MISS·EKI

I am a photomaniac. Actually, I can be pretty obsessive about all visual arts, but I have a taste especially for photography. As I was going through my immense photographers' archive I noticed some pictures had a common denominator. So I rearranged them by concept to have a better chance to see how different photographers get the same subject through their lenses. It's a pretty intense work, sometimes I stare at shots for hours and I find myself mesmerized by what I see.

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La Bouche Vol 2 up left to bottom right / 1. Unknown 2. Unknown 3. Dukovic Pari 4. Mad Paule' 5. Marylin Minter 6. Unknown 7. Bhumika Bhatia

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Da Pool up left to bottom right / 1. Emma Hardy 2. Mel Roberts 3. Moni Haworth 4. An instant with Laura 5. Mariana Pacho López 6. Katherine Squier

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Three months have gone so fast. I am pretty happy about this blog, it's given me the opportunity to write about the photography I like, amazing photographers I happen to find along the way and to improve my knowledge about shooting techniques and what drives a photographer into a project. I'll keep on working on this, but it seemed useful to recap these three months posts.   

PHOTOGRAPHERS:  1. Yuji Hamada | post  2. Hans Malm | post  3. Severn McConaughy Bowen | post  4. Li Hui | post  5. Chad Moore | post  6. Moni Haworth | post  7. Erika Langley | post  8. Adam Jeppesen | post  9. Pieter Ten Hoopen | post 10. Nancy Reyes | post 11.  Alex JD Smith | post 12. Joel Meyerowitz  | post CONCEPT:  1. Legs | post  2. Waist | post  3. Smoke & Booze | post  4. Chilling | post  5. Kisses | post  6. Floating | post  7. Bathtub & Shower | post  8. Unmade Beds | post  9.  Double Exposure | post 10. La Bouche | post 11. Lookin' Outside | post 12. Kisses Vol. 2 | post 13. Cars | post 14. Crouching | post 15. Sandy | post 16. The Ring Factor | post 17. Straight Ahead | post 18. Unknown Pleasure | post 19.  Woodland | post

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Woodland up left to bottom right / 1. Mary Robinson 2. Aëla Labbé 3. Sofia Ajram 4. David Sigfridsson 5. Tamara Lichtenstein 6. Isabella Bubola 7. Brian Green

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Lessons | Joel Meyerowitz

Lesson number one. The cat is on the table. And Meyerowitz is surely taking a picture of it :)

I stumbled upon a video of Meyerowitz teaching some tricks on Street Photography.

I always thought at SP as one of the most tricky disciplines in photography. You have to deal with a lot of things, not just tecnique ones but also a bunch of psychological ones. You have to deal with people, and that's a big deal. You can never predict how people can react to your camera at their faces. Once I've been chased by a mad restaurant owner who argued I couldn't take picture of the inside of his place. Neither through the window, standing outside on public ground. At the time I remember I had to face my natural shyness and clumsiness in order to  learn.  I'll always be thankful to SP, 'cause through strong discipline and commitment today I am more confident and true to myself. So, in a nutshell, these are some good points you'll find in the video:

read the hand  | when you're in the street, place your hand in front of the lense to read lights and set the exposure

stand on street corners | because there is where people gather. Whatch the crowd and see if there's an interaction or significant gestures to capture.

photographs happen spontaneously | you can't predict what's going to happen. The best thing about SP is the unpredictable can happen.

the camera puts a frame around life | what happens in the frame is the content. You can put together things that not necessarily fit together.  

Resources: Joel Meyerowitz   

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photographers | Alex JD Smith

Alex JD Smith left his native England in 2004, and now lives in Los Angeles, where he found himself fashinated by both the incredible Southern California light, and the vastness of America’s urban, suburban and rural spaces. (source strange.rs) To me his Flickr stream is an inexhaustible source of inspiration, for the great amount of shots and subjects. And I can follow his photographic growth, as well. It's pretty interesting how you can get a sense of his maturation, from the approach to street photography, to the relinquishment of its clichés (seagulls, close ups of random people, etc...things all street photographers, sooner or later, tend to chase)

His work suggests his constant experience with all sorts of photographic elements: lights (particularly indoors), horizontal constructing lines (frontal perspectives), colours and b/w shots. At some point forward his shots gain a sort of purpose, he develops different figurative projects and his whole work takes off.

(this one is the first shot I saw by Alex, and it was the reason of my interest for his work) All above images | Copyright © Alex JD Smith References: alexjdsmith.com/ Flickr Feeding the Beast Blog Alex on strange.rs

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Straight Ahead up left to bottom right / 1. Arkadiusz Jankowski 2. Iain McKell 3. Laura Rodari 4. Mary Robinson 5. Iain McKell 6. Josef Koudelka 7. John Bodin

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photographers | Pieter Ten Hoopen

I want to tell you a story I read on the New York Times, that has drawn me in. Do you remember when I was reasoning about the power that photography has in telling a story? Well, in this case, the story is already written, and it's fascinating. To me, at least. It's called The Suicide Forest. 

Imagine a forest, so dense with vegetation it's almost impossible to navigate. This forest has a name: AOKIGAHARA, or JUKAI - sea of trees, for short.

It lies at the north-western base of Mount Fuji, Japan. The forest has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology and is a popular place for suicides.   This is the reason why is reputedly haunted by the Yūrei (angry spirits) of those left to die.  Jukai swallows its conscious visitors and doesn't give anything back, sometimes not even bodies. The annual body search, consisting of a small army of police, volunteers, and attendant journalists, counts a record of 78 findings in 2002. So you see, the story is told and is sad.

Pieter Ten Hoopen, was born in 1974 and he's based in Stockholm, Sweden. Along with Geologist Azusa Hayano, took a walk in the sea of trees, to witness what has been left of the people passing through.  

All above images | Copyright © Pieter Ten Hoopen

Resources: pietertenhoopen.com/ AOKIGAHARA on Wikipedia

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Hurricane Sandy up left to bottom right / 1. John E. Rodriguez 2. Laura Senator 3. Daniel S. Phillips 4. Donald Bajohr 5. Todd Patton 6. E. Crane 7. Debra Weinstein Source: New York Time's readers Hurricane Sandy on Wikipedia

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photographers | Adam Jeppesen

Wake is a little dark book with the title and a rosebud engraved in gold on the hardcover, published in 2008, first edition printed in 2500 copies. Inside, a world of cold mist-shrouded landscapes. Nothing is staged, what you see is what you get. Adam Jeppesen was born in 1978 in Kalundborg, Denmark. The following essay explains Jeppesen vision and pretty much why I like his work. 

Humans live in a world where they are isolated, flanked by nature on one side and technology on the other. Jeppesen’s photographs show man in the middle, finding a place to balance in this world, a beautiful world: the modern world. Man’s creations and the creature that is nature are too overwhelming, too amorphous, too unpredictable, to understand instinctively. By surrendering wholeheartedly to vision, the artist cannot hatch and control a snappy method of categorizing and capturing the world. But this sacrifice is worthwhile. The only universals that Jeppesen can be completely sure about are light and air, and these are the most consistent, most reliable characters in his work. Light and air suffuse his pictures and have a depth of personality that a portrait photographer would murder for. The atmosphere’s temperament is finely-tuned: in a greenhouse-style travel terminal the air is overcooked and the light is trapped; in the mountain range the mist has a cleansing, restorative taste; above the clean, young city the air is thinner and the ultramodern buildings more crisply in focus. Light and air touch everything; this ether connects everything and everyone to everything and everyone else. (Essay by William Pym) 

NO·North Sea·07·21·03

GT·Tikal 07·27·10

CH·Huife 04·23·07 All above images | Copyright © Adam Jeppesen

Resources: adamjeppesen.com Wake | Steidldangin Edition - 2008

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Cars up left to bottom right / 1. Jovan Todorovic 2. Margaret Durow 3. Sam Coldy 4. Iain McKell 5. Frankie Diaz 6. Katherine Squier 7. Chad Moore

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La Bouche up left to bottom right / 1. Alessandra Gerevini 2. Unknown photographer 3. Unknown photographer 4. bluthusten.tumblr.com 5. Isabella Bubola 6. Ana Kras | ikebana 7. Unknown photographer 8. bluthusten.tumblr.com 9. Unknown photographer

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photographers | Chad Moore

I spend a considerable amount of time thinking whether photography can tell a powerful story or not. And if it can, how much room does an image give to the viewer's personal experience to fit in and fill the empty spaces? In my opinion photography definitely can tell everyday stories, can get a viewer into an unknown place at an unknown time, meeting unknown people and even sharing emotions he's not actually feeling. I can get lost in a shot details'. This just happened to me, while I was flicking over Chad Moore photo archive. I've been drawn in by these summer trip shots; the more I looked at them, the more I figured out a narrative path growing deeper and deeper with details. So you see, some photographers really can hook you in. BTW Chad has a extensive photo archive, if you get arouse by these few shots, you should definitely check his site out.

  (above: shot part of summer trip)  

All above images | Copyright © Chad Moore

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Double Exposure up left to bottom right / 1. Miki Takahashi 2. Monica Craik 3. Mary Robinson 4. Unknown photographer 5. hui+ 6. Isabella Bubola 7. Monica Craik

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Unmade Beds up left to bottom right / 1. Laura Rodari 2. Anemarie Planšak 3. .nevara | Jana Martish 4. Jessica Ginsberg 5. Beso Uznadze 6. Isaac Torres 7. Mafalda Silva 8. Lina Scheynius 9. .nevara | Jana Martish

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photographers | Li Hui

#atmosphere

I think people change their faces too fast in the real world. Sometimes there is no way of knowing their true feelings. But I just wanna know more about what’s going on inside of them and their body language tells me that. Besides, I am a really shy person, so it’s hard for me to focus on someone’s face. (from an interview on MOSSLESS) 

She must surely have a soul as pure as a butterfly's wings. This is how I immagine her. Her shots send me in another dimension, like her double exposures ones, so sophisticated yet so natural. She states she's attracted by everything is wild, mysterious and dreamy. (ART MAGAZINE) and I think this reflects on the shots, inoculating a dreamy parallel dimension in the eyes of the viewer (me particularly).  

All above images | Copyright © Li Hui references: huiuh.com/ hui+ Flickr page

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photographers | Severn McConaughy Bowen

#light II This is an other pleasant discovers of mine. She's like a rough diamond, she has good eye for light and she could easily blow my mind (as she already does when I think of her in another 4 yrs improvements, photographically speaking). As I learned on her Flickr page, she's from Vancouver - Canada.

I shoot with a nikon d5000, pentax k1000, vivitar uw&s, konica c35 ef. selling my nikon d70s. (swear by 50mm primes, as far as lenses go, digital and film. i have occasionally shot with zoom lenses.) 

All above images | Copyright © Severn McConaughy Bowen