Tag: photography


Photography

February 18 2016

I Want to Become a Photographer

I want to become a photographer. There, I’ve said it. After curating art, design and photography for the last seven years, I have this burning desire to now take on a creative profession. What kind of photographer do I want to be? Not sure yet. Sure running a “lifestyle” blog is fun but it’s not fulfilling enough for me. I’m leaning towards “family-style” photography but not the kind where the everyone’s dressed up in white shirts and blue jeans and they’re stiffly posing on the beach. I’m talking Kate T. Parker, Elena Shumilova, Hideaki Hamada, and Aya Sakai.

Like many people, I often take out my iPhone to snap shots rather than lug around my heavy DSLR. Sure the iPhone can take great pics but there’s always something to be desired. That’s why I’ve made it my goal to really learn more about my camera (Canon 5D Mark II) and I’ve decided to teach myself post processing software, that is Adobe Lightroom. I have an older version (Lightroom 4) but it’s all that I need to edit my shots.

So far, I’ve learned Lightroom from two sources, Skillshare and two books I bought on Amazon from the same author, Tony Northrup. The first one is called How to Create Stunning Digital Photography and the second is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Video Book: Training for Photographers. What I love about these books is that if you buy the Kindle versions (which go for $9.99), there are links to really informative videos. Tony, along with his wife Chelsea, give great tips on everything from how to use your camera to how to set up a good portrait shot. If you don’t want to commit to buying the books, just yet, you can first check out their YouTube channel.

Here’s my Lightroom grid and then here are some side-by-side before and after Lightroom shots.

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I know I’ve got a long way to go before I can even begin to think of myself as a “real” photographer, but this is the first time, in a long time, that I’ve been this excited about anything.


Photography

January 25 2016

Quirky Photos Taken at the Right Place and the Right Time by Robert Rutod

I’ve always loved quirky street photos that have been taken at the right place and at the right time. There’s also a hidden story that’s up to you find. Vienna-born photographer Robert Rutöd has a photo book called Right Time Right Place that shows the world with a skewed lens. Wandering through Europe for a few years, Rutöd took strange and sometimes surreal photos of people and animals in unordinary circumstances. A helpless swan finds itself frozen in a vast stretch of ice while a young girl reaches for the sky to touch flowers hanging high above her.

Right Time Right Place is a collection of photographs I made in the last few years on my travels through Europe. The images revolve around the question of whether it is possible for a person to be in the right place at the right time. Is the ideal state of space and time something we are awarded or is it a state we have long been living in without being aware of our good fortune? I hope I have not succeeded in answering this question. Nothing fails more pathetically than an artist’s attempt to explain the world and its relationships. Rather, my work leads to the conclusion that the world cannot be explained. Once an exhibition visitor in New York told me that, when viewing my photos, she felt that the protagonists seemed to be kind of disobedient. I really liked that interpretation.

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Right Time Right Place received several awards including the New York Photo Award, the Special Prize of the Czech Center of Photography, and most recently Artist of the Year at Dong Gang International Photo Festival 2015 in South Korea.You can buy Rutöd’s photo book on his website.


Photography

January 19 2016

Newly Released Photos of ’50s and ’60s America by Vivian Maier

She’s called “Mary Poppins with a camera.” I came across the incredible story of photographer Vivian Maier back in October 2011. The Chicago-based street photographer, who worked as a nanny for forty years, amassed a body of work comprising over 150,000 photographs but, during her lifetime, she did not share the pictures with others. When she died, in 2009, she left behind over a thousand rolls of undeveloped film. You could say that it was collector John Maloof who eventually brought her name to fame, after acquiring a box full of Maier’s negatives for $400 at a local auction house in Chicago. Soon after, Maier became an internet sensation and received posthumous fame. The press likened her to such greats as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank.

A new photo exhibition of Maier just began in Los Angeles at Merry Karnowsky Gallery. From now till February 27, come to the gallery to see Maloof’s collection of Maier’s lifelong work. Here are a few of the photos that they will be exhibiting, for the very first time. Can’t get enough of the street photographer’s images from the ’50s and ’60s. They’re classic photos that will live on forever.

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Art & Design

January 14 2016

Subtly Awesome Video Loops by Mike Mellia

That one time I had dinner at Ralph Lauren's house

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

New York-based advertising and fine art photographer Mike Mellia is behind a fun Instagram series called “A Selfie a Day Keeps the Doctor Away.” In this subtly awesome series, Mellia strikes a still pose and then animates just one part of his body, usually his arms or his hands. Whether he’s twirling campy eyeglasses or swirling a glass of wine, the photographer looks absolutely serious in his endeavors.

One of my favorites is the one where a dapperly dressed Mellia takes a cigarette out of a box and then proceeds to, nonchalantly, flick it onto the ground. His brilliant caption? “That one time I was an ad man.”

When he’s not creating fun video loops of himself, Mellia works as an advertising photographer. With clients such as Vogue, Harry Winston, and Christie’s, he certainly has his hands full.

We caught up the photographer to ask him a few quick questions.

What made you want to start this fun series?
The cliche about Instagram is that it’s mainly for self-obsessed people taking selfies, so I wanted to have an ironic account of my own with only selfies. Like many Instagram accounts, the mood of the selfies oscillate between unbridled megalomania and mundane nonchalance.

What do you hope others get out of it?
It’s a personal project that I enjoy doing, so I’m hoping people can have fun with it and laugh along with me. Ironically, my commercial work is often inspired by composition or the styling of these outlandish selfies, but done in a very mainstream aesthetic.

How do you come up with your ideas?
I think it’s an obsession to try to keep pushing the selfie series further, and with a lot of people making art, this obsession to keep going is something they can’t control. I have a notebook that I keep coming back to, writing down ideas about styling, composition, the captions, etc, at all strange times and sometimes in the middle of the night. Chuck Close the painter said that the more you work the more you will find creative ideas and I think that’s very accurate.

That one time I was an ad man

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

That one time I made a bet with a Flemish perfumier

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

That one time these pretzels were making me thirsty

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

That one time I offered to help out in the kitchen

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

That one time I had spring fever

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

That one time practice made perfect

A video posted by Mike Mellia (@mikemellia) on

Mike Mellia’s website


Art & Design

January 13 2016

Adorable Photo Series of a Camera-Shy Girlfriend

Who can’t identify with this? In this adorable series, Montreal-based photographer Mikaël Theimer shoots photos of his girlfriend, who just so happens to be painfully shy of the camera. Whether she’s hiding behind a book, her hands, or her hair, the brunette finds clever ways to conceal her face.

As Theimer told the Huffington Post, “She hates to pose, and she hates to be in front of the camera. So this became a little game that we have. Whenever I see a scene I would love to photograph her in, she has to find a way to hide her face. I find it results in much more interesting pictures than just traditional portraits.”

We contacted the photographer to find out more about the mysterious woman, aka his girlfriend. Her name is Marion and she is just about to turn 29-years-old. The series started back in November 2014. When asked to describe Marion he said, “Haha, well to be honest I’d rather not say too much about her as she really wishes to keep as much anonymity as possible (we never really expected the pictures would get that much attention), but I’ll tell you that she’s the most generous and authentic person I’ve ever known. She has kept both the heart and the playfulness of the 10-year-old girl she once was.”

It’s such a simple photo series but it’s so authentic and real. Love!

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Mikaël Theimer’s website
via [Petapixel, Huffington Post]


Books

January 12 2016

New Book Captures Fairy Tale-Like Scenes From the Brothers Grimm

Though it may be hard to believe, these fairy tale-like scenes actually exist! Over the course of a year, photographer Kilian Schönberger traversed 45,000 miles throughout the Germany countryside to find places inspired by old fairy tales like those collected by the Brothers Grimm. The German storytellers made popular such classic stories as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. They didn’t actually write the fairy tales, the stories existed long before the two men existed. They were a part of rich oral tradition that was passed down from generation to generation. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm made it their mission to save the stories from extinction by publishing them as part of a collection titled Nursery and Household Tales, or what is now referred to as Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Schönberger has now collected his dream-like photos in a new coffee table book called Sagenhaftes Deutschland (Fabulous Germany). As he states, “This book sums up what started as the ‘Brothers Grimm’s Homeland’ project over a year ago. Printed on paper the photos become even more related to the old fairy tales. It’s like a visual stroll through the images we had on our mind while listening to these old stories during our childhood.”

Here we encounter breathtaking scenes of green moss covered rocks, sinuous trees, and grand castles peeping over layers of dense fog. While viewing these photos, one can’t help but be transported back to our own childhood and all the wonder we felt when we listened to or watched folk or fairy tale stories.

You can now buy the 240 page book over on Amazon.

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Photography

January 11 2016

Gorgeous Black and White Portraits of Golden Globes’ Celebrities

Did you catch the Golden Globes last night? How exciting is it that Mr. Robot won for Best TV Drama? (I still can’t believe it beat out Game of Thrones.) These days, I love looking back on award shows by viewing professional portraits taken by big name photographers. This year, Instagram partnered with Dutch duo, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (or Inez and Vinoodh), in releasing beautiful black and white photos of the presenters and winners backstage.

“We are thrilled to be working with Instagram for this type of mini studio portraiture,” Inez and Vinoodh told The Hollywood Reporter. “The immediacy of Instagram as an outlet is very exciting to us and this specific Golden Globes shoot event will be the perfect opportunity to capture today’s icons of entertainment in our own timeless way.”

I love the simplicity of each portrait. There were no distracting props, just celebrities in their raw form. Although I don’t think anyone could top Mark Seliger’s Vanity Fair portraits, which were taken after the 2014 Oscar’s, you have to give it to the Dutch photographers for capturing the souls of each celebrity in their truly remarkable way. (Now here’s the billion dollar question. Can Leo finally win that Oscar?)

Aaron Sorkin, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for "Steve Jobs". Photo by @inezandvinoodh #goldenglobes

A photo posted by Golden Globes (@goldenglobes) on

Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) and Will Ferrell at the 2016 #goldenglobes Photo by @inezandvinoodh

A photo posted by Golden Globes (@goldenglobes) on

Photos via Instagram/Golden Globes


Art & Design

December 15 2015

10 Coffee Table Books That I Love

I have to admit something…I love coffee table books. What is about these huge tomes that draw me in? I just love seeing beautiful pictures of faraway places (Steve McCurry) or how a photographer conjures up a dream-like scene (Annie Leibovitz and Tim Walker). I’ve been collecting coffee table books for the past seven years, I started this hobby while I was Editor-in-Chief of My Modern Met. Below are a list of books I actually have (see photo above), as well as ones I’m longing to collect.

Have:

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Pictures by Tim Walker: Tim Walker creates dreamlike scenes that will make you want to live in his world.

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Murakami: Takashi Murakami is one of contemporary art’s most innovative figures. Here you’ll find a great collection of his work including his original paintings and sculptures.

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Lonely Plant’s Beautiful World: Through 300 photos, get ready to experience some of the most breathtaking places in the world. Warning: Will make you want to travel.

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Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton: Based on the Facebook page which has over 16 million fans, is a heartfelt book of inspiring photographs and stories.

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Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs: Follow Steve McCurry’s extraordinary career in this beautiful and memorable book.

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The Life and Love of Dogs by Lewis Blackwell: Any dog lover will want to collect this book, which is filled with hundreds of incredible images of our furry friends.

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JR: Can Art Change the World? by JR: Street artist JR gives his first major and in-depth retrospective of his work. Inside you’ll find his own collection projects as well as collaborations he’s done with other artists or institutions, like the New York Ballet.

Want:

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Portraits by Martin Schoeller: In this 260 page hardcover book, you’ll find 150 color and black and white photos of political leaders, Hollywood stars, business entrepreneurs, and contemporary music royalty.

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Elliott Erwitt XXL Special Edition: Elliott Erwitt is a master at capturing the moment. In this collector’s edition, you’ll find everything from an iconic Marilyn Monroe photo to portraits of silly dogs.

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SUMO by Annie Leibovitz: This book traces Annie Leibovitz’s 40 year career. Included is everything from John Lennon and Yoko Ono entwined in a last embrace to Richard Nixon’s helicopter lifting off from the White House lawn after he resigned as president in 1974.

What are some of your favorite coffee table books?


Photography

December 10 2015

The Classically Beautiful World of Rodney Smith

“In a world where color reigns supreme and where trends and fads in technique pace the art world, photographer Rodney Smith’s work stands in stark contrast. Using a lush palette of monochrome tones and creating prints that can hang beside any on a museum wall, Smith’s images reverberate with an elegant, natural beauty.”- Gilman Contemporary

I’ve been in love with photographer Rodney Smith’s style for years. His photos are not just beautiful but timeless. A 45 year retrospective of his work will be held at Gilman Contemporary from December 18 to January 19. I wish I was in Ketchum, Idaho to see it. You can view the artwork at Gilman’s website. Here are some of my favorites.

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Photography

December 1 2015

Annie Leibovitz Shoots a Refreshingly Different Pirelli Calendar

On Monday, it was announced that Perrelli’s annual calendar isn’t going to be what we always expect – stunning supermodels posing nude or scantily clad. Pirelli gave famed photographer Annie Leibovitz free reign to cast twelve women for the 2016 calendar and she boldly decided to take portraits of accomplished women instead – writers, filmmakers, artists and philanthropists. Included are comedian Amy Schumer, artist/activist Yoko Ono, writer Fran Lebowitz, singer-songwriter Patti Smith, Chinese actress Yao Chen, and Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat. ​​They were all shot in Leibovitz’s studio this past summer.

As the photographer stated in a press conference, “Pirelli came to me and told me they wanted to shift this year to something different. I made the suggestion that they do women performance artists or women comedians, almost a take-off. I just thought of women I admired and I didn’t let anyone in the studio from Pirelli. It became a very strong set of very simple portraits […] No one was supposed to look like they tried in these pictures.” She continued, “I still can’t believe the women who agreed to do it, did it. I felt a big responsibility to that […] It shouldn’t be a big step, but it is a big step.”

Isn’t it refreshing to see accomplished women with real bodies in the Pirelli calendar? The New York Times is saying that it “may signal a cultural shift.” As they wrote, “this is the first time there is no provocation in the posing, and the first time the attraction of the subjects is in their résumés, not their measurements.”

Unfortunately, we can’t purchase a calendar ourselves, an exclusive group of 20,000 “VIPS” (musicians, politicians and royalty) are given it as gifts instead. To get a general feeling of what’s inside, make sure to watch the behind-the-scenes video, below.

Above: Amy Schumer, Fran Lebowitz and Tavi Gevinson.

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From left, Natalia Vodianova, Serena Williams and Patti Smith.

via [Elle, American Photo, NY Times]

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