THE A-Z PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE

A Medley of Marvellous Museums

And a mighty proud Mummy moment…

Le Museé des Beaux Art, Montréal. All photos in this story were taken by me, Barb Dalton, and cannot be used without permission.

2024 is here and I’m exactly halfway through this A-Z challenge that JoAnn Ryan started this time last year. I failed to represent the 26 letters of our alphabet within 12 months, but I’m not about to give up; my mission is to complete it this year!

I’ve usually done a hodge-podge of pictures to represent previous letters, but, the more I perused my photos for the letter M, I realized I had a story simply with some of the museums I’ve visited over the years.

From New Zealand to Australia, and from French France to French Canada, here’s the letter M — museum style.

New Zealand

The Auckland Museum is housed in a beautiful old building that overlooks the harbour. I had my wedding photos taken over three decades ago in front of those grand columns.

At least they’re still standing…!

Auckland Museum

Inside are some fabulous displays that I could relate to. Hmmm, does that mean I’m an old fossil?

I wrote about pediatric dental care briefly some time ago and mentioned it in another story last week. The lead picture in the attached story is exactly as I remember ‘the murder house’ and was taken in this museum.

[embed]When I was a kid, our school had a dental nurse, and her clinic was called the murder house… In 2007, I was back home and had taken the kids on a visit to the museum. I was instantly thrown back in time when I…medium.com

Further down the country in [windy] Wellington is The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It is in a more modern building which opened in 1998. The city is earthquake-prone and there are strict rules to ensure structures are built — or renovated — to code.

Interestingly, the base isolation¹ technology that is used in this building — and many other notable ones in other seismic regions globally — was pioneered by a New Zealander, Dr Bill Robinson. We may be small and at the arse-end of the world, but we’re innovative!

Inside, the exhibit on Gallipoli² is not to be missed. If you’re a movie fan, you’re already familiar with Weta Workshop³, the visual effects company that has won dozens of awards including five Academy’s and four BAFTA’s for their outstanding creations — such as their work with the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Another example of the incredible stuff that happens in a country that has the population of Montréal! Do you sense my pride?

The life-like displays in the Gallipoli exhibit represent ‘ordinary New Zealanders experiencing extraordinary circumstances’.

War.

The life-like displays at the Gallipoli exhibition that were created by Weta

Australia

Jumping across the ditch to Australia, I paid a visit to the newly opened Boola Bardip Perth Museum when visiting a couple of years ago.

This building had also been recently renovated; according to Wikipedia⁴, the new museum complex incorporates five heritage buildings. It was rather impressive how the old and new were blended.

Old meets New: The Boola Bardip Perth Museum.

I was particularly taken with the indigenous art on display. Papunya⁵ is in the far, remote north of Australia and is considered the birthplace of contemporary aboriginal art.

The works feature a symbolic language of U shapes, concentric circles, journey lines and bird and animal tracks. Artists used a limited number of motifs to express many meanings. A concentric circle, for example, may indicate a camp, a waterhole or corroboree place. It may also represent all or part of a person, the stem of a tree, the centre of a food plant ancestor or a natural feature such as a hill.

Indigenous art display

France

Paris is littered with historical buildings, monuments and museums. When I first visited Paris PC (pre-children), I did all the touristy things, including going to the Louvre to see Mona. The painting was unexpectedly tiny!

When I went to visit my daughter in March 2023, we visited two museums; the Museé D’Orsay and the Palais Galleria.

The Museé D’Orsay was overwhelming because it happened to be the first Sunday in the month when certain museums are always free. We had already paid — which I was okay with because I loathe queuing for anything and there were people lined up for miles — so we skipped the lines but met the crowds inside.

My picture of the famous clock that has been used in many a movie or advertisement was challenging to capture without people.

The famous clock

The building was impressive; an old railway station. It was full of nooks and crannies — that were full of paintings and sculptures!

A redefined space; from train station to museum

It was tough to get an uninterrupted view of any painting, especially those from famous artists such as Monet, Manet and Van Gogh. One thing I did notice though was the appearance of black cats in several works — and not just the famous Le Chat Noir.

This painting was one of my faves from the museum by an unknown American artist, Cecilia Beaux.

Sita and Sarita

My daughter (Hannah) lives in Paris because she and her partner, Steven, are fashion designers. A new exhibit had just opened at the Palais Galleria — the fashion museum of clothing and accessories — so off we toddled to take a peek.

The display was small but impressive. Given Hannah and Steven had featured with the recently deceased Thierry Mugler in an exhibit in Montréal, it was neat to see some more of his avant-garde designs.

Les Insects; Thierry Mugler

Canada

This brings me to my proud mummy moment; seeing my [at the time] 22-year-old daughter and her partner have two designs and their famous skin shoes featured in an exhibit at The Museé des Beaux Art in Montréal with Mugler in 2018.

My lead photo is the exterior of the museum.

22 years old and in a museum? That’s pretty darn cool, eh?!

Photos taken at the Museum des Beaux Art Exhibit in 2018 of Fecal Matter’s work

So, I’m reading your mind right now…

Fecal Matter? WTF?

Yes, the name ‘Fecal Matter’ sounds like shit, is shit in literal translation but they’re not at all shit! They chose the name for the very reason you are thinking WTF…

They provoke.

Let’s just say Hannah and Steven wouldn’t have moved to Paris — the home of fashion — if they weren’t kicking some butt in the fashion sense. They’re pushing boundaries and buttons in the fashion world with their alternative creations.

I’ve got a(nother) story in the making about their success last year, but this moment was a pivotal point in their fashion career that still blows my mind. I am incredibly proud of them both.

Although this challenge started in 2023, I’m certain JoAnne is totally cool with new writers and contributors to In Living Color jumping on board a year later.

Here is her original story:

[embed]Eating Apples and Avocados While Arranging Alligators and Autumn Leaves in Atlanta? An A to Z challenge: Finding interesting new ways to enjoy photographymedium.com

References in this story

¹Base isolation technology ²Gallipoli ³Weta Workshop ⁴Boola Bardip Museum ⁵Papunya Paintings