More from Lu Olkowski
The Cutting Place
(00:05:03)
From: Lu Olkowski
A documentary poem about DJ Guerin, who’s 32, with 7 kids.
Just a Girl
(00:04:59)
From: Lu Olkowski
A documentary poem about an afternoon spent with Billie Jean Hill at the Flag Day parade in Troy, New York. Billie Jean is a 25-year-old woman with a young son, who recently ...
In the Office of Temporary Assistance
(00:04:00)
From: Lu Olkowski
A documentary poem about an afternoon that poet Susan B.A. Somers-Willett spent with Billie Jean Hill at the New York State Office of Temporary Assistance.
Choosers, Not Beggars
(00:29:05)
From: Lu Olkowski
Two men more or less allow themselves to become homeless in order to dedicate their time to writing poetry
Life In A Dream, Life On Film
(00:08:40)
From: Lu Olkowski
A profile of Jeremiah Zagar whose award winning documentary, "In a Dream" opens in theaters Spring 2009.
http://www.inadreammovie.com/
Grandpa
(00:08:46)
From: Lu Olkowski
A father and son have a contest to take the best pictures of their dying grandpa, the result is an up-close portrait of death.
Meet the Bees
(00:06:35)
From: Lu Olkowski
How I roped my parents into becoming characters on Creature Comforts, a claymation show on CBS. (Come on, listen to it... my parents are funny people.)
J Walter Hawkes
(00:05:12)
From: Lu Olkowski
Trombonist J. Walter Hawkes, who now plays with Norah Jones, almost quit music. He was going to pursue a more regular-guy path in computer programming. But then a horrible ...
Physics for Poets
(00:07:16)
From: Lu Olkowski
People often depict scientists as coldly rational. Physicist Michael Salamon takes issue with that. He explains how Walt Whitman misunderstood the beauty of the universe. ...
Cell Tower
(00:06:16)
From: Lu Olkowski
Don Ingber is a cell biologist from Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital. One day he saw a piece of modern sculpture and was inspired to make a major breakthrough in ...
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Occasionally an artist finds a model so fascinating, they're inspired to draw or paint or immortalize that person again and again, over decades. The photographer Andrea Modica has had just one great model like that: a girl named Barbara whom she met back in 1985. In this piece Andrea Modica explains how the relationship began when Barbara was only 6 years old, when Modica had just taken a teaching job in upstate New York. Originally aired on Studio 360 March 9, 2002.
Broadcast History
Originally aired on Studio 360 March 9, 2002.
Transcript
After a lifetime in the city, Andrea Modica was little lonely living in upstate NY. So she set out to find some people to photograph.
She had the idea that because the landscape was so lush, people would be out enjoying it --- but no one was. Driving through an area called Treadwell, she spotted, six year-old Barbara and her 13 siblings - and unlike any other residents in the area - they were just sprawled out in their front yard, kids running everywhere.
AM: Of course my heart was beating. I'm always a little nervous approaching somebody I don't know. And I think they were curious...
AM: And then of course I took the big camera out of the car, of course I work with an 8 x 10 camera and it was a much slower process than they had anticipated, but they went with it.
That first photo features Barbara and her cousin -- two rumpled six year-olds, with crinkled-up brows, a...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
I left a bit of music at the head and tail of the piece, so individual stations can fade to fit.
00:00:00 Opening Music (0:25)
00:00:25 Body of Piece (6:32)
00:06:57 Closing Music (0:20)
Musical Works
Edgar Meyer, with Josuha Bell, Sam Bush and Mike Marshall
"BT"
Heartland
Sony Classical SK 89683
Mark O'Connor
"Fancy Stops and Goes"
Heartland
Sony Classical SK 89683
Edgar Meyer with Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall
"Sliding Down"
Heartland
Sony Classical SK 89683
John Biewen
Posted on February 18, 2007 at 05:35 PM | Permalink
Review of Barbara
Lots of us like to talk about radio's power as a "visual medium," but let's face it, sometimes the fact that you can't just show the listener a picture becomes a noticeable handicap. Or it seems to. There's no tougher thing to do on radio than a piece about visual art. During one stretch in the middle of this fine piece, I found myself just wanting to SEE the pictures that Lu Olkowski was describing.
But that urge soon dropped away. First, because of Lu's descriptions, evocative and packed with meaning, of young Barbara in these photos. "She looks like Humpty Dumpty before the fall, as if she might roll backwards if given just a little nudge."
More than that, I was content not seeing the images because in the end the piece is not about the pictures. It's about a relationship. For the photographer, Andrea Modica, making pictures of Barbara is a way to be with the girl. It's also a way to keep her around--almost--after she's gone. That's something that, at least in this deftly-drawn piece, radio can get across just fine.