Celestial Map Portraits: Ed Fairburn

Celestial map portraits by Ed Fairburn.

I'm Not There: PoL Úbeda Hervàs.

An ongoing series of portraits by photographer PoL Úbeda Hervàs who lives and works in Barcelona. He reports that the series came from changes in his life that left him unsure of who he is, but he decided to leave the shoes as a reminder that what was left was more than just a shadow.

Via ignant and Colossal.

The Pink Tutu Project.

This project is so incredibly hilarious and inspiring at the same time!

Via Katie at MyModernMet:  In 2003, when Bob Carey and his wife moved to the East Coast, Carey started making The Tutu Project as a way of mixing his old life with his new life, with a little pink frill. Six months after their move, he and his wife, Linda, discovered that she had breast cancer. Since then, Linda has been fighting the disease and Carey has dedicated his photography towards raising money for breast cancer research. Their goal is to raise $75,000 through the sale of his prints and an upcoming book, Ballerina, to be published this fall 2012.

The photographs will make viewers chuckle at this grown man wearing nothing but a pink tutu in absurd situations like frolicking in the snow, laying in the center of Times Square, or standing among rows of corn in the middle of a field. At the same time, we are reminded of the power and impact that this devastating disease can have on women everywhere, particularly in our own lives. Who knew a photograph of a man in a pink tutu could cause such an emotional rollercoaster!

Some say laughter is the best medicine and this project is evidence that Bob and Linda have really embraced that motto. The artist says, "Oddly enough, [Linda's] cancer has taught us that life is good, dealing with it can be hard, and sometimes the very best thing—no, the only thing—we can do to face another day is to laugh at ourselves, and share a laugh with others."

Mischievous Children: Ernest Zacharevic.

I love the playful nature of Malaysian painter Ernest Zacharevic works of children interacting with their physical surroundings: an old bicycle, a motorcycle, or even windows on the side of a building. This piece has become quite popular and the site of many creative photographs.

Voyeur at the Window: Gail Albert Halabran.

Photographer Gail Albert Halaban‘s series Out My Window is unsettling and beautiful at the same time... Luckily these are not of unsuspecting strangers, but staged with friends, though they are still intended to share something that Halaban says New Yorkers can relate to: “connecting” with neighbors through apartment windows.

Halaban says: "I’m a photographer and therefore I’m a voyeur, and I’m a New Yorker and therefore I’m a voyeur. I think every city has its own way that people connect to their neighbors. In LA it’s through the car window. In New York, I think it’s through the apartment window." (Find more at Out My Window by Gail Albert Halaban)

My proximity to my neighbors in San Francisco is undoubtedly nothing like in New York, but my Russian Hill room mates and I did develop quite the relationship with our neighbors in the kitchen across the alley - it was always fun to see what they were cooking up, or shaking up as was the case for one experienced mixologist.

Via PetaPixel.

Synchronized.

I have been in awe of synchronized swimming my whole life (it was always one of my favorite events at UCD's Picnic Day!). I love this experiment that the Huffington Post tried flipping photographs shot at the Olympics by Getty and AFP photographers upside down!  The results are fabulous, and truly impressive.

Via PetaPixel.

Guardians: Andy Freeberg.

Photographer Andy Freeberg captured these portraits of Russian women in the nation's museums in a project is titled “Guardians of Russian Art Museums“. Isn't it uncanny how they seem to somehow match the the paintings and sculptures they are protecting? I find their facial expressions to be the most striking.

Via PetaPixel.

Constellations: Kumi Yamashita.

Last weekend we made our annual summer pilgrimage to Huntington Lake in the Sierra National Forest to visit with friends around the fire pit, play cards and splash in the lake (and enjoy a blissful lack of cellular reception). One can see a spectacular array of stars from the lake, and I spent a few hours soaking in the sight from a chaise lounge on the deck as the fire died down one evening.

Kumi Yamashita's Constellation is an ongoing series of portraits constructed from a single unbroken black thread wound through a dense array of galvanized nails mounted on a painted white board. (The shading is formed solely by the density of the string!)

Garden Guest: Cath Schneider.

So sweet! Takes me right back to the days of reading Beatrix Potter.

From Colossal: "Paris-based photographer Cath Schneider recently became aware of a small hedgehog living in her garden and decided to investigate a bit closer with her daughter. Schneider tells me they set out a small plate of (lactose free) milk and sure enough the fearless little guy ambled over and started blowing bubbles. Camera in-hand and graced with perfect lighting, she captured this amazing shot. (via 500px)"

Corked Beauty: Scott Gundersen.

Now that the day is coming to a close, I'm ready for a glass of... vino. Perhaps I'll save my cork for Grand Rapids-based illustrator and artist Scott Gundersen to complete his large scale portraits.

Starting with a large photograph that’s transferred to a drawing, Gundersen pins each cork to the canvas, creating a correlation between the hues of the wine-stained corks and the value of light or shadow in the portrait, much like LeFebvre's clever manipulation of nature's bounty in the previous post.

Low Hanging Fruit: Oliver LeFebvre.

As I'm wrapping up a strategic engagement with a technology client today, this portrait of Steve Jobs by Oliver LeFebvre struck a particular cord. As part of a land art contest held in Quebec, Canada, ten artists from around all around North America came together to create. Lefebvre bought a few crates of deer apples (which are not edible for humans) and also picked some off the ground, amassing 3,500 for his 22' x 15' piece. Working on a 2x2 grid, the piece took him between 40 and 50 hours to complete!

Via My Modern Met

Banksy's Olympics.

Oh Banksy. Be still my heart. Despite the crackdown on graffiti artists in London this month, he managed to get these up for all the world to enjoy. (Have you seen Exit Through the Gift Shop? DO IT.)

It's a marathon kind of day here in Pennsylvania at a client workshop... wish me luck!

Needle and Thread: Pamela Campagna.

Wicked "drawings" by Pamela Campagna of L-able using carefully placed nails and wrapped thread. Incredible.