Alexandra Penney at Haas & Fuchs

This past weekend Hass & Fuchs hosted the opening of new work by a good friend of mine Alexandra Penney.

Her series of plastic blow-up dolls push us into a plane of discomfort. Evocative, disturbing, and absolutely fabulous. The photographs force the viewer to reexamine the very nature of beauty.

“My artwork comments on the insatiable consumerism, greed, dishonesty, and the deformed and warped values of our time. The dolls, with their gaping mouths, are symbols or ciphers that provide a visual scaffolding for social observation. Nothing in the pictures is genuine—unless you consider plastic ‘genuine.’”

You can view the series here. Or, read about the artists harrowing reinvention after loosing her life savings in the Madoff scandal in her new book, The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing it All.

Blurring the Lines of “Fashion”

I recently had the pleasure of attending the shows of Alex Prager and Erwin Olaf.

Alex Prager’s work is set in her hometown of Los Angeles. The artist has described the city as “a strange picture of perfection… with a sense of unease under the surface of all this beauty and promise.”  Her photographs mirror this tension magnificently.  Her uniquely cinematic style, hyper-saturated color, use of negative space, and one-person narrative reveal her astute view of modern women.

Erwin Olaf’s dedication to his craft, his passion, and his genuine engagement with his subjects are clearly visible in the imaginative refinement of the final photographs. Never one to shy away from controversial topics, his approach is one that that mixes the studied nature of still life and provocative boundry-pushing elements of studio photography.

I left these shows inspired, but importantly pondering the blurring lines between photographic silos. Where does fashion end and fine art begin?

Miroslav Tichy at the ICP

Last week I attended a preview at the ICP and found myself deeply drawn to the work of Miroslav Tichy. Through the dizzying blur of the digital era, Tichy’s work stands refreshingly authentic. His distorted studies of women and landscapes capture a quiet repose and humanity that is often lost amongst our digital swirl. His attention to form, to light, to subtly have an evocative rhythm of their own.

Adding to the mystic of his art is the fact that his images are born out of self-made cameras inventively cobbled-together from found materials. Tichy is a man unafraid to highlight the flaws of life: “…the mistake is a part of it, it is poetry…and for that you need a bad camera.” -Miroslav Tichy

I was so inspired by Tichy’s work that I wanted to explore the introduction of purposefully blurred and distorted focus in my next shoot. However, I found that “tricking” my high-end digital camera into creating the desired effect was far harder than I imagined. The camera was always attempting to correct my purposeful incorrectness.

If you have any thoughts on Tichy’s work, or the use of digital equipment in a non-digital manner, please share them with us here. I am very curious to know how other people are responding to his work, and evolving their own in turn.

The ICP exhibit offers a glimpse into the mind, life, and work of this recluse Czech artist. Some 100 of his works will be on display through May 9th. A must see.

Lauren Beatty Photo Assignment

My start in photography as assistant to Richard Avedon is admittingly a very magical beginning that not all aspiring photographers are lucky enough to have. I started teaching at New York’s International Center of Photography to teach and mentor emerging photographers. Lauren Beatty was a student in my Fashion Vision & Practice course at ICP this Fall semester. This photo is an outtake from one of her assignments that I liked so much and wanted to share with you here. I’m very happy to announce I will be teaching at ICP again this Spring!

Carlos Souza Interview

I love portraits and I love interviewing, so I recently decided to start on a series of video portraits. This first video is a conversation with Carlos Souza, who, now again at the helm Valentino PR, also recently debuted his own jewelry line, Most Wanted Design. We talked about how the fashion business has changed over the years. You can also view the photographs in this video on my Facebook Fan page

Robert Frank: Looking In

“I am always…trying to look inside, trying to say something that is true. But maybe nothing is really true, except what’s out there. And what’s out there is constantly changing.”

Thus begins “Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an exhibit honoring the 40th anniversary of Frank’s initial publication.

Most see Frank as a modern photographic icon. Few know of the initial disappointments in his career. After emigrating from Zurich in 1947, Frank served as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. He found it hollow, lacking the self-expression he craved.

Frank circled the globe, but failed to attract a publisher for the results. Life magazine too rejected his submissions as too somber and gritty, though this acerbic realism would ultimately bring unbridled success.

The Americans showcases Frank’s intensely personal and spontaneous approach. He appears to point and shoot; the deceptively simples images are askew, with edges cut off. This style would be deemed “the snapshot aesthetic”, and Frank its creator.

Frank’s book is a photographic chronicle of his 1950s road trips across the US. He peers behind-the-scenes of a prosperous, post-War nation to reveal tensions within.

His criticisms are evident in the initial image, “Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey”, which displays two women with blurry faces, one hidden behind the American flag. A bold picture of proud, white men entitled “City Fathers”, also in Hoboken, immediately follows. The contrast is clear.

As an American outsider and a Jewish survivor of WWII, Frank dislikes the marginalization of all minorities—not just women. He presents a segregated “Trolley—New Orleans”, pictured after an all-Caucasian celebration of “4th of July—Jay, New York”—reminding viewers that independence is not available to all.

The Americans is not solely judgmental; it’s also playful. Frank pairs photos that showcase twinkling stars with one of a Hollywood starlet. His humor is subtle, moving from the Metropolitan Life Building in New York to a Jehovah’s Witness in Los Angeles (different types of insurance!), and from a car with evangelical bumper stickers to couples necking in a park.

Frank’s solemnity prevails. He questions the futility of the journey. The Americans‘ final photo displays Frank’s wife and son, disheveled and exhausted, driving a seemingly endless road. The snapshot recalls earlier pictures–a chilling car accident coupled with an infinite route 285, stretching to the horizon.

I salute Frank’s penetrating commentary, as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. We must highlight our mistakes, lest we repeat them. But we mustn’t forget the extraordinary progress we’ve made as a nation since the ’50s. And the journey is worthwhile.

New Photography 2009: A Bold and Innovative Future

If you haven’t viewed the New Photography 2009 exhibit recently opened at The Museum of Modern Art, rush to Midtown West for a visit. Since 1985, MoMA sets an annual display of cutting-edge photographers—70 artists from 15 countries thus far.

This year, the chosen six are all American—albeit from vastly different backgrounds. Upbringing plays a key role in their visual aesthetic. Leslie Hewitt, for instance, highlights her African-American heritage in the series, Untitled (Epiphany of Circumstances).

Hewitt negates traditional perspective by hanging scenery upside down; in three panels, only an old family photograph is right-side-up and distinguishable to the eye. In the final two panels, the addition of a mirror and a photo on its side leave the viewer disoriented and intrigued.

Daniel Gordon’s style is even more unusual. His montages are both grotesque and alluring; they simultaneously compel and repel the spectator. Gordon combines paper and online photos into body images that challenge conventional standards of beauty.

Gordon’s techniques are definitely new! He photographs his initial collage, rearranges the pieces, and re-photographs. His methodology and the discomfort it elicits are reminiscent of performance art. Gordon’s creations resonate with a powerful message.

I am equally moved by Sarah VanDerBeek’s pictures of “temporary sculptures”. Composition for Detroit salutes a disappearing manufacturing economy, and incorporates photos from the 1967 riots. That which is old is new again. Her moody style and use of space are evocative of Robert Rauschenberg and Hans Hoffman.

Sterling Ruby, Carter Mull, Walead Beshty examine photography in the digital age. Ruby starts with graffiti snapshots, and manipulates the defacement into biting social commentary.

Mull begins with a page of the Los Angeles Times. He alters and re-photographs layer upon layer, until the sheet is unrecognizable. Mull questions whether photography, like print, will be obliterated by technology.

Beshty goes further, suggesting that conventional photography is already obsolete. Beshty works in total darkness, exposing photography paper to different color light, thereby creating random patterns. Is this the only remaining use for standard chemical processes?

These artists awaken my own creativity, as I ponder how to move my process forward—into photography’s bold and innovative future!

Kors and Kamali: Similar Goals, Different Avenues

New York is abustle in a flurry of fashion. It’s that time of year again–a week where, though fall is upon us, we peer ahead to see what we’ll be wearing next spring. Despite a jam-packed schedule, I managed to see the collections of two designers I’ve admired over the years—Michael Kors and Norma Kamali.

Michael presented in the tents at Bryant Park, with his usual vivre and glamour. Anna Wintour and Michael Douglas appeared in the first row, and each guest received a bottle of Kor’s new perfume. His new garments feature fun and sexy cutouts in atypical patterns, while Lucite accessories lend an edgy quality to classic pieces.

I was delighted to see a plethora of female photographers at the show. Such diversity was unusual in the 1980s, when I appeared with Michael in Harper’s Bazaar as his modern muse—probably because I was one of a few women behind the lens. Kors will undoubtedly steal the spotlight in forthcoming industry press.

Norma Kamali, on the other hand, presented her new line for eBay outside the Apple Store in SoHo. Norma hasn’t participated in the traditional framework of fashion for some time. She’s stepped outside the brick and mortar model, using technology to reinvent herself and reinvigorate her business.

Norma’s collection is available exclusively online, promoted via an iPhone application and a game on roiworld.com. (You know you want to dress your avatar in her garb!) Her website offers free consultations with personal shoppers via Skype, and a Try Before You Buy option—eliminating a significant barrier to online sales. She manufactures solely in the USA, resulting in more rapid turnaround and superior quality control.

Of course, Norma always was unconventional. When I photographed Renee Toft Simonsen in a Kamali design for the December 1982 issue of Vogue, I received a thank you note written on plain white paper with blue magic marker–a refreshing, unpretentious gesture in an otherwise pretentious time! A designer had never thanked me, nor has one since.

Kors and Kamali furnish a compelling contrast. Both offer clothing for the everyday woman, but reach her through different channels. I laud Kamali’s attempts to move fashion forward through technology, providing increased transparency and accessibility. Should other designers follow suit, we may experience a consumer revolution within the fashion world.

Blanch in Action

by guest blogger Elizabeth Kellogg

If you’re a mere mortal like me, you’ve never set foot inside a fashion photo shoot. You may have drooled over the flashy ads and glamorous spreads in Vogue, but never gave much thought to how they were created. That’s how it was for me, until I had the pleasure of observing Andrea Blanch in action.

Enter the luxury apartment where Blanch has her next photo shoot, on the famed Upper East Side of Manhattan, and you enter another world. No screaming pedestrians or honking taxicabs here. Instead, the chirping of birds is the only sound heard through the floor-to-ceiling French doors. Treetops, a rare sight in Manhattan, are visible through the enormous bay window. It’s an oasis in the urban desert, and an ideal place to bring the magic of fashion to life.

There’s excitement in the air from the moment I arrive. Stylists are buzzing, prepping hair and makeup. I’ve never seen so many beauty products in one place! Nor did I realize how long the preparation would take. Tresses are styled and restyled. Wardrobe, courtesy of Michael Kors, is adjusted and readjusted. Makeup is…. Well, you get the idea.

Hours pass. Finally the models are ready for Blanch. As Megan strikes a pose, light streams through the window and highlights her golden hair. She is delicate and ideally proportioned. If fairytale princesses exist, they must look like Megan.

Megan lounges luxuriously on the sleek, contemporary furnishings. Her brilliant yellow accessories stand in sharp contrast to her jet black swimsuit. Blanch furiously clicks away, while others scramble to hold lighting and a reflector in the right places.

Later, Lauren lies topless on crisp white sheets, caressing a feather pillow. Her smoky eyes and pouty lips give new meaning to the phrase “making love to the camera”. Blanch grooves to Coldplay as a fan blows Lauren’s hair into flawless wisps.

Blanch instinctively knows what’s working and what isn’t, changing tactics midstream. Her process is fluid and fascinating to watch. Like Blanch herself, her method of encouraging the models is unique: “Be quirky but natural,” she instructs. And as Lauren cradles a beach bag, Blanch tells her to “pretend that it’s your boyfriend’shirt”. I can’t help but smile. Who knew fashion was this entertaining?!

Porto Santo Stefano: A Fresh Perspective

As we raced up the narrowest road I have ever seen, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where the !@*# are we going?!” We peeled around corner after corner for 15 minutes, honking maniacally to ensure we didn’t collide with an oncoming vehicle. My body flooded with relief when we reached our destination–a minimalist paradise perched above the Mediterranean, nothing for miles but sea, tree, friends, and me.

I soon realized this wasn’t the rural Italy of photographic renown. No picturesque villages or agricultural cornucopia here, at least not within walking distance. Instead, a stark seascape stretched before me, and a luxuriant forest lay behind. What was a portrait photographer to do?

In the past, I avoided still life and nature photography. I am inherently social, and it’s difficult to converse with a vase of flowers. (Believe me; I’ve tried!) I would also grow frustrated trying to evoke personality from an item that doesn’t express emotion.

In Porto Santo Stefano, I didn’t have much choice. I was forced to branch out. I recalled a recent conversation with fellow photographer Katy Grannan about curtailing our focus on human subjects. I resolved to do just that.

I captured light dancing on the ocean, thick shadows cast by olive trees, and the oscillating motion of waves. I recognized that nature indeed has moods; conveying them became my raison d’etre.

A storm rolled through the area, providing an opportune challenge. I experienced my own Impressionist awakening, as I photographed the same scenery in contrasting conditions–brooding and tempestuous one day, dazzling and luminous the next.

I also shot still life tableaus, a novel occurrence in my career. I found it serene and freeing; inanimate objects provide an element of control absent from my usual work.

Don’t dismay when you find yourself in your own Porto Santo Stefano—thrust into unfamiliar territory. An unexpected change can prompt a fresh perspective. You may find yourself reinvigorated, as I did.