My Hedcut

Have begun blogging again in the big media-sphere, this time as a contributor on the Ideas Market blog for The Wall Street Journal. I'll be covering some of the same kinds of topics I covered with Visual Science, so I hope you'll follow my posts if you are interested. This week I wrote about the multimedia artist Aaron Koblin whose work I've been following with interest. It is amazing how much better I feel about life when I can do some writing. I just need it to keep things interesting.

I Wrote You a Letter

More from the studio. More to come. Worked on the vomit photo a bit more today, and it seems to have some real possibility. Used a handsome neighbor today for a model- will see how this shot works differently with a man modeling it. Was unable to stop myself from taking a few plain portraits in addition to the other more deliberate images I had in mind. All this while roasting a chicken and more or less supervising Oliver and a pal having a play date..

Rope Version 2

Literally wrestled with this rope for long minutes to make this shot. Carolyn Drake shot a video of me doing it, which was funny to watch later. Carolyn modeled for me again for some tricky shots, including one involving faking vomiting, which is going to be good. It is not ready for unveiling yet.

The week before last I gave a talk for a photo class at SVA which was interesting. It has been a long time since I've had to think about presenting my work to a group. Overall they seemed engaged, but there was that one guy in the back who seemed to be sleeping the entire time, so who knows?

I'm super pleased to announce my First Blog Post at The Wall Street Journal. It features oddly compelling video content. Click here to check it out.

Sebastian Bremer at AIPAD

 

Great to see some new work from Sebastian. It has been too long since I've seen his work, or his smiling face. Above is Cat and Sleeping Puppy in the Atelier, inks and acrylics on C-print, 2011.

Sohei Nishino at AIPAD

One of my favorite finds at AIPAD this year was the Japanese artist Sohei Nishino. These large collages are made from hundreds of photos taken over a period of time at the location, then they are put together in a giant collage. They reminded me of early maps, with perspective flattened and liberties taken with dimension and scale. I'm also reminded of the kinds of whimsical art you find in children's books. Hope you get a chance to see it. Look in the London based Michael Hoppen Gallery booth at AIPAD.

Above is "Diorama Map, Istanbul" October 2010 - January 2011

Gilbert Garcin, King of the World

Saw prints of Garcin's work in person for the first time at AIPAD yesterday. The prints on exhibit included the above image, "Le maître du monde." I have Garcin-like images in my mind all the time! But I've never been able to bring any of them to life. We'll see. I'm going to have a model this weekend, so I'm planning to shoot a lot.

Guilty Pleasure

Just scraping the surface here with this image from last weekend. I'm dying to get into my studio tomorrow again to shoot some new images.

The highlight of my professional week was watching the Thierry Mugler show live on streaming video with an art director friend at The Journal. We had a shoot with Lady Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, a day or two before his Paris show. This week he was presenting his ready-to-wear collection for Thierry Mugler, and his pal Gaga walked in the show. So fun to see the clothes we had seen being prepped during our shoot, and then to see the final looks on the runway. Amazing clothes--fetishy materials like latex in flesh tones and a nude leather corset under a cropped boxy jacket. The girls try hard to look louche, but the shoes make that impossible. There are three near falls in the show. It is kind of a thrill to have even a little bit of fashion in my professional life again-- after years of coaching scientists about what to wear to a shoot--I am welcoming it! Fashion is a guilty pleasure for me, but I think needlessly so...
Watch to end to see the appearance of inside-out man...and Gaga, of course.

Carrie Levy at Daniel Cooney Fine Art

 

Carrie Levy is one of the few people I know who is successfully straddling both a career as a photo editor and teacher and that of an artist with regular, well-deserved shows..I've followed her work with interest for years-- she is also a friend, and we've been co-workers, going as far back as our days at Newsweek magazine.

In general I really don't like nudes, but what Carrie is doing is different. There is an undercurrent in the work that keeps me coming back, and looking closer. The new work is no exception. What I see here is a mish-mash of intense intimacy, fear, penetration, drowning, trust..

Carrie Levy writes about this series:
"You Before All questions the line that separates pain from pleasure. The work magnifies how in the moment it is hard to decipher between these two very different emotions. Both are intense, but are very much the opposite of another. The aim in this body of work is to ask the viewer to uncover which one of these emotions is behind a single frame and where he or she is more sympathetic. Throughout the series, my role as the photographer is to play the part of the predator. I contort my subjects to look like victims. However, whether they are victims of pain or pleasure is up to the viewer to decide....
One of the themes of this work is about collecting and archiving images of men. Therefore who ever is willing to sit in front of my lens is welcomed. At the moment there are over 50 subjects in the full series."

You can see her work in person right now at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, at 511 West 25th Street, Suite 506.