A Photographic Journey to Iona
Last week we depended on words to recount a story of travel to Iona, Scotland. In today's article the voyage is recounted solely through the images captured by a group of photographers who traveled together to the legendary island.
Remain Wild and Magical
STORY BY DEVON ANNE FARMER
PHOTOS BY JC JOHNSON
This week our Culture Keeper passports take us to the famed but tiny Scottish island of Iona for a fleeting moment of reflection, as recounted by our newest Culture Keeper contributor.
In A.D. 563 after being banished from his native Ireland, St. Columba landed on Iona in the Southern Hebrides with the intention of bringing Celtic monasticism and Christianity to Scotland as penance. The island happened to be the first spot he reached from which he could no longer see the outline of his beloved Ireland in the distance.
MicroStories: Quatre
PHOTOGRAPH BY JC JOHNSON & STORY BY KAMI L. RICE
A real life scene has been turned miniature through the magic of photography. This miniaturized scene inspired a tiny fictional tale that invites you to discover the other stories hiding in this image. We invite you to explore the world with us, letting your imagination play along as you do. The world can always use more play.
Paris City Guide (updated)
STORY BY JONATHAN RANDALL GRANT
It is an act of courageous vulnerability to share a Paris city guide. This guide is as much a confession as a resource. No matter what places are shared, I am sure to get a few Parisian friends who think to themselves: "There is no way I would be seen there, dead or alive!... Of course it was okay to be seen there a few weeks ago, but we don't go there now."
MADE: Karen Dolmanisth’s Big Little Things
STORY AND PHOTOS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING
MADE: A series of conversations with artists about how they navigate impasses and discover breakthroughs in their work.
To reach Karen Dolmanisth’s studio, I must first navigate a series of stairs, metal doors, and maze-like corridors in an old mill building in Florence, Massachusetts. Then follows a tunnel of books, artwork, costumes, and other ephemera gathered and carefully placed over the twenty years she has worked in this space.
The View from Here: Kuta, Albania
STORY AND PHOTOS BY NICK ST.OEGGER
In this series, we offer you a little window onto life in one corner of the world or another. Enjoy peeking through the curtains with us!
The late afternoon sun beats down on the open central square of Kuta, where the old men have retreated to the shadows of a café, smoking and quietly chatting. It’s market day, and a woman with her fruit stand braves the heat with her friends. I pick up a few apples and figs, but when I reach for some money, she smiles and waves it away, telling me in Albanian that it is a gift.
When Silence Becomes Impossible: Toward an Ethic of Human Decency
Editor’s Note on behalf of the Culture Keeper team.
BY KAMI L. RICE
While we hadn’t planned to post new content in August, in order to give us time to prepare fresh articles to kick off the fall edition of Culture Keeper, the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the conversation they have set off have prompted us out of our planned quietness.
En Vacances
In solidarity with our friends in Europe where lots of shops and restaurants close completely for one or two weeks or even
for the whole month, we are taking a little break here at Culture Keeper during the month of August. We will return in full force in September with regular content.
We've got good things in store, so do hurry back to us after summer vacation says goodbye! Watch our Facebook page
for updates!
Black Bikers & the Old Stereotypes They’re Dismantling
BY ARMON A. MEANS
It’s motorcycle season here in the Northern Hemisphere! When you think of biker culture, what images come to mind? Dive with us into a group of photographs that may upend your imagination’s current mental pictures.
The image of the biker as established by documentary photographer Danny Lyon in The Bikeriders, his seminal 1968 book of interviews and photographs gleaned through New Journalism-style immersion, marked a particular moment in American history and helped create the biker stereotype. But it didn’t leave space for the black biker,
Far-Away Family
BY SCOTT J. WILL
Pull up a chair and lean in as new Culture Keeper contributor Scott Will introduces us to family members you’ll wish you could know too.
I knew it would be hard. I had started preparing my heart and mind nearly one year before the day arrived. And when it did arrive, I knew it was time, and felt great peace with my decision, but I also longed for those last few moments to linger on and on. I stepped up to the six-passenger plane, like numerous times before when I had left for short stretches, but this time I felt the weight of the finality of it all.
The View from Here: Del Ray Neighborhood, Alexandria, Virginia
Havana Is not ‘the City Stuck in Time’
STORY AND PHOTOS BY ROSHANDA CUMMINGS
Rather, it’s a city stretching forward, according to Culture Keeper contributor Roshanda Cummings.
Close your web browsers and your guidebooks. Erase your search history. Forget everything you’ve heard about Cuba and what you assume has happened to it as relations have begun to warm between America and this neighboring island nation.
South Bend + Mishawaka City Guide
For the past few months, Culture Keeper's founder and creative director has been full of so much enthusiasm about all the good things that are happening in his hometown. We decided it was time for him to spread that love beyond Facebook. So here in a special two-part article are some of the vibrant things happening in an Indiana town that doesn't make the headlines all too often. Culture Keeper readers, read on and then think of letting us know what's great about your hometown!