Tag: series


Photography

July 25 2016

Before and Afters of Dogs in Adorable, Japanese-Style Grooming

If you love a good “before and after” series, you will not be disappointed with this one. Pet and lifestyle photographer Grace Chon is back with Hairy, a series where she takes dogs who are in a desperate need of grooming and transforms them into adorable creatures. All of these dogs weren’t just given the normal treatment, however, they were cut in a Japanese-style of grooming, with an emphasis on making the dogs look as cute as possible. Chon worked with the talented groomers of Healthy Spot in Los Angeles to make this series come alive.

If the name Grace Chon sounds familiar, she’s the photographer behind the viral series Jasper and Zoey. (It’s still one of my all-time favorites.)

I got a chance to catch up with Grace and ask her a few questions about the new series, Hairy.

What made you want to start this new series? How did it come about?
I think a lot of us have a fascination with before and after images because it’s always fun to see dramatic transformations. I had the idea of doing a before and after series with dog grooming because there’s something about it that’s so funny to me. Sometimes the dog looks so different and you wonder if it’s the same dog in both images. I wanted to capture that idea in the series, and have the after photos be really extreme by showing Japanese Dog Grooming cuts since they aren’t that common and the results are so striking.

How much time and effort went into cutting the dogs’ hair?
These cuts truly are works of art – each haircut takes about 2 hours or more, as the majority of the styling is all done with hand scissoring.

Can you describe the Japanese style of grooming?
The emphasis of this style of grooming is to make the dog look as adorable as possible by highlighting the uniquely cute characteristics of the dog. My personal take on it is that they make the dogs look almost like stuffed animals – cute overload!

What did you learn from shooting the series?
Grooming is definitely an art form. I don’t have dogs that get groomed, but watching the groomers up close made me realize how much time and dedication goes into a cut especially when the majority of it is being done by hand with scissors. The groomers I had the pleasure of working with are so creative and great at what they do.

1-Yuki-Before
Yuki (Before)

1-Yuki-After
Yuki (After)

2-Athena_Before
Athena (Before)

2-Athena_After
Athena (After)

3-Teddy_Before
Teddy (Before)

3_Teddy_After
Teddy (After)

4-Herman_Before
Herman (Before)

4-Herman-After
Herman (After)

5-Raider-Before
Raider (Before)

5-Raider_After
Raider (After)

06-Rocco-Before
Rocco (Before)

06-Rocco-After
Rocco (After)

07-Lana-Before
Lana (Before)

07-Lana-After
Lana (After)

Grace Chon’s website and Instagram

Grooming credits:
1-Yuki by Alyson Ogimachi
2-Athena by Donna Owens
3-Teddy by Donna Owens
4-Herman by Cindy Reyes
5-Raider by Koko Fukaya
6-Rocco by Patricia Sugihara
7-Lana by Koko Fukaya


Art & Design

January 4 2016

The Most Intense New Show on Television: Mr. Robot

During the past few weeks, Sam and I spent many nights watching one of the most gripping new shows on television, Mr. Robot. Recommended to us by my sister and her husband, we were hooked from the pilot and rode the show like a rollercoaster till the finale. (There are 10 episodes.) NPR published a great article about the psychological thriller, where they don’t give too much away. They call it “probably the most modern show on TV” and say Elliot Alderson, played by Rami Malek, is “a fascinatingly soulful actor who manages to be both pop-eyed and hollow-eyed at the very same time.”

I personally loved Malek’s portrayal of this vigilante hacker. The voice-overs are creepy, pulling you into Elliot’s paranoid world. Malek is up for multiple awards including a Golden Globe (which will be broadcast this coming Sunday, January 10), a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics’ Choice Television Award. I wouldn’t be surprised if he swept them all.

The Hollywood Reporter has an eye-opening article where they talk to Sam Esmail, the brilliant mastermind behind the show. As he states, “First and foremost, the show’s about Elliot and his struggle to fit in, his struggle to connect with people.” (Warning: There are spoilers. Also, skip this paragraph now if you haven’t watched the show.) Esmail talks about the last scene in the finale and what’s in store for Season 2. As for the overall meaning of the show, Esmail says, “Whenever anyone asks me, ‘Well, what’s the show about?’ It’s always been a hard question to answer, and it’s because it’s about this. It’s about, how does a guy who really has associative-identity disorder, how does he combat that in a realistic way? What does he do when he has these demons that he has to face, different parts of his own personality and his own identity? How does he come to terms with that? That’s something we’re going to explore for basically the rest of the run of the series, not just the next season. How all those things play out is still something that we’re going to figure out in the writers’ room.”

In this Entertainment Weekly article, Esmail acknowledges that the show was inspired by Fight Club among many other things. In fact, they played a song from Fight Club on the show. “I’ll say this right now. I rip off of every movie and TV show I’ve ever seen in my life,” Esmail stated. “I’m a film nerd. That’s what I did growing up. Other than being on the computer, I was watching TV and movies. I make no apologies. Fight Club was one of my big inspirations for the show. I think the nod or the acknowledgement with ‘Where Is My Mind’ at the end of episode 9 was, yes, in part letting the audience know that we’re very much aware that Fight Club was an inspiration, but at the same time, we make no apologies about it. We own it. The thing is that by doing that, by making that bold choice, I think we open ourselves up to the criticism of being derivative, and that’s the challenge I take. I think we’re incredibly original, despite the fact that we borrow so much from so American Psycho, Taxi Driver, and Clockwork Orange. The list goes on and on. It was an unapologetic homage/nod/acknowledgement to the audience that Fight Club was one of our inspirations.” He goes on to say, “Movies and television show build on top of each other, succeed one another. In a large way in terms of filmmaking aesthetics, they evolve because they can’t help but be a consequence of all the movies and TV shows that came before it. I don’t mind context, which I think this is. We are a 2015 television show that has been made in the wake of all of these great films and television shows before us. I’m happy to own it.”

(On a side note, there are only going to be four or five seasons?!)

If you’re interested in reading about how Esmail’s own, personal background, played a part in the making of the show, here’s another interesting article, this time from Popular Science.

Finally, in this Slate article, we learn about how Esmail’s family inspired him. “I’m Egyptian. I have a lot of cousins who are in their 20s. I was there right after the Arab Spring happened, and I was so inspired by that. One of the things that defined Elliot’s character is that revolutionary spirit I saw in my cousins. These are young people who are tech-savvy, who use technology to their advantage to channel the anger against the status quo and try and make a change to better their lives. That is something that’s beautiful and fascinating to me, and that’s what I really, really want the show to be about. It’s set in the world of technology, because I think that is a tool that young people can use to bring about change.”

Sam and I were at the edge of our seats throughout the entire series. We’re talking sweaty palms and heart beating out of our chest. For those of you who are looking for a good show to watch, and if you’re into intense shows like Breaking Bad, watch this!