When photographer Stefan Passe visited Mongolia in 1913, the country had only recently declared its independence from China in the wake of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. It would take years for the idea of its autonomy to really take hold; meanwhile, the area came under Soviet protection, and in turn, political influence, before eventually becoming the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924. These amazing photos from the Albert Kahn Archive, which we spotted on English Russia by way of Retronaut, capture a society on the brink of massive change in stunning pops of color. Click through to check out a selection of fascinating shots from Passe’s travels.
A street photographer since the mid-’60s, Chip Simone studied at the Rhode Island School of Design with Modernist-master Harry Callahan and shot classic black-and-white pictures for years before jumping on the digital train in 2000. Since turning to faster cameras and color imagery, Simone has built an impressive body of work, which he makes by walking and cycling through cities up and down the East Coast. Collected by major museums, as well as Elton John, who’s a connoisseur of the medium, Simone has an eye for the uncanny and a keen awareness of how photography can magically parallel painting and sculpture. With a decade of work currently on view at New York’s Steven Kasher Gallery and a recent monograph and museum survey under his belt, Simone is definitely one to watch — especially after so many years of pounding the streets. Click through a selection of our favorite images.
We’re not sure of the environmental merit of continually setting fire to a house, but it does make for some pretty striking images. These particular shots are from the aptly-named series “Burning House” by Chicago photographer Carrie Schneider, who spent the best part of two years constructing a series of identical houses on a small island in the middle of a Wisconsin lake, then setting fire to them in the name of art. The result is a series of striking images — despite the destruction that’s being depicted, there’s something almost meditative about the images, perhaps because the setting is so beautiful. Check out some of Schneider’s work after the jump, and be sure to check out her website for more. [Spotted via My Modern Met.]
Photographer Claiborne Swanson Frank has an eye for feminine beauty, and a knack for spotting it at the upper stratum of American society. The daughter of a Napa Valley vintner and granddaughter of the founder of Swanson Foods (the company that brought us the ubiquitous TV dinner), she formed her vision of modern beauty and style while assisting Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Inspired by the strong, working women who she met in fashion, publishing, and business, the self-taught photographer turned her lens on her enterprising young friends to create a portfolio of sophisticated ladies who are making their mark across America. Her striking portraits of writers, models, singer/song-writers, winemakers, fashion executives, and philanthropists — with family names like Hearst, Bloomberg, Kennedy, Rockefeller, Lauder, and Bush — are currently on view at the Lu Magnus gallery on New York’s Lower East Side and compiled in a colorful, new monograph, published by Assouline. Click through a selection of our favorite photos of her posh pals.
Pramod Kumar’s new book Posing for Posterity: Royal Indian Portraits explores how the arrival of photography in Indian in 1840 sparked an interesting connection between the country’s traditional miniature artworks and portrait photography. Court painters and patrons were some of the first to latch onto the new medium, favoring Indian rulers and their families as subjects — including the young royals we’ve shared images of past the break, thanks to Retronaut’s recent discovery. The supremely fancy photographs capture the “formality and strictures of court life” imposed upon the mini rulers, emphasizing a youthful ennui. Click through for more vintage gems.
Photographer Chris Scarborough is obviously trying to mess with our heads with Ideal Species, a series of portraits of Japanese anime come to life that was spotted by PetaPixel. His subjects are exhibiting “Manga” symptoms — stretched eyes, pinched noses, classic cartoon poses, plasticine demeanor. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Some are outright hockey but some are so subtle, it takes a little bit of time for the feeling of offness to set in. Just one peek into the naive, plate-sized peepers of that gal submerged in dark water should creep you out a bit. If not, you watch too many cartoons.
We’re not sure where the ridiculous stereotype that classical musicians are uptight came from, but thankfully folks like Denmark-based cellist and photographer Nikolaj Lund — who we spotted on Colossal — are proving those people wrong. The award-winning artist enjoys pointing the camera at those in his sphere. Lund’s images depict classical musicians in unique ways, leaving the concert hall behind, opting to shoot his subjects with their instruments in water, across the desert, and flying through the air. There’s a feverish energy in each photograph, creating a new appreciation for the passion these musicians —including Lund — clearly have for their art. Below, we’ve shared a gallery of the Lund’s stunning photos. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
We discussed Swiss photographers Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs a while back in our feature about crazy and fascinating cameras — the duo favor DIY cameras, and amongst other things, constructed a device from a turtle shell. But the images they produce with their equipment are just as fascinating as the equipment itself. We came across their series The Great Unreal — a document of a road trip across America that explores the layers of reality that construct both the landscape and the society that inhabits it, perhaps suggesting that there’s a degree of artifice at play in both — a while back, and we thought we’d share some of our favorites with you today. There’s plenty more at the duo’s website, where the book of The Great Unreal is also available to order.
Photographer Alison Scarpulla, whose work we recently spotted over at Lost at E Minor, takes gorgeous, strange photographs out in the woods and turns them into landscapes bristling with enchantments, and maybe just a little bit of the occult. Scarpulla shuns Photoshop and other digital processes, but rather gets her effects through a mystical alchemy of expired film, lenses smeared with water or dirt, and a tradition of dipping the negatives in acid and wine and blowing smoke on them. The results are beautiful, and her images feel like dark Shakespearean fairy tales, infused, both in subject and tone, with a sense of natural magic and poetry. Click through to see some of our favorites from her portfolio, and then be sure to head over to Scarpulla’s website for even more of her glorious photography.
For her latest project, German photographer Herlinde Koelbl took portraits of people from a variety of professions both in and out of uniform. A priest, a clown, a chimney sweep, a geisha — see them donning full occupational ensemble and then dressed down, without pilot badges, chef hats, swinging crucifixes, and all other accessories projecting specific authority and purpose. See them in jeans and sweaters. See them as just anyone. The curious project reminds a little bit of its NSFW predecessor, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits, which featured adult film stars in casual wear and in the buff. Koelbl’s work has a subtle charm of its own, however. In anticipation of the exhibit, see two examples of a pair of two-sided people.
