A couple of Canadians

/via GQ, December 2007

Marina Abramović at the MoMa

Performance artist Marina Abramović is all over the Internet so I've just discovered her work though she's been active for more than 30 years. Her work uses the body as a site of violence and a symbol of resilience. Abramović's performances are disturbing and challenging. Just reading her Wikipedia entry makes my stomach uneasy.

Currently, the MoMa is running a retrospective of her work. While Abramović is performing an original piece in the main atrium, other artists are upstairs recreating some of her most famous works.



In "The Artist is Present," Abramović is seated across a table from another chair where museum visitors can sit as long as they like. Some visitors have been brought to tears, while others only stay for a minute. The artist will be performing from opening to close for three months until the end of May.

The MoMa is posting photos online of all the participants on their Flickr stream. The brutally sharp photos are meant to be a documentation of the audience's experience; they say so much about the way we perform with art in a museum space.

Death and American Magazine Photography

By way of major procrastination, I found a paper I wrote a year ago about Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus. It's kind of good and no one has read it besides my prof so I thought I would share it with you (if you felt like reading 23 pages about commercial photography and death).

Here it is: Newsstand Momento Mori, The Magazine Work of Richard Avedon & Diane Arbus

NB: I do not have permissions to reproduce the photographs in the document. Fair dealing?

Photo: A very young Anderson Cooper by Diane Arbus

Agar and Sandy, Big Sur
Photo by Hunter S. Thompson
1961

via Waxin' & Milkin'

He's a Borg

"Ladies and gentlemen, your President is a robot. Or a wax sculpture. Maybe a cardboard cutout. All I know is no human being has a photo smile this amazingly consistent.

"On Wednesday, the Obamas hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, during which they stood for 130 photographs with visiting foreign dignitaries in town for the UN meeting. The President has exactly the same smile in every single shot. See for yourself — the pictures are up on the State Department’s flickr. And, of course, compressed above into 20 seconds for your viewing pleasure."

from Bus Your Own Tray

I had a dream, I stood beneath an orange sky

Saturday Sky by You Can Count On Me



Fireworks Lightning Apocalypse by Arainek via Consensus

Music for an Orange Sky

Fashion is Danger

Bret and Jemaine, 2006
New Zealand

via Sexy People
Also, check out Inherited Jeans at fashionisdanger.blogspot.com

More Avedon

I've hardly met an Avedon image I didn't like. Here's another... and one I've never seen before!

This sultry portrait of Lauren Hutton (1968) is part of a retrospective of the photographer's fashion work at the International Center of Photography in New York (from May 15 to Sept. 6). Cathy Horyn reviews the exhibit for the New York Times.

Unbelievable (and very often, heartbreaking) images honoured By the Pulitzer Prizes and Overseas Press Club this weekend for photographic reportage (at the Daily Beast).

Waxin' and Milkin'

So long as I have fingers, I will keep scrolling Waxin' & Milkin', a "visual mixtape" (the most ingenious and successful idea I have seen in a while).

*Now with never ending pages! Keep scrolling until infinity!

Lego on Avedon

via Flickr

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

Looking at the work of the late Richard Avedon is a humbling experience. His portraits are the work of an exacting technician, a humanitarian, a true artist, and a cruel, neurotic genius. The 1995 documentary Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light gives comprehensive insight into what a unique visionary he was - and how he was definitely the kind of person you'd want to party with. If you can get your hands on this, it's definitely worth a look.

(FYI, I hear that Bob Mercer screens this doc in the SFU course CMNS 375 Magazine Publishing)

Avedon delivers quote-worthy sound bites here that inspire you to take pictures--or at the very least, look up his work and discover what a great force he was in American photography for more than 50 years. His work extends far beyond the fashion photography and handful or portraits we know him for today.

We've all seen his work, and you probably didn't even know it. If you've ever looked at the liner notes for the Beatles White Album, or 1, then you've seen Avedon's photography. This 2008 post from perpenduum.com looks at the influences of Lartigue and Avedon on the work of Wes Anderson, particularly in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Here's some great trivia facts to take to your next social event involving art or film snobs:

* An Avedon-style photo of actor Owen Wilson, in imitation of Avedon's American West photo of Boyd Fortin holding a disemboweled snake, was used in a prop for the film The Royal Tenenbaums; Wilson's mother Laura Wilson was a close assistant to Avedon.



* This famous (and fantastic) cast photo was taken by Richard Avedon:



A clip from Richard Avedon: Light and Darkness

Family Album

I'm currently doing research on photographer Diane Arbus for my very last undergrad paper (hurrraaay!). Arbus's last project was a Family Album (unfinished), which, among other themes, explored performance and decorum in family photographs and other formal portraits... or at least, that's what art historians think. Who knows what Arbus really had in mind.

There's an unexpected parallel to Arbus's work in a hilarious website I found this weekend. Sexy People is a blog devoted to recovering the "perfect portrait[s]." Like Arbus's work, they reveal the "freak" in all of us--especially those who had their pictures taken before 1990 at a local Sears portrait studio or by Artona.

Big laughs

It's like sweeps week for magazines as a calvacade of new issues hit the stands, fighting for a dwindling set of readers. Vanity Fair brought out the big guns this month with an amazing portfolio of "Comedy's New Legends." I will be picking this up, if only for the shot below of Jason Segal, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd as Tom Ford.

Annie Leibovitz pokes fun at her March 2006 VF cover (below)



Amy Poehler and Will Arnett, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier in New York

Also noteworthy and on newsstands: Madonna in a huge Steven Klein portfolio for W magazine.
(By the way, Steven Klein's website has a great opening video made from a Angie/Brad shoot).

Merci, M. Saint Laurent

While in San Francisco, I stopped by the YSL Retrospective at the De Young Museum (a spectacular, dystopic building, by the way, designed by Swiss Firm Herzog & de Meuron), the only US stop for this stunning exhibition. We were truly lucky to be able to take in 120+ accessorized outfits, including that creepy knitted wedding dress from 1965, an original Le Smoking, and those iconic wool jersey, Mondrian-inspired shift dresses. The exhibit was inspiring. I overheard women talking about the first time they saw some of the fashions and how truly groundbreaking it was at the time - it's not just fashion myth! YSL revolutionized women's fashion.

And then I watched Project Runway Canada , and a member of a team assigned to create a couture collection inspired by YSL had no idea who the designer was. Fortunately, Iman gave him a tongue lashing and declared that he "descrated" the house of YSL with his design. (Heidi Klum would never say such a thing.)

So, lest his name be forgotten by more young folks, I want to remember M. Saint Laurent tonight with these striking pictures by Hedi Slimane:

"World renown fashion designer Hedi Slimane took a visit to the Yves Saint Laurent home back in November of 2008. Playing a major role in the relaunch of YSL Rive Gauche Homme, Slimane shares a well documented history with the famous Fashion house tracing back to his stint as Art Director. Of course, he is also well known for his time spent at Christian Dior until his departure in 2007. We now get a look at some of his photographic work from the latter part of 2008 capturing YSL’s partner Pierre Berge in his Parisian residence."

--hypebeast

Near Fisherman's Wharf

From my travels . . .

Abstract City

My brother (portfolio forthcoming) sent me this link to Christoph Niemann's column in the New York Times (of course!). These are his memories, evoked in Berlin while playing with his sons and manifested in Lego. It affirms that everything can remind you of New York if you love the city, and especially if you are far and away. I also love how the NYT is using visuals in big and interesting ways, and embracing the possibilities of new media in a way that is frequently inspiring. And isn't it fantastic that you can get paid to play with Lego?



The full post is here

Sander's Children | in costume

From a recent exhibition at Danzigers Projects, NYC

Below: DIANE ARBUS, "LADY AT A MASKED BALL WITH TWO ROSES ON HER DRESS"
Bottom: HIROH KIKAI,"CELEBRATING SHICHI-GO-SAN, A GALA DAY FOR GIRLS AT AGES THREE AND SEVEN"

I think you will love this: Kermit | Bale

and there's more! See these sites
I Heart Photograph
ohnotheydidnt

Desire for Ryan McGinley

Ryan McGinley's photography graces the cover of this week's New York Times Magazine. The feature is probably one of the longest essays featured in my recent memory of the Times magazine. This extended piece comes to no conclusions, and the point it finally reaches is so frustrating you wish you never started reading the article.

The artwork, however, is pretty compelling--and so is the story behind it. Here's a spacy diary written for Interview by photographer Ryan McGinley, during his most recent trip across America with young naked people.