Category: Photography

Coming from the western Malaysian city of Klang, Jewelry designer Joanne Tan combines modern and traditional jewelry making techniques by focusing on topical approaches. Titled “Not Your Average Beauty”, her collection of handmade facial ornaments are inspired by radical tribal jewelry that aims to combat the media’s idealisation of beauty and the modern obsession with plastic surgery.

Joanna’s collection covers just about everything from nose cuffs to clips and facial frames, allowing the wearers to customize their appearance at will, empowering them through enhancement rather than modification of their natural features. Manufactured with 18 carat yellow gold, diamonds and pearls, each piece has an unique design with varied structures, scaled accordingly to fit the variety of facial anatomies of both Asian and Western societies. The thin gold wire frames highlight the wearer’s delicate features, while diamonds and pearls draw attention to imperfect attributes. Not Your Average Beauty is a collection with a view to raise awareness about the pressures of today’s beauty standards by celebrating individuality and improving existing imperfections.

Using his camera, street photographer Daniel Arnold captures the daily rhythms of New York street life in moments of both high drama and sublime banality. When he was nearly bankrupt, Arnold told his Instagram followers that he would sell four by six prints of his photographs for $150 each. At the end of the day he earned about $15,000.

Known for his raw and invasive snapshots of New York City’s general chaos, he documents subway commuters and midtown workers in moments of everyday weariness and banality. In April 2014, he took over The New Yorker magazine’s Instagram account for a week, documenting the subway life. One memorable image captured schoolgirls in purple hijabs taking selfies. His pictures are characterized by a spirit of the present while channeling a tradition of street and subway photography. Daniel has a deep attraction to the beauty of strangers that motivates him to capture personal reflection and subtly emotionally autobiography. Shooting two covers for The Goings On About Town section of The New Yorker as well as producing a video for Vogue, Daniel Arnold rank among the best photographers on the Social Media.

Geoff McFetridge draws stylized paintings in patterned formations. They stem from the synergy between his fine arts practice and his background in graphic design. The Los Angeles-based artist works with a color palette of grays, whites, blues and pinks while he’s placing subjects in ordinary situations in a humorous way.

McFetridge’s design studio Champion Graphics has worked among others on title sequences for filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze, as well as on the design of shoes for Nike. His minimal shapes are at the interface between abstract and figurative representation. The depictions of urban life are inspired by 1970s advertisements and stylized logos. “Design language, which has a relationship with abstraction, is very accessible to me. My paintings are as much rooted in logos as they are in art history,” states the artist. But in contrast to the majority of advertising campaigns McFetridge adds a subtle grain of melancholy to his works. He often draws exclusively from memory. This practice gives his figures a remarkable, cartoon style character.

Italian photographer Alessandro Casagrande was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Later he moved to Milan where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Italian Institute of Photography.

Casagrande works on personal and commissioned projects around the world. His pictures appear beautiful and provocative at the same time. Some of them focus on nudity and the spirit of freedom and naturalness that come with the absence of clothes. Although Casagrande’s works rely on the intimate tension between photographer and subject, the outcome is not random at all. The starting point of each photo shoot is the orchestrated in the photographer’s mind. The execution later comes to perfection through Casagrande’s intense connection with the model, which ensures the authenticity of his photos.

Nestled into the peaceful woodlands on a 210 sq m plot not far from the Argentinian coastline is architect Luciano Kruk’s H3 House.

Taking the form of a comforting concrete cabin designed according to strict client requirements, H3 House was built to be in harmony with its dramatic natural surroundings. The house comprises of two main areas: one larger social space, and a private section with two bedrooms that share an ensuite. With floor-to-ceiling glass windows offsetting the concrete wall exterior, the home is at once open and cosy. “The layout of the house is the result of an architectural synthesis of the [clients’] intentions and desires,” explain the architects. “In its minimum scale, the house rises by its own will, but also integrates itself respectfully with its surroundings, both natural and human-built.”

With playfulness and a pinch of humor, South African designer Porky Hefer builds hanging chairs reminiscent of natural woven nests or cocoons.

Created from steel and kooboo cane, raffia and leather, the stylish nests evoke not only a sense of warmth, comfort and security, but also respect for the rigorous, intricate craftsmanship that went into the creation of the chairs. Employing traditional South African weaving techniques and materials, Hefer’s work is firmly grounded in – and dedicated to celebrating – the wealth of both natural resources and artistic heritage of his home country. Formerly an advertising Creative Director, Hefer shifted into design when, after 16 years in the industry, he realised he wasn’t creating enough himself. Four years after founding a creative consultancy, he established Porky Hefer Design, focusing on conceptual, perception-challenging creations across the disciplines of sculpture, furniture and product design.

IROJE KHM Architects finished the ‘Hye Ro Hun House’ in Korea. The site is located inbetween the city and the surrounding mountains. The front side opens the view to the urban landscape of downtown Gwangju, while the rear of the house is oriented towards the mountains.

By opening the transparent gate door, you access the house, walking over a long gangplank that looks like an architectural canyon. Two wooden boxes give the impression of a massive sculpture in the landscape. One structure contains living room and dining room, while the other box contains master bed and study room and another box in the structure conists of two bedrooms and study rooms for two daughters. The architects created a dynamic space over the living room. In 9m height, a double master bedroom with bamboo garden is floating. Through the top light of the roof, moving sunlight varies the atmosphere of the living room all day long. Horizontal and vertical ways indoors or outdoors cross each other continously and create a unique atmosphere in this various space.

All images © JongOh Kim | Via: Contemporist

It’s hard to tell whether Chris Sisarich is looking at all that’s left after a futile attempt at taming the desert, or witnessing the first tentative steps towards creating somewhere people can live. Either way, not much to see. But a lot of what isn’t there. An area pretty much defined by its negative space, blessed with light sliding in from no particular direction. Adding people and the things they’ve made only seems to make the landscapes emptier.

All images © Chris Sisarich