photography

You have to see this stunning video of Michigan's Northern Lights

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:10:16 +0000

The wonders of our night sky often escape us.

The rainbows of the fleeting Northern Lights or the bright streak of a comet frequently slip behind cloud cover or crowded city skylines, leaving stargazers unrewarded.

But Shawn Malone, of Lake Superior Photo, was luckier than most.

Grief, healing and one photographer's final family portraits

Kate Wells — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:44:36 +0000

Parents love pictures of their baby. That’s why we don’t complain, at least not to their faces, when they take over Facebook and fill up our email.

But when your baby’s life is cut short, those photographs can take on a whole new significance.

This is the story of two moms, and how these final family portraits are helping them heal after the loss of a child.

Stateside: Artist Alec Soth on his Michigan travels

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:45:55 +0000

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

Alec Soth's exhibition, "From Here to There: Alec Soth's America," is on display at the Cranbrook Art Museum through March 30.

Soth spoke today with Cyndy about his time in Michigan and the various people he encountered.

Soth was unfamiliar with Michigan at the start of his trip.

Stateside: Michigan's shores documented in the Fresh Coast Project

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:29:58 +0000

Photographer Ed Wargin is enchanted by the Great Lakes; he endeavors to document all 10,000 miles of their shores with his Fresh Coast Project.

The project's aim is to celebrate the beauty of the Great Lakes through the ephemeral medium of film photography.

"I've realized we often look at the Great Lakes in parts and pieces. The goal of the project is to try to look at the Great Lakes as one story," said Wargin.

Wargin hopes his shots of gleaming sunsets will inform people of the state's abundant resources and thereby promote their preservation.

Hear Wargin further discuss his Fresh Coast Project on today's podcast.

There are two ways you can podcast "Stateside with Cynthia Canty"

Michigan Radio Picture Project: ArtPrize and Detroit Design Festival

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:04:45 +0000

Michigan Radio’s Picture Project is an experimental blog and forum for photographs that address Michigan people, places, events, and issues.

See the site for new features on Grand Rapids ArtPrize 2012 and Detroit Design Festival 2012.

Now in its fourth year, ArtPrize is an open art competition sprawling across downtown Grand Rapids--in galleries, on the street, and all over the city.

DIA photo exhibit puts Detroit in spotlight

Jennifer Guerra — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:02:33 +0000

A new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts looks at life in the Motor City over the past decade.

The exhibit - Detroit Revealed - includes videos and photographs of city residents and community gardens. It also includes images of the city’s decline: abandoned buildings and empty, overgrown lots - what some call “ruin porn."

Children focus in on nature

Michigan Radio Newsroom and What's Working — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:05:44 +0000

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-963858.mp3

With the spread and advancement of home technology such as televisions, computers, cell phones, and video games, American children are spending less and less time outdoors. A baseball glove has been traded in for a remote control, and parents have gone from fretting over grass-stained jeans to fretting over their child’s apparent reclusiveness. Most kids today are more comfortable walking a parent through setting up Facebook account than they are walking through a forest. But the Udall Foundation, based in Arizona, is trying to reacquaint kids with the joys of exploring the natural world with their Parks in Focus program.

Parks in Focus is all about bridging the gap between technology and nature. Children, mostly middle school aged, are put in touch with Parks in Focus through the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Big Brothers Big Sisters. After providing each child with a digital camera to document their explorations, Parks in Focus program leaders take the children on camping and hiking trips in some of America’s most scenic parks. While trips originally went only to the Grand Canyon, Parks in Focus has expanded to several other states, including Michigan.

Bret Muter is the Michigan Program Coordinator for Parks in Focus. He says digital cameras act as security blankets for the kids, allowing them to have a familiar piece of technology in an unfamiliar world of mountains, streams, and creepy crawlies.

“If kids aren’t comfortable with nature, they’re typically comfortable with technology such as a camera, even if they don’t own one. So cameras serve as that safety net for exploring the environment, which may otherwise be unfamiliar or even scary to some kids.”

On top of just making the children more comfortable with the initial shock of being out in the middle of the woods, Muter says the cameras allow the kids to interact with their surroundings more than they normally would.