New York Faces 1950 – 60′s

This is one more chapter in the New York City vintage collection. It concentrates on capturing the faces and expressions of the average and not so average New Yorker. Several celebrities are caught in the act while posing for the camera. Also captured in their amazement are brand new immigrants from places around the globe.

The construction of this production started with the concept of pinning the Statue of Liberty as the centerpiece and “most recognized face” of NYC. From then on I used old films and a fair amount of Vivian Maier’s candid photographs that capture the human condition so well. Some images may be slightly distorted since they had to be reformatted to comply with the 16:9 wide format.

A look at some peculiar "faces" of New York in the 1950's decade.

This short piece contains street photographs taken by Vivian Maier, an American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, amateur photo-bug and nanny. The photographs were discovered in a thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side in 2007. She actually appears in one sequence, taking a self portrait against a mirror or window. Many of the scenes revolve around the Statue of Liberty, presenting very unusual angles and takes. There are also famous celebrities faces caught as they were doing "their thing".
Enjoy the ride,
Leo

Music: Cool – Dave Grusin Band
Leonard Bernstein, composer. Dave Grusin, arranger.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dave-grusin-presents-west/id17768891
Photographs: Vivian Maier, Leo Bar
Paintings – Poster: Gil Elvgren
Vintage Film: New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Archive.org (all in the public domain)

New York City back in the 1950′s

Decided to continue with the NYC oldies series. The images on this piece are from the late 40′s and mid to late 1950′s.

Archive.org is where I found the majority of the films and photographs. A wonderful site where one can get lost and rummage as if it were your neighbor’s attic. Little gems of history appear shyly before ones eyes at all times. What an amazing trove of unique treasures!

I chose the music – New York, New York – (for obvious reasons) and the singer – Liza Minelli – because of her intensity and passion when she sang it live in Paris, France.

Enjoy the journey back to the past…

Leo

P.S. working on a follow up video that concentrates on NYC people and its food in the 50′s, stay tuned!

New Jazz City

New York Kind of Mood

This is another video in the sequence of old New York. I love to read, see and share about how this city evolved, from the early stages amalgamation to its glory days.
In this rendering I tried to insert as much comedy and farce as I could, without degrading the historical content. The video is not in chronological or any other order. It was assembled for artistic purposes to create the right atmosphere and tell a story of building, strife, progress, lunacy and fun.
Hope you enjoy the show,
Leo

Elements Used in this Production
Photographs: were sourced from Library of Congress and NY Public Library collections. I then proceeded to clean, size, scale and correct them for lighting, contrast. Most came from smoked glass positives and therefore are unique and fragile.
Film clips: Edison Inc., American Mutoscope and Biograph Company and Harold C. Lloyd Sr. movies.
Music: Reunion Cumbre by Astor Piazzolla with Gerry Mulligan

Shapes

This work was inspired by buildings and structures around the world bearing these futuristic shapes. Many of the buildings shown were designed by Santiago Calatrava, although I have included other architects and designs as well.

About three months ago, as I was constructing a tango video, was struck by the unique shape of a bridge I had included in the production. After a bit of digging I learned more about the pedestrian bridge called “Puente de la Mujer” in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. It was designed by the renowned spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and had the familiar and unequivocal shapes as many of his creations. The more I researched and read about these structures, the more I got inpsired to present my view of it.

I discovered similarities (so I think) between these curved shapes and many of the paintings by Vassilly Kadinsky 1866 – 1944 :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky. I decided to use them as companions and contrast to this production.
~~
Original Music: Shapes by Luis Carlos Espinosa :: http://lcespa.blogspot.com/
Music is copyrighted – DO NOT copy or distribute

Countries and cities where these structures are located:
Argentina-Buenos Aires;
Spain-Valencia, Barcelona, Sevilla;
Portugal-Bilbao;
USA-New York City, Milwaukee, Denver;
Malaysia-Kuala Lumpur;
Canary Islands-Tenerife;
Australia; Wales-Swansea;
Ireland-Dublin;
Dubai; Canada-Toronto
China-Pavillion of World Fair 2010
~~
Enjoy,
Leo Bar

Old New York

Old New York

New York City — visited at the end of the 19th century, from 1890′s to 1930′s.
This production is the third in a series about New York City; a fascinating and unique world metropolis. It’s my adopted city since I arrived to the States. These memories (some imaginary, some real) are forever etched in my brain and inspired me to expose this human amalgamation from different angles, timelines, spaces and interests.

Enjoy,
Leo

~ Not For Commercial Use ~
Creative Commons – Attribution – Non commercial – No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
HTTP://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
===
Elements used in this production:

Music: Blue in Green by Miles Davis Photography: Public Domain
Paintings: Oil Paintings by Janet Ternoff
Additional Art: Leo Bar
Film Clips: American Mutoscope & Biography Company
1903 footage by C.E. Price

Pix In Motion
Leo Bar
Creative Imagining

Street Art – New York

As I was surfing the net sometimes in Novemeber ’09 and looking at NY scenes it struck me right between the eyes! The paintings were so vivid, capturing the escence of some old neighborhoods in New York. They were all oil paintings by Janet Ternoff. I got in touch with the artist, described what I had in mind producing and got a positive reaction. The rest was easy (so to speak  . This piece came together after much editing, and recutting (6 different recuts). The challlenge was to keep it striking, dramatic, without losing the dynamics. I chose to include images of street musicians since the majority of the paintings were about steets/buildings but devoid of people. So, staying with the concept of art, what better way to depict people doing their thing… Elements used in this production: ~ Music: Miles by Myron Walden http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4953 ~ Paintings: Janet Ternoff Janet Ternoff is a self-taught artist living and working in New York. She creates realist-style cityscapes paintings in oil. Most of her works are New York City scenes. You may see more of this artist’s works at http://janetternoff.blogspot.com/ ~ Street Musicians Photographs: Jens De Groot @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jensjeppe/ Enjoy! Pix In Motion Leo Bar Creative Imagining

New York City – A Different Apple

• This project was a lot of fun, discovery and amazement to produce. I started working on the concept in mid-October. Had to set up some collaborations with photographers, do the research, gather my thoughts, lay out a story line, then go fetch images and scour my archives for older images which may be still relevant. The idea was to show NYC in a different light, from different angles and using striking images with accentuated colors.

As it progressed, the piece looked better and better and I was really encouraged by the support of some of the photographers,  especially Trey Ratcliff who opened up its treasure chest of beautiful HDRs to me.

This video contains photos from other boroughs of NY

vimeo 8263380  

Included in this work are the following elements:

• Music – Prelude in E minor by Gerry Mulligan, a great jazz saxophonist.
• Photographs(exclusive HDRs) - Trey Ratcliff  :: HTTP://www.StuckInCustoms.com
• Additional HDR and other Photographs – John Brody, NYCArthur, NYLuke, Phillip Ritz  all of them can be found at www.Flickr.com .
• Aerial Photographs – with special animation I created to simulate shots taken from a moving plane.

I hope you enjoy watching this video :: http://www.vimeo.com/8263380

Pix In Motion by Leo Bar