PHOTOGRAPHY
Fashion photography has already brought us some some out of this world creations, and we’re not just talking about the clothes they’re supposed to be displaying. While the majority of what we see in catalogues and magazines are static photos, fashion photography has always been an art. Some photo spreads tell impossible stories. Models can be skydiving, underwater, on the moon, or lost in nature. You name it and it’s been done. That’s why we were pleasantly surprised to see some fashion photos that still surprised us and made us want to see more. Matt Wisniewski brings a little of the absurd back to fashion photography in his series Futur Couture.
Cinco de Mayo wasn’t just about drinks and dancing. If the sky was clear, you could get a glimpse at a bigger and brighter moon. It’s called the Supermoon, and it is the closest our moon gets to the Earth during the year. Not only is it the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, but it’s bathed in a glow that makes it all the brighter. Gazing at the Supermoon was a great way to end a great night, but not everyone got to see it. A lot of the east coast was covered in clouds and rainy. A lot of the east coast was also drunk.
Some of our favorite art installations are ones that play with their environment. There’s something transformative and magical about altering a space most people are already familiar with. Maybe it’s the Cinderella-like nature of it all that makes it special. Art installations are, after all, fleeting things. For a few days or weeks the ordinary becomes the extraordinary and then suddenly, as if the clock has struck 12, the magic is gone. The magic Lee Eunyeol has created flips the very Earth and sky itself.
There are some great moments we share with close friends and family as well as total and complete strangers. Graduations, days at the beach, carnivals and concerts are all experiences we’ve had with people really close to us and those we’ve never met. Somewhere in the world, people with entirely different lives briefly touch hands with your own. You have something in common with someone you may never see or meet. German-born artist Katrin Korfmann aims to capture those moments and make visible a larger scene we were entirely unaware of.
Mothers get one day out of the year to be celebrated for all they do. They’re unsung heroes every other day of their lives and they’re saddled with the most thankless of tasks. They fed us, clothed us, raised us, and sometimes they did it all on their own. Frankly, putting up with us for years seems like a Herculean task on its own, but many of our mothers did it, and they did it with a lot of love. Paying tribute to the modern mothers of the world is photographer Heidi Lender, with a photoset appropriately titled She Can Leap Tall Buildings.
A good movie villain is one whose memory still brings a chill up our spines. Great movie villains are the ones that had us checking under beds, in closets, and boarding up windows as kids. Be it monster, murderer or Martian, the ones that nearly made us wet the bed became our standard for fear well into adulthood. They might have even evolved into some of our favorite villains ever. Life goes on, though, after the credits roll. If no one made sure your villain was dead at least 3 times, odds are good he or she went on with their lives.
Villains, like many of our heroes, don’t usually stay permanently young. Outside of comics, where characters tend to stay the same age for decades to keep readers coming, we can assume our heroes and villains went on to live long lives after the big “The End”. They may have settled down, married, and even turned their villainy into a fulfilling career. Italian photographer Federico Chiesa explores the lives of villains in their golden years through portrait. The well-known photographer worked with Carolina Trotta, who created the stunningly accurate make-up work, visual effects, and styling for the scenes.
There isn’t much in the world that can capture the feeling of being happily lost in the world of books. The journey to worlds we may never see is one that can start at any age. Simply picking up a book opens us up to new ideas and makes us a part of stories more grand than the universe we know. It’s hard to capture the years of wonder lining our bookshelves. That, however, hasn’t stopped a brilliant Canada-based photographer from trying, and making parts of that sensation wonderful and real.
Joel Robison, also known as boywonder (a user name we’re pretty fond of), creates some wonder of his own with photos based around the world of books. He explores both the comfort of reading and the worlds books open up for their readers. Paper dragons, whales that travel through pages, and worlds imbued with the magic created by books are only a few of the sights to see in the boy wonder’s photography. His self-portraits are at once cozy and mystifying. Tea cups and books welcome the viewer into a world just ever so slightly different for our own. In some pictures, Robison is tiny and the world is big. They capture how vast and engulfing some story worlds are--how small we are when peeking into worlds that are not our own, worlds that may not exist.
It’s rare to become enamored with entire photosets from an artist. It’s even more rare to fall in love with pictures for an ad. Last week, a set of pictures taken by photographer Tom Hussey made their way all over the internet. They were intended as advertisements for Alzheimer’s medication in 2010, but their poignant composition pulled at heartstrings all over the world. They are a sincere peek into the lives of strangers that truly tell a lifetime of stories in single images.
It’s Monday and the day before Valentine’s Day. The pressure is on and the drudgery of the work week has begun. It’s time to break out the coffee, get some work done, and then dart around in search of last minute sentiments if you have to. It’s a stressful day and we all need something for the nerves. Instead of the usual time killers or Youtube videos, have a look at some of Seth Casteel’s animal photography.
The notoriously talented photographer dabbles in the adorable and serene, but his specialty seems to be dogs at their most ridiculous. Lately, he’s been able to capture some pretty fantastic candid shots we usually don’t usually see. Dogs love fetch. Half the reason we play fetch with dogs is because their excitement is contagious. It’s all over their faces and body language. So what happens when we pitch a ball into a nice pool? Casteel has captured right in the middle of retrieving a ball from a pool. These underwater dogs are everything you could want and more. They’re ferocious, ridiculous, and having a pretty awesome time.
It’s amazing how often we miss out on something that’s right in front of us. It’s not often we get to see the stars vividly, but they’ve been surrounding us since our existence. The lights that shine down on us are billions of years old, sometimes from stars that have long since flickered out. Talk about a missed connection. It’s no wonder, then, that when a photographer captures the night sky, we stand in awe. Our sky is the ultimate light show.
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