March 2011

Annie Collinge was born 1980 in London, England. She studied at Central Saint Martins and Brighton University, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Some of her clients include Creative Review, Elle Decoration, Flaunt Magazine, Lee Jeans, Neon Magazine and Random House.

via BOOOOOOOM!

Matthew Reamer is a freelance editorial and commercial photographer based out of San Francisco. His personal work is rooted in his past as an educator and student of sociology.

Of this work he writes, ‘The Scraper Bike Movement, as its participants refer to it, was spawned from East Oakland’s vibrant car culture around 2006. Like the Buicks and Oldsmobiles riding on rims 24” and larger, Scraper Bikes are often equipped with car stereos and are themed for everything from candy to fallen friends. Their rattle-canned paint jobs and colored aluminum foil “rims” draw plenty of attention during regular group rides, which are often geared towards promoting peace between warring neighborhoods. The Youtube music video “Scraper Bike” (see below) broke the movement to the rest of the world and has since garnered over 3 million views, while Baby Champ, the self-proclaimed founder and “King of the Scraper Bikes” receives photos of Scraper Bikes from fans as far off as Russia. A source of inspiration to the music, cycling, and DIY communities in the Bay Area and beyond, the Scraper Bike Movement is a true testament to the industry, ingenuity, and resourcefulness of youth. Long may they ride’.

John Offenbach is a London-based photographer who began his career in 1994 and is now represented by agents in New York, London, Paris and Hamburg. He has been commissioned to photograph campaigns for a range of clients including American Airlines, American Express, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Hyundai, BMW and Bentley. He has won several awards for his personal as well as commercial work. His work has been included in Communication Arts, The One Show, D&AD, American Photography, PDN and Creative Review’s The Annual, as well as a number of AOP annuals.

Feature Shoot contributor, Arial Body asked him a few questions below about his start in photography and inspiration for personal projects.

You have a range of different collections of photography in your portfolio, how would you describe your work overall?
‘Tidy, ordered’.

A lot of your early work especially is very architectural based, do you think your interest in architecture & geometry evolved to influence the style of your other work in advertising? In what way?
‘Definitely, yes. I love architecture and geometric shapes and patterns. I think I always have. So when I look and appraise anything, whether it’s a portrait or a landscape or still life, my judgement of how well it’s working is based on an intuition of those values’.

How did you get started in shooting advertising? Did you originally start shooting editorial images?
‘Nope. I assisted advertising photographers, and the transition was fairly fluid’.

Several of your advertising images in particular embrace various digital editing methods (digital composites or computer-generated imagery). How do you think new digital manipulation techniques are changing photography?
‘It’s a big change in approach. I think that on set/location there was more experimentation more discovery before, because you were never really sure what you had. Now there is a tendancy to ‘gather the pieces’.

What is the most interesting campaign or project you’ve worked on recently?
‘I have just come back from shooting Porsche in Los Angeles. One of the shots required a snowy scene but we couldn’t move the cars and crew to the snow so we covered a street at Universal Studios in real snow! You can see a behind the scenes video on my website under ‘Having Fun‘.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the personal projects you undertake between advertising shoots, and where the inspiration for those comes from?
‘Personal projects are usually works of discovery. I like to explore and look for things that other people have maybe overlooked or walked passed because they didn’t notice something was interesting to look at. It may be banal or maybe spectacular, but I’m happy if something was nicely seen’.

Wayne Lawrence is a St.Kitts born documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. His work is a visual diary of his life experiences, and focuses on individuals and rituals within communities otherwise overlooked by the mainstream media. His photographs have been exhibited at the Open Society Institute, The African American Museum of Philadelphia, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art, The Corridor Gallery and The Calumet Gallery and have been featured in publications such as COLORS, Esquire, Essence, Mother Jones, Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine.

In 2010, Lawrence was selected as one of Photo District News’ 30 photographers to watch and received the Sony Emerging Photographer award (PDN’s Photo Annual) for this work on Orchard Beach. Of this work Lawrence writes, ‘Orchard Beach was dubbed the Riviera of New York when it was first built back in the 30’s mainly because of it’s grand design during that time. Over the years it’s been called many things like, Chocha Beach and The Puerto Rican Riviera but The Bronx Riviera is the name that is most popular and a name which I think somehow fits the work that I’ve done there.

‘When I started photographing at Orchard Beach, it was at a time when I was getting to know New York, having moved here from California, and I needed a place where I could grow as a photographer and where I knew that I wouldn’t mind spending a lot of time. So going to the water felt natural. I was drawn to Orchard Beach in particular because it’s man-made and has a reputation for being one of the worst beaches in New York. But to most of the people who go there, it’s the best thing happening during the summer’.

Via Turnstyle News

Photo by Valerie Chiang

Photo by Stella Mello

Photo by Abednego Trianto Kurniawan

Photo by Daniel Martinez

Photo by Berry Patten

Photo by David Kimelman

Photo by Zefram

Photo by Jeff Bark

Photo by Jose Pedro Cortes

Born and raised in Scotland, Lorna Freytag studied at Grays school of Art in Aberdeen. After graduating, she lived and worked as a photographers assistant in Dubai then New York. Several years later, she moved to Sydney and then onto London where she worked on commercial projects whilst developing her own private portrait business, and illustrating her first children’s book, Wild Child (due out late 2011). Freytag has worked for publications such as Junior, Collezioni Bambini and Studio Bambini as well as Harrods and several exclusive children’s boutiques. She now lives in Edinburgh and works internationally.

Photo by Maciek Jasik

Elizabeth Barragan was born and raised in California. She graduated from the San Francisco Academy of Art University with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Advertising, and soon after became an Executive at the Ad agency DDB in San Francisco. She headed east to New York in late 2007 and cut her teeth as an assistant at the Farmani Gallery. She was appointed Director of the gallery in October of 2008. She recently became a private artist consultant under her newly founded company, B. Creative, and works with artists and galleries, both internationally and domestically. In addition to her Director and Curatorial duties, she contributes as a reviewer, writer and critic for PDNedu, the American Society of Media Photographers Bulletin, and the New York Photo Review.

She established Finch & Ada in 2010 with co-curator Kathleen Mahoney-Cobb with the aim of curating fine art shows featuring artists of many disciplines and providing education and collection opportunities for emerging collectors. This is a selection from their first group show, The Pleasure Is All Mine, opening March 24 in Chelsea, Manhattan.

Photo by Rachel Styer

Can you talk a bit about Finch & Ada and the inspiration behind this show, The Pleasure Is All Mine?
‘Finch and Ada was created in my West Village apartment over a bottle of wine after a modest first Thursday gallery gallop through Chelsea. My friend and co-founder Kathleen Mahoney-Cobb and I decided we yearned for a means to express our curatorial creativity. So we created Finch & Ada, as our way to channel a passion for the Arts and hopefully create themes that excite and give opportunity to artists to exhibit their artworks to collectors, gallerists and art lovers.

‘The Pleasure Is All Mine was inspired by what we considered a lack of happiness in the art exhibitions we viewed during the 2010 art season. We longed for a smiley portrait or a bunch of kittens. But seriously, we felt there had to be a way to unleash that emotional rollercoaster called “happiness” in art, while still keeping with fine art perimeters. Happiness is a powerful feeling which can be underrated, so our challenge was to marry serious fine art practices and happiness without making it kitsch. On a side note, Kathleen came up with the title, which conjures the double of meaning of the pleasuring of others or the pleasuring of oneself. You can find happiness doing either’.

Photo by Justin Walker

Where did you find the artists and photographers that will be participating in the show?
‘At first we scoured blogs, like the fabulous Feature Shoot, and other internet sources for artists. We also hit up the art fairs during Art Basel Miami, where we found one of our artists at Verge Art Fair, and just kept running our heels around to as many openings, portfolio reviews and art events as we could. We also talked to colleagues about what we were doing and put it out there for the ideas or tips to float our way. This process took a good five months and we still added our final artist just last month’.

Photo by Dolly Faibyshev

Is there any advice that you would give to photographers who are wanting to have their work seen by curators and considered for gallery shows?
‘Keep up your website. Make it simple. Not everyone has a 24-inch monitor to view high resolution photographs, so make sure the navigation is easy. Also, edit, edit, edit. We’d prefer to view several well-edited series of works. And network! Join a few artists’ groups, make connections, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes because the biggest mistake is not doing anything at all. That is totally cliché, you might say, but I can’t tell you how many times it is never followed’.

Photo by Aline Smithson

This is your first show with co-curator, Kathleen Mahoney-Cobb. What do you have planned for the future and how do you see Finch & Ada evolving?
‘Our future plan is to head down to Mexico for a vacation! Honestly, though, we are already thinking of our next show, even with our current show yet to open. That is the beauty of doing our own collaboration: we can evolve our process however we like. But truly, we’d love it if Finch & Ada became a source for artists and collectors to explore our take on the arts’.

Photo by Jan Von Holleben

Born in Norton, Kansas, New York-based Lori Nix was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant as well as a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist Grant. She earned a BFA in photography from Truman State University, Missouri, and attended the MFA program at Ohio University. Her photography often examines the boundaries of where city and rural landscapes meet.

The visual narrative throughout your work has a unique, almost eerie feeling. What inspires you to tell the stories that you do?
‘I am interested in depicting danger and disaster, but I temper this with a touch of humor. My childhood was spent in a rural part of the United States that is known more for its natural disasters than anything else. I was born in a small town in western Kansas, and each passing season brought its own drama — from winter snow storms, spring floods, and tornados, to summer insect infestations and drought.

‘Whereas most adults viewed these seasonal disruptions with angst, for a child, it was considered euphoric. Downed trees, mud, and even grass fires brought excitement to daily, mundane life. As a photographer, I have recreated some of these experiences in the series Accidentally Kansas’.

‘I am fascinated, maybe even a little obsessed, with the idea of the apocalypse. In addition to my childhood experiences with natural disasters, I also grew up watching 1970s films known as “disaster flicks”. I remember watching Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Planet of Apes and sitting in awe in the dark.

‘Here was the same type of dangers I had experienced day to day being magnified and played out on the big screen in a typical Hollywood way. Each of these experiences has greatly influenced my photographic work. The series Accidentally Kansas explored my personal experience with the natural disasters of my childhood.

‘The City postulates what it would be like to live in a city that is post mankind, where man has left his mark through the architecture, but Mother Nature is taking back these spaces. Flora, fauna and insects mix with the detris of high and low culture’.

There’s obviously quite an art to both creating the dioramas as well as photographing them. What do you enjoy most about the process?
‘I enjoy all aspects of the process, but I’m most keen on coming up with the idea and researching the topic. I mostly research images through books or with a Google search. Then I try to forget what I’ve seen and just start sketching my ideas, figuring out where the camera lens is going to look and what will comprise the entire scene’.

You started working on your series The City quite a few years ago, and it has recently been exhibited in various locations. How has this project developed over the years? Is it something you are still working on?
‘I began The City in 2005. I completed part one in 2007 and part two in 2010. I’m currently working on part three and then will close this body of work. I hope to be done in 2013, but if it extends to 2015, then I will have worked on it for a decade. By then, it will definitely be time to move on.

‘Each scene takes a very long time — anywhere from three months to fifteen months, depending on the scale and detail of the diorama. I work on two simultaneously, and finish about three a year. I’m already researching my next body of work, but I’m only in the “thinking about” phase. I should begin working on it in three years or so’.

How do you come up with the scenes and are they based on real locations?
‘I work narratively, so I have a list of possible dioramas to build. I’m inspired by several things. I just let the surrounding city have its impact on me. That is when I’m open, looking around, and taking in my surroundings I walk with my head down and lost in thought way too much.

‘I also take inspiration from reading the daily newspaper and several magazines that I subscribe to. I usually get my ideas during my morning subway commute, usually as I’m crossing over the Manhattan Bridge. Something about coming out of the dark and into the morning sunlight while standing among the throng of other commuters puts me in a magical state of mind and an idea comes.

‘I immediately write it down, and if I’m still thinking about the idea a month or two later, I’ll really start thinking about it as possible photograph.

‘These images are never based on real locations, but rather an amalgamation of locations. If I were to construct something that already exists, I’m afraid I would fail miserably. I do as much research as possible. For the Laundromat, I visited them not only in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but also in Ohio, Missouri, and California. Laundromats all look the same wherever you go’.

What can we expect to see in the future?
‘More of The City, then I think I might return to landscapes again. It might be time to get outside by then’.

Leanne Eisen is an emerging photographer based in Toronto. She studied photography at Ryerson University, and has exhibited her work in galleries, including O’Born Contemporary, Pikto Gallery, and Gallery TPW. She was recently selected as a winner of Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Emerging Photographers 2010, and has work from her series “Play” included in the Flash Forward Festival as well as Flash Forward’s international exhibition.

Of this work, Play, she writes” ‘The games we play as children are rehearsals for the roles we play in life. Traditional toys for girls nurture homemaker stereotypes, simulating traditional domestic roles through play. In these photographs, I am exploring the possibility of the same staging taking place with the prolific, but publicly hidden occupation of prostitution. By constructing these scenes in miniature, I project representations of the sex industry onto the medium of the conventional dollhouse. As polar opposites, the homemaker and the sex worker are highly constructed and restrictive roles, the most deeply-rooted myths of the feminine. Pieced together from many sources of representation these constructed spaces can be peered-into and examined’