Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, Photography, Video, Cinemagraphs, New York City
You don’t have to think about Rodin to feel Rodin. Perhaps, even, it is what you feel first that stays with you after. How can someone sculpt the thoughts of man, the memories of love, the history of humanity with seemingly such ease?… take a walk through the Rodin Museum in Paris on a sparkling afternoon and find yourself haunted by the beauty of his immortalized humanity…
Another autumn has come and gone, another year of memories with fleeting snapshots from Paris to add to my archive. I love Paris in the fall, the dynamic sky, the ease of getting lost in the day just wondering and watching, and the romantic nights when she beings to sparkle like no other. With each passing year I always reset my eyes on this city of photographic love.
“There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
After heading out to L.A. to experience the Sound of Luxury we decided to make it a long weekend…why would you not, it was 18 degrees in New York at that time. We rented the most amazing Airbnb industrial loft in Marina del Rey to hide out in when we weren’t experiencing all the best food L.A. had to offer. Mostly, I wanted to just cruise around and play in the sun, dance in the light, and feel the ocean spray on my face. Here are snapshots from a weekend in Los Angeles shot on black & white 35mm film with the camera I first learned how to take photos with…
While in Guatemala I discovered Swedish designer Rodebjer whom I’ve since fell in love with. Above, wearing Rodebjer’s white shirt dress that allows you to unbutton the front, back and sides in any conformation to change it from a shirt to a dress to the perfect beach coverup. 
Continue reading “Snapshots from Los Angeles”
I have fallen in love with Amsterdam. I don’t know how it is that this stunning city has been off my radar for this long. It’s a photographer’s dream with the never-ending canals wrapping around brick lane roads and arched bridges. Everything here is wonderful: The Dutch architecture! The flowers! The stroopwafel cookie! The Van Gogh Museum! Vondelpark! Bike rides! Boat rides! Shopping! and of course, amazing food. It’s a perfect place to escape to for a weekend away, charming and walkable and full of anything your heart may desire.
10 Favorite finds in Amsterdam
Van Stapele Koekmakerij – Just imagine the best warm chocolate cookie in the world. This is that.
Screaming Beans – Amsterdam hands down makes the best cappuccinos and this little espresso spot is heavenly.
Marc O’ Polo – Cool, comfy, casual clothing
The Dylan – Gorgeous hotel, amazing afternoon “high wine” experience.
Ron Gastrobar – TOPS. Some of the best modern food I’ve ever had. Get the “Surprise Egg” for dessert.
Boat tour – you have to experience the city on the water. We did it at night with a bottle of champagne.
Brasserie Harkema – French restaurant in an old cigar factory
Lyppens Antique Jewelry Store – I bought an antique gold ring with dancing baby diamonds I call my champagne ring with my friend Laurel who met us in Amsterdam for all the “off the record” memories.
Biking through Vondelpark
I feel so fortunate to get to experience such wonderful luxuries in life and a day with Ralph Lauren is always such a pleasure. To launch their new Automotive Eyewear Collection they opened up the doors to the Classic Car Club of Manhattan to send us on a road trip out of the city, up the Hudson River to test drive some seriously cool sunnies in Ralph Lauren style.
Since I own a little vintage convertible I decided to go modern lux… I found out the Bentley drives a little smoother than my 1982 Mercedes and you can actually hear the music on the stereo! We flew across the George Washington Bridge to my favorite local drive along the Palisades. I love that feeling when you turn off the bridge waving goodbye to Manhattan and becoming instantly enveloped in trees ans nature. We stopped for lunch a the Red Hat on the River, a converted factory building restaurant with water views and killer lobster rolls. It was a perfect way to spend a summer Friday- fast cars, fun friends and fashion.
In the 1950s, my grandfather Beck was stationed in Berlin. Growing up as a child, I was always so fascinated by the old black & white photos of him from this era in this place unlike anything I knew on the country roads of Texas. I’ve always wanted to go and walk in his footsteps, to think of him as a young man, his family so far away, the devastation of war in front of him. We walked from East to West, we studied the differences from old photographs. We wandered the streets of Scheunenviertel and Kurfürstendamm. We had pretzels and beer, schnitzel and sauerkraut and look back in time of a city that changed so much.
Paris is so much to me…a constant source of inspiration, of light study, and beauty. When we stepped off the train from London at Gare de Nord, the smell hit me, that same familiar Parisian smell of coffee and cigarettes, and dusty old books in a garden of roses. The hotel, so quaint, with the Eiffel Tower framed between the walls of the street. We sat in cafes and drank wine, watching the people go about their day, their loves, their minds lost in their own thought. I wonder what they are thinking and have I thought that same thing before? We climbed the stairs of Sacre Coeur, danced with the states at the Louvre, and watched the sunset on Pont Neuf. On a poetic day we found ourselves on a train to Normandy, on a walk through the beaches of Omaha in silence, imagining the horror of war, looking up at the fate of too many. I always love Paris – it’s never goodbye but only I’ll see you soon…. and soon I did.
We descended upon London, totally embracing being tourists – drinking London’s pride ale, eating fish & chips, visiting Westminster Abbey and the London Tower. We walked through Hyde Park in the rain and looked in awe at the crown jewels. We looked out over the vista of an English countryside, quiet and lush in the early morning mist at Windsor Castle, before turning back the hands of time to the wonders of Stonehenge. We laughed over a cup of tea at Oxford and watched the students walk by with our future in their hands. The beautiful streets, so proud, the people so elegant, I’ll always remember London as lovely as the classical music playing at Dean Street over the sound of soft falling rain.
In line with all the sentiment I put into our anniversary picnic, mementos from our life together, I chose this Pablo Neruda poem, a souvenir from our time in Santiago, Chile, to read to Kevin over our picnic spread… a verbal anniversary card if you will…which now unfolds into our visual history with these intimate and simple snapshots of each other capturing this time alone – he & I on the beach with nothing but the sea.:
“I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.”
Last autumn I wandered the streets of Paris with only my old Pentax and some rolls of film…I needed to take a break from digital, take a break from work, but photography never leaves me. I find I can never truly stop creating.
Next to my desk at the studio, I have a file cabinet full of film from all over the world. When doing some reorganizing recently, I came across these images that I had missed when I was telling the story of Paris in fall last year. These images are my memories, so personal, and finding them swept me right back to that place and time, those long walks in the afternoon, and the feeling of watching the sunset on the Seine with a glass of wine. I want to go back to this place again someday, but for now, we will have to relive these moments through images…
We have started a tradition of traveling to Paris in the fall. It’s my favorite time to be there. The saturation of colors, the excitement of light layering and new autumn jackets, the light of the day is still long and the temperature is perfect for endless walks. This time in Paris we were guests of Ralph Lauren, to bring light to the new renovation project at the L’École des Beaux-Arts, experience “An American in Paris” and celebrate with a gala as sparkling as the Eiffel tower at night… but the other nights we sat at Pont Neuf and drank wine while watching the sun set, we walked the cobbled streets to film the city as she is today – still so timeless and beautiful -, we picked up treasures for our new studio at the flea market, and we had many amazing meals with friends we have made, friends who call this place home and open their life to us so that we can dream the dreams of Paris….
we are safe to
tell our story here.
(for a week spent floating in Paris,
every year.)
structure,
she has structure,
tough as any skyscraper
though no building here
is more than a few stories.
she has lore.
she has a spirit
thousand of years in the making,
has a romance older than anyone’s memory,
anyone’s happy, lifelong marriage.
she has courage – our word that comes
from “coeur”, from heart.
she has dozens of parts,
arrondisements that speak to one another,
making something like a whole.
she has words
to spare.
she has
our complete trust.
I love New York. We all do. After Sandy hit I went for a walk to see the bruises it left on our city. It is not in my nature to photograph things in pain — this post is not about that. In our life here I always carry a simple film camera around with me as a way to capture the beauty of our city in small fleeting moments as I run to meetings or kill time on photo shoots. These are images from the past few months the way she was… the way she will be again.
Epic walks through London’s windy streets, watching the people and pace of life pass by with just an old film camera and a pair of penny loafers… London, come rain or come shine~
