Yesterday we looked at Niki de Saint Phalle's Tirs, so let's continue the art thread for another day by looking at Enrico Baj's assemblages. Baj started developing his art in the '50s, when he co-founded with painter Sergio Dangelo the Movimento d'Arte Nucleare (Nuclear Art Movement), rejecting conformity and authority.
Influenced by movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism, and artists including Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and Max Ernst, and sharing a passion for assemblages of borrowed objects with French Nouveau Rèalisme, Baj created collaged canvases with scraps, bits and pieces of furniture, knobs, handles and fragments of wood.
His most famous series remains the one entitled "Dames" that he started in the mid-'60s. The Dames series included assemblaged portraits of women made with buttons, pieces of brocade fabrics, yarns, tassels and other assorted found objects on patterned wallpaper or fabric backgrounds.
The results - some of them currently on display at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale (until 24th November) are primitive and abstracted forms: from alien monsters with a playful twist about them, such as a face with just one eyeball, to sets of ropes that add a menacing aspect to the portraits.
Baj employed homely materials and transformed them, tackling in this way the concept of mutability, and the possibility of transcending reality through his kitsch, whimsical, and tongue-in-cheek canvases that also mock the avant-garde.
Can you think about any fashion collections or any specific designs that transform the reality in a playful way while mocking the fashion industry?
Leaf through issues of Vogue Italia from the '70s and you will instantly spot quite a few pieces, ideas and garments that look extremely similar to what's in the shops at the moment.
One very striking example is a Surrealist necklace with eye and mouth pendants by Niki de Saint Phalle that has been pilfered, remixed and re-edited by Delfina Delettrez in her own jewellery pieces (View this photo) and in her supposedly unique collaboration for the A/W 2013-14 season with Kenzo (characterised by the eye motif; View this photo).
It was Milanese goldsmith Giancarlo Montebello who persuaded Niki de Saint Phalle (and together with her a long list of modern artists including Lucio Fontana, Hans Richter, Jesús Soto and Alex Katz) to collaborate with him, creating iconic jewellery under the Gem Montebello label.
It would be absolutely amazing to see a proper jewellery exhibition featuring Montebello's own creations and the designs made for Gem by famous artists, but, in the meantime, if you like Niki de Saint Phalle, you may want to check out the exhibition "En Joue! Assemblages & Tirs (1958-1964)" at Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois in Paris.
The exhibition features the artist's assemblages and "Tirs", that is paintings created by shooting a .22 rifle and puncturing packets of paint that released their contents onto the plaster reliefs.
The action of firing with a gun at the containers of paint lodged in her assemblages made with assorted found objects and toys plastered on wood and sometimes incorporating other materials such as polythene, engendered a live action painting and a theatrical performance.
Niki de Saint Phalle's first shooting paintings were showcased in 1961 at the "Tir à volonté" exhibition organised by Pierre Restany at the Galerie J, with Leo Castelli, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and all the Nouveaux Réalistes in attendance.
Among the works at the Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois there are the miniature "landscape-assemblages" from 1958, the famous "Pirodactyl over New York" (the last big "Tir assemblage" made in 1962), the studies for the big King Kong from 1963, and her "Hearts" and "Cathedrals".
One of the most famous pieces remains the "Portrait of my lover", a work de Saint Phalle created in 1961 to take part in the Salon Comparaisons. The artwork consists in an assemblage of a shirt stolen from an insistent lover she was trying to get rid of and a target in the place of his head that visitors were supposed to shoot at.
This piece predates Niki de Saint Phalle's "Tirs" and, like her shooting paintings, remains fascinating. Through her assemblages and "Tirs", de Saint Phalle tried indeed to create new surfaces and shapes, sparking dialogue between objects by combining them together and then destroying them in a violent act that actually produced colourfully intriguing effects, a process that should lead to more inspiring artworks or designs in fashion, rather than to mere recreations of her original works.
Alphabet books may be designed for children to allow them to learn the letters through images, corresponding words or sentences. Yet, even as a grown up, it is difficult to resist the allure of their illustrations conjuring up childhood memories, or not to be fascinated by the simplicity of hilariously dark revisitations of this book format (think for example about Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies).
The Granny Alphabet (Thames & Hudson) moves from the same principle, it is indeed an A-Z of grannies and all things granny divided in two volumes, one featuring photographs by Tim Walker and rhymes by award-winning perfomer, writer and translator Kit Hesketh-Harvey, the other including delicate and ironic illustrations by artist Lawrence Mynott, portraying Adventurous, Chic, Elegant or Quirky grandmothers.
There is a lot of talk about "advanced style" in fashion, and, though the section curated by Walker hints at this trend through photographs of stylish elderly ladies, the images mainly approach the subject with a sense of playfulness, humour and sweet nostalgia.
Walker doesn't employ his elaborate trademark sets that appear in his fashion images, but focuses on his subjects (some of them almost reproducing through their poses the shape of certain letters of the alphabet), or celebrates them through objects relating to them, from bingo balls to knitting needles, false teeth, walking sticks and a cup with a saucer imaginatively doubling as a flying saucer, an ideal means of transport for a granny on her way to Mars.
In the book introduction Walker recounts episodes from his childhood involving his grandmothers and makes an important point - all children have a special bond with their grandparents. Indeed, as Walker highlights in the introduction: "Old age brings back this childlike clarity of vision, and so children and the elderly have an agreement, a bond, united by both a sense of being out of time and by the brilliantly reckless lack of responsibility that bookends adulthood and allows them to see things as they really are".
This is the key to the purpose of the book: if there is a special bond between children and grandparents, why not creating a book that somehow homages grannies in the style of a children's book? While the two volumes retain all the non-threatening characteristics of alphabet books, they are not a parody of alphabet primers, but a tribute and a homage to all grannies, in a nutshell "a love letter to the elderly and documentation of the dying breed of little old ladies who live down the lane", as Walker states in the introduction. The Granny Alphabet by Tim Walker, Kit Hesketh-Harvey and Lawrence Mynott is published by Thames & Hudson. All profits from the sale of the book will go to Friends of the Elderly.
Leather is considered as a very intriguing material for different reasons: it connects us to a pagan past, hints at different dichotomies such as pain/pleasure and power/sadism, and reminds us that wearing it symbolises the act of wearing another animal's skin, a concept that links us to ideas of empowerment and ownership.
In the history of fashion, leather is a crucial material associated with fetishism, but also with women's liberation and power dressing, themes tackled in particular in key collections by Yves Saint Laurent and Claude Montana.
Leather characterises also all the pieces designed by Takayuki Abe featured in a recently opened exhibition at the E27 Gallery in Milan.
The designer studied in Toyo before moving to Milan to continue his studies at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) where he will be graduating soon.
The exhibition at E27 is entitled "Liquoris" and is co-curated by Italian designer Cinzia Ruggeri and Italian artist Aldo Landini, a duo that perfectly fits Takayuki Abe's moods and works, suspended between art and fashion.
The Japanese designer created a story through sculptures representing clothes and accessories made in fragrant leathers. Some pieces are more conceptual, others - like his bags - are perfectly wearable, but all the items showcased are employed in a very poetical way to tell a story in which leather is used to excite the senses, remind the visitors about its tactile qualities and hint through this material at the dichotomy between masculine strength and female gentleness.
The story opens when a drawing escapes its broken frame and symbolically starts recounting the vicissitudes of two lovers.
A carved piece of leather hints at the initial disintegration of the two hearts; minimalist leather boots leave with their cleverly designed soles a halved heart print on a leather shirt while a rigid leather jacket and shirt turn into sculptures when one of the lovers dies.
The designer's tools employed to sculpt the leather are scattered on a shelf as if the author of the story had just finished carving his secret incisions that evoke the memory of a tragic love inside the bags showcased.
"I had the idea of using broken frames since I liked the feeling conveyed by the seductive drawings and sketches flying away out of the open doors of the gallery," Cinzia Ruggeri told Irenebrination. "Takayuki Abe has been among my students at the Project Methodology course I teach at NABA and he dislayed there a surprising attitude for leatherworking and amazing carving skills matched with a highly creative sensibility."
"Liquoris" by Takayuki Abe is at E27, Via Edolo 27, Milan, Italy, until 28th November 2013 (opening hours: Monday to Friday: 4.00 p.m. - 8.00 p.m.)
Black and red, traditionally considered as punk shades, are currently quite trendy. Red is actually the trademark colour of artist and designer Arne Quinze.
Readers of this site may remember his fragile and volatile structures that pay homage to Alexander Calder’s suspended abstract mobiles or his "Chaos in Motion" exhibition with its boxes filled with entangled wooden sticks.
There is actually a crepe miniskirt designed by Christopher Kane with a crackle-hem motif that calls to mind Quinze's "Chaosboxes" featured in his "Chaos In Motion Exhibition".
In Quinze's case the wooden stacks are usually painted red or orange and the glass case containing them has a black frame, while in this case the crackle hem motif comes out in black and the rest of the skirt is red, yet the similarity somehow seems to work. Could this be the real inspiration behind this design and can you think about any other garment from currently available collections that may be so closely linked to a work of art?
You can still discover more about Arne Quinze's pieces at the "Chaos In Motion" exhibition, At The Gallery, Antwerp (until 30th December 2013).
Studying the best ways to divide and organise a space while putting together an exhibition is of crucial importance to guarantee a pleasant experience for the visitors and therefore the success of the event. An in-depth study of spaces and architectures was the starting point behind the Felipe Oliveira Baptista exhibition, currently on at the Museu do Design e da Moda (MUDE/Design and Fashion Museum) in Lisbon, Portugal.
Co-curated by Bárbara Coutinho, MUDE Director, with Felipe Oliveira Baptista and with scenes by Alexandre de Betak (Bureau Betak), the event traces the career of the young Portuguese designer. Born in 1975 in the Azores, Baptista launched his label in 2003, with his first collection entitled "Stripes-on-Strike" debuting at Paris Fashion Week. A member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, Baptista was appointed in 2010 artistic director at Lacoste.
Mirrors play an important role in the exhibition: in fiction and fairytales, mirrors are superficial objects and symbols of vanity, but in this case they are used as architectural elements. Mirrors intersect indeed the museum space at different angles and directions reflecting images of the garments and multiplying them, breaking the reality to recreate a series of images.
Around 80 garments from different collections are showcased divided in five different sections: "Protection", a theme that moves from the traditional costume of the Azores, a dark and hooded long cloak that shelters and cocoons the body; "New uniforms and workwear", that is functional wear favouring comfort, strength, movement and freedom, with some references to military uniforms; "Revisiting the classics", a section that plays around the feminine/masculine dichotomy and gives a nod to Coco Chanel's little black dress, and to Yves Saint Laurent' Le Smoking; "Variable geometries", examining graphics, patterns, prints and volumes, and "Technology Vs Nature", a theme that tackles the designer's fascination with spaceships and aircrafts, but also with animals, birds, reptiles and fossils.
One of the reasons that prompted Bárbara Coutinho, MUDE Director, to invite Baptista is the modus operandi of this young designer and his passion for archives. The core of the event is indeed the "Screen To The Brain" installation conceived as a complex atlas of images, designed by Alexandre de Betak and produced by Bureau Betak.
A selection of images - among them drawings, catwalk show pictures, images of Mexican wrestlers, punks, miners and astronauts, mixed and combined with a variety of photographs referencing Louise Bourgeois, Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, Pina Bausch, Banksy, Naum Gabo and Stanley Kubrick - are projected on several screens of different sizes, inviting the public to discover Baptista's creative process by exploring his archival mind.
What prompted the MUDE to organise the first major solo exhibition of Felipe Oliveira Baptista? Bárbara Coutinho: As Director of the museum I invited Felipe already two years ago for two main reasons: first because one of the goals of the museum is to promote, study and support Portuguese design talents. We have been doing that displaying designers who are in their thirties and offering them in this way the opportunity to show to the public their previous collections while looking back on their work as well. Presenting Portuguese designers so that they can become more known both locally and internationally is indeed one of the goals of the museum. The second reason why we picked Felipe is obviously the quality of his work: I was already familiar not just with his garments but with his creative process. Felipe takes photos, grabs ideas from architecture, photography, fine art and the natural world and puts together a book for each collection. When I invited him to exhibit his work I wanted the event to highlight also this aspect.
There seems to be a good interaction, almost a dialogue, between the architecture of the museum and the garments: was the space taken into account while designing this event? Bárbara Coutinho: We had a successful meeting with Felipe and Bureau Betak when we started working on the event and organising the production. I usually tell the architect or designer the museum works with on an exhibition that they have to respect the space and integrate it in the context of the exhibition, engaging it in a dialogue with the objects. When Alexandre de Betak and Felipe visited the space I really felt they understood what I meant and grasped very clearly the philosophy of the museum. You see, the museum is located in a building that was the headquarter of a bank, and, at the beginning of the 21st century, it was almost completely destroyed. We normally use the ruined bit both for heritage and aesthetic reasons, taking advantage of the space it creates in different exhibitions, so that the space and the museum architecture turn into the main material for our exhibitions. The first proposal by de Betak was already strong, but we had to stay within our budget, so, while we changed it a bit, we tried to essentially stick with that main draft. Sometimes when you visit an exhibition with a very strong architectural concept you have the impression that the objects have been silenced, but in our case there is a good balance as the space is reflected in the mirrors. Visitors can therefore see the garments in a new perspective, and admire them up close, without having to struggle to see the details through vitrines and display cases.
Can you tell us more about the selection process you went through with Felipe Oliveira Baptista? Bárbara Coutinho: Felipe loves archives, so he had in his offices in Paris all the notebooks and materials about the past collections. We started going through the notebooks, then we had some talking sessions and he gave me a book that featured small pictures of all the collections. I suggested him some themes and we ended up with five major thematic sections and started selecting the garments accordingly. Our first selection featured 200 pieces and we eventually arrived at a coherent selection that featured around 80 pieces. Selecting the proper pieces was a very important process as we had to make sure that each of them worked well with the surrounding spaces.
Can you make us an example about a thematic section engaging in an architectural dialogue with the building? Bárbara Coutinho: One of the themes of the exhibition is innovative geometry, so in this space we created different geometries with a corridor of mirrors. The pieces from Felipe's “Stripes-on-Strike” collection reflect in the mirror, so that the stripes are multiplied, creating a continuous effect that attracts the attention and helps communicating to the public the main idea behind the collection. The centre of the exhibition represents the brain of the designers with projections of images of lookbooks, photographs and catwalk shows: this represents an invitation to the public to get into Felipe's brain and discover his creative process. In this way it is easy for the public to relate to the outfits and the garments as they understand the process behind them.
Which is your favourite group or collection? Bárbara Coutinho: I particularly love the "Protection" section with Felipe's coats in black and dark blue as they make a really powerful and strong group, and the section dedicated to reinvented and reinterpreted classics such as men's tuxedo suits.
Was there anything that surprised you while working on this exhibition or anything that you suddenly discovered about Felipe Oliveira Baptista's work? Bárbara Coutinho: I have been curating several exhibitions, and there is always something that surprises me. You can learn a lot from books and from your personal researches and investigations, but you always find something fresh and intuitive when you put the pieces in a space gallery and you see how some of them become the protagonists of your narrative, showing a quality and a strength that is unique. For example, while working on the main five themes, we had the impression that the group of garments under the "Protection" section would have been strong, but we didn't imagine that this group would have been so powerful. One of the things that became clear while we put the exhibition together was also Felipe's DNA, a sort of coherence that characterises all his work, but also this trend that he has developed for a simplification of forms and a reduction towards more minimalist shapes.
Will the exhibition travel anywhere else? Bárbara Coutinho: We made a large investment with this exhibition, it was an important commitment especially in these times of crisis in Portugal. While I do hope it will travel, I can tell you that this particular exhibition is site specific, so, if you will see it anywhere else, it will look completely different. That's why I would urge you to come and see it in Lisbon as the event looks really unique!
"Felipe Oliveira Baptista" is on at the Museu do Design e da Moda (MUDE), Rua Augusta 24, 1100-053 Lisbon, Portugal, until 16th February 2014.
It is common knowledge that history repeats itself in a cyclical fashion. In a substantially different yet theoretically similar way, fashion repeats itself referencing historical cycles, re-editing and producing once again successful designs from previous eras and collections. We more or less quietly approve this process since, after all, our society has made a virtue out of the art of sampling and remixing. Yet there are moments when you feel like stopping and wondering where this exercise of blending, collaging, reinterpreting and recreating will take us.
Take the latest art-fashion "collaboration" unveiled yesterday online - British artist Damien Hirst celebrating the 10th anniversary of Alexander McQueen's skull-print scarf. In the last few years Hirst has probably been one of the most prolific artists when it came to fashion collaborations: in 2008 he designed a line for denim brand Levi's; last year he collaborated on backpacks for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's The Row and he recently unveiled his collaboration with Prada.
Hirst's collaboration with McQueen consists in 30 limited edition scarves, revolving around the skull theme so dear to the late Alexander McQueen, but also to Hirst (remember his 2007 artwork "For the Love of God", a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with diamonds that sold for £50 million?).
In some scarves Hirst also reworked the main theme of his "Entomology" works with insects, butterflies and bugs laid in a kaleidoscopic formation to recreate McQueen's iconic skull.
In many ways you can't see the need for such a project or the innovation behind this "collaboration".
McQueen's scarf first appeared in his Spring/Summer 2003 collection and, since then, it has been reinvented and reproduced each season in different variations and colour combinations, becoming particularly popular after the death of the designer.
Unfortunately, it spawned too many knockoffs, so many that you can find skull scarves in your average High Street retailer or on any market stalls in any country of our vast world.
McQueen may have used the skull to symbolise his passion for the dark side and for exploring themes of decay and desolation throughout history, but the recent mania for skulls simply reminds of skull-wearing Nazis (historians and antiquarians can explain you a bit better the purpose of the skull rings that Nazi officers used to wear on their leather gloves).
The negative implications behind the collective trendy and trashy mania for skulls may be one weak point behind this project, but there are others: only a few weeks ago, Hirst repackaged his entomology story for Prada and he seems to have done more or less the same with McQueen (though in that case he did two bags and in this case we are talking about a line of scarves...).
The butterfly/insect theme goes back a long way in fashion history, so Hirst hasn't invented anything: a random example of butterfly/insect scarf can easily be spotted for example in the film My Favourite Brunette (1947) by Elliott Nugent with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, and costumes by Edith Head.
That's not all, though: the 30 limited edition designs are celebrated in a short film by photographer Sølve Sundsbø that was unveiled yesterday in which a model covered in the silk scarves is filmed in slow motion.
The film looks a bit like a crossover between Loïe Fuller moving swaths of silk around her body and McQueen's vision of Kate Moss in hologram format appearing at the very end of his Autumn/Winter 2006 "The Widows of Callouden" catwalk show.
The scarves, in chiffon, twill and cashmere and ranging between £315 and £715, will be available from www.alexandermcqueen.com from tomorrow.
It sounds somehow impossible not to wonder for how long the fashion industry and the art world will engage in such pointless collaborations that only display an unquenchable thirst for money and an unstoppable desire to take the piss out of the consumers.
Originally derived from the Latin language, the word "fetish" was mainly referred to an object - also a man-made one - believed to have supernatural powers.
William Pietz's fascinating studies of the fetish explored how the term originated in the coast of West Africa between the 16th and 17th centuries, developing from the late medieval Portuguese feitiço orginally referred to the objects used in religious cults by the natives. In our society the word fetish has diversified, though, and could be approached and analysed from a wide range of perspectives.
The volume Fetishism in Fashion (Frame Publishers), the official catalogue of the 2013 edition of Mode Biennale in Arnhem, by trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort, edited by Philip Fimmano, looks at the contemporary meanings of fetishism.
The book analyses the main subject through carefully selected and styled images and shoots, and a series of essays by a variety of contributors, including artists, designers, researchers, journalists and historians.
An opening essay introduces to thirteen different fetishes spotted by Lidewij Edelkoort - from nudism and sado-masochism to more unusual ones such as infantilism, nipponism, spiritualism, absurdism, romanticism, legendism, consumerism, regionalism, patriotism, nomadism and shamanism.
Fetishism fans may be familiar with topics such as the corset as tackled by Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (her essay is accompanied by images of Iris Van Herpen's designs), or animal, hair (and braided hair in particular), colour, tattoo, hybrid, shoe (a theme linked with elevation and power that moves from Venetian calcagnini) and mask fetishes.
Features such as a profile of Leigh Bowery or an interview with Ravage and John Sillevis about the male identity and menswear, are intertwined with fashion shoots by Erwin Olaf, images of Guinean ceremonies and customs by Namsa Leuba or surreal photographs by Rotterdam-based artistic duo Huub Schilte and Jacqueline Portielje.
Shorter yet equally intriguing features tackle fish fetish, thread fetish (the latter explored by embroidery artist Karen Nicol), Aoi Kotsuhiroi's objects, or materials capable of transforming humans into alien-like beings like the ones in Bart Hess' films and images.
Andrea Branzi explores in the book philosophy, neo-primitivism and the primitive condition, while religious fetishism is presented through an interview with a Dominican Friar who also talks about the importance of religious robes and traditional garb.
The best contributions analyse unusual themes: "The Secret of the Apron" by Dominique Fallecker looks at this garment from the point of view of history, fashion and society; "No Sex Please, We're Syrian" by Malu Halasa explores instead the link between politics, revolution, the raucous sexual humour of the Middle East and the kinky lingerie sold in Damascus' souk.
Edelkoort and Fimmano also looked at fetish in interior design, with Studio Pepe Heykoop's chairs made with scraps of leather stitched on the skeleton of abandoned furniture, and Formafantasma's glass and charcoal experimentations.
Though the volume is more about the textures and tactile sensations that some materials or objects may transmit to us, it is a visual feast for the eyes and, rather than shock, is set to inspire not just fetishists of all ages and tastes, but creative minds interested in the visual arts.
In the last few years the definition "street photography" has been erroneously used mainly in connection with street style photographers. Yet, while fashion is a dimension of street photography, this form of art has many ramifications and can be diversified in different branches.
A documentary released yesterday on Vimeo tries to set the record straight by exploring the real world of street photography, revealing the unique vision of different iconic figures who transformed through their cameras the banality of everyday life into lasting epiphanies.
Directed by photographer and documentarian Cheryl Dunn and produced by Lucy Cooper, "Everybody Street" covers nine decades of street photography through several interviews and an extensive selection of haunting, intriguing, romantic, or simply disquieting and shocking yet inspiring images.
The documentary opens with Joel Meyerowitz who recounts how he quit his job as art director to become a street photograher caught in a perennial search for instant gestures, or key moments in time that could reveal something crucial about the person pictured or about life and culture in general.
Each photographer interviewed is unique: Belgrade-born Boogie started photographing as a process to preserve his sanity when war erupted in his home country but soon turned this medium into a reason for living and a way to gain access to the unseen lives of junkies and gangsters, outcasts and outsiders.
Jill Freedman's works and her images of cops and firefighters in New York, are suspended between sociology and anthropology, while, hooked on street life, Bruce Gilden, sees the people he photographs as physical symbols of his own vision, and Bruce Davidson, like a reborn Dante with a camera, developed a passion for getting down into the bowels of the subway at bizarre times of the morning to capture unusual glimpses of life.
The photographers are obviously the main protagonists of the documentary, but their subjects and the streets of New York, are definitely the co-protagonists. New York City bursts with energy and dynamism, but also with extreme danger, elements that the photographers featured in the documentary take into account and use at their advantage.
Martha Cooper's images for example have an ethnographic value about them as they portray street kids in derelict and abandoned areas, or trains covered in graffiti crossing the Bronx (Cooper has a special eye for "matching" a train with the proper background).
Dunn also interviewed historian Max Kozloff who provides feedback about further iconic photographers such as Lisette Model, whose images often feature dark figures looming in the background; Diane Arbus who had a penchant for photographic subjects with something freakish about them; renegade photographer William Klein, and Robert Frank, well-known for his "hard-boiled" images.
Through an interview with Rebecca Lepkoff "Everybody Street" also recounts the history of the Photo League, a cooperative of photographers active in New York between 1936 and 1951, whose work revolved around a range of common social and creative causes.
Indeed, as Clayton Patterson states in the film, a photographer does not work as an individual but as a part of the community, a point also proved by Jamel Shabazz's images of crews and posses, homeless people and prostitutes.
Some part of the documentaries raise concerns about various issues from the fact that very few photographers are taking pictures on film, as Jeff Mermelstein explains, to the future of photography and the lack of genuine documentary work.
Elliott Erwitt talks about digital manipulation killing photography, remarking that, despite the fact that innovative digital means have made it easier to take pictures, the final results aren't necessarily good ones.
Mary Ellen Mark highlights instead the fact that we have stopped appreciating reality, though the most powerful photographs around chronicle real life.
Mark has a point: our perceptions of reality are in constant change and we continuously produce more and more images on a daily basis, often turning into exibitionists as we share even our most intimate moments on social networks, or transforming into fakers and image surgeons on our endless quests to create a perfect portrait of our own selves.
These street photographers show instead that a real picture is the result of a perfect mix of surprise (it is by chance that photographer Ricky Powell bumps into Basquiat and Andy Warhol), creativity, improvisation, quick reactions, a pinch of good luck and, above all, an unquenchable thirst for life.
"Everybody Street" is not a definitive history of street photography, but a manifesto for street photographers, a compelling film about the only medium in our life capable of freezing time, and a documentary that may teach us to look a bit better at the world and the people surrounding us.
"Everybody Street" is on at Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema today, and on 16 and 17 November 2013 (check out this link for further screenings); you can rent/buy and download "Everybody Street" (available also with several bonus interviews) from Vimeo.
All screenshots in this post are taken from "Everybody Street" directed by Cheryl Dunn.
Architectural hairdressing was tackled in a previous post a while back. It is worth rediscovering this theme through the photography of J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere.
Born in 1930 and raised in a small village in Nigeria, J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere developed an interest in photography in his twenties, after buying a cheap Brownie D camera. Quite soon he became fascinated by this form of art and, in 1954, he started working as a darkroom assistant in the photography department of the Ministry of Information in Ibadan.
He left his post after Nigerian independence was established in 1960 and became a staff photographer for NTV Ibadan, the first television station in Africa. From 1963 to 1975 he worked in publicity at West Africa Publicity in Lagos.
Around 1968 J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere started documenting on an independent basis various aspects of Nigerian culture. Among the most striking series of images that he created there is one that explores the elaborate hairstyles and head wrappings of Nigerian women and that he took over a forty-year span.
The images chronicle the traditional styles of Nigeria's hundreds of ethnic groups and include pictures of intricately sculpted and braided hair or photographs of women's heads wrapped in oversized fabric turbans characterised by elaborate designs.
Some of the hairstyles and head ornaments mark special ceremonies and festivals; others hint at social positions in the community, or simply display how styles evolved from the postcolonial era.
Hair assume in this series an anthropological, social and fashion value: the images indirectly record indeed the changes Nigeria went through from the points of view of history, politics, society and style.
J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere's photographs can be admired until 24th November at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale or at the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco (exhibition: "J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Sartorial Moments and the Nearness of Yesterday"). The latter focuses not just on hairstyles, but also on fashion with images taken between 1955 and 2008 that explore traditional Nigerian dress.
