Category: Art

To take a truly great photo, you need to know your subject. And to take a great photo in Brooklyn, it surely helps to be from there. Hence, we present to you New York City-based photographer Donato Di Camillo who learned how to handle a camera while serving his sentence in prison.

Di Camillo doesn’t like to associate himself with the whole prison ordeal so he does not disclose the circumstances of his imprisonment, except that he spent hours and hours reading anything about photography he could get his hands on. Which is fine with us because that would just take away the spotlight from his amazingly gritty and down-to-earth depictions of life in the less touristy parts of The Big Apple.

“As a child, I witnessed a lot of traumatic things, I saw my first friend die at the age of nine, right by my feet.” (the boy was killed by a passing car as they were playing outside).

Back in the 1978s and 1980s, Brooklyn was a more unforgiving place the artist explains, he “had to learn to think quick and use street instincts.”

The artist takes photos of “people on the fringes of society,” just like himself. Asked how he decided to do street photography, Di Camillo simply explained that it’s “something that I felt I needed to do.”

More info: instagram | tumblr (h/t: futureshoot)

‘His name is Rosario. He was born in Sicily. At a very young age, he was abandoned by his caregivers after his parents died tragically in a car accident. He said the scar tissue in his eye was from a fight he had in an orphanage he occupied as a child. These days, he lives the best he can working odd jobs for local small businesses.’

’91-years-young teacher of life still exercises every day, harder than most.’

‘He was joking with his friends about his teeth when I encountered him. When I asked him if he was worried about his teeth, he replied “ain’t they pretty though?”’

‘Self-proclaimed subcultures exist on the fringes of Coney Island. Travelers and train jumpers find means to maintain life against society’s rules.’

‘United States Army Veteran just barely has enough income to keep a roof over his head.’

‘As I was shooting the streets of Brooklyn, I met a woman in a government food line to collect some can goods for her home because of money issues. I spoke to her, and she explained she had two mentally ill boys at home and that one as starting to smoke crack “It’s been a struggle for me, my husband stabbed me six times. He tried to kill me. The government sent him back to Italy. I collect welfare, but it’s just not enough.”’

He does it his own way, or rather the way it was done back in the 1800s.

The Nashville-based artist makes portraits using both tintype (a photograph taken as a positive on a thin tinplate) and ambrotype (an early type of photograph made by placing a glass negative against a dark background):

“My tintype images are created using equipment made more than 160 years ago.”

All from an era when cameras were made by craftsmen in small shops and lenses were designed using slide rules, experience, and feel. The inherent flaws of these instruments lend themselves perfectly to his view of a beautifully imperfect world.

These techniques were used in the 1850s and the 1860s, and using them now serves almost as a time machine to take the photo subjects hundreds of years back.

More info: giles clement | facebook (h/t: boredpanda, mymodernmet)

To fathom and to make sense of the real her tormented by depression husband was facing, Maureen Drennan didn’t rely on words, instead, she let her photos tell the story.

That’s how photo project “The Sea That Surrounds Us” came to be. The name comes from a line once written in a love poem by Pablo Neruda called “Night on the Island”. Except for this time it represents the photographer combining pictures of her husband Paul with pictures from Block Island and Rhode Island, places where she spent her childhood.

It is a rare look into the life of a person who’s suffering from depression and we get to experience it in a very intimate way, from a family member’s point of view. And that’s not even mentioning the incredible artistic value the series holds. Take a look.

More info: Maureen Drennan (boredpanda, huffpost)

Isamaya Ffrench worked as a face painter at children’s parties before her worldwide career as a makeup artist started.

She tells stories through people’s faces and isn’t afraid of using unconventional colors and techniques with artistic ease.

At the age of 25, YSL Beauté appointed Isamaya Ffrench as its  UK make-up ambassador. She works with artists like Kanye West and Designers like Junya Watanabe. Isamaya Ffrench studied 3D design at Chelsea College of Arts and Product and Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins.

She lives in London and Paris.

All images via Isamaya Ffrench

Pink Diaries, Part I is the latest in a series from photographer Asher Moss‘s ongoing obsession with the color pink.

With its sensual, raw pictures, Moss wanted to show the natural beauty of women without embellishing digital filters. Pink Diaries, Part I is the story of two girls somewhere off the grid finding warmth, only in each other.

The photo story features Moss’s muse and her best friend high in the desert, affectionately living out his imagination. See more of his fantasy stories in his debut book Miss Lonely.

All images © Asher Moss, Models Carly Foulkes and Melodi Meadows.

As a photographer, you’re always looking for new perspectives and interesting compositions. But not every artist has already stumbled upon a great source for both which is a clever use of natural shadows.

Those who did, though, have produced some very interesting results. We present 15 works of photographers, who use shadows to clothe their models in. The cool bit is that you too can easily play with this idea, just scroll down for the inspiration below and then go experimenting yourself.

#1

Image source: kristinsundberg

#2

Image source: Heather Mason

#3

Image source: David Basanta

#4

Image source: Solve Sundsbo

#5

Image source: Emilio Jimenez

#6

Image source: Wendy Hope

#7

Image source: George Mayer

#8

Image source: xaqnoseduermanmisentidos

#9

Image source: Francis Giacobetti

#10

Image source: Emilio Jimenez

#11

Image source: Cristiana Pantea

#12

Image source: Neil Snape

#13

Image source: Charles Nevols

#14

Image source: Ferdinando Scianna

#15

Image source: Jannic Borlum