I shot the above photo in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Nov. 19, 2016. On most devices, clicking the image will provide a larger view, It’s an example of “street” photography I’ve been drawn to since my dad bought me my first camera at age 17. Recently, I read a definition: “Street photography features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents …
I was out of the country when I heard the news of Molli Bernstein’s death in Fargo on Nov. 19 at the age of 27. When I lived in North Dakota, I photographed Molli several times, including the above shot that appeared in an exhibit of my photography at the then-Dakota Harvest Gallery in Grand Forks. I received several offers to …
Garrison Keillor often said there are two kinds of Lutherans — those who take their religion very seriously and those who mostly don’t. I’ve been accused of being in the second group, although my Norwegian grandfather, Hans Vorland, helped build the Bethany Lutheran Church near Wellsburg, N.D. Some Facebook friends know I recently had my grave marker placed in the …
Today is Veterans Day. Dorette Kerian and I would like to be among the first to salute our active duty and retired Army, Air Force, Navy, and Maine Corps men and women. I didn’t serve in the military. In 1966, I volunteered for the draft but was rejected because of bad eyesight. They told me I would be contacted to …
Hearing former Minnesota Vikings player Alan Page narrate Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” on Thursday at Orchestra Hall in the Twin Cities made me think of my student days at the University of North Dakota in the early 1960s It was there that I first heard of perhaps the greatest Vikings football player ever, Carl Eller, who played college football at …
Ireland is a popular destination for a lot of travelers. Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland recently visited the Emerald Isle and shares these images.
Eating well is a habit I learned later in life. As a sixth-grade kid back at Fram Township School No. 3 in Wellsburg, N.D., my favorite teacher, Margie Weisser, once advised me not to wolf down my lunch, if for no other reason than to better enjoy the taste of the food. And although it pains me to admit it, …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland and Dorette Kerian recently returned home after a trip to Chicago for the annual Chicago Jazz Fest. Dave was busy snapping photos while in the Windy City, and here are some of the images he’s sharing.
About this time in 1965, I arrived at the huge depot pictured above on my way to Northwestern University to begin a master’s degree in journalism. I was burdened down with heavy luggage, so the subway to Evanston wasn’t an option. I needed to transfer to yet another rail line. According the diary I kept, I ran out of time …
When Dorette and I were in the midst of our three-month retirement “sabbatical” in southern France in 2010, we traveled by train from Marseilles to the town of Aix-en-Provence to visit a friend and former University of North Dakota colleague, Paul Schwartz. Paul was living and teaching there at the time; one of his students, I think, took the above …
I was in Chicago on Sept. 3, the date of my late father Kermit Vorland’s birthday and didn’t think of the anniversary until today (Tuesday). He died in 1991 at the age of 80, a few days before my mother, Minnie. This above picture of him with my maternal grandmother, Ellen Vogel, was taken in the early 1950s in Enderlin, …
Today (Monday) Dorette and I returned from Chicago to attend the annual jazz festival, an event we’ve seldom missed in recent years. I also marked the 50th anniversary of my graduation from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. How time flies. On Thursday, we took a subway train to Evanston and wandered about the NU campus, including a stop at …
One hears grumbling these days at the University of North Dakota about the decision to raze older, historically important buildings to save money because of the state’s budget crisis. As those opposed to doing so have pointed out, “old” isn’t always a negative. Still, I was surprised this summer to see apartment No. 212 on Northwestern Drive was still in …
Photographer Dave Vorland shares these images taken this past month from near his home in Bloomington, Minn., to Itasca State Park to Ketchum, Idaho, where author Ernest Hemingway is buried.
My latest used book find is a volume by Chloe Rhodes discussing the origin of foreign words used in English. She provides a definition and humorous example. I’ll try not to overdo this, but I’ll occasionally share one with my Facebook friends. “Skol,” meaning “cheers” (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish). Like all groups of marauding invaders, the Vikings liked a little tipple at the …
I ran across this photo the other day of James F. Penwarden, my friend and former colleague at the University of North Dakota. He died Jan. 21, 2012. Jim is pictured above in the old days, when neither of us had yet heard of a desktop computer. Editing typewritten copy was done the old-fashioned way, with a pencil or pen. I’ve …
Call me old fashioned, but I have difficulty warming up to new novelists. But I’m trying — Dorette and I have signed up to the Hennepin County Library’s annual “Pen Pals” lecture program. On tap for this season: Anna Quindlen, Billy Collins, Lee Child, Elizabeth Strout and James McBride. I know nothing about any of them. Not that I don’t …
I’ve just returned with my daughter, Kristi, from a sentimental journey to Ketchum, Idaho. A goal — not the primary one since breathing mountain air and photographing the magnificent scenery were paramount for both of us — was for me to pay my respects at the writer Ernest Hemingway’s grave. Like many readers my age, I’ve been fascinated by Hemingway’s …
Check out what’s caught the eye this past month of Dave Vorland, Bloomington, Minn., photographer and former Grand Forks resident.
Now that the Republican and Democratic national conventions have ended, expect to see even more politics on Facebook. For example, your otherwise reasonable friends may begin to post comments about your favored candidate that get on your nerves. One solution is to “de-friend” the offender, which should be a last resort because you may lose that friend in real life …
This picture above, taken of me years ago with my boss and mentor, the late Thomas J. Clifford, then president of the University of North Dakota, surfaced recently from deep within my personal archives. I share with my favorite writer Ernest Hemingway the quality of being a “pack rat.” Hemingway apparently saved everything — manuscripts, of course, including early drafts …
I shared an article on Facebook on Friday morning from the Atlantic Monthly in which various authors reflect upon the importance of a novel having a great and memorable first line. As an elderly retired guy, I had plenty of time to create my own tentative “Top Ten” of first sentences. The opening line of “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James …
It was in a freshman English class at the University of North Dakota in 1961 that I first encountered the writing of Ernest Hemingway, just a few weeks after he committed suicide at Ketchum, Idaho. The short story was “A Clean Well-lighted Place,” published in 1933. James Joyce regarded it as one of the best ever written. I was inspired …
When I was in Grand Forks this past Wednesday, I visited two favorite golf courses, the University of North Dakota’s Ray Richards and what remains of the classic 1920s vintage Lincoln Park course. The latter was damaged in the Red River Flood of 1997, then mutilated by the permanent dikes that were built on it. Only nine of its former …
It was a traveling month for Dave Vorland. Along the way, the Bloomington, Minn., photographer captured images from the PGA Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, the Vesterheim Museum and Heritage Center in Decorah, Iowa, as well as others from around the Twin Cities.
I took the above photo in 2011 of the land that constituted the first of two North Dakota homesteads owned by my Norwegian grandfather, Hans Vorland, 1865-1930. It’s located in Grand Forks County outside the Red River Valley, east of Aneta. I had been to the courthouse earlier in the day to see the deed and determine the exact location. …
It’s been said “you can’t go home again.” Thomas Wolfe wrote a novel with that title. Ernest Hemingway often returned to places that had been important in his life, such as the spot in Italy where he had been wounded in World War I. But invariably, he arrived at the same conclusion. My favorite French author, Marcel Proust (his novel …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland snapped these shots this past month, including a shot of legendary Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant at his annual yard sale. You just never know what Dave will come up next.
I’ve been legally blind in my left eye for as long as I can remember. There is a tad of vision on that side and, unlike with my right eye, it is perfectly sharp. That bit of vision on the left has served me well, for example, by detecting the motion of passing cars before they come into the right …
Early in my career as the University of North Dakota’s director of public relations, I mentioned to the late School of Medicine Professor Helge Ederstrom that I was looking for more insight into what it was that motivated human attitudes and behavior. I was especially interested in those individual PR people — then rather naively described as “opinion leaders” — …
Here are some nice shots from Dave Vorland, taken this past month in the Twin Cities and New York City.
A third and final passage from the late Arch Monroe’s book “The Lighter Side of the Law.” It’s his tribute to his friend, Wayne Lubenow. “Out of the ‘Roughrider Country,’ which brought our nation Maxwell Anderson, Louis L’Amour and Lawrence Welk, comes Lubenow. He’s the Will Rogers, Damon Runyon and Art Buchwald of the prairies. His column appears in a …
I appreciate the responses, on Facebook and privately, to my post Sunday about my old friend Arch Monroe’s book of letters, “The Lighter Side of the Law.” I can’t resist adding a bit more about him. University of North Dakota President Tom Clifford hired Arch in 1983 and assigned him to the public relations office to assist with UND’s Centennial …
Some of my friends may recall a slightly eccentric individual, the late Arch Monroe, who worked for me briefly at the University of North Dakota. A few years earlier, Arch had published a book with replies to his request for humorous stories from judges, lawyers and politicians. Many responded, among them Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, Sen. Sam Ervin and Congressman …
Here are some February shots from Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland.
Dave Vorland’s 34-page book “Paris in Monochrome,” produced last year, is available at “VorlandPhoto” at Blurb.com.
For a time, my father, Kermit Vorland, was a hobo (not a “bum,” he insisted) during the Great Depression. He traveled in or on top of railroad cars to and from the West Coast, looking for and sometimes finding work. I can recall him telling of his fear of the private police who checked the trains from time to time. …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland shares these shots he took this month, our last of 2015.
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland’s lens captured these scenes recently. Get Dave’s new book, “Paris in Monochrome,” here.
Photographer Dave Vorland of Bloomington, Minn., offers a glimpse of fall in Minnesota with these spectacular images.
The Greeks and Italians have a much more relaxed attitude toward pets roaming at large (and entering eating establishments) than do Americans, according to photographer Dave Vorland. Dave caught these pets off- and on-guard during a recent trip to Greece.
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland captured these images on a recent trip to northeastern Minnesota: Split Rock Lighthouse, north of Duluth on Lake Superior, from one of the many hiking trails in the area; Lake Superior sunset; Little Angie’s Cantina and Grill, Duluth; Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth; “Luna,” a resident of the International Wolf Center at Ely.
