photographers like jennifer causey always reassure me that i could support myself on photography alone. i may have no idea how to use a strobe, but i can certainly take a beautiful still life with natural lighting. a market for this kind of simple, elegant imagery exists. i'm sure of it.
intellectually, i understand the urge to romanticize the life of the starving artist, to dream of living care-free with no responsibility but to your art. i myself posted about a group of crusty kids who rode a homemade raft down the mississippi; huckleberry finn minus the racial undertones. peter-pans wistfully avoiding growing up. make believe at its best.
but i prefer maggie manzer's simple explanation of photography's role in her life: "i've woken up everyday since i was 15 thinking about taking pictures. i like the idea of creating a really beautiful record of my world, of my experiences."
maggie photographs artists in a manner that somehow recalls the formalism of modern photography and the romanticism of pictorialism, sort of photo-sesstionist era alfred stieglitz (doesn't that image above look like one of his portraits of georgia o'keefe?). sure, her approach is equally idealistic, representing an image of the artist just as fictitious as the former. but somehow it resonates with me more. just beautiful documents of the things she finds beautiful. i like that.
you can read an interview with her here.
i saw this photographer, jason frank rosenberg (with thomas | treuhaft artist representatives), on kat heyes blog a few weeks ago and i've been sitting on it ever since. not for any particular reason mind you, i just didn't feel like dealing with it until now, and even still i'm having difficulty mustering up the energy to write something. suffice it to say i love the natural light in these images.
(krista i really think you should look at the thomas | treuhaft site because i think you would like the photographer tim walker that i saw on there.)
i read an article in philadelphia city paper on red heart the ticker and when i subesquently looked them up on the interweb, i found some really great photography by doron gild inspired, i can only assume, by gregory crewdson.
i was browsing montmarte's blog today and found a link (i think via mav) to the fashion line lyell where i was greeted by some highly inspired fashion and some equally inspired fashion photography. the company clearly takes a lot of pride in their photographic imagery and i delighted in the result. they generously listed their photographers on their contact page (saving me the impossible task of tracking them down):
1/ richard kern
spring & summer 2007
explore his site at your own risk as his images are more than a little risque. his images for lyell on the other hand kind of remind me of loretta lux because of the way the model is made to look like a little girl.
2/ gareth mcconnell
fall 2006
to whom i'll try to devote a more comprehensive post to a little later.
3/ noah sheldon
nyc spring 2006, paris 2005, & nyc 2004
i saw this website a few months ago and thought i would never be able to remember how i found it, only to come to it via an entirely different route; what a serendipitous coincidence.
if you're more interested in the fashion than the photography i suggest reading refinery29's page on lyell and their chat about nolita with the australian designer, emma fletcher.
lt. and i had a very productive day dreaming session the other day about the possibility of starting our own design studio with our friend mike (who unfortunately couldn't make the meeting). i'm not exactly a graphic designer, and they're not exactly photographers, but we think we could make something work. all three of us have wild creative ideas that need an outlet of some sort and maybe more importantly, we would like the proceeds of these ventures to sustain our desired lifestyles. who knows where this dream will eventually take us, but we had fun imagining it anyway.
this idea of channeling all of our creative forces behind one name, got me thinking about the way kate spade's studio, the projects of which are highlighted on the site behind the curtain, acts as a conduit for all of her and her team's creative ideas. their array of imaginative projects, ranging from publishing books to producing films and curating art exhibits, are funded by the kate spade bag and fashion line (if i have my way, this is exactly where my dreams will take me).
on a similarly inspiring note, abby clawson low is the senior art director at kate spade. you can read a brief interview with abby over at hoping for happy accidents (my favorite snippet of that article: "wishing for...boyfriends for my sisters").
the arrival of anthropologie's catalog always sets my creative little heart a flutter. i swoon over their consisently great photography and styling. in this catalog i especially liked the frida kahlo inspired shots (top row) and i really want those white garden trainers only i can't justify spending $258 on shoes i'll probably muss up in a week, alas.
i found something very sweet about the product photography of alissia mt. please try to suppress your surprise at my brevity, but i just don't have anything more elaborate to say about them. only that i find them charming. yes, how very charming they look.
i love that the woman's feet in the top left photo have dirt on them and i love that it's difficult to pin down just what the light source is. heather culp's images are full of these little mysteries. she skillfully controls her color palette and lighting to craft this gritty beautiful world with run down cars and empty parking lots. i want to invade these images and slip into the lives of the characters she creates. it makes sense that whispertown2000 would employ this talented lady.
alissa and i, along with our friend krista, have been hired to cover the fashion show of emerging designer samantha pleet. i don't know how to fully express how excited i am about this (you might remember i posted about samantha's line a while back). while i try not to post a lot of commercial photography on this blog, i found some great inspiration for our adventure in photographer schohaja's backstage images.
karen walker's elegant jewelry gathers inspiration from a fairytale-like set of imagery. her regal lions, soft leaves, axes, and crosses mixed with ribbons, half moons, and other classic charms leave me with an overall impression that hovers somewhere between the feminine and the macabre (one of my favorite places), and these descriptions could also be applied to her masterful fashion designs as well.
but let's remember, this is a photography blog: her photography kicks ass. her (and by 'her' i of course mean her uncredited, although i'm sure well paid, photographer) unexpected use of animals more associated with fairytales and myths than jewelry, and her mixture of a warm color palette with soft lighting combine to create a beautiful magical world. i'm in love.
lastly, as someone who has mixed feelings about the idea of wearing an engagement ring (not that i'm getting engaged any time in the foreseeable future), i love the diamond studded band around the crow's beak in the above image (go to her website to see the image enlarged) as an upgrade from an unadorned band.
jessica this jewelry screams your name, although i'm pretty sure it's out of your price range. i couldn't say: the prices weren't listed.
via seamsters.
wendy kromer is a cake making goddess. i'm not going to re-write her bio or anything, but let's just say that she and martha stewart seem pretty tight. which means that aside from designing some of the most spectacular cakes i've ever seen, she also employs some of the best photographers in the industry, like the author of the above image, victor schrager, who i know more for his fine art work, pictured below (i first remember seeing his fantastic series of images of color studies of the spines of books), than i do for his commercial work.
These photos aren't mine, but aren't they sweet? they're by kara healy for caitlin mociun (who i found through {oh joy!}), whose fashion is pretty amazing too.
p.s.: i want those tights.
