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Ksenia Sobchak

Russian artist

Library exhibit stars russian artist.

From March 28 to March 31, the Middleboro Public Library will host an exhibition of Pavel Vaan, a famous Moscow-based fashion hair designer, art photographer and creative director of Le Colon Beauty Institute, Moscow.

The collection of women’ portraits entitled “Moscow Beauties” is performed in the style of Russian subjective realism.

The images are applied onto tight yet transparent material using the sublimation printing technique, which provides for unique volume and depth effects.

The canvasses are 3.0 by 1.5 meters in size so, that the ladies in the pictures are depicted life-size, giving the visitor the overriding impression of their presence in the room.

The pictures present common Muscovites. Each of them is placed in a beyond time space, so that viewers are witnesses to their inner dialogue and can perceive not only their physical beauty, but their spiritual beauty.

The creator of these unique artworks, Pavel Vaan, is a Lomonosov Moscow State University graduate who majored in humanitarian sciences and art.

He also graduated from the Vidal Sasson Academy in London, England and has participated in a large number of professional exhibitions, including the famous Expo Beauty and InterCharm. He is also widely known as an author of annual hair style collections and training classes.

Mr. Vaan collaborates with numerous fashion magazines, being an official hair designer for such pageants as Millionaire Fair Moscow and Moscow’s German Ball.

Success came to him after first personal exhibition called the “Dreams of the Maghreb,” held in 2006.

The current collection, “Moscow Beauties,” was premiered last year at the Russian Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, and later was successfully staged at the Russian House in Berlin, the Russian Consulate in Strasbourg, France, the Russian Embassy’s Chateau de Beggen in Luxembourg, the Dusseldorf City Hall, Germany, and at the German Ball in Moscow.

The first presentation on this side of the Atlantic will take place in the Middleboro Public Library.

Traditional Russian appetizer – crackers and refreshing kvass – will be served at the exhibition, adding to the atmosphere of Russian taste.

The exhibition is free and open to all.

Female

Russian F1 team hires female test driver.

Formula One team Marussia announced the hiring of a female test driver for the 2012 season.

Maria de Villota will have a chance to try the Russian team’s current car, the MR01, as the lone women at the Abu Dhabi rookie test in November, Speed.tv reported.

The 32-year-old Spaniard, whose father Emilio competed in F1, gained some mileage with Lotus Renault GP in August last year, driving a year-old car at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

On teaming up with Marussia, Villota said, “This is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with a Formula One team and gain important experience to help me progress my career, including the chance to drive the new car later in the year at the Abu Dhabi test.”

Five women have made it to the F1 grid, though not since Italian Giovanna Amati in 1992.
Villota, who has raced in the Spanish F3 and the Daytona 24 Hours, said she aspires to becoming the sixth.

“I will be joining [the Marussia] team trackside, so I’m looking forward to working alongside them at the first race next weekend, and this can only help my future ambition to step up to Formula One racing,” she said.

Russian men

Russian men cut costs on women’s day.

With Russia’s election out of the way, the country is moving onto bigger and better things: International Women’s Day, which is cause for a long holiday weekend beginning on Thursday.

Though perhaps overblown, the spending-oriented holiday provides a good moment for checking in on the state on the Russian retail economy and corporate economic sentiment.

According to Russian search engine Yandex, flower deliveries are 2.4 times higher during the March 8 holidays – compared to just 1.8 times higher during Valentine’s Day. The average Russian spends more than $100 on presents for the holiday.

All the same there are signs that people are starting to cut back.

This year Russians will spend an average of 3,758 roubles ($127) each on Women’s Day gifts, yet that’s a 18.5 per cent drop from what they were spending last year, according to Home Credit Finance bank.

Home Credit says just 9 per cent of men are planning to give jewellery this year – down from 21 per cent in 2011.

Stanislav Duzhinsky, an analyst at Home Credit, tells Russian news agency Prime-Tass that the switch to cheaper categories is in line with what the bank is seeing across the retail sector, with many Russian consumers trying to economise in part due to expectations of rising inflation this year.

While inflation was at 3.7 per cent in February, a post-Soviet low, it is expected to rise as increases for state-controlled prices for energy and other utilities – postponed because of the presidential election – are implemented. The government, headed by premier Vladimir Putin, has warned that inflation may surpass the 6.1 per cent seen last year.

According to Prime-Tass’s own survey, just 41 per cent of Russians were planning to give flowers versus 62 per cent last year.

Things are not all bad for Russia’s florists, which tend to dramatically to raise prices ahead of the holiday. Flower delivery site Florist.ru said prices had risen 40 per cent from their normal level, and would stay that way until March 10, while Donna Roza, a florist, said their bouquet prices had increased 30 per cent.

And while women may be receiving less expensive gifts from loved ones, their employers still know how to fete them.

AFK Sistema, the Russian conglomerate that spans the oil services, telecoms and media sectors, the company decided to take a more casual approach to March 8 this year, throwing a party at its headquarters across from the Kremlin, instead of renting out a theatre for a private performance like last year.

When female employees showed up at work on Wednesday they were greeted by a live band and elegantly-dressed waiters handing out flutes of champagne glass, says Dmitry Prokhorenko, the company’s vice president of HR.

The live music changed every three hours – switching from a piano player to a live jazz band – while different activities ranging from a tarot card reader to a candle-making station and a professional photographer taking photo shoots of each of the women.

“Each time they wanted to take a break, they could experience something new, every hour,” Prokhorenko says.

At AT Kearney, the US management consultancy, women received similar treatment, having the opportunity to don a crown on their head when they arrived, with photo shoots to commemorate the moment.

Sistema’s female Moscow employees (which comprise about half of the 300-person staff) are queens for the whole day. Breakfast pastries turned into a lunchtime buffet which was followed by evening canapes.

Prokhorenko says the company does not offer the same type of treatment on Defenders of the Fatherland day – the counterpart of the Women’s Day holiday for Russian men.

“Since we have the pleasure of working with you ladies, it’s pleasure enough to see you guys smile,” he tells a (female) beyondbrics correspondent.

Women

Women celebrate female success and inspiration.

Doc Martin actress Louise Jameson was invited as the guest of honour at town mayor Cllr Margaret Crabtree’s event.

About 60 women filled the recital hall at the school in Ashgrove Road, Sevenoaks, which caters for children who cannot be in mainstream education.

More than £1,500 was raised by ticket sales and a raffle.

Mrs Crabtree said: “This was a day where we celebrated the achievements of women, past, present and future.

“In the room there were women who have been very successful in all areas such as the law, education, politics, local government and entertainment.”

Christina Wells, head teacher, was thrilled with the turnout.

She said: “I am delighted that Louise Jameson has given up her time to support the school and the community.

“The women were a mixture of business women and ex-pupils of the school, and most from Sevenoaks. I was delighted with the turnout from local people.

“All money raised will go towards the school’s bursary fund.”

Louise Jameson expressed her admiration for the school, which helps to provide pupils with a bright future despite having had a difficult start.

She said: “I think this school is just amazing, they take on children when no one else will and they turn their lives around. They really make a difference to their futures.

“They do some extraordinary work.”

Sevenoaks district councillor and former leader of the council Alison Cook said: “I think International Women’s Day is something that women should be interested in.

“I am very interested in this school and in anything that helps the school.

“I think someone like Michelle Obama is a figure to inspire women, and hopefully in some small way all the women here today can do the same.”

Pauline Appleton, an estate agent from Sittingbourne, told the Chronicle that “women must be recognised”.

IWD has been celebrated annually on March 8 since 1917, when Russian women went on strike for the right to vote.

Feminist

People

A new documentary explores alleged market exploitation of the powerless, a theme so repeatedly appealing to documentarians. This one, “Girl Model,” caught my attention because it focuses on a facet of the fashion and modeling industries. It’s the story of a 13-year-old Russian girl who is an aspiring model, along with several complicated, hardened model recruiters, one of whom actually initiated this documentary effort. Apparently, young female Russian models are in demand in Japanese advertising. They are recruited in Russia and sent off, willy-nilly to Japan to fend for themselves in the strange, unregulated, exploitative world of fashion modeling  But such narratives should trigger some viewer skepticism, in my opinion.

Opportunity offers risk and reward. People take risks to escape poverty, to build a better life. Even people who are age 13. Hopefully, I will get an opportunity to view this documentary.  I hope the film explores the circumstances that would motivate a 13-year-old, Nadya, who describes herself as a “gray mouse, an ordinary country girl,” to travel mostly unaided to a foreign land in hopes of becoming a successful fashion model. What circumstances is she escaping? Every time a market opportunity for the impoverished of the world is condemned as exploitative, my question is always: compared to what? I understand that the available employment opportunity at hand may be far less than acceptable to a comfortable, middle-class American. But to the impoverished, that opportunity, with all its seemingly harsh, cruel circumstances, may be the chance for a better life, so I don’t think we should so quickly condemn or prohibit it.

In the narrative, Nadya leaves her home in Siberia, travels to Japan, is picked up by a modeling firm called Noah Models, and auditions for various modeling jobs. She’s homesick and at the whim of the harsh, bewildering meat market world of model casting calls.

When Nadya first arrived at the airport in Tokyo, she was expected to find her way to the agency on her own, with just an address on a slip of paper. She didn’t speak the language, didn’t know how to get there or even how to figure it out. She didn’t know who to ask or where to turn and hadn’t ever traveled abroad before.

Despite such stressful and, reportedly, less than financially rewarding circumstances, Nadya decides to continue her pursuit of a modeling career. A reviewer calls that decision “the saddest part.” Which brings me to a more specific critique: the fashion industry isn’t nice, so get over it. By all accounts, it’s competitive, backstabbing and, well, harsh. If you have to be 5’9″ and a size “0″ to land posh modeling gigs, and you decide you don’t like that, maybe that isn’t the job for you. But, in a week that brought the political “war against women” meme, perhaps we should better respect the ability of young female models and their families to make their own decisions, even decisions we may dislike.

Maria Sharapova

Ana Ivanovic breezed through in straight sets and Maria Sharapova survived a scare from a fellow Russian as the two former champions reached the Indian Wells semi-finals Thursday.

Three time Grand Slam winner Sharapova, the second seed, battled back from an opening-set loss with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Maria Kirilenko in the women’s quarter-finals of the joint WTA and ATP event.

Sharapova will face Ivanovic, who easing past a stricken Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-4 in a rematch of their quarter-final contest from last year.

Sharapova had cruised through her first three matches at Indian Wells without dropping a set.

However, she quickly ran into trouble against Kirilenko – who had won eight of her previous nine three-set matches this year.

“I tried to keep my head up today even though I wasn’t playing my best,” said Sharapova, who won the Indian Wells title in 2006. “Towards the end I started to play better and move better.”

Sharapova needed three hours and five minutes to dispatch Kirilenko in the first meeting between the two since the opening round of the 2010 Australian Open.

Kirilenko is getting a reputation as the WTA Tour’s iron woman. This was her third straight three setter for Kirilenko and the second time in the tournament she played a match lasting more than three hours.

Kirilenko became the first player in the tournament to take a set off Sharapova, breaking the former world No. 1 twice in winning the opening frame in 43 minutes.

International Women’s Day

A tribute to Russian women on International Women’s Day

Russian men take great pride in the beauty of their womenfolk and it’s almost impossible for a visitor to leave the country without hearing at least once from someone (and usually a man) that Russian women are the most beautiful on earth. While this is a common and patriotic adage in many countries, the sheer conviction with which Russian men celebrate the beauty of their women is incomparable. I found no need to argue with my Russian friends since I could easily see that the streets of any Russian city, be it St Petersburg or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, contained a disproportionate number of beautiful women.

It isn’t just natural beauty that sets a Russian girl apart, rather it is the way the average Svetlana or Natasha dresses and carries herself. There’s even an elegance and grace about the way a Russian woman wearing heels runs on the ice on a freezing winter morning to catch a bus to work. You can also tell the scent of a woman apart even in the most crowded wagons of the Moscow metro. In a city as large as Moscow, where people travel for more than an hour in the metro just to get to work, I felt nothing but admiration for those who would be so well groomed at 7 am in the city centre on a working day. Now, it took a lot of work and dedication to look one’s best, throughout the day. I remember watching an emotional film once in Moscow with a Russian friend, who was moved by the plot and performances of the actors, but didn’t shed a tear. She told me later that crying would have messed up her make-up, so she decided to cry her heart out after getting home and out of public view.

Russian women

n Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, one could often hear mutterings from Dutch and English wives about how they hated the way a Russian woman looked dressed for a party at any time of day. Hidden somewhere in these complaints was the fact that they didn’t enjoy the attention that their husbands paid to local women. While hiring a rather beautiful reporter, I was asked an odd question about the working conditions in the office. “How come there are no mirrors in this room,” the reporter asked me. She said she needed a big enough mirror to look her best on winter mornings after removing her cap and other winter accessories. She’d even need the mirror on humid summer days when the make-up wears off on the way to work.

In Russia, it is also not an uncommon sight to see the most elegant and well-dressed woman walking hand in hand with an unshaven and rugged-looking man. Maybe one reason that some Russian women have a liking for foreign men is that they actually tend to notice and appreciate the effort that Russian women put to look their best. Russian men, though, try to make up for 364 (or 365 in a leap year like this one) days of under-appreciation with one day full of love, toasts, respect and attention on March 8, International Women’s Day.

Women’s Day

Unlike in most parts of the world, Women’s Day is no low key affair that hardly gets noticed. March 8 is one of Russia’s most important holidays. When it comes to urban beauty, very few images compare to the sight of red rose petals on freshly fallen snow on the sidewalks of Russian cities on Women’s Day. Roses are by no means inexpensive in Russia but in the run up to Women’s Day, prices of all flowers sky-rocket. I once advised a visitor to Russia from Bangalore to bring as many roses as he could in the first week of March. The five rupees (10 cents) per rose on the streets of the Indian city compared very favourably to the 600 roubles ($20) that it cost in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

On Women’s Day, it’s difficult to call for radio taxis, despite prices being jacked up. Just about everyone is away from home on yearly rounds to give gifts to the special women in their lives, and this includes siblings, teachers, friends, parents and of course lovers. Shops also have special promotions for imported chocolates and “Sovetskoye Shampanskoye,” a generic Russian sparkling wine, which uses the ‘champagne’ name. Along with gifts, toasts are an integral part of the holiday. There are very innovative ways to toast the “most beautiful women in the world.” The festive ambience in the country during the holiday is only outdone on New Year’s Eve. National television channels often screen some classics from the bygone days. One such film is the Oscar-winning hit from 1980, “Moscow doesn’t believe in tears,” a movie that Ronald Reagan apparently saw 6 times to understand the Russian soul.

Russia

Women’s Day also tends to lift the spirits of both men and women who are sick of the long Russian winter and eagerly looking for any hint of spring. Spring arrives a lot earlier in central Russia than it does in Sakhalin and other parts of the Russian Far East. In the far outreaches of Russia, many combine the Women’s Day holiday with a few days off and head off ice-fishing or on camping expeditions to remote locations. On one occasion, when Women’s Day fell on a Thursday, the Sakhalin authorities made Friday a holiday and Sunday a working day. That gave many of us an occasion to celebrate the holiday on the frozen Sea of Okhotsk in an area called Tihaya Bay. Sakhalin’s adventurous women welcomed their holiday by scaling up icy peaks and showing off their alpinist prowess in “spring” temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius. Women’s Day in itself signalled that warmer temperatures were just around the corner.

For those who have Russian women colleagues and friends outside Russia, March 8 is the perfect occasion to make them feel special. A small gift and maybe two lines of a traditional Russian Women’s Day toast would easily make a Russian woman’s day, especially when one considers the fact that one of Russia’s biggest holidays goes by without the slightest hint of fanfare almost anywhere outside the former Soviet Union.

Russians coach

Russians coach is well-travelled.

Rodger Schmidt thought he had coached at his last Winter Olympics two years ago in Vancouver. That was his plan, anyways.

After years of coaching curling teams all around the world – he figures he’s coached seven or eight countries, but it’s hard to keep track – Schmidt, a former Saskatoon native who curled for Saskatchewan in the 1978 Brier and also lost the 1987 world championship final to Russ Howard while skipping for West Germany, planned to stay close to his current home in Switzerland, where he operates a high-performance curling academy in Lucerne.

That’s when the Russians came calling. And with the lure of those splashy red jackets the Russian curling teams wear and, oh yes, a commitment from the higher-ups in the Russian sports ministry to throw money at curling to help their teams contend for gold on home ice in Sochi two years down the road, Schmidt, 59, simply couldn’t resist the chance to chase Olympic glory.

And he already sees a difference with the Russians, who’ve been in Calgary since March 5 preparing for the Ford world women’s championship, beginning Saturday at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge.

“The difference, really, is that they have a commitment to it,” said Schmidt, who coached U.S. teams at the 2002 and 2010 Olympics, and was guiding the home-ice Italians in 2006 in Turin. “Other nations don’t have the same luxury in terms of their financing and in terms of being able to take athletes away from working and university life to the extent that the Russians can. They study for school, but they don’t have another job description (other than curling). They aren’t balancing as many other things as other nations are.”

The Russian women’s teams over the years have always been a tantalizing blend of skill, fit-ness and, yes, looks (lead Ekaterina Galkina once posed in the Russian version of Maxim magazine). Missing, however, was the strategic component that is necessary at the world level.

“I watch a lot of curling games and I’ve worked with a lot of nations, and that knock applies to a lot of other teams,” noted Schmidt. “But the difference here is that they make a lot of shots. They’re technically good curlers. And when you make too many shots, sometimes you don’t have to be creative. You win a lot of games making strategic mistakes because the other team doesn’t challenge you. So to get to the level we believe we can get to, there are some adjustments that need to be made.”

Which was a big reason the Russians reached out to Schmidt. He’s worked with the current crop of players for years now, and is familiar with their strengths and weaknesses. He knows, too, that the potential is there for great things. Skip Anna Sidorova, for instance, is just 21 and arrived in Calgary late Monday night after skipping Russia to a bronze medal at the world juniors last weekend in Sweden.

“I really like this team. I like their work ethic, I like their dedication,” said Schmidt, who’ll be making a return to Lethbridge after living there in the early 1980s. “If I survive till Sochi, it’ll be my fourth Olympics in a row, and with no disrespect to anybody, this is the first time that I feel like I’m really working with athletes, and not just curlers.”

Still, there is pressure on the Russians being applied from above, and longtime national coach Olga Andrianova – arguably the most important factor in the rise of Russian curling – is feeling it.

“Not only this season, but the people (from the Russian sport ministry and national curling federation) want us to win all competitions,” she said. “That’s not possible in curling, but they tell me that we must win medals in every competition, juniors, women’s, men’s. It’s very difficult. I told them it’s not possible. But we have big pressure.”

But, suggested Schmidt, the team (a five-player unit rounded out by Liudmila Privivkova, Margarita Fomina and Nkeiruka Ezekh) is headed in the right direction heading into Lethbridge, and into Sochi as well.

“We would like to think we could jump into the top four (in Lethbridge),” said Schmidt. “I don’t know that it would be a good idea to get lucky and win the gold and have that hanging over our heads for the next two years before Sochi. But it’s clear that we’re hanging around in that middle pack of teams, and we have two steps to make, and two years to do it in.”

European Chess Union

Chessed: Players’ dress kept in check.

The European Chess Union (ECU) has astonished chess players by introducing a new dress code, including some strict policies on cleavage exposure.

The decision was voiced at the European Women’s Individual Chess Championship, currently taking place in Turkey.

From now on only two buttons may be opened on women’s dress shirts, while skirts should be spaced not more than 10 centimeters up from the knee. High heels are in, flip-flops are out. As for headwear, it can only be allowed in case of religious necessity.

According to the ECU General Secretary Sava Stoisavljevic the new regulations came about because spectators were making comments on female competitors’ outfits, and not due to complaints from distracted male players who faltered in their game while seated across a female opponent dressed “like she is going to the beach”.

The wide-ranging rules were brought in to restore a sense of decorum to the game, stressed Stoisavljevic.

Some female players may find the sanctions very strict, as according to the rules, “a player not dressed according to the code can be refused attendance at the opening or closing ceremony.”

Russia beauty

Russia beauty claims European chess crown.

Russian ladies are not only beautiful, but smart as well. Valentina Gunina has proved it by becoming the new European women’s individual chess champion.

­Her compatriot, Tayana Kosintseva, cruised to silver at the tournament held in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

The title was decided in the final round, in which Gunina, who played white, defeated table-topper Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia.

Kosintseva also took the upper hand in her match against Georgian chess master Nana Dzagnidze.

As a result, Gunina, Kosintseva and Muzychuk all had 8.5 points after 11 meetings, but the Russian duo prevailed over their Slovenian rival due to additional indicators.

Another Russian, Aleksandra Kostenyuk, came among the top 14 players to qualify for the Chess World Championship.

The Turkish triumph became the first big international achievement in the career of 23-year-old Valentina Gunina.

There’s been another notable event in Gaziantep as the chess world received its youngest International Master.

Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina has become an IM at the age of just 13 years and five months.

The native of Salekhard in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region is the student of the famous Polar Chess School. She’s a World and European champion among the girls her age.

Model

Dress

I hated Rami’s dress. Cut up mess badly executed. He should have been in bottom 3 because at least you could wear Sweet P’s and Kara’s dresses, but his looked like it came from a dimestore sale bin. I’d have picked him to go home, except for…

April. She should have been laughed off the stage. Not one thing about that dress worked–unwearable, except maybe for crackhead ho’s. Oh, wait! Courtney Love might rock it, smeared makeup running down her face. Yeah, that bad.

Austin’s dress, like Gordana’s, looked like the Roaring 20′s to me. I liked them fine, but Micheal’s black dress had a show-stopper drama that I thought won the day for the assignment. It was a close horse race, though, as Anthony also has come a long way, baby; good job all.

I must mention Mondo, who is nearly always perfection in design and detail; but not having a long skirt took some points away for going to the opera, IMO.

Sweet Pea

I think the “opera” element stumped some of the contestants. There were some dresses I liked but they weren’t the best for the “opera”.
I was disappointed in Rami, this should have been his challenge. I didn’t hate his dress but he wasn’t that “into” this challenge and it showed.
I would have given Mondo the win, I think his was out of the box and retro-like modern.
I would have booted April instead of Sweet Pea because that red thing was awful from bottom to top. Whereas I actually liked Sweet Pea’s skirt although the print wasn’t “opera-like”.
I didn’t like Austin’s winning dress although I could picture Alex McCord wearing that thing. But overall I thought it looked cheap and strange.
I actually liked Kara’s dress but agree the waist was wrong and the ribbon in back should have been longer or non-existent. The print wasn’t the best for an opera but for a summer long dress, I liked it. Actually Sweet Pea and Kara’s dress would look cute for a summer garden party.
Anyway, I guess what I liked and disliked wasn’t on the same page as the judges. I like Sweet Pea and think she looks younger now than she did in her first season. Sorry she had to go instead of April.
I think you’ll see Rami and Mondo duking it out for the win.

Bangor

Just a year ago, the Bangor Daily News was advertising a forum at the Bangor Public Library for readers to talk with Philomena Baker, the subject of a seven-part series of articles titled Flight to Freedom that appeared in the paper between Dec. 25, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2011. People filled the hall and 250 joined online to hear Philomena describe her evacuation from Odessa, Ukraine, at the age of 9 with her mother during World War II and their subsequent journey to freedom in Germany, mostly on foot.

In the past year, Philomena and I have continued to talk and a number of people have read an expanded version of the series evaluating its potential for publication as a book. One of those readers wanted to know more about Philomena’s life in Maine, particularly her transition from post-war Germany to Fort Kent: her husband’s hometown and the place she began her 40-year career as a portrait photographer.

So last week I asked Philomena to tell me about Fort Kent. The story began in Amberg, Germany, where she managed the special services photo center on the U.S. Army base. Fort Kent native John Baker was one of the enlisted men who used the lab for processing film and printing photos. He overcame Philomena’s resistance to romance, at first with boxes of candy and later with glowing descriptions of the beauty of northern Maine — a place where she could live if only she would marry him.

Fishing

A Maine Guide and avid fisherman and hunter, John praised the beauty of the lakes and trees back home and gave Philomena a painting of a woodland scene in Maine that hangs today in her home in Bangor.

“He loved the outdoors,” she recalled. “He said he would take me hunting and fishing when I came to Maine.” Even though such sports did not appeal to Philomena, she and John were married on the base in Amberg Aug. 12, 1959. Three and a half months later, she was on a plane to the United States with other military personnel and dependants of soldiers with the rank of sergeant or higher.

“My mother saw me off at the train station in Bayreuth where I took the train to Frankfurt,” she recalled. The Army transport plane flew from Frankfurt to New York where Philomena boarded a small plane bound for Frenchville, Maine. Three days before Thanksgiving, she was welcomed into John’s family: his parents Alton and Irene Baker and his siblings: Jesse, Eleanor, Hope, Don, Joyce and Jim.

“They accepted me as one of their own. I had been an only child; now I had brothers and sisters. I felt at home.”

The newlyweds lived with John’s parents at first, then moved in with his grandmother, Lily Baker until they found a house on Main Street next to the Knights of Columbus hall. John operated Camps of Acadia on Eagle Lake and guided sportsmen on fishing and hunting excursions. In the winter he and his brother cut wood.

When John was away Philomena grew close to his grandmother, Memere Baker. “I fell in love with her immediately,” she recalled, describing Lily’s “sparkling blue eyes and enchanting smile surrounded by shining silver gray hair tied loosely at the back of her head.

Weddings

“It was only natural for me to sense that she liked me too when she invited John and me to live with her. She taught me how to prepare American meals, bake pies of all sorts and put the most delicious chowders and stews on the table with steaming bread and fresh butter.

Memere Baker taught me much more than to prepare American meals. She taught me how to smile during that time and how to serve meals with a happy attitude.”

Within two years, John and Philomena were the parents of two daughters.

But parenting did not prevent Philomena from envisioning a photography business built on the skills she had acquired through the U.S. Army. She took every opportunity to add to her training. She took a course in contemporary portraiture at the University of New Hampshire and received certificates of merit from the Winona School of Photography in Indiana and the University of Maine Extension Service.

She and John converted the front first-floor sections of their home at 64 Main Street into a reception area, photographic studio and darkroom. Philomena cashed in her U.S. Army retirement early in order to purchase the equipment she wanted. She took the bus to Boston to pick it up.

After two years of planning and preparation she opened Baker Studio, specializing in fine portraits. “Mrs. Baker also will be available for parties, weddings, baptisms, first communions and confirmations,” said an announcement in the local newspaper.

The studio gained such a reputation for weddings that Philomena would sometimes be asked to photograph two or three marriages on the same day. Couples would time their ceremonies so she could attend all of them.

photographer

“I would photograph the bride preparing for the wedding and family members arriving at the church. I stayed at the church until the exchange of rings. Then I took the 4-by-5 negatives to the studio to be developed so proofs would be available at the reception. Then I went back to the church to photograph the newlyweds coming out and followed them to the reception, often at the Armory or the hotel.”

When she had taken the prescribed photos at the reception, she moved on to the next wedding where the procedure was repeated. “It always worked out,” she said, admitting that Fort Kent Police Chief Doody Michaud may still remember stopping her on occasion as she raced from one place to another.

Through photography, Philomena became so well acquainted with the town that its residents seemed like family. She even got to speak the French she had learned as a student.

“Everyone was so helpful,” she said, remembering townspeople with affection. “They were naturally, beautifully friendly people — even bankers when I had to go and borrow money. How else could I feel but that I was in a family?”

Even after her marriage ended in divorce and she moved to Bangor with her daughters in 1970, Fort Kent friends and family members continued to visit her. And when the story of her year as a refugee appeared in the newspaper, Fort Kent readers sent emails, one with an attached wedding photo, remembering her days in the St. John Valley.

Like readers in the Bangor area, they knew she was a talented photographer, but were unaware of the remarkable life story she had carried within her for more than 50 years.

Boutique

Top Sales This Week

Cerato Boutique kicks off January discounts with a designer sample sale on Saturday, January 14. Take 40 percent off select Cerato merchandise as well as 20 to 60 percent off limited pieces from C/Fan, Jules, and Lily & Migs. Starting Sunday, January 15, the boutique takes 20 percent off everything in stock (excluding special orders, Jules ID tag necklaces, Kate Boggiano clothing, and Kristin Hassan jewelry) through Saturday, January 21.

Nicholas Joseph , a men’s custom clothing shop, hosts a party at John Allan’s , a men’s salon and club, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 12. The event, which is open to the public, includes 10 percent off Nicholas Joseph custom suits and 25 percent off products from John Allan’s (as well as complimentary mini massages, beverages, and more). Bring a gently used suit or jacket as a donation to receive a $50 Nicholas Joseph gift certificate.

Designer

Bridal Boutique Inspired by French Style Enters Lake View

C’est la Mode

“I really like the way French girls are cute, sexy, and sweet without trying too hard,” says Kpoené Kofi-Bruce, a wedding gown designer and recent transplant to Chicago from San Francisco. “I wanted to have a store that celebrates that style.” Last month, Kofi-Bruce opened Mignonette ), a wedding boutique in Lake View (“mignonette” being a variant on a French word for dainty). In addition to Kofi-Bruce’s own creations—including a collection of dresses (from $500) and custom gowns (from $900)—find a mix of artisanal and locally produced wedding attire, accessories, and gifts. Current lines include vintage-inspired headbands ($45 to $100) from designer Danielle de Peso; men’s vintage designer ties (from $60), suits ($300), and vests (from $75) from Humble Collective; and china earrings, bracelets, and necklaces ($50 to $400) by Material and Movement. “There is so much talent in Chicago,” says Kofi-Bruce. “I didn’t need to go much further when deciding which designers to carry.”