Brought to our attention last month by Nowness, we are smitten by the incredible photographic series and accompanying video named 'Blast' in which visionary photographer Jim Mangan has caught rally car driver Ken Block sublimely. In August 2013, Mangan asked his friend Block to demonstrate his skills at the wheel for a photo project. His idea was to photograph clouds of dust in mountainous southern Utah a rugged desert area he’d explored dozens of times while camping and mountain biking and the kind of arena where the photographer has proven to produce his most remarkable images. To achieve his vision of hybridizing landscape and machine, Mangan needed someone with the daring and a car with the power to wreak havoc on the remote landscape and send trailing puffs of dirt into the air. The two finally got together last year for several days of shooting in the valleys extending some 74 miles between Capitol Reef National Park and Goblin Valley, Utah. The results are incredible. [ Continue reading ]
The fascinating photographs of Petros Koublis are like portals into another dimension. His latest series named 'In Dreams' is based on the photographer's extensive research in the writings of the Neoplatonic school and the ‘Oneirokritika’ treatise by Ancient Greek diviner Artemidorus Daldianus, inspiring him to capture divine landscapes made out of nature's utmost beauty - whether that are sedimentary rocks, colorful flora or some of the most mythical fauna to be found on earth. Always evoking the feeling of another universe to be discovered beyond that single frame. With his images - which were all shot in Greece itself - Koublis searches to bypass the mind and trigger ones intuition in order to "release the perceiving force of our senses." We can't stop gazing at these extraordinary photographs. [ Continue reading ]
The truly stunning 'Color Photographs' exhibition with incredible new work by Japanese artist Daisuke Yokota formed his highly anticipated debut in the United States, which opened for the public last September. Celebrated internationally for his interdisciplinary and energetic approach to art and bookmaking, the show focusses on the artist's experiments with color photography. With this series, as Yokota explains, he “tried not to take pictures,” and instead sought to “draw out the physical aspect of film.” Yokota layered sheets of unused large format color film and applied unorthodox developing methods before scanning the results. Here, documentation is replaced with darkroom alchemy in order to show that the essence of photography rests not necessarily with the camera, but in film itself. Resulting in a extraordinary body of work, reminding strongly of the experimental cinema of Stan Brakhage, in the sense of it in our eyes being a perfect homage to the cutting edge work of the filmmaker. When in New York make sure to see this thrilling exhibition! [ Continue reading ]
It is no secret that Ramon Haindl is one of our favorite photographers out there and he keeps on creating beautiful work to continue being just that. We discovered the German - who also creates with mixed media and collage in his free projects - through his captures of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy some years ago, after which he has been creating a body of work of both autonomous projects as for clients showing his relentless approach (sleeping very little) and extraordinary multiple talents. His latest series brought Haindl to the famous tracks of the Nürburgring where he shot another gem for the Lufthansa Exclusive Magazine. With a somewhat similar approach and aesthetic as that very first series we discovered, the new work shows how Ramon has grown in the couple of years that have passed: every image being nothing short of iconic. Whether he portrays the oldtimers (both cars and drivers) in shiny monochrome images or the toned down classic color palette: we love every single image of the series. [ Continue reading ]
Although we weren't overwhelmed by what was on display at the last Unseen, there were still works which impressed us in the best possible way. We loved finally seeing the 'Tokyo Parrots' in printed form, as discovering the larger-than-life 'Facades' images by Markus Brunetti, but most impressive was probably seeing the work of celebrated American photographer Todd Hido in person. For the first time in the Netherlands a solo exhibition of his work opened on the 12th of September at Alex Daniëls Reflex Amsterdam, who in turn showed a new group of works unique from the show named 'Selections From A Survey - Khrystyna's World' at Unseen. [ Continue reading ]
On the 17th of September the Blain|Southern Berlin gallery will present a curation of new and recent photographs by the German master Wim Wenders, which will be the artist’s first exhibition in his hometown in over half a decade. The exhibition brings together images from Germany and America – the two countries that have most influenced the artist throughout his career. The title: 'Time Capsules. By the side of the road', alludes to the relationship between memory and photography, highlighting the ability of photographs to act as a medium that captures an essence of the past and preserves it for the future. Several of the works in the exhibition feature places that have long-since changed, the images themselves therefore becoming portals into lost moments or spaces, impeccably captured by the photographer. After the re-release of Wenders' incredible 'Written in the West', the exhibition forms the second important marker for the artist's diverse legacy, which stretches beyond just his work in cinema, with his still photographic work being just as inspirational (in our eyes). [ Continue reading ]
When in 2012 the young American photographer Grace Ann Leadbeater left the area where she grew up in Florida, she got what she longed for since she first sensed that there was a whole - colder - world out there to be discovered. That doesn't mean Leadbeater is free of nostalgia whenever she stays away too long, sometimes longing for times long gone and left behind, or at least the romanticized abstraction of what once was. And it might just be this emotion which urges her to document it whenever she comes home for holidays or family events, despite the fact of growing more restless with every rendez-vouz. Out of these explorations of her real feelings towards the land she grew up in with her medium format camera and motivated by a combination of nostalgic feelings with a serious portion of feeling unheimlich, she created the beautiful series 'A Mouthful of Sun'. The images with a remarkable color palette show a Florida very different from the eclectic cliche images, reminding us of the unpolished cinema of Gus van Sant and the photography of Estelle Hanani. Finding beauty in the ordinary and even the uncomfortable, always being honest. We love this almost tangible series showing the talent of the photographer, perfectly translating emotion into image. [ Continue reading ]
The intriguing show named 'Coming to Terms' is emerging artist Abdul Abdullah's New York debut, featuring a new series of performative photographic portraits. The 29-year-old Abdullah is one of the most interesting emerging artists coming out of Australia, who after graduating from Curtin University had a focus on painting and in recent years moved into photography and video. Notions of contemporary ceremony, genesis, ritual, reinforcement of personal identity, cultural hybridity and intimate aspects of the self are revealed in his work through his darkly distinctive oeuvre that is confronting and deeply elucidating in regard to the human condition. We are super fascinated by both the images itself as the symbolic instilled in them, and look forward what the future will hold for this exciting young Australian artist. When in New York see this incredible work! [ Continue reading ]
Last week, on the 22nd of July, a great exhibition opened in the Parisian bar Ground Control, curated by the interesting young Mayday Mayday Mayday art/street culture platform. In the show named 'Reading 78', the still quite unknown but greatly talented French photographer Gil Rigoulet transports the spectator into the universe of the uncompromising British punk movement during the late Seventies. One year after the release of the now legendary and paradigm shifting 'Nevermind the Bollocks' record by the Sex Pistols, the English youth was having great fun, dancing like never before to the rhythms of the ever-hardening furious riffs. Taking place in the city of Reading, during its legendary rock festival: in the series a lawless zone is revealed in all its glory, portrayed in grainy black and white photographs - showing that in 1978 everything seemed to still be possible. [ Continue reading ]
Recently we stumbled upon the truly magnificent work of Los Angeles-based photographer Lauren Marsolier. The French-born creates extraordinary images that are convincingly real using multiple photographs, unrelated fragments of the outside world collected over time in a variety of locations. Months or years often separate the capture of elements juxtaposed in her landscapes; a technique reminiscent of the art of painting. Her work probes the mental process of transition - hence its moniker - a particular phase when our parameters of perception shift, when we suddenly don't see ourselves, our environment, or our life quite the same way we used to. These transitional periods often feel like being in a place one knows, but can't quite identify. We can't stop gazing at these remarkable photographs, which seem to tell deep stories of solitude and show a clinical beauty which feels both surreal and keeps haunting us. [ Continue reading ]
We have been following the talented photographer David Cohen de Lara for a while now and have appreciated his incredible work ever since we first found it. David’s portrait photography is diverse in style, but always beautiful, full of mystery and character. Through his cinematic and atmospheric images he reveals an authentic sense of beauty and personality in the real and the uninhibited. We can’t take our eyes off his intriguing images. [ Continue reading ]
Alexis Vasilikos is a very talented Athens-based photographer and the co-editor of Phases Magazine. His immaculate photographic eye explores the presence of the aesthetic in everyday life and is an intimate contemplation on the nature of emptiness. His images have a contemplative quality, they show the spectator the serendipities of life and the essence of signs. Through Vasilikos' unique gaze, life seems to be more magical. One of his series which we discovered recently, named 'Back to Nothing' is no different. The incredible collection of photographs is the result of Vasilikos' most recent travel to India. The photographer first visited the colorful country in 2004 in search for a spiritual teacher, which he found in Rishikesh, where he became familiar with a Guru named Mooji. Over the years that followed the photographer returned to India three times, proving to be highly inspirational experiences - both spiritually as artistically (although one could argue that this is somewhat intertwined). The incredible 'Back to Nothing' series - which clearly comes from a bright eye - is the result of Vasilikos' most recent trip to India, earlier this year. [ Continue reading ]
We have been following British photographer Luke Stephenson since our collaboration with him, when we gave a signed and numbered copy of his ‘An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds’ as our fourth Curated gift in 2013. In the following years Luke has kept very busy and made a name for himself through his exquisite eye for details which transcends his impeccable imagery, both in free project as on commissions. Recently another series of Luke has caught our attention when he portrayed Des Pawson (and some of his beloved knots, ropes and tools), the founder of the interesting Museum of Knots and Sailors’ Ropes for a feature in the inspirational magazine Hole & Corner. The incredible series by the photographer shows Stephenson's great talent, giving a wonderful and inspirational peek into the fascinating world of nautical ropes and knots guided by Pawson in an utmost aesthetic manner. [ Continue reading ]
We've been a fan of the inspirational work of American photographer Mikael Kennedy for years now. After releasing the incredible Done to Death Projects publication 'California' last year, he has now returned on its own with a sequel to that series named 'New Mexico'. In the same familiar toned down color palette, Kennedy once more takes the spectator on one of his tremendous journeys through wide open landscapes, which he distilled into a collection of 31 color photographs blessed with his signature aesthetic, taken during his stay in the American state last November. Kennedy presents the new project in a tremendous 44-page zine, which was printed in his homebase New York City - limited to 200 copies. We can't get enough of Kennedy's images which evoke somewhat of an escapist and melancholic sentiment within the beauty of the depicted landscapes, making us want to hit to road every time we lay our eyes on them. [ Continue reading ]
The Japanese photographer Yoshinori Muzutani released the incredible series 'Tokyo Parrots' in 2013 and since then it has left an unforgettable impression on us. The escaped parakeets - not actually parrots - have flourished in the city of Tokyo for some decades now, and likewise fascinated photographer Yoshinori Mizutani, who upon his first encounter with them was struck by apprehension and fear, as if he had walked into Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’. Unnatural as they seemed in the urban environment, he followed the flocks and watched their daily patterns, eventually locating one of the largest nesting places in a certain ginkgo tree. After some resesarch Mizutani found out that these parakeets were brought to Japan in the 1960s and 1970s from tropical regions in India and Sri Lanka to be sold as pets, but which have been roaming the city after the owners lost interest. The result of his bird watching study is a highly remarkable, aesthetic series of surreal photographs revealing a tropical urban world inhabited by parakeets. [ Continue reading ]
After writing about Virginie Khateeb's visit to the marble quarries of Carrara and sharing the incredible 'Il Capo' documentary that was shot in the area, we found a new inspirational artist - Belgian photographer Frederik Vercruysse - who has explored that fascinating place on earth and returned with some impressive work named 'Temo Polveroso' or 'Pulverised Time'. The project which Vercruysse initially had in mind when embarking on his residency at Villa Lena was a new series of still lifes, but he soon felt compelled to capture his inspirational surroundings in images rather than remain within the four walls of his studio. His photographs of the marble quarries reveal a similar dynamic as Khateeb's images - showing a mixture of an utmost raw beauty and solitary melancholy, which could be seen as a metaphor for the embodiment of the area: the creation of beauty at the expense of nature. Without any human beings in the frames, it is impossible to fathom the larger-than-life scale of this totally unique form of landscape exploitation/architecture. The series of 16 stunning images over which a cloud of mysterious, powdery mist appears to be suspended, will be on display at the inspirational gallery/store Graanmarkt 13 in Antwerpen until Saturday 30 May. [ Continue reading ]
And yet another extraordinary analogue series by the super talented Berlin-based Croatian photographer Katja Kremenić. For the beautiful series which she named 'Lush Life', Katja once again finds herself in paradise, on the beaches of Central American Costa Rica - where she also shot her 'Rip Currents' series, through which we discovered her work - this time creating a visual narrative in her signature romantic free-floating style for the inspirational Australia-based travel platform The Adventure Handbook. Kremenić continues to excel in translating a broad field of emotions into her photographs, making the fragmentations of her gaze almost tangible through the frames of her images. Her continuing fascination with the beach both proves to be an everlasting source of aesthetic inspiration in the creation of her highly appealing images as the perfect environment for her to create in. We can't wait for more beautiful stories by Katja Kremenić. [ Continue reading ]
Yet another beautiful series by the always inspiring Todd Selby, who shared his photographs after traveling through beautiful Morocco at the end of last year. With his signature color-orientated eye, the Selby reveals some tremendous shades of blue in different Moroccan cities. The color is famous for being the dominant choice when it comes to the facades of structures - both building as roads and passages - within the city of Chefchaouen (often referred to as the most colorful city of the world), but also in Yves Saint Laurent's favorite Moroccan city, Marrakesh the photographer finds deep blues, which we love. His last destinations lays some 50 kilometers South of Marrakesh and is known as some of the more beautiful mountain retreats of Morocco, named Tamadot. There he visited the award-winning Kasbah Tamadot hotel, which was bought by Sir Richard Branson during one of his famous ballooning expeditions some years ago and has become a destination of choice for those who value peaceful quiet elegance, rather than loud luxury. Each of the 27 rooms and suites has been individually decorated to reflect the beautiful architecture of the building and features antiques from all over the world. We love these beautiful glimpses of colorful Morocco through the eyes of The Selby. [ Continue reading ]
Whether he's shooting on location for TIME magazine, portraying a creative mind - while discussing the difficulties of working in the field - for The Great Discontent or documenting a day in the life of a young Chicago rapper/gang member (which seems to be almost synonymous these days), the talented Chicago-based photographer Ryan Lowry finds the right frames in all situations. Next to his work on commissions, out of which the TGD cover shoot was our introduction to his work, Lowry also created several series of free work. We are particularly drawn to his series named 'Badlands' which reveals the diversity of his photographic eye. In his portrait photography Lowry uses a lot of light, exposing as many details of the subject as possible, yet within 'Badlands' the photographer leaves a lot of room for imagination. The moody black and white images portray the dessert from a very mysterious perspective - creating an almost moon-like appearance - in which light and dark are strongly juxtaposed, both in the landscapes as the few male figures dressed in white and dark in some of the photographs. The mystique of these images continue to fascinate us thoroughly and we look out to more work by the talented photographer. [ Continue reading ]
The extremely talented young British photographer Jack Davison was just added to the roster of the incredible mini title agency. Being only 24 years old, his work inhabits everything for him to become a household name in portrait and possibly fashion photography in the coming years. We first noticed the work of Jack Davison when his '26 States' project was released, showing portraits from all over the United States giving a modern, honest and concise window into the Land of the Free. It first showed us his seemingly effortless talent for framing interesting images, underlining his tremendous talent with a camera. Davison creates both raw (portrait) images full of details and also more stylized observations, reminding us of photographers like Louis Faurer and Garry Winogrand on the one hand, with Philip-Lorca diCorcia shining through on the other side. Personally he has stated both Vivian Maier as Vivianne Sassen to be his biggest inspirations at the moment, which explains the broad aesthetic field he moves in. Keep an eye on this super promising talent. [ Continue reading ]
Although he has been having an impact with his photographic eye for quite some years, we only became familiar with the absolutely stunning work of German photographer Christoph Morlinghaus recently. The buildings which become the mysterious subjects of Morlinghaus's isolated images are often-times the crowns of modernist architecture. Whether it are the American churches in his ongoing critically acclaimed series 'Form/Faith', factory buildings or hotels. Beyond the theme of modernism and questioning its paradigms, Morlinghaus's work investigates how form gives expression to new and old interpretations of faith, from for instance the ghostly interiors of a Brutalist church to the superficiality of the famous Doha hotel. Seeping through the surfaces of the photographer's impeccably crafted photographs is a profound and infectious irony that reveals, rather than creates, the uncanny presence of mortal consciousness inherent in the fissures of our modern human environment. His most recent series even move beyond just the structures and machines in the public sphere, into the highly aesthetic world of microchips and computer motherboards. We are highly inspired by Morlinghaus's totally unique vision on the world around us. [ Continue reading ]
Another beautiful story by our friends of Jungles in Paris which we can share, again shot through the lens of the talented Belgian travel photographer Pascal Mannaerts, who continues to bring us beautiful stories from India. This instance taking us to the city of Vrindavan, which is located 10 kilometer away from where an important Hindu deity, Krishna was born. It's one of the major celebrations of Holi, if not the major one, especially in the Banke Bihari temple. Celebrants drench each other with colored water and throw fistfuls of gulal – brightly tinted powders, traditionally made by dyeing arrowroot starch with spices, leaves, and flowers. Although these days, it is more often chemically pigmented cornstarch. At the Banke Bihari temple, which is among the most sacred places to worship Krishna, eruptions of red, yellow, and magenta waft down from the roof, landing on the sea of ecstatic faces in the courtyard. They say Holi is a time to come together, to repair broken relationships, and to forgive oneself of past errors. In a caste-bound society, it is also a time when inhibitions are lost, and everyone stands on more equal footing. Jungles in Paris continues to inspire us. [ Continue reading ]
Virginie Khateeb is a French photographer, currently based in Paris. Her main inspirations lay in the wilderness, raw materials, body shapes and the stillness of chaos. This results in a longing for change and new experiences, constantly pushing her to find unspoiled beauty, whether that lays within a person or at a particular place. One of those discoveries, which she found and captured in a tremendous manner, are the marble quarries of Carrara in the North of Italy, just under Genoa, where the talented photographer shot the series named 'Deconstruction' for Yet Magazine. The subject matter of her series is an area full of constantly evolving landscapes, characterized by their surreal architecture and sculpted structures built from gutted mountains. Khateeb portrays this tour de force of nature's beauty in incredible clean frames, which at first glance may even appear to be paintings, with the extraordinary marble, full of hard lines, almost becoming tangible. We just plainly love the raw beauty of these images, underlining the great talent of Khateeb. [ Continue reading ]
On February 20th, the Palm Springs-based Modernism Week will present an incredible one-day only exhibition opening by photographer Tom Blachford, at the iconic Menrad Residence, which forms the latest installment series by the photographer's 'Midnight Modern' images. The new works are an extension of Blachford’s previous collection, capturing tremendous classic Palm Springs mid-century architecture in the surreal light of a full moon. Fittingly, the exhibition will take place inside one of Palm Spring’s most beautiful mid-century homes, the Alexander built Menrad Residence - the foremost mid-century construction company known for their homes built in the 1950’s and 60’s - which will be open for tours during the day, finishing with a cocktail party in the evening. The amazing images truly reveal the sharp lines of the beautiful mid-century buildings in a perfect color palette, showing the tremendous talent of Blachford. [ Continue reading ]