Lartigue in colour

The biggest surprise of the photogrpahy festival in Arles was seeing Henri Lartigue's work in colour! The exhibition of his work during Les Rencontres d'Arles followed his life with (and without after their separation) his muse and first love Bibi, featured some colour slides and also stereoscopic images that one had to view through special binoculars planted in the walls of the gallery.

It is fantastic when one's favourite artist, whose work one knows so well can still surprise and uplift. I have managed to sneakily take an image of his colour work on my phone, isn't it beautiful? Instagram was not first with crazy colours and people documenting their fabulous lifestyles in the south of France:

Dear Santa, if you are listening...

... I would be very interested in this Leica X3 camera. I promise to be really good!

http://www.vincentsall.com/78547/1145869/work/leica-x3

Seriously, what a cool piece of design this is! It is a concept of Vincent Säll. 

It even has my favourite focal length of 35 mm! Pity it is a bit improbable, but oh well, I bet that this is what people were talking about electricity ;)

It is time to...

The thing that fascinates me the most about Scotland is how far, far long ago the history that we are still able to witness today still goes into the past. 

This feeling was an inspiration for this drawing (as usual the photo was taken by me):

Playing with words

I would like to get away from pretty drawings of fashionable girls on World's Women Day and play more with illustrating concepts... like words. Somehow recently I am all about lettering, calligraphy and fonts so this post is no surprise.

Images used as a background were also taken by me, letters are calligraphed by me (using my favourite, splayed brush) and I am also modelling in the images with my own goosebumps :

Thoughts (and Images) On Instagram

EDIT (as of February 2014) - I have suspended my posting on Instagram, after the scandal about them being able to sell and use your images without any kind of permission - I am still on the fence if I should come back to posting my images there (I have since joined Facebook but I am very careful with what I am putting in there even though my settings are switched to 'private'. I guess it should be a general rule of thumb when dealing with so called 'social media' - not to jump head in, think before you post. ) so that not to disappoint my followers (and I have some great ones!).

What do you think? Have you left Instagram or you just do not worry about such things?

Here is my original, enthusiastic post on this blog, before s**t hit the Instagrammed (with filters!) fan :)



I have too jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, finally.

It was really inevitable - I might not be on Facebook (which according to a good friend of mine is already replacing good old emails echange with its instant messaging) but not being on Twitter really felt like being cutt off from the world. At least that cool part of the world. Part of the world with MacBook Pros under their arms (in Marc by Marc Jacobs covers...) and with white earphones in their ears.

And then I have red Garance Dore's post (on her blog and I like her blog very much as she is one of the not so numerous illustrators who are also exquisite photographers) about her joining the Instagram community.


So I went to check out what it was, this mysterious sounding Instagram. Several hours later I have emerged from the Instagram world because the battery in my iPhone 4 was down to 5% (it has a big screen after all).

Usually I do not do communities. Communities oblige one to be a part of something and I am quite well on my own, thankyouverymuch. As a photographer I have never been on Flickr but the instantaniety of taking pictures with your crappy iPhone camera (have you seen it's performance in low light? Well, get yourself a SlowShutter app, baby) is very alluring. And then there are the filters. Oh dear, these vintage feel filters that will make a cute work of art out of the most awfull picture you have taken. Bliss.

Some people cheat and take the image with their 'proper' cameras, postproduce it and only then let it out to the outer world on their Instagram feed. I do not understand them. It is like esprit d'escalier! The whole appeal is that you take the images right here, right now and share them instantly. The filters reflect your mood at the time and then with one click of a 'share' button - plop, your feelings are out there in a one visual diary.


I like it very much, so in this year expect more of these on this blog!



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Mercedes at the ZOO

Mercedes the polar bear will be soon leaving the Edinburgh Zoo to live in much bigger enclosure. When I saw her recently I was wondering what she was actually thinking about all these people photographing her all the time?

Baranczak

I was extremely honoured to design covers for a new edition of Stanislaw Baranczak essays. Unfortunately the author and editor wanted something less flamboyant, more delicate, much simpler - so not quite in the style I have introduced. However I am still satisfied with the design (the name of the author was formed like a logo) and pictures which were created for the cover with the use of iconic Polish posters from the 50s and 60, courtesy of Mr Dydo Poster Gallery in Krakow.