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photographer
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Hone Your Photography Skills on a Private Jet Tour of Central & South America
Filed under: Gadgets, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wings
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jay Dickman (above) is leading an incredible 16-day private jet tour of Central and South America, part of the National Geographic Expeditions program, set to take place from Mar 26 - Apr 10, 2011. Dickman, a National Geographic Expert who has covered events as diverse as the war in El Salvador to the Olympics for numerous publications including National Geographic magazine, is part of the Olympus Visionary Program, a group of prestigious professional photographers who all use Olympus cameras like the brilliant new PEN E-PL1 for professional and personal assignments. The luxe trip via a custom Boeing 757 takes you through lush rain forests, magnificent mountain ranges, lively cities, and the legacies of mighty civilizations.
Destinations include Guatemala, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Costa Rica, from "the soaring pyramid temples of the ancient Mayans to the alluring grace of Argentina's tango, and from the awe-inspiring rush of Iguazú Falls to the serene rain forests of the Amazon", with luxury hotel stays in between. As the excursion is priced at $46,950 per person, you'll obviously want to make sure you get great photos – which Dickman helps ensure, leading photographic expeditions and discussing technical as well as aesthetic issues that make for great photography and photographs. Book your seats now as space is limited.
Mario Testino Taps Victoria's Secret Stunner Candice Swanepoel as the Next Hot Model
Filed under: Apparel
The world's next top model isn't chosen on some inane reality TV show; in actual fact, superstar fashion photographers like Mario Testino decide which girls become superstars. The latest beauty to get the benediction of Testino, who helped turned Kate Moss into a household word, is South African Victoria's Secret stunner Candice Swanepoel (above). The famed photographer just shot the blonde goddess for a very steamy shoot in VMAN's latest issue, Models.com reports. "Candice is an amazing new find for me," Testino says. "Gorgeous, free, fun. I decided to do the whole trip on her visiting Denmark. She was awesome and did not feel inhibited. She made the shoot an amazing experience. The guys were in awe of her." Some great ad campaigns can't be far behind. Meanwhile Testino just shot another extremely sexy portfolio for British Vogue, featuring some of his favorite supermodels like Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lara Stone posing in not much more than eyeshadow.
The Stunning Photographs of Stan Shaffer
If you've never heard of photographer Stan Shaffer, who captured the cream of cultural bohemia in the golden age of the '60s and '70s, now's the time to rectify that courtesy of über-luxe German publisher teNeues. You Should Have Been With Me is a massive scrapbook culled from Shaffer's stunning archive, with intimate portraits of celebs of the day including Gloria Vanderbilt, Angelica Huston, Andy Warhol, Halston, Calvin Klein, Peter Beard, Cheryl Tiegs, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Brooke Shields and Mariel Hemingway. These are interspersed with sexy fashion snaps and outtakes of sessions with supermodels on yachts and in Porsches once the "work" was done. In diary form Shaffer shares extracts from his extraordinary life at the nexus of New York's art, fashion and cinema worlds, at glitzy parties "where everyone is somebody and they're all dressed to kill!" Shaffer's journey was that of a "voyeur, participant, invited guest and documentarian" wrapped into one; sadly he died during the final stages of production on this book, which now serves as a fitting legacy for an artist who deserves more recognition.
Famed Photographer Albert Watson Publishes Epic 40-Year Retrospective
Famed photographer Albert Watson, whose celebrity portraits and nudes of Kate Moss fetch astonishing prices at auction, has come out with a stunning new 40-year retrospective of his work. Titled UFO, which stands for "Unified Fashion Objectives", the massive monograph includes iconic shots of famous faces from 50 Cent, Christy Turlington, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Uma Thurman, Beyonce and Jack Nicholson are interspersed with still lifes, fashion images and more, personally selected by Watson from his vast archive. The Scottish-born photographer's first celebrity photograph was a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock for the cover of Harper's Bazaar in 1973.
Since then he has amassed more than 200 Vogue covers and 40 Rolling Stone covers to his credit and has shot countless ad campaigns, TV commercials and movie posters. Many of the images in the book have never been published before and are presented here for the very first time. The slipcased volume is also available as a limited edition book for $500 including an archival pigment print of 500 copies only, housed in a black acrylic case. Individually signed and numbered, the limited edition is available exclusively through galleries representing Albert Watson and selected retailers.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Poses Nude for Rankin
Filed under: Apparel, Art, Books
Famed Scottish photographer Rankin is coming out with a new book dedicated to British beauty Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (above), who's said to be a cousin of the Queen of England. The Victoria's Secret stunner, chosen to replace Megan Fox in the next Transformers movie, poses nude in some of the shots for the book titled Ten Times Rosie. The volume also showcases the designs of Paula Thomas, founder and head designer of the luxury label Thomas Wylde. "Shooting Ten Times Rosie was the most incredible experience of my career," Huntington-Whiteley tells Vogue UK. "Paula, Rankin and the team worked so hard, the set had an amazing atmosphere. I think we have created some beautiful and iconic images." Huntington-Whiteley takes on ten different personas for the book representing Thomas Wylde's 10th anniversary. The sexy pix will also be displayed in a new exhibition running through October 29 at London's Annroy Gallery.
Lagerfeld Photography Exhibition to Open in Paris
An exhibition of photographs by Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld is opening in Paris this September in time for the city's Fashion Week. The show at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in the historic heart of Paris will feature a mix of fashion photos, portraits, landscapes, architectural images and personal shots, including several of his longtime muse, Claudia Schiffer. Lagerfeld, who shoots all of Chanel's ad campaigns himself, has published several books of his photographs, and has his own art book publishing imprint and book shop in Paris called 7L.
"What I admire most is the photographers who have gone down to posterity with a single image," the designer tells La Parisienne. "An image - I prefer this word to the word picture - which went down in the collective memory of the civilized world [... ]. Today the picture is part of my life. It closes the circle of my artistic and professional lives. I look at the fashion world with the eye of the camera. This gives my work a basic critical detachment that helps more than I would have suspected." The exhibition runs from September 10 to October 15.
A Backstage Pass to Berlin Fashion Week
Luxe German publisher teNeues offers an all-access pass to one of the world's most cutting edge fashion weeks, that of Berlin. Backstage: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin is a suitably oversized, lavishly illustrated volume featuring 120 stunning images behind the scenes at the designers' shows. Leading photographer Claudius Holzmann, who has chronicled Berlin Fashion Week from the very beginning, sifted through approximately 40,000 images to select those that "capture the extremes of creativity and passion." Beautiful models, brilliant designers, talented makeup artists, high-strung hairstylists and an army of fashion soldiers are seen staging some of the world's most glamorous spectacles. The book, a must for any dedicated follower of the fashion scene, features text in both German and English.
Kate Moss by Mario Testino - The Book
Earlier this month we reported that famed fashion photographer Mario Testino is selling a series of life-size Kate Moss portraits at an exhibition held at Phillips de Pury & Co' s London branch. If you can't afford one of the $75,000 photos you might have $500 for a limited edition book by Testino dedicated to his favorite muse this fall. Kate Moss by Mario Testino, limited to just 1,500 numbered and signed copies from Taschen priced at $500 apiece, follows the iconic supermodel from early days backstage at the fashion shows, to behind-the-scenes glimpses of the ground-breaking editorials she and Testino continue to produce for the world's most respected magazines. Many of the photographs have been chosen from Testino's private archive and are published here for the first time. "Mario took me to a new level of glamour," Moss notes in the introduction. "I don't think anybody had seen me as any kind of sexy model before he did. He was the one that transformed me. Before him I was just a grungy girl, but he saw me differently.... He changed the way people thought about me as a model, for sure."
[via JustLuxe]
Bettina Rheims' $1,000 Erotic Odyssey in a Bespoke Briefcase
Famed French photographer Bettina Rheims' newest book is much more than that – it's "equal parts erotica, fashion shoot, art monograph, metaphysical mystery, social and cultural archaeology of the French capital, and neo-noir arthouse film", and comes complete in a bespoke briefcase. The limited edition work, Rose, C'est Paris, produced by Rheims and Serge Bramly, is priced at $1,000 and comes in a retro attaché case featuring "souvenirs" of the curious tale within: a rose, a mask, an Eiffel Towel statuette, a booklet, a DVD, and of course the photo book itself. A number of celebrities make cameos including including Naomi Campbell, Michelle Yeoh, Monica Bellucci, Charlotte Rampling, and Azzedine Alaia, in "a Paris of surrealist visions, confused identities, artistic phantoms, unseen manipulation, obsession, fetish, and seething desire." Of course there's quite a lot of nudity.
Mario Testino Selling Life-Size Kate Moss Pix
Filed under: Art
Famed fashion photographer Mario Testino is selling a series of life-size Kate Moss portraits at an exhibition held at Phillips de Pury & Co' s London branch, including a number of unseen images of the supermodel. "Kate represents the ultimate kind of woman - an icon of our times," Testino tells Vogue UK. The collection, entitled Kate Who, features 18 iconic shots of the Brit beauty, each enlarged to life-size proportions. Although the auction house refused to comment on prices, Phillips previously sold a Testino photo of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger for a record $75,000, and the Moss snaps could easily fetch as much of not more. The images will be on view and sale through 16 at Phillips and thereafter at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
Avedon's Photographs Head To Auction
A collection of the photographs of legendary master Richard Avedon will head to auction November 20 at Christie's in Paris. The Avedon Foundation is selling photographs from its archive to raise money to create an endowment to promote the work and legacy of the photographer. The image shown above, "Dovima with Elephants," an over seven-foot-tall image that graced Avedon's New York City Studio, is estimated to sell for $500,000 to $700,000. The total of over 60 photographs is hoped to bring in between $3.7 million and $6 million.
Avedon, who died in 2004 was famous for both his glamorous fashion work starring models like Jean Shrimpton, Veruschka and Twiggy in the 1960s and 1970s as well as for later images of stark portraiture. He was on assignment for the New Yorker when he died at the age of 81. This auction will be the largest auction of Avedon's images. His personal belongings were auctioned off in 2005 around the time his house was sold.
Milla Jovovich Stars in New Campaign for Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet [Video]
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
Following the sexy ad campaign launched by Mercedes-Benz for the SLS AMG starring Julia Stegner last year, the German auto marque is embarking on a new promo starring model / actress / signer Milla Jovovich and the cool new E-Class Cabriolet. Set to launch at Berlin Fashion Week this July, Mercedes enlisted top fashion photographer Miles Aldridge to shoot the campaign, which will feature a bespoke hat made of colorful feathers by British designer Philip Treacy. "I liked the idea [of the collaboration] from the beginning," says Aldridge. "To me the car is like a luxury object of desire - you know, something you want. And it's a sort of very slick and sleek machine that is highly photogenic and fits very well in the picture. It was difficult because we didn't really know what Philip's hat would be like until it arrived this morning in its gigantic box. It was sort of a mystery, and of course, it's like a piece of art itself. It's like a sculpture." "I've never really worked with a car as my co-star in a campaign," Jovovich adds, "and the challenge is going to be not being upstaged by the E-Class Cabriolet, so I'm going to have to work it!"
The Macallan Launches Albert Watson Edition [Video]
Famed Speyside distillery The Macallan has announced the second photographer tapped to collaborate on its limited edition Masters of Photography series – Scottish-born Albert Watson, whose nudes of Kate Moss fetch astonishing prices at auction. Following the form of the storied single malt's Rankin Edition, the Watson bottling's labels will feature examples of the master's work commissioned specially for the project, shot on various locations around the globe. The exact theme of the project is being kept under wraps for now, but we've been told that the the key elements include "a dramatic and yet romantic 'art noir' voyage, a stylish couple and the key secret behind The Macallan Single Malt." Check out this video from the first stages of the shoot documented on The Macallan Blog by Director of Malts for the Edrington Group, Ken Grier.
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