Teenz//Joseph Szabo

from Teenage

Joseph Szabo is a photographer and a teacher, known most well for his books (Almost Grown & Teenage) filled with lively photos of his high school students. He started using his students as subjects to help teach his photo class, and then began following them around and documenting their lives outside of class.

from Almost Grown

I'm curious how fun and non-creepy it was to be followed around by your high school teacher, but hey, it doesn't seem to be stopping these cool kids from having a good time!

from Almost Grown

from Teenage

 You can find more pics on his website as well as his other series such as Hometown, which I really enjoyed. Also, apparently there's a film??

Mirai Chan by Kotori Kawashima

 

These photos by photographer Kotori Kawashima of his friend's daughter are absolutely mesmerizing! Each picture is filled with such vibrancy exuding from the girl, and the colors around her. 

 

The pictures are compiled in a book called "Mirai-Chan," which seems to not be sold in the US (where I am located). Maybe one day I'll splurge on it on amazon, but for now I'll have to keep to gazing (and smiling) at the beautiful pictures on the internet.

 

 <3 <3 <3

shoes

I recently happened upon the website of photographer Steve McCurry, known most well for "Afghan Girl", a portrait of a young woman in a Pakistani refugee camp. I browsed through many of his galleries of pictures taken all over the world. My favorite gallery was a collection of his pictures that feature the shoes and feet of people he has encountered on his journeys.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

California, USA

Tokyo, Japan

Rajasthan, India

It really got me thinking about the relationship people have with shoes. Shoes are vital to everyone (in most cases, at least), but in some communities they might be a fashion statement, while in other communities, they might be a privilege. Though I'm sure I'm analyzing this too far, it's interesting looking at shoes to get a sense (obviously one that's just skimming the surface) of a country's culture.

le printemps

 I've been seeing these illustrations by Charlotte Fréreau on tumblr every so often and I love them! So whimsical and cute!

STOP MOTION

     Stop motion animation is a cinematography technique most commonly used to make inanimate objects appear to be animate, by using a camera to take individual pictures of each frame. Lately, I have been really interested in it! I've been perusing the interwebs for different types (admittedly not a very difficult task) and found some pretty neat videos.

Stop motion films can be as simple as moving objects, or in this case, dancing rocks:

I wasn't able to find much information on this except for the fact that it was on sesame street because apparently, this was the type of thing sesame street used to air (searching "dancing rock sesame street" didn't bring up much. however, I did find this video of Paul Rudd singing about earth).

Stop Motion films can also be very complex:

   

Carine Khalifé created this music video to "Blown Minded" for the band Young Galaxy with oil and paint on glass. She made 3-8 seconds a day, starting from scratch for each frame. This one is so neat. I get so absorbed in watching it, I forget that it's a stop motion, as it truly seems to be made from magic.

Although not my preferable bowl of noodles, I'm still intrigued by "No Noodles" by Tyler Nicolson. It is so perfectly whimsy and weird. And also, may I say, the sound effects are spot on!

"Sweet Dreams" by Kirstin Lepore follows the story of a cupcake who sails to a new community. It's very detailed and creative. All of her work is so amazingly seamless.

"Her Ghost Friend," directed by Saigo No Shudan is about a girl who dies and becomes a ghost, traveling through outer space and parallel universes (I think?). I wish I could understand the lyrics! Anyways, I do know that it is beautiful, dreamy, and a little eerie.

And lastly, Ben Wyatt's "Requiem for a Tuesday:"

     Stop motion animation seems to take a lot of devotion, not unlike most forms of art. I think it is so alluring to me because of how obvious the devotion is. I find myself struck by awe after watching each of these videos, thinking of how painstakingly the artist must have worked to create moving image frame by frame.

CINDY SHERMAN @ SFMOMA

Today, I saw the Cindy Sherman exhibit at the SFMoMA. I really liked the Untitled Film Stills and the Art History series.

Untitled Film Still #13, Untitled #225

But I LOVED her stop-motion video, Doll Clothes:

Imagine the amount of time and work this must of taken!

If you're interested in more Cindy, check out this video where she talks about how she creates her photos (and seems, like, really down to earth):

and also: this awesome episode of This American Life in which Ira Glass recounts his experience at Sherman's exhibit at the MoMA.