I was shocked to find out that there have been 23 hijackings and attempted seizures off the Somali coast since mid-March. (Intern. Maritime Bureau)   When Vivienne Westwood created her critically acclaimed pirates collection, I doubt this is what she had in mind.   Weren't pirates characters from big Hollywood action movies, with gorgeous movie stars swashbuckling about in Keith Richard's makeup?   I don't know, maybe I have been sleeping under an art rock, but I thought this was worth blogging about.
 

Somali pirates have launched what the International Maritime Bureau calls the biggest surge of piracy on modern record, attacking more than 60 vessels this year off Somalia and in the adjoining Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal, is the main shipping route between Asia and the Middle East to Europe.     For the first time, they attacked a passenger ship carrying 302 civilians, mostly British and American. 

"The southern coastline is among the most dangerous in the world," said Mr Mwangura. These criminals have not only stolen valuable cargo, they are now taking hostages.

I hate to be a fatalist, but no where is safe. .

Washington post article

Jill Greenberg has been around a long time.   She's a very successful commercial photographer and has had some success in the "fine art" photography world.  Although it looks just like her commercial work hung in a "fine art" gallery if you ask me.    Like McCain or not, is beside the point here.
This scandal is all about ethics.  Deception was employed to manipulate a public figure who's only fault is that he is a political candidate running on the Republican ticket.    Yes, he's a warmonger, but make a painting if you want to address that.       Unfortunately for him, McCain was the pawn that Greenberg manipulated; unbeknownst to him.   The above images are before and after "personal" shots that Jill did, below is the unretouched cover where he looks like shit, she purposefully left red eyes and bad skin.

A little backround about her.   Jill is the same photographer who shot "crying babies" a couple of years ago and had a billboard on Highland Ave advertising her show at her gallery.     During the shoot she asked the parents to leave the room for a few minutes and proceeded to upset the children, take candy away, yell at them, do whatever it took to get a shot of them crying.      As a mother, I wonder why would you do this?
  Ms. Greenberg is terribly self involved.     Stick to bears and dogs- Jill.
 
Her legacy, aside from her work, she will be remembered as the photographer who ruined it for everyone else.    The repercussions are as follows:
photographers will have less control on the publication of their images. 
-magazines will have less chance of getting public figures to pose and if they do will demand photo approval.
Here is the quote Jill gave PDN about the shoot and how the shots were done.


Greenberg asked McCain to "please come over here" for one more set-up before the 15-minute shoot was over. There, she had a beauty dish with a modeling light set up. "That's what he thought he was being lit by," Greenberg says. "But that wasn't firing."

What was firing was a strobe positioned below him, which cast the horror movie shadows across his face and on the wall right behind him. "He had no idea he was being lit from below," Greenberg says. And his handlers didn't seem to notice it either. "I guess they're not very sophisticated," she adds.  In the meantime Jill was fired by her agent and sued by The Atlantic.    She has since gone back to Bruce at Artmix who was her agent (and mine) a few years ago.     What she really needs now is a PR clean up crew to do some damage control.

   
PDN article

Ahhh, my furry ,snorty, little friends.    They are so cute, and I have ranted on about them before.   They really are a fashionista's best friend.     Witness these "natural born models" in Raymond Meier's fabulous spread in Oct. Vogue.  I know from personal experience that pugs take direction very well in front of the camera.  They are diva's, demanding attention on the set.    They knawww  at your shoes and sofas and pee on the couch, but other than that they can strike a mean pose.     They look awefully good in a LV or Birkin bag too.  Just humor me.

The ultimate compliment for a designer is the cover of American Vogue.     If "Anna" likes you, you are "in".    Atleast in fashion circles.  For a "non advertiser" like Rodarte to get the front cover worn by the lovely Rachel Weisz is a big deal.    Most don't know but cover credits (both makeup and clothing) and back cover credits are big business, they are sold and brokered by advertising reps at major magazines. 
If you buy ad space you are quaranteed "editorial" coverage.   Chances are, the cover will feature Chanel, Kors, Armani etc because those companies bought 5-8 pages of advertising in the current issue, not because they are great or fabu.    She's also wearing those insane bondage Louboutins which is a nice juxtaposition to the sassy shot.    This is a nice change, seeing a small boutique company that does not advertise featured on the cover. Beautifully shot by the amazing CRAIG MCDEAN in the East VIllage nonetheless.    ITs hot.

Her photomontage work is sexy, glossy, provocative and contemporary.      Can you believe she's been doing it for over 30 years.   Meet Martha Rosler.    
Rosler is one of the most influential artists of her generation and her work frequently compels the viewer to rethink the boundaries between the public and the private, the social and political. During the Vietnam War, she produced Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful (1967-72), a series of photomontages assembled from the pages of Life magazine, where news stories featuring images of the dead and wounded shared column inches with glossy adverts for consumer products.    Martha's new work, "Bringing the war Home" will be running thru Oct. 11.

The work shown here, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, new series (2004), is a reworking of that project. A critique of the current war in Iraq, it draws an immediate comparison with Vietnam. Re-connecting the reality of a distant war with the living rooms of America, she underlines the relationship between the spoils of war and a consumerist society.  (source:www.tate.org.uk/.../mediaburn/martha.shtm)

     
For Martha is represented by:  Mitchell-Innes & Nash
more information about Martha Rosler:   

Martha RoslerMartha Rosler was born in Brooklyn, New York. She took her B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1965 and her M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego in 1974.

Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, and writes criticism. She has lectured extensively nationally and internationally. Her work in the public sphere ranges from everyday life -- often with an eye to women's experience -- and the media to architecture and the built environment.


She has published several books of photographs, texts, and commentary on public space, ranging from airports and roads to housing and homelessness. Her work has been seen in the "Documenta" exhibition in Kassel, Germany; several Whitney biennials; the Institute of Contemporary Art in London; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Dia Center for the Arts in New York; and many other international venues.Tate museum (www.tate.org.uk/.../mediaburn/martha.shtm)

A retrospective of her work has been shown in five European cities and in New York at the New Museum and the International Center of Photography (2000). An accompanying book has been published by MIT Press. Her writing has been published widely in catalogs and magazines, such as Artforum, Afterimage, and NU Magazine.

Rosler has ten published books. She has produced numerous other "Word Works" and photo/text publications -- now exploring cookery in a mock dialogue between Julia Child and Craig Claiborne, now analyzing imagery of women in Russia or exploring responses to repression, crisis, and war.


Martha's gallery and information

You know those Greeks and their yachts, well this is nautical art on a whole other level.   Based on a WW1 camouflage pattern, art genius Jeff Koons created this yacht for billionaire art collector Dakis Joannou.    Architect Ivana Porfiri created the angular facade.   The boat was christened "GUILTY" after a text painting by Sarah Morris.  (see her feature on our site)  Insane and incredible isn't it?


Yacht name: Guilty
Length: 114 ft • 35 m
Year: 2008
Builder: near Rome
Exterior art: Jeff Koons
Design: Ivana Porfiri
Owner: Dakis Joannou

Photos: A • Rhodes • 1 July 2008
Photo: Aeolos • Faliro marina • 13 July 2008

Here are some images from fashion week NYC Sept. 2008. 
The theme in the main tent was the yellow brick road and many designers unveiled "Dorothy's shoes".   These Guiseppe Zanotti's were cute.
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Nike just launched NSW, a clothing line of sportswear and technical apparel.  

Based on the concept of the "playmaker".    The playmaker is basically the player that controls the game.   Art critic Neville Wakefield wrote one of the essays along with other conceptual writers and contributors.    This campaign was executed perfectly based on contemporary art inspirations.   The visual imagery was to capture speed, action, sports and futuristic technology components.    I did the photography and the Design was by DUALFORCES. who designed Lipsticktracez as well.
  check it.

My Dad was a huge opera buff and Wagner was usually playing in the background at my house growing up.    I think when I had nightmares Die Walkure was like the background music.     At the time I thought it was annoying, but now I think fondly back to those days when my Dad would blare Beethoven or Wagner and sit around talking about Nietzsche.    My sister and I were dragged to the opera and just hated it at the time, does any 10 year old like opera?     After high school I found myself listening to classical music quite a bit, especially the Italian composers like Vivaldi and Verdi.     I also listen to a lot of Bach and have turned Nova onto it.   Very soothing, kids love it.   (Baby Bach is a great kid relaxer) 
One of my favorite opera's is La Boheme.   It's so tragic and beautiful.        A few years back I discovered Maria Callas.   Her signature operas were Tosca and Norma, although she performed La Boheme as well. (source for these images is the Maria Callas website)
She was the Audrey Hepburn of Opera.   A mezzo-soprano with incredible talent, a voice to die for and great style.     They just don't make em like they used to.     A true Diva. 
   Unfortunately the great love of her life, Aristotle Onassis left her for Jackie O (hard to compete with that).    He broke her heart and her spirit.   She was never quite the same after that.
Maria Callas official site 

Maria Callas  (December 2, 1923 - September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and perhaps the most renowned opera singer of the 1950s. She combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, and further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini, and in her early career, the music dramas of Wagner. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed La Divina. (wikipedia source)


    
 

I normally don't take fashion photographers as artists too seriously but I do make acceptions.    Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Chris Von Wangenheim are some of my favorites.  (and ofcourse, among the living Mr. Steven Meisel)  The funny thing is their work was all done around the same time.     Guess I love that 1970's look.   One of my favorite models of that era was Lisa Taylor who is in Vogue this month  at 56 and still looking amazing.  Here she is in a DIOR ad shot in 1976 with a Doberman, this image is pretty iconic and you have probably seen it.     Two of my favorite inspirations, crime and fashion came together in Chris's imagery.    The look of Chris's visuals served as the photography inspiration for the film  The Eyes of Laura Mars".  The styling, the makeup, hair, energy.   One of my favorite Faye Dunaway movies.     I'll never be glamourous enough to wear gouchos and heels on a shoot and throw an ElCamino into a ring of fire, but she knew how to make it look fabulous.

Chris von Wangenheim produced a body of work which has continued to fascinate, intrigue and influence the photography world. Combining a dark world of sexuality, violence, and vouyerism in all their perverse implications, with an extreme visual elegance, he achieved a starling synthesis of glamour and terror which is unique to his work.

He was born in 1942 in Germany. In 1965 he migrated to New York to learn photography. One year after he had set up his own studio and began working for Harper's Bazaar.By 1970 he was photographing for Italian Vogue and by 1971 for French Vogue. In 1972 he became 'contributing editor' of American Vogue.

Chris von Wangenheim worked for many mayor advertising companies such as Revlon, Clairol, Christian Dior and Helena Rubinstein. He also contributed to magazines like Esquire, Oui, Playboy, and Interview.

His career was cut short in 1981 by an early accidental death.


Staley Wise gallery
all images and bio courtesy of Staley Wise gallery