You're Not From Around Here

I've only been to Tennessee once and it hardly counts as a visit since it was little more than a look out the window of Memphis airport on a layover between a Phoenix to London flight. I don't remember anything about the view other than that the landscape was flat as a pancake. The only other thing I have to go on when it comes to Tennessee was a pre-teen best friend who was obsessed with the movie The Thing Called Love. "Look out Music City," the heroine shouts off the top of a building when she finally arrives in Nashville, "cause here I am and I ain't never leaving." Needless to say, the two of us never made it to Tennessee and our dreams of country-music stardom came to naught. But that's probably for the best.

During a San Diegan visit to my paterfamilias in 2006, one afternoon I dropped by the amusingly-named Museum of Photographic Arts where an exhibition of photographs by Mike Smith were on display. I don't know what suddenly brought Smith's photos back to mind, but I loved the images then and I still love them now.

Here, the classic visual trope of an outsider looking in, framing the oddness of an odd place with the surprising sensitivity of a very good storyteller. Smith moved to Tennessee via New Haven and Boston in 1981 to take up a professorship at East Tennessee University and spent his time travelling around the region, documenting the strange transformation of rural Tennessee as suburban tendencies took root.

The book - You're Not From Around Here - was published in 2004 and then toured various locations as the exhibition I saw in San Diego. I stupidly didn't buy it at the time and now wish, of course, that I did. Luckily, it's my birthday in a few weeks and if no one buys the book for me, well then I'll just have to get it for myself.
  

fashion crush: gabriella marina gonzalez

There's something a little bit Gaga about the A/W10 collection from Gabriella Marina Gonzalez, but I'm okay with that. In fact I'm more than okay with that. I want every single piece, accessories and all.

too busy for words

but aren't these images lovely? Je te presente Veronique Pecheux.

benjamin beker

Went on a little East London art adventure this weekend. Stopped by Flowers East on Kingsland Road (among other places) to check out the exhibition of a chap called Benjamin Beker. I've never heard of him or seen any of his work before, which is rather surprising as he completed an MA from the RCA in 2008.

He has three current series of works: blocks, war and liberation monuments, and interiors of power. Sadly, only blocks is on show at Flowers, but I picked up his catalogue (or you can check out the work on his site) and the others look great too. 

I love the separation of image from context. Just the monuments or selected parts of the high rise blocks. It gives a sculptural quality to the images and renders both the object and the finished photograph quite striking. 

The work looks great in the gallery, but then I saw this photo on Beker's website and there's something about the nature and the quality of his work that just looks incredible against the backdrop of this car park/warehouse/industrial something. Sometimes I wonder why people bother showing work in galleries at all, but I suppose that's an issue for another post. I only wish I'd come across his work before as I think it would have been amazing to hang in the Regent Street venue. Having said that, I'm thinking of asking him to be part of my summer show. Watch this space.

(all images from benjaminbeker.com/)

give a girl the moon...

and she'll plug it in?

I am completely captivated by this light moon. It's almost as fabulous an idea as getting a puppy, but since it doesn't need to be taken out for daily walks it is in many respects a far less high maintenance pet.

See. I'm not so cynical after all. I love the romanticism of having a personal moon.

I love the images as well - beautiful composition and intriguing narrative photography. Why don't more product designers maintain involvement throughout the whole process - design is surely only one element of the story. You'd think that if you spent so much effort creating a fantastic product, you'd want to be involved through the rest of the stages of development and marketing. You'd want to maintain the consistency of your vision.