found on ffffound ::

David Pearson

I want to meet this guy, and I want his job. Designing book covers seems like an awesome way to spend your workday. Check out all of David Pearson's work :: here ::

Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones

Just because I think these are beautiful.

©

Tamara Dean

Images by Tamara Dean, who is sponsored by Oculi, an Australian documentary storytelling organization. These are from a very lovely series on ritualism. Dean says she seeks to explore "the contemporary quest for purpose, rite in the Australian landscape," and what happens when rituals lose their meaning and become mundane parts of our everyday.

I'm not sure how much these really say about ritualism, but who really cares, because they are just flat out stunning examples of beautiful light, color, and lyricism. I am obsessed with them and wish I was the one behind the camera. Enjoy, and please check out Dean's other work.

Street Portraits

Found this on a friend's blog. It's interesting little how-to video, even though the photographer gets uber annoying ... and he forgets to mention that the finals are toned and given a high-pass filter treatment in photoshop.

Voodoo mag in process

This is what I have semi-edited from a shoot this weekend for a start-up fashion mag called Voodoo. My friend and I shot this together.... we're gonna try and put together all of the images into a more cohesive editorial. (He has group shots I'm missing here ... so, this is only part I.)

Everyone involved in this, the stylists, models, hair/makeup person, etc., was awesome... super talented and totally dedicated to the project. It's really rewarding to work with hardworking people. They made my job super easy, and I think their work and love definitely shows in the photos.

July 4

I'm a little late on this ... but I spent part of my July 4 on Coney Island, Ny. Probably not the best decision, but a humbling experience to say the least.

aftermath of nathan's annual hotdog eating contest

En Honour

my favourite mj song RIP

Zero Hour

Stephen Dunn is one of the first poets I got into and really wanted to fully understand/internalize. He is honest and very brilliant -- but often heartbreaking. His collection Everything Else in The World is one of my most loved possessions, although this poem isn't in it. He might seem irrelevant to a younger crowd, because most of what he writes is on loss, getting older, and looking back on your life. But for some reason, I still find his voice extraordinarily familiar, witty, and very real.

Zero Hour

Stephen Dunn

It was the hour of simply nothing.

not a single desire in my western heart,

no ancient system

of breathing and postures,

no big idea justifying what I felt.

There was even an absence of despair.

"Anything goes," I said to myself.

All the clocks were high. Above them,

hundreds of stars flickering if, if, if.

Everywhere in the universe, it seemed,

some next thing was gathering itself.

I started to feel something.

but it was nothing more than a moment

passing into another, or was it less

eloquent than that, purely muscular,

some meaningless twitch?

I'd let someone else make it rhyme.

Guillaume Zuili

Guillaume Zuili is so obviously French -- check out his website and you'll see what I mean. His work is definitely dirty and every image doesn't "work," but he's playful, experimental, voracious, and his love of taking pictures pours out of all he does.

One of his more recent projects "LA Fragments" is a collection of images mostly shot with a pinhole camera. Yeah, okay, so we've seen some of this stuff before. But in a world saturated with celebrity portraiture and bubble-gum tongue-and-cheek high-gloss stuff, in the moment, at least, he is a welcomed breath of fresh-er air.

My Girl

I just watched this for the first time in a long time. Overall, it's one big cornball of a movie ... but this scene is really wonderful.  

My new home

 I am fascinated but also troubled by the physical and emotional processes we go through to make a new place a home. I just moved far away from most people I love and have never really experienced this type of exhilarating independence mixed with very real loneliness ever before. I am not afraid of living or being by myself -- I would just enjoy having a good friend or companion to explore and just plain live/be with. 

But I am slowly beginning to feel alright in my new surroundings. There's this inner calming and warmth that seems to grow when I am able to discover joy and love in a place. It's a feeling of comfort and clarity -- something I cannot really explain.  

I will post more images of this exploration. I have to admit I haven't taken my camera out much since graduation. This is something I need to change.

The pictures below are really just for me. I took them walking home tonight. I was out doing some food shopping in my neighborhood. I'm not trying to make any kind of statement with them -- but I hope they will help me make more sense of what's around me and better understand a change that's happening within me. 

   

Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 

Breathless

Screenshots ::

Ed Ou -- a peer but out of everyone else's league.

Story by Ed Ou about a small village in the northeast of Kazakhstan where the Soviet government has covertly tested the effects of nuclear radiation on humans since the beginnings of the Cold War. Ou says the Soviets have detonated more than four hundred nuclear arms into the atmosphere and underground areas of the town. As a result, of course, an incredible number of people are now suffering from severe physical and mental abnormalities and cancer. 

You can see the full story on Ou's website :: here . He uses livebooks, which I respect especially since he is pretty well-known.  (Ou was recently acknowledged by the PDN 2009 annuals and made their 2008 list of the the 30 best emerging photographers.) Even better, he is only 21... damn, stiff competition. 

Anyway, there is a lot I could write about this, but my lousy commentary can't really live up to what the images say for themselves.

 

  

Friedlander

Saw a wonderful exhibit of Lee Friedlander's work at the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's a retrospective traveling out of the MoMA's permanent collection. 

Friedlander is such an fascinating person and has such a Surrealist eye -- you'll notice each of his images is layered and layered with meaning and filled with surprises and humor. I also appreciate the way he brings his own strong personality to everything he shoots -- and always shoots what he wants to shoot. 

I find his life, images, and way of seeing incredibly inspiring. And whether it's been acknowledged or not, it's clear that he has had a huge influence on many photographers of my generation.

"We are all a little weird and life is a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love" - author unknown. 

LBJ

Wish this were a little funnier -- but I still really enjoy it ... 

Cait Deibel Collection

Jacket by emerging fashion designer Caitlin Deibel ... to see more of her great work, check out her portfolio :: here

What We Believe

Interesting project that's been ongoing since the 1950s  -- This I believe -- Discusses the rang of beliefs/core values of Americans across the country.

Here's a part of John Updike's 2005 submission from his essay:: Testing the Limits of What I Know and Feel

"A person believes various things at various times, even on the same day. At the age of 73, I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness. The special value of these indirect methods of communication — as opposed to the value of factual reporting and analysis — is one of precision. Oddly enough, the story or poem brings us closer to the actual texture and intricacy of experience.."

Not trying to be "indie" but...

I think people too often attach themselves to certain products of culture (cult films, authors, TV shows, etc) and then hold onto those things for dear life. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of this, but I get these silly emails from Urban Outfitters almost everyday telling me to buy this "mind-blowing" Kerouac or Palahniuk book and suddenly I'll be "cool." No thanks Urban Outfitters, I can pick out my own books and make my own decisions about what is cool.

But speaking of cults, I watched Jim Jarmusch's, very self-absorbed, "arty-indie-comedy" Stranger Than Paradise yesterday. I realize I am judging it from a contemporary perspective, and this type of film now seems really mainstream to me and my peers. But once you get over the pretentious quiet indie plot, the real beauty is in the images. This film is seriously a photographer's dream -- it's like attending a moving photo gallery for an hour and a half. Each shot is given so much care and is deeply layered with meaning. And the compositions are really incredible and dynamic. Plus, part of it was shot in Cleveland, which gives it even more points on my coolness scale.

 

To wrap this up, what I'm trying to say is we need to look at the gifts culture gives us (in books, films, images, etc) more carefully for the specific parts that truly and individually move us . We need to look past the "labeling" that goes on online and in print by big lifestyle companies like Urban Outfitters. We need to appreciate words, images, and sounds for the way they can produce  feelings of pure enjoyment. We should definitely not use culture as a way to make us just look cool -- that's wasting resources. Seriously, be bold and make your own opinions. Even if they eventually come out the same as your friends', at least you arrived at them using your own mind and own sense of judgement.

The Red Balloon

I just watched The Red Balloon. It was my first time seeing it, though I've known about it for a while. All I can say is, this is such a beautiful film. The music, the visuals, and the plot are all simple but very precise -- It radiates a deep sense of a childlike truth and warmth. I definitely have to make a balloon picture now. I mean, just look at the last image of the boy flying away (above) with the group of balloons -- so incredible. Please watch it if you haven't already seen it. You have no excuse, since I bet the entire little thing (34 minutes total) is on youtube.

Portrait of a cat

So now that I'm home from college, I obviously have nothing better to do than sit around and take pictures of my cats all day. . . that is eighty percent a joke. I start my "real job" in two weeks, alright. But I couldn't resist this beautiful moment of my mom's cat looking so regal on the couch. I should have more interesting/creative/intellectually stimulating subjects to shoot in the near future.

swine flu ad from the 70s

... silly

herb ritts emulation part deux

I like the bottom two the best --- For some reason, I can't get them to show bigger. Please click on them if you'd like to get a better look.

Model :: Terry Marshall