Newstand Double Header: T+L & Budget Travel

Hello from South End, Boston!

James and I have been traveling this month in the states, soaking up the Springtime style and the love.

Dad Owens called day before yesterday from the Dallas airport newsstand to see what issues we were in, and we had to go and check. (Now that's a sign of a good vacation!) Turns out street food ran in Budget Travel, a nice graphic roundup featuring Maxwell Food Center in Singapore, and our long awaited story on Epiros, Greece ran this month in the opening pages of Travel + Leisure. Will post when we get home to our scanners late this month.

Next up on our grand tour:
Later on today, a jaunt up to Concord for the Hawthorne Society conference, and some quality time with Walden Pond. Then it's off to Vassar College to see Sara and James get married (and USA beat England). We'll take the scenic route back into NYC, stopping by Beacon to see our dear Sam, Sarah, Greta, and Beck grow up. Then it's a few days in NYC to finish catching up with everyone. I hope to see you there.

On June 17th, Jessie heads to Paris and James heads to Chicago. In both places we will be doing the same thing: watching the World Cup.

Last time we followed the wins (inadvertently), in Germany, France, and then Italy for the win! I can't believe it's been four years, but I can't wait til it starts.

On newsstand now: Travel + Leisure

In the May issue of Travel + Leisure: Our shots from Culebra for the round-up of "30 Secret Islands." Just off the coast of Puerto Rico, a 25 minute flight from downtown San Juan, Culebra is hardly a "secret" - it has one of the Caribbean's most glorious beaches, Flamenco beach, pictured here.

We were secretly jazzed to share the spread with one of our friends and photo-heroes, Frederic Lagrange.

A flip book of more of our shoot on delightful little Culebra coming soon.

Another day in the (Taoist) neighborhood

We knew something was up when we saw the dragon resting outside our front door.



This Taoist ceremony, which lasted two days, was to honor the birthday of a god, Xuan Tian Shang Di. As it happens, the third day of the third lunar month also falls on my birthday this year, which also lasted through two days of feasting.

We've arranged the images more or less in chronological order.

Now in HD!

Tired of flip books yet? Hope not, because Wonderful Machine has posted our portfolio on their Youtube channel. An entire book, for your viewing pleasure. Click through to see in hi-def full screen.
Thanks Neil, Amanda, Bill, and hand model!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!

We love you!

Story Book: Java Indonesia--Prambanan and Borobudur

In February, my brother Joe came to Singapore for a two week vacation. We looked for a side trip, something off the beaten track with history. We jumped a short flight to Java to check out two 9th century monuments: Borobudur, a huge Buddhist temple, and Prambanan, the area's largest Hindu temple. Both were built during the same period, across the valley from one another. Both under the violent gaze of an active volcano, Mt. Merapi (last erupted in 2006). Below is a story book of our trip.



We stayed at a great boutique hotel--Rumah Mertua--and spent some of the finest afternoons hanging out watching the rainy-season deluge, sent forth from Mt. Merapi daily like clockwork. A fantastic trip. Cheers Joe!

...and there's even video from Borobudur!

Laos revisited

As promised, here's another look at our Laos feature shot for T+L last October. And, we're trying out a new storybook platform to view the images, so let us know how it treats you.

I broke up the images into four major sections: temple life, the locals, street life, and the river. At the end, you get a glimpse of two premier hotels in the area.

[story books are no longer available. For a peek at more from the story, go to: www.morganowens.com/portfolio_laos_2009.htm)

As we travel around the region, it's clear that Luang Prabang is a unique experience, hugely recommended. The combination of mountain village setting, mild-mannered tourism, Buddhist vibe, and the mighty Mekong makes the town hum all its own, indifferent to the rest of the world.

Wonderful Machine is Wonderful

I stopped by to meet the folks at Wonderful Machine last month while I was in Philadelphia for the MLA. Turns out Neil Binkley, the voice of WM and all around great guy, was taking notes for their blog. I also had the pleasure of getting to know their innovative founder Bill Cramer and producer Amanda Hanley over a lunch that went so pleasurably long into the afternoon I missed two trains before I checked the time!

Read the story at:
http://www.wonderfulmachine.com/blog/?p=2005

Then go check out some hotshots at www.wonderfulmachine.com

Laos feature now on newsstands

The feature we shot in Laos last October for Travel +Leisure has hit newsstands! You'll find it in American editions of the February 2010 issue or here.





Also, our images from shoots in Vieques and Hotel Casablanca in San Juan Puerto Rico ran in the November 2009 issue of Travel +Leisure as part of their "Affordable Caribbean Hotels" feature.

We'll be posting OUR favorite shots in coming days!

What we ate when we got back to Singapore

Here's a menu of what we ate during our first 48 hours back in Singapore, with Kristine and Esme's visit as our excuse.

• lunch: phad thai and tom yam soup
• dinner: James's pizza, with kang kong and golden mushrooms

• breakfast: pork, fish, and vegetarian porridge at Ah Chang
• snack: dragon fruit and dark chocolate
• lunch: katong laksa, rojak and lime juice at 328 Katong Laksa (see above)
  
• snack: nutella tart and pear tart at Everything but Fries
• dinner: chilli crab, buns, sauteed kailan with garlic, tiger beer, and fried, stuffed tofu at Jumbo

• breakfast: Set 1 (kaya toast, eggs, iced kopi) at Toast Box
• lunch: popiah rolls, roast pork with rice, chwee kueh, carrot cake (savory), pork and red bean buns, and sugar cane juice at Tiong Bahru hawker center (see above)
  
• dinner: carrot ginger soup and salad, chez James

See how repentant we were by last night?

This month in Brooklyn/Monroe/Kansas City/Philadelphia

Happy holidays! I am thrilled to be sitting in a rental apartment in Brooklyn on Smith Street, a delightfully familiar view out of my kitchen window and dear friends close at hand.

You'll find us here this week, making the rounds, celebrating the births, engagements, projects, and other life-changers that have happened since we've been gone. Next week we head to Monroe for Jessie's family Christmas celebrations, and then after lunch on Christmas day, we'll fly to Kansas City for Owens Christmas dinner, a Santa double header thanks to a year of bumped flights and a growing stash of frequent flyer miles.

Then, Jessie heads to Philly, where she will be delivering a paper on the influence of the photographic on Hawthorne's creative nonfiction -- 1:30 on Tuesday Dec 29th at the MLA. Stop by if you're a member.

She'll meet James back in Brooklyn on Dec 30th, where we'll be dancing and relaxing for the rest of 2009. Katie D has graciously made up her spare room and plans to have a little party. I look forward to hearing the steam pipes at Pratt again this/next year.

We go back to Singapore on January 5th, in time to welcome our second guests, Kristine Z and baby Esme and usher in the new semester.

So, if I don't get to say so in person on this whirlwind loved ones tour, I hope you and yours have a happy holiday season and a fruitful, prosperous, and magical 2010.

James's birthday

"Do I look older?"

Last Wednesday, we took the day off to celebrate James's birthday. We began the day in the neighborhood at the Tiong Bahru market. I had convinced the plant vendor to bring in a Calamansi lime tree for him, which James had made VERY clear was his heart's desire.



(This bowl of limes was destined to become key lime pie)

After the tree was safely planted in our al fresco bathroom, we went out for porridge at Ah Chiang's, a neighborhood institution, and James's favorite breakfast since introduced to the goodness of pork porridge in Laos.

The shredded ginger and chillies make all the difference.

After breakfast and a nap we headed back to East Coast Park, the site of our Monsoon Halloween to try our luck with the weather. Almost as soon as we sat down with a coconut (to drink from with a straw), it began to rain again. We ran for cover in the same spot, but this was no 2-hour deluge. We had just about made it through the satay and popia rolls when it stopped. We took a beer down to the water's edge and watched antsy high school kids in teams and uniforms build sand castles. Windsurfers went out to the container ships and back again. No paddling through the inside!

It was my intention to get on the water or on a bike, but the sailboat rentals were for certified sailors only, so biking it was. We rode along the beach to a trail which turns north, running alongside Changi airport. It was gorgeous and wild, with the occasional plane watching -- this airport has one of every kind come in like clockwork all afternoon long. We'd ride a while, then watch planes land, then ride a while longer.



After we returned the bikes to the rental stand -- late -- we took quick showers at the changing stand, then drip dried while watching the sunset.



Once we were presentable, we made our way to the "Seafood Centre": the five top rated seafood restaurants in Singapore, all "co-located" by the Housing Development Board into one seafront extravaganza of capitalism and chilli crab. Jumbo, Red House, Fisherman's Village, Long Beach, No Signboard -- all of them set up to seat a thousand diners, all clamoring for our business. The only chilli crab we hadn't tried was the name that suited the day best: Long Beach. All day we'd been pretending that we were in California!



We got "Set A" which came with bamboo clams, rice with tiny, crispy silverfish, spinach and garlic, fried buns, chilli crab, and pumpkin ice cream, served over a jar of smoking dry ice. We ate everything but what got left behind on the table cloth!

Mamiya

While we were photographing Mt Phousi, a group of French tourists decided that James and his camera are part of the attractions of Luang Prabang! Hear the temple drums in the background?

Monsoon Season

And it's rained every day since! Just like home!

Jessie's first publication, available Feb 16, 2010

In March 2007, I went to the UK (sponsored by the University of Southampton, where Quinn is now!) to deliver a paper on photography and abolition at a conference held in honor of the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British Empire. Cora Kaplan and John Oldfield took interest in my work and invited me to submit a chapter for this volume. Scholarly publishing takes time, but Palgrave Macmillan now lists our book for next spring, and this week it appeared on Amazon.com

From the editors' description :

A collection of new essays, Imagining Transatlantic Slavery offers the latest research and thinking on current debates about the representation - past and present - of transatlantic slavery. Building on the interest generated by the bicentenary in 2007-8 of the end of British and American involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, our volume is interdisciplinary, drawing on history, literature and museum and heritage studies. Its focus is on the transatlantic nature of slavery and abolition, and the essays range from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Its distinguished contributors offer a critical view of the histories leading up to the defining decisions of 1807-08 and its complex legacies over the last two centuries. Essays on notable figures such as Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Hannah More, Benjamin Flower, and William and Ellen Craft are juxtaposed with those on early Quaker writing and the use of photography in abolitionist discourse. The last part of the book on 'Remembering and Forgetting' addresses debates surrounding the representation of slavery in drama, visual culture, museums and galleries, and appraises the importance of recent research to public understanding of slavery today.

Contributors: Brycchan Carey, Vincent Carretta, Lilla Maria Crisafulli, Eileen Razzari Elrod, Catherine Hall, Douglas Hamilton, Cora Kaplan, HollyGale Millette, John Oldfield, Jessie Morgan-Owens, Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace and Marcus Wood

Maybe you want a taste? Here's the first paragraph from my chapter, "'Another Ida May': Photography and the American Abolition Campaign":

Photography’s potential as a persuasive visual adjunct to reform campaigns was recognised from the inception of the medium in 1839, even if before the half-tone process revolutionised printing in 1880 images had to be distributed hand-to-hand. The majority of photographs made in antebellum America were daguerreian portraits: a unique image typically the size of your palm, imprinted on a reflective mirror, encased in brocade and brass. Daguerreotypes circulated without captions; therefore, authors who utilised these early photographs to depict abolitionist ideology found a malleable and suggestive representative space. Their evidentiary power in political debate relied upon writing to instruct audiences how to ‘read’ these images. In this essay I will discuss images of two little girls, both in appearance white, one fictional and the other daguerreotyped, one free and the other a slave, that nevertheless illustrated the same potent message of late abolitionist rhetoric: that however impugned by the public’s anxieties surrounding miscegenation, the invisibility of racial markers demonstrated a moral obstacle to defining slavery along racial lines.

Pre-order your copy now! Or, since it's listed at $74.95, ask your library to order one for you.