Oregon Journal: Wieden+Kennedy’s John Jay

December 2, 2009 – 11:38 am

Bruce Wolf’s “Oregon Journal” debuted here a couple of weeks ago with a slew of his mysterious landscape photos. For his second installment, he’s focusing on someone else’s work: Wieden+Kennedy’s John Jay…

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John Jay is the executive creative director of Wieden+Kennedy. A former New Yorker, he truly does have his finger on the pulse of Portland and, moreover, the world. He travels incessantly for business and spends a great deal of time in Asia. He is obsessed with pop culture, especially in China and Japan.

John’s personal creative adjunct is Studio J, a space devoted to his and wife Janet’s projects. These projects are far ranging. The most recent one was curating “The Jelly Generation,” a multimedia exhibit of art, photography, fashion, music, and design being created in China by the post-1980s generation. As stated at the exhibit, this is “the first generation after the ‘one child policy’—[these artists] didn’t have siblings…they didn’t have to share.”

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All exhibition photos by Bruce Wolf.

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What I took away from the exhibit (which was at the Goldsmith Gallery) was the global nature of the work. It was fresh and new without being naïve. There was no hint of the isolation China imposed on its young artists for so many years. It also included the absolute best Photoshop-created montages I have ever seen—two very large urban landscapes that appear to be decaying hillsides. Simply breathtaking in both concept and execution. Who said Oregon only has trees? —Bruce Wolf

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in News & Commentary | Tags: Bruce Wolf, Chinese artists, John Jay, Oregon Journal, The Jelly Generation, Wieden+Kennedy | Leave a Comment

Today’s NYT Lens blog: Lauren Greenfield’s “Dubai”

December 1, 2009 – 9:35 am

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I first wrote about Lauren’s photo essay on Dubai back in August, when the images appeared in Fast Company, Das, and Zeit magazines. If you’ve been following the news, you know the story has continued to build to a potentially devastating ending: There have been reports that the government of Dubai might default on roughly two-thirds of its $80 billion in debt, which could in turn affect creditors all over the world.

All the more reason, then, to keep examining what went wrong. Today’s New York Times Lens blog features Lauren’s photographic observations of Dubai, plus an interview with Lauren by James Estrin. An excerpt:

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As the orgy of building ground to a halt earlier this year, the photographer Lauren Greenfield set out to tell the story of Dubai and the foreign workers who make up most of its population.

“I call the story an improbable fairy tale,” Ms. Greenfield said. “Anything that could be fantasized could be built. It really was the land of opportunity. It’s more Las Vegas than Las Vegas.”

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Our Photographers in the News, Recent Work | Tags: Dubai World, James Estrin, Lauren Greenfield, lens blog | Leave a Comment

Diane Pernet interviews Roxanne Lowit

November 30, 2009 – 9:07 am

Diane Pernet. Photo by Peter Lippmann.

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It’s not often that a journalist is regarded as a figure of intrigue. Being interesting is the subject’s role; we writers are there to pay attention and faithfully tell their story. That’s generally speaking. And there’s nothing general, it seems, about Diane Pernet.

“The fashion journalist Diane Pernet crosses the Pont des Arts at midnight, slipping like a shadow past singing packs of students, pairs of lovers and gawking tourists. She is nearly that easy to miss in the cover of darkness, dressed, as she has been for 25 years, in black from top to toe. But as her eerie silhouette comes into focus, students stop singing, lovers stand aside and tourists suddenly gawk at her,” wrote Josh Patner in the August 28, 2006, issue of The New York Times‘ T Magazine.

Diane used to be neighbors with Roxanne Lowit, as she notes at her blog, A Shaded View on Fashion. The two were recently in Paris at the same time—Roxanne’s book Backstage Dior is making its debut in France on Thursday—and the two did a video interview. Among the subjects that they cover are the books that Roxanne would like to make next. One of them is a collection of portraits of artists and photographers,  and the other is a best-of her backstage pictures. The latter would span some 30 years. “Instead of a book,” notes Roxanne, “it’s more like my encyclopedia.” The video is worth watching both for Roxanne’s recollections of her early days shooting backstage and for the sound of the smoky voice—whose face we never see—asking the questions.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Video Clips | Tags: backstage photography, Diane Pernet, dior, fashion photography, fashion shows, Roxanne Lowit | Leave a Comment

Microsoft donates laptops to Michael Muller’s KCK

November 25, 2009 – 10:36 am

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Remember Kids Clicking Kids, the program that Michael Muller cofounded via the Art of Elysium to inspire hospitalized kids through the power of photography? Well, a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft very kindly donated laptops to each of the children in KCK’s dialysis program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, whose Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism is one of the two largest programs in the nation for dialysis of children with chronic kidney failure.

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Michael Muller with some of the KCK kids and their new computers. All photos by Casey Rodgers/caseyrodgersphoto.com

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The Lenovo-brand laptops were custom-designed in a collaborative process with actress Brittany Snow (who was there, along with actor Shawn Sanford, when the computers were presented), the kids, who range in age from 8 to 21, and Microsoft.

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Shawn Sanford, Brittany Snow, and Michael.

 

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To find out more about the wonderful work of Kids Clicking Kids, please visit their website.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Art of Elysium, Brittany Snow, casey rodgers, Kids Clicking Kids, lenovo, Michael Muller, microsoft, shawn sanford | Leave a Comment

Video: Lauren Greenfield’s Stouffer’s commercial

November 25, 2009 – 9:58 am

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Featuring stills and stop-motion animation…

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Click to view the video.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Video Clips | Tags: Lauren Greenfield, photographers who shoot video, stop motion animation, stouffer's | Leave a Comment

The $5 portfolio

November 24, 2009 – 10:07 am

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Do you keep a version of your portfolio on your cellphone? I can’t think of a reason not to. You never know who you’ll meet when you’re at an exhibition opening, on a plane, at a party, whatever, and while proffering a business card and mentioning who you’ve shot for can be effective, it seems like your actual work would be your best representative. And if you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch), you can get an app like Portfolio for $4.99 or download Flickr’s iPhone app for free. Having your portfolio with you at all times, in other words, costs a pittance.

Right about now, I’m feeling self-conscious about the fact that I only just got an iPhone and am in awe over it in a very 2007 way. Then again, I still see photographer websites that use Flash—new websites by established photographers—even though it’s well known by now that Flash makes it much harder for your site to be found by Web crawlers. (“Putting your entire website in Flash, or including captions and keywords in the image itself instead of as text below the image, is not advised if you expect search engine traffic,” notes PhotoShelter in an article on photographer websites.) So I’m operating on the premise that what’s old news to some people is a full-on discovery to others.

If you’re interested in exploring the possibilities of your iPhone for your photo business, pay a visit to this blog, where a photographer has posted her tips for using the iPhone as a “multipurpose tool,” like making albums of reference photos. And check out American Photo‘s recent feature “Photographers and Their iPhones.”

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“…Cameraphone photography has become more than just a visual notebook, a journalistic record of events or a way to send friends photos of your dog,” the article asserts. “While most photographers will claim that they simply fell into shooting with their cell phones, saying, “What the heck, I’ve always got my phone with me,” it has rapidly evolved into a legitimate tool for artistic expression and has even shown up in commercial outlets, such as Robert Clark’s commissioned book Image America, shot entirely with his cameraphone. Fullana landed a cover gig from Time Out New York for his urban iPhone images.”

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The American Photo story focuses on four specific photographers, and the magazine’s blog “State of the Art” offers perspective from an additional three who’ve made the iPhone part of their daily routine. Meanwhile, if you’d like to share your own experiences with or advice for using the iPhone in your photo biz, please do post a comment or send me an email (kristina at stocklandmartel.com).

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in News & Commentary | Tags: American Photo, flickr, iphone, photog apps, portfolios | Comments (1)

Video: Lauren Greenfield’s Nestle commercial

November 23, 2009 – 11:11 am

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Lauren shot a commercial for Nestle for JWT that’s now airing. With the exception of the grandmother, everyone you see here is a real family cast by Lauren and her team.

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Click on the photo to view the commercial.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Recent Work, Video Clips | Tags: jwt, Lauren Greenfield, nestle | Leave a Comment

Walter Iooss on “Changing the Game”

November 23, 2009 – 9:52 am

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From the Annenberg's online gallery of images from "Sport: Iooss and Leifer."

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Walter has written about his exhibition at the Annenberg for The Huffington Post. Well, I think he wrote it, though he might have just said the words and someone else wrote it all down. It’s hard to tell, since at the end of the piece, it says the text was “dictated” at the museum…

But the point, my friends, and I promise I do have one, is that you can now get Walter’s take on “Sport: Iooss and Leifer”—which has been written about by others all over the place since it opened on November 13. Here’s an excerpt from “Walter Iooss: Changing the Game”:

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“Sport is such a gigantic part of the fabric of this country. I think 70 percent of everyone born in this country have played some kind of sport and loved it. It’s so beautiful to be emotionally involved in something you can escape to. Sport is an escape. You can follow these exceptional athletes and watch them move and accomplish things that are just superhuman – under extreme pressure – and it ends up being incredible whether they win or lose. We all follow teams and athletes, follow their achievements, and when they are hurt, sick… we follow them because to us they’re special.” —Walter Iooss

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Our Photographers in the News | Tags: Walter Iooss, neil leifer, sport: iooss and leifer | Comments (2)

Oregon Journal: wild, moody, and mysterious

November 20, 2009 – 3:55 pm

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I noticed that Bruce, an ex–New Yorker, has been posting photographs of Portland, where he now lives, at his Facebook page. Bruce is known in particular for his luminous commercial photos of interiors, so I was really impressed by the moodiness of his personal Portland work. (His “Death by Cat” series is similarly dark and artful.) I wrote him to see if he’d send me some of the photos for the blog, and he suggested doing an Oregon Journal. Consider this his first installment.

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“Living in Portland means living with rainy winters. People here don’t put their bicycles away for the winter, nor the 6 or so luxury sports cars that live here among the 500,000 Prius’s. So I decided that I would not put away my camera. Instead I would photograph Portland in the rain all winter. I am also fascinated with how today’s digital cameras can see things at night that I have trouble seeing with my naked eye. I try to photograph every night. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been cooperating, it’s been too dry!” —Bruce Wolf

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All photographs © Bruce Wolf.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in Personal Projects | Tags: Bruce Wolf, Oregon, Portland | Comments (2)

Desperately seeking universal standards for the DSLR industry

November 20, 2009 – 2:03 pm

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Anyone hoping to buy a DSLR and fluidly enter the world of motion might want to read Wired‘s Raw File blog first. There’s a big story on the technical challenges you may face if you’re an underequipped newbie. Stuff like the “jello effect” (previously seen only in swimsuit season) and a lack of manual control while using the video function.

“The more one learns about necessary software and conversions, the more one realizes how desperately the whole industry needs universal hardware and software standards,” writes Brian Seibel in “Hi-Def DSLRs May Be Cheap, But Talent Is Priceless.”

The piece kicks off with a discussion of Vincent Laforet’s films Reverie and Nocturne:

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When Vincent Laforet released Reverie last year, the digital revolution seemed poised to sweep across the world of moviemaking. Shot entirely on a prototype of Canon’s then yet-to-be-released EOS 5D Mark II, the short film revealed the camera’s extraordinary low-light sensitivity and HD video capabilities, all with the photographer’s choice of lenses. It appeared to be an all-in-one movie studio replacement.

The fact that HD video and cinematic quality was being offered at consumer rates thrilled the online video community. “Laforet’s, in particular, showed off the real upside of working with the 5DII’s light-sensitive sensor: When you can work with smaller lights, your production budget goes much farther,” said photographer and End User writer Ryan Brenizer in an e-mail.

It seemed that a few big Hollywood studios would no longer dominate our viewing agenda, that an indie revolution was imminent and that the dam on a reservoir of creativity had been destroyed. But that has not been the case. So why are we not awash in studio-quality, low-budget flicks? The answer is complex, and it zeros in on an ever more important relationship between the tools of production and the actual talent of filmmaking — the two of which people often confuse.

Canon’s announcement last month of their latest model, the EOS 1D Mark IV, was coupled with another release by Laforet, using a Mark IV prototype. Again shooting under tight time restrictions and using no additional lighting, the short, Nocturne, immediately became the subject of intense internet chatter.

Video enthusiasts were thrilled by news of the expanded ISO range and ability to shoot at 24, 25 and 30fps at full 1080p, but before many had the opportunity to see the movie, Canon requested it be pulled. No official explanation has been offered by either the company or Laforet himself, although it has been noted his use of Zeiss lenses during production may be the cause. The incident is just the latest in a series of missteps and blunders which has caused consternation amongst potential subscribers to the DSLR as movie camera.

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Provocative stuff, right? Click here to read the rest.

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By Kristina Feliciano | Posted in News & Commentary | Tags: Brian Seibel, dslr, nocturne, photographers who shoot video, raw file, reverie, Vincent Laforet | Leave a Comment