Tuesday, November 6, 2012

REED + RADER; 'Cretaceous Returns', a land before time...

Cretaceous Returns is a peek into the prehistoric underbelly of dino-daddies Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader, the digital art pioneers best known for their spellbinding fashion stories. The wonders of modern digital technology have made possible the chance to enter prehistoric environments to adventure with dinosaurs.

Reed + Rader are launching Cretaceous Returns, their first UK solo show at 18 Hewett Street, London on November 8th, 2012. The Brooklyn-based duo is now set to transform the gallery's clean white space into a land before time. Paper glass foliage with hidden, small colorful dinosaurs amongst the green will line the walls, with large scale projections setting the scene for Reed + Rader's free standing dinosaur.

" We want you to take an adventure back to the dinosaur times and enter a tropical jungle filled with tall grass and foliage - GIF animations showing different characters, a video of colorful dinosaurs dancing to dubstep, a side-scrolling video game-like adventure to explore and meet new friends...."
~~Pamela Reed + Matthew Rader



Reed + Rader
Cretaceous Returns
 Copyright © Reed + Rader

 © Reed + Rader

 © Reed + Rader

 © Reed + Rader

 © Reed + Rader

© Reed + Rader

© Reed + Rader

© Reed + Rader

Courtesy of Pamela Reed + Matthew Rader
Cretaceous Returns
November 8th, 2012 to November 20th, 2012

This post is also featured on the Huffington Post

Saturday, October 27, 2012

NOSTALGIA: The color photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (born in 1863 in Murom) was a pioneer of photography in Russia and a pioneer of color photography. Very little has been written about his life history. Like so many of the artists and architects of pre-revolutionary Russia, he has been forgotten, leaving a blank space in the history of photography that remains to this day.

Prokudin-Gorskii was given the task of capturing the old Russia in images, on behalf of the czar Nicolas II in 1909. This made him a witness to change. With his color photographs, he created extensive documentation, a remembrance of a space and a time that were about to vanish forever.

The period during which Prokudin-Gorskii worked - the late nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century - was a period of social, political, and technological upheavals. Some of these changes were slow to establish themselves, and their future consequences could therefore barely be guesses at; others, however, could not be ignored. The old Russia of Tolstoi and Chekhov was gradually passing away.

Nostalgia is currently on exhibit at Gestalten, Berlin.



NOSTALGIA
The Russian Empire of Czar Nicholas II
S.M. Prokudin-Gorskii
Peasant girls, 1909
Emir of Bukhara, 1911
At harvest time, 1909
Pinkhus Karlinskii, 1909
Group of workers harvesting tea, year between 1905-1915
Settler's family in the Settlement of Grafovka in Mugan Steppe, year bet. 1905-1915
Dinner during haying, year 1909
At the Saliuktin mines on the outskirts of Samarkand, year bet. 1905-1915

Courtesy of Gestalten, Berlin
Nostalgia; The color photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
October 19 - November 25, 2012

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Whimsical World of Tim Walker

I am thrilled to write a post on Tim Walker's major new exhibition Story Teller, one of the most visually exciting and influential fashion photographers working today.

With an imagination that knows no bounds, Tim Walker turns fashion shoots into fairytales or, in his own words, 'daydreams into photographs'. He constructs flamboyant worlds that unfold, page after page, like a series of stills from unrealized films. The photo shoot begins to resemble the film set: hair and make-up artists, fashion stylists and costume fitters, model makers, set designers, builders, producers and painters, prop suppliers and a cast of models playing out imagined roles. At the centre is Walker harnessing creative and technical talents to conjure up the harmonious whole in a singular picture.

 Tim Walker: Story Teller is on view at Somerset House, London. To coincide with this highly anticipated exhibition, Thames & Hudson will publish Story Teller. The book features over 175 inspirational images, collages and snapshots from Walker's personal archives, many on display in this exciting exhibition.

"Sometimes when you're taking a picture an extraordinary sense of luck and chance takes over and propels you to make pictures that you could't in your wildest dreams have imagined. This is the magic of photography". Tim Walker, Story Teller.Pg 112


Tim Walker
Story Teller
Giant doll kicks Lindsey Wixson, Eglingham Hall, Northumberland, 2011
© Tim Walker

Karlie Kloss and broken Humpty Dumpty, Rye, East Sussex, 2010
© Tim Walker

Tilda Swinton and aviator goggles, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2011
© Tim Walker

Xiao Wen & Lui Wen as samurai nuns, New York, 2011
© Tim Walker

Rollo Hesketh-Harvey & his baguette biplane, Eglingham Hall, Northumberland, 2009
© Tim Walker

Lily Donaldson and Blue Spitfire, Glemham Hall, Suffolk, 2009
© Tim Walker

Kinga Rajzak in flying saucer with members of the West Percy Hunt
Eglingham Hall, Northumberland, 2009
© Tim Walker


Courtesy of the artist and Somerset House, London
Tim Walker: Story Teller
October 17th, 2012 - January 27th, 2013






Tuesday, October 9, 2012

AHN SUN MI: "Möbius Strip"

Her self-portraits are stunning, poetic and dreamlike at the same time. The young Korean artist Ahn Sun Mi sets herself in a nostalgic world, between childhood and sensuality. Her photographic work, both dreams and reality, reveals her fears. Humane nor pessimism, Sun Mi reflects our fragile time, causing aesthetic and voluptuous sensations.

Sun Mi's surreal self-portraits tell a story, with smooth color shades or, the opposite, clashing bright colors. These contrasts are her uniqueness and originality, between colored Manga and softness, zen, meditative.

Ahn Sun Mi was born in 1982 in Busan, South Korea. She lives and works in Paris and Busan.

Möbius Strip is currently on exhibit at Visionairs Gallery, Paris


Ahn SunMi
Möbius Strip
 Copyright © Ahn Sun Mi
 © Ahn Sun Mi
 © Ahn Sun Mi
 © Ahn Sun Mi
© Ahn Sun Mi

A look at Ahn Sun Mi's early photographic work
Je suis Alice, 2007
 © Ahn Sun Mi

Choloncholo, 2007
 © Ahn Sun Mi

Bonbon, 2009
© Ahn Sun Mi

Courtesy of the artist and Visionairs Gallery, Paris
Ahn Sun Mi: Möbius Strip
October 8th - October 27th, 2012