Photos via LEW. Kim Leemans & Merel Wicker

“This collection is based on a guy named Storm. Showing the connection between weather and emotion, he symbolizes the more poetic side of it. When a raincloud bursts into tears and thunder into anger, Storm shows that he is only human.” - Corné Gabriëls

Photos via Corné Gabriëls

The work and publications of Amsterdam based artist, designer and theorist Maaike Gottschal center directions for use and improper use of clothing. Since 2006, United by Stripes is an ongoing art-, research and exhibition-project that studies the meaning and usage of stripes in clothing in order to use this as the basis for developing new stories, ideas and uses for clothing collections.
It´s not only the big designers, Maaike Gottschal examines, it´s also - for example - the representative function of football jersey and the various design elements and stories connected to the shirts. For me, an interesting project to show to you - especially now, when the European soccer championship is taking place.  While watching the game Germany-Austria, I really wondered, how every country selects its own typography - are there special tricot designers?  It the typo chosen by accident or do they develop an extra soccer tricot typo that is easy to scale, great to recognize and fits to the eye and the camera lenses. No clue…I should ask Maaike Gottschal.

Photos via Maaike Gottschal/THISISNOTPARIS

Jessica Dimmock´s work is a MUST SEE and a MUST TO KNOW ABOUT.
The young photographer Jessica Dimmock became famous for her photo-documentary “The Ninth Floor” - a disturbing portrait of a group of young herion addicts living in a ninth-floor apartment in Manhattan, New York. The series is shown until june 1st in Foam gallery in Amsterdam. For those who won´t make it there, have a look on Jessica Dimmock´s page.

I know, the project has really nothing to do with the “contemporary fashion thing” what´s wrong with the zoo is usually about. BUT, it´s not only a “one of a kind” photo-projects, it´s also worth to be mentioned. Again and again and again.
The theme is actual and will probably always be. Beside the theme it´s the way, Dimmock watches people, i like. Catching them in very private situations, living, fighting, dreaming, on turkey, stoned, loving, desperated, happy… Dimmock shows the multiple facets and of the main characters, she gives us a deep visual insight in their personal life without altering, without judging.

“Foam presents an exhibition of work by the young American photographer Jessica Dimmock (b. 1978). In 2006 in Milan she won the first F Award for socially-engaged photography for her series entitled The Ninth Floor. Dimmock takes a disconcertingly close view of her subject, at the same time sympathetic and ruthless. The result is a series that centres on human emotions, in which despair makes way for anger, reconciliation and then bliss in quick tempo. In addition to The Ninth Floor the show also features a short film about this project, including interviews and video recordings.
Jessica Dimmock charted the lives of the people living in this ninth-floor flat in Manhattan apartment for almost three years. They are addicts, whose everyday lives are filled with buying and selling drugs, sleeping, rowing and sex.
When she was a child, Dimmock’s father also wrestled with drug addiction. Her sense of recognition gave her a special connection with this lonely, isolated community. Dimmock focused on the emotional and social side of their life. The result is a series of intense and innovative images with an intimate and simultaneously unpolished feel.
One influence on Dimmock’s work is film. Her cinematic sense is clearly evident in the way she portrays the space in the apartment. The minimal and often stratified lighting accentuates the sense of unease that The Ninth Floor exudes. Dimmock shot her pictures using only the lighting in the flat: the light of the television screen or a mobile phone.
The tragic intimacy of The Ninth Floor leaves the viewer with a mixture of emotions.
Jessica Dimmock (b. 1978) lives in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated in 2005 at the International Center of Photography (ICP) following a Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology in 2000 and a Master in Educational Studies. Between 2000 and 2004 she worked as a teacher at a secondary school and on educational programmes for homeless children.
In 2006, The Ninth Floor won both Magnum Photos’ Inge Morath Prize, the Marty Forsher Fellowship for Humanistic Photography of PDN/Parsons. With this series Dimmock also won the first edition of the prestigious F Award. This International Award for concerned photography was created by Fabrica, the communication Research Center of Benetton Group and Forma, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia of Milano – created by Fondazione della Sera and Contrasto.
She has published in Aperture, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Newsweek, New York Magazine and Fade.
The exhibition is a Forma production.
The book The Ninth Floor is published by Contrasto (2007).” (Text from artnews.org)

Photo credits: fashionfugitive

Besides Esther Haase, Guido Argentini and Peter Lindbergh, David Drebin is one of THE contemporary stars of fashion photography. Since graduating from Parson School of Design in 1996 Toronto-born Drebin lives and works in New York City. Soon, he made a name for himself as a visionary ad creator, editorial artist and fashion photographer. Drebin’s independent work has been broadly exhibited in Europe and the United States at venues such as the Fahey Gallery in LA, Camerawork in Berlin and Young Gallery in Brussels and in 2007 his first monograph „ Love & Other Stories” has been published.David Drebin´s world is lush, opulent and glamorous. In ordinarily appearing scenes, Drebin predominantly stages beautiful, erotic and autarkic woman in a calculated play with light and shadows, forms and colors. On first sight, the photographer shows the world of the young, the beautiful and the rich. On second sight, Drebin´s photographs transport sizzling emotions and moods that touch the viewer immediately.

You can see David Drebin´s first exhibition „Sexy Funny, Funny Sexy” in The Netherlands till 12th April in TORCH gallery Amsterdam.

DREBIN BY DREBIN
“I decided to become a photographer over 10 years ago strictly because I wanted to understand my own imagination and what I really thought about other human beings.I guess one could call it Fashion photography even though I have yet to put myself in any category.I love Fashion but I am more fascinated by the people who wear the fashion than the actual fashion hence the photograph of the person who happens to wear the fashion without intending to be a fashion photograph but merely a photograph…self involved but not self conscious necessarily.

I like pictures that are often dupilicitous and have hidden meanings that are ultimately gripping and stay in mind far beyond the moment of looking at the picture for the first time.I like the pictures that the picture I am looking at makes me think about in my own imagination. l I like pictures that often say one thing but mean another…maybe that is what is now referred to as “narrative” photography.

I am a big fan of Richard Avedon because of his process of taking pictures probably more than any individual image he ever took.He always seemed to want to bring something out of the person more than just take a pretty picture.I like his seemingly constant attempt to reveal some sort of truth.I am after the same thing. i also love the pictures of Guy Bourdin even though I have no idea what his process was for doing what he did.
I just liked the glamourous element within his work.

I don’t really have a favourite image that I have taken so far but I guess the girl flashing cars over the highway is one because it is a person living and loving it it seems to me. I also love the girl in the red dress…where is she going?? Where is she coming from?? I like the pictures within my pictures.I hope you do too. (From younggalleryphoto.com)

Photos by David Drebin

Show from Levi van Veluw, March 1st-April 5th, Ronmandos Amsterdam.
Levi van Veluw´s photo series are self-portraits, drawn and photographed by himself: a one-man-process. His works constitute elemental transfers; modifying the face as object; combining it with other stylistic elements to create a third visual object of great visual impact. The work you see therefore is not a portrait, but an information-rich image of colour, form, texture, and content. The image contains the history of a short creative process, with the artist shifting between the entities of subject and object.

In this exposition van Veluw will showcase his latest series ‘Landscapes’. This 4-piece series reinterprets the traditional landscape painting, removing plots of grass, clusters of trees, babbling brooks from their intimate 2 dimensional formats and transposing them onto the 3 dimensional contours of his own face. Thus a fresh twist is given to the obsession inherent in the romantic landscape of recreating the world and simultaneously being part of it. The romantic landscape and self-portrait genres are combined as a means of re-examination.

Besides the four landscapes, Levi van Veluw will also present a new video piece, landscape installation and works from two other series of photographs.

Since having graduated from the Artez Art School in Arnhem the Netherlands, Levi van Veluw has enjoyed a remarkable amount of success in a short period of time, with his work being showcased in several different locations across Europe and the States, earning him a number of prestigious awards that include the Photographer of the Year Award at the IPA International Photo Awards in the USA.

Here, some older works:

Photo credits: Levi van Veluw/Artnews