Floating Girl serie by Bill Henson Melbourne born photographer Bill Henson is a light sculptor playing in the darkness inspired in the tradition of the great European painters. His powerful and edgy photographs approach both the painterly and the cinematic, bringing together the formal and classical with the gritty, casual dramas of the everyday. Creating  confronting, beautiful and, unforgettable images, he captures a universal essence with a mysterious darkness.
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Floating Girl serie by Bill Henson

Melbourne born photographer Bill Henson is a light sculptor playing in the darkness inspired in the tradition of the great European painters. His powerful and edgy photographs approach both the painterly and the cinematic, bringing together the formal and classical with the gritty, casual dramas of the everyday. Creating  confronting, beautiful and, unforgettable images, he captures a universal essence with a mysterious darkness.


Yosemite by Takeshi Shikama, platinum palladium print on gampi paper This picture is part of the Silent Respiration of Forests serie, which explored the brooding forests of Japan and US. The platinum palladium technique  gives the photographer endless possibilities to craft the image. This process allows the opportunity to combine both the power and precision of modern technologies with the charm and passion contained in the oldest photographic processes. One of the advantages of this technique is the impregnation of finely divided platinum and palladium salts into the paper’s fibers - allowing the image to be as long sustaining as the fine paper the image is printed on. In addition, it is an extremely slow print-by-contact method requiring very strong UV light, and requiring that the negative be the same size as the desired print. Check the whole process video here
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Yosemite by Takeshi Shikama, platinum palladium print on gampi paper

This picture is part of the Silent Respiration of Forests serie, which explored the brooding forests of Japan and US.

The platinum palladium technique  gives the photographer endless possibilities to craft the image. This process allows the opportunity to combine both the power and precision of modern technologies with the charm and passion contained in the oldest photographic processes.

One of the advantages of this technique is the impregnation of finely divided platinum and palladium salts into the paper’s fibers - allowing the image to be as long sustaining as the fine paper the image is printed on. In addition, it is an extremely slow print-by-contact method requiring very strong UV light, and requiring that the negative be the same size as the desired print.

Check the whole process video here

The Essential Photograph Rosie by Richard Learoyd 2007 Ilfachrome print 127 x 152.4 cm The British photographer trivializes the digital era with his very special technique. Revealing a tremendous wealth of detail, his pictures are a direct positive made on Ilfachrome in a camera obscure. He shoots in one room the model or the object in a light source where he hangs the positive paper. After the slow shot, the paper is run through a processor. Skipping the editing process, the artist is placed at the core of Photography by eliminating every step of the process inessential to make an image. Don’t miss his more than interesting lecture at the International Center of Photography.
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The Essential Photograph

Rosie by Richard Learoyd 2007 Ilfachrome print 127 x 152.4 cm

The British photographer trivializes the digital era with his very special technique. Revealing a tremendous wealth of detail, his pictures are a direct positive made on Ilfachrome in a camera obscure. He shoots in one room the model or the object in a light source where he hangs the positive paper. After the slow shot, the paper is run through a processor. Skipping the editing process, the artist is placed at the core of Photography by eliminating every step of the process inessential to make an image.

Don’t miss his more than interesting lecture at the International Center of Photography.

Re-discovering New York with Patti Smith

Just Kids is the kind of book that you never want to end. In this tender memoir, US born singer and poet Patti Smith transports readers to the late 60’s and 70’s New York as she shares tales of her early times at the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner’s, Brentano’s and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with her “blue star” artist Robert Mapplethorpe. I truly sympathize with her longing for art and her wish to be a creative, creating soul. This delicate book, published by Ecco, features photographs,poems and drawings of the artists. 

Honestly and sensitively written, Patti Smith gives perceptive insights into many of the fast movers in the 60’s and early 70’s American pop and art culture. An absolutely brilliant autobiography of the singer and a beautiful way to wander in the streets of the big apple.

Currently obsessed with Viviane Sassen I specially love her vivid and vibrant colors and how she plays with the subject in  a sculptural way. Looking at her portfolio we can have  a look at the behind-the-scenes work in her serie “Sketchbook” where she refers to Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy and features watercolor works. A breakthrough in the contemporary photography scene, she’s built her visual language with strong shadows and crispy light. Also, she feels comfortable playing with geometric clothes as she does it with human bodies. Furthermore, her images have a universal nuance by fading to black the faces, arms, building abstract lines. The invisible faces are part of her obsession with black skin and Africa, where she lived until she was 5 years old. She uses a Mamiya 6x7 and talks about her work here In and Out of Fashion currently running at Huis Marseille until March 17 2013
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Currently obsessed with Viviane Sassen

I specially love her vivid and vibrant colors and how she plays with the subject in  a sculptural way. Looking at her portfolio we can have  a look at the behind-the-scenes work in her serie “Sketchbook” where she refers to Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy and features watercolor works. A breakthrough in the contemporary photography scene, she’s built her visual language with strong shadows and crispy light. Also, she feels comfortable playing with geometric clothes as she does it with human bodies. Furthermore, her images have a universal nuance by fading to black the faces, arms, building abstract lines. The invisible faces are part of her obsession with black skin and Africa, where she lived until she was 5 years old.

She uses a Mamiya 6x7 and talks about her work here

In and Out of Fashion currently running at Huis Marseille until March 17 2013

The Space Between Flowers

It’s the title of a short film about Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto. An interesting overview of his work where he talks about the way he displays his shots, scale and size as well as his techniques to age his pictures. He makes small pictures because he wants to hold them in his hands and he wants them to be objects.

His poetic images evokes memories and nostalgia in the viewer: they seem to be old, cracked, with torn edges. But this intentional technique makes his photographs even more singular. The aged prints are frayed, stained, toned with tea, and painted in a conscious effort to look aged or antique. 

As a child he captured beauty by collecting objects of nature.Nowadays he is based in Yamanashi, the mountainous Japanese prefecture, with his wife and son, where he enjoys to observe the changes in nature and take in the smell of the first fruits of Spring. He leads a simple, archaic life, far from the hustle and bustle of the city. As many photographers, his career began with painting.

Watch the short film here.

Think While You Shoot

The Master of Photography who inspired Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon, Martin Munkácsi, was well known by his dynamic shots. His approach to photography was summed up in an article called Think While You Shoot, published in a 1935 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. ‘Never pose your subjects. Let them move about naturally. All great photographs today are snapshots.Take back views. Take running views. Our cameras today allow us one-thousandth of a second. Pick unexpected angles, but never without reason.’ 

The Gerewol Festival The Wodaabe are a nomadic people populating the Sahel desert of West Africa. Once a year in a few secret locations, their tribe gathers to celebrate the fantastic tradition of Gerewol, often referred to in the popular press as a male beauty pageant. Overall, this festival is a male beauty contest between clans. The elders select some women for their own beauty, they will select the best looking men and take them to the bush. Folded on their heads are the blankets they will use to rest in pairs. See how they dance and make their choice here Picture by Victor Englebert
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The Gerewol Festival

The Wodaabe are a nomadic people populating the Sahel desert of West Africa. Once a year in a few secret locations, their tribe gathers to celebrate the fantastic tradition of Gerewol, often referred to in the popular press as a male beauty pageant. Overall, this festival is a male beauty contest between clans. The elders select some women for their own beauty, they will select the best looking men and take them to the bush. Folded on their heads are the blankets they will use to rest in pairs.

See how they dance and make their choice here

Picture by Victor Englebert