nattieconcepts

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Summer Solstice Fossil Expedition at the End of the World - in Venice, Louisiana (Ancient Louisiana World Tour)

I spent the Summer Solstice at the end of the World in one of my favorite World Tour sites, Venice.

Sunset in the marsh

I first photographed Venice in 2011 during the dawn of the World Tour. I wrote a blog, "Further Down the Road", that featured my Not So Slight and Very Unnecessary anxiety about *how* I was going to photograph this worldly wonder. By the third trip down it was obvious that Venice clearly spoke for itself. This time around, on the Ancient World Tour, fossils were the motivation. Well, fossils and jaw dropping sunsets.

Summer Solstice Sunset in Venice

Water rules the road in Venice

as does the wildlife.

makes ya wonder about rush hour

The Ancient World Tour speaks to the original settlement of our world, the natural environment. I thought the Summer Solstice, a time to celebrate and respect light, the perfect time to go fossil exploring. Using the lumen print process (printing with the sun!) to create a "modern" fossil (term applied loosely) even the smallest blade of grass or the tiniest flower gives an immense sense of our intricate and fragile existence.

Blades of Venice

Venice Marsh

Venice Tall Grass

Venice Flower

After all, it's the little things that create this expansive

world we all share and live in for just a short while.

Three Birds on a Branch

One Bird in a Tree

Reflection

Til next epoch..

End of the Solstice at the End of the World

All content (c) Natasha Sanchez

www.nattie-concepts.com

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The Louisiana World Tour, a philosophical and photographic road trip through the state of my world, began in 2011 under the premise that the world is as large or as small as you want it to be. Since that time, over 20 "international" destinations have been visited in Louisiana. The Ancient Louisiana World Tour began in 2016 and aims to complement the Louisiana World Tour by honoring the natural landscape and those who came before us. Follow the blog for more exciting adventures!

Check out a preview of the Louisiana World Tour on my website
http://www.nattie-concepts.com/portfolio_-_photography/world_tour

You can also purchase The State of My World songbook, a printed version of my one-woman show, "Louisiana:The State of My World" on blurb.com

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Check out my other books available on blurb:

Nattie at the DMV

Crescent City Illumenations

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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Looking Past, Moving Forward - Sims Site, Ancient Louisiana World Tour

I've traveled the world from Athens to Quebec, but there is still so much more to discover. Louisiana, as you know, is rich in archeological sites. I've long been interested in ancient history and that interest only intensified during the Louisiana World Tour while visiting places such as the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Poverty Point. Along The Way, as I'd travel from town to town, I'd pass site after site, the Filhiol Mounds near Sicily Island, the Balmoral Mounds near Barcelona, the list goes on. I realized that I was passing our past, yet maybe exploring our past was the key to moving forward. So off I went in search of yore..

Sims Site is an archeological site located about 30 miles southwest of present day New Orleans in St. Charles Parish. It dates back to the year 800. The site originally consisted of five platform mounds, of which only two remain today. One of them is now used as a cemetery, with burial plots on top of the mound. The site was originally inhabited by the Coles Creek and Mississippian cultures and abandoned by 1700. I visited the mound that is now used as a cemetery by a local church.

Sims Site is located in the lush landscape of Louisiana.

.. which makes for great photographic framing of the mound..

I'm often asked ..."why"... Why am I so excited about a mound of dirt (and/or shells)? Its not like I'm in Himalaya after all (giggle).

The reason why, besides the obvious - that its AWESOME - is respect. Respect for those who came before us and the world they created. The premise of the World Tour is that the world is as large or as small as you want it to be. The premise of the Ancient World Tour is respect - though time and cultures vary, at the end of the day, its One World, and we are the ancient past. The past may be closer than it appears.

Til next epoch..

All content (c) Natasha Sanchez

www.nattie-concepts.com

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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The Ancient Louisiana World Tour Begins at the Beginning - in Algiers, Louisiana

Its a new World Tour Era!

There are two things I've always wanted to incorporate into the World Tour - lumen prints and our ancient past. Louisiana is far older and wiser than its recorded years so I have a launched a new component to the World Tour: fossils. Ok, modern fossils. Ok, lumen prints more precisely. Ok, massive artistic license..... I love the lumen print process for its magnificent simplicity - a solar photogram resulting in an impression of our World - as is. So I'll be revisiting & impressing upon many of those fascinating locales that we all know and love. (Get ready Poland, Hamburg & Lisbon - I'm coming back atcha!)

Shadowing my inaugural World Tour, I decided there was no better place to start my Ancient World Tour than the first place I could ever call home, Algiers on the West Bank of the Mississippi in New Orleans.

I wasn't quite sure how i wanted to start my fossil expedition, I just knew I wanted to make lumens from all those international locales. Yet when I teach photo workshops in the French Quarter - I often look to the past, envisioning how the French Quarter used to look as a French colony or how it looked under the Spanish rule after it was rebuilt after the fires of the late 1700's. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me to apply that same logic to my artistic endeavors. I wanted to visualize how Algiers & the city of New Orleans looked before it was even a glint in a Frenchmens eye - it was a cypress swampland, natch.

Thus begins my first World Tour experi-prints: bona fide fossils,

Algiers Cypress Tree Fossil, Lumen Print, 2016

Cypress Branch, Lumen Print, 2016

Algiers Cypress Fossil, Lumen Print 2016

Complete with swampy scenes and cypress knees:

Swampy Scene, Lumen Print, 2016

Cypress Knees, Lumen Print 2016

I could easily get lost in thought in Ancient Algiers

what with the wildlife and natural landscape

But then its kinda hard to miss the modernization.

Today, cypress trees line the sidewalks of Algiers alongside relics of our present and past.

Bacchus & Oyster Shell

I'm looking forward to revisting the State of My World and exploring said relics and fossils. I'll be stopping off at antiquity here and there as well. Check back as I create modern fossils from our ancient past.

Til next time...

all content (c) Natasha Sanchez
www.nattie-concepts.com

The State of My World: Songs & Photos from the Louisiana World Tour is available on blurb.com
Select Lumen Prints available on Where Y'art.com

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I also teach Photo Workshops in the French Quarter & Garden District
www.americanphotosafari.com

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Ushering in a new World Tour era - in Welcome, Louisiana

The World is only as large or as small as we want it to be - 'tis a lasting premise of the World Tour, which began in July 2011. After visiting over twenty enchanting locales all over the world (all conveniently located within Louisiana), the State of My World proved to be much larger than I ever envisioned. I have had the good fortune to share my experiences with others through my blog, photo exhibitions and in performance with my one woman show, Louisiana: The State of My World, which was most recently produced in Hammond, Louisiana (once part of the British Territory of West Florida). To accompany the performance and to bookend the last 5 years of my ever-changing, never-changing, life-changing World Tour, I created the World Tour songbook featuring photographs and lyrics to 7 of my World Tour adventure tunes. You can peruse/purchase on blurb.com or wait for the State of My World tour bus to arrive in your hometown (teehee) as I am currently retooling the performance piece and will soon be searching for exciting new venues to share my world.

But alas, for every ending there is a beginning so in 2016 - it is time to begin anew. I am embarking on a new World Tour expedition! I'll explore familiar areas but with a new angle - said angle will be revealed once I actually go somewhere - but for now I thought it apropos to welcome in this new endeavor by visiting Welcome, LA.

Welcome, Louisiana

Welcome is located on the West Bank of the Mighty Mississippi. As per World Tour protocol, one of my favorite parts of my trip to Welcome was the journey itself. I was stuck in swampy traffic for an hour, but I took the opportunity to write a song that I'd been meaning to write and the sights were a delight.

Waiting for Traffic

Crawfish Season!

In Welcome I discovered fields of sugar cane, wildflowers and long endless roads.

Sugar Cane

Wildflowers

Long Endless Road

The Inner Geographer in me noted that Rome(ville) was just across the river from Welcome, so off I went..

The Bridge to Rome(ville)

However, the Inner Geographer in me didn't complete any postgraduate academic work so had a heck of a time trying to find Rome(ville). The tomatos really should have tipped me off..