Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Uppdrag Barn Charity




Uppdrag Barn är ett samarbete mellan World Childhood Foundation och Vattenfall. För varje bloginlägg som länkar hit ger Vattenfall 20kr till förmån för utsatta barn. Mer info hittar du här.

For every link to this charity, coupled with a blog posting in Swedish, the company Vattenfall will donate 20SEK to at-risk children.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Colour Sells.


Color Sells. Conde Nast Publications, Inc., New York and Greenwich, Conn., 1935. Folio (15 by 12 inches). Unpaged; (70 pp.) Photo-illustrated wrappers in photo-illustrated box.

How I wish I'd been able to view this book before it was auctioned.

"Rare thirties book features the acclaimed early color work of Bruehl-Bourges, which was featured in Conde Nast publications --(Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House & Garden). "...through the very depths of the depression, the Conde Nast organization enriched its magazines with the best examples of color photography...From May, 1932 to the end of 1934 these magazines produced 195 pages of color photography. These amazingly beautiful color photo reproductions...are the one important contribution to the publishing and printing art of today... The sixty-four subjects reproduced here are the creations of Anton Bruehl... He combines genius for artistic composition with thorough knowledge of stage-craft and sure mastery of lighting. He is ably seconded by Fernand Bourges. His thorough knowledge of the chemistry of dyes enables him to produce from his negative a perfect color transparency, which the engraver uses as his guide for color reproduction." Included are glamorous and dynamic images, including a little-known shot of Marlena Dietrich that epitomized her seductive charms, images of Art Deco jewels, fashion, and furnishings that enticed consumers, advertising photographs for cigarette and food goods, etc."

"The color cover of the box is a close-up of flowers shown in color-component dots. Inside the lid of the box is a label describing how the color process used dot formations and explaining that if the box cover was held at a distance, "the dot pattern disappears and the flowers retain their delicate gradations of color". Letter of explanation from the president of The International Printing Ink Corporation that provided the inks for the book laid in."

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sand . Silk . Snow .




Sand . Silk . Snow . Photographs by: Maria Luisa Morando, Chaco Terada and Lisa M. Robinson. photo-eye Gallery, past photography exhibition.

"Maria Luisa Morando’s desire to remove the disorder from her world inspired this new series of beach photographs titled White, Series 1. By overexposing each image, Morando creates the illusion of bright light, simplifying the scene and muting the colors, allowing the viewer to experience quiet, tranquil moments by the ocean. By removing the surplus detail, Morando creates a space for the viewer to fill with the other senses. One can almost hear the waves, feel the heat of the sunlight and taste the salty air. These timeless photographs were taken in Marina del Rey, California.

Chaco Terada uses a combination of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy to create her images. She learned these traditions as a young child and has since transformed these ancient techniques to produce images that are uniquely hers. She combines calligraphy and photography, which is scanned and printed onto transparent silk. Additional calligraphy is then added with sumi ink. “When I create a brushstroke, I think of the motion of water in a stream, or the movement of breeze. The lines do not create a word in the traditional sense, they interpret the meaning or mood that I feel."

Lisa M. Robinson began her Snowbound series five years ago. “On the surface, these images are quite beautiful. They appear elegantly simple and accessible, evoking, perhaps, the silent tranquility that one might feel after a fresh snowfall. Beneath the surface, however, there is a subtle tension. Like fine haiku, each image quietly references another season, a time of life or activity that has already passed, and may come again. Throughout the series run the leitmotifs of poles and ropes and a palette of man-made color. The relationship between the human and the natural world becomes more tightly intertwined as the series progresses, and the cycles of life and death and transformation fold inward.” This self-conscious meditation on the power of visual metaphor is key to the Snowbound work. Here, Robinson takes the inherent formal intentionality of large format photography and adds a carefully constructed metaphoric visual language. This work is collected in her recent monograph, Snowbound, published by Kehrer Verlag."

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman RIP



Legendary move star and actor Paul Newman passed away yesterday at the age of 83 after a battle with cancer.

Despite his "matinée looks" Newman saw himself as a character actor, and said of himself "I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

"His characters - convicts, outlaws, con men and hustlers - were far from admirable. His gift, however, was to invest them with a charm, humour and crumpled nobility that made them irresistible to men and women alike.
It was this that enabled him in later life to become a distinguished character actor capable of elevating films like Road to Perdition, Message in a Bottle and The Hudsucker Proxy by his sheer force of presence. "

Outside acting he was a great philanthropist and political activist, Newman once said "I didn't turn in my citizenship card when I got my screen actor's card".

His good works, iconic character portrayals and fundamental decency will outlive him.

For clips of some of his iconic and memorable roles go here.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Book is beauty




The photographs above is of book art by Sohon Studio (click on the link to go to the site for larger images to do the work justice) - eagerly awaiting the site to be finished!

For more book art go here for example, or see the links to the right.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Diary of


Sample description: State: Excited; Places: Library, the Milkbar, Market-Hall; Music: Otis Reading - Security.

Lovely state of daily description is the appropriate phrase I believe!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Beauty in a blog


I love this girl

Great young photographer seen in print in a range of international magazines. Arvida's blog is a mixture of her published and unpublished work, others' photographs / inspiration and general musings.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Saturday, September 06, 2008