May 21, 2011 – Other People’s Photos

There is something captivating about random, found photos from people I don’t know. The snapshots you find on the street, at garage sales and in found albums. You can deduce what you can from the photo and what was found with the photos. It is always a bit of an exercise in fiction. The macramé planter, bad hair and plaid pants and we know it was the heart of the 1970’s. The envelope from the shop where the film was developed is labeled “Victoria.” I know the Scottish parade was up in Canada in the 1960’s. The man with the sunglasses was an actor (there were headshots of him found in the box). Anything else I say is probably just made up.

April 26, 2011 – Olmsted

The Father of American Landscape Architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., was born on this day in 1822. Even for Americans and Canadians unfamiliar with him, many of us know his work. Olmsted designed well over one hundred parks, college campuses, capitol grounds, zoos, cemeteries and some early green, streetcar suburbs. He is probably best known for co-designing Central Park, but his other commissions included the grounds of the U.S. Capitol as well as state capitol grounds in Denver and Salt Lake City. Large public parks in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Boston and Montreal. Many subsequent urban parks were heavily influenced by his work including Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Olmsted also was responsible for the campuses of both U.C. Berkeley and Stanford.

Olmsted was far more than a brilliant landscape designer. To this day, his legacy is some of the most important and beautiful natural oasis in cities in the U.S. and Canada. His work in the 19^th Century continues to make urban life in the 21^st Century far more livable. Olmsted was the urban answer to his 19^th Century contemporary John Muir.