gabriel biderman ~ fine art photography

What a long strange trip it has been! Well since my last blog on March 9th I have been traveling like a madman! Austin for SXSW, Vegas, Orlando, back to Orlando, St. Augustine, Salt Lake City, and today I’m off to Indianapolis! In between I have been at home with Nancy for 5 days… though one of those trips to Orlando was a real vacation with Nancy and her family where we truly relaxed and squeezed a lot of OJ. Somewhere in the midst of all this traveling I turned 37 and I believe I was a mile high in the air for that day!
I have definitely had some amazing adventures and good times along the way and I’m sure that you will see the images real soon. The good news is that starting Friday I will be on vacation in Brooklyn for 10 days! I travel so much that I like to spend the B&H holidays at home catching up with family and friends, and that is exactly my plan!
I also wanted to bring back the Photo of the Week aspect to the blog! I had neglected this for most of 2008, but I am now back on track! Pictured here is an amazing surreal sunset in the St Augustine salt marshes. My coworker Mike Murray and I were waiting to eat at Salt Water Cowboy’s when I noticed that their outdoor lamps were a similar color temperature as the sunset. The rule of always having a camera with you played out here as I embraced the juxtaposition of the artificial and natural light. It also ended up being one of the strangest dinners that I have ever had as we ate outside on their deck, which several cats made their home. Looking over the railing and below us the marshes were filled with oyster shells that customer had hucked over as well as many more cats and a very eager racoon. Thank goodness we didn’t have an extra seat or I think the racoon would have joined us!
Enjoy!

How many times do you find yourself driving around when you pass by something interesting and say “I should photograph that.”? And how many times do you actually do it?

It is always a constant battle with me because if I truly stopped and took all the pictures I wanted while driving I think I’d still be on my honeymoon!

On a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, I found myself in this very predicament as we approached the Willamette River on our way to Voodoo Donuts. It was night time as we slowly passed over this very unique looking bridge and I uttered those magic words: “That would be cool to shoot”. Everyone was game, so we parked the car and walked back over the bridge. The Steel Bridge is named after the original double deck swing Steel Draw Bridge that was built in 1888 and was one of the first bridges to use steel instead of wrought iron. The current Steel Bridge is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. Over 9,000,000 lbs of concrete counterweights help raise the lower section up to 216ft. to let large boats pass. The real ingenuity, however, shows itself when the lower section is raised 72ft. and telescopes into the upper section without disturbing it, thus letting traffic continue over the bridge. Pedestrians, Cars, Amtrak, MAX Light Rail and bicycles all use the Steel Bridge to cross over the Willamette River to get into downtown Portland.

This shot was taken on my point and shoot digi camera on the best travel tripod in the world, the Gitzo 1550. The light streaks are from the MAX Light rail and cars that passed through my photo during the 30 second exposure.

And always remember the next time you see something, don’t just say something, click something!

“You who wander around the world, eager to see imposing and amazing marvels, come here…”

I apologize for the delay in blogging, but with my computer’s hard drive crashing and the Red Sox winning the World Series my life has been a little topsy-turvy lately!

Click on any of the pictures above to make it bigger and let’s continue our journey through a guided tour of the Monster Gardens.

David, Nancy, and I had hoped to shoot the Monster Gardens with an 8×10 cameras and 4×5 Pinholes. Unfortunately, no amount of Euros were able to get our tripods passed the entrance. We quickly adapted, David ironically went from his signature 8×10 to one of the smallest camera formats, the half frame. He also had a Nikon EM camera with only a Lensbaby 3G attached to it. Security, or “Senor Scowl” as we called him, was never more than 20 feet away from us just to make sure our tripods never came out.
As we walked through the portal to the Monster Gardens we were immediately greeted by two sphinxes, each sitting on platforms with a well worn out welcome:

“You, who enters here, be very attentive and tell me if theses marvels have been realized due to a mistake or if it is a form of art”

Was that supposed to be a riddle? Were we going to be thrown off the cliff as in the story of Oedipus?
We passed by unscathed and looked below us to a lower level were a stream ran and a huge colossal sculpture of Hercules tearing apart Cacus stood. Dubbed the “Struggle between Giants”, and shot with David’s lensbaby, Cacus’ mouth is wide open in grotesque pain, a silent scream that echoed throughout the gardens. Turning away, we saw ancient moss covering a gigantic turtle bearing the winged victory, Nike, on it’s shell. This could only be seen in the distance since the area was under renovation, unapproachable, and unfortunately unable to be photographed without a telephoto lens. You can, however, find a drawing of it by Bartholomeus Breenberg in the Louvre, where it’s regarded as one of its masterpieces.
There was definitely more people there than when Nancy and I visited in 1997, but it was still easy to take our time and get lost in the gardens. We approached the beautiful fountain of the 3 Graces where David took this amazing half frame panoramic of a very Etruscan looking Venus. We continued on, passing by a small theater and several ancient fountain bathtubs, walking directly to the Leaning House basking in the sunlight breaking through the sacred forest. This ancient fun house was probably one of the first of its kind to be purposely built at a 30 degree angle. Its foundation and floors rose up and literally pushed us out the door. I guess the Prince didn’t want anyone overstaying their visit! We now stood at the main courtyard. Rows of 4 foot tall giant vases rose from each side and led us toward an ancient fountain featuring the king of the sea, Neptune. Behind the Giant vases lurks one of Rome’s fiercest enemies, Hannibal, atop his famous war elephant crushing a Roman legionary. Next we see David’s lensbaby Dragon. The dragon, who represents time, is being attacked by a dog, lion, and wolf; symbols of spring, summer, and winter. Turning away from the courtyard I came across the most beautiful sculpture in the gardens, Ceres, the nurse of Rome. Ceres is of the older sect, the precurser to Diana, and was goddess of agriculture, grain, and the love a mother bears for her child. Experts consider this sculpture one of the most beautiful in the world for its perfect proportions…especially in a garden so out of proportion. Leaving her gaze I turned around to see the steps that lead up the Ogre’s mouth. We stopped and did a photoshoot there for a while. I sat inside the monster’s mouth with about 7 other people, the sacrificial tounge table sat empty between us. I felt that place could truly be a gateway to the Underworld.
The dreamworld continued as Nancy laid down on the Etruscan bench whose Latin scripture read:

“You, who wanders the world,
Anxious to see huge and magnificent marvels ,
Come here where you will find hideous faces
Of elephants, lions, bears, ogres, and dragons”

We walked past the goddess of the garden and of the hearth, Proserpine, and took the lensbaby stairway past Cerberus, the 3 headed dog, who guards the gates of hell.
“Senor Scowl” watched us as we watched the Lions and furies battle it out. On the highest level of this ancient mound lies the Temple that was not part of the original Villa of Wonders. It was built 20 years later in 1572 and dedicated to Prince Orsini’s recently deceased second wife, Giulia Farnese.
We had been wondering around these wonders for over 2 1/2 hours when we finally found ourselves in front of the sphinxes again. This time we went to the left and passed by short columns along the side of the road. On each column lay a sculpted head of a god of Antiquity: Saturn, Janus, Evander, the Faun, and the Triple Hecate. We were along the stream again and the final sculpture loomed in the distance. Slightly smaller than Giant Ogre and off limits to the tourist, the colossal head of Proteus-Glauco bore a huge decorative globe which in turn held the castle of Orsini. This symbolized the power the Orsini family wielded in this world. The name Proteus-Glaucos is interesting because it represents two different gods from Greek and Roman mythology. Proteus was an early sea god, originally called “Old Man of the Sea” by Homer, and was also the son of Poseidon. Glaucus, according to the Roman Ovid began life as a mortal fisherman before eating an herb that turned him immortal but also changed his arms and legs into fins and tails and forced him to live his life in the sea. Both gods, if captured could foretell the future.

Well, this ends the tour of the Monster Gardens. It was Nancy and my second trip to the forest of Marvels and we could definitely find ourselves there again. Next time, however, we’re contacting them prior to make sure those tripods come in…Monsters at night anyone?

*Most of this info was found in the barely English Monster Gardens Guidebook, 5 euros, and countless hours on the world wide web.

In 1998, when I first visited the Monster Gardens with Nancy we pretty much had the place to ourselves; to explore and photograph. I made a mural (40″ x 66″) silver print of Nancy standing inside this Ogre’s mouth that now hangs in our living room and can also be seen in one of my recent posts.

When planning our recent Tuscan trip with David and Barbara, revisiting and sharing the Monster Gardens was a must. So, let’s start again with this Monster’s Mouth, which symbolizes the entrance to the Underworld. Dante’s words are inscribed on the Ogre’s lips: “All reason departs”
This time more people were visiting the Sacred Wood. This time Nancy wore a white dress as she entered the mouth.
Here are 4 new interpretations taken with 3 different cameras; and the story of how the Bosco Sacro came to be known as the Monster Gardens.

The Bosco Sacro, or Sacred Wood, was originally realized in 1552 by the hunchback Prince, Pier Francesco Orsini. Vicino, as he was also known, desired this fantastical project “only to relive his heart and soul” as his wife, Giulia Farnese, had recently died at a very young age. So he hired Pirro Ligorio, a famous architect who worked on the Vatican after Michelangelo’s death, to design a garden that would inspire and astonish. 33 years later the Marvel of marvels was complete. Vicino dedicated the Bosco Sacro to the memory of his wife and for 100 years thousands of artists, poets, and men of papers from all over the world came to be inspired by this “Villa of the Wonders”. You must understand, this was not a serene garden with beautiful fountains that was typical of the region during the beginning of the Renaissance. Instead, it was surreal Mannerist style sculptures and fountains, having no symmetry whatsoever, filled with arcane symbolism. It was compared to the ancient capital of Egypt: “Memphis as well as all the other Marvels in the world gives precedence to the Sacred Wood that resembles only itself and nothing else”

Sometime after 1645, a curious thing happened… A continual lack of heirs led to the Orsini family’s demise. Somehow the gardens were forgotten by the people of Bormazo and by the people of the world. Nature itself reclaimed these monstrous sculptures. Abandoned and forgotten for over hundreds of years. Slowly, whispers became stories of haunted woods and the land itself became known as the Bosco dei Mostri. In 1938, Salvador Dali made his way through the tangle of trees and was awestruck by the grotesque surreal figures. He shot a short film in the park and his 1946 painting; The Temptation of Saint Anthony is rumored to have been inspired by his visit.

400 years later, artists were inspired again by the newly dubbed Monster Gardens. However, the monsters still lay in ruins and it wasn’t until 1953, when Giovanni Bettini purchased the Sacred Grove, that the careful restoration process began. Slowly, something ancient, something sacred, something timeless began to reveal itself to the world again.