Exploring Wright with my cameras: 9.17.19

(c) Mark Hertzberg

I have written several posts this year about the stimulating challenge of finding new ways to photograph Frank Lloyd Wright- designed buildings on my umpteenth visit to them. This week I am helping lead my fourth Road Scholar Wright – Wisconsin discovery tour of the year. Today’s photo adventure was in the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

The photos above were all taken from the same seat.

The next two pictures were quick grab shots at Monona Terrace in Madison. They show the Wisconsin State Capitol framed by jets from the water fountain on the rooftop garden level:

Tomorrow we are off to visit Jacobs 1, the Unitarian Meeting House, Wyoming Valley School, Taliesin, and Hillside Home and School. Will I see something new? That’s the challenge! It happened often in past visits with RS groups this spring – and I have posted those photos – but I won’t force a photo. If nothing speaks to me tomorrow, so be it; I can’t shoot something just for the sake of taking a picture.

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Photographing Wright

Photos (c) Mark Hertzberg 2017

I have been accompanying a Road Scholar architecture tour in Racine, Milwaukee, Madison, and Spring Green. Below are some photos I’ve shot during the tour, as well as some photos from a shoot at SC Johnson Tuesday:

The ceiling in the entry way of Wyoming Valley School, Spring Green:

Classroom window mitre at Wyoming Valley School:

View of the Wisconsin River from Riverview Terrace Restaurant:

The Ceiling in the Assembly Room of Hillside Home School, Spring Green:

Taliesin, Spring Green:

Unitarian Meeting House, Madison

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Wauwatosa:

Wingpsread (H.F. Johnson Jr. Home), Wind Point:

SC Johnson Administration Building, Racine:

And, finally, one that did not work out…I needed a photo to illustrate Wright’s use of light in the Great Workroom…I did not want the typical documentary photo. I borrowed a fisheye lens from Nikon. I have given it a trial run with some people via email, and they have given it a thumbs down. I am inclined to agree with them. But I had to try it. Here is what that miss looks like:

Good Friday at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Photos and text (c) Mark Hertzberg

       I had the privilege of being invited by Father Angelo Artemas to photograph vespers and evening services yesterday, Good Friday in the Greek Orthodox Church, at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church near Milwaukee.

        I came there as an architectural photographer, but photographed as a photojournalist, to show how the building works for its intended purpose, as an ecclesiastical building. I was allowed to shoot from wherever I wanted to go during the services, and was warmly welcomed by the congregation. The photos that follow show the service and rich traditions of the church, as well as the building. They are in order: first, the afternoon vespers service, and then the candlelit evening service, which included a procession around the outside of the church.

Congregants kissed the icon of Jesus Christ before vespers

Father David Hostetler holds the Gospel aloft during a procession around the sanctuary

Much of the liturgy is conducted by the priests behind the screen in front of the sanctuary. This is because the priests lead the congregation in prayer, rather than praying to them. As shown in a previous posting of interior photos of the church (https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/annunciation-greek-orthodox-church-2/)

Eugene Masselink’s icons were replaced by icons that are said to better reflect church doctrine. That is why there are no plans to put Masselink’s icons back in the sanctuary. Masselink’s icons are shown in the previous article.

Father Angelo Artemas takes the icon of Christ down from the cross

The shrouded icon (right) is then carried around the church

At the end of the service congregants, including children, express their reverence as they kiss the Gospel, the cross, and art work of the crucifixion of Christ which are displayed in a flower-decorated symbolic representation of the empty tomb of Christ. The empty tomb is part of the procession outside the church during the evening service, below:

 

 

 

 

Father David Hostetler lights congregants’ candles

 

The procession forms to go outside

Father Angelo Artemas gives congregants flowers from the symbolic empty tomb, as they kiss his hand at the end of the evening service.

 

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Text and Photos (c) Mark Hertzberg

I recently had the privilege of being invited by Father Angelo Artemas to photograph the interior of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee.

Interestingly, with all the thousands of dollars in camera bodies and lenses I carry, the two thin horizontals were shot with my iPhone 4S using the Panorama camera function.

I have many “record shots” of the sanctuary, but the photos I am posting are photos of details in the church. One of the most important design features in the sanctuary are the three light poles in the stairwells. The three light poles represent the Holy Trinity. The white lights represent the stars, the blue lights the Virgin Mary.

Cindy, my wife and extra set of eyes, noticed a resemblance between the sculptured ends of the pews and the statue of Nakoma at the SC Johnson Research Tower in Racine. Maria Pandazi, a member of the congregation and past president of Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin (www.wrightinwisconsin.org) explained to me that, “The sculptured ends of the pews are intended to represent the Christian symbol of the fish pointed downward (the ball being the tail).”

Natural light is supplemented by light fixtures below the dome:

Wright’s windows were integral parts of his designs. There are art glass windows on either side of the front door. The first photo shows one of the windows and its reflection on the floor of the entry way.

The second photo shows one of the windows viewed through the glass wall added at the entrance to the sanctuary after Wright’s death. He did not design those windows.

Another significant change in the church was the removal of the icons which Eugene Masselink designed for the altar. The original icons are now displayed in the basement of the church:

The next photos are exterior photos shot last summer…