Tim Flach

For fine art enthusiasts and animal aficionados alike, Tim Flach's work appeals on many levels -- from the purely aesthetic to the compassionate reaction evoked by man's best friend, the canine companion. Flach's website is one of those sites that is not only about self promotion; to watch the portfolio slide show is to, piece by piece, one at a time, take in an art exhibit the way art is meant to be viewed -- with pause and deliberation. I can safely add that each piece is worthy of that contemplation.

PhotoShelter did an interview with Flach regarding his work and specifically, Equus, his book on horses and all beings related. I've included a sampling of some of his work here but I encourage you to visit his site since, for instance, I was unable to include imagery from his dog series in this post (but for the very top image of a Puli) and I wish I could have for it is beyond compelling. The jellyfish series may as well be elegant paint daubs and splatterings on canvas, and the framing of bats ... well, never in a million years would I have believed a bat to be exquisite or ethereal.

Quentin Shih

"The Stranger in the Glass Box" is a series of photographs that Quentin Shih created for Christian Dior.

Rong Rong

Rong Rong is a Beijing based photographer who was born impoverished and worked in his father's grocery store in a Fujian province for three years to save enough money to buy his first camera. Much of his photography captures life around the fringe areas of Beijing in an area with the same namesake and more underground than what New York had with Allen Ginsberg -- "The East Village". Several of these images are created in collaboration with his wife, the artist, Inri.





This image (above) is of Zhang Huan's performance "12 Square Meters", the documenting of which, Rong Rong wrote a letter to his sister about.

equally evocative

Two completely different shots, two different photographers, two different renderings, two stylistically different approaches -- and yet they move me in similar ways. How to explain it?

Left: STEVEN MEISEL

Right: ELLEN VON UNWERTH

Kooky Camera

Twilight Zone / A Most Unusual Camera!

Presidents' Day

A Daguerreotype of Abraham Lincoln in 1846, as photographed by Nicholas H. Shepherd, a law student who worked in Lincoln's office from 1845 to 1847.

There are no photographs of George Washington because the President died in 1799 and the first photograph was taken in 1814.

Valentine's Day

The heart-shaped reef near the archipelago of Whitsunday Island which falls within the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, as photographed by Holger Leue.

Two more days until Valentine's Day!

Helmet Newton

Henri Cartier-Bresson / Italy, 1933

Henri Cartier-Bresson / Romania, 1975

Robert Doisneau

Jason Langer, 1998 ("Elevator")

Bruce Davidson, 1966 (Social Club in Spanish Harlem, NYC)

Diane Arbus, 1963

Homage to love ...

All images by Alfred Eisenstaedt

For LIFE Magazine, 1943

Soldiers Saying Farewell During WW II / Penn Station, New York City

Alberto Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I

In the news today, a record art sale by Sotheby's: Alberto Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I, a bronze sculpture from the 1960s, sold for £65,001,250 ($104,327,006).

Portraits of Alberto Giacometti in his studio, above and below, as photographed by Gordon Parks.

Transformation

What I like about this shot by Clark Little, a photographer who gained notoriety for his images of the Hawaiian surf, is that it does what Georgia O'Keefe did for skulls and flowers.  He transforms a mere compound, that being water (actually, a ubiquitous chemical substance and I had to look this up because as far as I knew, water was an element) --------- where was I?  : )

In this particular image, Clark Little turned a mere compound -- a wave -- into a Man-o-war, a conch-shell, an orb, a piece of blown glass.  Whether it's something to study or hold or ride, it's painterly and with impact.

Calvin Klein

Film actor and model, Kellan Lutz is slated to be the next Calvin Klein men's underwear model, following in the footsteps of other notables, Mark Wahlberg and Djimon Hounsou.

The late Herb Ritts photographed the campaign featuring Mark Wahlberg:

And, Peter Lindbergh photographed the campaign featuring Djimon Hounsou: