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I went to the Sidney Mishkin Gallery again, with my friends in order to write something for this blog. The first time we had gone there it was because our English teacher took us there so that we could later on write a paper about what we saw.  We decided to go back there again, because the first time we went it was somewhat interesting and we thought that it would be a little more interesting this time because it had to do with Jazz. When we walked in, we realized that we were the only ones in there and I thought wow this exhibit must suck because there is nobody in here, but as soon as we started to look around I realized that there were interesting pictures hanging up. Although I am not too familiar with famous people of the Jazz era I recognized some of their faces, although I still had to look at the descriptions of the photos in order to learn their names. They say that a picture is worth 1000 words and that’s very true, because if you were to read the descriptions of all the pictures without actually seeing the pictures you would just know some information about the Jazz era, but by looking at the photographs you kind of experience the moment of when that photograph was taken. The photos help you put yourself in that time period and imagine what it would have been like living in that era. The photos also caught the emotion of these people and that also helped me generate a connection with the photo. My favorite pictures are those when the people don’t know that they’re being photographed because then you feel that the photo is genuine and that all the emotions and actions in that photo are real and are happening naturally rather then being planned or directed. The photos in the gallery were either taken by or featured Milt Hinton, who was both a Jazz player and photographer. He is referred to as “The dean of Jazz bass Players” or “The Judge.” I don’t think that I’ve ever heard any of his songs, but his photographs are really good and he had a talent for capturing the Jazz mood.

I’m kind of late with this but it’s ok. Last week I went to the Sidney Mishkin Gallery again. Last time I went with my english class and as last time it wasn’t like crazy interesting or anything special. Last time it was just a bunch of pictures and same this time. The lady at the place just gave me and kris the little postcard paper thing. I wasn’t too amazed at the pictures. It seemed as though Milt Hinton just followed all of the musicians during the Harlem Renaissance when Jazz was poppin’ (It’s still poppin’ now).  I liked the descriptions for the pictures. Each picture could tell it’s own story. I felt like I was going through the jazz period myself just by reading the stories, but obviously I wasn’t. We just kept walking around and kept looking at the pictures. I loved how everyone was usually smiling and having a great time even though there was still a lot of segregation. A lot of the pictures always alluded to segregation between whites and blacks. The jazz players kind of smiled and laughed about it instead. They were just doing their thing and bringing people together through  music. I like how Milt Hinton captured all of it in the moment and in all of those places. He was really capturing the essence of the jazz age and you don’t mess with the jazz age, cause jazz is part of New York.

It was pretty cool how he got to go around with all of these musicians and just take photos of them. He became friends with a bunch of cool jazz musicians. Let me see one of you mofos do that. He traveled everywhere from New York to Tokyo. During that time,The Great Depression, people wouldn’t even be leaving their homes, Milt was going all over the world taking photos.

I would really love to do that, but one I’m not an awesome photographer, and two…don’t really know that many talented people to follow around. I would use him as an example in life though. He did what he loved, even when times were tough and work was hard to find. He did things differently.

It’s fun seeing the pictures cause you can put yourself in that position or that point in time rather than just reading about the Jazz age from a textbook. That would be boring and you would get the wrong idea about it. It’s great that Milt Hilton captured all of the pictures how he did. It really points out the joy and happiness music brought to the musicians and to the people. I can relate to that cause music is very universal and it really does bring people together and it can seriously depict a point in time.

Overall it was a good experience going to the gallery again and seeing all the photographs. I wouldn’t mind doing it again. It really lets you think about that time, but maybe another type of exhibit  to mix things up.

-Andrey Marioutine

This was my second time going to the Mishkin Gallery on 22nd st. I thought the entire gallery was really interesting because i’m really interested in art. Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, so i really enjoyed seeing other works of photography. Milt Hinton was a jazz musician and also a photographer. He liked taking pictures in his gigs and liked taking pictures of his fellow musicians. He didn’t have really any main focus or concentration to his photography, he just took pictures of anything he saw. His photographs look pretty normal but they all have a deep meaning which is explained in the caption. Even though his pictures were pretty normal, it was still good quality and being a photographer myself, it was pretty obvious that Milt Hinton was a good photographer himself. Also, most of his photos are candid, and capturing good moments that are candid are really rare. I didn’t know a lot of the jazz musicians there, so i was a little confused at who i was looking at. The only jazz musician that i know is Louis Armstrong, and not all of the other musicians that were in the pictures. I had no idea who Milt Hinton was, but now i’m a little more interested, more in his photography than in his music though. Going to the gallery made me realize a lot how i really like photography. It used to be a major hobby of mine, but i never really ever went to galleries or exhibitions. It was just a normal hobby. But now, i’m a lot more interested and i hope to visit more galleries or exhibitions in the future. Milt Hinton really inspired me to start taking up photography as a hobby again. I want to now start taking photographs a lot more than i used to. I feel like i should bring my camera with me again everywhere i go because there are moments that happen randomly that i’d be able to capture, just like how Milt Hinton did it.

I went to the Gallery, Milt Hinton’s Jazz Photographs: Classics and Works in Color. I found out a lot of stuff about the exhibit in general but let me read off the pamphlet that the lady gave us. Milt Hinton’s known as the renowned jazz bassist, he’s called “The Judge” and he took his camera everywhere he went. He’s popular for taking pictures of his friends who happened to be musicians. He ran all around the world, from New York to Tokyo. He rode in bars, bus stations and recording studios so he was a every day photographer.. So what appeals to me is that he’s an everyday photographer. What I saw at the exhibit was someone who took pictures of everyday things. I feel like his photographs were, pretty average. Nothing special because they were of ‘everyday things’. What’s so special about everyday things? well, it’s because each picture told a story. There was one of a Black man walking down a street. That’s great. I saw the picture and saw nothing special. But then I read the caption and it told a story about how that man was the famous musician Otis Redding… loljk no it wasn’t I don’t know who the musician was because I forgot the name. But Otis Redding is the only jazz musician I know. Anyway, the story was captivating at the time but I’m sad to say that I can’t remember it. The quality of the picture was nice too. There’s weren’t any Polaroid shots, so I assume everything was developed on it’s own. That’s quite impressive especially at that time. Uh, I can relate. I have always wanted to become someone what of a photographer. Not because of money or anything but because I like my camera and I like showing other people the world through my eyes. Really. Would I ever take a photography class? maybe. But I have no intentions of majoring or minoring in it, so that’s what makes me different. What makes me the same (or almost) is that I am an everyday photographer (kinda). Because I do take pictures of everyday things, my friends, and maybeeeeeeeeee musicians. Haha no I don’t know any. I took a picture with J Cole once. That’s not the point. Even though I’m too lazy to bring my camera with me everywhere, it’s way to big, I appreciate the fact that he brought his everywhere and I can relate. One day, I’d like to go to Japan as well. It’s on my chopping block, next city. I like to travel a lot. I need like 40 more words… eh I don’t know what to say. The exhibit was nice. Clean. Okay I’m done. 😀

On December 6th I attended the Small Talk Part II workshop offered by Star Career Development. Even though the workshop was short it was very helpful. This workshop is meant for people that need to learn social skills and excel in communications. I learned how to begin a conversation and ways to keep the conversation going. For example, if you’re attending a holiday party and a firm recruiter is at the event and you’re in need of a job, what should you do? For me I would have the host of the party introduce me to him. I would want to be introduced because I don’t want to go up to someone and feel like that I’m a needy person and coming on to hard. So if someone introduces me to the recruiter they will be able to say some positives about me and have the conversation start for me and then the recruiter and I will be able to begin our small talk about anything.
This program also had its negatives, the program as helpful as I thought because of the shortness and how bored I was in it. We only read about five pages of our fifteen page packet and they only had drawings or figures on it. When it time to have our questions answered I didn’t have any questions because I didn’t learn anything new. But I felt bad for the man that was offering the class because within five minutes of the seminar starting a group of people left, the class started with 25 and ended with about eleven people left in it.
In the beginning of the workshop, we introduced ourselves to the class and also went into small groups to have small chats among each other. We received a packet about different techniques we can use to start a conversation. In the packet it gave us fifty tips on what to do and not to do during a conversation. The proctor then told us about how body language can tell a lot about if you want to talk or not. For instance, if you cross your arms it says that you don’t want to be bothered or you’re in deep thought. This is very obvious, but people need to know that this will happen. Even if the person is willing to speak with people and showing this mood, nobody would want to approach them or speak to them.
If this seminar was to be offered again I don’t think I would attend, but I would attend a seminar on job searching or how to make my resume better than what it already is. The only thing that I would be able to take out of the seminar is that I have to begin a conversation and not to always depend on people to come to me and begin the conversation. For me being a shy person it is going to take some practice, but sooner or later it will be easier than thought it would be.

I attended the workshop “Small Talk: It’s a Big Deal! Part 2” hosted by the STARR program and I have to say it wasn’t at all very informative. It didn’t tell me anything that I did not already know. In this workshop we discussed the importance and prevalence of small talk. The first thing that the proctor discussed is the definition of what small talk actually was; he defined small talk as informal conversation between two people, or a group of people. I knew the definition of small talk and too me it was something that I did every single day. Small talk is used to pass time and get to know people and sometimes make them like you. I use small talk in my everyday life; I used small talk to score discounts in a store and even to make friends in order to get certain benefits.

The proctor then moved on to speak about how body language affects the mood of a conversation and how it gives the listener hints on how you are feeling. Again, this is knowledge that by this point in our lives we should probably already have. The body language that we give up is extremely important to those who are listening to us. It expresses our openness, respect and even our interest with the subject at hand.  If we give off a particularly negative body language the person that is speaking might feel intimidated or might feel that you have no interest in what they are speaking about. This of course, affects small talk because when making conversation with people that you do not know, your body language is there main idea of you. If you give off a negative body language then they are going to feel negative about you.

The one thing that I found extremely interesting and insightful is the suggestion that we keep up with daily news and information because this will give us more to talk about during small talk. Now, I am not one to keep up with the main media or politics but I do tend to hear the important stuff that happens; which will hopefully give me something to talk about during an important interview. I’m not the type of person to make small talk but I do know a lot about it; we have exercise at my high school to improve or small talking skills and spontaneity, weird right?  Of course, since I lack the confidence to actually go up to a random person and start small talk, I’ll never actually be able to use all my vast knowledge on the subject. Guess I just got to hope that people come up to me and just start talking away. I mean there is a huge difference between talking to a person at the store over clothes, or at a restaurant over the food but a random person about the weather? It just seems like i wouldn’t be very good at it, and probably end up having that awkward silence for a while. Lucky for me i go to seminars that will help me improve these skills, yay me.

 

 

Last week I visited the Sidney Mishkin Gallery on 22^nd Street for my second time so far. I really like visiting the Gallery and getting to see more interesting pictures of famous photographers through history. I really like seeing photographs rather than paintings because I build an image of my own from them. Last time, the Gallery exhibited a series of photos through history that portrayed emotions, it was quite moving. This exhibit was quite enjoyable as well.

 

In the first exhibit that I went to, the gallery was portraying various types of photographs and paintings through history. One that really got me thinking was a sketch of a vineyard in Italy. Instantly it reminded me of my grandfather’s vineyard in Greece. Although this sketch was a little dark and grey it brought a happy feeling to me. I also noticed on the very bottom of the painting there was Morse code. I asked what it meant and the curator told me that it portrays the saying “I heard it through a grapevine” and how during the war there were communication lines running through the vineyards in Italy and that’s how the expression emerged. I didn’t know that I could learn so much from a simple picture. It goes to show that a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

 

Going again last week for our class I once again realized my love for music. I used to play the piano for 8 years and so seeing pictures of great musicians is a pleasant sight. I enjoyed seeing pictures of musicians I know this time like Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Barbara Streisand. These are huge names that not only changed the music of their time, but shaped the music that we listen to today. I believe they were caught excellently in these stills and they definitely portray the musicians in their natural environment. I could easily tell Milt Hinton was a very good photographer at seizing the moment. The curator of the gallery said to me that Hinton once said “I’d sneak up to people and shoot them when they were off guard.” This clearly shows that his eye for candid pictures in portraying the subject of the picture naturally was good. I didn’t even know who Milt Hilton was before I visited the Gallery but I am growing to like his work and how he portrays history through his photographs.

 

I have to say, I really enjoy going to this gallery. It allows you to escape and look at something else in time. It is amazing how in a city like New York, there are still places that can truly escape you. I will definitely be visiting the gallery again through my time at Baruch and even after I hope. Maybe I can donate some art and keep the gallery going in the future.

– Constantine Petropouleas

I visited the Sidney Mishkin Gallery with a couple of my friends. I forced them to come with me because they thought that the gallery was going to be boring. I also thought it was going to be boring. I was never really into museums and galleries. In high school, trips to museums and galleries were always the most boring trips to everyone. No one ever wanted to go and nothing really ever seems to catch anyone’s interest. As I walked into the gallery, I was expecting another boring trip to a room with old pictures hanging around the walls just like the time I had to go to the same gallery with my English class. I walked in with my friends and immediately they started to catch interest in some of the pictures. I didn’t thoroughly look at any of the pictures. My friends, who are all musically talented, pointed me out to some pictures. They began to ask if I knew the people in the pictures. I didn’t know anyone except Louis Armstrong. Then when I realized that the gallery was  actually filled with musicians from the past. I started to look around and also realized that the pictures were mostly candid.

I never liked galleries and museums because the pictures are usually posed or made from a certain person’s perspective made into a picture or painting. The Sidney Mishkin Gallery had pictures taken by Milt Hilton who candidly took pictures of jazz performances. I looked around and stuck around in the gallery to see that the jazz performances by dozens of jazz musicians such as Cab Calloway, Billy Taylor, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, Gene Krupa, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Barbara Streisand. My friends knew most of the artists. The candid pictures show that not all art is just one person’s idea but could be seen from a different perspective or point of view from anyone that sees the pictures.

I can’t say that it was best place I’ve ever been to; but the gallery made me see that there are a lot of things. Especially that New York City is not the only place where performances, hobbies, or any kind of action for that matter are happening. Milt Hinton took pictures throughout the whole world. In the photos of the famous jazz artists that were named before, the artists in the pictures are performing on stage. Milt Hinton takes his time as a hobby, besides being a jazz artist himself, to explore of his musician friends, colleagues, and other known artists from New York City to Tokyo. In the end, I think my friends ended up liking the gallery more than I did. I came out of the gallery with a new sense that not all museums and galleries are all the same. My friends were talking about if each of them knew a song from this artist and that artist that they saw a picture of in the gallery. I did like the gallery.

 

Michael Shin

Last Thursday I attended the Sidney Mishkin Gallery on 22^nd street. This was my second time at this gallery and I have to say I enjoyed it just as much. Unlike many typical museums that tend to have the same artifacts every time you attend the gallery changes its photographs giving you a new experience each time. I will admit that my first time attending this gallery I was not to excited about going. In my mind I thought it would be boring and I thought how much a picture could really teach me. I’m glad to say that now after attending I was definitely wrong.

Upon entering the gallery I met a woman who gave me a tour of the whole gallery. My first time at the gallery I learned more about the types of photographs there were this time I was able to use this information and apply it to the new photos. Photographs, especially those taken during major historical events, allows a person to actually see what had happened. The actual viewing of past events gives others; well at least it gives me, a deeper meaning of the event that I am learning about. For example I have read over a hundred books on the Holocaust but nothing affected me more than the summer I went to the Holocaust Museum in Israel. Seeing the photographs gave me an actual scene to view. It allowed me to see what exactly happened and it made me feel as if I was there. The same thing happened when I entered the Sidney Mishkin Gallery the first time. I saw the pictures of many historical events. These images stayed in my head throughout the day. All I could think about were all the different scenarios that could have been happening has the photo was being taken. The gallery allowed me to finally understand the meaning, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

My most recent visit to the gallery taught me about jazz. Since growing up in a different time than when the photographs were taken I was able to learn much. The exhibit this time focused in on one very important photographer by the name of Milt Hinton. Hinton was a photographer whose photos had essentially everything to do about jazz in the later 1930s. I learned that many of the photos that I saw are used as pictorial records of their time. Many of Hinton’s photographs included photos of Cab Calloway, Billy Taylor, Barbara Streisand, and Ella Fitzgerald. Along with being able to capture the feel of the jazz society, Hinton was also able to portray the view of how New York City was in the past. I really enjoyed looking at the photos of what use to be in the city I now live in. It makes you wonder what it was like back than and how you would have been if you were around back then. The gallery made me think of how much has changed. It also taught me a lot about a time period I was very unfamiliar about. I really enjoy attending this gallery and hope to go there again in the near future to see what else it has to offer.

Leenore Mesica

I visited the Milt Hinton gallery near Baruch, and it seemed very interesting. I am a musician myself, so seeing old photographs of music developing over time was very appealing to me. Hinton played with other famous musicians during his time such as Aretha Franklin. He performed in many huge concerts including Chicago’s world fair. Many of the pictures were taken at recording studios. A recording studio is a musician’s favorite place to be, because it is the place where all your ideas, projects and hard work come together and gain credibility as well as legitimacy. It is an awesome place to be, and is basically the only place for musicians to prove themselves rather than shows. His pictures within the studios portrayed a number of different musicians, being both Caucasian and African-American. This was very interesting to witness in comparison with his other work, which showed evident segregation of races during his time. Civil rights was still a problem, but music crossed all boundaries and allowed for people of all different races to work together and make magic happen.

Hinton’s life was very long and full of history. One of his photographs showed him paying for a very famous artist, who hosted a huge show in the United States. In the blurb on the side, Hinton noted that he had played for a 100-year remembrance show for the same conductor he played with 60 years earlier. This shocked me greatly and made me wonder how old Hinton really was. I found out he died at the age of 90 in 2000. He was highly respected for his work and production of music over his long years. He was one of the many African-Americans to break the color boundary in the form of music, but one of the few to keep first-hand accounts and photographs of the entire journey. Some his photographs were taken to be humorous, often making fun of the segregation in America. Hinton and his friends would stand in front of doorways that read: “COLOR ENTRANCE”, point at it, and smile for the camera. This type of humor illuminated Hinton’s well-being, laid-back attitude and joyous perception on life.

A lot of Hinton’s pictures were also photographs of his influences. He took a lot of snapshots of people he worked with, no matter what color their skin was. He traveled around the world, performing for anybody that would listen. He first started in small nightclubs and cafes. People around eventually realized his true talent and he then began being hired for bigger shows, contributions to producing and mixing, songwriting for movies and studio sessions. Everyone in the music business is closely related because of its small size. He therefore had many opportunities to play and work with all different kinds of musicians and was introduced to many different types of genres, which aided his own musicianship. Hinton was an originator and extremely important shaper of American culture, both music and racial interaction. He has influenced many and will continue to do so as his legacy lives on in the hearts of all types of musicians.

-Kristopher Kesoglides