Photography

Bettie Page dies at 85

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Bettie Page

I was so sad to hear this. Celebrated 50’s pin-up model and pop icon, Betty Page, died yesterday as a result of a heart attack she suffered on December 2nd. She was 85 years old.

From LA Times:

A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel — or nothing at all.

Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products — Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses — and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, “The Notorious Bettie Page.”

Interesting note on Bloomberg:

The college-educated beauty queen who disappeared from the public eye after 1957 was unaware of her renewed popularity until “Entertainment Tonight” broadcast a television segment about her almost 40 years later. She had disowned her glamour lifestyle after becoming a born-again Christian in 1959, and later battled mental illness in Florida and California.

Links: BettyPage.com | Wikipedia | Time | LA Times | CNN | Bloomberg | Flickr

The Photographic Work of Andy Julia

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Catanzaro - Tome 4 by Andy Julia
© Andy Julia. All Rights Reserved.

I recently came across the work of Andy Julie. While many of Andy’s photographs are heavily influenced by the past, they also have a distinctly contemporary feel. His images are stunning, highly stylized, and occasionally border on fetish… but not in a creepy way. I really like his work.

If you want to see more of the photographers that I like, I have a long list, on my photoblog.

via Life on Mars?

Cosmos Electronics High-Tech Fetish Campaign

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Cosmos Fetish Viral Campaign

This image was part of a series of photographs from a viral microsite called, High-Tech Fetish, launched by Cosmos Austria (an electronics website). I don’t think their intended appeal is any great mystery, but basically the idea was to strategically place products that the company sells into images that would naturally draw attention.

I saw these images for the first time today, so I thought this was a new campaign. With a little internet digging I’ve discovered that the microsite was actually produced in 2006. It’s no longer active. You can see the images, here, and a semi-functional archive of the site, here.

Without passing judgement on the practice of using sex in advertising, I will say that the images are quite stunning. I haven’t been able to find any information on who produced them. if you know, please leave a comment

via Design You Trust

City of Shadows, by Alexey Titarenko

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City of Shadows: Alexey Titarenko
©1993 Alexey Titarenko. All Rights Reserved.

I recently came across the work of photographer, Alexey Titarenko. He has some really excellent work, but I especially like his series entitled, City of Shadows.

I can’t quite tell if the images were created using long-exposure, or multiple images being layered together, but the result is crowds of people being blurred into 1 mass of movement.

via Design You Trust

Immersion: Kids expressions while playing video games

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Kids expressions while playing video games

In a project entitled, Immersion, Photographer Robbie Cooper shows just how focused young video-game players can be. You can see the video here, and stills here (or on Robbie’s site).

Robbie is well known for another project he did called, Alter Ego, where he photographed people who play virtual-world games, and displayed their photos alongside their online avatars. It’s a really great project. You can see those images on Robbie’s site as well. tip: when viewing the Alter Ego images on Robbie’s site, roll-over the word, “TEXT”, under the images to read more about the people in the photographs.

via Swissmiss