Beckoning Lovely | Chicago Event Photography
May 21, 2009 | Filed Under Business
We had the pleasure of photographing Amy Rosenthal’s 60 Minutes of Lovely event in Chicago this weekend. Amy is a well known author and creator of many things! She is in the process of creating a beautiful project, The Beckoning of Lovely, with the collaboration of many strangers. She has had hundreds of people submit art, music, photos, etc. that they consider lovely. The final project will be made into a book and possibly a movie.
This Lovely event took place at the Julius Meinl Warehouse in Chicago. Yup, the same Julius Meinl as the coffee shop, but the warehouse is a newly and wonderfully restored gathering space. It’s available for rentals if you know anyone in the Chicago area in need of a large event-room close to down town.
The Beckoning of Lovely gathering included wonderful performances by local Chicago musicians including the very talented fourteen-year-old Ned Mower. Ned played a moving song for us on his guitar that he wrote just two weeks previously. If you get a chance to check him out in person I guarantee it will be time well spent! He will be playing with the Paul Green School of Rock Music at the Beat Kitchen on May 30th.
Nick Gage played a spirited song for us before running off to work. How lucky to have had the chance to share this space with him.
This made me fall in love with bass! I love that this tiny woman plays this HUGE instrument. Together with her friend they played and sang a silly song about Chicago hot dogs. Part of their song included audience participation: tickling your neighbor! And is there anything more lovely than that heart under the strings on the bass?
And Tony Rogers sang several hilarious songs that probably required some editing for the younger audience members. One of them was about a prom date!
We spent sixty minutes together in this warehouse (the same amount of time spent at the original Beckoning of Lovely event). Amy took the time to share some of the Beckoning of Lovely project submissions with us.
This necklace was made by her friend. She shared the cutout with Lisa one of the “Supremely Cool Judges” of the Lovely project.
A very tiny note submitted for the project was shared with the help of a magnifying glass!
Another fantastic submission was this “Lovely” perfume scent with samples for all in attendance.
Amy read from a fate-journal. She left the journal on a table for anyone to write in. Later the journal will be left in a random spot for somebody else to find, write in it, and pass it on. Pretty cool, huh?!
Umbrellas hold a significant spot in the Beckoning of Lovely project and seem to have become the signature mark of Amy Rosenthal’s work. I’ve developed quite a liking for umbrellas because of all this.
Amy’s daughter passed around kisses and sunflower seeds to the audience. How sweet!
The part of the event that I found most moving was when Amy asked everyone to turn ON their cell phones and text somebody “I love you”. Wouldn’t it be sweet to do this daily to a random friend on your contact list?
Comments
6 Responses to “Beckoning Lovely | Chicago Event Photography”
Leave a Reply
I too was at the event and your pictures are, well, lovely! You perfectly captured the serendipity of the hour. nice.
Thanks Brooke, we really enjoyed capturing the event. We checked out your site, your images are gorgeous too!
Holy cow, Tracy, these are just gorgeous! You captured the story of the event so beautifully!
(I was one of the other photographers at the event too!)
P.S. My photos from the event are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierraromeo/sets/72157618371446128/show/
I love the randomness. Increasingly I am random and my life is all the richer for it. This morning I made friends with two ladies of a certain age (their expression.. I think it means over 80) who had come to my regular coffee shop because they were lonely. Soon the three of us were laughing and giggling like school girls…I just spotted them and got chatting about something random…shoes I think. Love it. Love these photographs. You bring such richness to the world….
Really nice posts. I will be checking back here regularly.