Click image for a stronger woman.
Another brilliant Mapplethorpe moment - with all the power, beauty and grace almost all his snaps posses. For me it’s also a perfect expression of the 80’s - and a new feminine strength showing in art that is neither weak nor overdone.
Click image for more channels.
I love Maestros Friedlander’s art. He is such a great observer and social commentator at the same time.
This modern view is know to any traveling business men and woman. Your lousy hotel room and a TV. Nothing else. I like that there is a kid on TV - suggesting the far away family and being away from your loved ones.
Today we would see a notebook with a webcam - talking to your family or watching crappy clips on YouTube.
Click image for a larger version.
They don’t make woman like that anymore - and such portraits. All modern photographer trying to emulate that look have failed so far. I guess it’s a matter of attitude and the right camera. Old optics were very different from today’s supertech digital cams.
And Vivien? She is just stunning. Just like Betty Davis she has that certain magic that has disappeared somewhere around the 1960’s …
Photographer: Does anyone know the artist? Thanks!
Click image for a larger version.
Madame Lamarr is not your usual silverscreen beauty - she had brains and lots of it. How many Hollywood actresses do you know that hold an U.S. patent?
What a fascinating woman!
Photographer: Does anyone know the artist behind the camera?
Simplicity often is the best way to let beauty speak for itself. Robert Mapplethorpe was the Master of reduction - he had a keen eye for just capturing the essence of his subjects.
Here is an excellent article about “Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition” in relationship to Mannerism.
Most amusing side note: here we see the God Apollo - who was also the patron of the Arts.
Click image for a larger hat.
I think one of the greatest actresses ever - and a great role model for woman. She was smart, witty, charming and beautiful. She was sexy without pushing her boobs or whatever into everybodys face.
A real lady and a great human being.
Photographer: Anyone knows who made this great shot?
Bert Stern shot in June 1962 the last session with Madame Monroe - the famous last sitting (there is a great book out there with all the shots).
The New York Magazine tried to recreate this great series (click Slideshow to see it) with less desirable Lindsay Lohan - and again Bert Stern as the Master of Light.
Sure Lohan and Marilyn are both addicts in their own way. But Miss Lohan is hardly in the same class as the great MM.
Please: if you can’t come up with great ideas for your own photo shot - don’t fake classic images. Remakes are usually weak and only show your own lack of creativity. Classics are simply classics. Leave them alone.
Alexander Rodchenko started out as a painter and later became a brilliant photographer. He was one of the greatest Russian photographers of his time …
The Leica is equally legendary - it was the first 35mm camera in wide use. Rodchenko is credited being the first artist to make her use popular in Russia.
Simplicity in Beauty can be most powerful.
Click image for more Rays.
Today such images are standard - but back in the early days people like Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray and George Weston reinvented the nude act for this new medium called photography.
For us it’s hard to see these old images in this new and fresh way - like Man Ray’s contemporaries saw them in early 20th century. We are so much bombarded with images each day that we can hardly be as open and innocent as people almost a hundred years ago.
This is one amazing collection of images. Bring a lot of time and dive into this incredible gallery.
Mister Leping Zha you are a genius!!!
All I can say: bloody brilliant! Maestro Minkkinnen has many great shots in his portfolio - but this one really made me laugh out load. But he seems in general to have a great sense of humor - and a very unique and enjoyable point of view!
More? Official Homepage
Click image for more elephants.
Just wondering what the elephants thought about the young lady.
A great photographer always catching the right moments for history. I love his work.
Click image for a bigger stone.
If you click the image and feel small by what you see - you are correct. Compared to nature’s awesome monuments we are small and short lived. That’s why our admiration should be huge and timeless.
Although shot just over 50 year ago - this image looks like from another century. Life has changed so rapidly in many countries it’s amazing. But we need people like Bresson to remind us of where we came from …
I find most fashion and advertising photography pretty boring, predictable and soulless.
But in the case of Maestro Thierry le Gouès it’s different. Sure he does all the stylish shots in the right poses with all these hot models. But he has that extra special bit soul and excitement left.
His work ranges from spiritual fashion porn to almost graphical erotica (like the above pictures Soul series).
Most art postings are about the painting / art itself and the artists. Rarely do we get a glimpse at the process, inspiration, model or muse behind it. Jane was a muse for many British painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Jane Morris was one of Rossetti’s favorite models after the death of his beloved wife. She was married to his great fellow painter William Morris.
Click me for a bigger kiss!
Wet lips are made for long and dramatic moments of sheer ecstasy.
Photographer: unknown - can anyone help?
A great shot with mystical qualities. Train stations had always a certain magic for me - like an ant hill, the pulse of any city and a social parade ground. I could spend hours and hours there - watching people and sucking in the atmosphere. Make sure to also visit the Grand Central Terminal Pool on Flickr.
Click here to visit to visit ladies from Israel on their Tour of Duty. It is an unusual look inside the military world - usually filled with guys and testosterone. Hardly a showcase for military nuts - but more a documentation that woman can do the job as well as any guy. Plus it documents very well the camaraderie between the soldier girls. Intimate, personal and very real.
I love this look behind the scenes.
Madame Modotti had a keen eye for beauty. Her gentle photos of people and flowers always touch my heart …
Wow, what an amazing portrait from 1957 - you can literally feel all the testosterone ooze out of the image. They don’t make guys like that anymore …
Click image for closer look.
Apart from the many unsolved questions of 9/11 and mysteries surrounding this even - this is one amazing image.
Nude act photography as well as painting and drawing are the grammar school of visual art. Here the visual artists studies and explore the human form - strangely enough mostly only the female form. You can find a gazillion of nude acts from great old master like Man Ray, Weston and Stieglitz. Still any young modern photographer has to go though the same positions, the same shots and compositions.
On the other side we viewers never seem to get enough of the human shape? People like watching people - no matter if they have seen that person only once of a thousand times. We are addicted to ourselves - our proportions and gestures.
So Man Ray once delivers another celebration of mankind.
Various artists - couldn’t find any credits, sorry!
The male shape is as ‘normal’ and beautiful as the female form. What annoys me is that often male act photography is only meant for the gay community (like many female acts border to normal porn). I am the last person lambasting porn anyway - but sometimes a great image of the human form is simply enough for me and amazing enough.
Can’t we celebrate our own shapes without going all juicy?
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Stumble it!
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)