Electricity

Originally uploaded by candeola

This picture on Flickr really reminds me of the anime series "Lain". It only had 12 episodes that gradually told a story about the blurred lines of the real world and the Wired, the obsession of the Wired and within the geekiness of the Internet... finding out who God really is... really bizarre and thought provoking. One day I'll burn copies from my brother (who owns the series... which is how I first heard about it).

If you've seen the series it reminds me of the opening of each episode where you see the bright city lights and the wires with voices traveling along the wires (telephone, Wired...?). It also reminds me (and this was my first thought) of every time they show Lain walking on her way to school. They show her shadow and the shadows of al the wires above her buzzing... buzzing so loudly she actually screams "shut up" half way through one of her train rides.

Lain aside. I think it's a pretty sweet photo as it notes all the wires we depend on on a daily basis. The color is fantastic. Check out the photographer's other work as well. You'll find she's got a strong photostream.

Photo Fixation: "Toy" Cameras

I am the proud Ebay buyer [soon-to-be-owner] of a Smena 8m. (Pictured above).

I've been looking for one for the past few weeks seeing as I've been inspired to use one for the past few months. It uses 35mm film. The deal is that they haven't been made since the 1980s and there's a couple hundred left to buy in the world. They're shipped from Russian companies or you can buy one from Lomography Society (the linked Website) for $100-$150, but of course they jack up the proce b/c of their brand name and reliability. I found one on Ebay for 22 bucks (that was my winning bid). I'll have to wait two weeks till it ships from Ukraine, but I'm super excited to get started.

This week I've been shooting rolls of 120 with my Holga. The film would turn out better if only the mini lab processor in the Newhouse photo lab didn't keep eating my film. Erp. I always have issues with my 120 film, but since I'm not shooting for assignment and I'm just experimenting I don't feel like sending it out to a lab for $5 or more. It's bad enough each roll of film (12 shots) cost nearly $5!!

I'll be uploading the pictures that survived on Flickr tomorrow.

I've been in quite the film mode lately and I know in the next year or so I'm going to look into finding one of these:


It's a Seagull TRL. The TRL stands for Twin-Lens Reflex.

This PARTICULAR Seagull is not the top of the line... but it's nearly there (and it's got Chinese decoration to boot). I doubt I'll find one of these without buying it straight from Lomography (if they're being honest... there's only 25 available), but whatever Seagull I invest in should have a four-element lens.

Toy cameras are like coffee table books for me. I have an instant attraction to them, they're fun to have around to learn from and gain inspiration from, and I like to collect them and leave them on display when I'm not using them.

Buuuttt.... only one camera a year so it seems... I've got a camera obsession, but I need to start selling my Nikon D70s so I can upgrade this coming summer. I've also got "serious" equipment that I'm trying to invest in so I'm not dependant on Newhouse (as I won't have that available to me after June). If anyone wants to buy it or knows someone interested in a strong digital SLR let me know :) I'm selling the body, but I might throw in a lens.

Design Inspiration

The girls and boys over at Partners in Design have been cooking up some good discussions and designs lately. I grew up with some of the founders, went to school with others and met some of the contributors at parties. They're all in the graphic design world working, but when they've got free time they post up on this design blog. Check it out. It's usually updated daily (that is with maybe 4 or 5 dif. posts on a good day).

Polaroid anecdotes

Need
Originally uploaded by rockmenow48

Let Go
Originally uploaded by rockmenow48

I favorited both of these shots by rockmenow48 on Flickr. She works a great deal with polaroids, which I find inspirational. Many of her pieces are those that you'd flip through when you get your prints back and say "eh... throw that in the box," but together they all work really well as a set. Personally I love most of her work. Check her out.

These two pictures are my favorites. I like "Let Go" because of the way the two photos work together, the bright colored balloons and the near absence of color in the rest of the work. "Need" is titled appropriately and calls my empathy and own associations. It's well captured and framed.

New Jersians and their malls...

I live in a part of New Jersey where if you travel 10/15 minutes in one direction you can get all the shopping you'd ever want done in NYC. But if taking a $2 bus ride (or if you're insane you can drive there and pay... what... $9 to get through the Lincoln Tunnel...) isn't your style you can always drive 15 minutes up Route 17. You'll come across strip malls, outlets, stand-alone stores and oh... three or four actual malls in a 20 minute radius. It's a bit... sick... actually.

Garden State Plaza can be found on this car ride and resembles very little of what I remember as a little girl. My dad used to work at the jewelry counter at Macy's and my mom worked (and still works) as a bookkeeper at Park Ave BMW/Acura (and all the other cars they sell there), which can be found around the corner... the mall is massive and I'm sure mall management is trying to keep up their name as one of the largest on the east coast... They recently added a gigantic AMC and a Cheesecake Factory Delux to the the mall which has opened a whole "new section" (wasn't there a "new" section only three years ago??).

I've been in need of new bras, but shopping in Syracuse gets me with sales tax (none on clothes in NJ) and a limited selection. I'm convinced Victoria's Secret is trying to compete with Fredricks of Hollywood seeing as everything they've got lately is slutty as hell and something about slutty bras day in and day out when I'm only planning on kicking around in a tee and jeans is strange. On top of this-- they're expensive and I'd rather spend money on... well.. paying my rent... and photo equipment.

That said, I stalked in and out of stores looking for an hour. There's certain things that are frustrating to shop for: bras, swim suits and jeans... but I've already written an opinion column article about that. If they don't fit right you're not comfortable. Hence why some of my favorite jeans have holes all over the place- not b/c I spent money for the "damaged look", but b/c I wore them out of existance...

I'd just about given up... either they didn't fit right or the price tag wasn't worth it for some underwire, cotton and shape-padding. I had coupons for free undies at the new Aerie store... and after the "Menu" snippet I wrote in TCHJ's "Taboo" issue about VS giving away free undies... we all know I'll take advantage of it. So I scouted out the new section of the mall.

The company did a great job of interior and graphic design when it came to the store. I know however that the marketing for "Aerie" has taken a few years. Maybe two or three years ago American Eagle decided to start selling bras. They'd always sold underwear for men and women, but they tried really working on a playfully preppy line for young women. It got good reviews and they came to call it Aerie. I think it's clever. AE has an eagle logo and they play off a smaller bird logo, They keep the letters AE in the name and they pick a word that sounds like "airy" as in the whimsical line of undergarments they came up with and "aerie" that references nesting.

They did long commericials after Girlmore Girls and Veronica Mars last year: girls at slumber parties sitting in underwear and henlies talking about what Rory and Lorelai did on this week's episode.

And now they've come out with their own stores. Smart idea. Clever branding. Everything from the graphic design, fashion design (and textiles) and interior design really keeps the branding going.

Interior design: the place feels like a suburban girl's bedroom. The dressing rooms have sunlight bulbs installed so it feels like there's a window open with sunlight pouring in. The walls are white-washed wooden panels, there's little memo and bulletin boards with postcards hanging and the entire store has ribbons, lace and other whimsical textiles hanging. Mini overhead lamps with paisley and polka dots add to the design.

Graphic design: The vectors of the birds are-- well-- overdone by many companies, but it works here. Everything is really simplistic. There's color, but everything's a little washed out or the opacity has been taken down. Think blues, baby pink, eggplant purple, lots of yellow. The pictures are clean and fun (and thus sexy in that innocent, girl-next-door type of way) and the color wash on the photos lends to the suburban sun-lit room.

Textiles: little birds, owls, ribbons, polka dots, little bits of lace, buttons, embroidery here and there... the clothes are dainty, innocent, sexy and ridiculously comfortable to boot. Oh yea... and my wallet was happy with the price tags.



I walked out of the store about 1/2 hour later. It was hands down the easiest trip to a store to buy undergarments... ever. My only complaint is that if you're not a 34/36 B then you're a little out of luck going to the store. They have other sizes, but they really stocked up on these. I was happy considering my frustration with all the 32/34 Cs at VS (who the hell is a 32/34 C? That's like Barbie and about 1 percent of the universe).

Anyway- they get an A- in my book.

Photo Inspiration

So I noted in one of my recent posts that I've been really inspired by the photography found in the Anthropologie catalogues.

I think there's two sides to my design/photography inspiration (and thus what I turn out). There's a bit of an outlandishness that I like. Punk rock posters and most of of the photography in Zink magazine run on that spectrum.

Then there's whimsical nature that I really like in desing, illustrations and photography. This is where Anthropologie and Kurt Halsey paintings find their spot.

Right now my inspiration wall is getting filled with photos and designs that call this type of mood. My flickr favorites are also doing the same.

Oh yea... and I love the coat...

Leona Naess lyrical day....

I was doing a photoshoot run-through in the Newhouse photo studio and "New York Baby" came up on my ipod that I had hooked to the sound system. From there on the day has become a Leona Naess day. Her lyrics are poetic and her music is even better. There's a bit of a whimsical feeling you get from listening (although some of it's a bit angry sounding that still comes through). Here are some of my favorites.




He Is Gone
"Throw me down
Pull me back
Crash into me and then break apart
Pull me up
Just pull me up close to your heart
Throw me down
Pull me up
Crash into me and then fall apart
Pull me up
Just pull me up close to your heart"

New York Baby
"You know what they say...
New York, baby is no place to be
When you're standing alone.
I'm no one's baby, no one's girl,
Come home, baby come home..."

Ballerina
"I'll never feel the weight of your hands
Side mine like diamonds
Lay so far ballerina
Cupcake and my earthquake
Wakes me from my sleep bed
Never comes hardly breathing
Waiting for me
I didn't really want you
But I want you now
Was so foolish of me
To you feel you tumbling down
Into that empty room
The lights went out
Want to rescue want to scream out loud
I didn't think I needed you
But I need you now
Was so empty in me
Feel you crashing down
Into the empty world
The music stops
Want to rescue want to scream out loud"

Mexico
"My friends think that we're all wrong
Another muse for another tragic song
But whoever wrote a plan
Was a fool when it comes to a woman and a man"

Design Inspiration--posters/clothes

After my online shopping (see previous blog entry) I decided I should redesign (for kicks) the Urban Outfitters website. They had a much better site up until recently (a month?). I don't know what made them go with this. It might have something to do with the partnership they've got with Nylon Magazine. READ: really bad site, but that's because it's color overload-- however it's mostly because their magazine is designed in this nature--which leads to-- is it bad design on their mag's part as a whole or does it work for the audience they're trying to get?

Anyway- I was inspired at first to use their photos and create some sort of poster-- then I realized I could do that with my own photography since i've modeled much of my work around the Urban Outfitters/Antrhopologie/Free People "look". (see below websites).


Anthropologie (site is OK...)



Free People (don't like the site, but like the clothes)

Anyway- then I realized that while I could do the poster-- maybe I should find time to look into just redesigning the site as a whole for kicks.

Of course I've got Danceworks to work on and photoshoots to do, but personal work is always a good thing.

So the inspiration is on.. hopefully I'll knock out AT LEAST the poster in the near future.

-LP

Today's source of inspiration

I've gotten away from my original idea for this blog it seems.. well--I've gotten away from bluntly stating "this inspired me," but clearly any of the stories here were inspirational enough to make me write about them.

Today's source of inspiration came from Greg's lecture about graphic design.

I was inspired by his enthusiasm of teaching as well as the content he was covering. Even though I knew the Gestalt Principles he lectured, I was able to bring new meaning to my own work. I sat in class sketching through most of it (exactly WHAT are TAs supposed to do in class....?) and scribbled down notes here and there.

I hope I can one day have the ability and knowledge to stand in front of a classroom (lecture hall) of that size and teach with confidence and humor the way he did.

Bravo.

Tim Walker

Tim Walker's photography always calls to me. To sum it up: it's often whimsical.

His fairytail photos are my source of inspiration for strong photoshop skills, an imagination that's wide open and the avoidance of shooting fashion photography in the studio.

Here are some of the photos I enjoy (taken straight from his Website):



This picture has been in my mind since I saw it in Vogue (?) after Allegra showed me. We both fell in love with his work. She has pictures that really resemble this from her final projects in Doc's fashion photography class last semester.



This is the photo for the cover of Photografie: Tim Walker. Allegra had this in London and I've been searching the Internet for a copy for myself. Such a great collection of his work.



This is pure imagination. I love it! I forgot what the model's name is, but I know her mostly from the Hermes ads. She's pretty/ugly as the French say "jolie laide". I'm all for semi pretty, but awkward looking models. They bring more to your photography. It's been hard to find that look in Syracuse though.



Ah the Kate Spade ads. I really like how they almost look lite with a backlight behind the photograph. That brightness always draws me to the ads Walker created for them. Such good work: simple, bold and still enough imagination to make you think before you flip the page.

This group of photos turned out great. Again with the imagination!

If you're interested in Walker's work just check out his site and keep a lookout for his byline.