Inspiration - Photography in Berlin, Oct 2012

Inspiration - Photography in Berlin, Oct 2012 The 5th EUROPEAN MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY BERLIN is starting next week, so there will be a lot of great photo shows coming up in Berlin in the next month.

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Currently on view at Contributed is fashion photographer Michael Thompson's  Iconic Bodies (Sep 8 – Oct 27, 2012)

I apologize for the horrible iphone pic.

I'm a big fan of this gallery. It's located just down the street from my apartment, in a beautiful Stalin-style building on Karl Marx Allee, facing the fountain at Strausberger Platz. They always put on great shows, and I just wish I would have discovered the gallery sooner.


My favourite shots in the show were of Claudia Schiffer for W Magazine. Really beautiful double exposures of angelic Claudia, shot in a style that I don't normally associate with Thompson's, so this was a nice surprise. It was also great to see some of his early images shot on film, pre-retouching and photoshop, where you can still see real pores in the model's skin.

©Michael Thompson: Kaleidoscope, 1993 (Super young Kate Moss!!! ) and W Magazine Editorial "Snapcrackle"

©Michael Thompson: Veruschka with Butterfly, New York 2003

This show had a really nice selection of the photographers older images, and both Michael and Supermodel Veruschka attended at the opening.

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Last week we saw the opening of Geschlossene Gesellschaft - Künstlerische Fotografie in der DDR 1949–1989 at Gerlinische Galerie (05.10 to 28.01.2013), a interesting collection of photography from the GDR.

Although the overall theme was a bit loose, nonetheless there were some great images in the show. Jens Rötzsch's color shots specifically reminded me of my childhood growing up in communist Poland.

© Jens Rötzsch, "Berlin (Ost) 1989 - Stadion der Weltjugend" and ""Leipzig, August 1987"

© Erasmus Schröter, "Frau in Rot," Leipzig 1985.
Erasmus also has another show featuring his DDR work right now, at Only Photography in Berlin.

© Matthias Leupold "Im Kino / Teil II," Berlin 1983.

© Christian Borchert: "Familie W. (Schutzpolizist, Montiererin)", Berlin 1983

The infamous Berghain doorman Sven Marquardt was also showing some of his work.

© Sven Marquardt, Ohne Titel (aus der Serie: Berliner Traum) 1986.

Inspiration: Photography in Berlin

We've been extremely fortunate to have seen so many amazing photo exhibits while living in Berlin, it's one of the reasons we moved here... Here's a run down of the last month or so:

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>> Zeitlos schön, 100 Years of Fashion Photography from Man Ray to Mario Testino at C O Gallery.  One of the best photo openings we've been to so far, lots of great wok, and a really fun opening... the place was packed. (18 August — 28 October 2012).

Corinne Day's beautifully simple shots of Linda Evangelista.

 
Erwin Blumenfeld, Vogue, 1945.
The most pleasant surprise of the show... I've heard his name, before but have never seen his work, which is absolutely brilliant, and still totally innovative today. A really beautiful color palette. I can't believe these were taken so long ago....

John Rawlings, Vogue 1943

Deborah Turbeville, one of my favourite of her photographs, for Vogue May 1975

Sølve Sundsbø, Love Magazine, 2011

Vintage Vogue editorial spread.

Miles Aldridge, Vogue 2002

  

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>> Not a favourite of ours, but of course we had to go see Steven Klein at CWC Gallery

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Guided tour of private photography collection Arthur de Ganay, Sept 1, 2012. A beautiful private collection space featuring mostly German photographers.

Candida Höfer, 2005

Hiroshi Sugimoto, 1993

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>> Color, a group show featuring Helmut Newton, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Nadav Kander, Robert Polidori, Albert Watson, Martin Schoeller and Ellen Von Unwerth at CWC Gallery, had some really great surprises. (Sep 15 — Dec 01, 2012)

Jean-François Lepage, a photographer who's work I've liked for a long time, and we've featured on the blog before. It was lovely to see his work upclose.

Nadav Kander

Robert Polidori

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 >>Last week we met UK/Berlin photographer Kate Bellm while looking for a studio through a craigslist ad. Great girl! Her space living/shooting space was a young photographer's dream come true! She currently has a show TECHNICOLOR DREAMING at Moeller Fine Art in Kreuzberg. 

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 >> Viviane Sassen at abc Art Berlin Contemporary fair, 13—16 September 2012, where she was represented by STEVENSON.

One of my favourite photographers working today! 
To my delight, I stumbled upon this one without knowing her work was showing at the fair. Always amazing to see her photography, especially in person. Would love, love, love to own some of it one day :)

Inspiration: Jean-Francois Lepage Interview

Interview with Jean-Francois Lepage in The Lab Magazine.


JFL—"I started in the eighties and it was already very difficult to be different and be part of the business without burning your wings and losing your identity. 

If you’re chosen for who you are and what you do, and if people understand and respect the way you’re working as an important part of your creativity, you will always do a great job, this is certain. It’s as simple as that."

 

New Logo!

We finally picked a winner... Here is our new logo, designed by UK designer Allan McEvoy!

New identity.

Hi. As we are currently living and working in Berlin, we though it might be nice to get a fresh new look for our logo, website and overall identity. We have been working with UK designer Allan McEvoy on our new logo, and here is an example of one of his ideas, still in the early design stages. We're super excited to see the final result! We wanna get started doing our new promos :)

Inspiration: The Room Magazine & Márton Perlaki

Márton Perlaki, the photo director of The Room , which he founded in 2004, is one of the driving forces behind the magazine and a great photographer, represented by Quadriga.


The Room magazine is one of those publications that who's photography I kept noticing about a year ago on inspirational  blogs that I regularly visit.  The magazine is based in Hungary, but is continuously producing striking editorials that rival, if not surpass, the big London-based mags. The latest issue #15 is especially spectacular, and shows how far they have evolved aesthetically and how much more well crafted the subtleties in their editorial styling and art direction have become, in the short time I've been following them.

Based on their posts on their blog, they seem like a lovely and fun bunch! The magazine is a huge inspiration, and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Two covers for The Room #15

So many simple but stunning ideas here...

I love this editorial!

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Below area some spreads from the magazine.
Some of their best images are the printer misprints that The Room posts on their blog below:

Tilda Swinton for The Room #14

Canadian  Mode model Meghan Collison for The Room #13

Cover with Meghan Collison and Valerija Kelava for The Room #13 and #12

This set up is awesome.

I really love Valerija.

Iris Strubegger for The Room #11

Eniko Mihalik in gorgeous makeup for The Room #8