The Festival of Holi
The images above and the video below are from the Festival of Holi, also called the Festival of Colors. I really cannot claim to know anything about this festival (despite some basic research) other than that it is a Hindu tradition that involves throwing colored dust everywhere (awesome) and on some level celebrates the arrival of spring.
There are other, more complex and religiously-based parts to it also, so I don’t mean to over-simplify, but I have to be honest– the colors are the part I like.
And I have to believe that some of the 50,000 people that show up to the temple in Utah– yes, Utah– seen above to celebrate the festival might be there mostly for the colors too. (The temple doesn’t seem to mind the tourist/commercialization aspect, they sell t-shirts saying “I survived Holi, Spanish Fork, Utah.”)
Video (and stills) by Brian Thomson, and the music in the video is by cellist Zoe Keating.
If you need to see more of this thing (I did), there’s another good video of the same event here.
Also, it’s official, I have a thing for colored dust in the air (previously: 1, 2; and there’s another related post in the works!).
The Invisible Man
Do you see him?
Liu Bolin spends hours painting himself to camouflage himself into a scene and then photographs himself. Here are a few from his series “Hiding in the City.”
Work.Place
I spent a good long while absorbed in the blog Work.Place last night, which documents the working environments of Portland creative types. As one who is not patient enough to ever be a true creative type, I love getting a peek into the setting in which artists and artisas do their thing, where I imagine them abosrbed for hours in their craft… something I’m far too ADD to ever do. The photographer and blogger is Carlie Armstrong, and she takes the photos on a twin lens reflex camera, resulting in a quality (occasionally wonderfully grainy) that I love that seems to add even more mystique to the settings she documents.
I’ve also never been to Portland and am loving the impression of the place that this blog is giving me… now want to go visit even more!
If you like this blog, also check out Ginny Branch‘s column on design*sponge called What’s in Your Toolbox.
Filippo Minelli “Shapes”
Loving this serious of mysterious photographs by Filippo Minelli, who has also done some very provocative street art of a very different nature.
Also, doesn’t it remind you of this photo for Lola by Marc Jacobs?
via automatism
The Camera of the Future
Don’t start drooling yet. It’s still only a concept. Unfortunately. How amazing looking is that thing?
It’s the Wireless Viewfinder Interchangable Lens — WVIL — concept camera by Artefact Group, and it’s basically smartphone-meets-SLR. Some day, smartphones and cameras are going to merge all their best attributes completely, and so far, it seems as if smartphones have done all the work towards meeting in the middle, while cameras– SLRs in particular– have been sitting idly by not bothering to do much in the way of integrating wireless technology.
The WVIL would change all of that. Check out the video for a demo of how it would work, it will blow your mind. The lens wouldn’t even need to be connected to the “phone”-looking part to work, it can work as a remote control…
More Kulte Goodness
In researching for the post last week on Kulte’s photography for their new campaign, I was looking around on their website and discovered their online magazine-meets-catalog called Kultorama, and it is a treasure trove of even more wonderful photography and eye candy.
With a combination of a sort of travel journal/vintage photo album feel, articles, and outfit collages, they have definitely figured out a formula to creatively communicate their brand identity and to totally hook you on it!
I am really digging the aesthetic of whoever their artistic director is!!
Check out previous issues here and their online store here. You could spend quite a while browsing the Kultoramas. Really quite brilliant because often times I feel like when I discover a store/brand I like, I want to really delve into it, not just to browse the online store, because there’s no story or feeling there, but there’s nothing else really to do on the website. Kultorama certainly gives the consumer a way to delve into the brand…
Kulte
This ad campaign for French brand Kulte may be one of the best fashion campaigns I’ve seen in a while.
The series has a photo-diaristic style at first glance, but there’s an added layer of voyeurism conveyed by the sense that the subject is unaware he’s being followed, and it is highly intriguing. My brain: “Why is this handsome man being followed around? Who is having him followed and why? A jealous wife? Is he a double agent?” So I might’ve taken that a step beyond what they intended. Or maybe not! Maybe they meant to send your imagination running wild trying to fill in the gaps!
Anyway… beyond that, the photos themselves are well-styled, classic, and really just gorgeous.
The photo above didn’t even make it into the campaign, I found it on the Kulte flickr account… too cinematic and staged-looking, not voyeuristic enough? I think that’s probably why, don’t you? But I thought it was wonderful enough that I had to share.
Check out the gallery for the whole “story,”…whatever it may be. (Fingers crossed for double agent.)
Shot by Jose Lamali.
The Photography of Ditte Isager
I’ve spent the last few days slowly taking in the portfolio of Danish photographer Ditte Isager bit by bit whenever I needed a quick, visually-fulfilling break from work. You know when you need those? You just need to soak up something wonderful looking? Well, Isager’s portfolio did the trick.
In addition to interiors like the ones above, she also shoots portraits, still life-esque assemblages, really anything… for Anthropologie, Vogue, Banana Republic… but what her various projects tend to have in common is this surreal moody light and atmosphere to them.
Similar to the amazing food photography by Katie Davies, her images often seem to have a Rembrandt-esque effect where the subjects seem to be just barely emerging from the shadows, and yet where they are lit, they are perfectly lit.
Jason Lee and his unique photography of his cute cute kids
Loving photographer Jason Lee’s photography of his two (adorable) daughters! His technique– creating quirky sets and situations for “shoots” and using lighting similar to an editorial shoot style– is such a fresh and interesting take on photographing children.
It’s clearly not an approach that would work for everyone, but for someone with this kind of skill, it’s such a fun way to document their childhood– for him to do and for the family to have later on!
Plus, in an interview, Lee explained the origin of the project, and it makes the whole thing even more endearing. In 2006, his mother was diagnosed with lymphoma, and because his kids constantly had runny noses and little-kid-illnesses, they couldn’t see her. So, Lee started taking these photos and posting them to a blog as a way for his mother to see the girls and to cheer her up.
