August 28, 2007

Welcome Michal Plíhal




















" My name is Michal Plíhal. I'm born in 1967 in Prague, Czech Republic, where I live and work.

I am a graphic designer and photograph. I'm interested in photography since 1986. I've not studied photo at school.

I made my first (and last from now) exhibition in 2000, at coffee lounge Medúza, Prague. By now, I've not published any books.

I like working with classical black-and-white photography, sometimes tinting them (sepia, blue, green), and I take care of the technical side of the process himself. But I photograph also with digital.

I'm still working on my website where you'll find soon more information and photos ( nude, portrait, landscape, dance, macro, models)."





























Monika


August 27, 2007

Gamini Kumara







Fine art photographer and image maker, Gamini Kumara (born in Sri Lanka, living in Minneapolis, USA) currently works in advertising for living, but his choosen vocation is making images with various cameras (both film based and digital) and imaging software.

His contemporary and experimental works have been showed at Offbeat Gallery, MN Center for Photography and Museum of American Art.












By himself :

" I have always been captivated by the beauty of nature and the female figure form. I see certain eroticism in both. Nature and the human figure. After all they are all nature !

I always gravitate towards making images expressive and dark. These are the types of images I tend to admire the most.


I do not strive to make "perfect" images. After all, well lit, well exposed, well done, well styled images should belong in the world of advertising and not in my image making efforts !



With modern technology a world of creative possibilities have opened up for me as of lately and I am taking advantage of all that in an obsessive fashion. The scanner, digital camera, Adobe Photoshop and the Macintosh all help me realize my creativity while I am making the picture.









"Looking"








Initially my studies were in the sciences. Due to my interest in light, film and lenses (all that came from my physics and chemistry classes) I drifted more and more to arts and photography and attended arts school to learn more about the process of art making and artists, and things have never been the same. I am constantly looking at other artists' work and try to understand and speak the visual language and to develop a better vocabulary so to speak, visually."









"Nude sepia"












"Legs"




You'll find his works at : his official site, his beautiful photoblog, PicassoMio, JPG Magazine, ALTphotos.





Thank you Gamini for the beauty you give us.





August 22, 2007

Welcome Ramez El Saïd








Till now, even if I'm still asking to Ramez El Saïd (bleuz) much more informations, I just know that he's overbooked (he needs to eat), french, living in Paris and 32 years old :
"... 28 teeth ; general state : depends on rate of alcoholemia ; eyesight : depends on..."
Ok, it's a little short to write something really precise, or complete, forget it. But I'm sure his photos will tell us many more. So, just have a look before a true interview.




You'll find Ramez El Saïd at : his site, ALTphotos, deviantART, Obsküre (an interview in 2005 in french).








"ConfEttY ShoEs"










"Ciel un nain"
Model Alyz










"The bride"



August 21, 2007

Hubble Deep Field : the most important image ever taken (Redux)

Rachel Lovitt joins us










Rachel Lovitt by Brian Mackey
"The Shower Portraits"











Self-portrait fine art nude photographer" and art model, Rachel Lovitt is from Northeastern USA.

When I saw her photos for the first time, I felt this little beat in my heart, telling me I just found a true artist, and you know how much I love this feeling.
" I am a self-portrait fine art nude photographer. I take fine art photographs of myself nude. How do I do it ?

I started out using the self-timer feature on my camera for self-portraits. Generally, I would set it for ten seconds. I soon realized that some shots needed more time to set up and pose, especially when shooting on a ladder in a photographer’s studio. I needed to be able to trip the shutter, climb the ladder, and then pose in time for the shutter release. So I began varying the timer from ten seconds to twenty seconds, selecting a time that was suitable for the pose and location."






"Dont Want to Cry Anymore"






" Now, however, I use an infrared remote. The IR remote has made it much simpler to shoot, but I still often use a timer setting rather than an immediate shutter release. I don’t want the remote to appear in my photos ! Sometimes I can hide the remote near my body. Other times, well… I’ve been known to fling it (gently, of course) across the room to get it out of range of the viewfinder !







"Equilibrium III"







" When I shoot self portrait nudes, I tend to run back and forth to the camera a fair bit, particularly when setting up a new angle or changing the zoom. I think this would look incredibly amusing to an outsider… nude woman peers through viewfinder, adjusts camera and camera settings, runs to sofa and poses, presses remote, hops up and runs to camera, looks at camera and makes any adjustments needed, then runs back to sofa to pose again… It must look downright comical !

Little or none of the running back and forth occurs during an emotional set. In such a shoot, I simply let my emotions dictate the poses and the expressions. I merely pause for the shutter release. I find a very short timer or no timer is best for these shoots. That way I can “dance” through the expression of the emotion, posing fluidly one shot after another.







"Checkmate"







" For me, self-portrait photography is a journey of self-empowerment. On this journey, I am empowered to explore, examine, and reflect upon my own values and aesthetics, my own body, and sense of who I am.



In photographing myself, I am finding myself. Sometimes, the discovery and resulting image is beautiful and inspiring. Other times, it is sorrowful or even frightening. Self-portraiture demands that I look at myself, perhaps more deeply than ever before. I have not always liked what I have seen and learned about myself, but I have never regretted taking a single photograph.








"Cleanse"








" I also collaborate with other artists to make social and political statements about women’s issues in which I cannot be effective with a simple remote and a tripod. I have completed several editorial series addressing topics such as body image, self esteem, violence against women, and women’s cancers.

This artistic and personal process has been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding journeys as a woman, a mother, and an artist. My digital photography has given me the freedom to express my opinions, my pains, my perspectives, and my beliefs on many of the issues that women face today. We live in a fast-paced, multi-media-saturated age in which we are bombarded daily with images and messages. Hopefully my work provides a wider view of what a woman truly is and can be, not merely what the popular visual media presents."








"The Mourning After"



August 14, 2007

Nathan Strausse, a new member






You know what ? I've received this night a message from Nathan Strausse, and I believed it was a spam... Yes. But, I don't know why, maybe my lucky star, I've opened it and met a true photographer and a director. It was a kind message inviting me to see his portfolio. What I did with a great pleasure.












Nathan Strausse is 34 years old. He lives in Los Angeles, California, USA, where dreams come true. Fleshbot has written a beautiful article about his talent.

In november 2007, "an upcoming feature titled “My Favorite Model” from Goliath Publications will be set for release". What a nice planning !

Thanks Nathan. You'll come back soon, I know it.









Justine 3 10 2006










"Justine 4/24/2006"





" My work combines an innovative use of light, a unique approach of environment and most importantly, my connection with my subjects. My imagery celebrates the beauty."







"Justine 4/24/2006"




August 12, 2007

August 11, 2007

Stefan Beyst


You'll find Stefan Beyst on : his official site, absolutearts, IOnOne.









Stefan Beyst is a Belgium based retired lecturer in the philosophy of art and modern art history. Many of his often controversial texts on art and modern artists are to be read on his website.
From 2006 onwards, in an outburst of long-suppressed creativity, he has embarked on a new adventure : photography. In every series, he is out at developing a new approach or a new thematic, and at setting new standards for image-making.

Thank you Stefan for your confidence.









In 'Sans tête(s)' he explores the realm of double images in a series of 16 'polymorphic metamorphoses' of a body in decay.
In a rather dark and ominous series 'Auguries of Innocence' he ventures into the domain of the 'mass-scape'.

In 'Seize obscurs objets de désir', he enters a new territory : conjuring up desirable and desiring beings from meaningless 'found patterns'.

In 'Heptatych' he tries to combine rigid composition with deep emotional resonance.
His approach testifies to a radical rejection of the concept of photography as a document, as if it was meant to illustrate Paul Klee's saying : 'Art does not reproduce the visible, it makes visible'.








"Voet 0"








A series of polymorphic metamorphoses by himself :

sans tête(s)" is a series of images which has multiple readings. Naturally at first sight you'll get the certitude that it is a question of many bodies, which appear here and there, a forearm, the neck of the foot or a calf. Nevertheless it is not as well as the body is made, there are not of fragments. Then, what has been photographed here ? Even if we believe to know everything since the beginning, only explanations can reveal the secret.







"Handen 2"







Fragments of real bodies are transformed in parts of imaginary bodies : these are double images thus. The idea is not new. You have to refer to Arcimboldo or Dali. The images of these artists are truly double. But not ambivalent.

In the case of Arcimboldo, we see either the still life or the portrait. What we see in "sans tête(s)" escapes in every reading made in a single dimension. The back turns out to be a stomach which exposes itself. What appears as a bust is also read as a pair of buttocks, what is outlined in front of your eyes to dissolve suddenly in two bodies, what seems to be photographied by various sides. The gap of a vagina opens there where we expected the presence of the penis. And what to say about the triptych of ankles ?







"Voet 4"






This is why these images are rather condensed, as were La Joconde or the Holy Jean of Da Vinci, where the sexes dissolve in hermaphrodite beings. Here, the simple ambivalence develops a finished polymorphia, as we find it in Rorschach's tests.







"Enkel 3"






In this sense, the way to proceed, which is on the base of "sans tête(s)", is itself a condensation of the double tradition of the double image and the condensed image.







"Elleboog 2"







No doubt, "sans tête(s)" is based on a concrete approach : the body in decline. But at the same time, the series demonstrates how some simple interventions, and purely technical, as zoom in, diaphragm and lights, transform this approach in its opposite. The erotic load of the bodies which seem split often surpass that of the youngest real bodies.





August 9, 2007

Dean Yeagle, Mandy visits the Museum



Dean Yeagle official site, Bellefree Gallery, Wallpapers by McFadden, his bio on Wikipedia.























Andrew Kaiser, Absolute Reality Studios






The Queen II










I made an article with Andrew Kaiser just showing his superb black and white photos. It wasn't enough, at least for me, to give you a true vision of his work.









Naked Canvas










Air














By the way, don't forget to buy the first issue of Luminous, the quarterly arts magazine edited by Luminous press and dedicated to the world of art and visual culture.

" Issue One contains nearly 80 full color pages featuring portfolios and interviews from some of the most cutting edge artists working today including Holly Bynoe, Tara MacPherson, Corey Arnold, and more !"




Da Wuff









Da Wuff is 26 and lives in Germany.

Lover of dark ambiances and gothic themes, he runs a very nice site called "Don't kill the butterflys". Check it ! It worths your eyes.








"Fallen"










"Meowrrrr"










"In vain"