Thursday, December 5, 2013

Madame Peripetie's Dream Sequence: A Philosophical Concept of the Beautiful and Sublime

Dream Sequence is Sylwana Zybura aka Madame Peripetie's award-winning photographic book project. It oscillates around the portraiture of unconventional fictional figures seen at the crossroads between fashion, photography, performance and art. The main inspiration has evolved from surrealism and film, while considering the philosophical concept of the beautiful and sublime.
All the protagonists were shot in-camera with minimal retouching involved. As part of this in camera process, body painting, prosthetics, wigs, unusual 3D make-up techniques as well as real flowers were used in order to enhance and distort the bodies of the models. At the moment Madame Peripetie is running a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo in order to raise funds for printing the striking designed book that is planned to be published in Jan 2014.

The series was initiated in Germany and originally styled and conceptualized as a solo project. I continued the project in London, where I have worked and developed its visual nuances with a regular team who have constituted the core of the project - stylist Stella Gosteva, and make-up artist Marina Keri. The series won The seltmann+söhne Advertising Award in Germany, the Double Gold at PX3 in Paris, and recently received an honorable mention at the International Photography Awards in NY.
~~~ Madame Peripetie



Madame Peripetie










All images are courtesy and copyright of Madame Peripetie.


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Second Skins by Miguel Pietro Vallinas

Second Skins is a series of photographs composed of several portraits of people which aims to investigate the internal aspects of the human being, focusing on different aspects in order to understand the inner reality of a man. Second Skins uses animal faces and suggests options, possibilities and ultimately elections.

Born in Medina del Campo, Spain in 1971, Miguel Pietro Vallinas, an advertising and industrial photographer, spends much of his time to his personal work in studying the landscape, the cityscape, contemporary architecture, portraits, etc…. The technique is central to his work at the time of taking the pictures. His work is a search for beauty understood through his eyes.


Miguel Pietro Vallinas
Second Skins










All images are courtesy and copyright of Miguel Pietro Vallinas

Featured on the Huffington Post

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Before They Pass Away: A tribute to vibrant tribal cultures around the world

In his landmark project Before They Pass Away Jimmy Nelson captures the lives and traditions of the last surviving tribes who have managed to preserve their traditional ways and customs within our increasingly globalized world. The British photographer's epic portraits present these dignified inheritors of noble and age-old traditions in a proud spirit and in all their glory-a unique visual experience. This exquisitely photographed showcase for world tribal culture is not only a joy to look at, but also an important historical record.

Published by teNeues, this book showcases tribal cultures around the world. Jimmy Nelson not only presents us with stunning images of customs and artifacts, but also offers insightful portraits of people who are the guardians of a culture that they-and we-hope will be passed on to future generations in all its glory.

This historic volume is a must-have for any lover of documentary photography.


Before They Pass Away 
by Jimmy Nelson
Huli Wigmen
Indonesia + Papua New Guinea

Copyright © Jimmy Nelson

Kazakh
Mongolia

© Jimmy Nelson

Kui East Wigmen
Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea

© Jimmy Nelson

Ladakhi
India

© Jimmy Nelson

Samburu Tribesmen
Kenya + Tanzania

© Jimmy Nelson


Courtesy of the artist and teNeues

Featured on the Huffington Post

Monday, October 14, 2013

Louis Vuitton City Bags: A Natural History

Published by Rizzoli NY, A Natural History of Louis Vuitton City Bags combines a unique, appealing approach with almost a scientific play on iconic shapes.

The first comprehensive taxonomy of Louis Vuitton's City Bags, a range of women's handbags that date back to turn of the 20th century. Featuring the trademarks of the House, City Bags represent the most successful line of accessories in the history of modern fashion - and were instrumental in making Louis Vuitton synonymous with modern luxury.

These soft-sided bags grew out of the various pieces of portable luggage that were themselves packed inside the trunks and wardrobes that had long ago represented the heritage of the company.

A classic Natural History book, this work is presented in a canvas clamshell with marble paper and a set of eleven illustrated plates. This limited edition is on sale exclusively for Louis Vuitton stores and on louisvuitton.com.




Family portrait: From the trunk to the city bag
Photograph © Patrick Gries, 2013



Inside a Keepall, 1960S
Photo © Patrick Gries, 2013

Speedy, biodiversity

Steamer Bag
Photo © Nick Veasey, 2013

Spring-Summer 2012 advertising campaign
Photo by Steven Meisel, 2011


All images courtesy Rizzoli NY.

Featured on HuffPost Style




Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sartorial Anarchy; Style and Sympathies by IKÉ UDÉ

Style and Sympathies include a selection of self-portraits from Nigerian born IKÉ UDÉ's critically acclaimed Sartorial Anarchy series and for the first time, the series will be broadly continued and presented. Udé's distinctive portraits, which poeticize colors, sumptuous fabrics, and composition, transcend the traditional aesthetic of portraiture by adopting a post-modern twist. The portraits show a highly stylized world of color and improvisational virtuosity, in which the artist employs men's fashion ensembles that have been culled from various historical times and geographies.

Udé has been engaged with this body of work since 2010, when the first photographs of this series were presented in the exhibition, The Global Africa Project, at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York.

Wherein he is dressed in varied costumes across geography and time, Iké Udé explores a world of dualities: photographer / performance artist, artist / spectator, African / post-nationalist, mainstream / marginal, individual / everyman and fashion / art. His photographic work is in the permanent collections of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Art, and in many private collections.

Iké Udé lives and works in New York City.

Style and Sympathies is on view at Leila Heller Gallery, NYC.


Styles and Sympathies
IKÉ UDÉ
Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery

Style and Sympathies by Iké Udé
October 10 - November 9, 2013

Featured in the Arts section of the Huffington Post


Thursday, September 26, 2013

ALAÏA, the exhibition

Inventing new shapes out of simple interplay between complex stitchings, Azzedine Alaïa became the creator of a timeless body of work. His influence on today's fashion is fundamental. An indefatigable worker and a sublime shaper of his own persona, he continues to go his own way, preferring 'garments that last' to those that vanish with the season. An insatiable lover of the opposite sex, he likes to say, 'I make clothes, women make fashion'. The models and women friends he has brought to the world - among others Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Linda Spierings, Linda Evangelista, Veronica Webb and Yasmin Le Bon - are also his most faithful admirers.

The Palais Galliera is honoring Azzedine Alaïa with its opening exhibition. This first Paris retrospective, presented in the Palais's newly renovated galleries and in the Matisse Room at the Musée d'Art moderne of the City of Paris, comprises a selection of seventy iconic models retracing a unique creative career.

ALAÏA
© Patrick Demarchelier

















Courtesy Palais Galliera
Copyright © Pierre Antoine
ALAÏA is currently on view at the Palais Galliera

This post is also on the HuffPost