The Eccentric Socialites

I recently watched a bio film about a reclusive pair of American socialites both called Edith Beale.

The Beales

grey gardens in 1914

 The movie, entitled Grey Gardens, chronicles the lives of  two generations of the Beale family of East Hampton New York. Edith Bouviar Beale - known as Big Edie was aunt to Jackie Onassis played by Jessica Lange and Litlle Edie Beale played by Drew Barrymore
 In the 20s and 30s Little Edie was famous across New York for her looks and style. An aspiring model she was confident, bright and had a very exciting future ahead

 But her behaviour became more and more erratic in her 20s and with the breakdown of her parents marriage and the subsequent loss of their fortune the two Edies struggled to hold on to their estate; Grey Gardens. She had moved to New York to persue her career but as her mother became ill and the money began to run low she returned to Grey Gardens in 1952 where she stayed until the death of her mother in 1977

Little Edie

Big Edie

Grey Gardens the 1975 documentary and the film of the same name are both fascinating. Their story is one of sadness, mental illness and isolation but its one that should be seen

The Edies together at Grey Gardens

http://littleediebeale.tumblr.com/ - attribute most of these amazing images to this tumblr where you can see much more about little Edie

Photo Loco - the work of Robert Yager

This side of Yagers work, chronicling the daily goings on in the lives of the West Side Playboys, has spanned nearly three decades. With intimate access to the culture, crimes and lifestyles of the gang members his photojournalism is intense in implication.

 all photos courtesy of Robert Yager Photography

Legends of Fashion Photography : Sarah Moon

Sarah Moon
"Of course, if something is really bad then I will retouch it, but only very little and never trying to make a woman more beautiful. I don't need to do that.Sarch Moon for the Independent

Born in 1941 in Paris, Moon started her fashion career as a model for such names as Biba before venturing into Photography. Over her expansive career she has worked with the likes of Chanel, Cacharel, Vogue and many more. I have chosen some of her work spanning the decades for a taste of her overall style. Generally considered one of the most well known and published fashion photographers of all time, Moon's impressionist like style really stands out amongst all the hard, sharp, fast cliches across the board.

For Vogue 1972

both for Cacharel

 

For Vogue 1972

Both for 'Coincidences'

The American theme...

 If desperate housewives was directed by David Lynch it would probably come out a bit like the work of Gregory Crewdon

Heavily influenced by cinema by the likes of Lynch, Hitchcock and some Spielberg, Crewdson's work is highly elaborate and staged with dramatic lighting creating a visual elegance seldom seen outside of cinema.

There is an insightful piece at White Cube about Crewdson's photographic history and influences ;

 Most notably citing Diana Arbus as the reason he got into the field initially.

                                   
                                    For more info on Crewdson and his work check out Aperture

first me, then...Hipstamatic

When I first started taking photographs my slr was my world, the snap of the shutter, the excitement of waiting for the shot. My Dad taught me about Apertures and Shutter speeds, film, filters and I loved the moment when the film was developed and you had got THAT shot. When digital started creeping into retail I initally turned my nose up. Its lazy, I thought, and don't even get me started on photoshop! And then one evening in Whitby I was shooting at the Abbey , a blood red sunset behind it and with my 'new' 1 mega pixel camera photo took a quick shot to see what the end result would resemble. The film was developed and none of the shots had the drama or saturation of the digital one. I admitted not defeat but that the lack of film waste was definetely an improvement. I kept my slr for college and loved learning darkroom techniques which were all but dead and buried by the photoshop generation. I felt I wanted to explore more film techniques, cameras, developers and was gifted a little Holga which I proceeded to use with my slr and discovered the joys of lomo.

Thats when it happened.

I was seriously considering spending the food budget on a Street Level membership when I read a tweet about the Hipstamatic app.....

The Hipstamatic was a little plastic 1982 released camera, created by 

Bruce and Winston Dorbowski. The concept was to bring people a camera which costs less than the film. They based it on the little kodak instamatic and suddenly a legend was born. Tragically the two brothers were killed by a drunk driver in 1984, and it wasn't until 25 years later that their older brother Richard decided that their little idea should be remembered and made iconic in the Iphone app of the same name.

The nicest thing about the app is the most infuriating, its so easy!! all the blood sweat and tears over film, developing, darkroom all wiped out in a click. Also, I have downloaded all the app's extras and its totalled about £10...the Holga I was given alone - no film - retails at £50, film is £20 a pack average and then theres finding a developer!

So I thought I'd right my little story about this wonderful little app that every Iphone owner needs to try at least once

And now for something completely different....

During my usual Sunday afternoon perusal of the papers - 

reading the glossy supplements only as always - I came across this extraordinary collection by the Buenos Aires born Photographer Irina Werning. Basically she came up with recreating childhood photographs which she felt personified those subjects personalities as children. 

She made sure each shot was taken at exactly the original location and painstakingly recreated the outfits the subjects were wearing. The set is called Back To The Future and can be seen here. Werning is in the middle of producing a Back To The Future II to be displayed from June this year.