weetstraw offers several interesting sets of ephemera, photographs and a variety of visuals.
"weetstraw.com draws in users based on familiar subjects, and creates connections to ideas from various contexts. the purpose of the site is to introduce the user to new possibilities of visual associations, through the common and the obscure."
Duke University libraries has compiled a fantastic digital archive of Mid-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century advertising, ephemera, and photography. The site isn't much to look at, but it's easy to navigate and the content is wonderful.
London-based photographer Greg White has a really beautiful portfolio with an engaging mix of subject matter, including: minimal architecture, portraiture and several complex studio shots. His site design by Tom Munckton is fantastic as well; I love the overall simplicity and bold use of red on the home page. Impressive stuff.
Things Magazine, which is outstanding in its own right, has assembled a fantastic archive of Pelican book covers produced from the 1930s through the 1980s. Certainly worth a bookmark.
Be sure to check out the impressive collection of posters and prints by French designer Vincent Perrottet. His site takes a few seconds to load, as it's constructed as a single page with large images, but it's worth the wait.
I admit that I'm unfamiliar with Ross Kemp, but that certainly doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for a site dedicated entirely to folded images of his head.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I was out-of-town for a few days.
Lost and Taken is a great resource site for Hi Res, good-quality textures and scans. Most, if not all, are copyright / royalty-free images that are acceptable for personal and commercial use. Check it out.
If you're a fan of illustration, photography, and 1950s pinup art, then you will love this post.
Posted on flickr by the model's (Janet Rae) son, is a collection of over 75 pinup paintings featuring Rae by artist Gil Elvgren. While this in itself would be blog-worthy enough, the original black and white studio photograph from which the artist worked accompanies each illustration. It's phenomenal to be able to see the photos and paintings side-by-side...a rare collection indeed.
Artist Yasmina Alaoui and photographer Marco Guerra are the creators behind One Thousand and One Dreams.
The work seems to exist somewhere between abstract fantasy and surrealist documentation. The duo cover nude models in contemporary Henna patterns, photograph them in black and white, and layer Alaoui’s ink drawings into the final photographs.
In addition to the work, I quite like the site, which utilizes a simple but effective layout and navigation system.
I dig this time-lapse video by Sydney-based photographer Keith Loutit. While all the frames are authentic, I can’t help but feel like the piece exists somewhere between real and surreal.
“A picture of an armed sheriff moving through an American home after an eviction due to a mortgage foreclosure was named World Press Photo of 2008 on Friday.
Jury members said the strength of the photo by American Anthony Suau for Time magazine was in its opposites -- it looks like a classic war photograph, but is simply the eviction of people from a house.
“Now war in its classic sense is coming into people’s houses because they can’t pay their mortgages,” jury chair MaryAnne Golon said.”
So the primary reason this image was selected World Press Photo of 2008 was the context that it occurred in an American home, as opposed to some other country — or that the mortgage crisis has become so bad that it can require the assistance of armed police officers? Hmmm…
I was reading an article in the current edition of the College Art Association’s Art Journal, and came across the work of Lorna Simpson. It seems like I should have known of her work before now — but I guess later is better than never.
Simpson is an African American artist and photographer based in Brooklyn. Her work has been included in the Venice Biennale and in 2007 she had a 20-year retrospective at the Whitney in New York City.
If you desperately need to know what day it is, yet can’t stand the convenience of glancing up at your Menu Bar — you’ve come to the right place.
The Human Calendar is a fun and cleverly voyeuristic approach to date retrieval that relies on simple visual innuendo. The calendar is the work of Craig Giffen, founder of The Human Clock.
I recently came across this article from the St. Petersburg Times, which attempts to broach the questions of “what is art?” and “what distinguishes naked from nude?”
The focus of the article is the 1993 Michel Comte photograph of model Carla Bruni. The author seems to jump around a bit trying to define art and nakedness, sourcing several art historical references. While that is all fine and well, it seems to me the larger issue is not the naked vs. nude debate at all, but rather the importance of an image of a well-known model, who, since the time of its creation, has become the First Lady of France.
The author seems somewhat shocked that a photograph estimated to be valued at $4,000, sold for approximately $91,000. The selling price was not due to the pose or photographer, but almost certainly because it is an image with potential cultural and historical value — depending of course upon the outcome of the Sarkosy reign. While the purchase price might be viewed as a risk, the future potential payoff could be phenomenal, as I couldn't imagine the cost of a similar image of Eva Perón or Jackie Kennedy.
I liked that the article touched-on several major philosophical art questions, I’m just not convinced that it fully addresses any of them.
I totally dig the site for French-born photographer Audrey Corregan. It’s ultra-minimal which is always difficult to pull-off; however, the buttons are fun and are a great navigation idea that doesn’t visually detract from the work.
Environmental Graffiti is a really interesting site, with a lot of great content. It’s definitely worth visiting when you a have a few spare minutes.
I very much enjoyed these abstract satellite images of Earth, taken from 400 miles away. I’m unsure whether the images have been manipulated, or if they are just capturing specific information such as heat, water, or land mass? But regardless, some of the images are quite captivating.
I love when legitimate news organizations try to increase readership with gratuitous stories attempting to be passed off as “news.”
Take for instance this beauty by the folks at NBC. They needed twenty different pictures of super-fit international volleyball ass (and one face), in order to accompany the “gallery story” that consisted entirely of, “Hand signals are frequently used by beach volleyball players to communicate to their partners. The signals -- one or two fingers down, closed fist, etc. -- generally let their partner know who should attempt a block at the net on their opponents’ return.”
Just once, I’d love to see them write what they actually mean:
Hi, we’re NBC. The Olympics will soon be upon us, and our sponsors would love it if you tuned in daily. We just wanted to remind you that one of our featured events will be women’s volleyball. Man, those Brazilians sure are hot, and we at NBC love their little outfits. So please enjoy these photos, and if you would like to watch the real thing, tune into the Olympics on NBC. Oh yeah, and they do these really cool hand signals too.
Let me state for the record that I’m neither a sadist, nor an advocate of violence.
However...
If this unfortunate woman must endure a kangaroo punch to the chin, in order for this glorious photograph to exist, then I say punch away Mr. Kangaroo, punch away.
Okay, I needed to cleanse my palette following the squirrel and deer disemboweling art, so here is a beautifully manipulated photo of Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen wearing a water dress.
You know, back in the good old days, we didn’t have these fancy-schmancy water dresses, we had a garden hose, and if you were lucky, it had a flesh-searing jet-stream nozzle on it. We weren’t concerned about what we didn’t have, it was fun enough making the neighbor kid run home crying with water in his eyes — and life was good.
I happened upon this really nice site dedicated to one of my personal favorites, Polaroid photography. The site offers a huge database of user uploaded images numbering more than 120,000. The photos are good mix of professional, family photo album and experimental.
You can view the images by keyword search or by thumbnail. I like the thumbnails, but at only 30 thumbs per page, you might want to have a spare fourteen hours set aside to get through the over 4,000 pages of images.
And the best for last...This image leaves me filled with so many questions, and yet so few answers. My only defense to such visual stimulus, is to take a deep breath and conjure the coiffed styling of Rod Stewart, as he astutely stated...every picture tells a story don’t it.
I couldn’t find a great deal of information on Martin Klimas, but I can tell you he is a photographer based in Düsseldorf Germany. From what I could find out, he darkens his studio and drops objects from above. The sound of the impact triggers both the lights and camera, capturing the destructive moment.
He has a few different object series in this style, but I think the figures and statuettes are by far the most engaging.
I seem to be receiving an awful lot of random images lately, mostly funny, sometimes unusual and even some of the questionable variety. Hey, I’m a modern guy who can roll with the punches and go with the flow, but I just couldn’t help but find a cosmic connection between these two images sent by different people within hours of each other. Each image is quality, with an exceptional nod going to image number 1, but I feel like they work stronger as a pair. If you’ll notice in the chart, slim fit jeans, according to women, will get you some play...I just can’t help but wonder if there is a fine line between slim fit and vacuum fit jeans. I’m sure that line exists, and I’m guessing that 9 of 10 adults questioned would say that Mr. Leave Nothing To The Imagination probably errs in the neighborhood of nut-hugger, as opposed to slim. But honestly, who am I to judge, because according to the dress code for sex, wearing a T-shirt and some tighty-jeans is like having a bottle of Sex Panther, which as we all know...60% of the time, it works every time. Roar.
This is completely un-art related, and it’s certainly going to wipeout all my good Karma points — but screw it, it’s too funny. I received this picture in an email titled: Chris Farley Lives!!!
If you plan to be in the Atlanta area, on before September 9th, you might want to stop by the High Museum of Art. Famed Rock n’ Roll and editorial photographer Annie Leibovitz is featured in a large retrospective exhibition, which includes 175 images taken between, 1990 – 2005.
Sorry for my absence this week, too many things going on for one lad to deal with.
I am in the process of finishing three new drawings for a meeting with a gallery curator next week, trying to meet a Monday deadline for some retail packaging, all while fighting an infection in my mouth. Before I went to my dentist, no pain, no infection...after going to the dentist and enduring some drilling, burning, cutting, sealing and grinding — infection. The infection has led to my wildly attractive chipmunk cheek, which is so stylish that I could be the poster boy for chewing tobacco. Right now, I look like this guy, only with more hair, socks and better posture.
I wonder if my dentist was the guy in Dental school who squeaked by with a C- average? You know, the guy other dental students made fun of — right now I’m thinking that’s the case. I offer you this analogy for my dental escapade. One sunny afternoon you take your car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change, and after parking and speaking to the attendant; you walk over to the vending machine to get a candy bar. When you return one-minute later, the oil hasn’t been changed, but your car is in 500 different pieces and the serviceman just isn't quite sure what happened. It’s sort of like that.
Anyway, enough of my moaning — on to task at hand. I received this link from one of my lovely and charming readers. It’s a photographic series by artist Chris Jordan, entitled Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait. Jordan photographically depicts statistics based on American culture. For example, there are 10,000 domestic flights in America daily, wherein Jordan creates a large-scale print that includes 10,000 airliners and their jet trails (a detail shot below).
I would label the work as obsessive, using a combination of concept and repetitive pattern, which is often visually impressive. I don’t want to be overly critical, but prints such as Denali Denial and Cans Seurat, just seem to be trying too hard, as if the concept itself wasn’t strong enough and that the patterns needed to exist within another image (You’ll see what I mean when you visit the site). I really prefer the prints Jet Trails, Prison Uniforms, Valve Caps and Shipping Containers because they allow you to engage with the concept, without having to deal with a concept and a larger context as well.
The work is really ambitious from a technical and photo-layering standpoint, certainly worth a look.
If you use more than one of the following terms to describe yourself, then this post is probably not for you: uptight, righteous, born-again, puritan, wholesome, innocent, naive or ultra-conservative.
On the other hand, if you describe yourself in these terms: naughty, voyeuristic, naughty, experimental, naughty, raw or maybe a even a little naughty, then this post will light your fire.
Now that we have that cleared-up, welcome to Fiftyrooms, a photographic site dedicated to Polaroid’s and young women. More than a dozen photographers are working under the same concept, to use Polaroid cameras to capture the most interesting and alluring photographs they can — as witnessed in the photograph below by Torben Raun. There is nudity in some of the images, which is sometimes done tastefully and sometimes not, depending on the photographer.
I enjoy the natural-though-gritty quality that the Polaroid’s produce, it is a nice change-of-pace from the highly stylized and photoshopped images flooding the commercial market. Fiftyrooms is a great combination of contemporary photographers with old-school technology.
When you are able to combine a strong concept with sugar on a stick, you’ve got a winner. Meredith Allen has created a photographic series, which humorously depicts “Ice Pops” of well-known characters, including: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob SquarePants (pictured below), during the melting process.
I’m trying not to read too deeply into the work, as it probably is what it is, but thoughts like “deteriorating pop culture” and “destruction of youth”, keep my brain busy. Anyway, I digress...be sure to check out the work and have a laugh, I know I did.
Apparently “a woman scorned” is not above seeking legal council against a cheating ex-boyfriend who decided to photograph angry break-up e-mails, in a new body of work called, “I. Hate. You. Letters to a Cheating Boyfriend”. Photographer Doug Sanford’s work is currently on display at Fraser Gallery of Bethesda, Maryland. The work itself is okay, but what I find interesting is the copyright struggle between the disgruntled couple. She claims ownership of her words, as a professional writer, and is of the opinion that she is entitled to any proceeds gained through sale of the work.
He claims that he is not suggesting to be the author, however, he does claim ownership of the work based on the facts that he printed the work, cropped it through photography and blurred and omitted certain aspects of the words. It should also be noted that he keeps her identity protected throughout the body of work.
An independent lawyer who was consulted, ultimately believes that Sanford is the rightful owner of the work, saying Sanford, “may not be able to claim authorship rights in the underlying text of the e-mail, he may have a copyright in the unique photographic image he created because of the way he has put it together...That’s all his artistic expression and interpretation.”
Gosh, this story wraps me in a warm blanket of love.
Darwin Bell's Sign Language project puts an interesting twist on urban signage and typography. Each piece contains a series of mounted Polaroid images, which are arranged to create witty, cliché and somewhat nonsensical sayings. The whole project has a nice sense of humor, and it's obvious the artist has fun creating the work.
The site layout is decent and easy to navigate, and Bell has a large quantity of examples. My only complaint is the photography of the final work, it's inconsistent, sometimes blurry, catches too many reflections (or the flash), in short, it stinks. However, If you are able to look past the aforementioned shortcoming, the concept has loads of potential.
The web designers at Bit Lounge have assembled a comprehensive collection of retro links at their Retrolounge site. The categories, which range from the 1800's through the 1980's, include: advertising, design, toys, fashion, architecture and music, along with a few others.
The hairstyle names in this 1972 ad for Duke hair sheen are fan-freakin'-tastic. What I wouldn't give to be able to walk into a barber shop and ask for the "Private Eye" or "The Jet Setter". One can only dream.
If you're looking for 1800’s ephemera, this site has you covered. There are tons of samples of bank notes, advertisements, menus, letters, photographs and a variety of other categories. The layout is not appealing, and some of the scans appear grainy or oversharpened, but this a great site for typographic and layout inspiration circa the 19th century.
Fashion photography is not usually my cup of tea, but Mark Squires work is outstanding. Most of the work even transcends from fashion photography into art. There's drama, fantastic lighting and cropping, unexpected poses & situations, nothing run-of-the-mill or cliché happening here.
