This past Saturday (which was very hot!), a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her on a sojourn to Governors Island. One of the women of the group going (an artist), works at Maritime Pier in Chelsea, where she set us up on a Fire Department boat that was supposed to receive a ‘blessing’ from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Unfortunately, the ‘blessing’ never occurred because of a snafu, but off we went to to Governors Island.

The Island wasn’t what I expected — it was so crowded, there were so many tourists, and all of the buildings have Federal Architecture. The place looked like a penal colony — everything was in brown and yellow! Even the grass was burnt yellow because of the heat — it wasn’t a pretty sight. A saving grace of the trip was seeing Mark di Suvero‘s sculptures on the Island grounds, even though I wasn’t impressed with the Island itself. While I think there is a lot of potential to turn it into an artist’s community — I think a lot of renewel has to go into it first!

On the Island, we did see a good exhibition by Finnish artists at Building 110. Called ‘Bodies, Borders, Crossings’, it conceptualizes human bodies in different ways and surrounds images with different ‘borders’ to show how these individuals are ‘controlled’ by their environment. Here are a few of my favorites:

After Governors Island, I was completely wiped out by the heat, and stayed in for most of Sunday! I did end up making it out to my multimedia class at ICP on Monday night, which I continue to love! The work is so interesting, and the people in the class are fantastic. I just have so much to do in the studio that it’s hard to concentrate on Final Cut Pro right now!

I also stopped in this weekend to the No.10 Gallery on Leonard Street in Tribeca — a cool spot that provides a platform for artists in the fashion and photography industry to show their work. The space is dedicated to ‘emerging’ artists — much like the contributors of my new magazine Museé. I’m excited to see more of their future exhibitions!

Last week’s shooting was conceived around these quirky hats I found at Worth & Worth, this fantastic hat store at 45 W. 57th Street. One model, Lauren from the Click Agency, has been working with me every summer for three years — and she’s one of the most beautiful girls I’ve worked with for many years. Another model, Molly (also from Click) is 15 years old and from Kentucky. Even though she’s 15, she responds to the camera like she’s been modeling for five years or more! I haven’t done a thorough edit of the shoot yet, but photos are coming very soon!

Also, now that August is around the corner, this is one of our last blog posts until September! So stay tuned for this summer’s final posting!

Last Thursday night, I started a watercoloring class at the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca — thinking that it would be useful to employ this technique on future projects I’m working on. However, I discovered that not only do I not need to take this course to use watercolor technique, but it’s extremely difficult and a pain in the ass! Therefore, I won’t be attending any more classes! The difficulty lays in placing the color on the page and not having it run all over the paper. While I took it in college, my strokes then were much broader, so it didn’t make a difference. But in this class it did. So much for patience!

So, giving school another go, I took the intrepid step to take another course — this one at ICP. It’s a multimedia course that uses video, photography and sound… and it’s much more to my liking. But, with an upside comes a downside. And that is learning Final Cut Pro. Since patience is not my best friend, I can see the process becoming a difficult one. But I am determined to follow through with it!

The course is taught by Nancy Donaldson from the New York Times, who produces the project ‘One In Eight Million’; an ongoing multimedia project on the Times’ website. The project highlights the lives of different New Yorkers in short video clips, and often tell poignant or funny stories about life in this city.

The pieces in the project are incredible — and for being such short videos, they’re incredibly moving and touching. They’re an inspiration to incorporate multimedia into my own work, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I’ve learned (especially in creating my book) it’s all about the art of the interview to create powerful stories. And since I’m a nosy person, I’m well suited for it!

The most exciting thing I did this weekend — and will probably be a new activity — was going to a Baptist Church on 115th Street in Harlem with a few of my friends. I felt like I was at a rock concert, only better! We watched a gospel choir perform, and the music was so moving, and the congregation was so raucous, that I was yelling “Hallelujah” for the whole hour they were singing. If my religion had services like this every week, I would be a regular church-goer! Music is very contagious.

I also made a new purchase! I bought this piece at an art auction. Loving the yellow!

Now I’m off to go work on my tons of projects… and getting a bit overwhelmed! Maybe I should have just gone on vacation this summer like everyone else!

For the Fourth of July weekend, I went upstate to stay with a friend who lives in Earlton — a charming town in the Hudson Valley. I’m very much a city person, but this was the first time that I enjoyed myself as much as I did being in the green. I stayed longer on this trip than I usually spend out in Montauk — because I could.

My friend is a movie producer who originally lived in the city, but now lives upstate full-time when she’s not traveling. She really pampered me while I was there! A yoga instructor came to the house everyday, and even one morning a masseuse came to give us massages! It felt like our own private spa!

Having spent most of the weekend indulging myself, I walked through Hudson’s main street (Warren Street) in search for a manicure. Inside up front, it looked like an old apothocary. But once they took me into the back of the salon where the beauty services actually happen, I really saw the place for what it was — a huge mess! There was paper strewn everywhere, and the stylists stood around having these inane conversations — one of which was about how chewing gum always gets stuck to the roofs of their mouths! It was definitely a case for Bravo’s ‘Tabatha’s Salon Makeover‘!

I was also shocked when my nail stylist said it was against New York State law to have my cuticles cut. I’ve never heard such a thing. I looked it up, and it’s true… but why am I able to have them cut in the city? It doesn’t make sense!

A very chic looking woman was sitting in the salon getting her nails done near me. She must of heard my disbelief over the cuticle situation, because she smiled right at me. I knew right away she was from the city!

That evening, my friend took me to a wonderful dinner party at the home of two ‘ex-pat’ city dwellers — one of which is a photographer. They’re a couple who after moving out of the city now own “the” wine shop in Hudson. They live in a modern house that was originally built by  someone who used to work for Calvin Klein, and its exterior is covered in aluminum sheet metal, and the house has huge wooden barn doors. It was really spectacular looking. Inside, the layout of the house was very modern and simple.

At the party was a very familiar looking woman — the woman from the salon! It turns out she’s an art consultant who lives in the city (I was right!). What a coincidence!

The dinner was fantastic — and aside from the fish we ate, the entire meal was grown in their garden. I found it amazing that the dinner’s salads, string beans, radishes, arugala and onions were completely home-grown. Now they’re considering taking up bee-keeping next!

I didn’t end up coming back to the city until Tuesday, and overall I had a magnificent time eating, drinking, reading, relaxing and taking photos. The whole town seemed like a very nice community, and I really see why my girlfriend loves living there so much. People seem much more low-key upstate than they do in the Hamptons, and I’m genuinely happy over the life my friend made for herself there!

Below are some of the photos I took:

Since I’ve been back in the city, I’ve seen ‘A Better Life‘ about an immigrant family struggling to live in East Los Angeles. I also saw ‘Passione‘, which is a musical celebration of Naples and stars John Turturro. It was so fabulous, and I recommend everyone to go see it!

I’ve also started perusing the website Paddle8. It’s a forum for artists to sell their work, and they have a new ‘guest curator’ every month who puts on an exhibition. Check it out!

Now I’m off to ready myself for a class I’m taking on watercoloring! This summer is a summer of learning… and finishing projects… and launching my magazine!

PS: I’m also looking for new ways to engage more readers in dialogue on my blog. Any ideas are appreciated!

Lauren from Next Modeling Agency.

I stopped by the Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea last week to see the inspiring exhibit, ‘Intersections: Photography / Painting / Document’. The show brought together sixteen artists who created hybrid images that had been manipulated through stitching together multiple photos, scraping and painting over images and creating collages of photos with newspaper clippings or images from the Internet.

Ultimately, I thought the exhibit was a fresh and exciting example of photography being used to create fine art. The pieces were visually compelling, and much of the exhibit was composed of composite images with political or emotional messages that gave a deeper feel to the work.

I also stopped by the opening reception of ‘Interventions In the Landscape’ at Galerie Lelong. The exhibit took a fresh take on landscape photography, with the photographer shooting subjects engaging with and altering the world around them. In some cases, the environment appears to dominate the subject — showing the dynamic relationship people have with the world around them. Overall, I felt the exhibit was conceptually very stimulating — and took a new look at how we photograph landscapes. Like the Marlborough exhibit, the pieces had a deeper meaning with political and social messages for the viewer.

Embracing new techniques and concepts in photography is Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, a festival that has begun exhibiting new types of digital photography and video. Much of the work shown is documentary, but many of the pieces are also works of fine art. The festival starts on July 4th and runs through September 18th. I hope to attend this year!

Love this girl!

She’s Russian, 15 years old, and reminds me of the fabulous Veruschka! (If you don’t know Veruschka, Google her!)

I’m re-visiting an old project of mine, and need some help with it!

A year ago, I began ‘The Dumped Project’, a video series featuring people who were recently dumped by their significant other. In the clips, people had the chance to say what they never got to say to their ex — and tell their side of the story.

I’m looking for more people to take part in the project! If you or anyone you know would like to be a part in this exciting new piece, send me an email at dumpedproject@gmail.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Xx A

Even though this week was a total washout with the weather, I had a spectacular weekend indoors at the New York Public Library. I had RSVPed to attend a workshop put on by The Believer magazine on ‘The Art of the Interview‘. It was a panel of distinguished writers and actors who were able to explain what’s a ‘good’ question when interviewing someone, and what made a ‘good’ response to interview questions. There was a star-studded group on the panel: author and television host Dick Cavett, New York Times writer Claudia Dreifus, author Kenneth Goldsmith and Lorin Stein, editor at The Paris Review.

The panel discussed their own experiences with interviewing, gave out some good interview questions we could use in our own work and even gave us a chance to interview each other in the audience. But perhaps the best part was the performance by Saturday Night Live‘s Paulo Costanzo, who interviewed himself! The script was written by SNL writer Simon Rich. It was fantastic and hysterical!

But one of the biggest surprises of the day was discovering a gem of an exhibition in the Library’s main hall. It was a set of photographs that were printed in an incredibly interesting way — all of which are recent acquisitions of the Library’s Miriam and Ira D Wallach’s Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. The photos were of a huge range of subject — from buildings to people — and were from all over the world and from photographers of different nationalities. But what was fascinating about these photos were the printing techniques these photographers used — many of them that were used decades ago using Lumen negatives and different types of tissue filters.

This one is from Vera Lutter of the Corte Barozzi in Venice. Stunning! It’s so amazing how photographers today are re-using older techniques to create something exciting and mysterious. Other photographers shown in the exhibit included Huma Bhabha, Stefan Kürten, Beatriz Milhazes, Lothar Osterburg and Darren Almond. Go see it! I was so impressed with it!

In other news, I have decided on a name of our new online magazine! Musée will be coming out this Fall! We’ve received so many amazing contributions from emerging photographers, and we’re currently in the process of going through all of them. But we’re still accepting submissions for the next week or so, so keep them coming!

If you would still like to contribute, but haven’t so yet, send your best five fashion or art shots to ab.photosubmissions@gmail.com for consideration.

Last night was my final class at ICP, and it was absolutely fantastic! I was lucky enough to bring in some amazing speakers, and everyone presented their final projects… which came out great! I was so proud.

The photographers from Guzman came to speak — one of the first collaborative teams in the business. I met Connie Guzman awhile ago at a photography salon, and it wasn’t until then that I realized ‘Guzman’ wasn’t one photographer but two — and the other ‘person’ of Guzman was Connie’s husband Russell. They gave some great insight about working with another person on photo concepts, and spoke about how they divvied up responsibilities. Connie does most of the shooting, and Russell does the post-production.

They also spoke about how the business has changed since they first started out. The digital era has made the demand for photo projects much faster and on a tighter budget. It’s just one of the many challenges facing our industry.

Beatrice Dupire also came to speak, which was a great treat given her amazing connections in the commercial and art world. She’s acting as an international consultant to artists, and is the publisher of ‘Th(e) Influencer‘, a platform for alternative forms of advertising. She’s currently working on some really cool projects, including a 3-D commercial for Donna Karan’s ‘Be Delicious’ fragrance. Beatrice showed us a rough cut of the piece that’ll be used in television and web campaigns. It makes every commercial I’ve ever seen look boring!

And of course, last night was when my students presented their final projects. They were assigned to do a series of six images, showing ‘their greatest fear’. The projects turned out incredible, and really ended the course on a high note. I’m so proud of them — congratulations! When I have the chance, I’ll post some of my favorites here on my blog.

Last Saturday, I toured the amazing exhibits of the New York Photo Festival, and was completely floored by some of the incredible work photographers are doing around the world. While some exhibits were stronger than others, many were absolutely astounding.

One of the most profound I saw was the Festival’s ‘Subjective / Objective’ exhibition, curated by the New Yorker‘s Elizabeth Biondi. Elizabeth brought together documentary photographers from all walks of life, covering everything from uprisings in Middle East to the lives of women in Argentina. I went into the exhibit armed with my  iPhone, and shot a few photos of pieces I really liked.

Interesting, Balazs Gardi, a photographer who shot in Afghanistan, used  ‘iPhoneography‘ — taking amazing photos with his iPhone. Using the ‘Hipstamatic’ app, he produced some shots with a really nice vibrant color.

Congratulations Elizabeth on a wonderful exhibit!

Another exhibit, ‘Life Science’ by Dr. Eran Gilat was absolutely fascinating. The photos were of scientific lab methods, and the photographer, a scientist himself, explored the aesthetic of research methodology. It’s a topic that people wouldn’t usually think of exploring through photography — something that I would always thought was sterile, not visual and just not ‘art’. This work was absolutely beautiful, though some images were somewhat troubling and made me uneasy. There’s some things that happen in laboratories that shouldn’t be shown to the public! The photo below makes me never want to be near meat again.

There were so many great collections, and I’m sad I wasn’t able to see them all. Overall, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to see next year’s festival!