The Road to Bulungula Lodge, Wild Coast, South Africa. (24 total images, 1 video)
“Rufus is a very strong man,” says Maya, a local Xhosa woman we just picked up from a village on the Wild Coast of South Africa. “Even in his old age of 80 years he is still able to procreate and have many children,” she says.
We’re all headed to the Bulungula Lodge where Maya works and we’ll be visiting. Rufus is our driver.
Of all the things I miss about Africa, I miss being on a safari the most. While at Kruger National Park in northeast South Africa, Kelly and I operated on “animal time.” We had established a solid routine of getting up at 3:30 a.m., brewing coffee, and as the first light appeared, drove to a nearby watering hole to watch the animals come out.
We parked the car. Sipped on boxed wine. Took out our cameras and binoculars and watched hippos, alligators, buffalo and impala share the same drinking hole, all the while keeping an eye for predators. A British family from whom we had borrowed sugar for the coffee gave us the tip that there had been a lion kill — the pinnacle of all thrills for safari-goes — at this same spot four days ago. Trackers spend entire lifetimes without seeing a proper lion kill. So we kept our fingers crossed and used our peripheral visions to scan the savanna for any movement, the slightest twitch, the perking of an ear perhaps. Intensity and expectation could not be any higher. I understood why people paid good money for this. How lifelong addictions were formed.
Portraits of Poets: 1910 – 2010 Exhibition, National Arts Club, New York, NY.
January 5, 2010 — Recently, I was invited to photograph the opening night of the Portraits of Poets 1910-2010 exhibit, as part of the Centennial Anniversary celebrations of the Poetry Society of America (PSA) — the organization responsible for the excellent Poetry in Motion subway series among many other poetry-celebratory endeavors.
The evening featured gripping performances by poets Galway Kinnell, Marie Ponsot, Yusef Komnunyakaa, Richard Howard, and Sapphire — the latter, whos novel is now the major Oscar-buzzy motion picture, Precious.
The exhibit, which will be up through January 15th at the National Arts Club in Gramercy, Manhattan, includes drawings, photographs, and oil portraits of distinguished poets from W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, and Marianne Moore to Lorine Niedecker, Frank O’Hara, Etheridge Knight, Gary Snyder, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde.
Even if you missed the opening night cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, I highly recommend checking out the incredible mansion-space as well as the wonderful works of art.
The perfect cap to the best year to date. Happy 2010, everyone!
Location: Sycamore Plow (AKA The Frye Family Farm). 2 hours outside St. Louis, Missouri.
The Setting: An Unnamed Hostel, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Cigarette in hand and wine out of a tea cup — it’s the British way.
