24.01.2012 Erik Wahlstrom - Stockholm Fashion Week Magazine

A while ago I came across this series made by Erik Wahlstrom for the Stockholm Fashion Week Magazine and found a lot of them very engaging. I feel some are a little samey! But I love the simple styling and natural feel to the images.

"The magazine wanted a full on animal shoot, with the theme taken very literally, but I steered the other way. I had the rather disturbing thought - what if all the animals where gone, what if young people only had learned about horses, dogs and foxes through text books and museums? I wanted to do a story about a gang of youngsters, dressed in urban city wear, but with abstract animal references thrown in. A bunny tattoo on the arm, a feather here, a fox tail attached to the cap, all as a shadow of what once was." 

 

The series was produced with a Mamiya 645 and a Contax G2 on Portra 400 film.

22.01.12 Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts: Classical Eye

Hidden Gems Revealed in the Box Files of the Celebrated Photographer

With an instinctive California-bred approach to light, expansive use of natural landscape and sculptural eye, Ritts set the tone for more than two decades of fashion, celebrity and art photography. “I think he had an extraordinary sense of classicism that you don’t often see,” says Ivan Shaw, Photography Director at American Vogue. “At the same time he brought a modernity to it.” With an upcoming exhibition of Ritts’s work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the release of a new book, his continuing influence on a new generation of photographers is ensured. “People will remember his photography for his eye, his image, for his graphics,” says Charles Churchward, a close friend and former Design Director at Vogue. “It will come back in a strong way and be very influential.” To celebrate Ritts's work, NOWNESS culled the memories and reflections of his colleagues, friends and muses.

Richard Gere: His purpose was always to make you look good. He had an extremely elegant aesthetic. Some photographers are working so hard to be elegant that they pummel you with it, but to Herb it came effortlessly. Some photographers embalm their subjects, but he enlivened them.
 

Cindy Crawford: I think he photographs women the way they want to look… Herb would always get you naked. You knew that’s the way it went, you are going to look good.
 
Calvin Klein: His sense of light, outside or in the studio, is very strong and very graphic. When you turn a page and see one of his photographs, it’s aggressive. You stop.
 
Naomi Campbell: All of us experienced pain with Herb, but the pain was worth it. You want one of those photographs in your lifetime of modeling.
 

22.01.12 Francois Coquerel

Living and working in Paris, photographer Francois Coquerel has exhibited widely and has produced work for The New York Times, Spin, Wall Street Journal, Monocle, the BBC, Colors Magazine, and many more. Below is a small selection of his impressive portfolio - it's well worth taking a deeper look. 

 I wanted to re-post this as I've only recently discovered these beautifully emotional portraits. I especially like the averted gaze of the subjects, they are not quite engaging with the photographer and therefore make me wonder whether there is another person involved or whether they are just being thoughtful as the expression suggests.