Playful history

Lunch Atop A Skyscraper (orginal here):

Raising the flag on Iwo Jima (original here):

More on Balakov’s flickr.

Breakthrough

Since I previously mentioned the Chinese photographer Lakita, her style has moved quite a bit. She now does high-end fashion shots for the likes of Prada, Marc Jacobs and Gucci.

Coincidence

Half a year ago my life was exhilarating. I even went out from time to time. One night I went to the final party at Turbinehallerne. Good event – and they had fireworks. A stranger next to me took a picture of the happening and I ended up in the frame.

Many months later I signed up for a Master’s programme. There I met dozens of people, exams started rolling in and my life became less exhilarating. However, I did find time to go sailing with a few of my new friends, one of which happened to be the person that took the first photograph.

Spooky.

A genius is still alive

Josef Koudelka (b. 1938) is a Czech mastermind.

His journey towards his current position as one of the world’s most appreciated photographers was initiated in the early 50s, when he began documenting his family. In the 60s he was occupied with photographing gypsies in Czechoslovakia and theatre productions in Prague – up until 1968, when he caught the Sovjet invasion of Prague on film.

Koudelka’s visual approach has a dark, haunting side to it that always draws me straight into his expressive universe. Max Kozloff cleverly describes that “his world may be as inhospitable as It is unfamiliar, but it remains a world of minority cultures, whose religious and funerary rituals It intimately discloses. The question of how long these cultures will continue to exist in recognizable form is held in suspense by his imagery.”

My attempts to borrow his contrasted symbolism have been many:

Japan through lenses

On 2nd of September I posted a feature on Chinese amateur photographers. I’m now following it up with a similar recommendation focusing on its neighbouring country, Japan.

The huge amounts of photography talent in the “Land of the Rising Sun” made the selection process a bit difficult. Again I urge you to dip further into these up-coming folks.

+lyn

© keico

lepagelp

00:01 & 23:59

Bruno Quinquet

PS: This country is amazing.

Young China

Global photography communities like Flickr allow you to follow lives of interesting people around the world – in addition to the sheer inspiration their visuals contribute to. I’ll share some of my favourites right here. First round is the grand country of China.

Enjoy – and do investigate further.

wasabi

linlin

gatsby.cao

alex.coldtea

Lakita

Antonioni celebration

On the 30th of July this year the tremendous Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman died – and you probably knew this, since every media channel worldwide brought the story. At the very same day another influential cinematic genius passed away – Michelangelo Antonioni. Back in 1966 he directed the strangely haunting “Blow Up”, which opened my eyes to versatile pictures and the power of muted vision. So, when I was sitting on a Copenhagen square today and my camera reached a plausible frame, I couldn’t help smiling, when I realized where the image was stolen from.

People who have seen “Blow Up” know what I mean.