new photo series - amberortolano.blogspot.com/2013/08/anew.html
Visual artist Amber Fletschock’s sophisticatedly dense pieces masquerade as digital art.
Nagchu horse racing festival in 2009 Girl's remarkable ceremonial costume included a headpiece of enormous amber beads and beautiful robes and necklaces of dzi and coral. ===================================================== Ornaments make up most of the life savings of many Khampa families, and so play an important role in Tibetan families' lives as well as in announcing the social status of the wearers. They are saved up for over many years and handed down for centuries from generation to generation within families. Until very recently, these families were nomadic and have to move every few months because of the snowy seasons in the Himalayas, so Khampas have always needed to store their wealth in portable form. So being unable to store wealth in the form of estates or houses or land or in a bank, for millenia wealth has been stored in art, precious fabrics, and particularly into ornaments. Their culture is very conservative about the type of ornaments favored: for thousands of years jewelry made from amber, turquoise and coral have been worn because the stones are believed to hold spiritual power. Gold and silver and also naturally found in Tibet, and the use of these metals by the wealthy also goes back thousands of years. Their ornaments are very chunky, bold and colorful. While the gold earrings that Khampa women wear may have cost them a year or maybe several year's of their salary, ornaments carry so much social status in their society that probably didn't have to think twice about the purchase. To the Khampa people these ornaments have the utmost sentimental value and significance, because they are the physical remnants of generations of their ancestors hard work or success. what these people are wearing is not just their life savings, but also their family history and treasure. this culture has been around for millenia - archeological finds from the 1st century AD in the khampa area unearthed ornaments that are essentially the same in design and materials as today's are. there are also beliefs that the stones provide good luck and protection to disease. dyed red coral is the most sought after stone, but interestingly tibet is very very far from any oceans - all the coral is imported by traders! Religious symbols from Tibetan Buddhism frequency form the designs of pieces, however archeological finds show that the role of ornaments in Tibetan society and peoples' lives long predate the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet. Indeed the beliefs of spiritual protection being provided by coral, amber and turquoise probably originate from the ancient shamanic Bon religion.
I am a Trend Forecaster based in Durban, South Africa. I compile bespoke Trend Forecasting reports with global content that is localised in interpretation.
It's fitting that one of the early loves of British export Craig McDean was music. The photographer, who currently lives in New York with his wife, the shoe designer Tabitha Simmons, and their children, grew up frequenting clubs and shooting local bands in Manchester in the '80s.
John Singer Sargent 1856-1925 Verenigde Staten
Medieval inspired shoots always have the best clothes, don't you agree?
The Conservatory
