Posts By admin

Celebrating Terlingua’s Dead

Terlingua Ghost Town cemetery, November 2, 2012.

Terlingua Ghost Town cemetery, November 2, 2012.

Dia De Los Muertos celebrant at the Terlingua, Texas cemetery on Nov. 2, 2012.

Dia De Los Muertos celebrant at the Terlingua, Texas cemetery on Nov. 2, 2012.

I’m returning to Terlingua this All Hallow’s Eve to document, this time on video, the annual Dia de Los Muertos ritual at the Terlingua cemetery. Despite the presence of a thousand or more CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International) celebrants, Terlingua is full of good folks who are best at minding their own business–and throwing a great party.

Me and my crew are staying at the Villa Terlingua guest house with hostess Cynta De Narvaez.

A Fort Worth Weekly Cover Story

Railway bridge over the Trinity River on 9/14/2013. The Trinity Railway Express, the commuter line between Dallas and Fort Worth runs on this bridge.

Railway bridge over the Trinity River on 9/14/2013. The Trinity Railway Express, the commuter line between Dallas and Fort Worth runs on this bridge.


October 14, 2013 issue of "Fort Worth Weekly.

October 14, 2013 issue of “Fort Worth Weekly“.

My short feature package of story and photos documenting a few of my favorite bridges along Fort Worth’s Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River. Also includes not-so-subtle digs at Dallas.

Sunrise Flag Raising at Camp Grady Spruce

Students from W.T. Francisco Elementary School in Haltom City, Texas, attend a flag-raising ceremony at the beginning of their day at YMCA Camp Grady Spruce facility on Possum Kingdom Lake in Palo Pinto County, Texas on September 27, 2013. The students spent three days at camp studying science in the school's outdoor education program. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Students from W.T. Francisco Elementary School in Haltom City, Texas, attend a flag-raising ceremony at the beginning of their day at YMCA Camp Grady Spruce facility on Possum Kingdom Lake in Palo Pinto County, Texas on September 27, 2013. The students spent three days at camp studying science in the school’s outdoor education program.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

It’s State Fair of Texas time

A father and daughter walk down the Midway of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas. Robert W. Hart

A father and daughter walk down the Midway of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas.
Robert W. Hart

Just four more days!!!

‘Fort Worth Weekly’ Picks Up My John Graves Story and Photo

GUEST COL.indd

FW Weekly editor Gayle Reaves liked my John Graves blog well enough that she re-published it with another of my John Graves photos in the current (August 7-14) issue. I’m delighted that she thought enough of the tiny piece to publish it. Not a story, so much as a remembrance of my visits with John.

It was John’s words that put me on that river 30 years ago and will find me there again this October.

Goodbye to a Legend: Author John Graves

Author John Graves at his home, Hard Scrabble,  in Somervell County, near Glen Rose, Texas.

Author John Graves at his home, Hard Scrabble, in Somervell County, near Glen Rose, Texas.

On a cold, nasty wet day in February 1992 writer Bryan Woolley and I drove down to John Graves’ place on White Bluff Creek in Somervell County. We were both working for The Dallas Morning News and we were about to meet one of Bryan’s old friends and one of my literary heroes.

When we drove through the gate at Hard Scrabble we were greeted by John’s sheepdog Hodge, who was 10 and a bit stove-up in the hindquarters. He checked us out when we stepped out of my Bronco and decided that we were neither coyotes nor skunks, merely journalists, so we were allowed to pass.

John and his wife Jane met us on the porch of their home and invited us inside where it was warm and there was coffee.

I spent the next few hours listening to John and Bryan talk literature and books. While they talked I shot.

When John and I talked it was mostly about rivers and fly fishing and books about rivers and fly fishing. He was friends with Nick Lyons and at that time, ’92, he and Jane were still making yearly trips down to Florida to fish for tarpon with Lyons and a batch of other literary luminaries.

As the day and our time with John and Jane waned, I asked if I could come back the following weekend to photograph John fishing on White Bluff Creek, the small limestone stream that runs through Hardscrabble. He said, “Absolutely.”

A few days later I returned, made my photos and then spent some time fishing John’s 2-weight rod for perch in John’s creek.

I have, for the past 30 years, made dozens of canoe trips down John’s stretch of the Brazos. Sometimes with writer friends of my own and sometimes alone.

There, alone, thigh-deep in John’s river, I am my most serene.

The 2013 Van Cliburn Winners

Vadym Kholodenko  looks to conductor Leonard Slatkin while performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Vadym Kholodenko looks to conductor Leonard Slatkin while performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Sean Chen throws his head back near the end of his performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op 30 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Sean Chen throws his head back near the end of his performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op 30 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart


Van Cliburn International Piano Competition winners from left silver Award Winner Beatrice Rana, Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko and Crystal Award winner Sean Chen at the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition winners from left silver Award Winner Beatrice Rana, Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko and Crystal Award winner Sean Chen at the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 9, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Couple Sues Jessica Simpson, ‘OK Magazine’, Getty Images Over Use of Their Child’s Photo

A Metairie Louisiana couple is suing Jessica Simpson and OK magazine for using a photograph on its April 2012 cover of Simpson holding their child at a Metairie, La., shopping mall. Parents of the child are contending that the magazine is using the photo “in such a way as to suggest the child was hers, according to a lawsuit the couple has filed,” says this The Times-Picayune story.
OK_Magazine_Cover_photo

According to the story, the couple “. . . asserts an invasion of privacy and emotional distress caused by the celebrity news magazine, which boasts a weekly circulation of 4.5 million and a website that attracts more than 7.3 million views per month. The couple is seeking damages that appear to be no more than $75,000.”

According to the T-P story the couple essentially contends that they were unaware the photo would be used in the magazine. However, I’m failing to understand how this doesn’t come under editorial use, which negates a need for a model release. The couple literally handed the child to Simpson who was photographed by “the person thought to have taken the photo, Kevin Mazur.” Seems like the lawsuit would have actually named the photographer but I haven’t read the suit. And a shopping mall doesn’t seem like the place where anyone would have a “reasonable expectation” of privacy.

And why is Simpson named in the suit? She doesn’t edit the magazine. She doesn’t select photos for the magazine’s cover. If she simply held someone’s baby while a photographer took a photograph, it falls way short of complicity. The suit does name Getty Images and the magazine’s publishing company, American Media Inc.

Final Round of the Van Cliburn: Night 3

An intense Beatrice Rana performs Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor op. 16 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

An intense Beatrice Rana performs Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor op. 16 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

June 8, 2013--Fei-Fei Dong performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major op. 58 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

June 8, 2013–Fei-Fei Dong performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major op. 58 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Nikita Mndoyants performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Nikita Mndoyants performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Beatrice Rana returns to the stage for a curtain call after performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor op. 16 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Beatrice Rana returns to the stage for a curtain call after performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor op. 16 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Fei-Fei Dong bows to the audience after performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major op. 58 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Fei-Fei Dong bows to the audience after performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major op. 58 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 8, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Final Round of the Van Cliburn: Night Two

Vadym Kholodenko of the Ukraine performs Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Vadym Kholodenko of the Ukraine performs Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata performs Mozart's Piano Concerton No. 20 in D Minor during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata performs Mozart’s Piano Concerton No. 20 in D Minor during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart

Sean Chen, from the U.S., performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major op. 73 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013. ©2013 Robert W. Hart

Sean Chen, from the U.S., performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major op. 73 during the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas on June 7, 2013.
©2013 Robert W. Hart