The clubgoers’ fake eyelashes, their hair extensions, the tattoos and character goods that cover their bodies seem almost to infinitely breed and multiply in a motley riot of colors. Since ancient times, wearing bright colors and ornaments has been considered an effective way to call down luck from the spirits, who are said to be attracted to such brilliance.
Could our modern-day basara, then, be like the shamans of yesteryear, channeling the gods and spirits of this megalopolis who have long ceased to call to the humans who live within their ken? If so, will these shamans indeed be able to bring supernatural blessings upon Tokyo, now in the fast-dwindling last days of our fossil-fuel-based civilization?—Yoichi Nagata
Japanese photographer Yoichi Nagata captures Tokyo’s decadently dressed clubgoers in his ongoing portrait project Star of the Stars. For the past five years, he has taken over 600 portraits, bopping around to clubs and parties with his portable studio in tow—a black cloth and fluorescent lamp—shooting 20 to 50 people a night. Tokyo Decadence, a popular event organized by a Frenchman living in Tokyo has become a regular spot for Nagata to photograph.
The clubgoers’ fanciful garb covers a wide range, from Western influenced festish styles like bondage and S/M to more regional Japanese looks like Gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, cyberpunk, and angeler (we’ve decided to show variations of lolitas here).
Nagata considers his subjects to be modern-day versions of basara or kabukimono. Basara, a Manga story from the 90s, and kabukimono, the wandering, masterless samaurai from medieval times, are both known for their rebellious, liberated spirit and daring dress and behavior.
We’re pretty excited about Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen’s new book In And Out Of Fashion that combines 17 years worth of her fashion photography. Published by Prestel, highlights include campaigns for fashion powerhouses Carven, Stella McCartney, Adidas and Missoni, and various projects and editorials shot for magazines Numéro, Double, Another Magazine and Dazed & Confused.
The book features 250 color plates displayed in varying sizes and formats; a detail that seems to emphasize the vastness of Sassen’s career. The work is alive, fearless, visionary. She excites us with her clever juxtapositions and shapes, her creations of complete and fragmented beauty. The book is energetic—the pages almost seem to turn themselves and you get the feeling that Sassen’s ideas never stop, that she is always thinking of something new and more adventurous. A detailed chronological overview of the work is displayed in the back, and much appreciated.
As always, whilst you’re hunting for something, you inevitably stumble across something else that’s really great. I love this clever homage-to-Picasso fashion story by Eugenio Recuenco. The Spanish photographer is something of a renaissance man; besides photography, he is well versed in film and has even collaborated on an opera. He describes himself as a “pain in the ass who always insists on doing what he wants.” Fair play to you, Eugenio!
New York-based editorial and advertising photographer Bela Borsodi delights and dazzles with his provocative fusions of art and fashion in Unconscious Affair. He combines real life models with handpainted art “stand-ins”, blurring the line between reality and fantasy—fantasy being the operative word here. The resulting images are sexy, creative, energetic, and feel like they belong in a contemporary art museum.
Photographer Logan White transports us to places re-imagined, enticing us with magic and mystery. Her images feel psychically charged and are rich with mood and myth, appearing almost like visions foreseen. A powerful feminine undercurrent runs alongside a romantic vulnerability; an evocative combination White has successfully achieved.
Born in Macon, Georgia, White discovered photography at the age of 13. She went on to receive her BFA at RISD in 2007 and has shot for Interview Online, Urban Outfitters, Dazed and Confused, Vice, NYLON, and others.
New York Magazine’s The Cut sent Swiss photographer Namsa Leuba a trunk of designer clothes and let her run free with them. Leuba did just that, and then some. African Queens is the magnificently ornate and creative result—a high fashion representation of African statuettes.
Leuba, born to a Guinean mother, has been researching and exploring African identity throughout much of her work. Shot in Paris, Leuba selected her models from off the street and adorned her statuettes in the designer clothing that she modified in a variety of ways using rope, wooden planks and African-inspired artifacts. Her models channel the powers that such a statuette might represent; vitality, power, fecundity, protection.
Leuba is currently based in Paris and was chosen as one of British Journal of Photography’s 20 photographers to watch in 2013.
“Trashed” is a series that came together when Christopher Klettermayer combines elements of fashion with the grunge of a homeless lifestyle. Through the careful styling of Felix Leblhuber and Klettermayer’s well though out shots, this series created for Bambi Magazine exemplifies the contradiction of a downtrodden yet radiantly defiant spirit.
Maxime Ballesteros’ newest collection, Love Me- I’m Trying, sits along a vague line of not only being a mix of candid and staged photographs but also genres, ranging from those standard urban and cultural landscapes to somewhat striking still life shots.
Ballesteros has accurately illustrated not only Berlin’s nightlife, but also incorporated scenes from other cities, which compliments and contrasts the ‘heavier’ subjected photographs, which is something that tends to go wrong among artists. His ability to capture and convey certain key elements that evoke something of a nostalgic nature and the photographs within the collection itself can remind you, just in the back of your subconscious mind; of a photograph you own personally, a smell, a taste, an action, a person.
Love Me- I’m Trying emits an old-school film photography vibe, with the light saturation of colors throughout and lack of an obvious theme. Ballesteros’ collection is more suitably described as a quintessential artistic documentation of life, with the finer things within it being appreciated more distinctively.
Photographers Tania Shcheglova and Roman Noven make up the Ukrainian creative duo known as Synchrodogs. Constantly experimenting, the photographers often use budget cameras to shoot their subjects in a variety of unusual poses and unlikely situations. At times, the pair pose for their own imaginative photographs, giving them complete creative control over the staging and modeling of each shoot. The images that emerge from their experimentations are often unexpected and always memorable.
Cut Food Series- Beth Galton and Charlotte Omnès explore the interior worlds of common place food.
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