Commercial Photographer Cal Redback from Paris is showing a new photo series that is shocking and disturbing and informative, all at once. Called “Tree Beards”, he digitally mixed botanical and other plant matters with portraits of everyday people, to question how much we have alienated ourselves from Mother Nature and to remind us of our connection to the natural world in this day and age. See more on his 500px profile: https://500px.com/calredback .
French artist Thomas Mailaender ‘sunburns’ old photographs onto human bodies. In his new book “Illustrated People”, he applied 23 original negatives from Modern Conflict’s archive onto the skin of models, before projecting a powerful UV lamp over them. The result reveals a fleeting picture on the skin’s surface (burned in), which he then photographs before it fades in the sunlight.
Brooklyn artist Lydia Cambron has decided to recreate those vandalized billboards in the subway in NYC. She applies makeup to match the ad and photographs herself for a new series called Makeup Transit Authority. Who’s to say where your next inspiration may come from? You can see more on her portfolio at: http://lydiacambron.com/
Photographer Jamie Diamond became a Reborner after discovering the community on Ebay. She wanted a fuller understanding of what drove these women to spend sometimes more than $10,000 on a life-like but utterly lifeless infant. Hence, her photo series “Mother Love”, which involved traveling across the US photographing the subculture that has grown up around Reborn dolls. Her work explores the murky waters of reality mixed with artifice, where Reborners create relationships with inanimate objects — an art form born of fantasy. See more on her website.
Toronto-based photographer Thomas Dagg imagines what life in the city would be like if characters from Star Wars lived among us. In this series of gorgeous black and white photos, we find an intimate look at everyday life in a winter wonderland where AT-ATs roam the street while TIE Fighters circle the sky in formation. Luke Skywalker rides a Tauntaun amid a terrific winter storm downtown and Jawas rummage through bins like a nighttime urban menace. He even managed to capture Darth Vader on a soul-sucking streetcar commute in traffic. Enjoy them here.
Portland-based photographer Robbie Augspurger has captured the essence of portraits from that not so distant time period in his “Glamour & Headshots” photo series. The collection imitates the prop-heavy, hair-heavy style of the 80’s odd mall portraits. See more here.
Using projected Buddhist images, French photographer Clément Briend has created these wonderful images in Cambodia. Mere trees have been transformed into large glowing incarnations of Buddhist mythology. According to Briend: “Cambodian culture is deeply rooted in a spirituality – marked by a belief in genii and fantasy creatures. In a dark cityscape, night reveals the presence of divine creatures on trees and subsequently makes them alive and real. Such nocturnal visions allow us to grasp the way magic profoundly influences how Cambodian people perceive the world.”
We are surrounded by youthful models in glamour photography, but when commercial photographer Anastasia Pottinger had an elderly 101 year-old woman offer to pose nude, she took the opportunity to creat a series of these centenarians for an exhibit by the same name. Pottinger says “Viewers are visibly moved by what they are looking at. Whether it’s wondering, “Is this what I’m going to look like?” or remembering a loved one, the response seems to be universally emotional on some level.” See more on her website here.
Photographer Davide Luciano along with his wife and fellow photographer/food stylist Claudia Ficca shot this scene as part of a series entitled “MyPotholes,” photographed in the streets of New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal. After hitting an enormous pothole while visiting their hometown of Montreal, they couldn’t stop thinking about it–not how to fix it, but how to turn it and other potholes into a photography project. “We shot the scenes during uninterrupted traffic; sometimes we needed to get out of the way, and other times drivers would go around us.” says David. Without permits it was shoot and run, but you wouldn’t think it with their elaborate scenes including a guy eating pasta from a pothole in NYC to a scene straight out of Baywatch. Enjoy all 18 here: http://www.mypotholes.com/
Born in Prague, London-based photographer Hana Vojakova’s latest project involves photographing mermaids in what might be their natural habitats today, you know, like if they weren’t mythical creatures. Photos were taken around the world, see more from this “Milk & Sea” project on her site here.
James Obando 