jahveh-concept was instilled into the minds of the people, that we should presently gaze into the soul of that particular human personality in whom the Spirit that was to impart the primary impulse was incarnated, or embodied -- that man, who through the nature of his Divine initiation became imbued with all the latent forces of his soul. Forces so vital to one who would strike that first deep fundamental note, which would call forth and make possible the coming Jehovah-conception. Such [great spiritual] personalities [as Elijah] who are chosen to experience within the soul the first stimulating impress of some momentous forward impulse, stand for the most part, isolated and alone. In olden days, however, there gathered around them certain followers who came from the great Religious Schools, or Schools of the Prophets as they were called in Palestine, and which by other nations have been termed Initiation or Mystery Sanctuaries. Thus we find the prophet Elijah, if we would use this name, also surrounded by a few earnest disciples, who looked up to him in reverence as one exalted far above them. These disciples realized to some extent the true nature and significance of Elijah’s mission, even though, because of their limited spiritual vision, they were unable to penetrate deeply into the soul of their great master. [Now at that time strange events had begun to take place in the land] the people, however, had no idea where the mysterious personality might be found who had brought them about. They could only say: -- ‘He must be here, or there, -- for something unusual is happening.’ Hence it was that there spread abroad what we might term a sort of rumour (if the word is not misused) to the effect that HE, a prophet, was actually at work, but no man knew rightly where. This uncertainty was due to the exercise of a definite and peculiar influence, which could be exerted by all such advanced spiritual beings as are found among outstanding seers. Viewed in the light of our modern times it is probable that such a statement may appear somewhat grotesque, but those who are acquainted with the singular characteristics of that by-gone age will find it in no way fanciful or extravagant.

All truly exalted spiritual personalities, such as Elijah, were endowed with this specific and highly penetrative quality which made itself felt now here, now there. Not only was the activity of this potent influence manifested in feelings of awe and dread, but there was also a direct positive action, through which it entered little by little into the souls of the people. It there operated in such manner as to cause them to be unable to tell, at times, just where the external form of some great spiritual personality might be found. But the true followers and disciples of Elijah knew well where to seek him, and were further quite aware that his outer individuality might perchance assume a wholly unpretentious character, and come to light in connection with some quite lowly station in earthly life. It is remarkable that at the time about which I am speaking, the actual bearer of the spirit of Elijah was a close neighbour of Ahab’s, King of Samaria, and the possessor of a small property in his immediate vicinity; but Ahab had no suspicion that such was the case. He sought everywhere for this singular being whose presence was felt so mysteriously throughout the community, and whom he regarded with feelings of awe and wonder, even as did his people. He entirely failed, however, to take into consideration the simple and unassuming land-owner who lived so near him, and gave no thought as to why he should, at times, absent himself, nor where he went on these occasions. But Jezebel [being clairvoyant] had discovered that this unobtrusive personality had actually become the external physical embodiment of the spirit of Elijah; now the knowledge she had thus acquired she did not impart to Ahab, she kept it to herself regarding it as a secret, for reasons which will become apparent later. In the Bible this particular character [upon whose innermost being Elijah’s spirit worked] is known by the name of Naboth. We thus see that according to the investigations of Spiritual Science we must recognize in the Naboth of the Bible, the physical bearer of the spiritual individuality of Elijah. It was in those days that a great famine came upon the land, and there were many who hungered. Naboth, in certain ways, also experienced want and distress. At times such as these, when not only does hunger prevail, as was assuredly the case in Palestine, but when on every side there is a feeling of infinite pity for those who suffer, the conditions are especially favourable for the entry of the latent soul-forces into one already prepared through destiny or karma. It is alone through these hidden powers of the soul that man may raise himself to the level of such a mission as we have outlined. Let us clearly picture what takes place deep within the being under such circumstances, and thus gain an understanding of the manner in which Naboth’s soul was affected. In the initial stage there is an inner progressive change or enfoldment, marked by an important period of self-education and self-development. It is most extremely difficult to describe those inner experiences of the soul which tend to raise it to greater spiritual heights, while the personality is becoming imbued with the forces by means of which it shall be enabled to look upon the world of spirit. The power of Divine spiritual vision must next be called into being, in order that there may come therefrom the wisdom necessary to the inception of all vital impulses destined to be implanted in the stream of human evolution. A verbal description is here the more difficult because never once have those who have undergone an experience of this nature, especially in olden times, come to such a state of apperception that they could outline their impressions in a precise and lucid manner. What actually happens may be stated to be somewhat as follows: -- The clairvoyant development of the soul is accomplished through different stages. In the case of a being such as Naboth, it would naturally occur that his first inner experience would be the clear apprehension of the following definite concept: -- ‘That spiritual power which it is ordained shall descend upon humanity, will now shine forth in me, and I am its appointed receptacle.’ Next would come this further thought: -- ‘I must henceforth do all that in me lies, in order that the force within my being may find true and proper expression; and that I may acquire those qualities that shall fit me to cope with every form of trial and experience that may come upon me. Thus shall I know how to impart the power of Divine-Impulse to my fellow men, in proper fashion.’ It is in this way that the spiritual and clairvoyant development of a personality such as I have described must go forward -- step by step. When a suitable predetermined stage has been reached, then follow certain definite signs which are noticeable and manifest within the soul. These are also of the nature of inner experiences; they are neither dreams nor visions, for they owe their origin to, and are dependent upon, the soul’s actual growth and unfoldment. Pictorial images appear; these indicate that inner progress has now so far advanced, that the particular personality in question may reasonably believe that his soul has indeed acquired new powers. These images, taken alone, have not necessarily much connection with the reality of those experiences through which the soul is passing. They are merely symbols, such as may come during the sleep state, but in a certain way they are typical symbols, similar to those which occur, under certain conditions, when we have very distinct and positive dreams. For instance, a person suffering from palpitation of the heart, may, during sleep, be under an illusion that heat is emanating from some glowing source, as, for instance, a hot stove. In like manner when the soul has gained this or that special clairvoyant power, then will come corresponding definite experiences in the form of visionary manifestations. Now, in the case of Naboth, the first event of the above nature brought with it a full realization of all that is implied in the following words: -- ‘Thou art the chosen one, through whom it shall be proclaimed that man may still believe in the ancient Jahveh-God; and that he must hold fast to this faith, even though it outwardly seemeth that because of the sore tribulation which has come upon the land, the current of life’s happenings be set against such trust. This state of profound meditation fraught with inner-life experiences, assumed the following form -- Naboth pondered thus: -- ’If thou wouldest indeed become worthy of that mission which shall shine in upon mankind because of this wholly new concept of God’s image, then must thou change utterly the nature of thine inner being, even to the most profound of its forces, so that thou art no more as thou hast been. Thou shalt subdue that soul which dwells in thee, and through those deeper powers which abide therein bring to thine inner Ego a new life, for it may no longer remain as it now is. [Thou must uplift its quality.]’ Under the influence of thoughts such as these [Naboth] worked intensively upon his soul -- ever striving within -- that he might bring about this essential transformation of his Ego, and thus become worthy to stand in the presence of that God who had revealed Himself before him. Then came to [Elijah-Naboth] yet another experience which was, however, only in part a vision. But because it was not entirely of the nature of an inner soul-happening, there being other content, it must be regarded as of less spiritual significance. It is ever the pure inner workings of the soul that are of truest and greatest import. In the vision, it appeared to him that his God, who had again manifested, set him upon a journey to Zarepath (I Kings, xvii, 9), and in that place he met a widow who had a son and he there saw represented, or personified, as it were, in the fate of this widow and her son, the manner and way in which he was now to live. It seemed to his spiritual sight that their food was well-nigh spent, and even that which they had was about to be consumed, after which they would die. Then it was that he spoke to the widow as in a dream, as in a vision, using in effect those same words which, day by day, and week by week, throughout his solitary meditations, he had repeated over and over again to his own soul: -- ‘Fear not, -- from that meal which remaineth, prepare the repast which must be made ready for you and your son, and for me also. In all that may yet come to pass trust alone in that God Who doth create both joy and sorrow, and in Whom we must ever abide in faith.’ In this dreamlike vision it was clearly impressed upon [Elijah-Naboth] that the barrel of meal would not become empty nor would the cruse of oil fail; for the oil and the meal would ever be renewed. It is worthy of note that at this point his whole soul-state which had become, so to speak, fully developed and perfected with regard to his individual character, expressed itself in the vision in such manner, that it seemed to him as if his personality went to live in the upper part of the house which belonged to the widow. But in reality the inner truth was that his own soul had, as one might say, risen to a higher level and achieved a more advanced stage of development. It next appeared to [Elijah-Naboth], again as in a vision, that the son of the widow lay dead. This we must regard as merely a symbolical representation of the fact that [Naboth] had overcome, and slain, as it were, the Ego which had been his up to that time. Then it was the subconscious forces in his soul cried out: -- ‘What wilt thou do now?’ For a while [Elijah-Naboth] stood helpless and perplexed; but he was able to regain his self-control through the medium of that power which had always lived and flowed within his innermost being, and to plunge even yet more profoundly into the consideration of those conditions which now called for such deep and earnest contemplation. It then happened that after the widow’s son was dead, she reproached him. This signifies that his subconscious spirit reproached him, in other words, aroused in him a misgiving of this nature: -- ‘My old Ego-consciousness has now left me -- what am I to do?’ In the description given of these events it is stated that he took the child unto himself and plunged unhesitatingly still further into the depths of his soul, and we are told that power was vouchsafed to him through which he brought the dead son once more to life. Then did he gain more courage to stimulate and quicken the new Ego, which was now his, by virtue of those qualities which were in the Ego that he had lost.

From that time on [Elijah-Naboth] continued to develop and mature the hidden forces of his soul, so that it might acquire that inner strength necessary to come before the outer world and utter those words which all must hear. But in the first place and above everything, to stand before King Ahab and bring to a crisis the matter which must now be decided, namely, the victory of the new Jehovah-concept as opposed to those beliefs that the King himself accepted, and which, owing to the weakness of the times had become generally acknowledged among the people. Now, it came about, that while Ahab was making a round of his empire, anxiously observing the signs of want and distress that the personality [whom we have called Elijah-Naboth] approached him; and no man knew from whence he came, certainly the King had no idea. And there was a strangeness in the manner of his speech which affected the soul of Ahab, who was not, however, aware that this man was his neighbour. More strongly than ever did the King experience that feeling of awe and dread which had always come upon him when reference was made to that great spirit known in the Bible as Elijah the prophet. Then it was that the King spoke and said: -- ‘Art thou he that troubleth Israel?’ And Elijah-Naboth replied: -- ‘No, not I, but thou thyself it is who bringeth misfortune and evil upon the people, and it must now be determined to which God they shall turn.’ So it came to pass that a great multitude of the tribe of Israel assembled upon Mount Carmel in order that final judgment should be made between the god of Ahab and the God of Elijah. The decision was to be brought about by means of an external sign; but such a sign as all might plainly discern and clearly understand. To enter into details concerning these matters at the present time would, however, take us too far. It was arranged that the priests and prophets of Baal, the name by which the god of King Ahab was known, should be the first to offer a sacrifice. The people would then wait and see if the performance of certain sacrificial rites (religious exercises in which the ecstatic priests, through the medium of music and dancing, worked themselves up into a state of singular ecstasy) would lead to any communication or influence being imparted to the multitude. In other words, the people were to judge whether or not, in virtue of inherent divine powers possessed by the priests any sign was vouchsafed of the might and potency of their god. The sacrificial beast is brought to the altar. It is to be decided if in truth the priests of Baal are endowed with an inner force, such as would stir the multitude. Then Elijah-Naboth raised up his voice and said: -- ‘This thing must now be determined -- I stand alone while opposed to me are the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. We shall see how strong is their hold upon the people, and how great is that power which is in me.’ The sacrifice is performed, and everything possible done in order to transmit to the multitude a potent influence from the priests -- that all should believe in the god Baal. The ecstatic exercises are carried to such lengths that the hands and other parts of the body are cut with knives until the blood flows, so as to increase still further the awesome character of the spectacle evoked by these followers of Baal, under the frenzied stimulus of the dancing and the music.

 

implizit.blogspot.fr/2011_02_01_archive.html?view=classic

Sonata Vario Acoustic Absorbers installed to the ceiling within the hall at Stanley Road Primary school in Worcester. The Sonata Vario panels solved the reverberation problem within the hall at lunchtimes and during PE.

 

www.soundreduction.co.uk/Products/Sound-Absorption-Soluti...

Tiananmen , Beijing, July 2012

China

 

The man has stones, walking let alone sleeping on the grass in public parks in Beijing is usually strictly forbidden

 

Canon 550D

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.

I will remove them..

 

Thanx to: youtu.be/pABvTWSxOes

Thermal image of a domestic absorption refrigerator. Image made with a Therm-App Pro 640 x 480 thermal camera, ThermViewer software. Stitched from several images in Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

 

Uncalibrated image; blue indicates relatively cold (~room temperature); red is hottest (in this instance 'very hot to the touch of one's hand but not quite burning'). Image intended to show the general distribution of temperatures in the working sections of the refrigerator.

 

This image is used on Wikipedia.

 

This image is released to the public domain, although if you re-use it I would appreciate a credit to 'Ultrapurple' and possibly a link to this Flickr page.

Laser pointer hits a camera body.

 

WEBSITE: www.alexkayvisuals.com

BUY A PRINT: hello@alexkayvisuals.com

SUPPORT: Ko-fi or Patreon

The Hague

May 2012

The Netherlands

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely i will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

All rights reserved

 

Vertex patch excavated through white amphora patch; frequent occurrence in P. depressa shells that suggests re-absorption of shell-material.

 

SPECIES DESCRIPTION part A 1Pd flic.kr/p/BaSA3C

SPECIES DESCRIPTION part B 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR

Key id. features 3Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7bhf

OTHER SPECIES ALBUMS

www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/

Making of video

 

Large

The Hague

May 2012

The Netherlands

 

A rather idyllic church garden, not very well known to the general public, although it has been busier in the last few years. Used to be a preferred spot for junkies and dealers for hustling and using. Now its a place for lunch, conversation and the occasional joint.

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.

I will remove them...

In "Absorption" project the ideas of holiness and darkness merged together.

 

Project inspired by the movies about exorcism and gothic modern trends.

It makes us think about the fact that everything has its double side and question reality.

 

More pictures from the project

o-studio.se/projects/absorption

 

the suspension of time, the freedom of complete absorption in activity.

 

Seen here with the Ugandan AIDS orphan dance troupe...

 

"How to live life as a work of art, rather than as a chaotic response to external events"

(by TED speaker Prof. "Chicks send me high")

A short series of 6 photographs taken at the Centre Pompidou.

 

Une petite série de 6 photos prises au Centre Pompidou.

 

Artist : Simon Hantaï

 

If you recognise yourself in these photos and prefer they are not here, just let me know (or if you would like a copy of the photo).

 

Si vous vous reconnaissez dans cette photo et préfériez que la photo ne soit pas publiée, dites le moi (ou bien si vous aimeriez en avoir une copie).

Enlarge

Click diagonal arrows upper-right; then press F11 Fullscreen.

 

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I felt today also warranted being off, as mentally I’m not convinced I’m completely over the last of our joyous child inherited illnesses, even if physically I think I’m back there. Possibly decreased absorption of compounds is the primary cause of this today. Anyway, I made myself available to people to run through things with me before planned meetings and, following a lengthy call, decided to head into town to try and clear my head, mirrorless and two lenses in tow.

 

I’ve not really used the zoom lens that came with my M100 very much, possibly because I’ve favoured the pancake lens as primes are generally better. However, kit lenses are clearly much improved over the days of my old school 18-55mm that came with the 400D. Apparently I can correct the barrel distortion and vignetting, but these are features I like, so I shall not.

 

The trip left me with a new book from the library (the next from Andy Weir) as well as many shots that I liked and so have the trauma of choosing which to have as ‘the’ photo for the day. It is for this reason that I think I will do a Project 52 next year, but along the lines of that from 2016 when I had a self imposed 3 photos a week allowance for it, the rationale being that it gave me scope for themes and to explore those within just a few frames.

Cooled down a little after Richard's suggestion. Better I think. Taken in Eaton Park, Norwich this morning with their father's permission.

ink on handmade paper

Processed using calibrated near-infrared methane absorption band (MT2, CB2) filtered images taken by Cassini on August 31 2017.

 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

 

by navema

www.navemastudios.com

 

Marble, ebony socle inlaid with marble .

 

Permoser's grimacing and contorted stone figures on the Zwinger Palace in Dresden embody the German Baroque in sculpture. This agonizingly expressive bust of Marsyas, carved in Italy early in his career, reveals his absorption of the style of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and forecasts the distinctive manner Permoser would develop in his native country. The tortured expression of the screaming satyr Marsyas, flayed alive after losing a musical contest with the god Apollo, responds especially to Bernini's Damned Soul of 1619. The savage face riven by clenched brows and eyes squinting in pain, however, is distinctly the sculptor's own creation. Deliberately rough, flamelike hair contrasts excruciatingly precise details like the torn tongue. The bust's unfinished back and emplacement for a bracket suggest that it was originally intended for a niche, perhaps in a palace courtyard.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Balthasar Permoser (born in Kammer bei Waging, Salzburg; today a part of the bavarian town Traunstein, on 13 August 1651–died in Dresden on 18 February 1732) was among the leading sculptors of his generation, whose evolving working styles spanned the late Baroque and early Rococo.

 

Permoser was trained first in Salzburg, in the workshop of Wolf Weißenkirchner the Younger and in Vienna, where he learned the art of ivory carving, before he left in 1675 on a trip to Florence to work for Giovanni Battista Foggini, in whose studio he remained fourteen years, maturing his style. Called to Dresden in 1689 by Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony, he executed two monumental garden sculptures of Hercules. In 1697, on the way to Italy once more, he remained almost a year in his old haunts during which he sculpted the atlantes for the west doorway of the Hofstallung in Salzburg. In the years 1704–1710 he worked at the Schloß Charlottenburg near Berlin.

 

Then he returned to Dresden to collaborate with the architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann on the Zwinger palace, built 1710–28 for Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, where he provided full-blown Roman Baroque sculptural details; for the Wallpavillon he provided six of the twelve festive, flexing, grimacing atlantes for which he is most remembered. For the Zwinger he also provided the sculptures for the Nymphenbad fountain.

 

His most famous independent, free-standing sculpture is an over-lifesize marble Apotheosis of Prince Eugene (1718–21; Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna), where the main figure, depicted with the attributes of Hercules, and secondary figures of Fame and a fallen Turk are linked in a tour-de-force of complicated Berninian diagonals that did not satisfy Prince Eugene of Savoy's classicizing taste. His two polychromed wood figures of St Augustine and St Ambrose, made for the high altar of the Dresden Hofkirche (1725), are in the Stadtmuseum, Bautzen, while the sculptural pulpit he carved for the chapel of Augustus was relocated in the Hofkirche, begun in 1738. He also provided sculpture for the wall-tomb of Sophie of Saxony and Wilhelmine Ernestine of the Palatine, in the Freiberg Cathedral.

 

Permoser collaborated as a modeller in the Dresden workshops of Johann Melchior Dinglinger, court jeweller to Augustus; notable examplers of this kind of collaboration are the two sculptures of Moors by Permoser, encrusted with jewelled decor by Dinglinger, in the Neues Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. Permoser provided models to be executed in polished red stoneware at Augustus' manufactory at Meissen, notably a series of commedia dell'arte figures, ca 1710–12, that are the precursors of the porcelain figurines made first at Meissen and copied by manufactories all over Europe.

 

His private works extended to portrait busts, Rococo collector's sculptures of polychromed wood or ivory, reliquaries that combined sculpture and architecture, and sentimental works for personal devotion. Permoser's pupil Paul Egell and Egell's pupil Johann Joachim Kändler carried Permoser's style forward into the mid-eighteenth century.

For testing on film my newly arrived exceptional French 35mm camera FOCA Universel RC (see below for details about this rare and fascinating camera), I went for photowalk in my district, Lyon, France. The weather was very sunny and the outside temperature warm (32°C).

 

Testing a new collection camera is always is great moment. We know the camera only from its blank manipulations but the real judge is the test film on the field, the camera exposed to outside elements in real photography operations. Some possible problems as light leaks or slight unpairing of the shutter curtains, will be only detected on film.

 

I used the camera with its ever-ready bag and I removed the front part for operation. In particular, I previously checked very carefully the exact condition of the thin leather neck strap. Old leather may crack and it would a shame and a nightmare to drop such camera. The OPLAR standard lens 1/:2.8 f=5cm was equipped with a yellow filter FOCA x2.5. The OPLAR lens fro the FOCA’s only accept push-on filter (42.5mm in this specific case). A vintage Genaco cylindric stainless-steel shade hood conceived for a 5cm focal length was also used all along the session.

 

The test film was a 36-exposure Fomapan 100. Expositions were determined for 50 ISO to compensate the absorption of the yellow filter. Metering was achieved using a Minolta Autometer III lightmeter fitted with a 10° finder for selective metering privileging the shadow areas.

 

View Nr 34: 1/50s f/4 focusing @ 3 m - Yellow filter

 

Collection car Volvo P1800, July 5, 2025

Boulevard de la Croix Rousse

69004 Lyon

France

 

After completion at view #39, the film was rewound normally and processed using 350 mL of Adox Adonal developer (identical to the original Agfa Rodinal in its formula of 1891) prepared at the dilution 1+50 for 9 min at 20°C.

 

Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.

 

The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.4) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.

 

As a result, the test film shows that this FOCA Universel RC is in perfect conditions and could be used normally with confidence.

 

About the camera and its history :

Among the French 35mm camera produced by « Optique & Précision de Levallois S.A. » from 1945 to the middle of the 60’s, the FOCA Universel « RC » is likely the most captivating ever produced in France at that time.

 

The camera was the last development of the FOCA, sometime called the « French Leica » because the optical and mechanical precision matched and even surpassed the original thread-mount Leica. Far before the first Leica M (the M3 in 1954) O.P.L. developed a bayonet-mount FOCA in 1948 called the FOCA « Universel ». Seeing the incredible viewer and range finder of the Leica M that is likely the most sophisticated system even engineered, O.P.L. released lately a great improvement of the FOCA with a novel collimated, parallax auto-corrected, of a fully original and different design of the Leitz system.

 

The FOCA Universel RC It is a rare camera that only appears for time to time on the collector market, being only produced to a bit more than 2000 overall units in the years 1962 and 1963, just before O.P.L. decided to quit the camera production and returned to other instrumental optical production. O.P.L. soon merged with SOM Berthiot and today can be found still in the industrial filiation of SAFRAN group, the French leader company for designing and producing system for aerospace appliances. The plant where the FOCA's were produced still exists in an almost original form in Châteaudun, Eure-et-Loir, France.

 

I got my first FOCA URC unit two years ago (Sept. 2023, flic.kr/s/aHBqjAV6Dg) that is a standing and emotional piece of my small camera collection.

 

I got this one from an apparently ignored auction on the French eBay. We were only two biders in the last 5s and I won the auction not far away to the initial price. The camera was fully revised, with new shutter curtains, a new delayed shutter release mechanism. The serial number indicated a year-1962 production starting with 1.000.000, closed to my first FOCA URC. The camera works in every functions like on its Day-1! The camera came with a late version 1962 of the OPLAR 1:2.8 f=5cm standard collapsible lens of excellent quality, the FOCA UCR dedicated ever-ready leather bag with the original leather neck strap in good condition.

 

The original O.P.L. camera warranty and a registration postal card fortunately followed the life of the camera, indicating that this beautiful FOCA Universel RC was sold to its first owner on August 9, 1963 by the official FOCA dealer « ROYAL-PHOTO, Photo-Ciné-Magnétohone », 42, rue Vignon, Paris 9ème arrondissement, France, today a Weill fashion shop at the same address. The address of the owner also still exists with the original Parisian building in place, Boulevard Poniatwski, next to the Métro station « Porte de Charenton », Paris 12ème arrondissement.

 

The shown original FOCAL Universel RC user manual is the one that came with my other FOCA URC camera.

 

These information pushed me to question what were the news in France on this Friday, August 9, 1963… France was mainly on vacation, by an exceptional wet and fresh weather that wasted many French citizens holidays. The whole national radio information bulletin is still available online here :

 

www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/audio/phd94020557/inter-actua...

 

Inter actualités de 7:15 PM du 9 août 1963

Inter actualités de 7:15 PM - 09.08.1963 - 29:58 - audio

 

Ina.fr (English translated)

 

- Headlines - Jean-Pierre ELKABBACH: The Marseille and Bordeaux sailors' strike ended this morning, but nothing has been resolved in Le Havre. Many heads of state and government sent messages of condolence to President Kennedy for the death of his third child shortly after birth. Other headlines in the newspaper (2'20"). - André Brière: It does not appear for the moment that work will resume in Le Havre. Mr. Pisani would agree to the distillation of 2 million hectoliters of wine, which is clogging up the market, but a subsidy would be required. Discontent is growing among winegrowers in the south, whom the population accuses of various acts of sabotage in the Narbonne region. Complaints from winegrowers in the southwest. Farmers scattered 5 tons of potatoes yesterday in the streets of Douai (3'30"). - Jacques Behingue: Secretary of State Dean Rusk will return to Washington from Moscow on Monday. He will give a presentation to senators on the Moscow Treaty. This morning, Dean Rusk was received by Mr. Khrushchev on the shores of the Black Sea in Cagra. This evening, Mr. Dean Rusk will host a dinner in Moscow at the US Embassy. Tomorrow, he will be in Bonn, received by Mr. Adenauer. The Moscow Treaty was signed by 11 new countries, with Japan set to sign next Wednesday. North Vietnam has refused to sign. Mr. MAC MILLAN declared that underground tests, which are not prohibited, are not of great importance because nuclear weapons can only be modified following atmospheric tests (4'40"). - Gérard TAVERA: Two years after Bizerte, France and Tunisia signed an agreement this morning that includes two chapters: the first concerns the 30,000 Tunisian workers living in France, the second concerns economic cooperation. This agreement resolves the economic problems concerning Bizerte. After an African trip, Mr. BEN BELLA returns to Algiers. In Accra, Mr. BEN BELLA declared that the next session of the UN would be an African session. Yesterday, AIT AHMED violently criticized the FLN party and the constitutional project. All French newspapers reproducing Mr. AIT AHMED's Declaration were seized this morning upon their arrival in Algiers. Since July 16, in Morocco, leaders of the UNFP are detained in rather precarious conditions following the "plot" against the monarchy (2'25"). - André Brière: before the State Security Court, opening of the trial of the station commander, among those who are bringing a civil action is Mr. Jean OUDINOT, former director of RTF in Algiers (1'05"). - Victor VRAMANT: the body of Doctor WARD was cremated this morning, only members of Doctor WARD's family attended the funeral ceremony. The weather in France and Europe. It is raining everywhere in France except on the Côte d'Azur. Road accidents (2'). - Jean-Pierre ELKABBACH: Gaston GELIS, former director of "Paris-journal" died in a road accident in Seine et Marne (1'). - Victor VRAMANT: a major drug trafficker was arrested at Orly. In Italy, following the arrest of a repeat offender, a 22-year-old American woman was arrested for drug trafficking (1'30"). - Jacques CHABOT: Charles TRENET has not yet been released; he would be released tomorrow morning after payment of bail (25%).

 

WEATHER:

 

SOURCE: www.meteo-paris.com/chronique/annee/1963

 

June 14, 1963: a particularly cool day - it was no more than 12°C in Rouen, 13°C in Paris, St. Quentin, Lille, Le Havre, and Caen.

 

August 1963 was autumnal because it was very cool and very wet. On August 3, 1963, torrential rains caused catastrophic flooding and the death of eight people in the Lyon region. On August 4, 1963, 400 houses were also flooded between St. Jean de Luz and Le Boucau (Pyrénées Atlantiques). On August 17 and 18, 1963, it was no more than 10°C. and 15°C in the northern half - many summer visitors leave early - it's snowing in the mountains and the harvest is very difficult.

 

Historical landmarks of the year 1963

August 28, 1963: Martin Luther King leads the march on Washington. October 11, 1963: Jean Cocteau and Edith Piaf die within hours of each other. November 22, 1963: President J.F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. The yé-yé movement is in vogue - the debut of Françoise Hardy and the politically engaged singer, Jean Ferrat.

Lanzarote: 8m under water, just in that depth where the absorption of light changes colours. I think, it was because the beautiful sunshine outside, that we could get the orange in this depth (normaly the first colour which may disappear even in a depth of 5m. Living sea stars love eating sea hedgehogs.

1-12-13 Wyndham Street Races

 

TOP SPEED REVIEW:

 

Not long ago, the Japanese motorcycles were considered the uncontested leaders of sport motorcycles and nobody had the guts to challenge them. However, this situation has changed after BMW entered the battle. Its first super sport bike, the S 1000RR was not only a completely newcomer, but it was also so strong and technological advanced that it made any other bike look like defenseless scooter.

 

THE ABS

The Kawasaki Ninja® ZX™-10R ABS superbike combines anti-lock braking with the numerous technological benefits of the class leading ZX-10R. And it does it with rider-sensitive, race-bred attributes derived from competing and winning at the highest levels.

 

Kawasaki has developed a new electronic steering damper for the 2013 ZX-10R ABS sportbike, in joint cooperation with Öhlins. Controlled by a dedicated ECU located under the gas tank cover, this new damper reacts to the rate of acceleration or deceleration, as well as rear wheel speed, to help provide the ideal level of damping force across a wide range of riding scenarios. The variable damping provides optimum rider feedback by enabling the use of lower damping forces during normal operation, without sacrificing the firm damping needed for high-speed stability. The result is a light and nimble steering feel at low speed, as well as superior damping at higher speeds or during extreme acceleration/deceleration. The anodized damper unit incorporates Öhlins’ patented twin-tube design to help ensure stable damping performance and superior kickback absorption. It is mounted horizontally at the front of the fuel tank and requires very few additional components and ads almost no weight compared to last year’s steering damper.

 

At first, anti-lock braking might seem a touch out of place on a purebred sportbike. But this system was designed from the start to maximize performance. And when you consider the many benefits provided by the amazing electronic and hardware technology available today, it begins to make a lot of sense.

 

Think of it: You’re braking for a blind, decreasing-radius corner after a long day of sport riding. Shadows are long and you’re tired, so you don’t notice a patch of sand until it’s too late to correct. But instead of tucking as you continue braking through the sand, your front tire maintains most of its traction, as the anti-lock braking system intervenes until the surface improves – allowing you to arc gracefully into the corner, a little wiser and a lot more intact physically than you might have been riding a non-ABS motorcycle.

 

Kawasaki calls its anti-lock system KIBS – or Kawasaki Intelligent anti-lock Brake System. The use of “intelligent” is apropos, too, considering just how smart the KIBS is. It all starts with the smallest and lightest ABS unit ever built for a motorcycle, one designed by Bosch specifically with sport bikes in mind. It’s nearly 50 percent smaller than current motorcycle ABS units, and 800 grams lighter, adding only about 7 pounds of weight compared to the non-ABS machine, a pound of which is accounted for by the larger battery.

 

KIBS is a multi-sensing system, one that collects and monitors a wide range of information taken from wheel sensors (the same ones collecting data on the standard ZX-10R for its S-KTRC traction control system) and the bike’s ECU, including wheel speed, caliper pressure, engine rpm, throttle position, clutch actuation and gear position. The KIBS’s ECU actually communicates with the bike’s engine ECU and crunches the numbers, and when it notes a potential lock-up situation, it tells the Bosch ABS unit to temporarily reduce line pressure, allowing the wheel to once again regain traction.

 

Aside from this system’s ultra-fast response time, it offers a number of additional sport-riding benefits, including rear-end lift suppression during hard braking, minimal kickback during ABS intervention, and increased rear brake control during downshifts. The high-precision pressure control enables the system to maintain high brake performance, proper lever feel and help ensure the ABS pulses are minimized.

 

Needless to say that the Japanese manufacturers were highly intrigued and the first samurai who challenged the Germans to a duel was Kawasaki.

 

Kawasaki’s anti S 1000RR weapon is the Ninja ZX - 10R. Packing a lot of advanced features and modern technologies, the bike is fast enough to compete with success against the German oppressor.

 

Despite the fact that nothing changed for the 2013 model year, except for some color schemes, the Ninja continues to be ahead of the pack when it comes to sporty performances.

 

Build on a nimble, lightweight chassis, The Kawasaki Ninja ZX - 10R ABS is “blessed” with a powerful 998cc inline four engine which cranks out 197 hp at 11500 rpm.

 

Among the most important features offered by the Ninja ZX - 10R, you’ll find the advanced Sport-Kawasaki Traction Control (S-KTRC) and an intelligent ABS system which comes as an option ($1000).

 

ENGINE & PERFORMANCE:

The rest of the 2013 Ninja ZX-10R ABS is equally advanced. Complete with a powerful engine and lightweight chassis, it also boasts a highly advanced and customizable electronic system that allows riders to harness and experience the ZX-10R ABS’s amazing blend of power and razor-edge handling. The system is called Sport-Kawasaki Traction Control.

 

Motorcyclists have forever been challenged by traction-related issues, whether on dirt, street or track. And when talking about the absolute leading edge of open-class sport bike technology, where production street bikes are actually more capable than full-on race bikes from just a couple years ago, more consistent traction and enhanced confidence is a major plus.

 

The racing-derived S-KTRC system works by crunching numbers from a variety of parameters and sensors – wheel speed and slip, engine rpm, throttle position, acceleration, etc. There’s more data gathering and analysis going on here than on any other Kawasaki in history, and it’s all in the name of helping racers inch closer to the elusive “edge” of maximum traction than ever before. The S-KTRC system relies on complex software buried in the ZX-10R’s Electronic Control Unit (ECU); the only additional hardware is the lightweight speed sensors located on each wheel.

 

Unlike the KTRC system on Kawasaki’s Concours™ 14 ABS sport tourer, which primarily minimizes wheel slip on slick or broken surfaces as a safety feature, the S-KTRC system is designed to maximize performance by using complex analysis to predict when traction conditions are about to become unfavorable. By quickly but subtly reducing power just before the amount of slippage exceeds the optimal traction zone, the system – which processes every data point 200 times per second – maintains the optimum level of tire grip to maximize forward motion. The result is significantly better lap times and enhanced rider confidence – exactly what one needs when piloting a machine of this caliber.

 

The S-KTRC system offers three different modes of operation, which riders can select according to surface conditions, rider preference and skill level: Level 1 for max-grip track use, Level 2 for intermediate use, and Level 3 for slippery conditions. An LCD graph in the high-tech instrument cluster displays how much electronic intervention is occurring in real time and a thumb switch on the left handlebar pod allows simple, on-the-go mode changes.

 

The potent ZX-10R engine is a 16-valve, DOHC, liquid-cooled inline-four displacing 998cc via 76 x 55mm bore and stroke dimensions. This powerplant is tuned to optimize power delivery, center of gravity and actual engine placement within the chassis. Torque peaks at an rpm range that helps eliminate power peaks and valleys that make it difficult for racers and track-day riders to open the throttle with confidence.

 

A primary goal of Kawasaki engineers was linear power delivery and engine manageability throughout all elements of a corner: the entry, getting back to neutral throttle at mid-corner, and heady, controllable acceleration at the exit. Peak torque was moved to a higher rpm range, which eliminates the power peaks and valleys that make it difficult for racers and track-day riders to open the throttle with confidence.

 

Large intake valves complemented by wide, polished intake ports allow for controllable power delivery and engine braking, just the thing to smooth those racetrack corner entries and exits. Camshafts built from chromoly steel further contribute to optimized engine braking and more controllable power delivery. Lightweight pistons mount to light and strong connecting rods. Compression is a full 13.0:1.

 

A race-style cassette transmission allows simple trackside ratio changes. An adjustable back-torque limiting clutch assembly is fitted, which allows worry-free downshifts and corner-entry calmness.

 

Cramming all that fuel and air into this amazing engine is a ram air-assisted fuel injection system featuring large throttle bodies (47mm) and sub-throttle valves, a large capacity airbox (9 liters), secondary injectors that improve top-end power characteristics, and a large ram-air intake that’s positioned close to the front of the bike for efficient airbox filling and power.

 

The final piece of the ZX-10R’s power-production formula is a race-spec exhaust system featuring a titanium header assembly, hydroformed collectors, a large-volume pre-chamber containing two catalyzers and a highly compact silencer. Due to the header’s race-spec design, riders and racers looking for more closed-course performance need only replace the slip-on muffler assembly.

 

CHASSIS & SUSPENSION:

With the engine producing a massive quantity of usable and controllable power, engineers looked to the chassis to help refine handling and overall road/track competency. The aluminum twin-spar frame is an all-cast assemblage of just seven pieces that features optimized flex characteristics for ideal rider feedback, cornering performance and light weight. Like the frame, the alloy swingarm is an all-cast assembly, with rigidity matching that of the frame itself.

 

Chassis geometry offers excellent stability and handling quickness. The front end geometry – with rake at 25 degrees and trail at 107mm (4.21 in.) – allows light, quick handling and complements the engine’s controllable power and the frame and swingarm’s flex characteristics.

 

Highly advanced suspension at both ends helps as well. Up front is a 43mm open-class version of the Big Piston Fork (BPF). Featuring a piston design nearly twice the size of a conventional cartridge fork, the BPF offers smooth action, less stiction, light weight and enhanced damping performance on the compression and rebound circuits. This compliance results in more control and feedback for the rider – just what you need when carving through a rippled sweeper at your local track or negotiating a decreasing-radius corner on your favorite backroad.

 

Suspension duties on the ZX-10R are handled by a Horizontal Back-Link design that positions the shock and linkage above the swingarm. Benefits include mass centralization, good road holding, compliance and stability, smooth action in the mid-stroke and good overall feedback. The fully adjustable shock features a piggyback reservoir and dual-range (low- and high-speed) compression damping.

 

Lightweight gravity-cast three-spoke wheels complement the tire fitment. Up front, Tokico radial-mount calipers grasp 310mm petal discs and a 220mm disc is squeezed by a lightweight single-piston caliper in back. The result is powerful stops with plenty of rider feedback and the added confidence of the KIBS ABS system.

 

DESIGN & ERGONOMICS:

Finally, Kawasaki engineers wrapped all this technology in bodywork as advanced and stylish as anything on this side of a MotoGP grid. The curvy edges and contrasting colored and black parts create a sharp, aggressive image. Line-beam headlights grace the fairing while LED turn signals are integrated into the mirror assemblies. Convenient turn-signal couplers allow easy mirror removal for track-day use. The rear fender assembly holding the rear signal stalks and license plate frame is also easily removable for track days. High-visibility LED lamps are also used for the taillight and position marker.

 

The instrumentation is highlighted by an LED-backlit bar-graph tachometer set above a multi-featured LCD info screen with numerous sections and data panels. A wide range of information is presented, including vehicle speed, odometer, dual trip meters, fuel consumption, Power Mode and S-KTRC level, low fuel, water temperature and much more. For track use, the LCD display can be set to “race” mode which moves the gear display to the center of the screen.

 

The ZX-10R’s ergonomics are designed for optimum comfort and control. A 32-inch saddle, adjustable footpegs and clip-ons mean that this is a hard-core sport bike you can actually take on an extended sport ride – and still be reasonably comfortable doing so.

 

The old saying, “power is nothing without control” is certainly apt where open-class sport bikes are concerned. But when you factor in all the engine, chassis and ergonomic control designed into the 2013 Ninja ZX-10R, you begin to realize you’re looking at one very special motorcycle – one that can take you places you’ve never been before.

 

Genuine Kawasaki Accessories are available through authorized Kawasaki dealers.

 

SPECS:

Engine Four-Stroke, Liquid-Cooled, DOHC, Four Valves Per Cylinder, Inline-Four

Displacement 998cc

Bore X Stroke 76.0 X 55.0 mm

Compression Ratio13.0:1

Fuel System DFI® With Four 47mm Keihin Throttle Bodies With Oval Sub-Throttles, Two Injectors Per Cylinder

Ignition TCBI With Digital Advance And Sport-Kawasaki Traction Control (S-KTRC)

Transmission Six-Speed

Final Drive Chain

Rake/Trail 25 Deg / 4.2 In.

Front Tire Size 120/70 ZR17

Rear Tire Size 190/55 ZR17

Wheelbase 56.1 In.

Front Suspension / Wheel Travel 43 mm Inverted Big Piston Fork (BPF), Adjustable Rebound And Compression Damping, Spring Preload Adjustability/ 4.7 in.

Rear Suspension / Wheel Travel

Horizontal Back-Link With Gas-Charged Shock, Stepless, Dual-Range (Low-/High-Speed) Compression Damping, Stepless Rebound Damping, Fully Adjustable Spring Preload / 5.5 In.

Front Brakes Kawasaki Intelligent Anti-Lock Braking (KIBS), Dual Semi-Floating 310 mm Petal Discs With Dual Four-Piston Radial-Mount Calipers

Rear Brakes KIBS-Controlled, Single 220 mm Petal Disc With Aluminum Single-Piston Caliper

Fuel Capacity 4.5 Gal.

Seat Height 32.0 In.

Curb Weight 443.2 Lbs.

Overall Length 81.7 In.

Overall Width 28.1 In.

Overall Height 43.9 In.

Color Choices - Lime Green/Metallic Spark Black, Pearl Flat White/Metallic Spark Black

 

Source: www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/kawasaki/...

Leica M6 TTL

Leica Elmarit 28mm f/2.8 III

Ilford Delta 100

Kodak HC-110 Dil E (1+47)

7 min 30 sec 20°C

Scan from negative film

Den Haag

The Netherlands

2013

 

Dijsselbloem, Dutch Minister of Finance and head of the Eurogroup

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GR Digital IV

Dashilan, Beijing

July 2012

China

 

Urban life

 

Ricoh GR Digital IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.

I will remove them..

Objects made of uranium glass under a UV lamp. The UV radiation is absorbed by the uranium atoms in the glass followed by the emission of visible green light as the excited electrons fall to their ground state by an alternate path. The process by which visible radiation is emitted as a result of absorption of invisible radiation is called fluorescence. Most of us live with the phenomenon every day as most public buildings such as shops and offices use fluorescent lighting. The cabinet has a mirror at the back. You might just be able to see the photographer!

 

Visit the Hemswell Antique Centres for an interesting day out.

Amsterdam

June 2012

The Netherlands

 

Urban life in the Netherlands

 

Ricoh GRD IV

 

Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.

If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!

 

If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.

Please contact me!

 

Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.

I will remove them..

The dominant sky colouring processes are:

1. Rayleigh scattering

2. Aerosol (Mie) scattering

3. Water vapour absorption

4. Ozone absorption

 

The first two make the clouds (reflected sunlight) red rather than purple.

The third removes some of the deep red light.

The fourth removes most of the orange and yellow and some of the green light form the entire scene (blue sky and clouds). Without the ozone, the colour palette would be very markedly different with a strong orange cast and less saturated colours.

 

Note: replaced on 19 Dec with a version processed using a 'daylight' rather than an 'auto' white balance

 

Credit: Trish Fosbury for noticing the sunset happening!

 

Voigtlander R2M / Portra 400 / Negative Lab Pro / Plustek 8300 AI

 

www.Chancenkosigomez.com

www.Instagram.com/nkosiart

Nkosi.artiste@gmail.com

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Chance Nkosi Gomez known initiated by H.H Swami Jyotirmayanda as Sri Govinda walks an integral yogic path in which photography is the primary creative field of expression. The medium was introduced during sophomore year of high school by educator Dr. Devin Marsh of Robert Morgan Educational Center. Coming into alignment with light, its nature and articulating the camera was the focus during that time. Thereafter while completing a Photographic Technology Degree, the realization of what made an image “striking” came to the foreground of the inner dialogue. These college years brought forth major absorption and reflection as an apprentice to photographer and educator Tony A. Chirinos of Miami Dade College. The process of working towards a singular idea of interest and thus building a series became the heading from here on while the camera aided in cultivating an adherence to the present moment. The viewfinder resembles a doorway to the unified field of consciousness in which line, shape, form, color, value, texture all dissolve. It is here that the yogi is reminded of sat-chit-ananda (the supreme reality as all-pervading; pure consciousness). As of May 2024 Govinda has completed his 300hr yoga teacher training program at Sattva Yoga Academy studying from Master Yogi Anand Mehrotra in Rishikesh, India, Himalayas. This has strengthened his personal Sadhana and allows one to carry and share ancient Vedic Technology leading others in ultimately directing their intellect to bloom into intuition. As awareness and self-realization grows so does the imagery that is all at once divine in the mastery of capturing and controlling light. Over the last seven years he has self-published six photographic books, Follow me i’ll be right behind you (2017), Sonata - Minimal Study (2018), Birds Singing Lies (2018), Rwanda (2019), Where does the body begin? (2019) & Swayam Jyotis (2023). Currently, Govinda is employed at the Leica Store Miami as a camera specialist and starting his journey as a practitioner of yoga ॐ

Name: Anna Maire

Age: 27

Species: Human/Mutant

Abilities: Absorption of memories, skills, and powers through skin-to-skin contact (the longer the contact occurs, the longer Rogue will retain the abilities or memories. If she maintains contact long enough, the absorption becomes permanent), super strength and flight, Expert at martial arts and unarmed combat.