Planet Earth - the journey continues

"Experience Earth as never before with groundbreaking footage of our planet and its wildlife." Some of the most electrifying footage ever of nature, animals and the environment I have ever seen.      The detail is incredible.    It almost looks like it was shot with a 70 mm lens.   Imagine an 8x10 photograph set to motion.


For adults and children alike this is impossible to miss.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/planetearth/



 

Tastemaker, stone cold fox and rock royalty Jade Jagger starts her new company Jezebel.     Jade is involved in promoting her events, clothing and jewelry lines.

Luckily this hottie can back it up with really great taste and some cool products.

Cool New Yorkers already know this, but if you want to dance your ass off, you go to a gay club.  This rings true for any city in the world pretty much.   And guess what, no one will hit on you. I have been clubbing since the eighties,  some of those years were spent working in clubs so I've always been interested in the history of nightclubs and the subculture that comes out of them.

Photo Credit:  I. C. Rapoport
In doing my research on NYC's meatpacking  district and West Village I came accross some amazing imagery from the 1960's-1980's.       I found this photographer I.C. Rapoport who was a photo journalist during this time .    He worked for Paris Match and the Kennedy administration.   Check him out.
 
IC Rapoport photo website

This was the home to the Ramrod, Club 82 (where many punk legends played) and many other gay bars.  Whats also interesting is the mob owned many of these clubs and spread a wave of extortion through the west village.  Aids changed it all, bars where Tom of FInland fashions were started and a style counter culture that now only exists in the underground and Taschen art books.
 
The last photograph of elegant drag queens is by Rapaport shot in Times Square area in the early 60's.    Flyers and Images from the Ramrod.

   

Guy Bourdin is my favorite fashion photographer.  His work is collected, revered and imitated all over the world.    His technical brilliance, sense of color and setting created beautifully creepy sexually charged images.   A hotdog never looked so good.
 

















1950 saw Bourdin have his first show of drawings and paintings at Galerie, Rue de la Bourgogne, Paris.   Soon after he was showing photographs in 1952 with an introduction by Man Ray.    His first fashion photographs were published in French Vogue in 1955.    The legend had found his forte.


 Bourdin's ad campaigns and creative collaboration with Charles Jourdan, which started in 1967 and ended in 1981, are some of the most iconic fashion advertising images in history.    Creating incredibly seductive imagery was Bourdin's legacy. His staged narratives and fine attention to detail created glamorous images with an undercurrent of danger and erotic pleasure.


In the 1970's Advertising campaigns for Claude Montana, Issey Miyake , Versace, Loewe, and Bloomingdales accompanied his fine art museum shows and editorial work.
























He shot for all the top fashion magazines including Italien and British Vogue, Vogue Homme and Harper's Bazaar.   Numerous advertising and photography awards followed including the Infinity Award presented by Annie Liebovitz from ICP in NY.


Sadly this photography genius died in Paris in 1991 at the age of 62.     
He will live on with his art and his images in my mind forever.
His fine art prints are available through Pace McGIll gallery.   Elton John owns twelve prints.  
His books are available at Amazon.com and Fine art bookstores all over the world.

Guy Bourdin website

Was in NYC this week and had a minute of free time to check out the The New Museum.    I loved this show, it was edgy, contemporary, rock and roll and had a global vibe.   Oh, and an amazing KISS sculpture.  check it out.   New Museum NYC website

First images are of Daniel Guzman's work, bottom images of Steven Shearer

Double Album: Daniel Guzman and Steven Shearer

This exhibition brings together two artists - Daniel Guzmán (born 1964, lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico) and Steven Shearer (born 1968, lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada). Both artists work in a variety of mediums exploring issues of male identity, extended adolescence, rock culture, death, and the seductive ambiguity of self-portraiture. Experiencing their work, one immediately sees a parallel adoption of 1970s and 1980s pop icons and bands as surrogates and personal avatars.

Daniel Guzmán draws. His work is a tidal wave of drawing that also becomes a dynamic inventory of drawing styles. His myriad influences range from Aztec codices, Haight-Ashbury psychedelia, comic books from his youth, and Mexican muralists, particularly José Clemente Orozco. The topics of Guzmán's drawings fuse old gods with current events, cultural idols, inventories of deadly sins, and cardinal virtues.

Guzmán's sculpture is a natural extension of his drawing techniques. He uses the simplest of materials to sketch a three-dimensional incident and establish encounters with the magic realism of the everyday. In much of his work there are two levels of interpretation - what it is (the sum of its parts) and what it signifies (the poetry of its allusions).

While it is impossible to think of Guzmán's art outside of the context of Mexico, it is equally impossible to ignore the wider cultural context provided by the United States and the world beyond. It is the ease of his citations (be it William Burroughs or Roberto Bolaño, Bruce Nauman or Kiss) that creates a floating universe of sublimely mismatched equivalencies.

Steven Shearer curates collections. He maintains thousands of digital files from which his art is evolved and created. In service to his work, Shearer harvests the aspirations of those souls wandering on the Web, riffing on air guitars, catching their zzz's, selling their stuff on eBay, or posing as the stars they yearn to be. From these enormous files, Shearer creates collage accumulations that are epic documentaries of the possessions and the poses of a slacker paradise.

Shearer also paints the ghosts of the Web. His portraits of anonymous adolescents and fallen teen idols are replete with the keyed-up color of the Symbolists whom the artist admires, but they also come with the subjects sheathed in a psychedelic aura that has vibrated around metal bands for decades. It is, in fact, the names and lyrics of metal bands from which Shearer derives the acid-etched poems that are reminiscent of William Burroughs' cut-up techniques.

Shearer's sculpture has grown to be an increasingly important part of his work. It comes with narratives that imply design as a tool for character reformation and psychic healing. Like the music Shearer references, his sculpture is both a narcotic promise and a harmonic convergence.

The exhibition is organized by Richard Flood, Chief Curator.

Bulgari in Tokyo commissioned this beautiful eco installation of live plants.    I love this.    I felt the air change when i stood next to it.  It's a mini rainforest eco system in the lobby.    I wish more corporations would do this in their corporate offices.   Its beautiful and makes a powerful corporate statement about the environment.




























If you are visiting Tokyo this building on Omotesando st. in Shibuya-ku has an amazing food court of simple healthy options in the basement.   There is a wine bar that plays soft eclectic jazz, a nice break from the hustle and bustle outside.    It also houses an amazing Lupicia store for the coolest teas in the world.    It was serene and had nice lighting too, always a plus for a mall.   Really elegant, upscale but not expensive and well designed.  I also recommend going to White Room gallery on the 3 floor.    A beautiful modern space that features contemporary photography.

A redesign that really works.    I've been noticing eco trends in the beauty-health industry.   Women want products that are healthy, clean and beautiful not medicinal or cold.    Herbs and natural fruits and vegies are a big factor here for me.    The texture, smell, color is all very important, the package design the most important.     Not only is the new packaging elegant and contemporary, but the new ingredients change the playing field for this drug store brand.

St Ives was never fabulous, they were below average with a lower price point.   Now you can get beauty and a gorgeous package for a great price.   This product is a hit with Reggie.   They have successfully repositioned this brand and brought it into the 08.

Im in love with Dr. Weil's products for Origins.    I found myself drawn into his eco display at japanese retail giant Isetan.    It was green and jungle-ish.   (A nice change from the more medicinal and perfumey displays you see-definitely a retail display trend happening here)    The smells were a cure for my tired sinuses.   A combo of mint, chamomile, ginger, and tumeric just enveloped me.   I was hungry too, but I was mostly thirsty to put this yummy stuff on my face.

The amazing art star Matthew Barney presented his installation and performance for Ren last night in Norwalk Ca.   It all started as viewers got into their cars and drove to Norwalk to experience something close to a rock opera .     400 lucky viewers were invited to view the spectacle.    Barney took over an abandoned RV dealership and converted the space into REN Chrysler.    All the cars were rented, all the stickers custom, the license plates, actors, marching band, mariachis and laborers cast locally to contribute to the production.    A cameraman told me they had been filming the set for 3 days prior to the performance.    18 hi def cameras were on set shooting.   Barney stood quietly on the sidelines and watched as his two hour performance took place.    At one point the destruction within the building with fire, fluids flying and a wrecking ball shattered part of the building and glass cut a few spectaters which added to the tension of the performance.





















































In attendance were Spiderman actor and art lover James Franco, literary beauty Sophie Dahl, designer Jeremy Scott, artists Catherine Opie, Agathe Snow and hundreds of art lovers.    In case you can't tell, thats a Chrysler Imperial with a giant porta potty welded into the trunk followed by a giant septic tank shaped as a globe filled with the nastiest blue septic fluid.





Neville Wakefield article on Matthew in FRIEZE

Matthew is an artist who works in film, video, installations, sculpture and drawing.   He is, in my opinion one of the most innovative artists of the 21s century.    The film series The Cremaster Cycle is Barney's best-known work. The films had very high budgets by experimental art film standards, and featured such varied celebrities as Norman Mailer, Ursula Andress, and Richard Serra.

In 2006, he released Drawing Restraint 9, a collaboration with his partner Björk, who plays the female of the two central roles in the film, and contributed the music for the soundtrack.

In interviews, Barney has mentioned the phenomenon of hypertrophy as a metaphorical inspiration for much of his work; several of his performance pieces have involved Barney restrained or somehow encumbered while attempting to execute a drawing. The performance aspects of Barney's work have been described as predominant, while the resultant drawings have been called "[not] very interesting in their own right." Some have criticized Drawing Restraint 9 for what has been termed a superficial treatment of Japanese culture combined with an undesirable awkwardness in the actors/performers, including Barney.^[4] A gallery show accompanying the Drawing Restraint 9 project appeared at Gladstone Gallery in New York, April 7-May 13, 2006, featuring thermoplastic sculptures associated with the film and the remains of a private project performed at the gallery April 2, 2006, titled Drawing Restraint 13: The Instrument of Surrender, for which Barney emerged from a crate dressed as General Douglas MacArthur, walked across a platform, and fell into a vat of petroleum jelly. Barney reused his motif of dressing as MacArthur in a show later that year (June 23 through September 17, 2006) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. That performance involved Barney scaling the museum's atrium to execute a large sketch of his iconic pill-shaped symbol--another recurring motif in his work. (source wikipedia)

Fashion enfant terribe shoots fashion story in this months Interview magazine.

When he isn't busy working out, smoking cigarettes or showing his ear bling, he's workin it for the camera.

Did I mention in his spare time he designs 3 lines (LVMH, Marc Jacobs and Marc)

Sometimes you have to fail to win.    When Marc showcased his first collection for Perry Ellis.   The infamous "Grunge" collection, he was fired.   Only to be rehired by LVMH and given a namesake line.      Take note ladies, calculated risks are good and can pay off in a big way if you believe in yourself.

Was I the only one who noticed this resemblance?  You gotta love John Travolta for going from a sweathog to a monkey.    Did Jack Johnson get this movie because he looked like George?  How can you not love the look.  Its a style classic.

Its finally happening.   The boom in the art market is moving into real estate.   These gorgeous architectural gems are going like hot cakes.    Richard Neutra's (1946) Kafmann House in Palm Springs sold for almost 17 mill.   Christies Contemporary Art auction featured the property, which sold to an undisclosed buyer.   Julius Shulman shot the legendary house in 1947 and the iconic photographs were featured in many books and magazines.

NYC photo festival

The future of contemporary photography .    Go to Dumbo in Brooklyn and check it.

Curated by photo legend Martin Parr, Lesley A. Martin, Tim Barber and Kathy Ryan


below photos in order: Tim Barber, Claudia Angelmaier, Penelope Umbrico

ok, I'm not publishing an obituary here, but unfortunately a few artists died recently and I'm paying homage.    Bernd Becher of the Bechers passed away last year.   I highly recommend anyone interested in fine art photography purchase all their books.  Hard to find, but worth it.

Bernd and Hilla Becher are among the most influential artists of our time. For more than forty years they have been recording the heritage of an industrial past. Their systematic photography of functionalist architecture, often organizing their pictures in grids, brought them recognition as conceptual artists as well as photographers. As the founders of what has come to be known as the 'Becher school' they have brought their influence in a unique way to bear on generations of documentary photographers and artists.



Bernd and Hilla Becher were a German photographer team and a married couple, best- known for their collection of industrial building images examining the similarities and differences in structure and appearance.

Bernd (1931 - 2007) and Hilla (b. 1934) Becher first met at the Düsseldorf Academy. Both were studying painting at the time and in 1961, the two were married. They first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959, and had their first Gallery exhibition in 1963 at the Galerie Ruth Nohl in Siegen. They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. In addition, they were intrigued by the fact that so many of these industrial buildings seemed to have been built with a great deal of attention toward design.

Together, the Bechers went out with a large format camera and photographed these buildings from a number of different angles, but always with a straightforward "objective" point of view. The images of structures with similar functions were then displayed side by side to invite viewers to compare their forms and designs. These structures included barns, water towers, storage silos, and warehouses.

The Bechers also photographed outside of Germany, including buildings from the United States and other areas of Europe. Bernd taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and influenced students that later made a name for themselves in the photography industry. Former students of Bernd's included Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, and Candida Höfer.

source:  Wikipedia

For fun, family pics and parties I use:

LEICA C lux 2:

This is my party camera.    Its always in my purse, its small and its chic.   Fits right into a clutch handbag and is small and unobtrusive.    It also takes little movies.     Elegant, practical and the quality is great.    Doesn't shoot raw.  Large format jpg only.



The C-Lux 2 has few external controls, keeping the operation simple for basic picture taking. The power button, zoom lever, mode dial, four-way jog controller are all external controls, keeping the settings you rarely need to concern yourself with in the menu. In keeping with the camera's compactness they have even done away with a viewfinder

Oh my god, this is so sad.    The amazing Robert Rauschenberg has passed away.  I don't know the exact cause of death, but it has been reported that he was suffering from pneumonia.   He was 82 years young.

Here's a paragraph from the NY Times article.. "Building on the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell and others, he thereby helped to obscure the lines between painting and sculpture, painting and photography, photography and printmaking, sculpture and photography, sculpture and dance, sculpture and technology, technology and performance art -- not to mention between art and life."

This is one of my favorite paintings by Rauschenberg.   He has told the story of when he started working on this Kennedy was still alive.    While he was finishing the piece, Kennedy was assassinated and he was conflicted about showing the painting.   In a strange way, the painting is even more profound because of that.     He worked alongside another influential pop artist, Jasper Johns, for many years. He also collaborated with musician John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham.    Rauschenberg worked with so many techniques and was part of the conceptual art movement, when he erased the DeKooning 1953 and hung it on display the art world didn't know what had hit them.

1986 BMW art car.     So creative, a genius of art.   His 1968 sculpture "SOLSTICE" silkscreened ink on motorized Plexiglas doors in metal frame with lights just blows away about anything Damien Hirst has ever done.  

  I am so sad to see such a ginormous talent pass away.

There comes a time when your child starts liking her own music.    Hence, the boy band and other tween sensations like Hannah Montana.   Did I mention that Miley's tour was one of the most successful in the last decade, $50 million in ticket sales and 1 billion projected for the fiscal year this year.   It's RIDIC.     Thank god she's not a drug addict and wears panties out of the house.  In the press lately for her Vanity Fair mix up where pushy legend photog Annie Liebowitz "forced" her to pose in a sultry manner.

Kids have always had their own music- much of it manufactured by the Disney channel and  Svengali's like Simon Fuller that produce boy bands.  I had to sit through High School Musical one and two about 60 times, and listen to every spin off star's solo record.  Frankly it all sucks, but as parents we are force fed.     When I was a kid, Duran Duran was the boy band.   They weren't that bad, in hindsight, they rocked.

If you are conservative, give them the Jonas Brothers.    If Silverlake produced a boy band, this would be it.  They are well styled and have punk-pop catchy G-rated hits.  This band, produced by Disney,  also has  a movie , CAMP ROCK (yes, I will be forced to see it) coming out this year, along with merchandising and all those other things 360 deals involve.    They earned 12 million last year.



If you like metal, Tokio Hotel is one of the biggest pop bands in Europe and they are starting to get airplay in the US.    Mark my words, this band will be huge.   They give new meaning to the idea of a hair band.    They are twins and they think, "the Olsen twins are cute".    aahhhhh.  how cute.
 

Luckily, my daughter has discovered Joan Jett, and we watch her on YouTUBE singing, I LOVE ROCK N ROLL.    "It just sounds so much better from a girl Mommy". (and guess what, she writes her own music and lyrics)    Amen to that.

CANON G9


My new favorite travel camera.    Bang for the buck is the canon G9.    If Im shooting for myself and I don't have to shoot a 50mb file I use the G9.    It weighs nothing and is great when hiking, boating, climbing.      Lately I've become a bit of an eco traveler and I love this camera for extreme weather.   Its hard to tote a heavy SLR under your armpit or in a Patagonia jacket.   This camera is small enough to stash under a jacket if it rains etc.     I used this camera on location in Belize when I was hiking in the rainforest.     I could process my images raw, but didn't have to risk ruining my larger SLR canons.    Oh, and the best of all, its under $500 bucks.     


The PowerShot G9 features:

    * 12.1 Megapixels (1/1.7" sensor) with RAW mode for maximum image control
    * 6x optical zoom lens with optical Image Stabilizer and SR coating*
    * DIGIC III and iSAPS for lightning fast response, superb image quality and advanced Noise Reduction*
    * Face Detection AF/AE/FE and Red-Eye Correction in playback
    * 3.0" high-resolution, PureColor LCD II with extra wide viewing angle
    * ISO 1600 and Auto ISO Shift
    * Compact body with dedicated ISO and Multi Control dials
    * 25 shooting modes including full manual control and 2 custom settings
    * Extra telephoto reach with Digital Tele-Converter and Safety Zoom*
    * Hot shoe support for Canon Speedlite flashes and optional lens accessories

Fashion icon and all around british diva Ms. Moss is immortalized in art.

If you are visiting NYC  the Meatpacking district rocks.  It's not much of a secret anymore, but I thought I would mention it.    The meatpacking has become somewhat of a design district.  

Yes, it was a decrepid armpit about 10 years ago and even better when I would lurk home from Mars about 15 years ago after a night of boogie fever.   Hookers, hells angels, pimps and the west side transients would congregate after dark.     Trudging past drag queens on my way into a cab.   Ahh, the early nineties.

What has now emerged is a slick fabulous fashionista and art neighborhood that many top fashion photographers call home.    Steven Klein, Dah Len and Christian Witken all have their studios near Gaansevoort.   One of my favorite studios to shoot in, MILK studios is on 15th st where Peter Lindberg and Michel Compte create magic when they are in town. 
 

The Hotel Gaansevoort and Soho house are here.    The Maritime hotel is a 2 block walk.
meatpacking design site

The clothes are overpriced and so are the antiques, but the neighborhood still has a lot of charm, cool bars and fun hotels.  I can't wait until the high line is finished in like 20 years.  Check it out.   

Perry shows he's still got it.   I can't believe he's 52 he looks amazing.  It's that rock stars don't seem to age like real people.   Either drugs preserved him or he just has really good hair.   Perry performed at the Paul Frank store this Saturday.    His back up band, school of rock's performing tweens.   It was short and sweet but worth every second, performing Stop and Mountain Song Perry rocked it out.    It was a treat seeing the Jane's Addiction frontman still has his touch performing for 50 people, many of whom were 2 feet tall.




kidzapalooza.com    August 1-3 Grant Park          kids 10 and under are free

One of my favorite Al Pacino movies CRUISING (1980) just came out on DVD.   The cult hit was written and directed by the amazing William Friedkin (French Connection, the Exorcist).    This movie was groundbreaking for many reasons.   It was the first time an award winning director brought a gritty sub culture to the big screen with a major movie star in the starring role.   Cruising was based on a fictional series of serial killer S&M murders that haunted the gay leather scene in New York during the 1970's.   *There is also a book out on fashions during that period, more about that later.

The incredible punk soundtrack by Jack Nietzsche  (no relation to the philosopher) enlisted GERMS frontman Darby Crash to write lyrics.   Lionshare was the Germs song.   More songs were in the can but Darby OD'd that year.    For more on Darby Crash read LEXICON DEVIL-one of the best books about LA punk culture.   by Brendan Mullen

The techie in me is fascinated with this new program called Hypershot.    It's an application developed by Oscar winning computer graphics guru Henrik Wann Jensen.











































The technique uses photomapping to create photo real lighting situations.    Final product is an ultra realistic composite that looks like a photograph.    The applications are unlimited.   The program is used mostly in the automotive, engineering, entertainment and architecture markets to visualize concepts in the hyper real world.     This product is already revolutionizing advertising and industrial engineering where creating expensive mockups are now a thing of the not so distant past.
Bunkspeed

I can't wait until artists get a hold of this and start shaking things up.





















All you need to do now is dream it and there it is.  Diamonds are a girl's bestfriend.
all images courtesy of Bunkspeed hypershot website.

Every once in a while there will be a TV show that captures the zeitgeist of the nation.   Sex in the City was a show like this.     Sex really raised the bar for feminine dialogue and fashion on television.     With legendary stylist Pat Field creating funky ensembles for the ladies who lunch. 
 

Carrie Bradshaw was about as chic as you can get, and she started many trends.    She made name plate necklaces mainstream.   I don't know if I hate on her for that or not.    But who can hate a girl who wears a horse purse and leg warmers with mini skirts.
 

Before Ms. Bradshaw talked about her "manolos" most women didn't know what they were. Get ready for the movie out this month.

The new show du jour is Gossip Girl.    The kids are rich, spoilt and gorgeous.   How can I turn my head?   Will the new shoe be a Louboutin?   The styling is done by the fabulous Eric Damon, who I am lucky enough to have worked with in my edgy Reggie editorial days.

Does this scream Harajuku girls to you?
























Eric is rocking it out and making Gossip GIrls one of the most fashionable shows on TV.  The gorgeous cast is pretty easy on the eyes.    Get ready for new tabloid fodder .

After being completely overwhelmed by the Broad collection we took our daughter to the Boone children's Gallery at Lacma west.       This was so cool.   An entire room, about 8000 square feet for kids to run and play and make art.    Architectural renderings of the Broad building and the Lacma renovation, child studios, Polaroid walls, and stuff to climb on.  



























I loved the little art studio where kids could get a little apron, paint, brushes, supplies and random junk to create their own works of art.      Supplies are stacked neatly on metrowire and parents/kids can choose what they want to use.    I took some of these ideas home with me and created a little art cart.    It's a hit.  Nova is making art everyday now and its not hard to clean up.  

Nexgen offers art classes for kids, teens and families.    Spring art camps, Family nexgen Sundays.    Free youth membership for everyone 17 and under.     There is no excuse for kids to join.

For underwater photography I love the OLYMPUS 720 SW


This camera is completely waterproof and shock proof.   Great for extreme conditions.    You can shoot it like a regular point and shoot as well.     I use it for snorkeling, torrential downpours  and snowboarding.

Its really elegant and the silver casing makes it so much more chic than the cheesy underwater camera's out there.

About $499.00


     The Stylus 720 SW is Shockproof (up to 5ft.), Waterproof (to depths of up to 10ft.), and Dust Proof so nothing gets in the way of its impressive performance.
#
    Details are rich and colors are vibrant with 7.1 megapixels.