Dover Street Market

Dover Street Market is a multi level fashion retail space created by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese fashion label Comme Des Garcons.

their is no other leveled shopping space that can even touch this place.

just the fact you cant even call it a shop or a store its a space, which means every little detail from how the items are folded to how you navigate through DSM is cleverly arranged.

all items have been hand picked by a representative of Comme des Garcons, so attention to detail again is extremely high. its sort of high end, but not a at all daunting to enter. theres no where else like it in london for sure, and if you havent been i suggest you do.

Richard Billingham

Born on the 25th September 1970, Richard Billingham is an English Photographer from a deprived area of Birmingham, his most acclaimed body of work is his book entitled "Rays a Laugh" which is a intimate portrayal of deprivation in which he grew up in. the images from the book were shot with the cheapest film he could find, which ties in nicely with the idea of frankness, and 'just getting by.' At first glace Ray his father appears to be nothing but an alcoholic, and the mother an obese chain smoker with a fascination for jigsaw puzzles. however despite their obvious bad situation Ray and Liz shine through as troubled, but very touching.
the brash colours, and bad focus adds to the authenticity of the series.
Billingham has a raw aspect which i really fine interesting about his work.
documenting people you have a relationship with can be tricky but the series is a brilliant piece of documentary.

Bape

lately I've been wondering how bape still have regular customers coming in there.
I stopped wearing bape a few years back, because i actually felt like such a fashion slut. overpriced items, with a acute selection, and the more limited edition something is, the better? Well i used to think like that, but now I'm more than happy with my Uniqlo plain coloured t-shirts, than a t-shirt that will cost me a weeks dinner.
but i was on the website the other day, and there new S/S collection is nicely put together, until my heart sinks.


this image above is annoying! Why you asked? its just the fact that predominately the label babe caters for ghetto fab/slightly urban hipsters. they are making a mockery of a style of alternative shoes, but making them accessible to the wider audience. its just the fact i have the original brothel creeper style, yet Ive received some very wired looks. the fact that this shape and style has been copied by a brand like babe, will make it rather more acceptable to wear them. darn.

Feminism

Feminist art began to start the ball rolling in the 60's and flourished thought the 70's. this was the hay day of the movement of feminism. From what I read online feminism is a philosophy in which women and their contributions want to be valued. the issue is equality, may it be political, social or economical.

i find the discussion of feminism very had to debate. i understand the idea of equal opportunities whatever you are, but if the idea is to equally live together why would you only have female exhibitions, or feminist run lessons just for teenage girls? i don't really understand the direction or idea behind alot of feminist ideals.

Ansel Adams

Born february 20th, 1902 and died April 22nd 1984, Ansel Easton Adams was best known for his black and white images of the American West, he was a true environmentalist. With photographer Fred Archer Adams created the zone system. this was a system which would allow the photographer to determine proper exposure and to adjust the contrast of the final prints.

Adams will always be know for founding the F/64 group with fellow photographers Edward Weston, and Imogen Cunningham. Adams primarily used large format cameras despite the film cost, weight, and set up time, but he always wants to ensure his images remain sharp.
i do enjoyed his work, because its very natural, but the tones he achieves with a black and white image is remarkable.

Nan Goldin

Born Nancy Goldin in Washington DC in 1953, she grew up in a upper middles class Jewish family in Boston. probably the most recognised documentary photographers of this era for her intimacy, and topics surrounding drug overdosing, AIDS and domestic violence.

what sets Goldin aside from other documentary photographers is her ability to make her images seem like a private journal that has been leaked. her work is consistently show in the form of slide shows, with her most famous being a 45 minute show, where 800 pictures are viewed. her use of lighting is key to the mood, as she usually only shoots in available light, something i respect very much about her work. It makes sense that if your trying to covey real gritty life, the images should be as "real" as they can be.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is characterized by the objection of objective truth and global cultural narrative. it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as black versus, Male versus female and straight versus gay.
Postmodernism can also be defined by its knowing of high and mass culture. the binding of everyday life with art, and the refusal of one single style of art, and what it should be.

Modernism

Modernism rejects the lingering certainty of enlightenment thinking. not all modernist reject religion or faith. Modernism is about questioning the times of the previous age. Modernist believe the times before of how art, architecture, literature, social organisation and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social and political conditions. to be self conscious is to be a modernist. the term "modern art" is often used to decribe the succestion of movements that follwed realism and abstract art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

I had to do a post on probably the artist who first inspired me to even pick up a pencil and draw. Jean-Micheal Basquiat was born December 22 1960 and died august 12 1988, was by all accounts the first artist of African descent to become an international art star. life started out as a graffiti writer in New York, and then came the 1980's where he began to produce Neo-expressionist paintings.



for the short life he had, Basquiat achieved a great deal more than many artist before and after him. in the short years leading up to his overdose he was appearing regularly Annina Nosei gallery in Soho. that same year of 1982 he met Andy Warhol, with whom he collaborated with two years later. by the mid 1880's he had left the Annina Nosei gallery and was showing his work in the famous Mary Boone gallery in Soho. Even though he was very successful at this time the increasing drug use began to interfere with his aspirations.
for someone so talented to have blown up like that, only to die in a way never fitting of such a talented being, its a real shame.

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of sign processes or signification and communication. it is usually divided into three branches.
Semantics: which is the relation between signs and the things to which they refer.
Syntactics: which is the relationship among signs in a formal structure.
Pragmatics: which is the relation between signs, and thier effects on those people.

As pictured above semiotics to me can get most in a pickle. The basis of semiotics is someone maybe looking at exactly the same image or symbol as someone else, but the image can be interpreted in many ways. The first semiotic definition of "Sign" came from Ferdinand de Saussurein his Course on General Linguistics (1915).

I conclude that based on who you are, where your from, and how you think, everyone has the possibility of misreading or over thinking signs symbols and images. their appears to be no definite answer to semiotics.

Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt, born 3rd May 1904 and died 20th December 1983, was a highly influential British photographer and photojournalist, best know for his extremely high contrast images of British society, as well as his distorted nudes and landscapes.
born in Hamburg, Germany son of a British dad, and a German mother he grew up during world war one. not to long after the war Brandt contracted TB, and spent most of his time in Davos, Switzerland. he travelled to Vienna to gain treatment for his TB, and not to soon after he was cured.
in 1933 he moved to London and began to document all levels of British society.
during the Second World War, Brandt would try his hand at every kind of subject, but he was regarded highly in his work in portraiture and landscape.
Post war his major books were Literary Britain (1951) and Perspective of Nudes (1961)

Antichrist

Directed by Lars von Trier, Antichrist tells the dramatic tale of a married couple who deal with the lost of their child. the mother of the child (Charlotte Gainsbourg) grief is so deeply rooted that it consigns her to hospital. her husband (Willem Dafoe) a therapist in his own right, decides to take her home, and help her to overcome her depression himself. as a way of helping her face her fears they both go to stay in a remote cabin in the woods. considered "Eden", where something unexplained happened the previous summer as they begin to try and rebuild.

Told in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film in detail shows acts of lustful cruelty, and empty violence. some of the film stills are very artistically driven, which helps to hold tightly the balance between violence and beauty. Not as avaunt guard as i was hoping it to be, but Willem Dafoe engages the viewer and keeps you glued to your seats.

is this polly number two??

i was just looking through pictures on a friends blog of mine, and i come across this one.

is this polly's long lost sister she has always craved?

whatever your heart wants

this was a photograph i took a few months back at my friends bithday gathering.
polly is pictured.