All posts filed under: Photography

Claire Droppert’s ‘Sand Creatures’

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Remember when we were kids, out and about in the outdoors, playing tag, climbing trees and lying in the grass, observing the sky, catching sight of imagined animals made of clouds? Photographer and visual designer Claire Droppert revisits exactly these childhood memories with the first instalment of her ‘Gravity’-project, but instead of letting us gaze upwards she carries her observer off to a shoreline and confronts him with her fantastical ‘Sand creatures’. Armed with an arsenal of frozen sand, a shovel and a high-speed camera, Claire sets off to capture these delicate moments of weightlessness. And well, what do you see here? Claireonline.nl Instagram Twitter

‘Enduring Light’ by Yaz Norris

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‘Is the importance of light in photography being forgotten?’ That’s the all-encompassing question that mirrors the haunting b/w series ‘Enduring Light’ of young photographer and ECA graduate Yaz Norris. For her, breaking through the natural barriers of how we perceive the world we come to accept as reality, shaped by the sensory forms of light and shadow, enables us to question our surroundings: ‘It personally came to me when I discovered the happenstance of a projection that mimicked the result of a camera obscura’, she admits. ‘While the wind sucked the blind into the window, the light hit a specific angle causing it to bend, with the result that the buildings opposite were delicately illuminated across the wall. The refraction was blurry and moving, but it occurred completely naturally, and completely by accident.’ If you look at her cracking images, she’s pretty much given the right answer herself. Check out Yaz’ website for her other projects or follow her via twitter.

Quick Snap: Double Exposure Portraits by Dan Mountford

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Everyone who has played around with analogue cameras and experimented with double exposures for a while probably came across some weird, astonishing, funny and sometimes very creepy images. I suppose most of us are simply not as talented as folks like graphic designer & photographer Dan Mountford. Well, this might easily be an old hat, as his stunning double exposure portraits have been eagerly featured on quite a lot design-savvy sites in the last few years, but they might still cause some jaws to drop after all. Especially if you bear in mind that all of his beautifully surreal images were created inside his camera, using Photoshop or Illustrator solely for post-production purposes. danmountford.co.uk Twitter Tumblr

Pentti Sammallahti: ‘Here, far away’ @ Photographers’ Gallery

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To some, his name appears to be as inexpressible as the delicate beauty of his works. Despite a fairly challenging pronunciation, the Finnish photographer Pennti Sammallahti is in fact a pioneer, innovator and globetrotter that inspired many of his peers over the last four decades. On his fascinating journeys through the icy Scandinavian scenery, the chequered vegetation of Siberia, Japan, India, Nepal and large parts of the African continent, his panoramic camera followed him at every turn. The result is an intriguing exploration of relationships between humans, animals and nature amidst the remote, forlorn and staggeringly beautiful regions of the world. Meditative and humorous at times, his b/w snaps generate a feeling of Wanderlust, an urge to merely take along one’s dearest things and leave everything else behind, renouncing modern technology, social obligations and rules for a life in the pristine wilderness. And to get you even further into a daydreaming mood, London’s Photographers’ Gallery celebrates a retrospective of Sammallahti’s works in its small ‘Here, far away’ print sales show, which still runs until 5th January …

Cover © Maud Chalard

On The Bookshelf: The Quarterly Magazine Issue #2

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Inevitably, you stumble across them, whether covering a whole page or squeezed into its very last corner. For many of us, adverts are inseparably entangled with our favourite magazines. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not only an admirer of the written word, exciting stories and compelling photography, but equally digging clever adverts. It’s just about keeping a balance. Well, if I’m flicking through the pages of most lifestyle, fashion or culture-related mags, all you basically do is jumping from one random perfume, clothing or technology ad to another. The actual articles quite often wither into mere fill-in amongst the crowd. To me, something’s wrong here. Annoyingly wrong. People (supposedly) buy magazines for content in the first place, right? At least I do. So where’s the value and appreciation for the creatives behind it – writers, editors and photographers – if the focus is constantly distracted from the real deal? The photographic print journal The Quarterly however proves that things can be done quite differently, devoted to an ethical, art-valuing and ad-free concept. Well, let’s step back and get to the bottom of it. …

Jacques Henri Lartigue: ‘Bibi’ @ Photographers Gallery

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Clad in a white fur coat and an elegant dress, her boat drifting toward the harbour of Cannes, Madeleine Messager is in the photographer’s undivided centre of attention. With her tilted head and shadowy eyes she glances mysteriously at her husband behind the lens. It’s the work of influential photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue and only one of many snapshots depicting his beloved first wife ‘Bibi’ in the 1920s. Actually, Lartigue was a gifted collector. A collector of moments, if you will: « Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true. » Since the early age of 8, when his technophile father gave him his first camera, he captured and eventually eternalised his impressions on film. Almost 10,000 photographs and 7,000 diary pages bear witness to an incredible photographic timeline, spanning over eight decades of his lively journey: Moments of joy and adventure, expressions of friendship and love as well as manifestations of desire and sorrow. For its current major exhibition, ‘The Photographers’ Gallery’ draws its attention back to Lartigue’s early works and documents …

Spot On: Justin Welch @ Brick Lane Gallery

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For just a brief period of time – from 1st to 11th August 2013 – Brick Lane Gallery hosts a wonderful group exhibition called ‘Photography NOW’ including works of David Neve, Hersilia Alvarez, James Burns, Justin Welch, Nazanin Moradi, Sylvie Varnier, Sue O’Meara, Sian Hallam-Davis, Tatjana Glomm and Milly Coley. The small art space on Sclater Street showcases a great selection of vibrant ideas, styles and techniques of contemporary photography, but there’s one artist I’d like to highlight in particular: Spot on for Justin Welch and his ‘abandoned’-series. Essentially, the title says it all. For his project, the London/Paris-based artist went on a road trip to the US to capture the many decaying faces of abandoned buildings in the margins of 21st century American civilization. The photographic output is indeed intriguing, both individually and as a whole. It’s not only the hidden message that fascinates me about Welch’s works – it’s the way he evokes a cinematic déjà-vu that draws the observer into a neo-Western setting: The time seems to stand still in this long forgotten …

Roger Kasparian – ‘The Sixties’

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The area of Mayfair, besides London’s amazing Royal Academy of Art, did not have a great appeal on my drive for cultural exploration such as the East End – until now. Within the classy Piccadilly arcades, amidst old-established trades of hats, ties and suits, sit the SNAP galleries. Since moving to Central London three years ago, the gallery acquired renown as a specialist for iconic rock n’ roll photography and caught my attention with their latest exhibition ‘Roger Kasparian – The Sixties’. As an admirer of analogue photography, I simply could not miss out this small selection of rare camera work, which has never been exhibited before and impressively conveys the lifestyle of the 1960s. In the late 60s, Paris has become a magnet for aspiring musicians, actors and writers hence the young photographer Roger Kasparian was fortunate enough to document the footsteps of the world’s creative generation in the French capital. His single portraits, which capture icons like Serge Gainsbourg, Marianne Faithful or Françoise Hardy, succeed in breaking a false façade of fame and …