Acapulco Mexico

Acapulco, a beach resort town on Mexico's Pacific coast, is set on a large bay backed by high-rises and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. Made famous by the jet set in the 1950s and ’60s, it's known for its high-energy nightlife, beaches and golf. From its iconic La Quebrada cliff, professional divers plunge 40m into a small ocean cove every day and night.

Diego Rivera was the most visible figure in Mexican muralism, a large-scale public-art initiative that emerged in the 1920s in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. During the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 Diego Rivera used his talents as a painter to fuel the movement with passion. Widely known for his Marxist leanings, Rivera, along with Marxism Revolutionary Che Guevara and a small band of contemporary figures, has become a counter cultural symbol of 20th century, and created a legacy in paint that continue to inspire the imagination and mind.

All Images made with Leica

@2016 PhotoPro - Jeffrey P. Hopp

Leap Of Faith

This imaginative sculpture is located at St. Lukes Episcopal Church in Kalamazoo Michigan.

Leica Dlux-109

@ 2015 Photo Pro - Jeffrey P. Hopp

Conversations

P E O P L E
By Kirk Newman

 ON DISPLAY AT THE KALAMAZOO INSTITUTE OF ARTS

Kirk Newman was born in Dallas, Texas in 1926 and began his artistic career experimenting with abstract sculpture and painting in the exciting post-World War II era. What increasingly intrigued him, however, was the human figure and how it could speak to the complexities of the modern world.

Newman began his exploration of the figure by creating small sculptures of anonymous businessmen. While their suits identified them as figures of power and authority, their crouching, falling, and grasping postures revealed vulnerability. Cast in bronze, the figures took on an unexpected timelessness.

Visit his website here. Or, the Kalamazoo Institute Of Arts here.

Leica D-109
@ 2015 Photo Pro - Jeffrey P. Hopp

New Cooper River Bridge

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, also known as the New Cooper River Bridge, is a cable-stayed bridge over the Cooper River in South Carolina, connecting downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The eight lane bridge satisfied the capacity of U.S. Route 17 when it opened in 2005 to replace two obsolete cantilever truss bridges. The bridge has a main span of 1,546 feet (471 m), the third longest among cable-stayed bridges in the Western Hemisphere. It was built using the design-build method and was designed by Parsons Brinckerhoff. -Wikipedia

Leica M9 35mm Summicron

@ 2014 Photo Pro - Jeffrey P. Hopp

The Secret of the Sea

 

The Secret of the Sea

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(from Seaside and Fireside, 1850)

Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me

As I gaze upon the sea!

All the old romantic legends,

All my dreams, come back to me.

Sails of silk and ropes of sandal,

Such as gleam in ancient lore;

And the singing of the sailors,

And the answer from the shore!

Most of all, the Spanish ballad

Haunts me oft, and tarries long,

Of the noble Count Arnaldos

And the sailor's mystic song.

Like the long waves on a sea-beach,

Where the sand as silver shines,

With a soft, monotonous cadence,

Flow its unrhymed lyric lines:—

Telling how the Count Arnaldos,

With his hawk upon his hand,

Saw a fair and stately galley,

Steering onward to the land;—

How he heard the ancient helmsman

Chant a song so wild and clear,

That the sailing sea-bird slowly

Poised upon the mast to hear,

Till his soul was full of longing,

And he cried, with impulse strong,—

“Helmsman! for the love of heaven,

Teach me, too, that wondrous song!”

“Wouldst thou,”—so the helmsman answered,

“Learn the secret of the sea?

Only those who brave its dangers

Comprehend its mystery!”

In each sail that skims the horizon,

In each landward-blowing breeze,

I behold that stately galley,

Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea,

And the heart of the great ocean

Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

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Leica M9 35mm Summicron

@ 2014 Photo Pro - Jeffrey P. Hopp

Of Time, Long Past

The Gift of Time

The Gift of Time

It is a mystery what we call Time: 

A little space of day which turns to night; 

A little span of sorrow and delight: 

Of tearful dirges and of joy-bells’ chime.

And yet its calm, slow-moving, noiseless feet

Can lead to glory-even thru defeat, 

Enclose the wicked within their self-made bars, 

And lift God-fearing souls beyond the stars! 

O but foolish, blind, ungrateful souls are they

That, heedless, see no gift in each new day.

(Based on “A Jubilee Ode” by Mary Elizabeth Blake)

Leica M9 35mm Summicron

@ 2014 Photo Pro - Jeffrey P. Hopp