An interesting aspect to this week’s Chinese theme is the outsider’s perspective. I came across this set of photos on Flickr from Harry Kaufman which I thought did a nice job of capturing two sides of China – contrasting the large, beautiful buildings that line the horizon with the small, dilapidated structures crumbling at their feet. The photos were mostly taken in Shanghai and Chongqing, two of the five National Central Cities, a concept to try and urbanize China.

It’s so interesting to see photos like these because it’s so much different from where I grew up, where I currently live and what I’ve come to think of as a city. To me, it would be really bizarre to be driving down the freeway and see these shacks where people are living. The closest thing we have to something like this here in Los Angeles would be Skid Row, but that’s made of tents and only exists in about 5 square blocks. It makes me really thankful for have what I have.

Bobby

Bobby

Yang Yongliang is a Chinese photographer and painter from Shanghai. He originally studied traditional art at a young age and this training has greatly informed his current practice. The images above come from a series based on Shan shui paintings. These type of paintings stem from a history that goes back more than 1,500 years ago and the images often depict scenes of natural landscapes and beautiful scenery. It’s a tradition that demands a rigorous set of requirements in the hopes of creating the perfect combination of balance, composition, and form.

Yang Yongliang’s work takes these requirements and then turns them on their head – tranquil surroundings become chaotic landscapes as old trees become large skyscrapers and gentle mists become billowing smoke. The finished result creates powerful and contemporary images that speak of the modern world and the concerns of our time. More of his work can be seen online here.

Philip

A reader recently sent me a link to these amazing from Eric Cahan called Sky Series. He documented the sunrise and sunsets of different places around the world, predominately California, New York and Florida, showing the incredible range of colorful gradients each location has to offer. From top to bottom you’re looking at:

Bridgehampton, NY
Sunset 7:48pm

Fort Pond Bay, Montauk, NY
Sunset 8:10pm

The Dunes, Amagansette, NY
Sunset 6:47pm

Venice Beach, CA
Sunrise 6:15am

Bobby

Over the course of three years, photographer James Mollison photographed fans at a number of concerts around the world. The resulting images form a fascinating body of work which he calls The Disciples. For Mollison, these concert crowds are almost like different tribes; he describes them as becoming like an extended surrogate family.

It’s a fun, fascinating, and at times frightening portrait of popular culture, highlighting the extent of how people aim to emulate celebrity and how they use it to form their own identity. The series exists both as an exhibition and as a 128-page book; published by Chris Boot. Above are only a few Disciples from the series. Many more can be viewed on Mollison’s website here.

Philip

My friend Chris sent me this link last week, a photo blog from Japan that has an amazing collection of long exposure images of fireflys. I’m not entirely sure what the photographers name is, (Editor’s Note: It’s Tsuneaki Hiramatsu) though I did see mention to a Mr. Coro, any help with figuring out his proper name would be appreciated.

It looks like he’s been shooting these fireflys for about 8 years now, getting better and better as he goes. He shoots a lot of his images in Okayama where they have firefly season. If you like these images you should visit his blog and see the images blown up, they look much better that way.

Bobby

Luis Díaz Díaz is a Spanish photographer based in Madrid and the North-Western coast of the country. He does a lot of commissioned projects, but it was his personal project ‘Music Boxes’ which really caught my attention. The series of photographs looks at the open air stages used by orchestras and concerts during the yearly local festivals in Galicia in Northern Spain.

These ‘music boxes’ stand now as forgotten monuments to times past. Where once this structures were places of festivities and celebration, they have now been replaced by modern mobile stages. Luis Díaz Díaz rigidly documents them with a minimalist style that reminds me of the photographs of industrial buildings taken by the influential German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. These empty, abandoned spaces, now seem to haunt rural Galica; leaving only a hollow space where the viewer is left to imagine what celebrations may have once taken place in this part of the country.

Philip

I’ve long been a fan of the clothing produced by the duo of Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos, better known in the fashion world as Shipley & Halmos. I have a black cardigan that I’ve owned for a couple of years now that is hands down the best cardigan I’ve ever owned. There’s something about the cuff of the sleeves that fit perfect, some bit of elastic that makes it so that the ends never get stretched out. It’s a perfect detail that makes it a perfect cardigan.

Browsing around The Selby I noticed he paid the guys a visit and shot their space, so I thought I’d share it here. Having a space that inspires you is always important, and well, if I had a space like they did I would turn out amazing things every few minutes. It’s cool that everything in their space is mostly completely white, but is accentuated with punches of color. There’s a really great, lived in feeling to the space which makes the space feel so natural and wonderful. Hopefully something about their space will inspire something in your own.

Bobby

These photos come from a larger series of images taken by the San Francisco based artist Todd Hido. Shot in LA during the mid-90s, each photo shows the vacant space of a foreclosed home, which seem haunted by untold stories. They are filled with the tragic silences of broken lives and by the challenges of troubled economic situations. What draws me to these images is Hido’s ability to capture poetic and powerful imagery with restriant and delicacy. He shows, but never tells. It’s a great series of photographs and the complete set can be viewed online at Hido’s website.

Philip

German born photographer Sonia Braas takes photos that defy what we assume to be real. For all my research I can’t tell you if her photos are staged or real, or even where they were shot. This level of mystique makes her photos even more special to me, especially when you see her work as a whole. I of course have plucked out the iciest of the bunch for this week’s theme. The way she chose to light these photos is crazy, the top two look like they could be dioramas and the bottom one could be flour… or maybe it’s all real?

Bobby