Vivian Maier

Chicago-based street photographer John Maloof had recently acquired a bulk of undeveloped and forgotten material from Chicago photographer Vivian Maier at an auction.

Vivian Maier, born in France on February 1st, 1926, moved to the states in her early teens and worked as a nanny. She photographed everything she came across on the streets of Chicago during the 1950s-1960s, but never really showed the photos to anyone and also left a great amount of undeveloped photographs (around 40,000) in boxes. Maier died on April 21st, 2009, a few days before John Maloof tried to find her. Thanks to Maloof's discovery, Vivian Maier's work became known to the rest of the world. 

Being able to document your surroundings in such a remarkably sincere manner requires great alertness and talent which I envy so much. Trying to depict the spontaneous makes me very nervous and I guess that's why I function better with staged photography. However, I would really like to explore that path of photography at some point. 

Also seeing the Chicago of the 50s and 60s the way I had seen it in the documentaries and history courses I took when I was there made love the images some more.

Amazing samples of Vivian Maier's work can be viewed on the website John Maloof set up.

I am very, very eager for a book release with this material.

(found via Heading East)

True Blood - Season Three Poster

This is the first of twelve promo posters for Season Three.

Now, we have to wait until June 13 for the new episodes. Bummer...

Illustrations

Click on the image above to view the illustrations page

I set up an illustration page on my website. More to come soon.

Update on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 1:10 PM by Artémis Psathas

More illustrations and photo illustrations added.

I'm Here - A Love Story In An Absolut World

Spike Jonze collaborated with Absolut for this 30-minute short film: a love story between two robots living in L.A. Written and directed by Spike Jonze and features original music by Aska Matsumiya and Sam Spiegel. The two robots are played by Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory. 

I'm Here ironically enough, being a story about robots, is filled with emotion and genuinely sincere emotion that is. The film can be viewed over at imheremovie.com.

Mankind Is No Island

Mankind Is No Island  was made entirely on a cellphone and cost only 40 dollars. It won the 1st Prize in 2008 at the TropFest, which is the biggest short film festival in the world. Created by by Jason van Genderen.

(Thank you Electra)

Alice In (Fashion) Wonderland

So, I finally got to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland tonight, and what made the most impact to me was the overall styling and the costumes.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the costumes were, like in many of Tim Burton's films, designed by Colleen Atwood. All the costumes are very meticulously perceived, and mainly rendered by a very anglo/late-Victorian feel. At the same time, they stand as an obvious source of inspiration to designers and stylists everywhere. If one looks around, the "Alice" look is very prominent and popular in many magazine fashion editorials, and from what it seems, it will be until the end of the spring-summer season (or even longer). 

Besides, this is not the first time Tim Burton stands as the igniting spark to the launch or the re-establishment of certain styling trends, see: Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd etc. 

Retro Super Future Sunglasses

"Super" was my exact thought when I saw these... I think I just found my April-Easter present to myself. And I think this is an excellent opportunity for me to unfreeze my ebay account. 

Treme | HBO's New Series

I guess, it was about time someone went ahead and made a series or a scripted TV production on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. So here comes "Treme" by HBO (which is apparently aiming to regain some of its lost cable-network ground from its rivals), featuring some heavyweight actors and, from what it seems, some serious award-claiming drama. 

Pardon The Recurrence

Jonas Åkerlund + Lots of Exaggeration + Lady Gaga + Beyoncé + Telephone + Tarantino's Pussy Wagon + Lots of Sex Connotations = 9-something-minute ultra elaborate weird video

I tried to resist the urge to post this video on here; given that not everyone likes Gaga, but it didn't work. Again, lots and lots of LaChapelle-influenced imagery in here. A tad too excessive and exaggerated but I guess that's what you get when you put Jonas Åkerlund and Lady Gaga together.

Harmony - Procedural Drawing (Long Live Java)

A friend of mine sent me a link to this the other day saying "I know you will like this" and he was so right.

I spent so much time on this website. This is the next level of doodling (with a variety of brushes). Try it here.