“Date with a night” editorial for XO magazine POP issue

Starting from today new issue of XO Magazine is out with new very colorful editorial I ve done for the “POP” issue of this US based magazine.

The idea behind it was to show young girls lost in the hunt for happiness with bit of bitter emptiness that this lifestyle brings all wrapped in bright colors enhancing the idea of fake.

The background for the shoot was stunning http://www.rollerdisco.com/ who let us to use their disco club and their skates, they got some really fun events coming on their website so be sure to check them out.

And of course, massive shout out for the great team :

Make up: Violet Zeng
Styling: Drey Mark
Hair: Jack Fitzpatrick
Models: Sophie @ Bookings Models and Mila @Oxygen Models

Thank you!!

You can find the whole magazine in digital version on : http://issuu.com/xomag/docs/xo_magazine_issue_18_pop_issue where you can also buy print one and have it delivered to your doors.

T.

Jai Amore promo portraits

Last week new website of Jai Amore came online  (you cab see it here : http://www.jaiamoreworld.co.uk/)

I am always very happy to see my pictures as living and breathing images with kind of live of their own, it like baby leaving a home and set up his own family and I am proud my baby is doing well.

For the whole set of pictures and more music, please have a look at : http://www.jaiamoreworld.co.uk

Tereza

“Xanadu” fashion editorial for XO Magazine

This week I ve done an another fashion editorial shoot for XO Magazine. This time it was for their spring printed edition themed “POP”

That sounds like a lot of colors and fun, so I decided to go disco a bit.. and when disco …then roller disco!

We got an amazing location of Renaissance rooms roller disco club ( http://www.rollerdisco.com/ )  that we got just for ourselfs for almost 5 hours.

The stylist , amazing Drey Mark (check her stylist blog: http://stylistsnotepad.blogspot.co.uk/ )

got many stunting outfits and our MUA Violet Zeng was the best preperd MUA I ever got in my life, have a look at her portfolio it is amazing: http://www.violetzengmakeup.co.uk/

And of course, thanks to out lovely models Sophie @Bookings Models and Mila @OxygenModels

XXX

YAFA hrvst : limited edition postcards featuring my work

​YAFA — YoungAndFresh Asso­ci­a­tion  — An inde­pen­dent asso­ci­a­tion with a goal to sup­port tal­ented stu­dents of uni­ver­si­ties of pho­tog­ra­phy in Cen­tral Europe honored me with being one of the selected 26 authors who is featured in their recent limited edition postcards with one of my pictures from “Untitled series”

You can preview the publication as well as get the information how and where to get it on their website : http://www.young-fresh.eu/index.php/en/news/696-limited-edition-hrvst-12

The set should be available in Czech Republic or in selected galleries in central and eastern Europe (and its also available to order by post)

Czech galleries where you can buy them :

Leica Gallery Prague
Galerie Rudolfinum
Dům Umění města Brna
UměleckoPrůmyslové Muzeum Praha
Galerie Hlavního Města Prahy – Dům u Kamenného Zvonu, Staroměstské náměstí

Backstage video with Jai Amore

Backstage video from high energy shoot with British singer Jai Amore for his new album that will be released very soon.

Pictures done of course by Coco Rococo, London based fashion and people photographer

This was our first shoot and I am quite sure it was not the last one.

Check his website full of positive vibes and great songs : http://www.jaiamoreworld.co.uk 

also thanks to @KaiKaiMusic for the video edits and @KareemJonesVTG for the stunning hand made jackets!

Love, guys! xxx

Behind the scene from “Stellar Flux” shoot

Recently me and my team stylist Danielle Fontaine and make up artist Mishelle Maskell made together another editorial for XO Magazine. We decided to go fot minimalist red/white/black slightly fairy tailish theme.

This came to my mind when I saw this year is actually 200th anniversary of publishing brothers Grimms tales. That is a long time ago I was wondering if those brothers ever considered that their versions of stories they heard and picked will be so popular so long after they both died…

A little romantic legends in new space technology world .. I guess people just needs dreams whatever is around them…

Tim Walker exhibition in Somerset House.

I ve recently seen amazing exhibition. Tim Walker exhibition in Somerset House. Ok..maybe it was not so surprising that it was a good one, because Tim Walkers works are generaly very good but what caught my eye even more was very precise attention to detail where one detail comes together with another one and then at the end made whole concept.

This is basically how Walkers images works and I was glad to see that they kept this idea with set design of the exhibition. What kinda disappointed me was even though the exhibition is free, there is no cheaper catalog …just a massive Tim Walkers book.

…but I dont blame them … Tim Walkers pictures do look better in bigger book…

However.. the exhibition is on till January so be sure you ll stop by.

Here is some info : http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/tim-walker-story-teller

Made With Love kids

I got a wonderful chance to work for online store Made With Love that offers high quality children cloth from designers from all over the world. I must say from my own experience that the cloth I photograph was really good quality and extremely fashionable.

It is really lovely to see somebody so passionate about sustainably sourced clothing and fashion for kids as they are in Made With love.

My pictures are already online, so if you would be interested check the website here : http://www.madewithlovekids.co.uk/

Friday UK show series

I was commissioned by Sebastian Thiel (who has been recently voted among 1000 most influential Londoners) to make a poster shoot for his new show Friday UK.

We done 2 movie posters together already so I think he is in happy with my work and I am excited every time he asks me to do a new poster for some new dope project he is just up to.

This time it was Uk version of american show Friday with 2 great comedians Babatunde and T-boy. The news about the show already bomb the internet and I am sure this will be really successful one!

Check the trailer here:

Ethical advertisement as way out of moral crisis

Yes, I really think advertisement could sell the product, be ethical and brings some cultural values in the same time.

The problem would be that nobody seems to be really thinking about it..

I will give you and example.. recently I notice on pack of  NONAMED chocolate   a text saying “More Milk, Less cocoa”.. read as marketing speak this means “Less more expensive ingredient, more of the cheap one, and we can still make it as plus on the pack.. yaaayy we are good”

…not mentioning that there is NO real milk in it just loads of sugar…

So that was an example of NON ETHICAL advertisement.. but would it be possible to market the very same chocolate the ethical way?

How about “Our chocolate is made with love, so you can pass it to someone when they need a little treat… DogHouse Chocolate, Let´s made someones day!”

See what I mean???

Interaction in gallery space and art as “public service”

I recently visit amazing exhibition in Tate Modern : The tanks. I was quite surprise with a bit “low key” presentation of such good exhibition that was bit overshadowed by Damien “Burger King” Hirst exhibition.

However, this leads me to step back for a while and think about interaction and the actual role of viewers in gallery environment. Gallery as public space for exhibiting art is very specific, it has its own rules that brings expectations from viewers that whatever is showed there IS art and it cultural and uplifting even though they don’t understand a single word about what the concept is or who the artist is…

So there really is a great amount of space for interaction from the viewers side as they are there, in the gallery, to be formed to see things differently that is why they came..

As artist, doing works that are intended to end up in gallery space you can do two things. First, you can keep in your mind that there will be somebody seeing your work and keep that in mind while creating, you can even create a environment where viewers are part of the artwork, they can shape it, updated it an make more living … or you can be artistic snob just giving a s–t and just do whatever you want hoping that it will be your absolut uniqueness and incredibly awesome personality that would give it the cultural touch (Hirst) … …

So I think you already know where am I going with this post. )

There is a good art and there is bad art.  Placing it gallery of any kind won’t change that …

Short video from The Tanks in Tate Modern.. So you can get the idea how amazing this space is.

Unlimited Wonderful Tumbler launch

As many of you know, I am not shooting just digital but I use analog (and I collect old cameras) photography for my personal use as well.

I like the way that every single old camera has it own personality and you need to find out how to treat it to get some result you wanted, same with people.

One of my favourite always been my lovely Kodak Retinette, who is terribly moody and tear off my film couple of times when I didn’t treat her properly but then the other day.. she made the most dreamy pictures with stunning atmosphere all by herself (I just pushed the trigger)… so yes she is bit like me so I think that is why we get along so well…

But I love my medium format Bronica ETRSi  as well.. she is precise, sophisticated, very professional and extremely organised. She love things in order, she is bit slow but only to make things even more perfect..

…and yes of course… my old Box Tengor.. old man, bit rusty .. he is quite nostalgic,he likes to remember his old days but he still likes to work and feel useful even in times he quite don’t understand…

See? Old cameras do have personalities, same as people.. So I recently came to an idea to launch new Tumbler blog where I am going to post images from my analog cameras, it is more visual meditative place, where you can find peace of mind in the middle of momentary visual interestingness I found somewhere, that was gone in short time but with help of my old moody camera friends I grab that moment and make it last forever on frame of a celluloid film…

http://unlimited-wonderful.tumblr.com/

Why Photojournalism should NOT be considered as Fine art

I got a feeling recently that most of our Fine Art competitions and festivals become for some reason photojournalism shows.. war images, starving black kids, polution… (if you managed to get starving black kid in old rusty oil barrel in the middle of battle field than you are uber-artist and will receive all the prizes and eternal fame.)

You can even get the impression that photography is real reflection of reality and shows exact image of situation thats is pictured on it… and you could not be more wrong…

Photography is never objective if there is a person holding the camera and pushing the trigger, it always up to someone to chose the frame, focus, composition and the his or her  choice of “moment décisif”.  So why Photojournalism should not be considered as Fine Art? We got great photographers in the past who did war photography or documentary and are now considered as Fine artists (Robert Capa) and their pictures are now in galleries and privat collections.

But Robert Capa and Magnum in general were quite a pioneers by that time, they went where nobody else did and did what nobody did before. I can hardly see photography pioneers now… the visual stereotypes are now much stronger then they were 20 years ago  and it very easy to predict what kind of picture you need to take to be successful on competitions and festivals. So the photojournalist can have his “award winning” picture already in his head before he went to the “action”.  Now, how big is the chance his (or her) lust for picture that will be celebrated on exhibition, published world-wide and  celebrated will win over pure simple will to inform and record situation as objective as possible….?

That could simply lead to situation where we will be overwhelmed by emotional pictures of crying mother, starving kids and warzones that will be as far from real situation as Burger King from healthy diet.

Ok, that is why I think photojournalism should be considered as Fine art much more carefully than it is now… you can start stoning me 3..2.. 1.. now ))

Out of Focus in Saatchi Gallery London

Photography exhibitions were awfully boring lately. You see one, you saw all of them. (Google photography awards for example – extremely boring and “seen millions times” type of images only) THEREFORE it was surprising and refreshing to find exhibition like Out of focus in one of our (let´s face it) mainstream galleries : the Saatchies.
Full of new ideas and new points of view! Also quite brave with installations and contexts, it is divers and help you discover more ideas and visual connections.
You still have couple more days to see it if you are in London or at least have a look at the website to get the  idea how cool it is.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/photography/

Amazing works of Karl Doyle

I found work of Karl Doyle, New York based photographer, on the internet and was stunned immediately. His work is very classic in way how he handles form of his pictures but very new and original how he handles concepts.