Modern Head

Yesterday, The Smithsonian American Art Museum installed the Roy Lichtenstein sculpture "Modern Head" on the grounds of their museum downtown. I went over to shoot the lifting of the piece, by a very large crane, for DCist.

When I took the assignment my first thought was, "I need to get on the roof." I wanted to see the lifting from a vantage point that the observers on the ground wouldn't have. When I got to the Smithsonian I noticed that Brendan Hoffman, a freelancer who was shooting for Getty Images that day, was also trying to get on a roof. He had made a few unsuccessful attempts at near by buildings, but luckily I spotted a few construction workers on a different building over looking the scene. After my attempts at flagging them down didn't work, Brendan spoke to the building manager and got access to the roof top balcony, and was kind enough to let me join.

The roof trip came with accessories, lovely white, adjustable hard hats. I was more concerned with falling off the building than having something hit my head, but it added that nice piece of accent flair you don't always get on a shoot.

After shooting off a few frames, I hustled back down to the street to get some more shots of the installation.

The sculpture is thirty-one feet tall, and has an interesting history. Heather has those details in the story over on DCist. There also a few more photos posted along with the story if you would like to check them out.

Go see the sculpture in person if you can. It is beautiful. The Smithsonian American Art Museum also just started a flickr page. How cool is that? After you hop over there and become their contact, look at the photo they captured of me in action yesterday. I am the one on the right, and it is Nikki Khan with the Washington Post, on the left.