We Heart; Lifestyle & Design Magazine » Photography

Noemie Goudal

James Davidson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:12:41 +0000

Part sculptural artworks, part site-specific installations, London-based Parisian Noemie Goudal‘s photography is often unsettling – always captivating, and utterly beautiful. The Central Saint Martins graduate produces alluring works that transform settings, situations and objects with a subtlety that forces you to question their own reality; draped netting transforms a woodland into a gushing waterfall, a dilapidated basement becomes the underneath of a pier.

Cardboard, print-outs and packaging tape aid the transitions with gleeful, lo-fi charm, whilst Goudal’s muted hues and decaying backdrops lend her works an uneasy, chilling quality. Sinister they may be, but there’s an effortless beauty to Goudal’s work – fantasy meets reality, physical existence meets your melancholic daydreams. There’s countless stories to be told by each photograph, your imagination is really the only limitation to just how powerful they can be…

Stuff Crush; Dirty Dishes

James Davidson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:57:37 +0000

Ornamental plates. Making somewhat of a comeback they are. No longer are they the preserve of your blue-rinsed grandma and Royal wedding souvenirs. It was only the other week Katie was writing about The New English – “the Vivienne Westwood of tableware” – in her Design Geekery column, and not long before that we’d featured a chintz meets augmented reality mashup in our Weekend Edit. None of which, may we add, have taken the trend quite so far as our latest stuff crush…

Dirty Dishes are just that. Smut on a plate. This is as far from the traditional ornamental plate as your granny could dare to imagine. Quite where the idea to place soft-porn on a plate came from we can only wonder, but the outcome is as witty, brave and – dare we say – stylish as you could possibly imagine. Of course this is no triple X-grade imported in a brown paper bag malarkey from deepest, darkest Amsterdam; it’s a splendidly soft focus throw back to the sort of thing, gulp, your dad may have enjoyed as a young teen, and with names like Roxy and Ingrid, Mel and Steve and Leslie and Denise, they’e actually every bit as kitsch as the aforementioned Charles and Di commemoration plates. But so, so much more cool…

The Bronson Caves by Brice Bischoff

James Davidson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:54:31 +0000

From the early 1900s, through to such perennial classics as 2010′s Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, the section of LA’s Griffith Park known as Bronson Caves have been a backdrop for movies and TV shows. Acting as the setting for an altogether more cultured performance – if no less otherworldly than the many sci-fi flicks that have been filmed here – Los Angeles based artist, Brice Bischoff, chose the location for a series of simply stunning photographs. What appears to be smoke – or lighting effects – is actually Bischoff himself, performing with sheets of coloured paper; photographed on long-exposure.

“If a visitor to the caves were to accidentally stumble upon my performance” says Bischoff, “they would only see a mass of crumbled coloured paper draped awkwardly over a man moving/dancing to a camera positioned on a tripod”. That mental image offers a decidedly more light-hearted view to these works; without the insider knowledge Bischoff’s images are unsettling, intriguing and thoroughly spellbinding…

The Bronson Caves show at Culver City’s Kopeikin Gallery through March and April, 2012

Walter Van Beirendonck; Dream the World Awake

James Davidson — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:12:02 +0000

W.&L.T. S/S 1996 – Killer/Astral Travel/4D-Hi-D
Photography: Ronald Stoops

Alongside Dries van Noten and Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck was one of the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts’ graduates who, in the early 1980s, were christened ‘The Antwerp Six’. Like his contemporaries, Van Beirendonck went on to achieve international success, but always in his very own inimitable style. Dealing with ecology, fetishism, ethnography, S&M and mass consumerism; Van Beirendonck is famed for his uncompromising approach, an approach that owes just as much to art as it does to fashion. Designing the costumes for U2′s landmark PopMart tour, the Belgian designer pioneered ‘cyberpunk’ clothing with his high-tech ‘techno’ fabrics; and with collections such as Sado, Sexclown, and the politically charged Stop Terrorizing Our World, he’s never been shy of controversy and confrontation. Since the tail end of last year, and until 19th February, the brilliant Antwerp Fashion Museum has played host to an exhaustive retrospective of Van Beirendonck’s work and his inspiration; with Walter’s Wonderwall – a 60 metre collage of images, slogans, objects and videos – and a new collaboratin with fashion photographer Nick Knight/SHOWstudio.com, stylist Simon Foxton and GQ Style UK accompanying his key works from the last 30 years…

Dazed & Confused, August 2010 ‘The Joy of Six’
Photography: Scott Trindle, Styling: Robbie Spencer

Walter Van Beirendonck A/W 2011–12 – Hand on Heart
Photography: Ronald Stoops

Dazed & Confused, August 2010 ‘The Joy of Six’
Photography: Scott Trindle, Styling: Robbie Spencer

Walter Van Beirendonck S/S 1989 – King Kong Kooks
Photography: Ronald Stoops, Illustration: Jan Bosschaert

Walter Van Beirendonck A/W 2011–12 – Hand on Heart
Photography: Ronald Stoops

Three’s A Crowd Volume 2

James Davidson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:31:18 +0000

Already missing the greatest live band of this century? A new book is packed with up close and personal images that may quell, or perhaps worsen, your heartache. After introducing himself to the Detroit duo in a Bristol bar back in 2001, Newcastle-born photographer Ewen Spencer spent an amazing 4 years documenting the rise and rise of a very special act and following last year’s Three’s A Crowd Volume 1 – that documented the early days of the photographer’s unique relationship with the last great rock and roll band – Spencer is back with the second book in the Three’s A Crowd series. Hoxton Square’s ever-brilliant KK Outlet are hosting an exhibition of the photos throughout January with a very special book launch on Thursday 12th.

You can be at the launch party, as well as bagging yourself a limited edition copy of the book, by donating $50 to the book’s IndieGoGo campaign. But be quick, there’s just 2 days left…

Sol LeWitt: On the Walls of the Lower East Side

James Davidson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:42:59 +0000

Regarded as a founder of both minimal and conceptual art, the prolific American artist Sol LeWitt was infatuated with walls. Between 1968 and his death in 2007 he would create more than 1,270 wall drawings, and throughout his career he chronicled the walls around him with a series of photographic essays. One of which – On the Walls of the Lower East Side – consisted of 666 photographs that documented the urban decay and dilapidation of the area of New York in which he lived and worked. Fitting then, that 120 of those photographs now adorn a 20-feet high by 60-feet wide wall in the community that inspired them; albeit a tad different a community to that of the ’70s. Morgans Hotel Group’s latest New York property – the 4th in their hometown – the Mondrian SoHo is the canvas for this unique collaboration with independent curator Adam Shopkorn, the LeWitt Foundation and Paula Cooper Gallery; marking the launch of a new initiative to “further guest experience and their relationship with art and to embrace the neighborhood’s surrounding”…

Images © Estate of Sol LeWitt / ARS. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Moneyless’ Floating Graffiti

James Davidson — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:17:31 +0000

Dramatic, unique and often haunting; Italian street artist Moneyless uses ropes for paint in a series of interventions around the world. Growing increasingly constricted by the traditions of graffiti, he began to subvert all he knew. Choosing to abandon lettering for pure geometric shapes, use brushes for increasingly thin outlines, and then move to wool thread allowing for three dimensional creations, Moneyless has appropriated very ‘fine art’ thinking to a practice so often steeped in rude-boy swagger. His website talks of “artistic sublimation” and “conceptual subtraction”, and quotes psychologists and Wordsworth. This is as far away from tags and throw-ups as you could imagine, whilst never straying too far from street art’s original essence…

We Can Be Heroes

James Davidson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:11:36 +0000

We’ve seen plenty of these books and exhibitions before but, as Boy George puts it, “for once it has been put together by someone on the scene”. As a fully paid up member of the burgeoning club scene that transformed London’s nightlife and launched the careers of the aforementioned Culture Club frontman, Spandau Ballet and Sade; Graham Smith – who also designed album covers for those stars – was never far from the action, and always armed with a camera. 25 years later and upon turning 50 Smith has exhumed his archives to deliver a tome of some 500 photographs and 30,000 words of text from fellow scenester and frontman of the wildest band of the period, Blue Rondo a la Turk, Chris Sullivan. We Can Be Heroes is due out 8th December on Unbound, a UK based crowd-funding publishing site where donations of £30 to £350 can see you receive anything from a cloth bound coffee table book to a deluxe edition limited to just 50 copies. The project is currently at 82% of funding and runs for just 15 more days, so act fast as this incredible document of decadence is one we’d really love to see the light of day…

In Conversation; Mariel Clayton

James Davidson — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:00:48 +0000

Fuck Bathtime 1

Canadian photographic artist Mariel Clayton has a decidedly unique style – and more than a little of what some may call, ‘a dark side’. Laboriously concocting twisted scenes of murder, rape, child abuse and torture with, erm, Barbie dolls, Clayton has won as many accolades for his work as he has gasps of horror and disapproval, so – he must be doing something right. We think he’s a bit of a genius, if of course a little twisted – but then aren’t we all? – so decided to drop him a line to discuss his meticulously assembled work in more detail…

Group Shot

How did you get into photography and how long have you been working with it?

I’ve always liked taking pictures, but I only got seriously into photography as a hobby about 4 years ago – and again mainly travel photography. I’ve been taking pictures of the dolls though for nearly 2 years now.

What was the inspiration behind your doll photography?

I honestly just thought it was really really funny.

Domestic Phuqing

How much time and work goes into each shoot?

It’s tough to say! It absolutely depends on the complexity of the piece, and whether I need to make anything for it. For a regular ‘Homicide Barbie’ shot, it usually takes about a minimum 5 hours or so, to set everything up. While I am composing a shot, I constantly stop to look through my camera and make sure everything is lining up the same way through the lens (I learnt this the hard way, your perspective when you’re sitting at a table is not the same as a camera view). If it’s any of the ‘Hystoria’ pieces – those took a lot longer, about 10 – 15 hours or more. For those I had to make some of the props, costumes etc. It’s hard to say exactly the length of time, because I’m not really paying attention. With most of them I also have to stop, go to work (cursed day job) sleep etc….

The case of Baby P

Is there a message, or messages behind the images?

No message at all for most of them. If I have something specific to say in a picture – I will always state it in the title or in the description. For all of the ‘Barbie Murderess’ shots I have no specific message or manifesto – I leave it to the viewer in interpret the way they want to. For me, the interest is seeing how peoples minds react to what they are seeing – that is the best part.

She loves dinner parties the leftovers last for days

The ‘Barbie Murderess’ shots are especially gory – how and why did you come up with this concept?

I used Barbie as a prop before (being beheaded by Ninja Turtles etc.) because I never actively set out to develop this type of ‘style’ of pictures. The first one I did, with Barbie committing suicide in the tub, was more a visual ‘gag’ – something I thought was really funny. My friends loved it so much that I wanted to do more of them, and so I kept on with the theme. I’ve always been fascinated by the inner machinations of peoples minds. I’m intrigued by sociopathy and the whole outer facade/inner workings concept and how the two don’t always correspond. Barbie, as the ultimate stereotypical feminine icon just seems to lend herself to an alternate portrayal. I think because she has been idolised as the epitome of everything that is ‘good’ about being female, being sweet and docile and taciturn etcetc. She has been sanitised to the point where she has absolutely no pesonality whatsoever, so she just seemed to be the perfect model to explore the idea of this hidden evil. There was no time really when it wasn’t conceivable for me to use her in the pictures, it just makes perfect sense. Nobody is ‘that’ good, ‘that’ perfect – everyone is flawed in some way, and I wanted to explore that.

Suicider

If you could shoot any location or object (or both) on the entire globe – where and what would it be?

I have no idea… I can’t narrow it down!!! There are so many places I would love to go and shoot. If I could do anything, I think it would have to be in the archives of the British Museum, I would love to go and shoot all the relics that they never put on display. Or if it has to be a place, I would really like to up to northern Scandinavia – take the Hartigruten ferry around the coastline.

Rockwell

Who have been your major influences and what’s next for Mariel Clayton?

I think my biggest influence would have to be an English cartoonist named Carl Giles. He was a one-panel cartoonist who started out during World War II and carried on right up until the ’80′s. He was a master of subtlety and detail – and he was able to combine not only the main visual ‘gag’ but lots of smaller ones within the frame. I always think of that when I’m composing something – to try and pay attention to the details. I have no idea what’s next… truly. I make a point of not to think too far ahead, because I never know what’s going to happen. I like to let things unfold. So right now I will just keep doing what I’m doing, and as new ideas come along I will explore them!

The Barbie and Ken Killers

You can buy prints of Mariel Clayton’s spectacularly disturbing work over at the 5 Pieces Gallery…

In Conversation; Matthias Heiderich

James Davidson — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Matthias Heiderich is a young and self-taught Berlin-based photographer known for stunning work, which is heavily influenced by architecture, graphic design, colour and the urban landscape. Often exploring the complexities of colour in minimalist architecture, in a style that is unique and extremely distinctive – he brings out a new and aesthetically wondrous side to a well-know city, Berlin. We Heart caught up with Matthias recently for a chat about his work, his Berlin and his various music projects…

Name: Matthias Heiderich
Age: 29
Occupation: Photographer
Hometown: Bad Hersfeld
Location: Berlin
Website: www.matthias-heiderich.de

Tell us about being an artist in Berlin – the ups, the downs:

There are no downs, that’s the up. I enjoy being an artist here, you can do whatever you want and you’ll always find people to work with.

You say on your website that you’re a self-taught photographer, when did you start taking photographs?

I bought my first camera in 2008, which was the starting point.

You have a very unique style – who or what are your main influences?

Music, vinyl covers, other photographers, good graphic design. To name some of the people that inspire me:
Joseph Schultz, Christoph Morlinghaus, Mark Weaver, Tim Hecker, Monolake
I am also a huge fan of synthesizer music, vintage design / photography.

Your Berlin portraits explore stripped-down complexities of colour and architecture in stunning detail – is this what you were trying to achieve?

When I go out I search for patterns, lines, colours, the abstracts of the urban landscapes to transform them into something new, take them out of their contexts. I enjoy playing around with forms, structures, and colours.

Your latest work focuses mostly on industrial architecture, signage and colour – is this something you will keep exploring? What’s next for you as a photographer?

Yes, those are definitely some of the keywords and I will keep taking pictures of these things, as the industrial areas are my favourite places to hang around on sunny weekends while listening to music and eating chocolate.
Next are also more exhibitions outside Berlin.

If you could chose any place on earth to photograph, where or what would it be?

I’d definitely choose some industrial areas in former soviet countries. They must be full of awesome and weird architecture.

We hear you’re also an avid musician – tell us about your music:

Well, I must admit I am not really active at the moment, but I produced a lot of music in the last 10 years and also played many DJ gigs and some live gigs. I got a bit tired of it, but I am sure I will do it again, there are many ideas rotating in my head concerning a multimedia project. At the moment I am focusing on running a netlabel where I release the music of friends – www.weirdandwired.net.

OK, thanks so much for speaking with us. We’re huge fans. But before we go, any tips for the Berlin visitor?

Go there in summer, bring your raincoat and dancing shoes, stay calm and stop taking pictures of your drunk friends on the dancefloor. If you’re male and drunk, you shouldn’t try to get into Berghain.

Ryan McGinley, Somewhere Someplace

James Davidson — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:54:20 +0000

Continuing his progression from naked kids in urban New York to naked kids in the wilderness, über-hip photographer Ryan McGinley‘s latest show – opening Saturday at Amsterdam’s Galerie Gabriel Rolt – displays an increasingly cinematic feel to his work, whilst the use of animals continues McGinley’s fascination with nature, freedom and adventure. For those of you who’ve been with us a long time you may recall his spellbinding Moonmilk collection that we featured back in 2009, the psychedelic, almost lunar, landscapes that were prominent then have been replaced by a much more real, rugged wilderness, with darker, symbolic overtones that make for compelling, if not particularly unsettling viewing. While we leave you to drift into McGinley’s powerful, evocative imagery, we’ll be finding a way to sift through the disturbing spam that we’ve probably triggered by writing ‘naked kids’ 3 times in one article…

All images copyright Ryan McGinley, Courtesy Galerie Gabriel Rolt.

Imaginary Friend, Ellen Rogers and Aldene Johnson

James Davidson — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:36:16 +0000

We’re blown away by these beautiful images from this year’s VICE Fashion Issue that was released yesterday. Teaming up super-cool, London-based analogue photographer Ellen Rogers with South African, Aldene Johnson – the lady behind Florence Welch’s styling – is glaringly common sense it would seem, especially so if you’re familiar with either of their darkly historical styles. The disturbingly beautiful, Gothic images that are the result of this rather special collaboration are steeped in an eerie occult-like fantasy, and with Rogers’ refusal to use any digital effects – instead opting for experimental techniques achieved by toying with chemicals in her own darkroom (really feel that statement requires a disclaimer of sorts, oh well…) – the end-result is as much art as it is fashion. Captivating, stylish and decidedly dark…

Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed

James Davidson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:57:22 +0000

From the early 70s, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the USSR experienced somewhat of a unique, and decidedly bizarre, period in architecture. Taking advantage of the nation’s crumbling control, architects pushed the boundaries of design, way beyond modernism, with expressionist works that defied any kind of traditional convention. Fascinated by what he considers to be the fourth age of Soviet architecture, Frédéric Chaubin – editor-in-chief of French lifestyle magazine Citizen K – has documented these spectacular feats of otherworldly architecture over the last 7 years, the outcome of which appears in the form of this splendid new Tashcen book and an exhibition that runs at Karlsruhe’s Museum of Contemporary Art until 27th March. From a crematorium adorned with concrete flames to a technological institute with a flying saucer crashed on the roof, with all manner of lunar inspired landscapes and surrealist concrete fantasies in between, Chaubin’s document of 90 buildings, located within 14 former Soviet Republics, is as inspirational a collection of architectural photography as you will see in some time…

Inspired by the finest Suprematist utopias, the Georgian Ministry of Highways with its reduced anchorage. (G. Chakhava, Z. Dzhalaganiya, T. Tkhilava, V. Klinberg) Tbilisi, Georgia, 1974

Soviet embassy in Cuba (A. Rochegov) Havana, 1985

Palace of Ceremonies (R. Dzhorbenadze, V. Orbeladze) Tbilisi, Georgia, 1985

The architecture faculty at the Polytechnic Institute of Minsk and its succession of overhanging lecture theaters. (V. Anikin, I. Yesman) Belarus, 1983

Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics (S. Savin, B. Artiushin) Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1987

The anthropomorphic House of Soviets in Kaliningrad stands on the site of the Saxon castle of Königsberg. Begun in 1974, its construction was never completed because of its structural flaws and the collapse of the USSR.

Monument to the Battle of Bash-Aparan. (R. Israelyan) Armenia, 1979

Zurab Tsereteli designed the colored ceramic pool of the children health resort in Adler. Russia, 1973

Built in the nineteenth century, the Ninth Fort at Kaunas was used by the Soviet NKVD as a detention center and then by the German occupying forces. The 32 metre-high (105-ft.-high) memorial stands on the site of mass executions carried out during the Holocaust. This spectacular evocation of suffering and death was designed by the sculptor Alfonsas Ambraziunas. Lithuania, 1983

Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technological Research and Development. (L.Novikov, F. Turiev) Kiev, Ukraine, 1971

Creamatorium (A. Miletski) Kiev, Ukraine, 1985

Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed by Frederic Chaubin, £34.99, is published by TASCHEN and is available to purchase at www.taschen.com

Lead Image: Druzhba sanatorium (I. Vasilevsky, Y. Stefanchuk) Yalta, Ukraine, 1985

Fade to Black: Metallica by Bill Hale

James Davidson — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:48:05 +0000

Back in the early 80s, before pyrotechnics, orchestras and 24 month world tours, Metallica were tearing apart the ‘bay scene’, punishing audiences in California with their super-fast, raw metal. Photographer Bill Hale was in the right place at the right time and, celebrating 30 years in the business for heavy metal’s biggest band, Camden’s Proud Galleries have been granted unique access to Hale’s archive of Metallica between 1982 and 1984. Opening tomorrow (3rd February), this is the latest in a long line of inspirational exhibitions shown at Europe’s most popular private photography gallery and we’ve got an exclusive look at just some of the blisteringly powerful images on display…

Fade to Black runs at Camden’s Proud Galleries from 3rd February until 3rd April, all photographs © Bill Hale

Cliff Burton, a friend and Dave Mustaine, “I remember Cliff, Dave and I walking out of the Stone after the show. The Photo bug hit me and I asked the guys to pose for a photo. Little did any of Us know that Dave would be asked to leave the band in a couple of weeks and Cliff would be gone forever in a few short years!”
March 19th, 1983. The Stone, San Francisco

Backstage at the Old Waldorf. “Ron, James, Lars and Dave, my last attempt at a group shot with McGovney still in Metallica. It was clear that Ron was too normal for the rest of the band. So, Dave spilled beer on Ron’s jeans…”
October 18th, 1982. The Old Waldorf, San Francisco

“Looking back, it was fun to see the band progress. Not just as musicians but as people… With down time between the tour in support of Ride the Lightning and a couple of months before the band was to start recording for Master of Puppets, I found Lars hanging out after an Iron Maiden gig. Lars had gone from a major fan of the music to signing autographs himself!”
July 3rd, 1985. San Jose Civic, San Jose Ca.

James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich & Dave Mustaine back stage. “In retrospect, this image can speak volumes… Was Dave already getting on Lars’ short list? Was the tension between the two coming to a head?? Or just young Bulls being young Bulls???
Later that night Dave got his “revenge” so to speak in a post gig photo session…”
March 19th, 1983. The Stone, San Francisco

Cliff Burton and Dave Mustaine “Now playing bass for Metallica… I give you Mr. Cliff Burton. Hamming around backstage just before Cliff walked on stage and into Heavy Metal History!!!”
March 5th, 1983. The Stone, San Francisco

James on stage
March 5th, 1983. The Stone, San Francisco

Three’s a Crowd, Ewen Spencer

James Davidson — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:08:55 +0000

From tiny 200-capacity gigs around the UK and previously unseen commissions for NME and The Face to their infamously fanatical South American tour of 2005, Newcastle-born photographer Ewen Spencer was privileged enough to document one of our favourite bands on their incredible rise to world fame. Three’s a Crowd is the first in a series of four A3 sized poster books, that celebrate Spencer’s unique relationship with the band and, being strictly limited to 500 with initial orders being signed by the photographer, this collection looks set to be somewhat of a sought after item…