art morsel

I went to Bergamot Station is past weekend with some friends, and we visited the Brendan Monroe show @ Richard Heller. Style-wise, I don't think this is Monroe's best work ever, but I did enjoy the content of the show. I like the way his abstraction resembles organic forms at the microscopic level, and how he jumbles up the context and scale of said abstraction by inserting the human figure.

This piece, although lacking the figure, drew me in. Having a spontaneous childlike association, I imagined this piece as depicting a single, essential atom of macaroni and cheese. Initially comforting, and then kind-of gross, right?


Brendan Monroe
The Cell Who Remembers the Sun
26 x 20 Inches, Acrylic on Paper
2009

Portrait of Katherine

...It could also be called, "Portrait of a Best Friend."

Kat just came out to L.A. from Georgia for a wedding, but I managed to commandeer most of her west coast hours (and even an extra one, thanks to the end of daylight saving!).

We got to catch up on tons of stuff, including our lack of [insert excuse here] that keeps us from doing just-because creative work. She came up with the brilliant charge of making each other's portraits during our free Sunday evening time slot.

We each got an hour, and were confined to using a digital 35, two small strobes, and my bedroom.

This is it:


Now, none of this was necessarily in the front of my mind during the shoot, but I love this depiction of her, because it reflects where she is in her life right now. I especially love the pensive body language, because she is someone with whom I can always share the endless cycle of questions and answers with. We have had so many adventures together, from late-night shooting in L.A., to hour-long train rides to Coney Island, to driving and camping along the Appalachian Trail. She is a thoughtful and steadfast soul sister (not to mention, a great photographer), and I love her to pieces.

Homage to the Rebel

A salute to the iconic James Dean as Jim Stark...


Homage to the Rebel, by Secret Ultra M.

This image is a tidbit from a menswear/lifestyle shoot I art directed last week. It's part of a project I have been collaborating on with some talented friends;

Photographer: Kim Garcia
Model: Preston Vanderslice
Stylist: Corban Poorboy
Art Director: Mariann Marcum (me)

These peeps are so good at what they do, and I loved spending the day working with them. Thanks, you guys!

fab fobs?

I will be the first to admit that I pretty much only look at the photographic content in most fashion-culture mags. I'd prefer to read a book before I read about whatever of-the-moment person has been propped on the front cover. Don't get me wrong, there are some awesome writers out there who touch on some interesting and vital topics--but usually, I am not drawn to read most bio/fashion/lifestyle articles.

However, while looking through the latest issue of The Fader magazine (#64), I found myself wishing there was an accompanying article for a specific photographic editorial spread. Entitled "No Place Like Home," photographer Gabriele Stabile and stylist Mobolaji Dawodu portray young émigrés and first-gens living in NYC. The puzzling part is, their portraits were taken in their home or neighborhood, and they are dressed in designer clothes. Each image is captioned with the subject's name, age, current location and country of origin. A smaller caption names the designers of the wardrobe. But I want to know more.



Photographer Stabile, according to her website, is a photojournalist. Her style is ultra contemporary, and she shoots with chrome films. Her images are contrasty and luscious with color, and are more beautiful than the snaps by your average Times shooter. Her style pushes the limits of journalism, and straddles the line between photography as reportage and photography as art. You know, the kind of art that mashes up contexts and pokes you in the eye. Moreover, what kind of photojournalist works with a stylist?

I really want to know more about the people in the portraits, and about what the producers' concepts for the images were. Also, being that there isn't any other information in the mag, I wonder how much these images can tell me on their own. Are they a visual commentary on the American dream? I guess I'll need to take some more time to see.

See them for yourself in the free PDF download of the issue, pp 50-54. (The whole issue is great--it's a photo issue.)

retreat

A few weekends ago, I was able to get away to Sequoia National Park. I was there with a group of a dozen or so friends, old and new. We spanned a couple camp sites, and did a fair bit of cooking and hanging out. It was fantastic to sit around the fire and chat and laugh after the sun went down. Smells of wood smoke, chili, whiskey, and forest were the perfect backdrop for the pitch-black nights.

I was able to have a tent to myself one night, and to branch off into a smaller group for an off-trail hike on our one full day there. The quiet moments I thereby got were wonderful, and much needed. Anticipating these quiet moments, I only packed my "no look" CyberShot. I'm glad I didn't get into large-format mode for this short trip.

Here is my favorite image from the "roll:"


.

point and shoot

Soo, I went to New York City this summer to see these people get married;



It was a lovely ceremony in Long Island City, and a fantastic party afterward.

Anyhow, the camera I had on hand at any given moment over my long weekend was a recently broken Cyber Shot. Well, it wasn't totally broken, the LCD screen was just busted. Since said LCD was the only viewfinder option on the camera, I was guesstimating at most of the framing. Thank goodness for auto focus and the Zeiss--the pics don't look half bad!