Category Archives: Photography

Barbara Peacock, an accomplished photographer residing in New England, embarked on a remarkable seven-year expedition across the United States, delving into the intimate lives of Americans within the sanctity of their bedrooms. Aptly named “American Bedroom,” this project meticulously captures the diverse living conditions and lifestyles of her subjects, showcasing the rich tapestry of American society.

The culmination of her extensive journey is now presented in a captivating book, soon to be published by Kehrer Verlag. Don’t miss the opportunity to secure your own copy by pre-ordering here!

Within this article, we have curated the latest photographs from Peacock’s immersive exploration, primarily focusing on captivating moments captured in Hawaii, Alaska, and Chicago—some of the most recent states she visited on her odyssey. As you scroll down, immerse yourself as an invisible guest within the most private spaces of America, experiencing the depth and authenticity of these extraordinary photographic narratives.

You can find Barbara Peacock on the Web:

#1 Jon, Age 66

“Caring for my mother in the final months of her life was the most fulfilling, satisfying, terrifying, and profound thing I have ever had the honor to experience. I sensed the trust she had for me to care for her without judgment or reservation and the love we shared was deeper than any we had ever expressed before. I wouldn’t have traded those shared moments for anything, It was her final gift to me.”

Overland Park, Kansas

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#2 Holocaust Survivor – Sonia, Age 94

“I will never forget, I will never forgive but I will never hate.”

Kansas City, Missouri

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#3 Barbara, Age 70

“This is not the path I thought I’d be on, but this is my path now. It is born of love.”

Indianapolis, Indiana

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#4 Taylor And Shannon, Ages 25 And 26

“All we ever wanted was a love that didn’t remind us of pain. We were never hard to love, we just asked the wrong people to try.”

Salt Lake City, Utah

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#5 Damon, Age 43

“I live surrounded by nature and beauty. Out here, I have everything I need, especially my peace of mind.”

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#6 John, Age 63

“Life has been good to me.”

Chicago, Illinois

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#7 Sara, Age 33

“Drugs, prison, loss. So, so much loss. Although I tried to leave this world I was saved and now with my newfound faith in God, I’ve found strength I never knew I had. With that strength came a new bond with my children that is concrete and un-breakable. I finally know that I am no longer a burden, but a blessing.”

Kimball, South Dakota

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#8 Jeff And Sharman, Ages 68 And 70

“The struggle of living close to the bone, tragedy, and loss, death, birth, and rebirth. Celebrations of lives well lived and the mourning of those cut short, successes, failures, questions and answers…nothing easy. We’ve walked this path going on four decades now. Tomorrow the sun comes up, and the journey continues.”

Eolia, Kentucky

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#9 Mek (Siberian-Yupik Tribe), Age 29

“While my physical parts feel safe among my living space, rested against a pillow, my heart yearns for my home, my community, our land.”

(Nunammi- on the land). Anchorage, Alaska

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#10 Bandit, Age 25 They/Them (And Bacon The Kitty)

“I’m living through the largest burden of poverty and health issues that I’ve ever experienced, but I feel more alive than I ever have. Be true to who you are, scream it from the rooftops, and thrive!”

Lexington, Kentucky

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#11 Nicole And Sven, Ages 42 And 38

“We are tattered and distressed, emotionally wiped, just lost a baby and repairing our relationship. We were made for each other from across the oceans, we found each other”

Atlanta, Georgia

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#12 Melissa And James, Ages 36 And 43

“We came from big cities from opposite coasts. We were looking for a quiet place. We were looking for freedom and sunsets and a sky that lets you breathe deep. Montana became our place.”

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#13 Esther And Jenne , Age 67 And 34

Esther: “In my quiet space, I find rest and confidence in God!”

Jenne: “On Sundays, we like to rest from the week’s hard work, do a little baking for family and friends, and read the bible. Life is a blessing.”

Leola, Pennsylvania

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#14 Molly And Zoe, Ages 30 And 31

“Sometimes when we think about our childhood selves and not have imagined this – living a life with your best friend.”

Chicago, Illinois

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#15 Chelsea And Soul, Ages 37 And 8

“My heart knows this is the best part of my life and it keeps the constant whisper of…’Do not miss this.’”

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#16 Fin, Age 33

“God gave us the earth as our home, so as long as you are here on Earth you’ll never be homeless.”

Chicago, Illinois

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#17 William, Age 21

“Sometimes I look around me and even on my walls and I just wonder if I’ll ever be one of those people to someone else? I’m trying to finally move forward with my life, study in my field but my own penchant for self-doubt and self-criticism often gets in the way. I need to learn to strong-arm myself into respecting myself or everything will be needlessly more difficult.”

Chicago, Illinois

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#18 Lee Ann And Lynn, Ages 75 And 79

“Life starts in a prone position, just as each day starts and finishes and as life ends.”

Land O Lakes, Florida

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#19 Jeremiah, Age 45

“By choice, I have slept in the grass for 6 years. My body is cleansed and pure. When I leave, I leave no trace.”

Kauai, Hawaii

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#20 Alexander And Grace, Ages 26 And 28

“We hold this together with our bare bodies, hands and hearts. Lavishly and somewhat simply. We found this love between us one day and we are grateful for it everyday.”

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#21 Paulina, Age 40

“I live out here because I like to sparkle.”

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#22 Dennis, Age 63

“I am in the right place. God gave me this gift. When I come home I am free.”

Nikolaevsk, Alaska

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#23 Hope (She/Her/He/Him) And Kurt (He/Him), Ages 16 And 17

“I love you with every atom! You are the tranquility of a calm stream and the excitement of a waterfall. You bring me all my favorite feelings. Forever isn’t long enough with you.”

Anchorage, Alaska

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#24 Kelly, Age 44 (With Frankie)

“Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn. It’s those ‘losing’ moments that carry weight and bring forth opportunities for movement that could have gone unnoticed had I stood still winning.”

Columbus, Ohio

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#25 Amy And Eric, Ages 38 And 42

“She asked for my faith. All l had to offer was a song. For her that was a kingdom.”

Nashville, Tennesee

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#26 Veronica And Griff, Ages 29 And 32

“This is where we share our secrets. Where we share each other. Where we show up and lay our heads with no fear. Rest comes east here despite the world being so unpredictable. This is our home.”

Madison, Wisconsin

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#27 Anna And Ruby, Ages 21 And 22

Anna: “As I move through each era of myself, I fall increasingly in love with the new version. Loving myself aggressively and completely is the most radical thing I’ve ever done.”

Ruby: “I am fulfilled by the concept that love is a spectrum, whether romantic, platonic or somewhere in between. After a lonely childhood, I have finally found my place in this new chapter of life that gives me comfort and joy that I have never experienced before.”

Portland, Oregon

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#28 Holly, Age 27

“Life is as simple or complex as I choose to make it. There is peace and comfort in knowing that it’s all temporary because it reminds me that my wildest dreams and deepest desires are obtainable and achievable only by me. The only way to get there is to keep moving forward.”

Chicago, IL

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#29 Lee, Age 49

“It’s hard in Pine Bluff. It’s like a black hole, it sucks you in and keeps you.”

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

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#30 Laura And Spencer, Ages 23 And 23

Spencer (he/him): “My heart lies within me but my home lies within so many other’s hearts. My journey to find my home will never end until I find my way back to myself.”

Laura(she/her): “I’ve had this car as a comfortable and consistent place longer than I’ve lived in any room as an adult so far.”

Portland, Oregon

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Related Articles:

The rise of digital photography seemed to signal the end of analog for a Longview resident, but he’s aiming to change that by bringing film back to the community in a familiar way.

Jamie Maldonado is a local photographer with a master’s degree in studio art from Texas A&M Commerce. He previously served as an assistant at Kilgore College, where he said he fostered his love of photography. Now, Maldonado wants to give back to the community by opening a nonprofit community darkroom he’s calling the Piney Woods Darkroom.

Over the last several years, he’s been thinking of ideas related to film photography and the one he kept returning to was of a film lab, he said. After speaking with a fellow photographer friend who runs a community darkroom in California, Maldonado was struck by the similarity to what he used to do at Kilgore College.

To read more from our news partners visit, the Marshall News Messenger. 

As photographic technology evolves, so should the tools that harness it. This is the crux of my argument for why Leica, the legendary camera manufacturer with its roots firmly planted in the soil of tradition, should consider introducing an electronic viewfinder (EVF) into its iconic M-series cameras and moving away from rangefinder focusing.

The rangefinder system has its merits – it’s known for its precision, tactile engagement and its capacity to operate effectively in a variety of lighting conditions. But it only uses a central area of the imaging frame, it takes a while to get used to and it can be hard to see the two images that must be brought into register.

And then there’s the framing. The viewfinders in Leica M-series cameras don’t show the view through the lens, instead they show the direct view through a window in the camera body. This means that framing created by the lens has to be indicated using bright lines and the imaging area decreases dramatically in size as the focal length increases.

To be fair, Leica offers an optional electronic viewfinder that can slot into the hotshoe of modern M-series cameras. But as you might imagine, it’s not a cheap addition and it’s time for a shift to a more versatile and innovative solution.

The introduction of an integrated EVF would bring a series of benefits to the Leica M-series. For starters, EVFs show the image from the sensor and that means the view is through-the-lens with real-time exposure previews. This not only facilitates accurate exposure settings but also allows for immediate adjustment in dynamic lighting situations. With an EVF, what you see is literally what you get, a massive boon for photographers striving for accuracy and efficiency.

Secondly, the inclusion of an EVF paves the way for easier manual focusing. While the manual focusing of a rangefinder can be an engaging and gratifying experience, it does come with limitations, particularly when shooting in challenging conditions or with fast-moving subjects. A modern manual focus system, coupled with an EVF, would provide the M-series with a level of speed and accuracy that could broaden its appeal and practicality.

Thirdly, focus peaking and magnified views – essential features for many of today’s photographers – could be a game changer in an M-series Leica with an EVF. The current cameras already have these technologies, but they can only be used when composing images on the fixed rear screen or using the optional EVF. Accessing them from a built-in electronic viewfinder would make achieving precise focus so much easier, particularly in macro photography or in situations where shallow depth of field is employed.

EVFs are also of huge benefit to videographers, and while M-series photographers have been vocal in their demands to not have video technology, perhaps they would find it more attractive if it were easier to use? An EVF would provide accurate framing, focus and exposure control in video mode, making these cameras a more viable option for serious videographers.

Leica’s M-series cameras are renowned for their superb image quality, iconic design, and the engaging experience they offer. Incorporating an EVF would not subtract from these strengths, but instead, add to them, ensuring the M-series remains competitive in today’s rapidly evolving photographic landscape.
It’s important to remember that an evolution of tools doesn’t have to mean an erosion of the craft.

After all, Leica itself is a testament to this principle, having popularised 35mm film in the 1920’s and later transitioned from film to digital technology while maintaining its commitment to image quality and user experience. The introduction of an integrated EVF in M-series cameras could be another step in this evolutionary journey, keeping Leica at the forefront of photographic innovation while preserving its rich tradition.

It’s time for Leica to embrace change, and an EVF in the M-series could be a progressive step in the right direction, providing a blend of tradition and innovation that caters to both seasoned rangefinder users and photographers seeking the versatility that comes with modern technology.

Check out our range of camera buying guides to find the best option for your needs

David Hockney’s limpid stretch of radiant blue broken by tangled lines, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)”, scintillates across the central gallery in Capturing the Moment, the new exhibition at Tate Modern in London about the relationship between painting and photography. As his source, Hockney took numerous snapshots of the pool (in St Tropez) and the downward-gazing observer (his former lover Peter Schlesinger, in Kensington Gardens). Collaging the disparate images, the painting captures a joyous instant of sun hitting water and, in a breath, a glance, complexities of desire, loss, regret. Hockney spent more than 200 hours depicting what appears as this single decisive moment — a virtuoso imitation in paint of a photograph that never was.

Taiwanese entrepreneur Pierre Chen bought the painting for $90mn in 2018 — breaking the record for a living artist. It returns to the UK as one of a score of stunners from his Yageo Foundation, the only lender to the show (everything else comes from Tate’s collection). Chen’s paintings range from Picasso’s brutal-delicate “Buste de Femme” (1938), face fractured yet somehow jaunty beneath a comic feathered hat, a work never before shown in Britain, to Peter Doig’s cinematographic fluorescent green “Canoe Lake” (1997-98), among his earliest, eeriest pieces based on an uncanny scene from the horror movie Friday the 13th.

Tate’s theme is laid out in a Picasso quotation in the opening gallery: “Photography is capable of liberating painting from all literature, from the anecdote, even from the subject. So shouldn’t painters profit from the newly acquired liberty to do other things?” This is modern art’s foundational narrative — painting set free from the documentary impulse — and a hopelessly broad, well-worn premise for an exhibition: anything at all from Tate’s collection would fit it. The surprise and delight of the Yageo loans alone make a visit worthwhile.

Chen was a teenager when he launched his electronics business in 1977, and he began buying art around the same time: ironically enough, a fortune made from mechanisation — his company supplies mobile phone and computer components — allowed him to amass a supreme collection of handmade works.

He also takes risks. First star here is Picasso’s disguised self-portrait of wartime claustrophobia “The Sailor” (1943) — club-like fist, anguished expression, skewed perspective — which Chen bought after it was punctured by a metal rod ahead of its expected sale at Christie’s in 2018. Another is Francis Bacon’s “Study for a Pope VI”, last of six depictions following Velázquez in an important 1961 series. In the others, the pontiff is upright, gesturing, desperately trapped; here he slumps, head tilted as if he has given up and fallen asleep. His surplice dissolves into dripping white paint on raw canvas. Flamboyantly offhand — or just unfinished? — it’s a potent emblem of pathos and defeat.

“The Sailor” has not been in the UK since Tate’s 1945-46 Picasso show, and the “Pope” not since the museum’s 1962 Bacon retrospective, for which the series was made. Fabulous, historic loans, then, to demonstrate how 20th-century figurative painting survived by becoming ever more sensational, exaggerated, responding to harrowing times. “The age demanded an image/of its accelerated grimace,” Ezra Pound wrote.

From Taiwan there’s Bacon’s “Three Studies for Portrait of Lucian Freud”, also not seen for decades — head shattered, then rebuilt to shudder in and out of deep walls of red paint, one hand raised in defence against the mangling — alongside Tate’s early Freuds. A highlight is the menacing/vulnerable “Boy Smoking” (1950), a young criminal with furrowed brow, too-wide eyes, too-thick lips, cigarette casting a livid shadow down his chin. It shows Freud’s life-long quest “to move the senses by giving an intensification of reality”, outdoing the camera’s objectivity with his own mix of monstrosity and indifference.

Freud stuck doggedly to it while his contemporaries in the 1960s started pulling photographs directly into painting. Robert Rauschenberg (“Almanac”, a flux of everyday images over-scrawled in white paint) and Andy Warhol (“Double Marlon”, Brando as gang leader in The Wild One) screen-printed photographs and movie stills, appropriating their banality or glamour.

Gerhard Richter copied old snapshots, blurring them into uncertainty by grisaille paint. The Yageo’s “Aunt Marianne” is based on a sweet photo of baby Richter held by his smiling aunt — whom the Nazis would diagnose as schizophrenic and leave to starve to death in a psychiatric institution. Richter questions layers of collective denial in post-Nazi Germany. The camera can lie, his paintings assert, and no image is immune from manipulation for political purposes.

German photographers playing on ambivalence between the camera’s neutrality and austere formalist composition, derived from painting, continue the thread: Andreas Gursky’s panoramas of crowds and apartment blocks “May Day IV” and “Paris, Montparnasse”, Thomas Struth’s and Candida Höfer’s geometric, precise museum and library interiors. These comprise half the small photography section — scanty for a show subtitled A Journey Through Painting and Photography.

Finally come recent Tate acquisitions, tremendously varied in quality. Heaven help “painting in the digital age” if its future is as bloodless and pointless as Laura Owens’ “Photoshop marks” layered on grids (“Untitled”, 2012) and Christina Quarles’s “transforming random marks into stretched human figures” (“Casually Cruel”, 2018), explained as gender politics: “Whereas gestural painting is traditionally associated with heroic, masculine actions, these artists use digital rendering to create carefully controlled gestures.”

Saviours are two major pieces by the freshest and most sought-after names, entering the collection thanks to Tate’s Africa Acquisition Fund. Michael Armitage’s “The Promised Land”, dreamy fantasia turned terror scenario, bodies metamorphosing under tear gas, references news images of a fatal protest in Kenya. Seeking “a visual metaphor for the multiple sources of influence on people’s experiences”, Njideka Akunyili Crosby collages kaleidoscope-bright photographic fragments representing Nigerian culture — hip-hop musician Nneka, novelist Chinua Achebe, Nigeria Airways — in the engrossing domestic scenes “Predecessors”. Both assimilate photographs into vibrantly contemporary works celebrating painterly possibility.

Several elements here could have made an intelligently focused independent show — the Yageo collection itself; 21st-century painters’ evolving engagement with photography — rather than the mere glimmers of interest offered in this lazy apology for an exhibition.

To January 28 2024, tate.org.uk

Jun. 18—Studio Q Photography in Amherst is marking 10 years of service in 2023 with a series of celebrations throughout the summer.

Since its inception a decade ago, the company has dedicated its time to capturing life’s precious moments.

“It is with great joy and gratitude that we celebrate our 10-year anniversary,” said Michael Ciu, co-owner of Studio Q Photography. “We started this journey with a simply goal in mind: to freeze the beautiful moments that pass by in the blink of an eye.”

As part of the celebrations for the company, Ciu and his wife, co-owner Marie, decided to honor their clients with special free events during Walkin’ On Wednesday celebrations in Amherst.

“I am very grateful to the people of Amherst,” Marie Ciu said. “They have welcomed us with open arms over the past 10 years, and it has been a great community for us to be a part of.”

Throughout its 10-year journey, Studio Q Photography has amassed a loyal clientele that extends from individuals and families to businesses and organizations.

Their diverse portfolio showcases a range of creative and striking imagery, capturing emotions and nuances that make each photograph a story.

“As part of our celebration, we have a bunch of free prizes for guests to enjoy,” Marie Ciu said. “Inside the studio, we have a spinning prize wheel with small giveaway items as well as a guessing game for the community to try their hand at.”

The studio also is showcasing some of its new products through a raffle giveaway.

“As a token of thanks to our community, we also will be offering free activities during Amherst’s Walkin’ On Wednesday events throughout the summer,” Marie Ciu said.

The studio brought on Vicki Barbaro of Fancy Faces Painting for free face painting June 14.

For July 12, the studio will partner with Northeast Ohio Creatives welcoming some fan favorite princesses for free photos and meet and greets.

“We are very excited to be able to reach this milestone in Amherst and are looking forward to many more to come,” Marie Ciu said. “As always, we have the community to thank and are immensely proud of our achievements and the incredible relationships we have built along the way.”

(c)2023 The Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Studio Q Photography in Amherst is marking 10 years of service in 2023 with a series of celebrations throughout the summer.

Photos by Bloomsburg-based artist and railroad photographer Oren B. Helbok are part of “The Ties That Bind: Railroading in NEPA,” an exhibit that opens this week at Misericordia University’s Pauly Friedman Art Gallery.

We spoke with Helbok for a feature on the exhibit. This is an expanded version of the interview which appears in our main story. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did you come to be connected with this exhibit?

A: Erika Funke at WVIA deserves all of the credit for this. Erika did a Keystone Edition feature about train art and invited me to come onto the show.

Lainey Little (Ed: Pauley Friedman Art Gallery Director Lalaine Bangilan Little) was in the audience at WVIA. I handed her my card and I said keep in touch. A few months later that Lainey said, “I’m doing a show in the gallery with trains, and would you be interested in having some of your photographs displayed?” And I leapt at the chance.

Q: Tell me about your professional life, and your art, and how the two intersect.

A: I run The Exchange, which is a nonprofit arts organization down here in Bloomsburg. We take as our mission bringing the arts to all communities throughout our region.

It’s a deliberately vague mission, so we can do a whole bunch of different things. The heart of what we do is the gallery here on Main Street. We do nine shows a year, and most of them are open calls. We’ve done about 80 shows here since we moved into this space in 2014. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 people have shown work, and that’s everyone from university art professors to two-year-old children, and it all goes up together.

We also do other things. On the last Wednesday of every month we do live music. We call it the Listening Room. It’s not like going out to a bar where there are televisions and people talking. This is an intimate performance.

Q: How long have you been in Bloomsburg?

A: My wife (Sara Baker) and I moved to Pennsylvania in 1992, and we moved into Bloom in 2010.

Q: Tell me about your railfan photography. When did it start?

A: My father handed me a camera when I was six. That was in the spring of 1972. I had shown from the time I was teeny tiny an interest — I mean a passion for — trains.

I grew up in the Bronx. My parents would take me down to the Hudson River in our neighborhood to have picnic suppers. We’d sit on the platform of the train station at Riverdale, or we’d go out on the rocks on the river. But I was not watching the river. I was watching the trains.

Q: (Laughs) I know the feeling. I do! And your father was supportive?

A: My father had been into airplanes. He had gotten his private pilot’s license at age 18, but had never flown after that because he couldn’t afford it. He saw my passion for trains, and he just jumped in with both feet and became a hugely enthusiastic and knowledgeable railfan.

Q: I’m going to ask this question — and I’m not sure as a railfan if I could properly answer it myself — but what fascinates you about trains?

A: For some kids it’s planes. For some it’s cars. For me, it was trains.

When I was a kid, I think it was really the hardware. Trains are big and they move fast. And I think there is something fairly universal about the appeal of the railroad.

The epiphany I had about this was back in the fall of 2014. My daughter and I were on a college visit tour out in the Midwest. We were crossing Ohio. I like to avoid the interstates, so we’re taking the two-lane road. And every now and then up ahead, we’d see that little yellow sign for the railroad crossing. As we cross the track, I would look in both directions, you know, just to see if there’s anything there. I think that actually there’s something universal about that. When anyone — whether it’s a railfan or not — comes across a railroad track, it’s perpendicular to the way that they’re going. And it opens up the world in that perpendicular direction.

I think that was true for farm kids growing up in the Midwest 150 years ago, or someone up in the coal region. It was a way to get out and get somewhere else.

Q: You grew up in the Bronx, where of course there’s, there’s so much going on in terms of rail transportation, especially passenger service. Did that influence the way you looked at railroads?

A: Actually, even from the time I was a kid, I photographed minimally in the Bronx. I wish I had done more.

Q: Ah! Interesting. Where were you shooting then?

A: My father and I were traveling to go see steam trains.

Q: That seems to be your main focus, so I guess that hasn’t changed much over the years.

A: Right, though it’s not exclusive. What has changed, though, is that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the appeal of the railroad and of railroading. It’s broader than what I had initially experienced.

To me, to photograph railroading and to photograph it comprehensively, there are three main themes: There is the hardware. There’s also the landscape and the way that the railroad interacts with its surroundings. That’s whether you’re in town or out in the countryside somewhere. And then there is the people. And the people have become much more central to my photography.

When I was a kid, every now and then I would photograph a human being working on a locomotive. Now that’s really most of what I do.

It’s partly to make up for all of those people who were so generous with my father and me, who gave us access to their railroads and taught us about what they were doing, whom I didn’t photograph. I regret that. And my way of paying them back is to do as much as I can of it now with the people who are here now, giving me access and showing me how the railroad works.

Q: You’re going to have a lot of folks who come to this exhibit who will be railfans, as we are, and who will appreciate the nuances that others may not see. But to those visitors who don’t necessarily have an interest in railroads, what do you hope they’ll take away from the exhibit?

A: I think that that railroading is a very broad subject. It’s not just the hardware, it’s the interaction of those trains with the environment. It’s the history. America was really built on the railroads.

And even in a place like Dallas, Pennsylvania, where the tracks have been gone for decades, part of the reason Dallas looks the way it does is because that track used to be there. There are still buildings left that were built there next to the tracks so that the railroad could provide freight service. The shape of those buildings, the shape of the landscape, was altered because of the way the trains came through.

I think it’s important for people to have that sense of how we got to where we are.

Q: Any other thoughts?

A: I would hope that some of them are also gonna be willing to call their legislators and say, “for crying out loud, can you just get a train running from Scranton to New Jersey!?”