Onebyfourbynine

The first time I came across an image from South African photographer Pieter Hugo's "Hyenas and Other Men" series I just couldn't take my eyes of it. I go through at a lot of images and every once in a while I find one that just really hits me and sticks to my mind. The whole wild beast/heavy chains/bad ass attitude looked almost too cool to be real.

Pieter Hugo is a self-taught photographer born in Johannesburg in 1976. He documents social issues globally but has a special interest in Africa and other developing countries. After seeing a cell phone picture of these guys in the streets of Lagos he managed to track them down and decided to go to Nigeria. Rumored to be bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers and debt collectors, they turned out to be a group of wandering minstrels living with three hyenas, four baboons, and two rock pythons. He spent time with them twice over a period of two years and produced these extraordinary pictures. The story of the life of this group is also a fantastic insight into Nigerian culture.

Let's just hope hyenas don't become the new rage as pet replacement for pitbulls.

Camera Lucida is a very interesting project by Russian/American installation and video artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, developed in collaboration with scientific laboratories in Japan, Germany, Russia and Belgium. Camera Lucida (chamber of light or lucidity) is a 3-dimensional sonic observatory that directly transforms sound into light by employing a phenomenon known as sonoluminescence: "ultrasound, propagating within a liquid, triggers the formation and implosion of micro-bubbles that reach temperatures as high as are found on the sun, and emit light in the shape of sound waves". It all sounds complicated but it is totally mesmerizing, and simply said, very cool to look at. I really like the idea of taking advanced research lab equipment out of context and using it for artistic purposes. Not to spoil anything the authors have asked great minimal sound artists such as Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier and Alva Noto to create the sonochemical compositions. The piece is released as a DVD on Line, a subdivision of experimental ambient, techno and minimal label 12k.

"Camera Lucida is a highly introspective immersive spatial art work creating a fleeting ephemeral materiality by intersecting ultrasound with hyperlight... in essence the creation of a sonic aurora. Domnitch and Gelfand's piece rejects any possibility to be fixed in space and time, but rather offers up the very definition of an unstable work of art, existing entirely for and within the perceptive realm of the viewer." Stephen Kovats, Director of Transmediale 2008". From Line's press release.

Great photography by young British photographer Josh McKinley. The son of a taxidermist, he is "interested in the aesthetic power a body holds in an image even when it is lifeless. There's a potency to a creature whose body is still and unresponsive but also imposing in an image". I especially like his "9, Rue de Vaux" and "Underneath an Abject Window" series.

"Half awake and half asleep in the water" is quite an interesting series by Japanese photographer Asako Narahashi. The pictures place the viewer at the edge of two worlds, creating an uneasy feeling about what's going to happen next. Fundamentally, either you or the camera shouldn't be there... they might as well be a last glimpse of sun before plunging down with the camera.

Thomas Doyle is a New York based artist who creates intriguing miniatures stories sealed under glass or in boxes. It is all remarkably well executed, and I love that there's a lot more going on than tiny figures under a glass bell. The viewer is granted an all-seeing eye over the miniature worlds, creating a dual sense of omnipotence and intimacy with the characters. I still can't decide which of his three series I like best...

"Exploring the Residual Landscape": Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who focuses his work on the transformation of landscape by human activity, exploring mines, quarries, shipyards, oil fields and the likes. I really like that he doesn't try to convey any obvious message. Even though most pictures largely speak for themselves, the depth of this fascinating portrait of human activity can be enjoyed for its sheer aesthetics. If like me you find factories beautiful and enjoy walking around torn down buildings and abandoned mines I am sure you too will enjoy his work very much.

Bandit is a Spanish street artist I recently had the chance to meet. I am glad I did so as to me some of his creations are up there with some of Banksy's best works.

Thomas Allen cuts diaporamas in old 60's pulp fiction books covers and assembles them to create new, sometimes slightly deviant situations. Simply too good to miss.