Martin Rees| Is this our final century?
Faraday, Edison and Tesla| Makers of the modern world
Tribute to the pioneers of the modern world.
Countries tend to put important people on their banknotes and the UK celebrating Michael Faraday is justified – as the father of electro-magnetism, inventor to the dynamo and electric motor.
But without these who followed, Faraday’s contribution would be an interesting footnote, a curiosity and we would be living in a very different world
. …after Faraday was made fellow of the Royal Society [,] the prime minister of the day asked want good this invention could be, and Faraday replied, “Someday you can tax it”
Electricity would have remained a curiosity without a mass-market reason to use it. The invention of the incandescent light bulb was REALLY the next step that propelled mankind into the modern age.
US inventor and businessman Thomas Edison was the first to commercialise the electric light bulb and power generation. However Edison’s DC power generation plants could only supply power to within a few blocks of the power plants itself. Early adapter of Edition’s lighting/power system were the financial district of Wall Street. The modern world was not yet ready of the masses.
Nikola Tesla’s should be famous figure, but few have heard of him.
Whilst Faraday demonstrated this curious thing electro-magnetism, invented the motor and dynamo and Edison invented a mass market reason for generating electricity, it took Tesla to invent a system for transmitting power of great distances and truly create that basis of our modern world. Tesla’s contribution is AC power generation and has remained unchanged to this day. Now, one power station can supply tens of thousands homes instead of thousands of power stations supplying hundreds of homes.
Without these pioneers we would be living in a world without electricity. Just imagine what you’re looking at now, the room around you, street lighting, cars and incalculable items would not exist. Everything depends on the assumption that electricity is everywhere and always available and will always be available.
We kill our creativity, just by living the same day over and over again
Creativity…
I’m tried for going to the same places
doing the same things
as tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands
have done or gone before
Find a new direction
And go there.
– James W Quinn
Norman Parkinson| Photographer 1913-1990
Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) was one of the twentieth century's best-known fashion photographers. He was active for over 50 years and was instrumental in taking portrait and fashion photography beyond the stiff formality of his predecessors and injecting an easy and casual elegance into his images.
Norman Parkinson’s impulsive and unstructured style changed forever the static, posed approach to fashion photography, while his enchanting, idiosyncratic personality charmed his sitters and projected an alluring and glamorous public image.
The swinging 60’s| Hold on, wasn’t Patrick Lichfield there
Lichfield worked with many of the world’s most famous and glamorous faces, from royalty and fashion models to sporting legends and cinema stars. His informal, sometimes playful approach helped him to create portraits that offer a glimpse into worlds and personalities often hidden from public view.
Imagination| Science and creative arts come from the same place
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Albert Einstein
Mario Testino| The man who makes models super
One of fashion’s most sought-after snappers, Mario Testino was born in 1954 in Lima, Peru. He came to London in 1976, took a flat in an abandoned hospital near Trafalgar Square, and began selling portfolios (for £25, including hair and make-up) to wannabe models. Today he is best known for his highly polished, exotically bright ad campaigns and his exquisitely styled photographs of the couture scene all of which carry a deceptive air of nonchalance. Now at the top of his profession, Testino has shot Madonna for Versace as well as photographing the late Diana, Princess of Wales for her famous Vanity Fair cover in 1997. His popularity with designers and fashion editors stems as much from his professionalism and good nature as his unerring ability to take beautiful pictures which sell clothes.
Neil degrasse Tyson| I can’t think of a more human activity than a science experience
“I’m often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science? And I have only one bit of advice, get out of their way. Kids are born curious. Period. I don’t care about your economic background. I don’t care what town you’re born in, what city, what country. If you’re a child, you are curious about your environment.
Annie Leibovitz| Photographer, a female eye
Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Connecticut, USA and began photographing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1969 while still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute. Famed for her iconic images of celebrities, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Hillary Clinton, in 1983 she became chief photographer for Vanity Fair. A regular contributor to Vogue as well, she is the winner of numerous awards and her exhibitions have toured the world many times over.
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