Delicious dark sweet buffet pictures shot by Dutch photographer Jeroen van der Spek for interior magazine VT Wonen.
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Polly & Queen Elizabeth II
Australian artist, Polly Borland has beautifully and authenticly captured Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II with her lense. In 2001, Borland was one of only eight photographers selected to create portraits of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, for The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
I really liked the bright blue tones and composition of these two portraits of Queen Elizabeth II that are on display in a survey of work by Polly Borland at the University of Queensland Art Museum.
You’ve photographed the Queen – what was that like? Very stressful and very surreal.
Borland had one five-minute sitting with The Queen. In preparation she set up cameras and lighting in front of two backdrops and in her allocated time shot two rolls of film, ending up with ten photographs. Borland has often taken simply-composed, close-up images of subjects in front of carefully selected fabrics. The shimmering gold seen in the portrait of The Queen, a deliberately obvious and kitchy reference to the Jubilee year, was also used by Borland in her 1999 portrait of Monica Lewinsky (who coincidently also wore a blue suit and pearls). In a second portrait of The Queen, approved for use by the Palace but not included in the official portfolio, the subject appears in front of a Marimekko floral backdrop (Unikko Blue) a pattern also favoured by the photographer.
Borland’s photograph of Elizabeth II is certainly among her more unsettling portraits. We are not used to seeing The Queen in such bright light, in such imperfect detail and close proximity. In 1985 Andy Warhol made Reigning Queens, a painting of The Queen based on an official 1977 Jubilee photograph. Borland was very interested in this painting which in one of the most popular paintings held by the National Portrait Gallery in London. Her photograph operates in the same way as one of Warhol’s multiple screen-print portraits, or even one of his Campbell’s soup cans – like a logo or trademark. Though presented with no distinction or fanfare, she is instantly recognisable. Magda Keaney
Polly Borland: Everything I want to be when I grow up exhibition, University of Queensland Art Museum until 25 November.
{Images: Polly Borland, Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II 2001 Type C photographs, edition of 6}
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Orange and Grey :: Dietlind Wolf
Calendulas bright orange for grey days.
I have just discovered the stunning work of stylist Dietlind Wolf! Based in Hamburg, Germany, this food-centric blogger creates food porn unlike any other. Her passion for visual design and concept prop styling inspire her arrangements, capturing the five senses in just one shot. In this photo shoot, published in the autumn issue of Sweet Paul Magazine, Dietlind plays with the warm orange colors of the calendula.
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human flower art
Look closely, these stunning digital photography art composed entirely of nude human beings.
Artist Cecelia Webber utilizes the human body to create beautiful works of art that depict plant and flower forms.
Cecelia Webber was born in a forest town of only 1,500 people and spent much of her childhood in fields catching orange salamanders. She was a shy, socially awkward child who enjoyed reading and spent hours searching for small fairy creatures in abandoned maple sugar huts and dilapidated stonewalls. Oddly enough, as she grew older the world grew stranger and stranger.
Questions revolved about in her head, knocking down reality’s framework with the force of bowling balls: Why are we made to feel so ashamed of the human body in Western culture and so much of the rest of the world? Isn’t the body a beautiful, wonderful thing, deserving nothing less than to be celebrated? As her thoughts continued to evolve, Cecelia alighted upon a petal in her mind, a new-found platform from which she could quietly challenge the status quo: she created a digital image of a flower constructed entirely from photographs of the naked human body.
Thus commenced her journey as a professional artist, as she continued to grow her Petal series, develop her impressionist and modernist paintings, dance vivaciously in her own fan-made music videos and experimental films, and even eke out a quirky, existentialist webcomic, while of course still setting aside the majority of each day to chase orange salamanders and other fairy creatures. Illusion
Sadly these images are often falsely credited to IRP Group and were stolen from the artist, Cecelia Webber, by the Iranian Progressive Group (IRP-Group)! Check her site, Cecelia Webber.
{Images: Digital art by Cecelia Webber}
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Happy birthday 79 Ideas
Congratulations ~ 79 Ideas turns 3! Radostina at 79 Ideas has created a beautiful blog that is celebrating its third birthday. To celebrate 79 Ideas will have a new design inspired by the wonderful book - “Blog Inc” by Joy of “Oh Joy”.
You will be delighted when you visit her website. I often re-post some her discoveries and her photography is wonderful as you can see in these pics.
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HERRIOTT GRACE
A delightful discovery ~ black wood panels and purple figs by herriott grace. What a treat to discover such a beautiful story.
And who is Herriott Grace? It’s a venture of father and daughter, Lance and Nikole Herriott.
They live 3400 kilometers apart, and don’t see each other very often. The father is a craftsman, and one day he began sending hand carved spoons to his daughter. His daughter loved the spoons and wanted to share them with the rest of the world. The father explained to his daughter that he only wanted to sell to people that would understand the time he had spend and the effort he had placed. And together, they opened the small online shop Herriott Grace.
And with a story like that, my heart just melts.
Many who know of Herriott Grace know of Nikole, but she wanted us to get to know her dad, too.
So Nikole flew to BC with filmmaker John Cullen where they spent 10 days with Nikole’s dad, making a documentary.
Be inspired by the Herriott Grace story, and watch the film.
http://vimeo.com/39838446
And now I’m going down the rabbit hole! I’m always intrigued how the internet connects ~ one link, then another and whoosh… taken away to discover new inspirations. I’ll elaborate on this joyful discovery in the next post.
{Source: Lolita}
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more Herriott Grace
Herriott Grace :: The Herriott Grace story is about a father and his daughter, Lance and Nikole Herriott. Lance is a masterful craftsman and Nikole is a talented creative – a pastry chef /designer /ceramicist /stylist /photographer.
The craftsmanship in their wood products is amazing, and the product photography is so beautiful.
What an heart warming tale.
When Nikole Herriott moved 2,100 miles away from home in Victoria, British Columbia, to Toronto her dad,
Lance, a woodworker, began to send packages to his daughter as a way to stay in touch.
Occasionally, he would include one of the small wooden spoons he hand carved. Nikole loved them and thought others would, too. So together, the father and daughter began Herriott Grace.
The Herriott Grace online shop has grown into a full housewares line (the hand-carved pieces made by Lance sell out as quickly as he can make them), and Nikole writes the popular blog Forty-sixth at Grace, where her beautiful photography documents her forays into the kitchen. The full story is here and you can see a sneak peek of Nikole’s Toronto home here.
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Flowers + Illustrations :: photographer Kari Herer
Beautiful exquisite images by Portland based artist, Kari Herer.
She combines illustration with photography to create these gorgeous artworks.
For more, visit Kari’s ETSY shop, and they are affordably priced.
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pause
There is so much depth, texture and beauty in this picture. It provokes many questions ~ is she composing herself to confront a fear and taking a moment to tap into the inner strength.
{Image: via tumblr}
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big day, big week
big dreams…. big sleep in!!! xxx
{Image: Tim Walker: The Snow Queen, Vogue UK, March, 2009; model: Caroline Trentini}
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