Museum of Work and Culture

Foreward in 2021

These photos in this post are from 2018; long before SARS-CoV-2 was a concern or worldwide problem.

As with the photos I recently posted from my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, the following is a collection of photos shot in 2018 which I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years.  I only recently finished editing and composing this post alongside others from the same trip due to the sheer volume of images.

Museum of Work and Culture

In 2018, I went on a roadtrip to visit with my friend Alyssa and explore more of her home state of Rhode Island.  I’ve been several times before, but as with any trip to a place you’ve been before, you discover something new every time.  This time, one of those discoveries was the Museum of Work and Culture, a Smithsonian affiliate museum in Alyssa’s hometown.

After hearing about The Museum of Work and Culture for years after multiple visits to Woonsocket, I made sure to devote a morning to give it a full runthough.  This seemed to surprise the small staff there, as I was the only person there the entire time I went, and on my way out the door several hours later the front desk attendant commented, “Oh, wow, I thought you’d left already!”  It may not be the most popular, but this Smithsonian affiliate museum is home to a ton of Rhode Island and New England history.

The Museum of Work and Culture shares the history of French-Canadian and Québécois immigrants who traveled to New England in the late 19th century at the end of the industrial revolution, where Rhode Island had a large textile industry.  As a result of the mass migration to New England, Rhode Island still to this day has an abundant French heritage; in fact, to this day, Woonsocket, where the museum is located, has the largest concentration of French and French-Canadian population in the US, dubbing itself La ville la plus française aux États-Unis, meaning “the most French city in the United States.”

Visible through out the museum windows is the Blackstone River, one of the dams utilized by the surrounding textile industry, and some of the few remaining mill buildings that have mostly been converted into apartments.

A Day at the Newseum

Well, more like two days at the Newseum if we’re being accurate.

If you’re tired of being cooped up at home, unable to go out and enjoy the museums, and you missed out on visiting the Newseum, the post I’m sharing with you today is especially for you.

On the last day of the decade, December 31st, 2019, the Newseum, a product of the Freedom Forum, permanently closed the doors of its Pennsylvania Avenue home. The Newseum, open for a total of 22 years, demonstrated through interactive and rotating exhibits the importance of press freedom and fairness in reporting. Exhibits spanning watershed moments of history to current events showed the importance of journalism ethics, the pitfalls of censorship, and the dangers journalists can face in performing their duties. The Newseum illustrated the United States’ First Amendment’s five core values in real-world applications and infringements.

Until this December, my only experience with the Newseum was to attend a screening of the 2011 film “Documented” and subsequent panel discussion with director and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas in 2014, and the Nikon Z7 release event with Nikon President and CEO Yasuyuki Okamoto in 2018; this is to say, I’d only visited the Newseum’s atrium and auditorium for private events - none of the exhibits, as the museum was closed.

When I heard the Newseum was closing its doors, selling the building to Johns Hopkins University due to financial constraints, I made sure not to miss it any longer. Touring the Newseum was something I’d wanted to do with friends or a date for years, but invariably it always got put off; “we’ll do it later this year.” No more - across two days in December I explored the Newseum from top to bottom, like the Guggenheim, the way it was originally built and intended to be toured (this being said, my photos of the exhibits below are not necessarily arranged in order from top to bottom since these photos span across two full days, and I revisited some exhibits the second day).

I truly enjoyed every minute of the Newseum, and wish I’d simply said “no more” and visited solo much sooner than I did. Even with two full days of visiting and taking in the thousands of displays, I still missed so much of the specimens and their captions on exhibit. It is my utmost hope that the Freedom Forum will find a new, sustainable, third and final location for the Newseum and all its exhibits; the Newseum is one of, if not the most, culturally significant museum I have ever visited, because of its perpetual relevance - news breaks every day. In the last months I’ve thought about the Newseum almost daily, wondering what to be made of the systemic targeting, attacks, and arrests of credentialed media by police across the US, including just a few blocks away in Lafayette Square. I can’t help but wonder how the US’ ranking of Press Freedom on the Newseum’s Press Freedom Map has changed even in the few months since the Newseum’s doors closed. And with the ongoing pervasiveness of “fake news” and anti-science conspiracy theories being perpetuated by presidential candidates in an election year, the Newseum feels more relevant than ever now that it’s gone.

“First they came for the journalists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a journalist — we have no idea what they did after that.”
-Arleen Myers Fields’ adaptation of Martin Niemöller’s “First They Came…”

Below are highlights of my visits to the Newseum’s many exhibits; I have not included captions for these photos, as there is too much relevant information about each to properly bestow in a timely fashion. I did, however, as I frequently do visiting any museum like this, capture images of many of the museum’s own description panels. If you would like to see the full gallery of my two days of touring the Newseum, including more exhibits and artifacts, along with the museum’s captions, you can view the full gallery here.

Bonus: Newseum Restroom Misprinted Headlines

Perhaps a nod to the tradition of placing flyers in restrooms and newspapers (especially sports sections) above urinals, the Newseum’s restrooms are speckled with tiles bearing misprinted headlines, poorly phrased captions, and awkward apologetic corrections.

A Day at the Museums

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Every year I try to visit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival; this year was no different.  As we always do, Adrianna and I arrived hungry and enjoyed several of the different cultural food vendors.  With this year's festival, however, that was about all we did, as we found the entire festival quite small underwhelming, particularly in comparison to previous years; it seems as though the festival has been shrinking over the last few years, much to our disappointment, as we both look forward to attending each year.  The nearby waste bins reminded me of some fine art photography series I've seen done on trash.

We perused the entire grounds of the festival, and barely anything was going on - we saw two discussion panels, which the speakers seemed to be attempting humor that was falling flat on the gathered audiences, and there were no demonstrations taking place even at the scheduled times posted.  Disappointed, we decided to hit a few of the less trafficked museums.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

At the Hirshorn we saw parts of Yoko Ono's exhibits which were nearing their close, and Ai Weiwei's "Trace" exhibit of large LEGO portraits of political dissidents.  This of course was alongside some of Hirshorn's collection of rotating artifacts on display.

One piece that initially confused us was Reynier Leyva Novo's "5 Nights," which appear as different sized rectangles of black ink on the walls, each equal to the amount of ink used in writing five totalitarian leaders' manifestos; at the museum, we did not see a plaque explaining this, but we did notice the plaque underneath the largest rectangle labeled "Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf" and we incorrectly surmised that these were placeholders for an upcoming exhibit, one of which would be a painting by Adolf Hitler sharing the title of his infamous autobiography.  It wasn't until later that evening on the Hirshorn website that all was made clear; the conclusion we'd drawn earlier just didn't feel as though it added up, and had been bugging me for clarification and correction all day.

The detail and depth in Weiwei's repeating patterns is breathtaking, and a designer's delight.  Overtones of surveillance, oppression, suppression.  The rise of Twitter, resistance, transparency through opposition.  It's bleak and hopeful and applicable to the political state in many governments the whole-World over.  It is a modern illustration of a timeless struggle.

Weiwei's LEGO art was expansive and reminiscent of 8-bit art, eliciting thoughts of the digital age in which many of his subjects relied upon in their tasks.

National Museum of the American Indian

Next we decided to visit the nearby National Museum of the American Indian.  Adrianna is part Native American, so she's visited many times and is well versed in the exhibits and history.  I, on the other hand, had never been before, and my entire knowledge of Native American history is limited one learns in 4th grade; that is, to say, I admittedly have no significant knowledge of Native American history.  Our visit was rushed because they would be closing in less than two hours, and frankly this is a museum to fully absorb a whole day would be required; I will need to return to devote an entire day to give it the attention this museum requires and deserves.

At closing time we split a pastry in the cafeteria head off back to Virginia for dinner.

A Sebring Farewell

If you regularly read my blog, follow my photography, or know anything about me at all, you already know I'm somewhat of a "car guy."  Many of you already know that I recently replaced my first car - as all car people know, this is an emotional experience.  I've been into photography *almost* as long as I was rolling around in my first car; a 2001 Chrysler Sebring Coupe LXi (3.0L V6), affectionately known among car communities as the "Eclipse Clone" thanks to its complete underpinnings of a 3rd generation Mitsubishi Eclipse... which explains its notoriously abysmal reliability.  But more on that later.

Today's blog post is a kind of tribute to the life of my first car, as well as showing a glimpse into how my photography has grown and changed over the years.  It is more of a personal post than a professional one, so bear with me.  I have been busy with shoots lately as well, which are coming to the blog soon; for now, just enjoy this trip down memory lane with me - to a car guy, replacing your first car is a major life event, which I'd like to share with you.

Here I am in May of 2005, after driving the Sebring (my first car) home from the dealership.

As a Junior in high school, I'd ride the bus home, drop my bag off, get something to eat, and drive back to the school an hour later for Track practice.  My first trip in the car was with a friend to Sheetz for an orange Slurpee.  It was glorious.

At the time I was working my first job; a Student Ambassador (also known as a "Yellow Shirt") at Washington Dulles International Airport.  This job introduced me to individuals I still work closely with to this day.  Here I am getting in, as shot by one of my old co-workers.

A few pictures of me driving, from 2006 and 2011.

 Of course, as the driver, most of my time was spent behind the wheel.  In 2009 I was taking film photography courses in college, and one of my favorite film photos was taken while driving through a tunnel in DC.  This photo has been included in my website ever since I finally got one in 2011.  Contrary to appearance and logic, the bright light on the dash is NOT the Check Engine Light; it is instead the foglight indicator (when it worked - this light eventually burnt out, and was never able to be fixed - so fitting for this car's reliability record).

Likewise, one of my most asked about car photos was made around the same time - this was before GoPro was a thing, but I used a small camera with suction mount similar to the now endless GoPro videos online.  Until GoPro cameras came into existence, I frequently was questioned how the photo was taken - most assumed (very incorrectly) that I leaned out the window while driving.  Wow - uh, don't do that.

It didn't matter where I am; as long as it is interesting, I snap photos of car.  Although it was NOT a Subaru, I did get it filthy...

...to the point where the paint color was indeterminate...

...including the chrome rims...

...on multiple occasions.

It was mostly kept clean though.

Amazingly, that was the only true photoshoot the Sebring ever got.  It wasn't until a few years ago I really began shooting local car culture... and somehow I never photographed my own car.  Not in the way I go about photographing cars now; trying to capture details about their personalities.

So in my Sebring's final hours, I gave it the shoot it never had.  I captured every little detail about the car.  Little details I may forget later in life.  The infinite cracks in its horribly designed rigid-plastic dash.  How the trunk release lever worked.  The driver's seat view.  Everything I loved and hated about the ride.

At the end, it barely ran.  The engine was shot.  The suspension failing.  The car had been a money-pit for years (Mitsubishi).  Something new has been LONG overdue.

So here's the video: The Sebring's last moments with me.  The engine was so forgone no dealership would take it for trade-in despite how pretty it looked for a 14 year old car, so it was donated to a good charity who will decide how best to proceed.  You'll understand why as soon as you hit Play.

And that ending... those last seconds as it departs the driveway... there is no better fitting finale to a car that had so many mechanical and electrical nightmares.

A Sebring Farewell

See the tribute and heritage: http://jdavidbuerk.com/blog/2015330-a-sebring-farewellThe Sebring's final moments. The engine was shot (among other things, as you can hear), and this is video of the last time I ever saw it. For car guys, letting your first car go is an emotional experience.

Posted by David Buerk on Wednesday, April 1, 2015

So here I am seconds before the car left - the last time I touched it...

...and the scrape heard 'round the World.  You can't hear it in the video, but the tow driver also nailed the Sebring on a speed hump down the street.  It was 10x more cringeworthy, if you can imagine.

A photo of myself with both cars.

I actually DID manage to grab a few glamour shots of both cars together.  Jake graciously limped the Sebring to another location so I could get different angles.

Ironically, the battery died in the 10 minutes we took these pictures... between not being driven for several weeks since the G37 was purchased, and how it had been plagued with electrical problems for several years, the serendipity was less than surprising (for the last 6 months, the alarm would randomly go off if left out in the rain - it would need to be left to dry with the battery disconnected for several days before drivable again).

... and I didn't have jumper cables in the G37 yet.  So we had to ditch it and come back with cables.

Driving Forward

By now you clearly see that I've replaced the 2001 Chrysler Sebring with a 2010 Infiniti G37 S 6MT.

It hasn't been given it's own proper photoshoot yet; I've been waiting for nicer weather, prettier backdrops, and the opportunity to go on a mini-roadtrip.  It will get it's own photo post later on.

To end, I'll leave you with the few photos I have taken of the new ride.

Taking delivery at the dealer.

Baby's first fill-up, car wash, and making friends at DCA.  And I had similar car requirements to Kelly: Stick shift, and butt warmers.

I've actually already gotten it covered in mud, at a photoshoot no-less.  Melting snow + dirt roads + horse farm = muddy Infiniti.  Shockingly, I only took photos of the couple; not the messy car.

To finish, I'll leave you with a photo from present day - getting wings with a few great friends dating back to high school track: something of a reborn tradition (we used to get wings here after track practices).  Today, although we all find ourselves with different schedules, we always have time for lunchtime wings every couple weeks or so.

Joe is another car guy, with his tuned RDX Turbo, and Omar has a bug for sports coupes like myself - just a few days ago he picked up this Genesis 3.8 (the other model car I was considering against the G37), replacing his Tiburon (a car I was eyeballing before getting the Sebring).

The friendship lives on.