this blog is a visual notebook of inspirations for a group of bandit bloggers. we post things we see and like. our lives don’t revolve around singular topics and neither does our blog. sorry! nothing is in-or-out of context here. enjoy xx
antwerp artist caroline helsen limited edition book: zen
zen saved this underwear
and this… saved the world!
antwerp artist caroline helsen book zen is feast to enjoy. printed in a limited edition of 1000 and priced at $175 it is indeed not for everyone. quiet, soft, and pretty the photography is almost nostalgic mix of 70s lui magazine paired with hippy “i don’t really give a damn” vibes. copies are available at dover street market or online at idea.ltd. if you decide to drop 175 just be sure to note:
“the book is packaged in a removable tracing paper dust wrapper, which can show wrinkles and creases, plus plastic shrink wrap, to protect the minimal design during transport. the materials used for this book include hand-selected, sustainable and 100% recycled paper. due to the combination of different waste paper fibers, the materials are characterized by varying natural inclusions, depending on which recycled paper pulp is used. an energy-intensive bleaching process is intentionally avoided, and the results can at times include what seems like irregularities, spots or marks – but should be seen as wabi-sabi design traits.”
softcover. 30 x 22cm. 280 pages in a limited edition of 1000. happy xmas shopping. we should do a 2025 xmas perfect gift list… should we? by xy
november girl (1967) was the hotly anticipated title from sam haskins after the critical and commercial success of cowboy kate three years earlier. a rare 1st edition is available here at abe books.
while publishers pushed the author for a ‘sequel’ to cowboy kate, sam went in a different direction with a single theme of a girl lamenting her lost love.
using the thematic framework of loss and heartbreak to further explore the creative photography that was so resonantly defined in the two preceding titles (Five Girls – 1962 & cowboy kate & other stories – 1964) november girl delivers finely crafted photography and tender empathic images infused with beauty and humanity. by dd
wet-plate photography, a process that had largely faded by the 1940s, was brought back to life in the 1980s by John Coffer. fascinated by 19th-century photographic techniques, coffer immersed himself in old manuals and original processes to revive this lost art. he sold everything he owned to buy a horse and buggy, embarking on a cross-country journey to practice wet-plate photography and document the people he met along the way.
coffer fully embraced the 1800s lifestyle—not just in photography, but in everyday life. he hand-crafted his own gilded frames using traditional methods and even built his own log cabin without modern tools, electricity, or running water. his commitment to living authentically in the spirit of the 19th century is as remarkable as his art. he continues to live off the grid in upstate new york, preserving both the craft and spirit of the 1800s. his story is one of passion, dedication, and a rare kind of authenticity. by tnt
olivia singer of wonderland magazine discusses the role of beauty in life, feminism and instagramming cats with alt-porn star, stoya.
stoya was born to a scottish father and a serbian mother.
porn star stoya was the first ‘alt-porn’ girl to be signed to a contract by digital playground, one of the commercial powerhouses of the pornographic industry. raucously outspoken about what sex on camera means to her and the artifice manifested in her performances, writing about queer culture and heteronormativity for vice whilst instagramming her cats, she doesn’t conform to what we she doesn’t acquiesce to typically assumed conventions of adult performers.
polaroids of stoya, she is is an american semi-retired pornographic actress, model, and nonfiction writer.
home-schooled by a feminist mother in north carolina, she now exists between new york where she works on performance art and los angeles, with her porn star boyfriend.
olivia singer spoke with her about growing up in a powerfully liberal environment, what it’s like not looking like the rest of the digital playground girls and how many exfoliators she uses to keep her looking camera-sex-ready.
thank you so much for agreeing to talk to us about this stuff, i think your perspective on beauty and performance is really interesting…
i feel a personal responsibility to talk about the realities of all of this. in porn work, the actual videos and photo shoots for porn magazines, beauty is very overdone: tons of makeup, overdrawn lips, glossy. and then, all of the photoshop that gets piled on and then the ungodly amount of money and time that i spend on exfoliating and moisturizing and hair removal on top of that. maybe to some people i look awesome even with no makeup on, but all of this work that goes into that even that would be ridiculous if i was a secretary or a professional writer. when i retire and what i look like no longer directly affects my bank account, hell no, i’m not going to spend that much on face cream! that would be absurd!
she began her porn career in 2007 in the alt porn scene. as a child, she wanted to become a dancer, and started dance lessons at the age of three. she was home-schooled and received her high-school diploma before the age of sixteen.
there’s such a culture right now of examining women in the public eye with an hd lens and criticizing them for how they exist ‘off-camera’, but you’re so honest about yourself online.
i think it will be wonderful that so many people are growing up in public right now. at some point in the fairly near future, we’re gonna have to really come to terms with the fact that everyone has fucked up in public to some degree and then we’ll hopefully start to give everybody a bit of a break. what entertains me no end is that people look at me and are like, ‘you could be my daughter, you look like the girls my daughter hangs out with’ and they have to rethink the humanity of performers. it’s pretty cool. and on top of that, i just decided to get fucked in the ass on hd video and after the inside of your rectum is available in matte high definition on demand, it’s pretty hard to get embarrassed about anything. oh, you have a picture of me throwing up in a lemonade container? cool. the whole of the internet can see the inside of my asshole!
did you grow up with a sense of freedom about yourself and your body?
yeah, my mum is awesome. i was home-schooled with her. she was very active in women’s rights and i just grew up thinking, ‘right! it’s my body, i can do whatever i want, i can do whatever i want with career options and whatever i want with who i choose to interact with in a sexual way.’ i had this wonderful sense of entitlement to just be a person. but then what t i wanted to do was have sex in public on camera – and not only do that but do it in a very false eyelashes, high heels, all the aesthetics of the patriarchy kind of way. so she was a little bit bumpy for a few years… but she’s coming around.
i was intrigued that digital playground has offered you free breast implants when your aesthetic angle is so much about being lean and sexy in a less conventional way.
a lot of girls come into this because they want to be a porn star, and they have an idea of what a porn star is. and that involves huge breasts; if they weren’t born with huge breasts, then they wanna have ‘em anyway. so i took it as digital being very kind but not knowing my personality very well. most of the contract girls over the years at all of the different companies have had very large breasts. [laughs] there was one point where we were all bunched up for some picture at a convention and i looked around and suddenly felt, ‘wow! i’m the only one here that’s really pale and has small breasts and dark hair, i feel kind of gangly and awkward, this must be like what puberty was like for most people!’
her father worked as an IT consultant, stoya had access to electronics and gaming equipment, through which she developed her love of technology. “i was three when i was using DOS. my mom taught me how to read, and my dad taught me how to navigate DOS”
that’s funny. with how you present yourself aesthetically, did you grow up looking up to skinny, pretty, goth-y looking ladies?
i grew up looking up to margot fontaine, and simultaneously looking up to and wanting to choke my mother. but makeup for me was a stage-only thing: i wanted to be a ballerina, so it was that horrible baby blue eyeshadow up to your eyebrows and lipstick on your cheeks. i wasn’t messing around with it until i was 13, when i went through my goth phase and drew all over my face with liquid eyeliner and would wear purple lipstick with craft glitter pressed into it. then, for the signings and being on set and all of that, there’s always a makeup artist that takes care of that stuff for you. so i started thinking about it more, like, ‘oh if i wear just mascara on the upper eyelashes and little bit of concealer, i look so professional and trustworthy and polished.’ and it became this whole fun thing, another way of how you present yourself to the world.
are there any cosmetics that you particularly into? you must have the best exfoliator in the world.
there’s a rice powder from pacha. and i’ve been spending a lot of time in southern california because my boyfriend lives here, and the air is so dry! there’s this brightening serum, and almond oil, both from l’occitane, and i slather myself in that stuff head to toe like four times a day.
polaroid above
so are you in la full time now?
all my shoes moved here. and my three cats. that’s pretty much the barometer of where i live.
for me, it’s my cosmetics.
UK fashion publication – pop magazine stylist tamara rothstein and (non polaroid photography) of stoya by sean & sang
you should be a beauty editor and get sent stuff!
i do get sent stuff sometimes and it’s amazing… the novelty doesn’t wear off, either, every time i get a free lipstick i’m like, ‘oh my god, free lipstick, my teenage dreams come true!’
vice news explicit interview with stoya – sorry youtube requires a login
when i was a kid, i wanted to perform in new york, surrounded by lunatics and rhinestones and have wonderful artist friends. and every time i trip over a stray rhinestone that’s come off one of my costumes, i think, ‘man, my life is so cool!’ i want to go back in time to the little home-schooled girl who had corrective lenses and a lazy eye and braces and a back brace for scoliosis…
i just wanna go back and be like ‘hang in there! it’ll be alright!’ i would also give her some makeup grade glitter instead of that craft stuff. i don’t want her to ruin her gastrointestinal tract. by lb
“a series of documentary photographs taken by pawel jaszczuk between 2008 and 2010 of tokyo salarymen after a few too many drinks after work gives a whole new meaning to work hard play hard…”
“…pawel, residing in japan at the time, would head out on his bicycle after midnight to photograph different people and places, saying that the best hours for him to shoot would be between 1 am and 4 am.”
“…shortly after he started this body of work in 2009, he published a zine entitled “salaryman” with morel books in black and white and limited to 150 copies and which immediately sold out.”
“…he later published a second book above. pawel has selected images of sleeping salarymen in poses reminiscent of fashion models and the photobook is in the style of a glossy magazine, hence the title high fashion.”
“…according to pawel, this body of work is emphatically not a statement against drinking.”
“…rather, he originally wanted to capture the simple contrast between men in suits and the dirty alleys of tokyo.”
“…but pawel’s comments that with this second publication of “high fashion” he hopes that the work can also be seen as humorous, and in a way an apocalyptic vision of this overworked and overstressed society.”
to us this says less bout working hard, as much as it says, some people drink very hard, and can’t handle themselves very well. and that is not specific to tokyo…
you can work hard or very little, be good at it or suck at it, you will be unhappy until you find work that fulfills a part of you. that is of course easier said than done. but despite its harshness, it still remains the truth. in the absence of finding what you care for, you will always fill your days with something or another to simply forget. insert here : alcohol, drugs, medication, hate, etc.
a third edition of this book is out now, available directly form the photographers website. by uh
a new exhibit with previously unseen photographs by jim marshall at the san francisco art exchange (SFAE).
almost 60 years after the creation of the CND peace symbol, marshall’s body of “peace” photographs is a “beautiful and thoughtful reflection from one of the most celebrated photographers of the twentieth century,”
no on the travel ban oakland 1965
the exhibit is in celebration of the release of marshall’s new book jim marshall: peace, released byreel art press, according to a press release. the forward is written by street artist shepard fairey, the book’s text is written by peter doggett… and joan baez, provides the book’s afterword
peace walk for nuclear disarmament golden gate park 1962
free speech rally telegraph ave. berkeley 1968
marshall was one of the most recognized photographs in the history of music. he also explored the changing times of the 1960s, photographing the creativity and celebrity. he started documenting the CND peace symbol and peace rallies as a personal project, reel art press writes. the photographs had remained in his archives until now. the photographs were taken between 1961 and 1968 across america.
new york city photographed at newport folk festival in 1963
jim marshall 1936-2010
the CND peace symbol was designed in 1958 by gerald holtom for the british campaign for nuclear disarmament, reports reel art press. the symbol then spread from the uk to the us. marshall’s photographs document the symbol’s different meanings over time, starting as a symbol for “ban the bomb”-specific protests, and ending up as an international sign for peace. by xy
echo, at once dead and very much alive, alone maintains narcissus’ beauty. his claim to self, that, as gaston bachelard puts it, becomes as is reflected. “je veux paraître, donc je dois augmenter ma parure.” (bachelard, l’eau et les rêves, 1942, p. 34).
the gentle stream brims with cosmic rigidity. the bank of clear waters, where things rest and can be thought to have been made, is where they take the form they pictured. a demented slumber. hypnosis. really, it is only in the depths of cloudy/violent/ruthless bodies that material imagination is most potent. there we can truly delve into matter, to find ourselves in the midst of that most gentle and fragile condition: excess. only wade these waters.
wherein do we bridge and travel past form, into matter. to much relief bachelard affirms “la matière est l’inconscient de la forme”. it is within then. materialistic phenomenology allows us this oneiric passage from one into the other.
but echo is also 34 years old. it is the life work, masterpiece, of developer and new yorker stacy holt. where form is the passkey to matter. a message board of few members, it once held great interest for a kind of crowd capable of hanging together. artists, writers, students, politicians, musicians, designers, doers, all under the banner of “and now?” a place to congregate and produce desire. a moment of permanent instigation that has been housed in a thoroughly complex mechanical network. grinding out the signals into something truly malleable that allowed its participants to call and answer to “and now?” in plastic reverie.
indeed.
though it has always been that paste, this originating material of dreaming and entry into, this giving molasses, hardens and brittles when it is driven away from its source. gross doing. mean endeavor. potential in progress left solid. scorched earth, salted terrain, prey to a drying heat. crackling sound, echoing unto itself into a vast murmur.
who decided this?
because once it’s all finished, and what we bathed in can now be held, all that will be left to ask really will be “and now? “ by lsd
lin yung is a photographer and art director who loves to experiment with optical illusions and whimsical compositions to create images that draw the viewer into their spell. his photographs are on the edge between beauty and bizarre using a sense of poetry and grace in his work. he has a really particular style of working which is minimalistic and ethereal aesthetics. by kn
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