benhider.com/blog » Travel

Kykuit – The John D. Rockefeller Estate

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:24:00 +0000

I spent the morning at the Rockefeller Estate with an old family friend Richard Nathan and my mum. Apart from it being an absolutely beautiful day to walk around the amazing grounds, there were also some pretty nice works of art tucked away in the basement. On of which was recently brought back to the house from the UN and is a life size tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” which is one of my favorite paintings.

After the not optional guided tour we went to the Union Church of Pocantico Hills which houses a dozen Marc Chagall stained glass windows and Matisse’ final work before he died (seen below).

More pictures after the break….

Essence Music Festival

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:59:55 +0000

They were long days and crazy evenings of shooting concerts, parties, lounges and conventions, but looking back it was an awesome weekend filled with some nice images of some pretty great acts. It was fascinating to be in New Orleans right as the oil was going to was ashore and hear the local concern for the fresh seafood that governs nearly 60% of their economy. New Orleans didn’t need another disaster on its doorstep! We ate at a place called “Butcher“, which is attached to “Cochon,” where I tried 4 sandwiches, and every single one was close to the best sandwich I had ever eaten!

The superdome is huge and was pretty much full every night, including the smaller lounge stages on the 2nd floor that hosted smaller acts. I must have circled this arena several times.

Although I’m a not a Janet Jackson fan, you had to admire her performance and ability to entertain.

The leopard printed Keri Hilson and Jill Scott attended a late night dinner at “August” where I took a doggie bag home and was blown away by the quality of the steak and salad!

Frank is one of the nicest guys to work for, he maintains a sense of humor and friendly demeanor even after the long days we all worked. I papped him walking out of the super-dome for the last day. For more pictures of the festival go here.

I wanna go to Iceland!

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:27:51 +0000

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Live Cams Photography

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:59:50 +0000

These are screen shots from my phone of an application called Live Cams. Some of the cameras I can move around and some are fixed but they all show real time video footage of different places around the world. It’s sort of creepy travel photography from my own couch.

NOT the BET Honors

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:18:45 +0000

For the pictures I took of the 2010 BET Rehearsals go HERE

Thems is the Rules

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:45:26 +0000

I was in Washington DC yesterday for the tree lighting and this was as close as I got to the President or more importantly Jordin Sparks.

Road trip to Atlanta

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:21:08 +0000

This was the most incredible Burger King I’ve ever seen.

Foamhenge in Natural Bridge, Virginia with Dario giving an over the shoulder

The Enchanted Studios (creator of Foamhenge)

Turtle Feet – Nikolai Grozni

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:22:10 +0000

“…pointing to a road sign that read, ‘Slow Down! The Life that you save might or might not be your own’ I’ve never been to a country where nonsense is the norm. It’s like a big joke – life, death, rebirth, Enlightenment – it all amounts to nothing, play on words, a crazy puzzle that can never be solved. No wonder they came up with the idea of maya, or illusion, you know. In the West things are taken so seriously. Life is a serious matter. Tomorrow is a serious matter. Here I can finally breathe: there is no pressure to stay alive! Whatever happens is okay. Dying is okay, begging is okay. I don’t have to plot my life. I can sit back and actually enjoy it.”

I’m only on the third chapter of this memoir about a young man (Nikolai Grozni) who travels to India to become a Tibetan Monk and I can tell that I’m going to enjoy it. He studies in Dharamsala and some of the description and stories bring me right back to my time there. I even know one of the characters he talks to, this old guy called “Vinnie.” He would always want to play chess and would always think he knew you from previous games played in chai shops. I first met him in 2002 and have seen him every time I’ve been back. Not once have I dared challenge him to a game. Hopefully this book challenges some of the conventional ideas of the “Shangri-la” community at the foothills of the Himalaya’s. It seems like it will as some of the monks have already smoked a few cigarettes and talked about nuns doing the naughty. As a more serious read I also picked up a copy of “The Photograph as Contemporary Art,” a book I should probably have read during my MFA. Don’t ever go into St. Marks bookshop unless you plan on buying a couple of books.

Joel Sternfeld shoots entire book with an iPhone

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:29:28 +0000

I love a large portion of Joel Sternfeld’s work and was even excited to see some older prints of his at the recent MOMA exhibit. His work is always impressive in its fresh outlook but familiarity. His new book “iDubai” is from a recent trip to Dubai where he shot in malls with his iPhone. What surprises me most about this book is that a photographer who shoots primarily large format negatives was able to travel all the way to Dubai and make images with such a low resolution. I guess with this kind of idea for the book, you have to let the idea of ‘quality’ or resolution fall under the larger idea of documenting consumer culture with “the consumer fetish du jour, the iPhone.” It will be interesting to see if he gains anymore intimacy or distance by shooting with a more discrete piece of apparatus

I can’t seem to find any images from the book, other than the cover. (Which is enough for me to want the book already)

Snapshots from the 80’s

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:16:31 +0000

I’m sure that everyone’s happiest memories from childhood are the summer vacations. My parents always managed to pull off a trip to Europe. Mark would wake us up at the crack of dawn with a glass of chocolate milk and a sugary doughnut, and we’d speed down the motorway to the first ferry to France. We went to Greece on year, Spain a few years in a row and France a bunch, with a few epic drives across Europe in the middle.

I’d love it if I could still get prints this size with rounded corners and the same color shift, then you could throw pictures at people and not worry about taking out an eye! I’ve always wondered whether that color shift has happened over time or if it’s just poor printing back in the day. My guess is that it’s a bit of both. Either way I want all my snapshots to have this feel, then I could post them on flickr and have loads of friends and awesome comments!

Where were we here mum? What was I so upset about? Could you imagine the panic if you watched Mae paddle out to see with your grandchildren?