sex sells

http://www.yossimilo.com/exhibitions/2009_07-sexy_city/

Excited about inclusion of Merry Alpern. She seems pretty underrated to me.

Nicolai Ouroussoff on the new Cooper Union building:

"Its lively public spaces reaffirm that enlightenment comes from the free exchange of ideas, not just inward contemplation"

The most broad and prophetic revelation from an architecture review I've read yet! And really true.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/arts/design/05coop.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Steven Soderbergh narrates this curious audio slideshow on the merits of shooting all natural light for 'The Girlfriend Experience'. Going all ambient, he states, is a style that takes a long time to arrive at and be satisfied with as a cinematographer. Having only practicals light a scene isn't new but it seems like a relevant approach today. It seems to parallel pedestrian snapshot photography and our obsession with DIY. The images aren't far off from some candid stuff showing up on my Facebook photo stream. It's a natural step in digital video to go sans lights on a big release. That newfangled Canon 5D Mark II is pretty relevant (and perfect) for this application.

It might indeed be hard to swallow shooting your scenes in natural light. More often than not it's ugly, coming from the wrong direction, uneven, et cetera. This, however, is relatively easy to overcome compared to the prospect of lighting scenes on the with the intention of seeming completely natural. That slightly heightened sense of ambient light is the most difficult to feign of all.

paddles out

Lucky to be selected in one of Daniel Cooney's emerging auctions. There is really good work in this one - DC Fine Art is a mighty worthy cause.

Derek, 2008

shamwow

This picture appeared a few weeks back and I haven't been able to get over it completely. It's a police photo of Sasha Harris. Sasha is an apparent Miami prostitute who took Vince Schlomi as her john. Vince is the face of ShamWow and also of SlapChop fame.

The photo is a testament to their evening together, which concluded with a dual felony battery charge after Sasha apparently bit off Vince's tongue and he returned the favor. A real lovers spat.

Asides from being fairly brutal, the picture is kind of appealing on a few levels. Because Sasha doesn't appear as much of a stunner here, any nod to vanity can be ruled out. Also, any intention to dramatize the injuries - they are well attended to. What keeps me looking is her relative indifference to the viewers presence which questions the necessity of looking altogether. If she is a beat hooker who wont look us in the eye, why should we?

Maybe it has to do with what Walter Benjamin contended about aura in a subject. Maybe it's what makes Thomas Ruff's banal portraits so consuming.

friends at wunderlustagraphy posted a picture of mine last week.

http://wanderlustagraphy.blogspot.com/