Category: Photography

For their brilliant body of work titled 164° on the Equator, Paris based photographers Thomas Rousset and Charles Negre use quirky portraits and still lifes to create the story of a fictional location.

Constructing surrealistic and fictional realities all their own, the pictures were taken in Indonesia over a course of two months in 2014. This unique series contains documentary-style photographs with the intentionality of studio-based staging, showing everyday elements combined and repurposed to highly theatrical ends. Capturing banana leaves as backpacks, miniature boats as shoes, snakes as headbands and office décor, the series voices the idea of a clash of civilisation. Each picture is deliberately arranged and extensively prepared to make the compositions appearing absurd. Rousset and Negre meticulously constructed photos have an hypnotizing and quirky impact to the beholder, affording a glimpse into a slightly altered Indonesian landscape that seems disquieting, uncanny and sometimes humorous. Thomas Rousset and Charles Negre published their pictures in a miscellany by Études Studio.

“In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other, since we all are one.”Entitled ‘The Law of the Journey’, Ai’s exhibition is his largest to date, comprising of a series of works that trace his time spent in refugee camps – over 40 in total – over the past year. At the exhibition’s center is a giant installation taking the form of a black, 230-feet long boat transporting 258 figures with no faces, representing refugees. The location is fraught with meaning, given the Czech Republic’s rejection Running until January 7, 2018, the exhibition also includes the installations “Snake Ceiling”, a tribute to over 5,000 children who were killed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and “Laundromat”, which features clothing collected from a refugee camp. “There’s no refugee crisis, but only human crisis… In dealing with refugees we’ve lost our very basic values,” says Ai. “In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other, since we all are one.”

Designed by Latvian studio Mailitis Architects, Shaolin Flying Monks Temple is a unique amphitheater for levitation performances located in Henan province, China.

A platform for artistic performances, but also a place offering the opportunity to fly physically, the Temple features the amphitheater that can house up to 230 spectators. The concept of the structure is to tell the history of Zen and Kung-Fu through artistic performances and architectural image of the building itself. It carries a metaphor of the mountain and the trees inspired by Songshan mountain – natural environment for monks to develop their skills. “The temple is an attempt to create a landmark through mutual respect between history and future, nature and scientific development, Eastern and Western,” say the architects.

All images © Ansis Starks

Born in Vienna, Austria the 23-year-old film-maker and photographer Nina Keinrath chooses to capture the calmness of her surroundings. 

“The colors were very intense and the different landscapes were just breathtaking.”

After traveling the mountains of her home country she fell in love with landscape-photography and decided to take a trip into the mountains of Morocco…
“Our first stop was Marrakech, then we took the car through the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara desert.The colors were very intense and the different landscapes were just breathtaking. I decided to capture the feelings triggered by the different colors and landscapes of Morocco in my pictures.”

“After spending one night in the desert, we wanted to explore the seaside of the country so we took the bus to Essaouira.”

“I was again fascinated by the colors. The sea was very rough but the city was full of calm colors: a mixture of blue, beige and brown. As were the people, calm and way more relaxed.”

Brooklyn based sculptor and designer Fernando Mastrangelo has perfected the technique of binding salt and other granulated substances like sugar and quartz crystals, using the mixture to make furniture. In 2014 he began producing furniture under the brand MMaterial, while issuing limited-edition designs for FM/s Studio.

During New York Design Week in 2016, Mastrangelo has exhibited his Drift collection, that seems to be hewed from rock. Drift includes a coffee table cast from sand and cement, a sand and cement sofa upholstered in silk velvet, a 72” mirror, a coffee table and the ‘Petra’ side table in blue and pink. All pieces are meticulously crafted and polished with expressive, terrain-like surfaces, imitating the ombré effect of glaciers.

Mastrangelo’s Fade Series is cast entirely from hand-dyed cement, poured in layers to create a light ombre effect in watercolor hues. This more minimalist collection is characterized by simple geometric forms, including several drums, two side tables, and a desk, as well as a “Cement Painting” produced by FM/s. For his Misc. Pieces Mastrangelo produced planters, consisting of a hand-dyed cream cement and crushed porcelain.  The pieces are all manufactured from different materials and textures, bringing together indoor and outdoor materials that fuse his minimalist aesthetic with deft ingenuity and craft.

All images © Cary Whittier

Timber hut hidden in the forests of Bejing’s Wuling Mountain, subscribes to ideas of deliberated tiny living and subtle relationship between nature and inhabitation. Designed by local micro-architecture specialists Wee Studio, this tiny house is an outcome of successful crowdfunding project and studio’s practice of inviting people to be a part of the design and construction process.

Nestled between poplar and hawthorn trees, and mountain creeks, natural setting of Treehouse allows inhabitants complete affiliation with the nature. Tiny wooden house with the position, structure and design neatly blends into the surrounding landscape, while communicating with mountains, trees, sky and water. Prefabricated steelframed structure was assembled on the site to ensure the precision of the irregular form, and the façade is clad with recycled wooden panels. The Treehouse is literally tiny. With combined floor area of just 8 square meters, house is formed as two separated polyhedrons connected with a deck. However, cabin still satisfies essential needs; one pavilion serves as a tearoom, and the other one as a bathroom. Small tearoom floored with Tatami mat during daylight is a place for reading and relaxing that easily transforms into convenient sleeping area at night. Through the study of window layout and human body size, the architects tried to avoid the feeling of cramped space and enhance communication with the nature.

All images © Sun Haiting, RoadsideAlien Studio, Dai Haifei

Los Angeles based artist and illustrator Jesse Draxler explores the psychosomatic diversity that bends and distorts life’s realities. His artwork is an authentic look into the transitional stasis of a technologically saturated existence.

Jesse Draxler’s large-scale collage art draws the viewer in, while simultaneously causing shock and a feeling of disturbance. Digital inversions and hand painted alterations obscure faces, rendered in black-and-white. Faceless figures embody universal notions of death and terror, acting as self-portraits. Aware of the sameness of texture at micro and macro levels, the artist indicates an universal bond underlying the cosmic delusion, or the pixel bandwidth of our simulated universe. In his New York solo show “Terror Management” at Manhattan’s Booth Gallery, he draws heavily from the notion that everything a human does is influenced by the inevitable fact that one day everyone has to die.

Located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, the house was supposed to become brighter and gain a better connection to the courtyard. The architects, who specialize in residential alterations, removed the back wall on the ground floor of the building, adding a new kitchen that opens up to the terrace. By blurring the line between the interior and the exterior, the architects from Benn + Penna provided their client with modest and peaceful place to live and work. The house’s owner describes: “The result is in fact better than I had expected when I started. The finishes chosen by Andrew gave the house a modern look while retaining its character, whilst the spaces are used in their best possible way and give the feeling of a beautiful home inundated by natural light.”

Designed by Marcus Voraa, this unique table is made of beach with a beeswax treated surface, such as steel and canvas.

The length of the table can be adjusted by sliding the end of the table out and letting the timber table-top follow. The steel crank on the side of the table is used to shorten it. This roll out-technique came together with the idea of flexibility. Instead of trying to hide the extra table top, the designer wanted to showcase it as a statement. The front pair of the table legs divides into three and can be pulled out like a telescope-technique from 1.5 to 4 meters. A table is a place where we meet, get to know each other, discuss and share information in the real world. For this reason, Voraa developed this project to bring his family and friends closer together. No matter whether it is around the dinner table, in the meeting room or at a conference, it is at the table where our parallel worlds meet, the physical and the digital.

In his picture series ‘Home Less’ photographer Nelson Garrido shows the impact of financial crisis on Portuguese properties. He shot just one picture a day while capturing various abandoned houses.

“This project goes beyond the revelation of ruins; it intends to provide an experience of places“ The project was on view at the ‘Time – Space – Experience’ exhibition at Palazzo Bembo 2016 during the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. As financial crisis started to affect Portugal, house constructions were paused and left unfinished. Many people became homeless. Buildings that have been finished never found tenants or buyers. They were simply left to themselves. “This project goes beyond the revelation of ruins; it intends to provide an experience of places“, explains Garrido. He depicted different sorts of residences from multi-storey buildings to freestanding houses across the country. Illumination in isolated rooms showcases the contradiction between reality and desirable state. It represents all the lives interrupted by the consequences of financial crisis in Portugal.