
National Geographic photographer James Pease Blair: Making Pictures- life, love, and legacy
04/11/21 • 38 min
James Pease Blair, one of National Geographic's legendary photographers talks about love, life, and legacy.
Jim began his 32 year career at the National Geographic Society with a splash as staff photographer on board Jacques Cousteau's Calypso in 1962. As a photography student in the fifties at the Institute of Design in Chicago, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, but it was his years as a summer intern with Roy E. Stryker, at the Pittsburgh Photographic Library that made the biggest impression on Jim. Jim Blair's artistry and empathy brought a new kind of humanity to National Geographic which went from being a travel and culture magazine to a journal which included social and environmental images that revealed the soul of planet and its inhabitants.
Now in this late chapter of his life, Jim is contending with a lung condition that his reduced him to 35 percent breathing capacity, and yet he continues to live life with eyes and heart wide open. Don't miss this powerfully moving episode.
MUSIC:
Taps- Bugle Call: USMC Drum & Bugle Corps
Happy Birthday-Jazz Piano Arrangement by Jonny May
Chicago- Frank Sinatra
Juke- Little Walter
Government Camp Song-Mary and Betty Campbell, Shafter FSA Camp, August 9, 1941
There's a Pawn Shop on The Corner -Guy Mitchell
PittsburghTown-Pete Seeger
The Aquarium, Carnival of the Animals-Camille Saint-Saens
Calypso-John Denver
National Geographic 1964 - 1987 Full Theme
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=42335511)
James Pease Blair, one of National Geographic's legendary photographers talks about love, life, and legacy.
Jim began his 32 year career at the National Geographic Society with a splash as staff photographer on board Jacques Cousteau's Calypso in 1962. As a photography student in the fifties at the Institute of Design in Chicago, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, but it was his years as a summer intern with Roy E. Stryker, at the Pittsburgh Photographic Library that made the biggest impression on Jim. Jim Blair's artistry and empathy brought a new kind of humanity to National Geographic which went from being a travel and culture magazine to a journal which included social and environmental images that revealed the soul of planet and its inhabitants.
Now in this late chapter of his life, Jim is contending with a lung condition that his reduced him to 35 percent breathing capacity, and yet he continues to live life with eyes and heart wide open. Don't miss this powerfully moving episode.
MUSIC:
Taps- Bugle Call: USMC Drum & Bugle Corps
Happy Birthday-Jazz Piano Arrangement by Jonny May
Chicago- Frank Sinatra
Juke- Little Walter
Government Camp Song-Mary and Betty Campbell, Shafter FSA Camp, August 9, 1941
There's a Pawn Shop on The Corner -Guy Mitchell
PittsburghTown-Pete Seeger
The Aquarium, Carnival of the Animals-Camille Saint-Saens
Calypso-John Denver
National Geographic 1964 - 1987 Full Theme
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=42335511)
Previous Episode

Dr. Eli Newberger: Music Man/Medicine Man
It can sound hyperbolic to make the claim that a person has changed the world and made it a better place. In the case of Eli Newberger, it is utterly true.
Eli Newberger is equal parts music man and medicine man. He was the key prosecution witness in the trial of Louise Woodward, the British nanny convicted of second-degree murder in the death of an 8-month-old in Boston in1997. Later during the Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal, he offered his expertise on the effects of abuse on children and their families. Eli Newberger's ground-breaking work resulted in the formation of the child-protection program at Boston Children’s Hospital, and he's the author of many publications including an important and accessible book on the development of character in boys called The Men They Will Become.
Before Eli became a doctor, he was a musician. And perhaps it's because of music, that he became a doctor...Hear his inspiring origin story about his mentorship with the late New York Philharmonic principal tuba William Bell; his professional career in music, including his long tenure as a founding member of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, and work with pianists Butch Thompson and Bob Winter; and his inspiring and generous work developing an El Sistema music program in the Berkshires.
MUSIC:
Carolina Shout: James P. Johnson, piano
Cyrus the Great: US Air Force Band
Overture to Candide: New York Philharmonic
Yankee Doodle: Vivian Williams, Phil Williams, Howard Marshall, John Williams
Franck: Symphony in D minor: Berlin Philharmonic
Vaughan-Williams, Bass Tuba Concerto in F Minor: II. Romanza: Walter Hilgers
I'm Just Wild About Harry: Butch Thompson, Eli Newberger, and Jimmy Mazzy
Carnival of Venice Variations: Carol Jantsch
Issa Keita, balafon (marimba) virtuoso, Bamako, Mali
Bugle Boy March: New Black Eagle Jazz Band
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No 2: Gustavo Dudamel at the Proms
Next Episode

Lou Kosma: Mensch of the MET
Lou Kosma was a bass player in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 36 years. He grew up in Philadelphia in the fifties in a blue collar Italian American family - a loving home where the sound of Italian tarantellas played on guitar and accordion spilled from the windows, and the smell of frying meatballs and Roma tomato sauce filled the air. Little did his working class family know that their son would one day ascend to one of the greatest orchestras in the world! But that full-time job wasn't quite enough for Lou Kosma who has been, for his whole life, a generous teacher, conducting an array of youth and community orchestras with warmth and passion. Lou was shaped by his mentor Edward Arian, a Renaissance man who had three remarkable careers including a 20 year tenure as a bass player with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Arian lead an eight-week strike that got the musicians their first guaranteed 52- week salary. Lou Kosma learned a thing or two from his mentor--determination, integrity, generosity, and love of music.
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