Photography

Section

Design Photography

Recycled Packing Materials Sculpted Into Elaborate Renaissance Costumes by Suzanne Jongmans

Interdisciplinary artist Suzanne Jongmans uses her skills as a sculptor and costume designer to create recycled garments from packing materials such as Styrofoam, plastic sheets, and segments of thick bubble wrap. The costumes take the form of elaborate bonnets and high collared dresses which are then photographed on subjects in poses reminiscent of portrait styles from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Specifically the Dutch artist references paintings created by artists such as Rembrandt, Holbein the Younger, and Rogier van der Weyden in her styled photographs.

Jongmans draws connections between contemporary disposable materials and the aesthetics of fine silks or lace, presenting creative takes on centuries-old clothing. “The idea of making something out of nothing changes our look on reality,” she explains. “…Most people throw that [foam] away. I make clothing out of it; foam is my textile.” You can see more of her portraits and garments sculpted from recycled materials on her website and Facebook.

Photography

Whimsical Literary Scenes Arranged with Hundreds of Colorful Hardcover and Paperback Novels by Elizabeth Sagan

Prolific reader and book collector Elizabeth Sagan uses Instagram as a platform to promote the engaging experience of reading physical books. Using her colorful collection of thousands of hardcover and paperback novels, she builds imaginative scenes that transport her audience into the storyline of dozens of literary tales. Over the last few months she has masqueraded as an angel with gigantic book wings, surfed a blue wave of literary titles, and laid at the center of a dazzling star of stacked texts. Sagan also co-runs the account My Book Features with James Trevino, where the pair shares their favorite book art images and novels from around the world. You can see more of her creative book compositions on Instagram. (via My Modern Met)

Photography

Dramatic Perspectives Capture Uniquely Juxtaposed Beachgoers in Street Photography by Moises Levy

Mexico City-based photographer and architect Moises Levy captures unique moments of human and animal interaction in his street photography, most often centered around activities at the beach. By shooting at a low angle, Levy captures slackline and tightrope walkers in the frame of someone’s legs, or a horse at just the right pace to make it seems as if a woman has walked directly underneath its snout. All of his images are backlit to create high contrast black and white images that present his figures more as silhouettes than subjects. You can see more of his beach photography on Instagram.

Photography Science

Double Helixes Streak Across the Sky in Multi-Shot Images of Birds by Xavi Bou

Spanish photographer Xavi Bou (previously) tracks and records the flight patterns of birds, combining their repetitive movements into elongated shapes that twist through the sky for his series Ornitographies. The images are inspired by chronophotography, a Victorian era photography method that combined multiple images to create movement, and edited digitally in Photoshop. The layered images appear like floating double helixes or fringed ribbon depending on the size and wingspan of each bird, and create elegant gestures as they criss-cross against the blue sky.

Recently Bou traveled to Iceland where he captured new species of birds set against a dramatically different landscape than his previous images. “Iceland was especially interesting because I was looking for the contrast between the size and heaviness of the volcanic rocks, in contrast between the tiny patterns that marine birds create in the sky,” he tells Colossal. Bou has also recently visited Barcelona to watch pigeons race across the city, and Tarifa, Spain to experience thousands of birds from all over Europe cross the sea towards Africa. You can see more of his multi-shot avian images on his website and Instagram.

Art Photography

Striking Aerial Photographs of Namibia’s Arid Landscape Appear as Abstract Paintings

Australian photographer Leah Kennedy captured Namibia’s colorful, dry topography on a recent aerial safari. Much of the artist’s work is aerial, which satisfies her creative affinity for combining abstraction and duality in her photography. Kennedy traveled in a Cessna light aircraft, as well as in a helicopter sans doors, using a medium format camera. She shares with Colossal, “The resulting images are, at least temporarily, removed from their reality they take on different forms and in some cases appear to be of microscopic origins or reminiscent of something else entirely. This ambiguity and departure from reality is what intrigues and inspires my work.”

In addition to her fine art portfolio, Kennedy teaches workshops and offers tutorials on photography and Photoshop. You can see more of her site-specific series and purchase prints of select photographs on Kennedy’s website, and follow her work and travels on Instagram.

Design Photography

Majestic Conservatories and Cozy Private Potting Sheds Showcase the Universal Appeal of Glass Greenhouses

Photographer duo India Hobson and Magnus Edmondson (known collectively as Haarkon) celebrate the universal beauty and rich history of glass greenhouses in a new book, Glasshouse Greenhouse. Filled with verdant images of greenhouses from around the world, the book is divided into seven thematic chapters including History, Research, and Pleasure. Haarkon complement the visual storytelling with written reflections that explain each location and their experience in discovering it.

The UK-based pair travels widely for their editorial and commercial work as visual storytellers, and seeking out greenhouses has become a touchpoint in their explorations of new places. In an interview with the Telegraph, Hobson shares, “It’s a fusion of both botanicals and architecture, an odd but extremely satisfying mix of the organic and engineered which I think appeals to a broad range of [people]. To me, they are a universal language in some ways: the fusion of many cultures and countries all under one beautiful glass roof.”

Freshly published by Pavilion Books on October 4th, Glasshouse Greenhouse is Haarkon’s debut book and it is available on Amazon. You can see more from Hobson and Edmondson on their website and Instagram.

Art Dance Photography

Life-Size Origami Becomes a Fashion Statement in Dramatic Paper Costumes Worn by Ballet Dancers

Montreal-based artists Melika Dez and Pauline Loctin met in January 2018 and decide to combine their imaginations in a creative collaboration. The result, PLI.Ē Project, fuses Dez’s skills as a movement photographer with Loctin’s expertise in paper art, and showcases dancers around the world wearing hand-folded paper costumes. Loctin specifically formed each dress’s shape and color palette to the dancer who would be modeling it, and Dez worked to situate her models in iconic settings from the streets of New York City to the Louvre Museum in Paris. Loctin’s paper creations range from resembling traditional ballet tutus to intricately folded experimental shapes.

Dez shares that the project came together in two phases: first as a studio shoot with professional ballet dancers wearing Loctin’s creations, and later as a worldwide endeavor photographing dancers and costumes outside. “Paper can be a fragile material to work with and that is exactly why we decided to make the impossible, possible. No matter which element we would be confronted to, water (rain), wind, we wanted to show that we are limitless.”

The PLI.Ē Project photographs are on view in Montreal through November 4, 2018, and the duo hopes to shoot a second series of the work and eventually publish a photo book. You can see more from Loctin on Instagram and Facebook and from Dez on Instagram. (via fubiz)