Life Through the Fish Lens

Some long overdue snaps with my fisheye.

I'm Shakin'

Jack White for Interview Magazine, May 2012

21 Day Photo Challenge

My sister drew my attention to this the other day, and as I have been dying to expand my creative horizons these days, I'm definitely going to partake.

Elle Moss's blog has a lovely DIY feel to it, and her aesthetic matches my own.  Unfortunately I can't seem to comment or subscribe to her blogger or Tumblr, so, sadface....

Here's the breakdown of the list for those who might be interested.

1 - Favourite Colour(s)

2 - Trees

3 - Little Things

4 - Rainbow

5 - Architecture

6 - Low on the Ground

7 - Signs

8 - Dress

9 - Grass

10 - Favourite Place

11 - Words

12 - Horizon

13 - Favourite Colour    (Hmm is this an intentional repeat?)

14 - Three Things

15 - Travel 

16 - Warmth

17 - Music

18 - Pretty Patterns

19 - What's in your Bag?

20 - Symmetry 

21 - Breakfast

Stay tuned for results!

Picture of the Day

Daniel Fogarty from his Totem exhibition 

via The Guardian

Rumination

Vibes and Scribes, as the citizens of Cork know, is an amazing book shop, or rather book shops as it has expanded in the last few years.  It is akin to The Strand as its eclectic catalogue caters to many whims.

As I did down in The Strand in that fair summer of ’09, I browse this shop regularly.  This is a lethal custom.  I am probably broke because of it.  Inevitably I always leave with some treasure.  One day I came across The Noir A-Z.

Compiled, or “imagined”, by Julian Hubbard, this is indulgent treat for those inclined to the surreal and subversive.  Hubbard organised this project once he recognized associations that ran through the themes of his photography.  Thus The Noir A-Z was born.  It may be a more subdued, but his works present similar anxiety and charge that frequented the lens of Man Ray and the canvas of Salvidor Dali.

Due to its suggestion of noir film themes, Hubbard’s images remind me of Cindy Sherman and her excellent Untitled Film Stills series.  Sherman’s objective captured the female stereotypes that occupied media culture, while Hubbard seems to utilize the cinematic aesthetic to pay homage to the perturbed perspectives of the Surrealists.

Here are a couple of my favourites.  I urge you dear citizens to add this to your collections.

Q is for “Quiescent”

Photo of the Day

Photographer Tony Ray-Jones captured English life before it became what he think is too Americanized. 

Rather brilliant, old boy. 

More here

Some great things I saw on a recent outing on the Town

Me and my housemates have recently been watching a ridiculous amount of Arrested Development.  This was a find.  Oh, Come On!!

Made of Winning.

They won't be getting far.

This Weekend You'll Find Things In Unexpected Places

ARTstor is one of the most amazing online image databases.
It has all the copyright issues in order for students in need of pictures for assignments.
It is nothing less than a life-saver.

Decided to have some unadulterated fun with the ARTstor archives today.

My search with "vogue" yielded some beauties:

These shoes are a Steve Arpad design, and from I can determine from around 1938-39. 

Though something about them made me think they were from some sort of Elizabethan period. 

Platforms of today and quaking in their soles.  

Maybe they will be Lady Gaga's next acquisition. 

Don't you just?

Adverts from cosmetic companies these days do not possess half enough mystique.

To feed my constant New York nostalgia, I typed "NYC music", et voila:

All images from ARTstor archives.

Meanwhile, at The Met....

While I am trapped in Ireland, resolute in studies, if at times listlessly, the art world in New York continues to thrive.  Millions pass through the halls of my beloved MoMA and Met each week unaware of how my heart is burning a hole in itself with desire.

My sister is profoundly taken, and perhaps stylistically inspired, by Georgia O'Keeffe.  One clear memory from the summer of '09 is hunting the upper floor of The Strand searching for a decent O'Keeffe anthology, that would not rob me of my pittance wages, to return to my saviour-kin with.

Yes, Georgia is the woman with the vulva paintings.

I see now that The Met is housing an exhibition of her husband Alfred Stieglitz's photography until April this year.  The restraint of his work is a fascinating contrast to the vivacious and, if you will allow, fertile arena of O'Keefffe's canvases.

Of the entire collection, the most evocative images to encounter are the portraits of O'Keeffe that focus predominantly on her hands.  Though her own iconography is so steeped in the sexuality of the female form, Stieglitz's chooses to portray her hands, the site of artistic creation, as the sacred organs.  They have been endowed with as much sexual ferocity as the overt sight of nudity may convey.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Further information here

Georgia O'Keeffe - Hand and Wheel

Further information here

Georgia O'Keeffe - Hands and Horse Skull

Further information here

Photo of the Day

Damien Hirst, With Dead Head

"It's me and a dead head. Severed head. In the morgue. Human. I'm 16. If you look at my face, I'm actually going: "Quick. Quick. Take the photo." I wanted to show my friends, but I couldn't take all my friends there, to the morgue in Leeds. I'm absolutely terrified. I'm grinning, but I'm expecting the eyes to open and for it to go: "Grrrrraaaaagh!" I was doing anatomy drawing. I took some photos when I shouldn't have done. To me, the smile and everything seemed to sum up this problem between life and death."  Exert from The Guardian

The Ghost Who Walks

Self-deceit, Rome, 1978

Francesca Woodman's portraits transfix the eye as you are all at once charmed and horrified by their Gothic tones.  She haunts the frame like The Nightmare of Fuseli.   One of the more playful aspects of these images, along with the distorting effects of the long exposure, is the manner Woodman composes the female form.  The body still possesses the feminine quality so revered by art standards, but she is unmistakably mocking the serpentine form that consistently connoted the female body as the site of exotic, predatory tendencies.  The tense, psychological fragility that caused her images to be so evocative, unfortunately pre-empted her early death by suicide at age twenty-two.

Untitled, New York, 1979

Angel Series, Rome, 1977 - 78

Eel Series, Roma, 1977 - ?

Self-Potrait with Lily, Rome, 1977-78

A new film, The Woodmans, open in Manhattan tomorrow. 

Go see it for me.