True story: An MFA student at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K. made a pin-hole camera using an empty beer can. The student attached the beer-can cam (or, perhaps “beer-cam” is more apt and concise?) to the side of a telescopic dome at the university’s Bayfordbury Observatory and aimedContinue Reading
Artist-photographer Andi Schmied’s latest project called “Private Views” is a photo collection documenting the incredible views from some ultra-luxury high-rise apartments in New York City. For the project, Schmied posed as a Hungarian billionaire looking to buy an exclusive luxury condo. She then photographed the apartments and views afforded byContinue Reading
. . . . . Gordon Parks was a multi-faceted artist who worked across diverse mediums, but his photography capturing the 20th Century Black- American experience is what he’s best known for. In a short “mini-documentary” video titled “What Gordon Parks Saw,” Park’s rich, creative life and his powerful bodyContinue Reading
A man in Tennessee has spent over five years taking detailed telescopic photos of a single constellation. The man is Matt Harbison and his obsessive astro-photographic endeavor is called Project Orion. Harbison took 2,508 hi-resolution images of Orion and spent some 500 hours on his project. He then stitched togetherContinue Reading
“Accidentally Wes Anderson” is a new book of photography compiled by the folks behind the Instagram account @accidentallywesanderson. The account collects images of locales — buildings, interiors, spaces — that look like locations or elaborate films sets that might appear in a Wes Anderson film. Anderson has a distinct, recognizableContinue Reading
The Getty Museum has launched a website called 12 Sunsets that is a fascinating interactive archive of 65,000 photos taken over 50 years of every building and every block on one famed Los Angeles street by one famed artist. The photo archive is the vast output of a project byContinue Reading
We — and possibly you, too — are a big fan of large coffee-table art books by the likes of publishers Taschen, Phaidon and Rizzoli, to name but a few. Among our favorite stack of these large tomes is a book by a lesser-known German publisher. It’s a book ofContinue Reading
There this. And also this. And then there’s this too.
The New Yorker magazine has a fascinating photo essay in its Photobooth series of photographer Josephine Sittenfeld’s then-and-now “Reunion” images. These are photos of her Princeton college classmates. Among them is Ellie Kemper of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” fame. It’s a touching testament to age and time.
French photographer Thibaud Poirier has created a series of photos documenting 25 of Europe’s grandest and beautiful great libraries. Poirier’s images capture the vast interior spaces of what he calls “temples of cultural worship.” In all of the these images the libraries are empty.
“Hot Mess” is the title of an artwork by Doug Aitken that features a beautiful photograph showing an aeriel view of the Las Vegas strip at night. The image is displayed as a back-lit circular framed object mounted to the gallery wall. At the center of the photo, just aboveContinue Reading
The artwork of Australian-Iraqi artist Toba Khedoori leaves a distinct impression. Her works are primarily finely detailed, photo-realistic pencil drawings in monochromatic lead or color on massive sheets of waxed paper. The drawings tend to be focused on discrete, single objects set in a vast emptiness — a chair, aContinue Reading
On a recent visit to the Arcana bookstore in Culver City, in Los Angeles, we checked out some beautiful coffee-table books on surfing and surf photography. Among these was a book titled “Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume: 1936-1942.” It’s a collection of sepia-toned photos by Don James documenting his surfingContinue Reading
Time magazine recently published the “100 Most Influential Images of All Time.” It’s a stunning mixed collection of iconic, powerful and beautiful images. Among these images is the first photograph ever taken, a picture from 1826 titled simply “View from the Window at Le Gras.” The image shown above is a 1968 photoContinue Reading
The New York Times Style magazine “T” recently published an excellent feature on photographer William Eggleston, considered the pioneer of color photography. The article was written by Augesten Burroughs and offers images of Eggleston (like the one below) shot by another influential photographer, Wolfgang Tillmans. The online version includes video by TillmansContinue Reading
Photographer Mike Kelley photographed airplanes taking off from airports around the world and then composited the images to provide a visualization of all the various airlines and takeoffs. Kelley calls these “Airportraits.” You can view more of these images on his website. The image of LAX above was used for the frontContinue Reading
This blown-up black-and-white image is a fitting street-art tribute to the late great actor-comedian Robin Williams. The photo adorns a construction-site hoarding next to a popular book shop in the Mission District of San Francisco, where Williams had lived for many years and where he spent his early career working the local stand-up comedy clubContinue Reading
We’re fans of the photography of Leroy Grannis (we even have Taschen’s wonderful book on him) so it’s great to see this awesome mural by artist Gretta Kruesi based on a photo of Grannis himself in Venice, Los Angeles.
This framed image of pop superstar Lady Gaga pictured below is one of many such celebrity portraits by the accomplished photographer Martin Schoeller currently on view at the Hasted Kraeutler gallery in New York. (To the left of Gaga is portrait of artist Jeff Koons and on her right isContinue Reading