Ronald Reagan retrospective at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

by Sean McLachlan on

Ronald Reagan is the subject of a retrospective at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The multimedia exhibition is called One Life: Ronald Reagan and marks the centenary of his birth.

Most of the material covers his time as president, including the attempted assassination in 1981, his handling of the waning years of the Cold War, and bombing Libya. Yes, Gaddafi has been causing trouble for that long. Visitors will see a variety of photographs and artifacts, including a portion of the Berlin Wall, a portrait by Andy Warhol, and video clips of the 40th president’s speeches.

Space is reserved for lesser-seen images of Reagan from his early years as a sports announcer, actor, and president of the Screen Actors Guild. Yes, Reagan was a union leader! The image above is from his 1938 film Cowboy from Brooklyn. This musical comedy, one of his many popular films, even has Ronny Rayguns singing.

Love him or hate him, Ronald Reagan had a profound effect on the nation’s politics and culture. This show will teach you more about the man everyone has an opinion on.

One Life: Ronald Reagan runs from July 1 to May 28, 2012.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Iran Photo Project on Flickr

by Jamie Rhein on

There’s an interesting photo project going on at Flickr called the iRAN Project. I came across it a month or so ago and bookmarked for a later mention. It appears to have been set up by a Madhi Ayat as a way for photographers in Iran to show day- to-day life as they capture it with a their cameras. The latest photos were posted on May 19, 2007. This one is not Ayat’s, but in his pool of favorites. Elishka took this one of the Sardasht valley. I like it because it reminds me of the best travel moments.

Along with his photographs, the photo pools of other photographers’ work cover subjects that range from nature to architecture to portraits. There are discussion threads as well. Ayat has also included a link to Tehran24.com, another site dedicated to illuminating the daily life in Iran through photographs. Both collections are sort like coffee table books on-line.

Besides viewing the photographs for their artistic merit and interest, I find it fascinating just to see the variety of the subjects photographers pick as the ones worth noticing. The fact that Iran is the overarching theme is also intriguing. These are views of the world not often seen.