Oct

New Perspectives on Beauty from Eric Holubow

by Janine Boylan on October 15, 2012

Abandoned space at Washburne Trade School in Chicago, Illinois, showing new perspectives on beauty

Abandoned space at Washburne Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
© Eric Holubow

Can There Be Beauty in Decay?

Eric Holubow, urban exploration photographer, gave me new perspectives on beauty. He creates haunting views into life’s changes through snapshots of glorious buildings as they fall into disrepair.

Abandoned Church

Gary, Indiana’s City Methodist Church once held nearly 3,000 members. Now its rainbow-colored windows have made way for exploring vines. Its floors beckon weeds, and its roof welcomes trees. Yet Holubow shows that it is still a place for inspiration.

Ruins of Holy Trinity Church in Gary, Indiana, showing new perspectives on beauty

Ruins of the Holy Trinity Church in Gary, Indiana
© Eric Holubow

Auto Manufacturing Plant

Detroit’s Packard plant was a modern and innovative automobile facility when it opened in 1903. Now the dense concrete walls are crumbling. The air is heavy with musty, decades-old rot. Holubow depicts a space waiting for its next chapter. But he includes a carefully-placed automobile seat that offers a view of inspiration and discovery in the future.

Remains of the Packard Auto Plant in Detroit, Michigan, showing new perspectives on beauty

Remains of the Packard Auto Plant in Detroit, Michigan
© Eric Holubow

Candy Factory

These images of Brach’s candy factory reveal layers of change. The snow has provided a pristine new carpet for the hallway. The walls boast spray paint as colorful as the candy once made there.

Hallway in Brach’s candy factory in Chicago, Illinois
© Eric Holubow

Like a resident ghost, paintings of the company’s signature candy refuse to be peeled away.

Wall in abandoned Brach's candy factory in Chicago, Illinois, showing new perspectives on beauty

Wall in Brach’s candy factory in Chicago, Illinois
© Eric Holubow

From Theater to Parking Lot

Some of Holubow’s images show buildings he caught just before they were leveled to make way for a new generation. Others, like this theater-turned-parking lot, show buildings that are already transformed with a new purpose and identity.

Michigan Theater in Detroit, Michigan, converted into parking lot and showing new perspectives on beauty

Parking lot on site of Michigan Theater in Detroit, Michigan
© Eric Holubow

Windows Into a Beautiful History

Holubow offers, “In these forgotten and overlooked places, I see not just loss, tragedy, or decay, but the chaos in which a new architect’s vision may be born.”

For me, each image is a window to the place’s beautiful history. I imagine the—

craftsmen who carefully laid each piece of stained glass

artists who spent hours carving and painting the intricate designs on the ceiling

worshippers who quietly shuffled through the aisles

workers who inspected thousands of sparkling wrapped candies

ushers who helped patrons to their velvety seats

person who slid the dirty bench to look out the gaping hole in the wall

teens who tagged the shiny white tile walls

Oh, I see such haunting beauty in this decay and gain new perspectives. What do you see? Leave a comment.

See more of Holubow’s images on Flickr and Facebook.

Inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 1 Comment

The World's Photography/USA

Oct

Imaginative Pictures Play with Your Senses

by Sheron Long on October 4, 2012

Portraits by photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo showing imaginative pictures that play with your senses

How Fast Did You Say “Oh, I See”?

It took me a minute to see how Giuseppe Mastromatteo’s imagination had played with my senses and caused a double-take in my perceptions. These imaginative pictures are surreal photographs, part of his series “Indepensense.” In the photographer’s words, the series is “about senses and the way we can use them.”

I hope Mastromatteo was talking about the viewer’s senses as well. As I studied these photographs, I was first appreciative of the visual surprise, the feeling I always have when I experience someone else’s creative ideas. “How clever,” I thought, “that our senses could be represented in these illusory ways.”

A Deeper Insight

And then I realized how the photographs seemed to speak a deeper truth to me about people who hide an eye and still see, or those who cover their ears and still hear.

The fact that these faces are without expression leaves the door open wider to the viewer’s interpretation. Is there an open mouth behind the closed lips on the hand? Is the woman speaking words that others do not hear? I listened hard and was pretty sure I heard her voice. What she said was filtered through my own experience and imagination.

I’d like to think the photographer intended that we each use our own senses in creative ways when he combined the words “independence” and “sense” to create the title of this series, which has traveled widely to New York, Miami, Milan, and Paris.

Connecting with the Work of Giuseppe Mastromatteo

These contemporary portraits, shot against clean white backgrounds and completed through digital technology, are now part of the first retrospective of Mastromatteo’s work, entitled “A Liquid Vision” at the Forma Museum of Photography in Milan. This solo exhibition runs from October 2 through November 14, 2012.

Mastromatteo was born in Milan in 1970, studied law, and worked as a creative director in the advertising world.

His view of creativity inspires me as much as his photography. In a recent interview (Eyes in Photography), he said, “Creativity is a constant research of the things that inspire you—new languages, new things in art. Creativity is staying connected with your world.”

Interestingly, it is our senses that best connect us to the world. Once you say “Oh, I see” on your first or second take of Mastromatteo’s imaginative pictures, keep going and see how much more your senses have to say about his work or how connecting with Mastromatteo’s world inspired your creativity.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Sheron Long Comments

The World's Photography

Oct

The Awe Inspiring “Aha Moment” Defined

by Sheron Long on October 1, 2012

Awe inspiring cartoon about having an aha moment

Mathematically, Aha Moments Happen Daily

If I follow the numbers above, it sounds like everyone can learn something new everyday. That’s awe inspiring!

Hey, I’m over 30 and, like the girl in the cartoon, didn’t know about the “diet Coke and mentos thing.” I tried a quick experiment, and it all erupted into an aha moment for me.

Then I found out that not everyone knows what an “aha moment” is. Really? At least, it wasn’t in the dictionary until last August.

Is “Oh, I See Moment” a Synonym?

The concept of the “aha moment” has been around, well, probably forever and in English language usage since 1939. At least, that’s the date assigned to the phrase in August 2012 when Merriam-Webster added it to its dictionary and defined it as “a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension.”

Now that Merriam-Webster has had its aha moment about “aha moment” and listed the phrase in its pages, we want to see OIC moment (short for “Oh, I see” moment) added as a synonym.

The term came into existence in 2012 with the start of our company. Like “aha moment,” OIC moment is a realization, but on a broader spectrum, from the practical to the epiphany.

The Full Range of OIC Moments

In my view, an OIC moment can be as everyday as the one in the cartoon above. Or, it can be a significant, eye-opening, awe inspiring experience like the one recounted by will.i.am, front man for The Black Eyed Peas, in a statement in Oprah Winfrey’s magazine O.

Here will.i.am tells how traveling across cultures to countries outside the USA helped him see America with new eyes and decide how to show the world what Americans are like.

How OIC Moments Inspire

Now will.i.am’s new song “Reach for the Stars” has traveled even farther than the famed musician. Transmitted from Mars through the speakers on Curiosity’s rover, the song not only has enjoyed an inter-galactic debut, but surely has become the number 1 song on Mars. Take a listen and see the lyrics:

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The song was purposely recorded with an orchestra to show human collaboration and to present a timeless sound that translates into different cultures.

I love how the lyrics make you question if even the sky is a limit. And I can imagine this song inspiring a long reach for the stars. That’s what will.i.am intended when he said,

“Today is about inspiring young people to lead a life without limits placed on their potential and to pursue collaboration between humanity and technology. . . .”

It is will.i.am’s kind of inspiration that leads to OIC moments or aha moments, whatever you want to call them.

And now that Merriam-Webster has weighed in with official recognition, we can give them their due. After all, here’s the defining characteristic of an OIC moment—when it hits you, your life is never quite the same again. Now something that powerful is awe inspiring.