photography

masao yamamoto





i went through an old issue of the great photography magazine “foam” and reminded how beautiful is the work of japanese photographer masao yamamoto. i actually own a book of his work but the other contributors of this blog keep an hand on it… more here

“masao yamamotois a japanese photographer who creates images that are essentially vignettes of nature and the human intersection with it, ruminating over the passage of time and memory. yamamoto has had solo as well as group exhibitions in europe and the united states. his work evinces a talent for combining virtuosity as a photographer with the fresh gaze of a child.”

by pp

CATEGORIES: art, photography

carlo mollino – plaroids





this story is as nice as the pictures. when designer carlo mollino died, his executors found in a wall of his studio, few thousands polaroids of mostly naked girls (i only show very decent ones here otherwise mister google or kl won’t be happy, but feel free to check further, petits cochons…). he started to take those pictures in the 60’s and did it until he died. the models were random turin’s women. there is a charming aspect in the fact he did it for himself, not thinking it would ever be displayed. most of the time, pics were staged in his apartment against backdrops and around furnitures he had design. and when checking actual images of the place, you can recognize the tiles or curtains from the polaroids, nice! by pp

CATEGORIES: eye candy, naughty stuff, photography

arthur rimbaud




this is a picture that was widely talk about in europe in the last few weeks but never heard of or read a line on it on this side of the atlantic. well, the story is pretty nice, until very recently there were very few known photos of poet arthur rimbaud. basically, only one real, from when he was a late teen (see attached) and four others on his death bed but they are so dark and out of focus that it’s almost abstract… whatever, two parisian booksellers found a picture and had an intuition when the checked the dating and place where the shot was taken. after verification, double checking with biographers and all sorts of people, it seems it is then the second real picture of arthur rimbaud… nice. makes me wonder how many shots of rimbaud or people alike are sleeping in some people’s drawers. the photo, dated to the 1880ies, shows arthur rimbaud surrounded by seven people on the terrace of the hotel univers in Aden, Yemen. by pp

CATEGORIES: eye candy, photography

villa malaparte x le mepris x francois halard






really into the french 60’s things these days, but totally obsessed with the villa malaparte which is definitely a character on its own in godard’s “le mepris”. saw the gigantic and amazing “fresson prints” photographer francois halard did of the pictures he took there few years ago. grand! hope he will show them at the “rencontres d’arles” where he’s feature this year. (not positive but i remember reading somewhere that the blue couch on the bottom picture of halard’s own house is the actual couch from the movie… it was green last time i was at his place though) by pp

CATEGORIES: architecture, photography

ogawa kazumasa – flowers





ogawa kazumasa is known as one of the pioneer in japanese photography. he came in the usa in 1882 when doing the trip from japan was not so common, there he learned the then new process of the dry plate as well as the collotype printing. upon his return to japan two years later, he opened the first photographic studio in tokyo and the first collotype business in japan few years later. even if he is widely known for the pictures he took as an assignment of tokyo’s 100 most attractive geishas, the flowers i discovered a week ago are to me, his one masterpiece, if you consider they were shot in the 1890’s then perhaps mapplethorpe, penn, blossfeldt and friends can consider him as their “papa”, love it! by pp

CATEGORIES: art, musings, photography

ruscha x kerouac





in 1951, jack kerouac wrote “on the road” on his typewriter as a continuous 120 foot-long scroll. few years later, in 1966, ed ruscha photographed “every building on sunset strip” and presented it on a 27 foot-long scroll. ruscha since confessed his obsession for his road heir in a book released by the great steidl in association with gagosian gallery.

“over the last couple of years, ruscha has turned his attention to on the road, resulting in his own version of kerouac’s beat bible. kerouac’s entire text appears accompanied by black and white photographic illustrations that ruscha has either taken himself, commissioned from other photographers, or selected from found images to refer closely to the details and impressions that the author describes, from car parts to jazz instruments, from sandwich stacks to tire burns on a desert road.”

the leather-bound book comprises 228 pages, signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 350 and presented in a slip-case. we won’t write the price because it’s depressing… by pp

CATEGORIES: art, perfect gift, photography

daria werbowy: lovely candid photos by cass bird

like we didn’t know…

cooking like the rest of us

ok maybe not the most original

you can take the girl outta canada, but not canada out of the girl

daria is kinddofa tomboy of sorts. i remember her as being a rather tough chic or at least acting like she was, but these pictures are quite soft and beautiful, perhaps my favorite pictures of daria all together. by bh

CATEGORIES: fashion, photography

miroslav tichy:poetic imperfections-czech republic/photographer

miroslav tichy

tichys camera: which he made from paper towel tubes and other found objects

during many years, tichý wandered the small moravian town of kyjov (in the czech republic) in rags, pursuing his obsession with the female form by secretly photographing women in the streets, shops and parks with cameras which he made from paper towel tubes, thread spools, rubber bands, tin cans, children’s spectacle lenses and other junk he found on the street.
tichy described his trash cameras as being the only way to add enough poetic imperfections to photography. he would return home each day to make prints on equally primitive equipment, making only one print from the negatives he selected. his work remained largely unknown until 2005, when he was 79 years old… by pp

CATEGORIES: art, photography

les valeureux


for those who read french, i might suggest this really beautiful blog. it’s called “les valeureux” which means the braves and it’s the meeting of a talented photographer and a talented writer. so one provide a picture and the other one writes a little text about it. there is a new one every day and it’s really powerfull. for those who can’t read french, just have a look at the pictures, that worth it whatever.
“La voix de Lou Reed me shootait un peu plus de minute en minute ; j’oubliai le froid, la solitude de cette ville désertée par la Semaine Sainte, cette question qui montait : « qu’est-ce que je fous là ? ». La lumière avait la liquidité opaque qu’a parfois l’East River au niveau du pont de Williamsburg : longues traînées jaunes sur une eau d’un violet sourd. Derrière : la ville, étonnamment calme depuis Brooklyn. (…)” by pp

CATEGORIES: art, photography, read