Jet Lowe: "A Photographic View of American Technology in Perspective" | Talks at Google

Good, afternoon. Thanks. For coming and I'm. Just gonna give a very brief introduction. To this talk we. Want to welcome Jett, Lowe who. Has. Been a photographer for I, was retired now but has been a photographer for the historic. American building, survey. And. The. Historic, American engineering record, for many years I, discovered, his work, browsing. Around online at the Library of Congress, and spent, lots of time and, started. Corresponding them, a few years ago and said. Hey if you're ever out in California, come, on over to Google and show. Us your stuff so without, further ado I want to introduce Jett, lo. Hello. It's a great, pleasure to be here, to. Give a talk to Google I I feel, in some ways that. The. Program, I, work, for is, part, of an antecedent, to the kind of things that Google. Does and making information. About, things, free. To everyone because, the. Program, I worked for was called the historic, American engineering record, and, our mandate was, to document the, technology. Of the, built environment. Historic. Technology. Is I would like to say from when, Mills to steel mills to even, the shuttle, Discoverer. And. This. Program, got, is. All the. Documentation. That I did over a 35-year. Period of time becomes. Public, domain and, becomes, a primary resource. For people. Across the country researching. American. Architecture. And engineering. And. That. Program. Originated. In the Library. Of Congress, which. Founded. By Thomas Jefferson in, the interest of making information as. Accessible. To the public as much as possible so what, I would like to do is go back a little bit and talk about my, background as a photographer, and even the, origins of photography, itself. Because. A lot of people think of photography, has started as, a as, a large. Format, five by seven five. Inches by seven inch plate, that I shot the. Information. That film can record, on a piece, of film and they still shoot film at. The historic, American engineering record, if, you record, that information at. The if, you scan it at the information. That, you can the optical, resolution it. Creates, around a two gigabyte, file, for. One image so there's a lot of information, stored on a piece of film and, that's why. We. Plan on continuing using. Film, as our base of documentation. Because. It's a lot less expensive to. Maintain. And if it were. Digital. Only to, begin with with all the redundancy, that you need to. As you all probably know, to, protect data. So. If you've got a if you've got a film. Origin. And you scan that then you've you. Use the digital scan, to, access, the information you, only need to go. To the film just maybe a couple of times in a lifetime but the, film on, the. Data, on the film can last three or four hundred years without any, further ado, I. Like. To. Talk. About the origins, of photography, I mean photography. In optical. Ways. Of looking at things goes. Back pretty. Much to the Renaissance, when. Ideas. Of the classics. The Greeks about perspective. And. Optics. Were. Being. Reawakened. As that information. That were actually. Saved. By the Arabs, and then it was retracted. Into, Latin in the thirteen fourteen fifteen century. And, the. The. Artists. Scientists. Became very interested. In single, point perspective. Because. It was like thought of as a almost. A virtual reality way, that if you could make. Events. Look, more. Realistic. To the way our eyes perceive, things then you could make a much more convincing. Image. What. I'm showing, here is. A. Very famous, experiments. Been described, as, sort. Of the patron saint of modern, engineering, a guy named Filippo. Brunelleschi. And, it's a perspective, experiment. But. What. Makes optical. Perspective. And photography. Work is that you're looking at things through a single, lens. And, that. That. Puts everything into, perspective. What. He did is he did, a very realistic. Single. Point of view, painting. On. A mirrored. Surface which, you can see here and, then. He, would. Look. At it through this peephole, at the vanishing, point of the, perspective, and then. Compare. That by. Dropping. The. Mirror, in looking, at the, object. That he was trying to, render. So. This. Is the. Baptistry, that he was trying to depict in a realistic form, of perspective. This. Is an, image made, by a. Gentleman. Who studied. This, these experiments. Very closely. And. Then. This. Is where the point of view was made of, the. Baptistry, in Florence, and, what. Here's. The here's the significant, thing that he was trying to do if you can render. Images. Three-dimensional. Images. Realistically. And, proportionately. On, a flat, piece. Of surface on a two-dimensional, surface, you. Can make plans for, in your mind's.

Eye, That. Are much. More efficient, and much more realistic, you can work out your ideas, so it was, a form of of, thinking. That we. Worked, on, artistically. And scientifically. For four or five hundred years and they're, still doing to this day when we do laser scanning. And, that kind of thing basically. When you're doing, that you're. Pinpointing. The location of. All these millions, of spots, and a cloud when you're scanning a, building. Or structure. I got. Managed, to get over to Florence. Italy I'd, been. Studying, these experiments. And the history of perspective, it enters interested. Me quite a bit as, it related to photography, because basically the. Optical. Viewing. Things optically, took place, several. Hundred years before they, figured, out how to actually fix these images, and this. Is the baptistry as seen like. About at midnight, and Florence, and. 2011. That's, so crowded there in the springtime that photographing. It in the daytime is really actually quite difficult now. If you turn around from this point, of view you'll, see the, facade. Of the cathedral. Santa. Mattia, del fiore. And. You can see the enormous scale, of the structure, and what. Brunelleschi. Was very famous, for doing is he built this enormous, dome. Without. Using, any internal. Scaffolding. He used false work around, the edge and used, a very complex. Kind of, weave. Of, bricks, and, stone, to hold this thing together as, it went up, and. Here's. Another view you can see the just. Notice. The the people on the bottom here gives you a sense of the size of the structure this. Is. Around. 1450. So it's one of the most significant, buildings, in Europe, away in terms of structural. Engineering, and the machines. And devices that, he invented, to get. Things. Up and hoist the material, up to the the dome to continue. With the construction. So. Basically. What I've been doing is a documentary. Photographer for. These years is all of these different structures, that I photographed, whether they're in Europe or in the United States I like. To think of them as kind of portals, into history. Or memory, when, you lose a structure. When you scrape a building, it's, that that kind of memory of that structure, has gone forever and. Here's. A young. Man who had the same notion as me he's kind of paying his obeisance, to the. The. Dome that's called the Giotto tower. Giotto. Was an artist who preceded. Brunelleschi. By about 40 or 50 years and in, whose art you first start seeing the, beginnings, of a. Prospective. Whole system, of, recording. Of. Rendering. Images. Not. Long. After about a hundred years after this you start getting. Camera. Obscura's. Where, artists, start. Using the. Projection. Created. By a lens onto, a surface to. Create drawings, and. By the 16th. And 17th centuries, you'll even notice optical. Phenomenon, and paintings. Such as like the art of Vermeer. Where. They. Recorded. These optical, phenomena, that you would not see with your own eyes necessarily. But are created. By a certain, slight, area, of the image being out of focus so.

We Have photography. For. A number, of centuries before, the. Chemists, figure. Out how to fix the image they noticed that. You. Know light, hitting silver, halide causes, that the darkened but, they couldn't quite figure out how to stop, that action, when. They do that that's when you get the birth. Photography. As we know it I. Want, to make some mention, about how these. Perspectives. In, how these optical, devices, that. Gets to be systematized. And then artists, start learning how to make many other kinds, of projections. And this this, is very soon, after. The. Brutal, SK, experiments. But you'll see often kind, of that. This, kind of system of thinking is often used in computer, or works when they're trying, to render even like facial racket, recognition. Looking. For certain points, on the face and the eyes to, measure distances. And things and, it all goes back to this particular period, of time. This. Single, point of view. Enabled. Architects. And, designers, to. Figure out the proportional, relationships. Of buildings, as they would fit together in a plan. This. Is showing how the all. These diagonals. Are converging. On a single. Point of view as a, as. An, architectural, photographer, with. A few camera you you, learn how to actually move, that, vanishing. Point around and that's one of the things it gives a unique look to large format, images. With. Again. With perspective. With design, this, enables, you to. Do. Handbooks show. How parts, are related, to each other and, that's the one thing that I found, the most difficult, thing to do. Photographically. Because photography sort. Of deals with surface. And appearance, that. It's. Very difficult. To accomplish that but when you mix, photographs. With. Measured. Drawings, such. As done by the historic, American engineering record. Then. You get a real. Mixture. I one. Of the things that's going on these days that I find slightly. Distressing. Is that. Historic. Preservationist. Are getting very adapt using, these laser scanners. To record, very. Precise measurements. And shapes of, things and, they, can even put a skin, on these these. Drawings, with, photographs. But, in. A way there's no interpretation. Of them because of that maybe. They're all. Some kind of interpretation. But I think, as a black and white photographer. I think one of the things I enjoyed so much over the years was. Sort. Of trying. To look, at these things and see see what what, the soul of them was.

So. What. Am i first, what I regarded, this kind of a successful, image but you can see here. I am using, that vanishing, point perspective and this type, of view is. Very elemental. To most, architectural. Photography. In. That. Almost. All. Architectural. Photographers, start with an elevation, what. Of any building, they're photographing, you're going to photograph the principal elevation, in the way they're searching, for the the. Views that, the, architect, is intending, to orient, you as you walk through the building, you. Can see in, this campus. That we're on there's a lot of very intentional. Design how, the architects, want. You to flow through, the buildings, and experience. The other, spaces. I. Started. My photography. Or a rather. Unusually. I mean I had. Not. Really I was, not like an. Adolescent. Photographer, or anything but I was a freshman. In college and. Had. We. Had these independent. Study periods, which. Have become very common, in a lot of colleges, I mean they almost all have January. Terms the. School I went to had two independent. Study, periods, a year of one month long and my. Freshman year of college I got, the opportunity to go to Haiti I mostly, wanted to go there to practice. My friend, and a, professor. Said. Take. My Pentax camera, with you and and, so. I I, did, I rolled, up 20. Rolls of black and white film and 10 or 15 roles of Kodachrome, and. Found. Myself, photographing. The architecture. As. Much as anything I did get some nice people, photographs. But those certainly weren't my strongest. Images, but as I went. Over these images, they actually came. Across these negatives. In my one, of my shoe boxes, just. Last, summer and and scan just, to see what what I what I had there and I was surprised that, how architectural. They were. But. Let. Me identify this, this. Is in, cap Haitian the northern part of Haiti. This. Is a, wonderful. Dome, church. Forget. What the exact name of it but it's in the the catedral, de melo. Built. In 1805, just. Almost sort of at the end of the, haitian. Revolution. And. It's sort of interesting these, connections. These disparate, connections, between places. But the. French. Did not sort, of willingly, give. Up haiti, as a colony, it was their wealthiest. Colony. By, far. But. They. Basically. Malaria. Beat beat, the french soldiers, and. At. The time. Jefferson. Was. Very interested. In achieving. A. Sort. Of at least to, guard the mississippi, valley and. He they were very they went to france. To negotiate, for. Just new orleans, they. Were interested, in that just to kind of protect, to. Keep the british from being able to go up the, mississippi, river. And. In. The negotiations. I said well how. Would you like just sort of the rest of the French territory and. So basically. Half the country, was purchased. And we can thank the Haitians for that in many ways. Going. Further, into. Cap-haitien. This. Wonderful. Palace those, heavily. Damaged. Both. This. Was built by a king Christophe. It, was called Sol Suzie is just. Just south of cap-haitien. These. These shots were done in, 1966. By the way this, was under, the Papa, Doc regime. I had, a month to, travel around and I guess the, thing that really seduced, me to photography, in some ways is that I found myself ending, up in places I just ordinarily. Wouldn't. End up in and. I and I like to sort, of promote. Photography. To people, as. A way to slow. Down, your. Visitation, to a place rather than speeding, it up you I'm, sure you've been to the national parks where people jump out of a car. Or photograph, Half Dome jump, back in the car go to the next site but. You know photography. Can also be a sort of a more meditative, and a slowing down process, the way as, a way to explore. Areas as, well and that's that's, the way I like to think of it and maybe that's why I've always liked large. Format, photography, and. Even though I'm currently. Shooting a lot digitally, I try to use it in a more. Meditative way. Going. Up, the hill from South Lucy is one of the law is the largest. Fortress. In North. America. The. Citadel, did that fail yeah and, it was built by King Christophe, out of fear, that the French might return, and try and take. Away but. Really. The malaria, did the man, and they were probably exhausted, from all of Napoleon's doings, in Moscow. And everywhere else at, that time. And here's, further up those, the, the. Structure, has been much stabilized. Since, I photographed, it in. 66. I think. They've kind of lined up the canons and probably, pointed, up the mortar a little, bit but. It was a it's. Quite a wonderful. Sight. And. Here's. A little piece of mortar, just sitting there waiting for the fridge to come back. But. They, never did. My. The. Photographer's, that I sort of look up to and think back on the. Most are like, the. The. French masters who, conducted. Major surveys, this is a fridge. Photographer. Or ball deuce and, there. Were the great American. William, Henry Jackson. And. Numerous. Other great, photographers.

That Did, surveys. Of the West that are credited, with the founding, of the National Park Service with the work that they did and these. Back. When I was doing research at, the Library, of Congress, back in the 60s, and they would they're. Just the, prints and photographs division is a great place to visit if you love photography they'll. They've. Because. You, had used to have to submit copyrights. To. Them, they, started. Amassing, a, major photographic. Collection, in the. Early. 20th century. So. They've got the, Arnold den fees of, the San Francisco, earthquake and. These. Great. Photographs, there and those images, are what have always inspired, me in terms of image quality and, just, the, substance. Of the photographs, that they take. This. Is a bridge that I photographed in Cleveland, Ohio the ad the Avenue, Bridge I, pointed. Out to you and that since the boat, I, don't, think, I was familiar with, Bao Zhu's photograph, when I did it but when you're photographing. Bridges. I. Bridges. Are a really great sort, of documents, of engineering. Thinking. At any given time you. Can even see it around here when you look at the. Highway. Overpasses, that, have been built since the earthquake. That, you had in the early 90s, that are much more beefed up and, things like that and you can. And. Like, this bridge you can see. You'll. Notice these lace channels. And. These small, details and, rivets, and pin connections, I mean the engineers. Were jumping, hoops with the, materials. And the things, that the steel manufacturers. Could produce at that particular time. As. The. Steel mills were able to put, out bigger pieces you. Could make, a similar bridge, with fewer, pieces and. Faster. And so. These are ways that people. That study bridges, will look at them you can if. You see a pin connected, metal. Truss bridge, that's. Probably, going to be built before, 1940. In, the, tradition, of the great 19th, century, photographers, in this photograph I, made in Butte Montana and the early eighties of the. Oh, I. Was sent out there in January. Sort. Of marks one of the coldest, assignments. I ever had, but. Arco. Which owned most of the mine. Sites, was tearing, down these head frames and they wanted me to get out there to document. These head frames the temperature. Was, about eight degrees below which, is probably, not that cold, for Butte but it. Was it was about the, most, cold, that, a, camera. Shutter would, perform. Without. Sort, of removing, all the lubricants, what, you have to do you have to take the lubricant, the camera shutter if you're gonna work colder, than that but. It was, but. So it's my homage. To Ansel. Storm clearing, over Butte Montana. And. Here's. This is a bridge in New Portland, Maine it. Sort of illustrates. Hybridization. Between covered. Bridge. Technology. Where you're covering, the. Tower, structures. To protect them from the. Weather and the winters there, the. Reason covered, bridges are covered is because they they make, the, trusses, last, about, a. Hundred. Percent longer. And. Just. Looking. From the other side looking, looking. West and. There's, a detail, of the Anchorage. I mean. That's, the, most important, part of the the. Suspension, bridges that's what's holding it up where it's going into the ground it's, probably some big kind, of literal. Anchor, that's buried in the ground that's holding. It and just, for comparison. This. Is what the Anchorage, to the George Washington Bridge, crossing. The Hudson River in New York City looks like with. Because. In, here. You can really see how the suspension, bridge is made because it's done. Over a year, or so time where each. Little. Each. Cable, is made from a single span. Of wire going, back and forth hundreds, and hundreds of times until, they assemble, this array, of of, cables. And ropes and put it into one big cable. Climbing. Up through the superstructure, of the, George, Washington Bridge probably. My favorite bridge that I've ever gotten the document, this, was before 9/11. I don't know whether. They. Would have permitted me to photograph. It since. Then but we, were trying, at that time, to document major. Civil. And mechanical engineering. And marks for. Our collection, and they. Were very very amenable. A. Lot, of these folks, that worked, for the Port Authority, were in the, world. They were headquartered in the World Trade building, at. That time so, I imagine we lost a number of folks, wouldn't.

That Happened, and. Here's. An aerial, of the George. Washington, Bridge, the. Apparently. Amon was, very, influenced. By erector, sets a friend of mine has told me and, it has this kind of erector, set look to it but, the other thing, that's going on here is, that as a, bit. Overbuilt, because it was designed, to, be clad. With. Stone. And. To. Give it that kind of new yorky, kind, of solid, look but. The critics, just liked it so much showing. The the structure. Itself that they they, stuck with that. And. Here's. A good, profile. Looking, downstream. I'd. Finished, shooting the bridge that week I was on the way home and. Crossed. The bridge and the Hudson, was just this. Mirror. Calm, and, the light was just this gorgeous light so we. Got. Down to this little state park where we could get this view with, a. Deceptively. Placid, look. Of. New York City I love that contrast, of it because that. And. Here's. The. Ancestor. To the. George. Washington Bridge the. Brooklyn. Bridge which we're. All familiar with. The, trademark, of the. Bridge is. Those, diagonal. Stays that, it, was there was a big concern about, how. Counteracting. Sway, and. Avoiding. The cyclical. Sinusoidal. Movement. Of the bridge decks as the. 20th, century proceeded, the engineers, got a little more daring. With. Thinning. The row deck, and. Over. Relying, on the weight of the bridge deck to keep that from happening until. Galloping. Gertie disaster. Took place and then they sort. Of learned huh we went a little too far in that direction but. You, know. Mistakes. Do. Have to happen. And. This, this was taken around 83. During, the. Centennial. Of the Brooklyn Bridge opening, which. Was almost a hundred years after its opening. You. Can still see the World Trade, Center framed through, it there and. To. Build the suspension, bridge you got to make wire and cable so I'm putting, in this this, is where the the Roebling Factory, in Trenton New Jersey with. A little miniature, it's. A series, of buildings, trying to express what. They're doing, there they're making wire rope, and this, is. Actually. In the. Same area, this is a rope making, machine, quite an elaborate.

Machine. With. This. Clockwork, mechanism, that, was, adjusted, so that you could do different, wines. And, lays of, wire. Around, the, single, cable. For. Depending. On how much flexibility. You wanted to design into. The rope. This. Cable. Became very important, in the, development and the building. Of the Panama, Canal in, terms of its construction. Certainly. One. Of the more magnificent. Structures I got to, photograph. During my career, and it's. It's a very interesting. Structure. Because. You. Know the canals and the railroads, were sort of amazing, in a way the railroads, he clipped canals, as a way of moving stuff, around but. The, thing that makes. The, Panama. Canal work, as a mechanism is actually a lot, of railroad, technology. To. Open, these gates. Such. As this this enormous, gate. Here, which, is what about 10, stories, tall. They, they had to think of different systems, to. Control. It with that, were not directly connected, to the control tower there, which, I'm going to show you here. What. Yeah. Yes. There. Was there was a few. You'll. See back. You. Know there were some walkways, I don't, know that it's shown but there. Were some walkways, and then on there were some, gates. That you could cross over to. But. Anyway this was a control, room the the Smithsonian, was just fascinated. With this these, control, tables, which kind of pretty. Remarkable. Things because, they kind. Of as. I'll show you in a second. They. Kind of create. A. Simon. A. Few. A virtual, view of what's going on in the canal by these indicators. Here and you can see here they're indicating, that these. Gates, are closed the, sign here. I think might say that it's locked and that people. Are walking across it this is a way to warn. The operator, that. No you better not open. That one there and you can see here, that well, that that. Canal. Gate is open so while these. Photographs, were being made during this annual. Overhaul. That they do they, just kind of they do. It like they, repair, roads around you and they close down one lane and so. All the the. Ships have to wait their turn, to go east or west while, they repair, one, set of chambers and then they go, on to the other side and repair the other side of chambers up it was really kind of a unique opportunity. To get there to, photograph. During, this particular process. And they took me all around on the inside. Underneath. This control, tables, for. This thing to work one. Of the biggest the, biggest fear, in the cup of a canal designer, or an engineer, if you don't open. The gates in the right order. You, have the, danger. Of, draining. The lake in the middle of the peninsula. If. You drain if the lake. Were to start flowing, now you, couldn't there's no way you could close those gates if you don't do it in the right order and, it would take a year or so to build up enough water in the lake to make the canal run so, they. Developed. This interlocking. Table. That sort of uses a lot of early. Logic. If and and, so. That the canal, the. Operator, can only go in a certain sequence it's called interlocks, and this, it's kind of based on switching. Technology. That the railroad, the. Railroad devised. In the 19th century and. So. This. Is these. Are the little electric, motors, underneath the. Canal. Gates. That. Mimic. What's. Happening, with the real gates and there are little. Electric, motors connected to the actual, canal gates that. Send. The signal back to, this so it's kind of it's. Like a prototypical, fly-by-wire. System. If you know what that is as far as airplane, controls goes, rather than directly. Controlling. The elevators, of an airplane, you have an, electrical. System or you have electric, steering in your Prius for example, rather than a mechanical direct. Connection, and so. Then, you have all these interconnections. That prevent.

You From, opening. Or, closing it, in the wrong sequence. What. This enabled, this this eye, throw this image in this. Is. This. Train. Exists. Here in Nome Alaska I, was hauling. Gold. Sands. Out of the, sands out of Nome but. Because. The Panama, Canal was, not completed, it had, to be brought all the way around from New York City around. South America and up to Nome Alaska during, the 1890s, Gold. Rush and I. Just, find that a kind of pretty remarkable, story it, was part of the elevated, line in, New York City and, when they retired, that they shipped it all the way around and dome for the the. Gold Rush. While. We're up in Alaska, as. Part of exploitation. Of materials, and in the dust realization, that was taking place in the. 19th. Century this, bridge was built called the million dollar bridge the only bridge in the world that. I know of, that's actually built between. Two, glaciers, and. When it was built in 1912. They did not know whether the glaciers were gonna expand, and tear it away or not but. It had to be built in the depth of the winter, while. The river was completely, frozen up, so. That if it were completed, abutment, to abutment. Before. A breakup, it. Would it would probably hold, but. They had to get it if, it if it were not completed, it, would it. Would just get washed, downstream with. The breakup, of the ice what. You see also here. Is the, result, of the earthquake, of. 1963. The Alaskan, earthquake which. I think is still. The. Largest recorded, earthquake that's. Occurred. That's. Since been repaired, but I, think. That's the Myles glacier. To the south and then. If you're on top of the truss and look to, the north this, is the other glacier. Cordova. Alaska is, sort of over there beyond the trees and. People will drive up, a road that goes across this, just across the stream from, glaciers. And honk at it to make. It calf and. It sounds, like a little thunderstorm off, in the distances, the, glaciers. Are falling, off the end is deep, rumble. Back. Back. To another great bridge Bellows. Falls Vermont. This is a bridge that we lost in the late 70s. I. Was. Just finishing up this project, and a young man walked, up to me and said how, would you like me to walk up to the top of that bridge there you, know get, a picture of me and I said well sure. But. Engineering. Objects, kind of inspire, those kind of things and I think really great engineering, like such as the Golden Gate Bridge can. Have. The capability. Of actually enhancing. Putting. Focus, on a natural. Environment, and. You. Know the details, on the bridge plates often, gives you information about, the politics, of what's going on who. Who. Got the funding going. So. My interest in bridges, has been since, since, retirement, in 2013. I've continued. To take pictures, and. I'm. Always sort of on the lookout for you, know the the great landmarks. And, this, was one of the great landmarks of, the 19th century there's. The gara B viaduct, and southern. France. Really. Quite. Quite, wonderful, elegant structure, yields, you'll see it in most any art, history, 101, course. And. Then, all also, worth a trip crossed the pond is a very, recently, built, bridge. Sort, of this. Is almost a British it's in southern France not far from the gara be it's, called the mellow viaduct. And. Is. By. Richard, Norman, Foster the, British. Architect, but. The, the firm that built this. Is basically, a descendant, of the Eiffel firm and. These, are the towers this bridge is tall enough that you could fit the Eiffel Tower underneath. It so. It's quite a quite. An impressive structure. One, of the things that we've. Learned, in our technology, in, the 19th and 20th century, is handling, heat. Maybe, you all have gone north, to, Northern California and crossed the Carquinez Strait bridge, and looked at those, abandoned. Ships that are gathered, up off to the right called, the ghost fleet by some folks I got. To get out there is one of the more stranger, environments, I've gotten to get, into and, photo. We were photographing oil, tankers. And, this. Is the engine, room of an oil tanker, showing, the steam. Turbines. And the reduction, gears this. Is kind of a hot rod oil tanker, because it had to be. Able to keep up with the fleet. Because. At the time you, know. Not. They did they didn't have enough technology. To make the reduction, gears. But. For. The the oil tankers that needed to keep up with the fleet they had those. This. Is the boiler room of the same. You. Know pretty. It's. A hot place to work. This, technology. Is sort of often you know we after.

Photographing, This stuff for the time it makes it seem like you. Know it's not that big of a leap to the shuttle, Discoverer, this. Is the bridge to the shuttle. Discoverer, I. Got, down. The Cape Canaveral, just before when they are sort of fitting, it up, for. Going. To the food VAR hazy Museum, in Washington, DC this. Is this, is a stiched. Image. From two negatives. Showing. The full control, panel, the, windshield. Is completely blacked, out to protect it from. The. Work that they were doing to get it get it ready to go to the museum. If. You were to turn around from the same spot you would look here, and see. The, control panel, to, the, Canadian. Arm and. Dealing. With things in the cargo. Bay and, also, being able to ingress, and egress out, of. The shuttle when you're out of space. And, this is a view into the you could fit a a good-sized, yellow. School bus in this cargo. Bay so the thing is the. Shuttle. Discovery is a pretty large. Machine. NASA. Thought of it is the most complicated machine. On the planet which. Could. Could very well be with the systems that it takes to make that thing reusable. And, controllable. As it was. To. Be. Able to operate. The machine out in, space, while, in orbit, you. Need to rehearse what you're gonna be doing and they would time to the minute what the. Extra. Vehicular. Operators. Would be doing, and they, would do it in this what's. Called a neutral buoyancy chamber. In Huntsville, Alabama and, that's, what you're seeing here this, is an underwater. Shot, through, one of those portholes, of the. Canadian, arm and, here's. Leslie. Wickham, Whitman. An. Astronaut. An extra vehicular specialist. Astronaut, that specialized, in. Operating. Outside of the the. The. Shuttle. At, this particular time, I don't think when, I did this shot I don't, think they had gotten up and done their repairs, on, the, the Webb. Telescope. Yeah, but, I think they were getting ready for that at that particular time. And, so, she's just kind of completing, her, rehearsal. They're, all there they when, they go. In there they have, to be weighted, down they have other scuba, divers to help them out but just but. They do time, it down to the minute what exactly, they'll be doing and. Here's the gloves. To. Make an, astronaut. Suit it's about, a million dollars for each suit.

That An astronaut, ways it's the cost of those things I mean, you can imagine what the suit has to do you know you, operate. In a vacuum keep, you warm. On the cool. Side and. Cool. You down on the hot side and all that kind of stuff. And. Then. Have these gloves so that you could actually you. Know manipulate, tools and, things like that. This, is one. Of the more. Bizarre kind, of almost, kludgy. Things that NASA, did I mean this. Is scientists. And engineers are, very pragmatic. Creatures as I'm sure you all very, well know but. The. Headless transport. System, of the shuttle, that. 747. That they use it apparently, it's just completely, empty, on the inside I mean I think they're like just a few sort of. Special. Seats, behind, the where. The the. Bridge is to, run, the thing and I'm sure that the. Shuttle just has everything out of it that they can get out of it this. Is the underside, of the shuttle, which is kind of neat that you can really sense what. An aged ship. It was at the time going, into the museum and that it, had gone more than a million miles around. The. Planet, and you, can even see the space dirt, on. The. Shuttle. Tiles, and. Just. Just as an example of how difficult it was to prepare, the shuttle for. Re-injury. And reuse, each one of those tiles. They. Have to kind of. Reinterpret. Echt them against, absorbing. Too much moisture, while. They're on. Land. And, each. Tile, takes. A different quantity, and. They're all completely, numbered. It's. Just. It's. Like a it's like this very homemade, kind of machine and I got that's why it's so expensive. Just. To start. On a whole different told. Rummage from going into outer space since, I've been. Retired. I've I've, always, been interested in. Architecture. Of, all sorts, and. One. Of the favorite my favorite places that we visited in. France, was. An. Area called the prion fat a which. Is kind, of a pilgrimage, spot, and it's, this, French. Town. In, the Massif, Central of. France, that's. Basically. Occupies, a. Caldera. A volcanic, caldera, so these these little churches. And stuff on tops of remnants. Of volcanoes. And things and it's so, it's a major Christian. Pilgrimage. Space, and. Here. This stairway, is where a penitence. Might. Crawl. Up to the church on their knees, in. Medieval, times maybe, I don't, think in the 20th century anymore. Maybe. To go visit, the. Black Madonna and. The. Original. There's. There's a whole bunch of interesting stuff, about these black, Madonna's. But apparently. This, the. One, of the originals, was captured, during the Crusades, from, Constantinople. Or something like that at that time. During. The French Revolution. The lot, of these icons, were destroyed, and so this is probably. One that was a. Reproduction, that was made in the 19th century but I I. Just. Found it an extraordinarily, droll. Sort. Of a wonderful. Thing. Icon. For what it is and, so, in. My talk here, with this portal. View this is still you're up at the top of the hill. At. The outside, of this. Church and this, would be one of the places, where you might begin a new journey who's, one of the beginning. Spots, if, you were gonna do the pilgrimage. To Santiago de. Compostela, and. No. Telling what what happens and no. Telling. Where. We'll go from there and that's, where I'll end my talk, if. There's any questions, I'll be happy to entertainment. Thank. You Jett if you have any questions, there's, mic in the middle of the room there I have I'll start off with a Dory, question. Ryan. In sunnyvale. Asks. What. Do you think has. Been lost from the conversion of film to digital photography. And what advice would you give to. Digital, photographers. These days. Well. On, that particular issue I think of digital and, film is like two different beasts, and. I'm. Sort of fairly ecumenical. On that although, I, would I would still think that whether, you're digital, or not I'd highly recommend, shooting. Film, and trying to deal with it because like. A lot of that kind of language, that you see in Photoshop. Derives. From. Film. Usage. Of film the things like the dodge and burn tool, and, even. The unsharp. Tool. In Photoshop. Is a result. Of. Graphic. Designers. Using, two images, to create a, greater. Amount of, around, an image to create the sharpness, and that's probably, what the computer, program, is doing too. But. So I I, just. Really, think of them as completely, different kinds, of things, the.

Thing That I, like. About film, is is that you can capture a thing things. In one moment. Like. You. Know there's a thing, and to, do some. Of the things in digital, that you do, in film, you have, to take multiple, images, for example to, get the contrast, range, whereas. With film, you. Can over expose, and under develop, and. Compress. That. Range. Together, to, get, a different. Effect than you can, with. Digital. But. They. Really, are I. It's. It's I am, told that actually, film, I. Wouldn't. Say it's so much it's making a comeback but. They, the. Companies, are selling, more film. With. Increasing. Time film. Is more of a tactile. Medium. And. Maybe it has also to do with the you know there's there, was debate back in the 30s whether is light particles, or is it waves, and. I think of film as particles, and I think of. Digital. As waves. Thanks. For the talk and pictures, so if someone. Is gonna use digital which, is sorry. Are. There any digital cameras that you would. Recommend or that you yourself, use, gosh. I mean you know the point-and-shoot, cameras, even though the iPhone, I mean just in the, Android. Phone say they do magnificent. Images and there's. Whole. Groups of fine art photographers. That are sort of using. Those as their medium, because of the particular kind of image quality that, they work they. Use and, so I I think. That's. You. Know whatever works. In a way is, what. I would. What. Are some things you think about when composing. A photo. Some. Things you think about when you're composing at photo I I. When. I give workshops I, tell people to think, a lot about what's going on around the edges, because. Whenever you're taking a picture you're. You're, you're cutting things out, and. So you're always making a decision do I want this or do I not want that, so, if you think a lot, about the edges, that makes a big difference now. If you're photographing, architecture. I really, like to encourage people to try and sort. Of get as high as possible or. So. That the camera, back is as parallel, to. Parallel. Vertical lines, as possible. That. You. Know the architectural. Photography, is sort of like a, sub-discipline. Of photography, and so, in a way it's got stricter.

Rules And, it's in, some way in many ways it's harder to kind of make. A, list. Ik, differentiation. Between one's, work and another's work because, it's. Like maybe, like fugue writing or something like that. Let. Me piggyback on that one just a little bit and, maybe. This is sacrilege, talking, to you but, for. Copper scale, in, context, I find, some architectural. Photography. Includes, like, human subject. Like you had the one on the the. Those. Falls bridge there. Any. Advice on including. Human subjects in, personally. I like to have people. In my photographs, another. Way I depart. From a lot of architectural, photographers, so, I like having automobiles, in my photographs, because, over. Time those. Automobiles, will really date the image you. Know just, you know you when, you see in a photograph taken in the 60s for example you know just. By looking at the automobiles, you know whenever, when it was taken but, sometimes. They. Are sometimes. People, and, automobiles. Can detract from, maybe. The design or, whatever you're trying to capture so there's no really. Fixed rules on, that or not but generally. I like to have people in my photographs for. The scale and the human, use of the of. The. Structure. Thanks. Any. Questions, I have, one, I. You. Showed us a difficult, place to photograph at least from. Your comfort, and beauty do. You have a favorite. Place that you photographed, our favorite. Well. It, didn't show it in this sequence. But I think, one. Of the more wondrous, places I got to get to was, the. Leper. Colony, on. Molokai Island. And. Cala. Papa and. Because. I worked for the historic, American engineering record, what we were documenting was, the water supply, system. To. The. Leper. Colony, and so, it involved, hiking, up these steep. Gingerroot. Streams. To get to these. Sedimentation. Ponds. And stuff like that to kind of clear clarify. The water but. What's. It's. That. It's a small Peninsula that, sticks out on the sort of the north side of the aisle and I guess created, by a lava flow, so. It's really isolated. From the rest of the island by this 2,000, foot sea, cliff and it's that's. A pretty dramatic pretty. Dramatic, place. As. Some people say when you're out in Hawaii you really didn't feel like you're on a planet. So. I guess. Hawaii is one of my favorite places on the earth. Well. Thank you very much. The, right traffic. You.

2018-07-25 16:53

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