Artist Feature A master of the bokeh technique - taking it to new levels with his cinematic style, Bruno Aveillan has become one of the most sought after directors-filmmakers-photographers in the industry. You've probably already seen his work showcased in prominent campaign's for L'Oreal, Luis Vuitton and Cartier et al. So, I don't need to go into much depth here with adjectives about what his works inspire, I've said enough about my preferences in speaking about other artists, but this technique is something I would really love to learn.
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A closer look at the works of Irish painter Anne Magill - The power of story – its a topic that’s permanently on my mind so I’m drawn to it, or naturally seek it out in any medium. Recently I was listening to some instrumental music that was made even more compelling because the artist, a guitarist, told a story with his musical pieces, without the use of words. In this case though, its paintings. Anne Magill’s work is in focus as she tells visual stories with her canvasses. She’s been described as the “female Jack Vetrianno”, but in my opinion she’s better than him, simply because – rather than forming re-imaginings – she employs fewer colours, adopting a subtler approach, making her work seem more like old photographs … or just someone else’s half-recalled memories. Maybe it’s my fascination with history, nostalgia and sentiment that makes her work appeal to me all the more, or appeal to anyone interested in pockets of time, or glimpses into lost moments or just the overall ideas she communicates… whatever the case, here is some of her work. Enjoy. "I'm more interested in atmosphere rather than the specific idea of a person in the landscape. And I am fascinated by the essence of old photos. When I was young we had few photos in the house but I loved the glow of those that were fading, like memories. Sometimes I add the soil of a certain place to the paint and use it in the background." - Anne Magill {Interview - Belfast Telegraph, 2010. "I’ve always been drawn to creating a picture that tells a story “When I first encountered Anne Magill’s paintings it took me a while for my eyes to find their focus. As if the characters were emerging from memory, or fading into it. They put me in mind of those late-Victorian photographs, like Whitlingham Vale by G. Christopher Davies, in which a ghostly boat eases its way along a winding river, or P.H. Emerson’s At the Ferry – A Misty Morning, in which a milk cart stands at the water’s edge. Anne’s paintings seem to occupy a similar, half-dreamed territory. A hazy place, both powerfully present and weighed-down with the past.” --- Mick Jackson For more of Anne Magill's work, as well as her background information, visit her official website: www.annemagill.com [Image Credits: www.annemagill.com]
Artist Feature: Saul Leiter (1923-2013) is one of the foremost photographers in the history of the medium, described as an iconoclast, he came to prominence in the early 50's through his use of color, showing that Black and white photography was not a sacred thing. - Usually I include a brief summary of the artist, their biography etc. but in light of Leiter's quote from an interview shortly before he died (in 2013), I'll keep the words to a minimum, and let the photos, his work, speak for itself... from me, it must be said though, it's hard to find a photo that I don't like.
"You’re going to write about my work? Really, and I mean this, the less said the better."
“LEITER WAS PERHAPS THE MOST INTERESTING OF THE FIFTIES COLOR PHOTOGRAPHERS in his use of form…. The overriding emotion in his work is a stillness, tenderness, and grace that is at odds with the mad rush of New York street life.”
—The New Yorker “I LIKE IT WHEN ONE IS NOT CERTAIN WHAT ONE SEES.”
The TRAILER to the documentary film on Saul Leiter "IN NO GREAT HURRY: 13 lessons in life with Saul Leiter" (2012) :
After his death in November of 2013, the Guardian Newspaper described him as "one of the quiet men of American photography. A pioneer of colour... relatively unsung until he was rediscovered by curators and critics in his early 80s".
"I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it."
"A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person." Thanks to Filmmaker and writer/poet David Martinez Romero, I’m privileged to introduce many of you to another talent from Spain, photographer Juan David Cortes. As with any artist, their words inevitably are echoed best and loudest within their body of work, but attached is a brief Q&A to get to know the man behind the camera. What binds us all, is the element of ‘story’, and as the saying goes “a picture says a thousand words”, mainly because every image communicates a different message to each new set of eyes. A common theme among photographers is that their work is simply a perception and interpretation of life, and within this dynamic we find different meanings to lend more resonance to our existence. One could look at it this deeply, or you could peruse the photos just to find something beautiful and interesting, because what would the world be like without these elements and finer details? I chose to display this first image, because I lived it just last week... Enjoy! Q & A with Juan David - [Darkened text are Juan David's words] 1. What model camera do you use/what would you like to use in future? I use several cameras. A digital slr (5D mark II) for assignments and some specific personal work, for all the rest I use film cameras: 35mm reflex Olympus OM-1 and eos 5, 35mm rangefinder Canon 7, and medium format Bronica. I´ve never thought what camera I would like to use, I think each work needs it´s own tools, so one that I feel comfortable with. 2. It's different with every artist, but if there is one, then what is the most striking/vivid/favourite photo you've ever taken? And partnered with that, what is your favourite subject - some photographers, like landscapes, nature, movement...? I can´t choose a favourite photo, every photo has it´s particular mood, moves some feelings and doesn´t move others. I mean that the pictures among my own that strike me today are not the same that will do tomorrow. I like the fact that there´s always some discreet and subtle photos that eventually become “chosen” and some striking and powerful ones that you get eventually tired of. 3. When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer? One day, when I was 23 or 24, watching the photos that a friend has taken in a travel. I felt as if I was watching photos for the first time. Looking at his pictures (Marcos Bauza great and inspiring photographer) I felt something hard to explain, but that could be said that life will be much more interesting with photography in it. Later on, I realised that while I have photography I will never feel alone or meaningless, It provides me a place in the world. Later on I discovered that It´s like living with a highlighter pen used to express your opinion in an metaphoric way, more instinctive and at the same time more open and more accurate. 4. How has photography changed the way you see the world? I don´t think that it has changed my way of seeing the world, beyond that now I pay attention all the time to light and composition, even when I don’t have a camera with me. I think that photography is used from inside to outside, to express more that to see. 5. If you were not a photographer, then what would you be (also, what was your ambition when you were a little boy, since I believe photography could not always have been your passion)? When I was a little boy I wanted to be a sea biologist, I was a sea life freak. When I was six or seven my dad bought me a five-volume sea world encyclopaedia and practically memorized it. As an adult I think I would like to be a carpenter. I think a good phrase is very similar to a good photo... “God is among pots” “It´s not the mountain ahead that wears you out, It´s the pebble in your shoe.” - A Chinese proverb that I first heard from Muhammad Ali. Regarding the photos… I´m not going to pick any [favourites], just tell you that the most personal works in my web are “rhetoric”, “summer is almost gone”, “przewalskii” and “yerma” which is a work in progress... *** [All images are Juan David's and are used by his permission. The captions refer to the name of the respective series'. The one image without a caption is from Tumblr] Muchos Gracias Juan David! Story of remoteness, 7. Who will the poet fight for? Poem by David Martinez Romero Who shall fight, if not the poet. Those who do not sing, perhaps? Or maybe those who do not laugh, those who do not dance? No. Not them. But the poet has returned to fight for us, for all of us who feel the tide rising from within, for all of us who make a gift out of happiness and, with balanced patience, retire ourselves always into a hidden palace, into a woman, a landscape, a book. The poet came back in the name of love for the few, at last detached from the eternal hatred that flows too fast, and in the slowness of these words, words reborn into the cup of the New Hope, he shall gently reveal to anyone what is theirs. He will give to each what belongs to each one as he will take away from the void what was never his to have. With the same love that only the afternoon understands in its warm light he will bathe our hands tainted in ash, he will clean our neglected memories, he will grant time to what demands reproduction and needs of the future. The poet came to stay, he came like the sea, like the resting death, valiantly struggling to introduce Poetry into the city, into the lighted night, the last chance for men to exit from between two worlds. He shall fight, he will – he is already fighting –, for those who do not lament the infinite sound of the birds, for those who love without fear, without limit, and shout their love beyond the black corners and the deep moorlands. For the light when slowly softens, for the sheer pleasure of recreating the word, for the sole reason of blurring destinies, for the love and only the love to all that shimmers, for everything that drifts into its own light. And the day will come when everyone knows they live because someone fought for them. The day will come, I can feel it, when no one, not even the stones, are entitled to doubt the meaning of his existence. And all of them will also posses the proper words. >>> For more from David M.R., this poem and many others, including short films and scripts, visit his website HERE. [Image credits: Warrior4ancientzoanphotos.blogspot.com, digitalartgallery.com] Images added simply for symbolism - for the valor and fortitude of the ancient and old times are seemingly no longer required, but there are many ways to fight... The warrior and the poet have always entertained an entwined existence through the ages, and though warriors, as we know and remember them, have long since passed from time, their echoes of strength are felt and heard through the derivative voice and writings of these souls who see beyond the natural, both past, future and present... the soldier dies, but their spirit remains with the poet. Mark Twain, AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910), as Publisher's Weekly once noted: "this manic, profound, daft and provocative mad genius of American culture." Author of the so-called, 'Great American novel': Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (and the one he wrote before that, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Hence, he's often called the 'great American novelist'. With that intro, plus the fact that his works and philosophies are enjoying a resurgence in modern literature and even political commentary, it's no stretch to think he'd have tips and relevant opinions on writing itself. Here then is his 18 tips on writing, followed by a short story which I thought appropriate for the sake of this blog - and my writing career. "To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence." - - Twain Mark Twain's Rules for Writing 1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. 2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it. 3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. 4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. 5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. 6. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. 7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it. 8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale. 9. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. 10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. 11. The characters in tale be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. An author should 12. _Say_ what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. 13. Use the right word, not its second cousin. 14. Eschew surplusage. 15. Not omit necessary details. 16. Avoid slovenliness of form. 17. Use good grammar. 18. Employ a simple, straightforward style. "The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time." My debut As a Literary Person Short Story by Mark Twain In those early days I had already published one little thing ('The Jumping Frog') in an Eastern paper, but I did not consider that that counted. In my view, a person who published things in a mere newspaper could not properly claim recognition as a Literary Person: he must rise away above that; he must appear in a magazine. He would then be a Literary Person; also, he would be famous--right away. These two ambitions were strong upon me. This was in 1866. I prepared my contribution, and then looked around for the best magazine to go up to glory in. I selected the most important one in New York. The contribution was accepted. I signed it 'MARK TWAIN;' for that name had some currency on the Pacific coast, and it was my idea to spread it all over the world, now, at this one jump. The article appeared in the December number, and I sat up a month waiting for the January number; for that one would contain the year's list of contributors, my name would be in it, and I should be famous and could give the banquet I was meditating. I did not give the banquet. I had not written the 'MARK TWAIN' distinctly; it was a fresh name to Eastern printers, and they put it 'Mike Swain' or 'MacSwain,' I do not remember which. At any rate, I was not celebrated and I did not give the banquet. I was a Literary Person, but that was all--a buried one; buried alive. My article was about the burning of the clipper-ship 'Hornet' on the line, May 3, 1866. There were thirty-one men on board at the time, and I was in Honolulu when the fifteen lean and ghostly survivors arrived there after a voyage of forty-three days in an open boat, through the blazing tropics, on ten days' rations of food. A very remarkable trip; but it was conducted by a captain who was a remarkable man, otherwise there would have been no survivors. He was a New Englander of the best sea-going stock of the old capable times--Captain Josiah Mitchell. For the full story, click HERE "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." When he died, American newspapers declared (typically arrogant, though somewhat retrospectively prophetic) "The whole world is mourning", The following quote is perhaps his most famous... "Truth is stranger than Fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." Celebrating our second year of providing you with film reviews, news and more... only this landmark brings with it many a new and wonderful thing - you see we have so many new features coming soon in addition to our regular content. This includes something never before seen (at least in South Africa) in our quest to push the envelope be even more interactive. We may still be toddlers in the game, but we're learning how to run, fast. Click the link (image) to see all the awesomeness unfold - this week's feature review is the blockbuster Pacific Rim. Other news: A trip to No man's land! A friend of mine and previous artist "featuree" Jason Hayden, put together this video for the GravityAdventure GoPro Film Festival. So, he has progressed from Photography, to Timelapse, to Short films in a very short space of time... Feel free to view, Like, Share and VOTE for the video: Click HERE for the Artist Feature post on photographer and oceanographer Jason Hayden. In July 2013 I made an expedition out to some unexplored caves in the Southern parts of Madagascar. I unfortunately had very limited time on this trip but will be returning shortly, I hope! It is an absolute privilege to know that I have now officially been to where no man has been before..a life long ambition of mine! This video was shot 100% with a GoPro 3 Black addition, Im quite impressed with its low light performance! |
[Banner illustration by Joel Kanar]
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