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When I was looking around for inspiration for a menu design I’m working on , I came across the work of Trish Papadakos, whose work is even better than her name is fun to say. And she seriously hits all the bases with web and print design, photography, branding, and much more. Damn, woman, save some for the rest of us.
Maybe it’s something about being French, or maybe it’s something about being young, or quite possibly it’s from being young and French, but whatever the root, the photography of Alexandra Sophie is lush and beautiful. Why do I always tend to prefer the work of young photographers over more experienced shooter? Could be because the young ones aren’t being forced into shooting anything for anyone, they’re trying to capture the things they actually care about. Also, I enjoy the roughness of it, the little imperfections that give each shot weight and reality. The world is beautiful, but it sure as hell isn’t polished, and young photographers haven’t been told to polish yet. Ok, that’s enough bullshit, go look at the photos.
Photography is all about the nouns; all photographs are of a person, place, or thing. Sure, you can hint around at intangibles (adjectives and verbs) with mood and everything, but that interpretation is the audience’s, and what you’re really taking a picture of is just a noun. Maybe it’s my frame of reference from being a person, but it seems to me that the most difficult noun to capture in an image is a person. Places are dynamic, but generally on a much longer scale, and Things are pretty much static, whereas people are changing second to second in millions of very visible ways. How can you capture a still image of something like that? I’m asking seriously, because I certainly never figured it out. The best I can manage is to take cute photos of my dog before she can wander off to lick her butthole on my pillow.
So I am always impressed by those that have managed to photograph people beautifully, like Benoit Paillé, a French Canadian portrait master. His series of portraits of strangers especially surprised and delighted me, and led to me ponder if the subjects were still strangers after he shot them. Don’t you need to empathize with someone to capture their essence? And the best way to empathize is to learn about that person, their life and times, the story they’re in. Or maybe I’ve got it all wrong, and it’s better if you know nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised, since I’ve never managed to shoot a decent portrait in my life. Not even of myself. Whatever that means psychologically.
Come for the photos, stay for the paintings. SF artist Charmaine Olivia is a double threat (or possibly even more threatening than that) when it comes to making beautiful things. I think the most threatening thing of all is that she’s just sitting right there across the Bay making artwork to melt my little eyeballs. And yeah, I’m setting the bar high with her as the first post of 2010, but fuck it, I’m not afraid to shoot for greatness. And if I don’t live up to that I can blame all of you. Shoulder my burden, anonymous strangers.
The scientist and the artist in me both find Nikki Graziano’s FoundFunctions to be really relaxing for some reason. It’s like they can quit fighting for dominance and just enjoy looking at something together. They’re probably holding hands across the two hemispheres of my brain right now. Shit, does that mean I’m gonna start having seizures? Eh, worth it.
Helluva illustrator. Helluva photographer. Helluva site design. Hot people. Hot fashion. If it weren’t for the ocean between us, I might propose.
If you’ve been reading this website long enough, then you know how selective I am about photography. It takes a lot to impress me photographically, and generally a breadth of style and subject matter is required. So, you’ll understand how good Sabra Krock must be if I decide to feature her as a photographer, but not only a photographer, a niche photographer (that’s not an insult, I’m sure she’s equally amazing at shooting everything else, too). Krock creates some of the most beautiful imagery of food I’ve ever laid my pupils on. I mean damn, girl. I think my eyes and my stomach tried to climb their way out of my body simultaneously just to get closer to those photos. If you’ve ever wanted to know what kind of difference a real passion for subject matter can make in an artist’s work, then look no further. You can also read Krock’s blog for recipes of the various foods that she photographs. She has made my day.
When thinking about moving back East (far in the future), I always end up with three or four towns as my finalists, and one of those towns is Austin. It’s got decent skate, art, and music communities, and, barring the overflow of SXSW every year, it maintains a nice, small town vibe. One of the things that most people probably overlook, but is pretty significant to me, is that Austin also has a really strong design community. In fact, it’s almost eerily solid on design in a way that even major cities can’t compete with. All they need now is for Jason Munn from The Small Stakes to relocate there, and that’s pretty much got the whole poster design market sewn up for Austin. Further cementing their dominance in this design field is Justin David Cox whose work is simple, clean and clever; everything that I want to see from a poster. Hell, it’s everything I want to see from a website. And, on top of that, he’s a helluva photographer. I’ve got to quit finding this kind of inspiration, otherwise “far in the future” is going to become “randomly in the middle of the night very soon”. Anyone got a couch in Austin I can crash on?
You see that beautiful photograph up there? The photographer that took that is sixteen, possibly fifteen when it was taken. Is giving everyone more talent than me God’s way of testing my mettle? I’d rather take the written exam, Yahweh. Damn, that girl is good.
