The Temple has become a point of reference in the navigation of our city, Black Rock. The key characteristic of our city is a temporal structure, which leads us to question: What kind of temple would our city, constructed under the theme Metropolis, need?

To lead our design thinking we look to the idea of Counter-Monument, a phrase coined by James Young to define a new way of thinking about memorial/monument: The counter-monument’s aim is not to console but to provoke; not to embody permanence but change; not to be everlasting but to disappear; not to be ignored but to demand interaction; not to accept the burden of memory but to throw it back and demand response. The counter-monument accomplishes what all monuments should; it reflects back to the people and thus codifies their own memorial projections and preoccupations.
You may click here to learn more about the 2010 Temple Project.

About Architecture for Humanity‘s work in Haiti:

Architecture for Humanity has been responding to the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, which caused major damage and a loss of life in the hundreds of thousands. We are raising funds to support efforts in the rebuilding of affected areas. Our efforts will focus on providing professional services to support the local community organizations and NGO’s who will be working to rebuild. Work has begun creating a rebuilding center to aid in long-term reconstruction of housing and civic infrastructure. Understanding the precarious and irreplaceable nature of education, the school reconstruction program seeks to get children quickly back to school in new classrooms.

Additionally, AfH is overseeing the creation of a concise construction manual introducing techniques and safe practices for building Haiti-specific, earthquake- and hurricane-resistant structures. Visit our Program page to navigate through our Haiti projects: http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/programs/haiti_rebuilding

Saturday, May 15th 5:00 – 9:00PM
The Warehouse Gallery
1234 International Boulevard, Oakland

Twist your mind around in order to truly see them

Elizabeth, Ophelia and I recently went and took portraits at a family shelter in West Oakland. Sometimes I look around at the absolute frenzy of the holiday season and just want to do the opposite of everyone else. Instead of spending money we should be spending time. So a few weeks ago I called around to a few shelters and began inquiring about ways to volunteer.

Yani, a shelter director at Matilda Cleveland, told us that many homeless (or in-transition) children have holes in their early childhoods without any photo’s to capture their lives. We were happy to fill in the blanks for them. Photos from all three of us, coming soon.

Many of the people we found, were warm and very loving. The love given from parent to child – no matter the economic situation is almost always the same. Children are the crown jewels of adults lives. Some of the children and most of the adults had not their photo taken in a long, long time. We felt very blessed to bring beauty and joy into people’s lives. It was probably not an equal exchange – I think we three got more out of the experience than anyone else did.

Merry Christmas!

We capture the nitty gritty, the emotional and the delightful.

We are three artists who share a collaborative spirit but see things in very different ways from different vantage points. We feel that working together at the same event, same wedding, same party. Shooting the same kid, the same ocean wave, the same family portrait will net very different results that will appeal to the realist, the dramaticist and the starry eyed amongst us all.

Please send us an email with any questions or compliments. We offer very reasonable options for all your photography needs.

… and thank you for stopping by.