And while we're at it: the April Avant Garde Issue, marks the 2-year anniversary of AG. The topic for this issue, irrelevantly enough with the 2nd birthday, focuses on Pornography from many points of view. I was thrilled to shoot the fashion editorial for this issue, which was styled by Margarita Papatheodoulou, and we aimed for a trash-porn 80s inspired theme. Despite some people reacting to the topic and even reading it as vulgar, we feel that our trash porn task was fulfilled. So there. Take a look at the full shoot over at my website, or in the latest issue of Avant Garde.
I never was a huge fan of bulky, professional-looking cameras to begin with. This 31-MegaPixel camera-phone, is still –and will be for a long time– in it's very first concept phase, but managed to cause a explosive stir in the world of techfreaks and photonerds around the world.
What this "is" basically, is a camera phone with a 31MP sensor and a wireless retractable lens in which the sensor lives and captures images even when not attached on the actual camera. I am sure that there are others out there whose heart skipped a beat when they saw this, but to be completely honest; I don't see this actually happening before 2015 and I can only imagine what kind of a shocker the price will be...
So for now, this remains a design concept by the Seattle-based Artefact and a burning desire for many of us. (via)
I was about to complain that my holidays are almost over and I didn't do anything. Well, it seems that I did do something after all. The pictures I took yesterday and my today's sunburn say so. I will post the full series as soon as I finish them.
This is the name of an italian group I once saw on facebook, and I thought: how true! I mean, in this time of vastly available digital enhancement and inventiveness, being stuck up with equipment debates and the infatuation with things bearing the "PRO" label is plainly stupid, if you ask me. Maybe it's the resourceful nature of the graphic designer who lies in me that speaks, but when the final result is the way you want it to be, who gives a "duck" about how you got there?
So, these guys at F Stoppers (hats off by the way) made a full fashion shoot using the (confessedly crappy) camera of the iPhone 3GS! They used great lighting, their model had professional makeup and hair styling done before the shoot and some retouching was done afterwards. The result is simply amazing!
From FStoppers A few weeks ago I did a full fashion photo shoot with my iPhone 3gs. I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn’t help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were “the best images I had ever taken.” Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail.
Okay, I admit that using the iPhone camera was an extreme way of getting their point through, but this comes to prove that one doesn't need the top "pro" (and very pricey) equipment to come to an awesome result. I wouldn't shoot with an iPhone (3GS or 4 for that matter) and expect the results to save my life, but shooting with my Powershot G9 instead for my DSLR, never seemed as an "off" idea to me.
The previously mentioned annakoumoushi project was realized this weekend! Did some location hunting, to find the wall I wanted plus a quiet beach, and we went along and did the photoshoot today! I just love creative weekends!
I will upload the full project on my website as soon as it's completely finished.
These past few days I've been having flashbacks from the time I was in Chicago; so today, I ended up googling my photography professor's name and bumped on his website.
I remember he used to talk in a very passionate manner about taking pictures of dancers and after seeing more of his work on his website I understand why.
William Frederking is the Associate Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts and an associate professor in Photography at Columbia Colege Chicago.
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.
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 5:20 AM 
