Onebyfourbynine

My fascination with icebergs and very cold places has probably a lot to do with my liking of Vancouver photographer David Burdeny's work, but I find his other series equally beautiful and interesting.

"Antartica/Greenland 2007" Series

"During 2007 and into the spring of 2008, I made several long journeys to the upper and lower extremes of our planet to photograph the shorelines, monolithic ice forms and landscapes of Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica. Most of these places are arduous to reach, beyond the borders of domestic transportation routes, accessible only by small aircraft or boat. All are endangered to some extent – threatened by tourism, climate change, industry and the hunt for oil."

"Sacred and Secular" Series

Toshio Shibata is a Japanese photographer using large-format photographs to explore large-scale civil engineering works in nature.

Many seem to want to interpret his work as some kind of commentary about the conflict between man and his environment... I see a work on textures, shapes and space with a primary emphasis on aesthetics and athmosphere. The civil works become giant abstract sculptures, geometric installations that subtly interact with their surroundings through waterfalls, moss, slow decay of concrete.

From an intersting interview on Eye Curious: "I try to eliminate the reality, time and any sense of specific place."

I first became acquainted with Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto's images over a year ago and his work has been growing on me ever since. Minimal yet never boring or empty, his pictures have just the right amount of material to get my imagination going. I love their simplicity and dreamy quality, that I find lacking in many of the contemporary works I see.

With a background in oil painting, he manipulates his prints using paints, dyes, tones (like tea), as well as rubbing and tearing to age them prematurely - making each one a unique object. He describes his images as physical memories and as such focuses on very small prints that can be carried around and held in the palm of the hand. He also organizes them in stories/installations that bring new meanings through subtle interactions. While I think it is an interesting concept and even though I like the images very much, I have to say that I am not a fan of small prints - I can't help but feeling it partly removes the images from the emotional impact they truely deserve.

You can hear the artist describe his work here.

TIDES HD from Amy Greenfield on Vimeo.

"A Little Death", 2002.

I really enjoy the talks of most TED speakers. Especially like Mr Enriquez... Short glimpses of possible futures... Whatever the actual time frame, most of it is actually going to happen, eventually. Pretty much sounds like science fiction - except that by now we know better than just dismissing all these crazy ideas. Who would have thought you could speak to someone on the other side of the planet through a little box 300 years ago? Thought-provoking to say the least.

remanence : variance from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

Video for Allelujah, from SubHuman, Recoil's latest album. Directed by Dimitry Semenov.

Love the song, and gotta love the Tangerine Dreams' Rubycon sample too.

Emerge

Tundra

Think Globally, Act Locally

More great works on the artist's site:

Sublunar video 5

Sublunar video 6

Sublunar video 7

www.williamlamson.com

From Blu's : "MUTO, an ambiguous animation painted on public walls."

Found on Mediacology.

I love good street art as much as I hate bad graffiti. It's free, subversive and you don't have to go to a museum or a gallery to see it... What more should the masses expect from pop art? So anyway, nothing new blogging about Banksy, but just how good is this guy? Not many artists are able to capture the essence of contemporary pop culture, chew it and spit it in such a concise and accessible form... Also love the combination of artwork and location, which usually plays a large part in the message. Like Shepard Fairey he attracted a fair amount of flak over the years (boohoo he sold out to the system), but really his detractors should get busy and start creating things of their own... At the very least you could say he fills the basic job description of street art in terms of being controversial and getting a reaction out of people.

Banksy's online gallery here.

Also check out this interview by Shepard Fairey.

... is back.

Classic love

Me like xkcd, a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Good nerd humour, yeah!

1stAveMachine is an NYC based CGI VFX/Animation Studio and production company. Incredible work which makes me miss the 80s' mutants and Giger-esque biodesign.

Clark - Ted

Sixes Last - Alias

Teddy Bear Fetal Development, Felted wool, buttons

Ursulus victuspedis II, Felted wool

Teddy Skull, Felted wool

Skull study

Skull study

Quite an interesting study on a species seldom mentioned, although it arguably plays a significant role in the early life of many human beings.

Excerpt from the artist's statement: "Humans routinely direct the course of evolution in domestic animal species through selective breeding. In companion animals breeding is driven more by marketability than function. Like designer dog breeds, the teddy bear is a creature whose shape is dictated by social trends and the changing definition of ‘cute.’ Genus Ursulus: Teddy Skulls is a pseudo-scientific study of the morphology of skulls of teddy bears. Morphology refers to the form and structures that differentiate one breed from another but also give a sense of the story of the individual. The genus name Ursulus comes from the Latin ‘small bear’. Using a variety of store-bought teddy bears as ‘species’ source material, I am reverse-engineering what their skulls look like and the differences and similarities between ‘breeds.’ "

Found on the always interesting This is That blog.

From Boston Dynamics' website: "The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal's, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight [...]. BigDog is being developed by Boston Dynamics with the goal of creating robots that have rough-terrain mobility that can take them anywhere on Earth that people and animals can go. The program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)."

Ah the possibilities...

And of course the always practical liveware version, even though slightly less reliable:

I love Anthony Cannon Walker's "Adventures of the kimono cowboy in the Far-West" series.

From his website: "When friends were visiting me in Tokyo, they saw two ladies dressed in kimonos sitting across from us in a cafe. One of my friends said: "Wouldn't the world be so much nicer if everyone wore their traditional clothes all the time?" And I replied, "But that would mean that we would have to dress as cowboys day in and day out." How do our outward appearances affect the way that we meet and connect with other people? Is it possible to 'meet' the place that you live in?"

...

Great talk by amazing war photographer James Nachtwey. He seems so incredibly calm for someone who has seen so much. Or maybe seeing it all has just made him entirely numb.

Cedric Delsaux is a French commercial photographer who attracted a lot of attention with his really cool Star Wars themed series. He integrated characters of the saga in typical parisian suburbia - empty parking lots, projects, public buildings and other urban battlegrounds - infusing a sense of intergalactic mystery and adventure to what would otherwise be totally depressing places. It's pretty much the literal illustration of the day dreams of most kids who grew up with Han, Luke and Chewie. As an adult and a photographer I find still being able to see the world around us as an enchanted place priceless. Takes a lot of hard work to preserve that kind of freshness - a wild imagination and not too much reading the news probably help too. As good old Nietzsche said: "A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play".

Saranghe, 2007 -polaroid Spectra film on board

Double model on chest, 2007 - polaroid Spectra film on board

Asunder, 2007 - polaroid Spectra film on board

I really like Patrick Winfields's composites of polaroids.

I love the moods of Aaron Hobson's "Cinemascapes" works. It's essentially a series of great, dark panoramic self (sometimes multiple) portraits. Each image is a story in itself and there's usually a lot more going on than what you see at first glance. I am totally jealous of his locations, too - he is based in a small Adirondack Mountain town near the Canadian border which pretty much seems like rural decay paradize. Aaron tells me that he works with pretty basic equipment - an almost decade-old digital camera - and as an amateur photographer myself I find it very comforting to see that one doesn't need the latest or most expensive gear to create amazing images. Inspiring.

From his website: "Cinemascapes are a hybrid between autobiography and fiction, with Hobson himself always in the star role. They are at times, haunting and scandalous, other times inspiring, but always come across as closely personal. Reflective of his 30 years of experiences, emotions, and challenges throughout his life, Hobson creates cinemascapes that not only viscerally and visually grab the conscious mind, but also linger in the viewer's imagination and memory. Creating panoramics from 4-5 sequential vertical images allows the viewer’s eye to explore shifting focal planes and become immersed into a scene full of unsuspecting details and hidden plots more than a single frame could suffice. Each image seemingly captures a moment in time that poses many questions, not the least of which is what's going on here?"

Also check out Aaron's blog here.

"Cryopreservation Unit, Cryonics Institute, Clinton Township, Michigan. This cryopreservation unit holds the bodies of Rhea and Elaine Ettinger, the mother and first wife of cryonics pioneer, Robert Ettinger. Robert, author of “The Prospect of Immortality” and “Man into Superman” is still alive."

"Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility Cherenkov Radiation. Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy Southeastern Washington State."

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Contraband Room. John F. Kennedy International Airport Queens, New York."

"An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" is an exciting photo project by New York-born Taryin Simon. She has been pretty much building her own photographic cabinet of curiosities, seeking rarely seen subjects from the domains of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion in the United States, using a large-format camera whenever possible.

"Aspiring" is a great series of aspiring Baltimore models portraits taken in their own living place by american photographer Jay Parkinson. People's homes obviously reflect their personalities and I love this kind of portraits as they usually look much more intimate and authentic than the studio ones.

From his interview with Conscientious' Jorg Colberg:

"One thing that I think makes all of these photographs interesting is that these models all have the confidence to get in front of a camera and give it their best and, on top of all that, let me into their homes so I can capture them in what should be their most comfortable place in the world. But often, this translated into a very vulnerable appearance. I specifically contacted only models that had done only one or two shoots, and sometimes no prior shoots. I wanted to capture them in the very beginning of their efforts to realize their dreams. Every aspiring model also has some sort of notion of how a professional model should pose in front of the camera, but actually getting your body to do that does not translate well on the first or second shoot. Professional models are professional models for a reason -- they've had the experience to simply know what to do and how to pose. I provided very minimal to sometimes no direction for poses in these shoots. I wanted the poses undeveloped and immature to document a sort of tension between their dreams and reality."

You can read the whole interview here.

I really like Mr Parkinson's new works too:

Interior Camouflage - Bookcase, 2004

Interior Camouflage - For Artist in Studio during Open House, 2004

Police Camera - Moslem Quarter, Jerusalem, 2006

I like Dutch artist Desiree Palmen's Camouflage and Streetwise series.

From the artist's website: "Concern about the increasing use of identity based electronic information systems and the frequent use of surveillance cameras is one of the impulses for Desiree Palmen to create her work, which uses camouflage, as its main focus. In photo works, videos and site-specific actions, she explores the possibilities of letting people 'dissolve' into their surroundings or to let them disappear against the background. The manipulation of clothing plays a crucial role. A shirt covers the body and then extends to cover the tabletop, confusing the contour of the body of the person wearing the shirt with the table itself. In another work, a suit is painted in such a way that when the model is in a very specific position, he/she disappears into the background. Palmen then takes pictures of these situations she creates from the ideal viewing perspective for her audience. In the actual situation, if the viewer moved one step away from this ideal view, then the function of the camouflage seizes to exist. In recent work, she looks more specifically at the social implications of surveillance as she attempts to mislead the eye of 'Big Brother'. Beginning from the perspective of police-installed cameras in so-called dangerous streets of Rotterdam, she then creates camouflage that models wear while performing actions in the street. The models become invisible for the target audience: the surveillance personnel, while also attracting the awareness of people passing by. In her photo and video work, she uses the same surveying methods of the security systems as she reveals that being visible and invisible are both aspects of the same oppressive phenomenon." Arno van Roosmalen / Tentagenda / March 2002. Translation: Laurie Halsey Brown.

This reminded me of the 2003 Tachi laboratory of the University of Tokyo's experimental "invisibility cloak" - which was actually simply a projection of the image behind the cloak (taken with a camera) projected back onto the front:

The Ekoi Bride, Nigeria. Self-portrait, 2005

The Bride King of Vicus (North of Peru, 1,800-1,300 years before present) with Gold Ear Ornaments (Quimbaya, Columbia, 1,000-800 years before present) and a Gold Pectoral (Muisca, Columbia, 2,100-1,900 years before present). Self-portrait, 2005

The Cowrie Bride, Yoruba. Self-portrait, 2005

The Silver Berber Bride, Morocco, early XXth Century. Self-portrait, 2005

Kimiko Yoshida is my favorite portrait artist.

Born and raised in Japan, she moved to France in 1995 and has been focusing on a mesmerizing series of selfportraits - more than 150 to date - dressed as brides of various cultures throughout history. She is an amazon warrior, she is an inca goddess clad with gold, she is an ancient african deity hiding behind a tribal mask... Her works are not selfportraits per se - the images are not about her, but rather portraits of different identities that create an universal, timeless persona. She is in her own world beyond cultures, time and space, and I love the textures of her simple yet complex images. She's my buddha of photography.