In This Twilight by Josephine Cardin

Josephine Cardin - In This Twilight

When I see art that I like, I seem to have a moment of frantic disbelief, scrambling to capture and enjoy and seek more and more of what I’ve just uncovered.

Thankfully we have the internet.

Josephine Cardin (FB, Behance) is an artist that does that for me. In her bio she states: “But at the end of the day, I live to create and create… well, because it is fulfilling, and fun.”

It is clear to understand that Cardin has a background in dance, but she’s also an art historian, a visual artist, and a photographer. One thing that I appreciate of artists is when they pull from multiple disciplines to influence their current works, Cardin seems to have a magical aura about her work that is dripping in historical significance.

I have chosen In This Twilight to showcase Josephine Cardin’s work because it is an astounding exploration of body, movement, fine art, light, and feature. Immediately I am left wondering how she has managed to create such detail in muscle structure yet her lighting seems to be so soft and delicate that even the background fades into darkness. There is mood in the motion, there is a distance one can feel. And the background! It makes me feel like a smoky dream wafting around the room, lost in a memory, which melds perfectly with the fabric that is being used throughout the project.

Josephine Cardin - In This Twilight Continue Reading →

Renee Robyn: Photographer, Retoucher, and Model

Renee Robyn has the power to take your breath away. In photography she sees her images before she shoots them, and post-produces them into fantasy filled perfectness. She also models with eyes that can swallow your soul. She first attracted my attention by taking awesome photographs. Plain and simple. Renee’s work immediately stands out when seen. It’s my belief that Renee is such a great photographer because she genuinely loves everything about creating an image: modeling, photographing, creating, dreaming, and putting the final touches on the images in Photoshop.

Renee is intelligent and constantly driving herself. Anybody she comes in contact with understands this, and this just works perfectly to keep those creative juices flowing.

renee robyn photography - 5

Model: Sam Marcellin
Hair: Renato Candia
MUA: Dianne Jane

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The Photography of David Burton

It is hard to begin with David Burton. His work is beautiful, if I had to pick one word to describe it. It’s lit very naturally, it is fashion without trying, it is class, sensuality, and presence all mixed into a palette of browns and earths and splashes of sun kissed colour. It can also be just black and white.

Photo source: David Burton | www.davidburtonstudio.com

Photo source: David Burton | www.davidburtonstudio.com

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The Photography of Martin D Barker

Martin D Barker is a fashion and fine art photographer. He bases himself out of the UK and USA: New York, Glasgow, London. Basically, a dream job.

His work is filled with fashion, think similar to Black Milk, except it’s Abandon Ship styles, a UK brand with a similar feel… streetwear I guess one would call it.

I like this style. It’s edgy with a 90s Bowie feel. It’s androgynous and still bad enough to light fires in the desert with.

I think the photograph I first saw that made me fall in love with Martin’s work was this one, where the girl stands in the background with her hands raised up, and the boy standing the foreground enjoying life. Looming in the near distance is a GIANT waterfall.

MartinDBarker_AbandonShip_AW_2012_4

Photo source: Martin D Barker | www.martindbarker.com

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The Portraits of Carlo Calope

Portrait photography has been around since the beginning of photography. Photographers like Arnold Newman, Robert Mapplethorp, Robert Frank, Art Kane, etc. have been legendary and ground breaking photographers that have altered what was perceived a portrait, escaping from the norm.

To become unique in the art of the portrait photograph is indeed something that is as defining as ones own face, an art that has changes with such subtle nuances that help solidify it’s uniqueness.

Carlo Calope‘s photography explores this precious line of portrait photography with his delicate touch he puts on each and every image. The colors used in each series’ seems to match perfectly with the model used and the location chosen, but that’s aside from his portrait work. His portrait work seems to reach into the depths of a soul, pulling out character and features in such a way that allows for the viewer to understand.

The following photographs are taken from Calope’s series Portraits Section I and Le Mannequin, simply to show more of his work.

Photo credit: Carlo Calope | www.carlocalope.com

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Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva are True Creators

Take photographs, sure, but lets do it in such a way that it creates swirling dreams that dance around your minds eye and whispers little secrets into the overwhelming expanse of that which invites drop jaw and stare. NOW we have creation. Now we have tapped into what it is to create and to inspire.

Behold Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva. Possibly some of the most outstanding examples of fashion photography available.

Andrey and Lili create an experience for the viewer. They dissect the landscape and place models into the scene, making what can only be called a romantic dance dream.

The wardrobe choices, the accessories, the makeup. This, it is easy to say, is inspiration.

In this work, Andrey Yakovlev is the photographer, and Lili Aleeva is the art director and MUAH.

Photo source: Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva | Tropicana Unity | http://www.behance.net/gallery/TROPICANA-unity-/4697015

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Alexandra Valenti is Up In Smoke

This article started off about fashion in smoke, then quickly turned to a profile of Alexandra Valenti after I looked at her photographs, where I found her smoke work.

Simply beautiful.

There are some artists you look at their work and you see a distance, a disconnect between personality and style. Then, there are other artists who integrate every essence of their body into what they capture with the lens. As an outside viewer, I almost get the feeling that I have just read Alexandra’s secret pages of a notebook she’s tirelessly drawn flowers, hearts, vines, and birds all over.

Oh, and she does it with some amazing style.

Photo source: Alexandra Valenti | http://alexandravalenti.com/

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500 Photographers

Every so often you come across a website that makes your jaw drop. Then, you see a link at the bottom that refers you to their reference. You go to that website, and find another link that refers you to their reference. In the world of internet, where everybody feels the need to write another article about something they’ve read online, this is just the way it goes.

My chain went like this: Visual New’s Outsiders: Beautiful Portraits of the Overlooked.

Where I saw this photograph (among many others) taken by Pierre Gonnord.

Photo Credit: Pierre Gonnord

Following links, I landed at a nearly identical article, clearly copied almost word for word by Visual News, at Sweet Sensation also on Pierre Gonnord.

Photo Credit: Pierre Gonnord

The links did not stop here, though the copying did.

From here, the viewer is directed towards a website called 500 Photographers.

On this website, obviously, is a display (still counting) of 500 photographers the author deems amazing. I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly.

The latest (#455) is Neil Krug with some photographs from his Pulp Art Book.

Photo Credit: Neil Krug

The next photographer, #454, is Manabu Yamanaka with some images from a mixture of his series’, this one taken from his Jyoudo series.

Photo Credit: Manabu Yamanaka

#453 is Deborah Luster, who has done a few series of very authentic American tragedies, this one taken from her One Big Self series on 3 American prisons surrounding New Orleans.

Photo Credit: Deborah Luster

#452 is a photographer from Brazil named Julio Bittencourt who has captured some very ‘behind the scenes’ insight into a world pushing the boundaries of squatter towns and drug dealers. This photograph is from his Citizen X series.

Photo Credit: Julio Bittencourt

In showing these photographs, I hope to illuminate the quality of work that each of the photographers do, and also the beautiful nature of the website 500 Photographers, and how well they’ve captured the essence of inspiring photography.

I nearly forgot the whole reason why I made it to that page in the first place was to find the source of the images of Pierre Gonnord!

How do you enjoy the images? Are they too raw?

Book Review: Weegee’s New York

Weegee’s New York is a collection of photographs from 1935-1960 that should not be casually browsed on a Sunday afternoon. It is a serious and raw outlook on a city from the after dark like scenes and core fundamentalist photojournalism that one would expect from a tabloid and press photographer. Continue Reading →

Book Review: Stray Dog by Daido Moriyama

Stray Dog is not a novel. Stray Dog is a book explaining, and showcasing what post war contemporary photography was like in Japan, through the lens of Daido Moriyama. To make it more interesting, it’s a book published by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Continue Reading →