Ice Fishing on the Volga River

If I'm not careful online one search leads to another and pretty soon I've followed a trail of ice fishers around the world. So here are two images of ice fishing Russian style. Apparently ice fishing in North America is often a very social activity but ice fishing in Scandinavia and in the Far East is often a more solitary activity. Ice fishing shacks also do not seem as prevalent abroad. Fishers simply wear layer upon layer of warm clothing.
The first photograph above is by photographer Andrew Moore, an American photographer whose photographs of Russia taken between 2000 and 2004 are fascinating.
The second is an image I found in a Picasa gallery. I don't know anything about the photographer but I love the image. My assumption is that poverty and ingenuity as well as a lack of substantially warm clothing might account for this fisherman's use of a plastic bag to shield himself from the wind.

Ice Houses

Left: 'Untitled #1' - Catherine Opie
Right Top: 'Spider Island' - Scott Peterman Right Bottom: 'Kents Landing' - Scott Peterman

About 5 or 6 years ago I was browsing Amazon.com and I came across a book of photographs by Catherine Opie. The book was called 'Skyways and Icehouses'. I put it on my wish list where its remained ever since. When I first found the book it was listed at something like $25.00. Well, now it's available only as a collectable and the minimum price I've seen anywhere for the same book , and thats for a used copy, is about $88.00. So I'm kicking myself I didn't buy it when I first found it. Because I still love her Icehouse photographs. Opie took the photographs as part of a project she did during a yearlong residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I understand that the Icehouse photographs were exhibited in a very large format which must have made the experience of standing beside them really incredible.

A few years later I came across the Ice Shack photographs of Scott Peterman. Again the photographs have been exhibited in a large format: 30" x 38 1/2" according to an article in Art in America magazine written by Melissa Kuntz.

I love the vast whiteness of the landscape, the minimalist ice shack structures. These photographs embody for me what I find so beautiful about winter.

Siberian Wood Houses

These photographs are from a gorgeous collection taken by Russian digital artist Vlad Gerasimov.I'd actually visited Vlads website Vladstudio.com in the past as he's always had an interesting collection of desktop wallpapers available for download. But I just recently discovered that he's posted a huge number of his photographs of old Siberian wooden architecture on his website as well. Mr Gerasimov lives in Irkutsk in central Siberia and is able to drive to nearby towns to capture the images as he describes, before the buildings become history. The amount of detail in the wooden architecture is incredible especially when you think about the harsh climate that the buildings have existed in.

4 Tier Wood Bowl and Coat Willow Basket

Markku Kosonen is a Finnish wood artist.

'By Nord' Pillows

'Wild Grass' pillows and 'Tree Photoprint' pillow from Danish company 'By Nord'.
This time of year I find myself exploring Nordic design.

'Ocean 1'

I stumbled upon this mans live journal collection of photographs and they are unbelievable. His name, at least online is Huan Carlos and I believe he lives in Moscow. Other then that most of his site is written in Russian which I can't read. I wish I knew where the photographs were taken. Many are of abandoned buildings. The two above are from a series he calls 'Ocean 1'. To really appreciate his photographs visit his site where the detail in the photographs is much more apparent in the larger versions.

Wolfgang Bloch

'Untitled No 117'

'Untitled No 126'

The line between sea and sky, and waves, this time from Ecuadorian born artist and surfer Wolfgang Bloch. Both paintings above are done with oil on wood.