Eclectix Interview With Artist & Photographer Darla Teagarden

Darla is a mixed media artist – combining the arts of photography, fashion and theater sets to produce some very artful and inspiring shots. Formerly a stylist, model and dancer, her current works are photographic – often hand drawing the backgrounds and using recycled or vintage props. Darla’s works are wonderfully dramatic, peek-a-boo-like window displays into postcard historical fantasies....

For the entire interview and a gallery of Darla's art, click here.

Francesca Woodman at SF Moma

Francesca Woodman committed suicide at the age of 22 in 1981. Her works are obviously that of a still-young photographer and it is sad that we will never see what caliber of imagery she could have produced, had she lived a "normal" life. And sadly, I wonder if she would have had a show of this magnitude at a major museum, if she hadn't committed suicide.

This huge exhibition contains all black and white prints, rather on the small side, mostly centered on the female human form, nudes - many set-up shots of her own body. Long exposures, vintage dresses, montages, blurred movements and stark, lonely abandoned rooms. Some stuck me as obvious student shots, amatuer in their subject matter and composition, not really museum quality. However, others were extraordinarily powerful, speaking of a woman's despair - about self doubts, body image, sexuality and isolation. These pieces are strong feminist rejections and obsessions of the male induced beauty image. Many are accompanied by hand written captions and commentary from Francesca which lead us to ponder the damage done by stereotyping, media and advertising.

  

The show at SF Moma is up through February 20, 2012 and we strongly recommend this powerful and haunting exhibition.  

 

Kendall Messick’s Burnt Offerings

Messick's "Impermanence" and “Conflagration” photographs are documents of charred beauty. After his house burned down, Messick chose to portray the beauty that is inherent in all things, even destruction. His photographs of his burned-down home and beloved and now charred objects represent what the title says - impermanence.

Some images courtesy of Rebekah Jacob Gallery

Messick's Website Link

(Originally posted in the Eclectix  "BURN" Issue, August 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.)

Foto Fix: Elise Boularan

Suzanne Vega

Paris based photographer Elise’s portraits intrigue me. Some are fuzzy-on-purpose and abruptly cropped - leaving one to question what the heck is going on. Some remind us of the old Polaroid Instamatic shots with their vintage coloration. And some hint of crime scene documentation, mysterious, as if there is more to the picture than we see. 

“This work intends to build an interpretation, where something deaf, undefinable is very present.”

She will be showing new works in September at The Cultural Institute Of Mexico, in San Antonio (USA) Her website is here.

Creative Cash and His People of Burning Man

Julian Cash is an SF photographer with an eclectic and professional portfolio, from portraits to product shots. His current project is the re-publishing of “The People of Burning Man”. The first limited edition book sold out fast and now, by popular demand, he is “kick -starting” a re-publish. A fantastic fantasy trip of the bodies and edgy people that celebrate the desert event, a vibrant way to add fun color to your world.

“Many of the images celebrate joy and life. Others were created to confront social rules that need to be challenged. Many of the photographs grew from this simple conversation: “How do you want the world to be different?” which was followed with “Let’s create an image which will help bring forth that change.”

For more info on the book click here.

To help publish and buy the book

( with your name printed in it! ) click here.

For Julian’s website and other works, 

click here.

Lori Nix and Her Little Places

Stumbled upon these great dioramas by Lori.

 "Abandoned buildings in an apocalyptic world"... 

From CoolHunting - She "photographs epic scenes of destruction and grandeur, natural wonders and glittering metropolises, magnificent architecture and heroic landscapes that all have one thing in common—they're all fake. Lori gives us a tour behind the artifice, showing us how she meticulously crafts the miniature sets using found objects and model-making materials."

Her site is here.

Foto Fix: Beheaded by Phil Poynter

From Phil comes a fun digital work of a cool, calm and collected model beheading herself. His site is mostly fashion photography, the coolest series being his Vogue Italia Flea Market. Wish there were more like this one... maybe there are, somewhere?

His site 

Ben Heine: Puttin' Pencil To Photo and Back Again...

Artist Ben Heine came up with a very fun and creative way to marry art and photography, superimposing a pencil sketch of an area in front of it and then snapping the foto. His series is titled "Pencil Vs. Camera" and he has a lot more entertaining images here. 

R.I.P. Jim Marshall, Long Lives Rock and Roll

Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, 1967


Another great artist passes, this time renown chronicler of rock and roll in the 1960's and 1970's, photographer Jim Marshall. He died in his sleep, one couldn't ask for a better way to go....

Great photographs of all the greats, some shots so famous they are practically art icons. Like the one of Jimi Hendrix here. Or Bobby Dylan, (above) kicking the tire, 1963.

“I have no kids,” Marshall said. “My photographs are my children.”

 Thanks, Jim, for leaving so much behind for us all.

Woodstock, 1969

Johnny Cash, San Quentin, 1969


http://www.marshallphoto.com/

Art For This Love Day

For all those feeling the love (and those not feeling it..) a photograph of David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by the maestro Helmut Newton.
Something, (everything) about this photo speaks of love, romance, mystery and desire. The wonderfully tentative, yet quiding hand on her neck; the serene, serious almost-smile on her lips; the studied sensitive concentration of Lynch's face; the graceful flow of the composition and the swoon of Isabella's neck line. Helmut captures all this, with his usual genius of perfection in portrait lighting - blackest blacks, velvet grays and the white of the holy light that spills like milk across the subjects. Achingly beautiful.
Hope you feel it too.

On a stumble aside, came across Lynch's "Interview Project" again. If you haven't checked this out, do so when you have some time. Give each interview some time to load (get it started and do something else for a bit, then play it) so your patience doesn't wear thin and affect your enjoyment. These are touching, real snapshot videos of the side of rural Americana we never see in mainstream media.

Link: http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/about

Bay Area Townie: The Photography of Peter Tonningsen

Second In a Series on Bay Area Artists:

Inspired by the "This Town" Exhibit at Eclectix Gallery, Thru August 16th

Peter Tonningsen is a fine art photographer, living in the SF Bay Area. His work runs truly eclectic - historical documenting, street portraits, scientific archiving of postmortem birds, to found art collections from the shorelines of the San Francisco Bay. The one common thread through-out all his works is his impeccable technical skill and luscious printing, beautiful statements on the past and current world we inhabit. From a look at his mother's dressing table and it's daily decor, to desolate naval stations, to street punk rockers and abandoned buildings, he captures the moods and feelings with graceful artistry.

In his "Flotsam & Jetsam" series; things that were discarded, left-behind or washed ashore become discovered anew. A rubber ducky, an old jar or a lost glove- poetic symbols of our culture arranged in hauntingly beautiful, specimen-like presentations. A fun and unique approach to re-cycling our memories and appreciating our histories.

See the "Flotsam & Jetsam" series and four of his street portraits in the "This Town" exhibits, thru August 16th, 2009 at Eclectix Gallery.