Julian Wolkenstein's Unusual Photography

Photographer Julian Wolkenstein has shot a lot of images you are probably familiar with. Having photographed large ad campaigns for food, cars, airlines and more, you've come across his commercial photography for everything from Sony and Vodaphone to Snickers in many international publications.

While he's an adept portraitist, landscape and commercial photographer (his work is really beautiful), it's his non-commissioned work that I find so interesting because it is both simultaneously beautiful and bizarre.

Take a look:

People as pets:




Horses with hair:




Yawning people portraits:




See all his work here.

photo l.a. 2008: the 17th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition

January 10-13, 2008

Artfairs inc., producer of the highly acclaimed art fairs photo Miami and ART LA, is pleased to announce that photo l.a. 2008, the 17th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, which will take place January 10-13, 2008.

EXHIBITION HOURS
Friday, January 11 and Saturday, January 12, noon to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 13, noon to 6:00 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for a one-day pass and $30 for a three-day pass.

The Conversations with Artists series of lectures are co-sponsored with LACMA and are free to the public. The Conversation with Julius Shulman will cost $10, as well a Sunday morning seminar on Book Collecting. Onsite collecting seminars are $80 (includes a three day pass and catalog). Student discounts for lectures and the fair are available with valid I.D.

At the opening night reception scheduled for Thursday, January 10 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., artfairs, inc. will welcome to Los Angeles, and photo l.a. 2008, the new Department Head and Curator of Photography at LACMA, Charlotte Cotton. Renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman will be honored with photo l.a.’s inaugural lifetime achievement award in association with The Center -- a nonprofit organization that honors, supports and provides opportunity for gifted and committed photographers. Proceeds from the opening night reception will benefit the Photography Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tickets to the opening benefit reception on Thursday, January 10, 2008 are $80 (which includes 1-day pass to the show). To order tickets to the benefit reception, email the Photography Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at photola@lacma.org or contact the event hotline at (323) 932-5846.

All exhibition, lecture and preview reception tickets are available for purchase at the door or in advance. Seminar tickets should be purchased in advance. For additional information on photo l.a. 2008, visit www.artfairsinc.com.

To see a full list of exhibitors, click here.


Some of the photos you will see there:


Balthasar Burkhard
Rio Negro, 2002
Silver gelatin print on barite paper
23,5 x 63 inches
Iron frame
Edition of 7
Courtesy SCALO|GUYE



Balthasar Burkhard
Chicago, 2004
Silver gelatin print on barite paper
49,2 x 70,9 inches
Iron frame
Edition of 7
Courtesy SCALO|GUYE



Balthasar Burkhard
Shanghai, 2005
Silver gelatin print on barite paper
54,7 x 82,7 inches
Iron frame
Edition of 7
Courtesy SCALO|GUYE


Pierre Crocquet
Morning coffee
Silver gelatin hand print
75 x 60 cm
2006
From a series of work entitled EnterExit.
Courtesy of the Photographers Gallery za


Nicola Vinci
Il Beneficio Del Dubbio
Benefit of doubt
Diptych, 1/1
Lightjet on plexiglass
35 x 57 cm
2005
From a series of work entitled, Moonlight.
Courtesy of the Photographers Gallery za


Roger Ballen
Bent back
Silver gelatin hand print
40 x 40 cm
2001
From a series of work entitled, Shadow Chamber.
Courtesy of the Photographers Gallery za


Artist: Lukas Roth
Title: untitled 2007 (station)
Year: 2007
Medium: Lambda print
© Lukas Roth and courtesy Paul Kopeikin Gallery


Artist: Julie Orser
Title: Arrangement
Year: 2007
Medium: Chromogenic print
© Julie Orser and courtesy Paul Kopeikin Gallery

FAIR LOCATION
Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405

BENEFIT RECEPTION
To honor Julius Shulman and
Benefit the Photography Department of the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Thursday, January 10th, 6-9 pm


©J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission.
Julius Shulman Photography Archive Research Library at the Getty Research Institute

Click here to download a Benefit Reception Ticket Order Form.
For more information on Benefit Reception tickets please email photola@lacma.org or call 323.936.5846

PUBLIC FAIR HOURS
Friday, January 11th, 12pm - 8pm
Saturday, January 12th, 12pm - 8pm
Sunday, January 13th, 12pm - 6pm

TICKETS
Click here to purchase day passes, seminar or lecture tickets.
$20 1-day pass (includes catalog)
$30 3-day pass (includes catalog)
$10 The Photobook: A Discussion
$10 Conversation with Shulman/DeWit
$80 Benefit Reception (includes a 1-day pass)

Click here to download a Benefit Reception Ticket Order Form.
For more information on Benefit Reception tickets please email photola@lacma.org or call 323.936.5846

The Lavazza 2008 Calendar: A Most Majestic Experience

If you didn't know, Lavazza of Italy produces a calendar that celebrates their brand and their product (espresso) every year. And it's no ordinary 'corporate calendar'. This is always a piece of stunning photographic art. Every year.

They've used an impressive stable of photographers. Coincidentally, the past three years happen to have used three of my personal favorites; Eugenio Recuenco, Erwin Olaf and Ellen Von Unwerth, which is how I even discovered Lavazza and their calendars in the first place. The infamous Helmut Newton shot the first calendar in 1993 for them. And well-known photographers David LaChapelle and Albert Watson have also shot the Lavazza calendar in the past.



This year's calendar theme is "The Most Majestic Experience". Models posing as aristocratic regal "queens' amongst luxury and animals. Shot by Finlay Mackay


Above: Photographer Finlay Mackay


The 2008 Calendar:

Above: the Cover, January~February


Above: March~April

Above: May~June

Above: July~August

Above: September~October

Above: November~December

In addition to creating a pretty piece of functional art, Lavazza's flash site for this year's calendar is a sight to see- and hear. Beautifully designed and easy to navigate, it's filled with goodies. Both a written and narrated story introduces you to each of the "queens" in the calendar:



And you get peek at the actual shoot, both in stills (as seen below) and a video (seen at the end of this post).





And they even have an online contest, Majestic Mahong, you can play and be automatically entered to win a 2008 Calendar or more.

So be sure to check it out when you have some time, because there's so much to see on their site.

In Lavazza's own words, The 16th edition of the Lavazza Calendar, is dedicated to important, aristocratic and determined women, women who feel like queens - in other words, all women. It shows an enchanted and precious world in which queens are surrounded by jewellery, silk, velvet and freely roaming animals proudly reign.

See the new 2008 calendar for yourself here.

Below is Finlay Mackays's tv spot for Lavazza 2008. Please be patient while it loads.



The Most Majestic Experience.
I want to credit all the right people for this wonderful work, and luckily for me, the fabulous client director at Armando Testa has furnished me with a list of the talented people involved on this project.

CREDITS 2008 LAVAZZA CALENDAR / THE MOST MAJESTIC ESPRESSO EXPERIENCE

Supervision & coordination: Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.
Creative project: Armando Testa
Creative directors: Michele Mariani, Germán Silva, Haitz Mendibil, Ekhi Mendibil
Art director: Andrea Lantelme
Copywriter: Cristiano Nardò
Photographer: Finlay MacKay
Assistant photographer: Christopher George, Alick Crossley
Agent: Marco Santucci Photography
Production Company: The Box Films
Set designer: Robin Brown
Costume designer: Moritz Junge
Stylist: Hannah Teare
Hair stylist: James Rowe
Make-up artist: Hiromi Ueda
Post production: Core Digital
Models/animals/etc:
Cover: Sofie Nielander
Queen Vanalika II: Maria Dvirnik
Davidina (Monkey, trained by Daniel Berquinì)
Queen Bao: Xiuli Gao (Queen)
Katsuya Tatsumoto (Painter)
Queen Sophie Margot: Sofie Nielander (Queen)
Massimo Viafora, Fabio Zerba (Servants)
Evija Petuhova (Harlequin)
Queen Yasmine: Anna Sjoberg (Queen)
Men: Silvio Biolcati, Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler
Women: Evija Petuhova, Paula Ludwig
Queen Kuk Grethel: Cicely Telman (Queen)
Falcon from Zoo Grunwalt s.r.l.
Queen Melissa III: Awoi Mac Bullen Geu (Queen)
Men: Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler, Niklas Erik Daniel Crlsson, Andrew Demarsh, Morgan Pieter, Augustin Grunefeld Lance Brolin Wuchterl, Trevor Pedrowski, Milan Gogora, Silvio Biolcati, Manuele Barbaglio, Fabio Rizzo, Giovanni Fortunato
Giorgio Colnaghi, Daniele D’Andrea
Special thanks to: Damiani jewels & Vivienne Westwood

You can see all the past years' calendars by going here.

To buy a calendar, you'll have to check ebay- they don't sell them to the public!

Meet Russian Photographer And Artist Oleg Dou

I can't even recall how I came across this young (and handsome!) photographer's unusual and haunting work, but I'm so glad I did. Be sure to visit his site for much more, I can only post so much.



OLEG DOU (1983-)
With staggeringly unique vision, Oleg Dou's work develops and pushes to the limit the idea of a body, evoked by the surrealists, as an object of subversions, distortions and other mutations that undermine its integrity.


Above: Self portrait

His photography has been celebrated in Paris and Moscow exhibitions, as well as such French and Russian publications as Le Monde2, PHOTO magazine and Fotomasterskaya magazine.

Often strange and disturbing, Dou's artistic search pushes to extreme limits, his subjects destroyed and massacred before the lens seemingly without pity...but take a look at their eyes and see if your interpretation is shaken.







Artist’s Statement:
"I was born in Moscow on the 19th of August in 1983. My mother was a painter, and I grew up spending a lot of time among artists — although I was not particularly interested in their activities.

I felt an urge toward the arts and creation some time ago when I was working as a designer, and I began seriously studying design. That’s how I “bumped into” photography."



"I worked hard to create my own style and technique. The main tool is computer photo-manipulation and a mix of several photos. I’ve already created several art projects and showed them in a few countries, including France, Belgium and the USA."



"Creation brings me enormous pleasure. I am stubborn, ambitious and optimistic by nature; I like being different — and my work, I hope, reflects these features of my character."





The Artists Page on DeviantArt

See Much More of His Fabulous Work On His Website