portraits

I came across this portrait of celebrity-cum-actress Kate Beckinsale. At first it appeared to be just one of those typical photocall portraits, soft lighting/no harsh shadows etc etc. I was kind of bored, and about to pass over it. I could only see the top half of the image on my web browser, and as I scrolled down to see the rest of the image, all I could focus on were her hands. A pristine face marred by the veiny hands, which because of the angle, are very prominently featured. What an awesome portrait. To me, it makes a great statement about how women, particularly famous actresses, spend so much time and effort into their looks and staying young - and maybe rightly so because so much of their careers depend on it - but some things, some marks of aging, just cannot be hidden.

I love portraits. I love to study them. I love to make them, and I think it's something that I do quite well. While reading Barthes' Camera Lucida, he made a great point about how it is an automatic (modern society) human reaction to "pose" whenever there is a camera trained on a person. It made me think, how can a photographer possibly penetrate the essence of who that person is if the subject is just putting on an act for the camera? I was really quite disturbed. I talked this over with Iwan, a good friend, mentor, and one of my photography professors while at AU. After some discussion, I came to realise that a portrait only reflects a specific moment in time and moment, emotionally and/or physically. It can be revealing as an in your face or very subtle image. It should make the viewer want to think about that person. A good portrait, to me, makes the viewer take a second look after that first glance.

the sartorialist is coming to dc!

Jump for joy! My fave blogger of the moment is having a show at my former place of employment, the David Adamson Gallery! This is too exciting for words.

First of all, the Adamson Gallery has a sweet year ahead of itself, with a retrospective to be held in Beijing later this year, and now this!

DC, I hate to say it, is not known as a fashion hub. That being said, there are definitely great dressers in this city and there are a ton of boutiques - both independent and from New York - that are opening on a rapid basis. And, apparantly, a DC-based designer was robbed at a fashion show in Chicago last week. Must've been some hot gear. So it's in the making, DC continues to be up and coming with huge names making it here all the time. Wasn't Brangelina looking at Georgetown real estate at some point last year?

photoblog du semaine

The Sartorialist. I love it (see link on left navi column). I spent three hours going through his archived posts last Saturday, and am habitually checking it every day now.

The simplicity of the images, singular photographic style, and defined focus (albeit fomulaic), are the site's strongest point. He scopes out areas of cities that make good backdrops, and hunts for the every day, well dressed person. His background in fashion certainly makes him a pro at finding interesting clothing combinations and evaluating why they are successful. I also find interesting how his style has evolved and become more refined. His 2006 images are more personal, a little rustier, and less colour dense as opposed to the refined, perfect lighting, colour saturated images that he produces now. I think it's great!

What I truly love about the site, and at the same time inspired yet intimidated by, is that he came up with a simple idea that has proven to be effective. He's now shooting for GQ, Vogue Nippon, and various other high-brow fashion mags.

Arts-related quotes

Just some interesting quotes and phrases I've heard over the past few days. I won't try to analyze these for you.

Photography is the language of travel (National Geographic Travel Photography Seminar / Jim Richardson)

Idea-based assets (Wall Street Journal)

The purpose of art is to inform and delight (Horace)

Art is a survival mechanism for the human species (Milton Glaser)

The shortest distance between two people is a story (?)

Information expands the capacity of the mind to change. Persuasion limits that capacity. Beliefs must be held lightly, because certainty is frequently the enemy of truth. (Milton Glaser, Where the Truth Lies: A Symposium on Propaganda Today, keynote speech, Feb. 15, 2008)

slideluck potshow

Slideluck potshow is coming to Touchstone Gallery this Saturday, Feb. 16 from 7-11Pm. This event was created by an artist in Seattle, and is now traveling across the US and Latin America, including Rio de Janiero, Brasil and Bogota, Colombia.

I will be photographing this event for DC Magazine.

An open event, artists are encouraged to submit up to 5 slides of their work by a certain deadline. At the event itself, attendees are responsible for bringing beverages and food for all to enjoy. The spectacular slideshow begins after the potluck.

Check the website out for yourself: http://www.slideluckpotshow.com/index.php

curves

a friend from artomatic just told me about the curves tool in photoshop. i feel like i've been enlightened! he explained that it helps open up shadows and midtones, and i have to say, i've spent the majority of my weekend adjusting photos with this tool - my photos from the iGorman event i shot last Thursday look so much better because of it. i'm still relatively new to digital photography (i am a self-professed analog photographer) and this is just an awesome, awesome thing.

photos that just follow you for life

It sounds weird, but sometimes I see flashes of photographs in my head. Sometimes they are images that I would love to create at some point in the future, and sometimes (most of the time) they are by famous photographers or a great photo I saw in a publication. One of those images is a studio portrait of a Frenchman selling glass, taken by Irving Penn. I remembered this image while reading about the Getty Museum's recent purchase of Penn's The Small Trades collection (see NYTimes article). The glass guy is a part of that series. I can't find a copy of this particular photo online, which is so frustrating. What I remember of the subject is a man posed against a grey backdrop per Penn's style (duh), wearing a this... thing that to the modern eye would not make me intuit that the subject sold glass. I see texture - gradients of grey, the quality of the man's skin, the detail of the material... It's so fascinating to me how some photos just have this impact, visually and emotionally, and you just can't forget it. I have to find it now!

Weekend Recount: GreenHeART and Sesow Open Studio

GreenHeART was a exhibit staged last Friday night at Lofts11, on 11th and M St. NW. High profile DC artists such as Matt Sesow, Dana Ellyn, and the ever elusive Kelly Towles were my personal favorites. Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques and and founder of Earth Echo Intenrational, provided remarks. I had a great time; I knew some of the artists and got to catch up with them, and the friends that I was there with made it a really fun experience.

Where to start. Hm. I could start with Phillipe since he was deemed one of DC's most eligible bachelors, and now that I think about it, there were a lot more women there that night than men. He gave a speech, nothing really to do with art, but I was pleased that biodegradable plates, utensils, and cups were provided. From what I saw, it was a lot more crowd-working than art-admiring going on from his end. I'm not too sure what to make of that since the artists were donating 10% of profit from of each piece sold to Cousteau's organization.

Artwork represented included painting, photography, and some fantastic mixed media pieces. I was really impressed by a set of three photography/glass/typography pieces, and I'm kicking myself for not remembering the artist's name. Each piece was comprised of multiple panels; I don't recall how many, but at least two. The back panel was made of painted wood, and the front pieces were photographs and typography printed onto texturized glass. The way these pieces were lit really made it beautiful; the shadows from the glass fell onto the wood, and the texture from the wood itself added another dimension to the texture.

One of my favorite artist's right now is Kelly Towles. Kelly is represented by Adamson Gallery, where I used to intern and served as an interim Assistant Director back in 2002. He has a street/urban background, but there is something just beautiful about his work. His debut at Adamson was stunning - gigantic characters painted from floor to ceiling of the gallery space. At Green HeART, only four pieces of paper with small drawn characters were displayed. His characters are what I am really pulled in by; cartoonish, realistic, humorous, menacing, and just human. I was a little disappointed since I personally did not feel the prices were justified for unframed pieces, but I loved the intimacy of such small pieces.

Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn exhibited a small collection of their work. I know these two artists from the collective, OCCOA, who debuted our work in respective exhibitions. Dana showed a collection of self-portraits, including one that was terrifically haunting. It was painted in hues of greys and blues, and the expression was just so... desparate.

Of the pieces Matt displayed, my fave was one called something about Nuggets (I'm so terrible with names. Probably because I don't title my photographs). Bright blues and reds, two chooks flanking a red headed female subject. I'm just really attracted to bright and deep colours, and the characters in that piece were just really fun.

This makes a nice segue into the Sesow Open Studio on Saturday. When I first saw Matt's art back in 2002, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. All I had been exposed to was fine "museum" art, and never really had much exposure to the concept of outsider art. I wouldn't call his work abstract, but it certainly is contemporary and didn't fit into the mould of high art that I was normally exposed to. Six years later, I have to come to a deeper appreciation and respect for his work. For it's not about how beautiful or refined art is supposed to be, it's about the emotion, the drive, the intent, of the art. The textures and lines in Matt's work visibly demonstrate the new meaning that art has taken on for me. I bought my first piece of art, from Matt, at his open studio, and I love it. It's a small 8x10 on bristol paper. A man in a bunny hat against a blue background with a stick drawing of a mean bunny in the corner. It's just fun and makes me smile when I see it.

I didn't quite make it to the Project 4 opening or the fundraiser. I kept my biodegradable glass of wine continuously full of wine on Friday, and absolutely regretted it the next day.