On the 8th of March the Rotterdam-based Nederlands Fotomuseum opened Viviane Sassen’s exceptional photographic project titled UMBRA. We have been a fan of Sassen's work for a long time now and love this particular collaboration with the Dutch museum. Especially for the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Sassen has made a new series of works that focus on the play of light and shadow, a very characteristic element that runs through all of her work. Sassen supplements this series with previously unseen images from her archives. UMBRA, which translates to 'shadow' in Latin, presents Sassen’s autonomous work in a kaleidoscopic exhibition in which shadow is often a metaphor for the human psyche. [ Continue reading ]
David Lynch is a man of many talents. Although he is best known for his cinema, over the years he has branched out as far as his own brand of coffee, the production of music, various interior design projects and basically everything that's moldable into his moody enigmatic and subversive aesthetic. His latest form of expression, although he has been doing it throughout his life, was the exhibition and publication of his photographic series called 'The Factory Photographs' at the London-based Photographers' Gallery. The series reveal Lynch's self-confessed love of industry, machinery, man-made objects, and 'people hard at work'. The dark and brooding series of black and white photographs were taken at derelict factories in Germany, Poland, New York and England, among other places. His unique cinematic style is much in evidence in his depictions of labyrinths of passages, detritus and decaying manmade structures slowly being taken over by nature. [ Continue reading ]
The conceptual photographer Carl Kleiner recently released this amazing series named 'Postures'. Known for his often-times colorful still lifes in which Kleiner finds interesting and humorous positions for the photographed; in this series the Swede selected tulips as his subject. Mounted on constructions of wire, a technique one sees more often in his work, the tulips are positioned in different somewhat melancholic angles, without losing the aesthetic of the natural characteristic of late blossoming tulips which bend over because of the weight of the petals. The beautiful lines of the flowers remind of ballet dancers gracefully performing their dance, spotlighted on either a grey or black backdrop, with one tulip having lost a single petal inevitably marking the final moments of blossoming. We love how Kleiner found all these emotional forms and sentiments through his immaculate positioning, next to the already apparent beauty of the tulip. [ Continue reading ]
We have been a fan of the work of New York-based Mikael Kennedy for some years now and really appreciate his latest series 'California'. The series captures one week in California in which the photographer is clearly on the move. The beautiful photographs with the familiar toned down color palette show the wide landscapes of the American state with only sometimes allowing traces of civilization to play a minor role within the frame. A road, roadside fences, an electrical cable, the inside of the car a photograph was taken in, and just a little glimpse of a house. Kennedy places the geographical entity of the state of California first and its inhabitants second. The pictures therefore evoke somewhat of a lonely and melancholic sentiment within the beauty of the depicted landscapes, making the urge to visit the beautiful area even greater. 'California' has been published by Done To Death Projects in a limited quantity zine of 100 pieces which sold out within four days. [ Continue reading ]
We really appreciate the work of Copenhagen-based Englishman Alastair Philip Wiper and love his recent series in which he combines two of our favorite concepts: aesthetics and craftsmanship. The beautiful series shot in the familiar clean aesthetic of the photographer shows the factory of another favorite of ours: Danish company S.N.S. Herning located in Herning and famous for its knitwear. The company was founded in 1931 by Søren Nielsen Skyt, and enjoys worldwide recognition for producing their iconic fisherman sweater using a bobble technique developed by Skyt, intended to help with insulation. The company has had it’s ups and downs, and the collection has grown and shrunk, and until just a few years ago it had shrunk so much that it was almost non-existent, surviving only by selling a few of the classic fisherman’s sweaters. That is when the grandson of the original Søren Skyt, also Søren Skyt, decided to quit his job and focus on reviving the company after which the factory depicted by Wiper was taken into use. [ Continue reading ]
'Ezekiel 36:36' is a beautiful and fascinating series by photographer Nick Ballon, portraying Bolivian Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), one of the world’s oldest surviving airlines, in an almost surrealistic fashion. Founded in 1925, it has played an important role in every stage of the country’s history. Since its privatisation in 1994, LAB has suffered at the hands of successive administrations, becoming gradually dismantled due to chronic mismanagement and corruption. Currently under threat of closure and with its downed of aircraft slowly crumbling away, this airline continues to survive through the loyalty and faith of its remaining 180 staff. Sensitive to this poignant and transitional time, Ballon has spent six months recording the present day story of LAB. Due to the circumstances of the airline and the angles chosen by Ballon the photographs suck the viewer in, reminding of the cinema of David Lynch or the work of Philip-Lorca diCorcia. [ Continue reading ]
Copenhagen-based photographer Adam Jeppesen's work challenges the boundaries between documentary and fiction. He is seen as one of the greatest talents in contemporary Danish photography, and we discovered his work during the last Unseen Photo Fair, after which Jeppesen's work by far resonated the most. His photographs inhabit a blurred territory where the real and the fictional become interchangeable. Even if the Danish artist seems to remain faithful to what is in front of his camera, he doesn’t seem to be too concerned about objectivity. The highly impressive work we saw at Unseen was part of the The Flatlands Camp Project. A series of work, recorded on a journey from the Arctic through North and South America to Antarctica. For 487 days Jeppesen travelled in solitude and from this long journey a series of melancholic, evocative landscape pictures have emerged. [ Continue reading ]
We love this photography series named 'Traffic Lights' by 20-year-old Landau-based photographer Lucas Zimmermann. The series was captured during a foggy night at an intersection close to the historical German city Weimar. Zimmermann created the images taking 5 to 30 second long exposures. Consequently, the colours and lights melted together and a highly surrealistic aesthetic was created. Shot with a fairly reliable camera when it comes to low light, the Canon 5D Mark II, the photographs show, next to his keen eye, also the craft of the young German. When the exposure would become too short, too much noise would occur. At the same time, too long exposure washed out the colors. This balancing act made the project a test of patience, which in the end produced these beautiful images. [ Continue reading ]
We are very thrilled to give another fantastic preview of a feature story by the highly inspiring online platform Jungles in Paris. This story focusses on the environment of the Weddell seals and is an outtake of the beautiful book The Last Ocean by photographer John Weller. Weddell seals live in Antarctica, and unlike other large animals there, like for instance whales, other seals, or penguins, they don't migrate North during the winter. No other mammal on earth lives this far south. They have extraordinary diving abilities, can go as far as 700 meters below the ice in their search for fish, and stay underwater for as long as an hour. [ Continue reading ]
On the 2nd of December a major exhibition of the work of photographer Vivian Maier opened in London-based gallery Beetles and Huxley. The incredible story of Maier started in 2007, when a real estate agent called John Maloof purchased 30.000 negatives taken by the then anonymous Vivian Maier, a reclusive nanny from Chicago. Bought on a hunch, he had inadvertently stumbled upon an undiscovered pot of gold. Born in New York in 1926, Maier spent her youth in France before returning home to The States in 1951, where she spent the next five decades looking after various families and their children. As well as following in the footsteps of Mary Poppins this eccentric, highly intellectual and heavily opinionated lady was also a serious street photographer. [ Continue reading ]
We love the beautiful photography by Copenhagen-based Englishman Alastair Philip Wiper. Over the last six years he has been the house photographer for designer and artist Henrik Vibskov, traveling, building and photographing all the different disciplines Vibskov moves between. Overall Wiper focusses with his photography on the weird and wonderful subjects of industry, science, architecture, and the things that go on behind the scenes. The things that human beings create, seen with an anthropological approach is how Wiper observes the world. A great series from this same sharp angle is his second visit to The European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN in Geneva. [ Continue reading ]
We are delighted that our good friends at Habbekrats have just released their second feature film in the Netherlands after they debuted with road movie Rabat in 2011. Where the collaborative effort of Jim Taihuttu and Victor Ponten had a bright and positive tone, follow up Wolf, written and directed solely by Taihuttu, shows a different side of life. In grainy black and white frames the fierce climate prevailing in life on the streets of a nondescript suburb in the Netherlands is depicted in a style reminiscent of the work of Nicolas Winding Refn and Jacques Audiard. Center point of the narrative is Majid (Marwan Kenzari) who tries to pick up his life after six months in jail by focussing on kickboxing, but as his star rises due to his relentlessness in the ring, he gets sucked into the world of organized crime. [ Continue reading ]
After a hot summer full of travels, seeing beautiful places and meeting amazing people, we are very happy to share this series of images, taken on a glorious day at Lake Como, Italy, by Sydney-based photographer Akila Berjaoui. Her work is very much a reflection of how she feels whenever she takes the photographs. As she states it herself: "it's a visual diary of my ups and downs." When the photographer chooses location, subject matter and model, her personal sentiment always shows one way or the other. [ Continue reading ]
The series Coney Island, shot on the namesake seaside resort, by Montreal and New York City-based Michael Ernest Sweet reminds in many ways of the great black and white street photographers now holding iconic status. After seeing the photographs names like Weegee, Louis Faurer, Garry Winogrand, Bruce Gilden and Mark Cohen come to mind. Not quite coincidental as they are both a major influence on Sweet and photographers who also visited the seaside resort with their cameras. With the great photographers, especially Bruce Gilden, clearly in his mind, but still holding on to a personal vision Sweet started shooting on the beach: "I wanted to be unique in my approach. I didn’t want to be just a copycat". [ Continue reading ]
In 2008, the young photographer Pieter Henket took a picture of upcoming artist Lady Gaga, which eventually became the cover of her multiplatinum album The Fame. Basically from that moment Henket was a household name in contemporary glamour photography. In 2010, confirming this major status, the photograph of Lady Gaga was exhibited as an icon of the 21st century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Twelve years had passed since Henket arrived in New York City in 1998 as a 19-year old to take up studies at the Film Academy. Instead of his original goal to become a filmmaker, Henket now officially was a major still photographer. [ Continue reading ]
The latest series of Croatia-based photographer Katja Kremenić named 'Rip Currents' is a lovely one. The series documents Kremenić' stay in Costa Rica over the course of January to April of this year. Kremenić beautifully translated the abandoned and romantic scenery of the beaches of Costa Rica, creating the feeling that she and her companion were there only to be greeted by palm trees, tropical butterflies, and playing dogs in the water. The aesthetics of documenting and editing the story follows the concept which was started by Kremenić in her earlier series called Corse Noir shot during a month in Corsica, and recently awarded an honorable prize at the Slovenia Press photo awards. [ Continue reading ]
We really look forward to the first major European exhibition of work by the American photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia at De Pont in Tilburg starting the 5th of October 2013 in a collaboration with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. DiCorcia who was born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut and can be seen as one of the most influential contemporary photographers. The photographer first came to prominence in the 1970s with photographs that defied definition, existing in the space between documentary fact and movie-style fiction. The meticulous staging of quotidian scenes of family and friends lent the photographs of diCorcia an unparalleled sense of heightened drama and ambiguity. [ Continue reading ]
As we are collectors ourselves we love stories like this particular one about a more then 100 years old Richard Verascope camera. Chris Hughes of A Nerds World came across it at an estate in the Niagara Falls where he purchased the rare camera previously owned by the French Army. The Richard Verascope camera was developed in the late 1800s as one of the first stereoscopic cameras in a reasonably compact form-factor. As it was French-made it is known to be a camera which travelled with the army during World War I to document the battlefield. [ Continue reading ]
Last week I came across this beautiful project by Japanese photographer Yu Yamauchi. For almost five months straight – four years in a row – 600 days, Yamauchi lived in a hut near the summit of Mr Fuji at 3000 meter above sea level. Every morning he… [ Continue reading ]
At the in retrospect seen successful Unseen photo fair, we discovered another series of photographs we really like. Dutch photographer Diana Scherer documented an archive of wild flowers, which she grew herself, in her series Nurture Studies which were on display at the stand of the Seelevel Gallery. In the spring of 2010 Scherer decided to fill her balcony with garden soil and planted wild flowers in vases within it. When the flowers were full-grown after six months the photographer removed them from the soil and broke the vases away, exposing the roots that retain the shape as an evocation of the now absent vase. [ Continue reading ]
This wednesday, during the opening of Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, we've met the German photographer Peter Granser. Intrigued by a story of a little town Gruorn in the Swabian Albs - east of Germany, which was forcibly evacuated between 1937 and 1939 to make room for a military training ground, he made a series of black and white landscape images accompanied by these wonderful stills of old and left behind tank ammunition, projectiles and shells. The pieces are staged as sculptural objects and curated in an almost romantic way. [ Continue reading ]
A new photo fair in Amsterdam named Unseen will have it's grande opening for selected guests next wednesday the 19th of September 2012. The following day the fair will be open for public as well. The ambitious project, a joint operation of FOAM, Platform A and Vandejong and directed by Marloes Krijnen, who is also the director of FOAM, has the vision of revolutionizing the photo fair. Unseen intends to give new photography a platform it deserves, the fair ideally aspires to be: "a meeting place for young photographic talent, for known photographers with new works to show, for galleries that focus on new developments, and for an audience interested in discovering unknown and groundbreaking work." In this world of new talent there is also a place for new buyers and collectors. The fair has it's focus on this group as well: "we enable potential collectors to take the first step to buying work. With a special programme, we guide ‘first-time buyers’ in the world of photography and coach them in collecting." [ Continue reading ]
One of the tabs on my browser that is active for weeks, if it isn't months, is the website of the Californian photographer Leslie Williamson. The use of color, the beautiful capture of light, and the amazing places she visits are so inspiring and I can't get enough of it. The interiors of the Mid-Century American artists and designers like Wharton Esherick, Kay Sekimachi, George Nakashima, J.B.Blunk and others breath such a calm atmosphere and the wood tones all make it feels warm and welcome. [ Continue reading ]
Yesterday Leica presented their new limited edition sets created in collaboration with Hermès. The exclusive M9-P “Edition Hermès” and the M9-P “Edition Hermès – Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas incorporate “Veau Swift” calfskin leather in “ocre,” supplied by Hermès for the leathering of the silver-chromed version of the… [ Continue reading ]
