WOMEN IN FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY

"Harrison's Flowers"

Universal Pictures "Harrison’s Flowers,"is a gripping and powerful love story that celebrates the courage of the heart. Andie MacDowell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “sex, lies & videotape”) heads the cast that includes David Strathairn (“L.A. Confidential,” “The River Wild”) Elias Koteas (“Crash,” “The Thin Red Line”), Adrien Brody (“Summer of Sam,” “Liberty Heights”), BrendanGleeson (“Braveheart,” “The General”) and Alun Armstrong (“Sweeney Todd”).

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) is missing on assignment and presumed dead in a far-off country. Refusing to accept this, his wife Sarah (Andie MacDowell) embarks on a perilous journey to find him and bring him home. Armed with a camera, her determination and a group of Harrison's peers, Sarah enters a world that shocks her to her core. She thought she had known what war meant before -- through glimpses on the news and through Harrison's own passionate chronicling of events. But the view is much easier to take from the safe harbor of home, as Sarah learns when the harsh realities of the front lines become her world.

As Elias Koteas, Brendan Gleeson and Adrien Brody portray the reckless boldness of war correspondents, McDowell’s Sarah captures the heroism of an ordinary civilian who must rediscover herselfwhen thrust in extraordinary circumstances. She becomes fearless and unstoppable as she searches for the man she loves.

Directed and produced by Elie Chouraqui (“The Liars,” “The Groundhogs”) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Didier le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen and Michael Katims, “Harrison’s Flowers” is a 7 Films Cinema, Le Studio Canal, France 2 cinema production. Nicola Pecorini served as Director of Photography and Giantito Burchiellaro was the Production Designer. The film was shot primarily within a 90-miler adius of Prague and in New York.

Great Women of Film Exhibition
by Helena Lumme & Mika Manninen

all images copyright Cat Jimenez/WIPI 2002

February 7, 2002 marked the opening of Great Women of Film, a photographic exhibition showcasing and celebrating the incredible talents of 30 women in a wide variety of professions and crafts in the motion picture industry. The exhibitions co-creators Helene Lumme, author and filmmaker and Mika Manninen, director, photographer and cinematographer were both present and excited at the feedback and turnout for the opening held in Beverly, Hills, Ca at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Many of the women who were photographed came to celebrate the opening including maverick actor-director-producer Jodie Foster whose panoramic portrait of her trekking through the snow sends chills up your spine. The show isn’t only about the famous, but also about the women whose achievements and accomplishments have brought them to the top of their craft. Lumme’s inspiration for creating the show came about when she realized that there wasn’t anything pointing to women’s contributions or innovations in film… “I wanted to change that by showing women actively working on all parts of the industry: They write and direct, shoot, build sets and blow them up, compose music…and earn Oscars while doing it”.

Many of the women participated in the process of selecting the settings, in some cases being photographed as they took part in a favorite hobby like horseback riding or catching butterflies. The women not usually performing in front of a camera were photographed playing a role, such as a gypsy or a Wild West sheriff. Jean Ferro, president of Women in Photography International easily recognized some of the women in the show while others transformations completely altered their normal appearances. The portraits differ uniquely from one another but the common ground is that all the women look tremendously beautiful. portraits include: Robin Swicord, screenwriter, Bonnie Curtis, Producer, Jane Anderson, Director/Writer, Freida Lee Mock, Documentary Filmmaker, Joan Allen, Actor, Susan Sarandon, Actor, Jeannine Oppewal, Production Designer, Ruth Carter, Costume Designer, Lisa Rinszler, Cinematographer, Maysie Hoy, Editor, Marilyn Bergman, Lyricist to name a few.

Excerpts of interviews conducted with the women were included as part of the text for the show. In depth interviews can be found in the companion book. The Great Women of Film photographic exhibition runs through April 21, 2002 located in the lobby of the Academy at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard.

Lume and Manninenpreviously produced “Screenwriters: Fifty Faces Behind the Greates Movie Moments” a touring exhibition that was featured at the Academy as well as the Cannes and berlin film festivals.


Great Women of Film,
Format: Hardcover, 128pp.
ISBN: 0823079562
Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications, Incorporated
Pub. Date: March  2002
Book Available at Barnes & Noble



Event Photo Credit:
Event Photo Credit:
Cat Jimenez / WIPI
Jodie Foster being interviewed at Reception
WIPI President Jean Ferro with Kasi Lemmons, writer/director
Author Helena Lumme with photo background of Jodie Foster

Excerpts of interviews conducted with the women were included as part of the text for the show. In depth interviews can be found in the companion book. The book also contains an appendix of Organizations, Schools, and Resources with background information, websites, e-mail, addresses and phone numbers.

Great Women of Film photographic exhibition runs through April 21, 2002 located in the lobby of the Academy at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard. Los Angeles

For more information contact: Leslie Unger, lunger@oscars.org
 
Paris Photo Lab & Imaging/Los Angeles, one of the coproducer’s of the book

Judith Diana Winston is a visionary artist and writer. She is the author of the book, MEDITATIVE MAGIC: The Pleiadean Glyphs. This oversized workbook is an easy-to-follow guide to meditation. Each of the “Glyphs” is accompanied by a page of interpretation or “expanded definition” and is reproduced on 8”x8” removable meditation card. The Glyphs are geometric patterns that came to Judith Diana over a three and a half year period during meditation She was guided to draw the first of these on graph paper and use it as a focus for meditation. Over the years she was shown sixteen symbols or Glyphs. She was also given specific information on each one, how it worked, and how the Glyphs work as a whole. Each of these geometric configurations has a name describing it’s function and the particular “attribute or pattern of consciousness” with which it works.

From 1981 through 1989 I was literally, propelled forward to make a number of journeys to various sacred sites all over the planet. I found myself particularly drawn to the ancient megalithic (great stone) sites built by man. This included such places as the Egyptian Pyramids and Spinx, Machu Picchu, Peru, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, Stonehenge, The Myan Pyramids, and Easter Island. Out of this grew two bodies of work. The first is EARTHWEAVER, a novel-in-progress based on my personal journey of self-discovery which includes twelve hand-painted photographs. The second is an in-camera color-manipulated, single and multiple image photographic series, MONUMENTS TO MAGIC. As I studied these enegmatic sites, both visually through the lens of my camera and by reading various texts, I was struck by the emphasis placed on geometric forms and by the importance of specific reoccurring numbers and proportions encoded in stone. I found this to be a common thread running throughout the various sites regardless of location.

As a child and adolescent I had a terrible time with math and came to dread anything that entailed the use of numbers. Now I was literally surrounded by them. I found great irony in this “coincidence” and asked a well know psychic about it. His reply was that if I could allow myself to move into the “higher meaning” of numbers I would find that I was “a master” and that I had worked with “sacred geometry” before. This, he said, was one of the reasons that I was drawn back to these ancient sites in this lifetime.

I was intrigued by this rather sage advice, but not entirely certain what it all meant. I began a search, which continues to this day, for materials on the subject that I could relate to and that were written in a simple, non- technical language. I discovered that the concept of the meta-physical effect of particular geometric shapes as well as the study of the esoteric meaning of numbers was a part of all of the ancient mystery school teachings. This includes the Hebrew alphabet in which the symbols are both letters and numbers.

As I continued to look I found myself frustrated by the lack of solid material and the sophistication of the material that I did find. By this time I had become accustomed to spending some quiet time each day in a meditative state. I decided to ask for further guidance in meditation. In the early part of 1989 I became aware of, what I can only call, a particular presence when I meditated By the end of the year, when I was preparing to make the last of my journeys for the EARTHWEAVER / MONUMENTS TO MAGIC series, to Easter Island, the presence had become quite real and began the process of “filtering down” specific guidance and information.

This was how, upon my return, the very first of the symbols, which later told me that they wanted to be called Glyphs came forward. This is the Glyph called “EKR” ATONEMENT or AT-ONE-MENT. I was later to learn that this symbol works directly on the pituitary and pineal glands and I now realize that it acted as a doorway for me. After meditating on “EKR” for about a month and a half other Glyphs, along with their names and definitions began to come through clearly, cleanly, and systematically, I have discovered that if a Glyph is “communed” with on a regular basis it not only puts one in a relaxed “alpha” state but, it also creates a deep experiential understanding of the specific energy.

In simple terms, the Glyphs are frequency modulators They are tools that adjust our energy patterns to a more balanced, more honest, and more love-able rate of vibration. Quantum physics tells us that there only “appears” to be a place where we end and everything else begins. In fact we are in a constant dance of energy exchange with our environment. As we use the Glyphs we begin to strengthen and stabilize the more harmonious and life enhancing patterns within our own personal vibrational field. In the very process of living our lives, day to day, we broadcast these patterns, much like a radio station. We heal by our presence alone.

In this time of great change and great challenge, it is certain that taking responsibility for the energy that is “us” is not only an act of personal upliftment, but one of Global importance. As we change ourselves, we change the world, one by one.

Judith Diana Winston

The book is available through all major booksellers - if out of stock, can be ordered.. The book has also been translated into German.
 
Format: Paperback, 72pp.
ISBN: 0964328208
Publisher: Chewut Press
Pub. Date: May  1996

Judith Diana Winston has worked in the field of Photography for over twenty years. She has attended The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan and The Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Judith has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from The University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, and has studied photography at the San Francisco Academy of Art College and the San Francisco Art Institute.Her photography, with the addition of hand-painting, quickly moved into the area of Fine Art and has been featured in Darkroom Photography, many gallery shows, as well as a nationally juried exhibition funded by the NEA, entitled "Women Photographers In America". Her work is currently a part of both private and corporate collections.

As a photographer living and working in Hong Kong I was faced with a number of challenges. Aside from being detained by communist military for photographing at the abandoned US Air Base in Danang, Vietnam, I think my most momentous photographic experience was trying to complete an assignment at a wildlife preserve in India the morning of a shootout between tiger poachers and park guards – resulting in two deaths, one poacher and one tiger.

I decided to take a break from my work as art director for Arizona State University in 1991 and join my friend (now my dear husband) on a six-month “sabbatical” to Hong Kong. At that time I had no idea how a passion for photography would take over my sensibilities as fast and as hard as it did. I became captivated by my newly adopted home and its people. This six-month “break” stretched into six years of photographing the people of Asia and documenting their lives in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Upon arrival in Hong Kong I was anxious to learn the ropes on photographing around Asia. It’s sometimes hard to make contacts in a foreign culture so finding groups of other like-minded individuals is a good route to take. Almost immediately I was introduced to the Women in Publishing Society. WIPS was a group consisting of entrepreneurial women from all over the world who were living in Hong Kong and working in publishing. Some were newspaper reporters, others editors, magazine writers, illustrators and/or photographers. We supported each other, networked and provided learning opportunities through formal meetings and casual get-togethers. I gained many lasting friendships through this group. They also helped set me well on my way to many years of freelance work in photography and publishing.

Another invaluable resource was a local photography group called the Cathay Camera Club. I learned of the best places to buy equipment and have film processed and also gained general knowledge about the etiquette of photographing in Asia (very important in foreign cultures!). We held competitions, had exhibits and enjoyed marvelous critique sessions as a group.

For the next five years I freelanced in photography, writing, research and design for various books, magazines and publishing companies in Hong Kong.

One area of photography that I dearly love is candid portraiture and photographing people going about their daily lives. Even though I didn’t speak the language in these Asian countries, I found it easy to communicate. People generally speak with their eyes. When photographing candidly (or on the street) I find that by taking my time and moving about calmly, quietly and softly, and by approaching people with a smile and a polite nod before raising the camera then I’m able to get a more meaningful picture. And I found that the farther I got away from the cities I got the more approachable people became!

I also enjoy creating graphic or abstract images around a location. I often get in very close to my subject and look for shape, form, texture and color. For example, by photographing closely a section of a time-beaten ancient temple’s brick wall I hope to better show its centuries of wear, or by getting right in on the food being sold in a local market, cooking utensils, or a torn away poster revealing layers of past and forgotten events I’m able to tell a more complete story when combining these with images of the local people. Each single image then supports the others and gives a great sense of place for the viewer.

For me, photographing the subjects I love is one of the most rewarding things about photography. If I’m not absorbed in the subject, the picture is less likely to have impact. I often lose track of everything going on around me and stay only aware of what I am seeing through the lens or anticipating ahead of me around the next corner when I’m scouring a hutong (back alley) in China or a fishing village in Mexico. I believe that if a photographer starts out with a passion for their subject they are sure to make an insightful, significant and beautiful image.

After Asia I moved to London, England in 1996 where I worked for the next three years as Publications Manager for a large American investment bank. Now living in Southern California with my adventuresome husband I continue to enjoy my passion for freelancing in photography, photo research and photo editing.

www.BevPettit.com
Beverly Pettit at bapettit@earthlink.net

Beverly Petitt photo list

“Duck Lunch”, Xian china, 1995
“Malay Children”, Penang, Malaysia, 1993
“Beauty SHop at Tet”, Hanoi, Vietnam 1994
“Cambodian Milk Vendor”, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 1994
“Chinese Boy with Yellow Ice Pop”, China, 1995
“Red Mailbox”, Penchau, China, 1993

As an Australian, I only began to understand and appreciate the rich culture of the indigenous people of my country after I moved away and started photographing other cultures. Two years ago I returned home to Australia, to Palm Island, an aboriginal community located off the coast of far north Queensland. With a population of about 3,500, Palm Island is the largest aboriginal community in Australia.

In the early 1900s Aboriginals from all over the state of Queensland were moved into settlements is part of the government's efforts to segregate them from white society. Due to its isolation, Palm Island became an ideal setting for the removal of "uncontrollables" i.e., those accused of criminal offences and acts of indiscipline. Palm Island was transformed from being a beautiful and spiritual land of the traditional owner, the Aboriginals, to a government mission or settlement.

Since the beginning of the 20th century Palm Island "has been brutally used by the Queensland Government to imprison people. Palm Island ultimately became for our people the 'end of the road', being used by government for the most final punitive actions against the Indigenous People." 2 This resulted in the fragmentation of a once-powerful heritage and the loss of a deep-rooted culture.

In 1997 a government-commissioned report, "Bringing Them Back Home" concluded that Australian State and Territory governments had forcibly removed thousands of half-caste Aboriginal children from their families from the 1900s to the early 1970s, placing them in foster care or church missions, where incidents of physical and sexual abuse occurred.

While at best the governments engaged in a compulsory form of assimilation, the report revealed far more sinister motives. Government documents from the 1930s reported full-blooded Aboriginals would eventually die out and that half-caste children would, within several
generations, blend into the dominant white society.

"Bringing Them Back Home' found the policy of forced removal to be "genocide" and called on the government to issue a formal apology and create a tribunal to determine levels of compensation. The Federal Liberal Government, led by Prime Minister John Howard, ignored the recommendations of the report and, to this day, has taken no action to remedy the plight of the stolen generations. It was in this political climate that I came to shoot the story of Palm Island.

One of the key factors in photographing a community such as Palm Island is access, so I made my contacts before arriving. I was granted permission from the Palm Island Aboriginal Council, which also arranged accommodation in the nurse's quarters inside a secure compound. The flight from the mainland to Palm Island took half an hour on a six seater plane. And I brought food for the five-day shoot.

I sensed an air of skepticism from a small part of the white medical community because the media had negatively portrayed Palm Island in the past. I showed photographs from my portfolio to allay fears of exploitation and sensationalism, to build trust and dispel fears about my presence amongst the people.

The island is located north of the Tropic of Capricorn; where the light is extremely harsh during the long summer days. Since I was shooting with ambient light, I went out early in the morning, lingered during the day and returned to shoot in the afternoon. This became my routine. Wherever I wandered in town, I always found myself back at the jetty because it was the most interesting place for me, photographically. There, the children played, people fished, and the boats came and went.

I tried to keep a distance from the subjects, to be an objective observer, remaining aloof, wanting the children to ignore my presence. The kids I shot on the jetty didn't go to school, though there are schools on the island. American culture is so pervasive on the island that quite often when I raised my camera the kids would flash me gang signs. I also visited the women's shelter and the hospital but I wasn't interested in photographing evidence of domestic violence. After the shoot, I sent the community a set of my prints.

This was an early project for me; I struggled with the conflict between documentation and exploitation of the social problems endemic in the community. I wanted to show the dignity of these people yet, at the same time, be honest about the circumstances in which they live.

Palm Island Aboriginals suffer many of the social problems inherent in indigenous communities throughout the world: poverty, high rates of unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage suicide and domestic violence.

I am currently working to expand upon this project. The Aboriginals are cautious in granting me access. Yet permission is a prerequisite for work of this kind.

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