Kiev is in turmoil. And this turmoil has been beautifully captured in a before and after image by Reddit user nasdaf.
Click on the image below to see the complete overview of the before and after state of independence square in Kiev, Ukraine.
landscape
The Value of Photography
Have some money to spare? Perhaps you should invest in art. And what better art then photographic art. As the art world is always undergoing change. The influence of photography in the art world has been on the rise ever since the camera was properly used to capture ‘real life’ and since Man Ray played around with this ‘real’ medium. Of course the price of a photograph will rise when its historic relevance to some important person or event seems rare and thus special. But the most expensive photographs lately were created by photographers who used their cameras to create and tell a story. Ignite an emotion in the viewer. And that of course is what art is all about.
Below the top 10 of photographs sold for a couple of more pennies than I have managed to sell mine. So which one would you like to hang on your wall?
#1 Rhein II – Andreas Gursky (1999) $4.3 million
#2 Untitled #96 – Cindy Sherman (1981) $3.9 million
#3 For Her Majesty – Gilbert & George (1973) $3.7 million
#4 Dead Troops Talk – Jeff Wall (1992) $3.7 million
#5 Untitled (Cowboy) – Richard Prince (2001-02) $3.4 million
#6 99 Cent II, Diptychon – Andreas Gursky (2001) $3.3 million
#7 Los – Angeles – Andreas Gursky (1998) $2.9 million
#8 The Pond/Moonlight – Edward Steichen (1904) $2.9 million
#9 Untitled #153 – Cindy Sherman (1985) $2.7 million
#10 Billy the Kid – Unknown (1880) $2.3 million
India Song by Karen Knorr
Perhaps a dream of many. Having a majestic animal we like to see at a safari holiday or while visiting a zoo as a pet. Letting them walk around your house as if they were a normal house cat. And since we are dreaming, why not make your house look like a palace, museum or some other architectural wonder of a place. Karen Knorr visualized exactly that in her series called India Song.
Karen Knorr’s website: www.karenknorr.com
Capturing the Highways in the Skies by Kevin Cooley
The series Nachtfluge by landscape photographer Kevin Cooley, reminded me of the opening song to a cartoon I watched a lot in my younger years. I’m talking about Transformers. In the opening song of that show they sung “..Robots in disguise..”. At the time I thought, being a Dutch kid who knew only a couple of English words, they were singing: “…Robots in the skies“. It made sense to me, they did flew around a lot. Luckily my English did get a little better.
Perhaps the robots weren’t all in the skies. But in this series Nachtfluge we do see the pathways in the skies. Not created by gigantic robots who for some reason need to blend in on earth by transforming into a car or fighter jet. But the trails of aircrafts. Showing us the highways they travel on. The long exposure photographs were all taken at major airports across the United States of America. Some of the photographs in this series reminds me a little bit of the wonderful House Hunting series by Todd Hido. The colors are amazing and the angles and landscapes Kevin Cooley picks give a good sense of the neighboring places of these Highways.
Kevin Cooley’s website: www.kevincooley.net
After Lights Out by Julien Mauve
If you want to see the grandeur of the amazing starry sky nowadays you would have to travel to some of the more remote places on earth. That used to be different. I have heard stories that people would go out and visit friends in evening where there was a full moon. So you could see where you where going at night. Today, in the age of technology the nights are illuminated from both moon, starts and men. We’ve created a night sky that is clouded with light, covering up the stats. True light pollution.
Julien Mauve and assistant Pauline Ballet created a series called After Lights Out. The series shows scenes of dark places illuminated by only one light. A beacon of hope in the surrounding darkness. It shows quite the opposite of the light pollution we have in the western world. It shapes light into a rarity in an otherwise so very well-lit world.
What if darkness in our world once again overtook the night and as an affect, transforming even the most insignificant light into an exception – a mystical phenomenon ?
Julien Mauve’s website: www.julienmauve.com
The Center of the Universe by Jim Vecchi
This photo series by Jim Vecchi is breaking the rules of composition; placing the subject dead center. But in many cases in art, breaking laws provokes and creates an interesting piece of attention grabbing art. This series is called The Center of the Universe. He created this series as a memory of the hours he spent looking at everything. As a child he simply spent hours inspecting ordinary objects, such as poles, columns, wires. The focus was entirely on the subject. The surrounding landscapes would blur and melt away in color and motion. So all and all he tried to recapture that magic feeling he had inspecting things as a child. A wonderful and colorful series. That really captures the imagination and make you look at something you’d ordinarily don’t pay much attention to. And on top of that it makes you look at the unsharp worlds created behind the subject. Abstractions of real life.
Jim Vecchi’s website: www.jimvecchi.com
A Strange but Wonderful World by Rodney Smith
“He can wear an ascot without appearing pretentious. He proclaims himself to be a closet optimist. He believes Modernism took a wrong turn at a wrong time. He thinks Freud saved his life. He graduated Yale. He lives in a wooded enclave in Snedens Landing, just close enough to Manhattan to meet an editor for lunch at a moments notice, but far enough away to mollify his distain for city living. He loves books. Paper. And printed matter. He wrestles with Big Ideas and references Wittgenstein and Plato as if he saw them just yesterday. He’s tweedy. Proud. Not loud. He’s a perfectionist. Workaholic.”
This is a short bio of photographer Rodney Smith. You can read the rest on his website. But more importantly you can see his wonderful work there as well. His photography is like that of another world or dimension. Strange but beautiful settings. Men wearing suits and hats, women wearing dresses. Each photographs with its own story, or so it seems. Visit his website and create yours.
Rodney Smith’s website: www.rodneysmith.com and his blog: rodneysmith.com/blog/
Beautiful Night Shots: Sleepwalking by Alex Bamford
Photography is in essence the art of recording light. And the longer an exposure the more light is recorded. Alex Bamford is a photographer who really likes to go out and push that to the limit. He recorded light in the wee little hours of the night. You know, that time of day when light is as scares as butterflies are in winter.
His series, called Sleepwalking, shows us a set of photographs in which he himself is situated in different poses on different locations…in his PJs. The long exposures make the world look like a dream. Faded and soft. The light is wonderful. Not yet morning but not really night as well. A very interesting and wonderful project. Take a look and perhaps it inspires you to create art when you find yourself wondering around in your PJs.
Alex Bamford’s website: www.alexbamford.com
Beautiful Portraits of…Trees? by Myoung Ho Lee
South Korean artist Myoung Ho Lee has created some very unusual photographs focussing on trees. Myoung Ho Lee photographed trees like it were a studio portrait. The idea is quite simple; get a white background behind the subject and take the picture. But doing this with trees is something totally different. He separates the tree from its natural habitat by using the large white background. It makes you look different at trees and their surroundings. He lifts them out of their comfort zone in a way and let tree speak for its self. Without the help of the rest of nature.
