Space Miner
By editor/designer/photography lover Laura Brunow Miner.
Inspired by Rick Webb, I decided to do a personal end-of-year wrap-up.
Things I did in 2011 that were new:
- Adjust to our new dog (who we got last December). She’s brought us tons of insight, happiness, fresh air, exercise, love, and of course some frustration. I would recommend it to anyone with room in their life (and apartment lease).
- Subscribing to the New York Times Sunday edition. This sounds like a silly thing but has become one of my favorite weekly rituals. Especially appreciating and dissecting everything about the magazine.
- Meditation. I haven’t talked about this online at all, because I consider it pretty personal, but it’s been a huge change in my life. Ask me about it in person.
- Eat Retreat. The sister event to Phoot Camp was so much fun. I feel so grateful to have this new project in my life, and of course the lovely people who came with it.
- Volunteering. This past spring I did SAT tutoring for students who would be the first in their family to go to college. This coming spring I’ll be doing academic tutoring for the same group. I haven’t had a cathartic “oh my god I’m giving back, it’s so rewarding” moment, but I don’t think it works that way. I think you just put one foot in front of the other.
- Lots of travel. For a variety of reasons, I travelled more in 2011 than ever before. I could go on and on about those trips (listed below), but in particular two things stand out: (1) I fell in love with Marfa, Texas. We’ll see what comes of this. I hope to spend more time there in coming years. (2) The conversations and talks at Do Lectures changed my point of view. Ask me about it in person.
- Some new freelance projects I can’t really talk about yet, but feel really lucky to be working on.
Travel:
- Los Angeles to do portfolio reviews at Photo LA
- Laguna Beach, CA to visit family
- Dallas, TX to meet my newborn niece
- Sonoma County, CA for Eat Retreat
- Calistoga, CA for weekend trip
- 9 day RV trip through the southwest for Phoot Camp
- Marfa, Texas for Phoot Camp
- Kansas to visit friends/family
- Yosemite/Bass Lake for family reunion
- Yolo County, CA for weekend trip (Capay Tomato Fest)
- New Orleans to speak at a journ. conference
- New York City to help judge at Photography Book Now
- Martha’s Vineyard to visit Gabi
- Paris and Provence to visit Kathryn
- Bra, Venice, Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, Italy for anniversary trip
- Fforest Farm, Wales to speak at Do Lectures
- Kansas for Kate and Justin’s wedding
- Belfast, Northern Ireland for Wilson to speak at Build Conference
- Pt. Reyes, CA for weekend trip
- Calistoga, CA for weekend trip
“Thank God,” said President Hoover, “we still have a government that knows how to deal with a mob.”
Click the images above to read an excerpt from Studs Terkel’s Hard Times (a collection of interviews about the Great Depression) that describes the forceful removal of veterans from Pennsylvania Avenue. The story of the Bonus March is being told by a 63-year-old man named Jim Sheridan.
I’m not against Occupy Wall Street — in fact I’m pro anything with the potential to make way for change — but I think this narrative reminds us that we’ve been here before.
Hi. My name is Laura Brunow Miner.
I do things:
- Freelance on design, editorial, and event-based projects.
- Spoke about “What Camp has Taught Me about Communities” at Do Lectures in Wales (video coming soon)
- Wrote about editorial design on the web for the TypeKit blog: “Is Anyone Paying Attention?”
- Helped judge Blurb’s 2011 Photography Book Now competition
- Spoke about “Why We Work” at the first Creative Mornings San Francisco
- Spoke about community editorial at the Online News Association Conference
- Named as a “Hot 20 Under 40” in San Francisco by 7x7 Magazine in October 2010
- Included in “Most Influential Women in Tech” list by Fast Company Magazine in May 2010
- Founded, designed, and continue to edit online magazine Pictory.
- Run creative retreats like Phoot Camp and Eat Retreat.
- Wrote “Coaching a Community” for A List Apart.
- Ran JPG Magazine (as editor in chief).
- Designed JPG Magazine (as design director).
- Married Wilson Miner.
- Moved to San Francisco.
- Worked as a marketing designer for Gould Evans in Lawrence, Kansas.
- Joined Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn.
I blog about photography, community editorial, design, the internet, media, art, people-powered websites, and less than 2% foodfuntravelcatswaterkayakingwhiskeyhammocksmoviesother.
You can contact me at laura (at) pictorymag.com.
(photo by Mark Lobo)
Photo by Craig Mod, taken at 2010 Do Lectures.
Click through and read more about Craig’s experience of this inspiring “conference” retreat event.
Vacationers at El Cosmico in Marfa, TX
Follow the Phoot Camp blog to see everyone’s work.
This is a photo of Dan Busta, a great photographer doing his thing. White Sands, New Mexico has one of those incredible landscapes that has you questioning whether you are actually there.
I was fortunate enough to visit white sands twice on my trip to Phootcamp, both at different times of the day. Here is a shot from the second time we visited: www.flickr.com/photos/g205/5806106651/
Follow the Phoot Camp blog on Tumblr to see everyone’s work.
www.marklobo.com.au
Visitor from Above by Jason deCaires Taylor
“Created by Mexico-based British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, the Caribbean installation is intended to eventually cover more than 4,520 square feet (420 square meters), which would make it “one of the largest and most ambitious underwater attractions in the world,” according to a museum statement.
In doing so, Taylor hopes the reefs, which are already stressed by marine pollution, warming waters, and overfishing, can catch a break from the approximately 750,000 tourists who visit local reefs each year.
“That puts a lot of pressure on the existing reefs,” Taylor told National Geographic News. “So part of this project is to actually discharge those people away from the natural reefs and bring them to an area of artificial reefs.’”
Love this series of bloggers working from Gabriela Herman — especially the one above of Scanwiches.
One of my favorites from the last showcase.
One day I will write a song for Giulliano. It will tell of how easy it is to be his best friend. The quiet build-up will be about the times when we talk about feelings and the future …
— By Rico Moran (from “Platonic Love Stories”)
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From my other tumblelog, pictoryblog:
As you may know, I’ve teamed up with some friends in the sustainable food industry here in SF to put together a food version of Phoot Camp called Eat Retreat. It will basically be a 30 person weekend workshop on a ranch in Sonoma where we trade ingredients and ideas, forage for ingredients, roast a wild boar, etc.
Know someone who’s a leader in the food community? Please pass the info along!
Info page:
http://eatretreat.net/blog/text/12Application page:
http://eatretreat.net/how-to-applyThanks,
LBM
Remember Phoot Camp? I’m excited to announce a collaboration with some friends in the food industry: Eat Retreat, a weekend workshop focused on food. Apply by 1/31!
From pictoryblog:
Will I ever get over the pull I feel to both of these places?
— By Sara Ferguson (from “Note to Self”)
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Today is Pictory’s first birthday! Here’s a note I wrote yesterday on the pictoryblog:
364 days ago, I launched Pictory. I’d put months of sweat and savings into it and over-thought every inch. Take it from me — getting hundreds of thousands of hits in the first few days of a solo startup feels like standing on a football field as a stadium full of people turns to look at you. Despite my initial, well, embarrassment, I was elated. I knew then that this thing I’d put so much into was actually going to work; people were interested in submitting and reading photo stories.
It’s been wonderful. I love the work. I love the stories that people share. I love being the person who gets to fiddle and tinker and edit them into tidy packages. I love it when they make me cry, or laugh, or start to figure grief out. I love seeing people submit over and over again. I love people. I love working with mega-talented guest designers, curators, and editors. I love photographs, and always have.
It’s also been tough. Anyone who tells you that it’s easy to make a living from an online publication is either lying or knows something I don’t. My husband and I have had countless conversations about the possible angles we could come at this, the ways we could make it work. Every time, I stubbornly held on to this ad model: big, beautiful photo-based ads with the designer and photographer of the ad credited. I believed if I could pull that off, I could make a home for great advertising on the web.
I still believe it, and I’m endlessly appreciative of Levi’s for being the first sponsor to think I might be right. There’s a lot of things that my readers and the impressive women in this showcase have figured out that I don’t. But I’ve been lucky enough to learn from their dogged commitment to their passions. So here’s to a new day one.
From the brand new pictoryblog:
My best friend Lili held this sign for me when I ran the NYC Marathon, my first. I’d had a tough year, but Lili had lived through a nearly impossible one. …
— By Christopher Butler (from “Secrets of Inspiring Women”)
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