Paco Peregrin: " Beautiful Monster "

Fusing hyper-real futurism with high-end beauty images, Paco Peregrin's style has earned him credibility as one of the most exciting photographers working in advertising, beauty, art and fashion today. His unmistakable signature belies his background in design, communication, theatre and painting. Paco's photography carries a perfect blend of sensuality with avant-garde.

Paco Peregrin was born in Almeria, Spain. He is a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Seville University and extends his formation in image and new means of expression in prestigious institutes such as International Center of Photography (NYC), Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (London), etc.... He publishes for numerous magazines such as Vanity Fair (Italy), Glamour (Spain), Elle and many more. Paco Peregrin lives in Madrid and his work has been exhibited in many countries.

All photos that integrate Beautiful Monster allude to a very particular concept of beauty (sometimes unusual, alien or even beautifully monstrous), to its ephemeral nature and the passage of time. Naked men and women are on a neutral background where makeup comes great prominence, even avoiding the recognition of the models, thus reflecting on the idea of identity and a proposal for the makeup as a contemporary mask that protects us, on the one hand like a camouflage and the other helping us to build a super-ego.
~~Paco Peregrin

Beautiful Monster

  

Courtesy Paco Peregrin
Art on the Edge 2011, Vered Gallery, East Hampton , NY
Beautiful Monster, opening 2012, Visionairs Gallery, Paris
This post is also featured on the Huffington Post

J Smith Esquire bespoke millinery

 A look at some fabulous creations by the young talented milliner Justin Smith. Born in 1978 in Exeter, England, Justin established his own and exclusive hairdressing salon in London in 2002. Since his graduation from London's Royal College of Art, Justin has created six of his own collections and collaborated with a large number of high end designers including Moschino, Manish Arora, Carolyn Massey, and many others. He has also received several awards, Italian Vogue Young Talents 2010, and British Fashion Council Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 among them.

From his couture piece exhibited during Alta Roma, Rome's fashion week or his sixteen couture turbans made in collaboration with Fabrizio Talia for (es) Artisanal to his earlier collections of beaded wigs, feathers, and pleated turbans, enjoy Justin Smith's exquisite creations.

Couture piece at Limited/Unlimited Exhibition - Alta Roma 2011

Unclassified collection, Alta Roma 2011

Beaded wig, flower bomb, pillow bow, pleated turban....

Courtesy J Smith Esquire

Irving Penn: Radical Beauty 1946-2007

Known for depicting his subjects with a rare combination of precision and compositional elegance, Irving Penn's work contrasts elements of the grotesque and the sublime. Throughout his early career as a photographer at Vogue, and then later in his personal work, he consistently questioned and reinvented the parameters of physical beauty. His early nudes, from the late 1940s, were not exhibited until over three decades later.

The thirty photographs on view at Fraenkel Gallery explore Penn's radical and long-standing investigation into what constitutes beauty, an aspect of his career that has received only passing attention. His subjects, from the highlands of Papua New Guinea to the high-society of the fashion world, are presented as distinct and particular. Several images in the exhibition, obscures faces - Canvas Head With Hardware (design by Jun Takahashi) and Football Face, among others - alluding to the masks of fashion and persons.

Later in his career, Irving Penn traveled the globe photographing indigenous people in a stimulated, portable studio, producing memorable images from Africa, South America, and Papua New Guinea. Numerous books on his work have been published.

Irving Penn

Canvas Head With Hardware (Design by Jun Takahashi), New York, 2006

Copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc

Chanel Feather Headdress (B), New York, 1994

Copyright by the Irving Penn Foundation

Hell's Angel (Doug), San Francisco, 1967

Copyright by the Irving Penn Foundation

Mouth (for L'Oreal), New York, 1986

Copyright by the Irving Penn Foundation

Sweetie (A), New York, 1986

Copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc

Irving Penn: Radical Beauty 1946-2007

Currently on view at Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

June 30 - August 20, 2011

Postcards from Paris

Paris in August is wonderful. Most Parisians leave the city, a sense of serenity settled over Paris. The tourists arrive and are more relaxed....
An email will never replace the pleasure of sending a postcard. Enjoy this series of funny postcards from French illustrator Genevieve Gauckler. Best known for her ever-evolving procession of lovable characters and technicolor digital mashes, Gauckler's works are bright, fun and hectic - often combining symmetrical designs with soft-edged computer generated images laid against photographed backgrounds.

I try to create some harmony in my images. I'm happy when it's energetic, not pretentious, simple, light. I'm not very interested in style, I'm just trying to build up a world like kids playing with toys, rather than trying to come up with a new style.

I Love Paris

Concorde

Montmartre

Arc de Triomphe

Opera

Courtesy Genevieve Gauckler

Postcards are available at Colette, Paris