Blade Runner - Sean Young

Blade Runner is an iconic film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick [W].

Iconic, because of the complexity of the story, the film noir style filming and the fact that it seems that there is constantly rain pouring down, which creates a unique "dawn of humanity" atmosphere. It is one of those science fiction films that some people love because of its retro style, meaning that CGI was not advanced enough at the time of production to make everything look fancy and all shiny.

Whilst this is certainly true rather than calling this look "retro", I would say its look adds to the credibility of the events and also the slight but important human touch that makes the story matter somehow. This is not always achieved in some more recent productions of the same genre (I felt nothing, anyways).

Anyways, it is time to relate my rant to these gems of retro :) photographs I recently found:



Photos by Sean Young on the set of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982).

I found them in an article in the online magazine HUH, where I also learned that there are special stand-up chairs on film sets, like the one Sean Young leans against in the photograph above, that prevent the clothes from wrinkling! Awesomelifelonglearningaboutoldhollywoodexperience!

Also, if Sean is a Replica indeed, I think she will have feelings ...

York UNI Undergraduate Magazine 2011

I was quite pleased when three of my photographs that I took at the famous York FUSION event were selected to be published in this year's undergraduate magazine! The Magazine turned out very nice and looks quite inviting. York UNI is a nice place to be, not only on paper ;-). In case you are interested in getting a PDF or printed version of the magazine, you can download/request from the University's Undergraduate Studies website.

Of course, you can also take a look at the original photos and many others on my Flickr page:

Photo by Martin Trefzer, FUSION March 2009.

You can also go directly to the large versions on Flickr:
Here are the links to the large versions:
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392027451/in/set-72157...
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392839520/in/set-72157...
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392031241/in/set-72157...

In case you want to learn more about the FUSION event where the photos have been taken, you can have a look at their website. The event takes place around March/April time every year.

The FUSION of Super and Mario

Who doesn't remember when the Mario Bros. first came out in arcade low-res 2D graphics in 1983? Wait a sec ... probably quite a few people now ;-) ...

It's all about the plumbers Mario and Luigi who have to fight of abdominal creatures crawling out of New York's sewers. The game was well received and has evolved considerably over time. The sequel called Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985 as a two player game for Nintendo gaming consoles. It remained one of the best selling video games of all time until it was outsold by Wii Sports, a sports game (and another Nintendo marketing masterpiece) for this increasing number of people who want peace of mind without actually doing sports.

Anyways, may I now present you the next generation of the game: Super Fusion Mario Bros.

Photo by MAT on Flickr, March 2011.

The boys did an awesome dance show at FUSION of York 2011, a charity fashion & dance performance that takes place every year around March time. I quite like the event as it is always an excellent excuse for taking pictures as you can see here.

For the keen folks, here are some more sources of information about the bros.

Mario Bros. at Nintendo.

Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Fusion Mario Bros. at York.

It Ain't Easy Being Pretty

This is another great photograph by the same guy who also created the one in the previous Cherry 2000 post.

Photo by Aaron Nace on Flickr, May 2009.

The guy is just a genius with the lights and Photoshop. Just read on his Flickr site that apparently he's giving Photoshop classes ... Anyways, I can so imagine being this guy he portrays in this picture. Who doesn't know the feeling of pimping himself back to non-zombie state using his Clark Kent powers? Just sucks when the misses forgot to put away her Kryptonite lipstick ;-).

Cherry 2000

"In the year 2017, a good woman is hard to find. A Cherry 2000 is even harder." This is the tagline of the robot women, weird outlaws, the zone, foxy renegade woman science fiction film Cherry 2000 from 1987.

It is about a guy who short-fuses his perfect female android. He can rescue her memory chip and now strives to find the same model - a Cherry 2000 - again. In order to achieve this, he hires a renegade, who helps him to retrieve one from an abandoned factory where the only remaining stock of this model is stored. The problem is that this factory happens to be situated in an apocalyptic outlawed zone full of weird, treacherous individuals. After surviving numerous dangerous perils they reach the plant and also find a replacement Cherry 2000 model. This is when the guy finally realises that the renegade he hired is actually a sexy, perfect woman and on top of that made of flesh and blood, which is so much better than nuts and bolts! What a grand story ;-). The film has got only a 4.9 on IMDB, but what do they know ... ;-) ?

And this film was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this brilliantly photoshopped photograph on Flickr:

Photo by Aaron Nace, July 2009.

The great thing about this picture is the depth-of-field (DOF) and the sharpness, crispness and lighting of the model in the foreground. Both has been achieved using photographic skill during shooting, rather than post-processing. This makes the actual edit look really natural and convincing.

The model is great too. She fits just perfectly. And reminds me of yet another great 80ies film Mannequin, which is also from 1987! Must have been the Year of Artificial Females or something like that ...

Electro-cute Hairography

Even before Glee I always was a huge fan of hairography, although I have to admit I did not have an actual term for *it* before. In case you have no idea what I am talking about, have a quick look here and it will become obvious straight away.

The great thing about the term hairography is that it is somewhat universal. It's creators probably had something in mind like: "Dance performance ... Choreography ... Flip your hair around like crazy looks cool ... Can hair dance? ... Why not ?! ... Let's just call it Hairography!". Whereas from a photography viewpoint, one could say: "What is this mysterious hair actually doing while flipping around like crazy? ... Who has the power of freezing blinks of an eye in time? ... Photography! ... A photograph of hair doing hairography ... Hair ... Photography ... Hairography!"

I'm glad I worked that one out and can now finally show you an absolutely stunning picture of hairography:

Photo by LA NADA, December 2010.

I tried a little bit of hairography myself a while ago. It is great fun and the hardest part is to get a shot where the model maintains a normal facial expression. Not sure I could do that at all whilst flipping my hair like this (apart from the fact that it is probably not long enough)!

Photo by MAT, December 2008.

Beautiful Portrait

It has been ages since my last entry! 2011 shall bring more great photographic entries for the blog, and more taking photographs myself as well!

What could be better than starting off with this absolutely fantastic portrait:

Photo by Hannes Caspar, 2008.

Great tones and expression. There is more work of the photographer on his website, which is more that worth a visit!

Also on his website I found the quite interesting Facity project. FACITY is an international online photo project. Faces from cities all around the world will be shown on a daily basis. Anyone can participate in FACITY as a photographer or a model. Apparently you just have to get in touch via the website.

Australia's Next Top Model

Ok, this entry is not exclusively related to photography, but the persons I'm going to talk about are being photographed trillions of times during their lifetimes! Besides, I did find this picture on Flickr:

Found it on the account of Plastic Beauty in June 2010, but unfortunately don't know the original source.

My thoughts when I saw this were: "What the hell ...? What's the point of putting them through all the trouble just to pick one of them as Australia's Next Top Model?" Wouldn't it be so much easier to just hire a bunch of fashion designers and photographers and organise a runway event with ALL of them? I mean, who's gonna decide? Seriously, it's only their best friend, their boyfriend (hopefully) or their dads, who could express a justified preference.

In case you are still interested here are a couple of related links:

Official promo video on YouTube.
Fox8 TV Shows.

If you want to watch a really cool "find me a model show", you gotta see Find me the Face, from the BBC! Unfortunately, they stopped doing it for some reason. Maybe too much brains involved ...?!?

However, there are two modelscouts, Becky Southwick and Jody Furlong, who compete in finding the perfect (new) model for a particular genre, beauty, editorial, fashion and so on. Their scouting hunt is quite exciting and the comments are witty. Also, the models they find are usually not the zero-size runway models, but girls (and boys!) that actually look a bit more fun and realistic. Which adds a bit more charm for me.

Anyways, that's the last rant for June. In the unlikely case that one of the BBC big boys is reading this: "Please continue!"

God Save McQueen

Found this picture on ModelMayhem:

Photo by Jay Mawson, 2010.

The concept in this one is just awesome: not only does the slogan God Save McQueen remind us of one of the most fabulous fashion designers of the decade, but also the fact how the models in the picture are dressed up in a McQ-ish style.

God Save McQueen was used as a headline for an article about McQueen in the Guardian in 2003; ironically long before it quite had the meaning that it has today ... In any case, McQueen seemed to have admired Queen Elizabeth I, as he (kind of) stated when interviewed by his mother Joyce McQueen. I'm actually impressed how he was able to stay calm when interviewed by his mom ;-)!

Alexander McQueen's website can be found here btw, and the Fashion Forum features a short biography.

Happy Birthday Miss Jones!

Two days ago I re-discovered Grace Jones as an absolutely fantastic singer and performer. If there is anybody who thinks this woman is not hot then this somebody has no idea about anything ;-).

There are no words to describe the vast variety of things she has done (apparently long before anyone else), so here you go:





And here is yet another one, which is from a photographic point of view just awesome:




One older music video and a new one from 2008, here's the mojo ...





I actually looked for videos of Grace Jones on YouTube after I read that she said that she doesn't find Lady Gaga very innovative and that is she is not at all flattered when Gaga imitates her style. Don't worry about that Grace (not that I think she doesn't anyways ...)

Gypsy Rose Lee

Just found this great candid shot of Gypsy Rose Lee performing in a burlesque show when flicking through vintage photographs on the web.

Posted on Flickr by Joy Northrop, May 2010.

Before looking up Gypsy Rose Lee on all-knowing Wikipedia, I just thought: "Great candid shot of a gentlemen kindly helping out fixing the dress of one of the models at a fashion show!" After reading up a little bit on the woman in the picture, I learned that she was a very successful burlesque performer and actress (yes in movies for all audiences) in the early 40ies. Apparently, she was famous for her outstanding striptease act, which explains why the gentleman is so keen to help ;-), and was titled "the best undressed woman in the world (or the USA?)". In 1963, she actually played a role in a film called The Stripper, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Enough to get curious about and I think it is an awesome shot, no matter what stage of undressing might have been reached later that night ...

Leg Make-up

Glorious Vintage on Flickr is one of my favourite sources of unconventional, entertaining and-of course-vintage pictures!

This one is just hilarious:

Picture from Glorious Vintage on Flickr, February 2010.

It is absolutely fascinating and astounding what fashion creates in order to make us look better! What can be done to make legs leggier? Absolutely, leg make-up! Unfortunately for the woman in the picture who gets the leg make-up applied the MUA has got a bit of a shaky hand.

On the other hand there is nothing to worry about wrecking your fancy expensive nylons on a night out; runs were yesterday!

While I was writing this I started to wonder whether people got the idea of tattooing nylons onto their legs. What can I say, entering the words tattoo nylons and leg into my google search window provided me with masses of information which I rather not want to blog here ...

However, the top hits actually lead me to sites where the exact opposite was for sale, namely stockings (and sleeves!) with tattoo prints. Examples can be found here and here. Somehow this is typical for today's fashion: one site advertises:

These have got to be the COOLEST things we have carried in a LONG time! Invisible mesh printed nylon sleeves that cover your whole entire arm to give the FLAWLESS illusion of a full arm sleeve tattoo! Now you can have the custom work without the pain or commitment!

Sounds pretty lame (and actually not exactly eye-candy) to me in all respects! I say let's paint those legs ;-) ...

6x6 in Black & White

Everyone who is interested in photography and has the slightest bit of nostalgia within oneself will probably agree that black & white photography has great appeal. Somehow it is quite funny that black & white pictures and films have that much charm, character and sex appeal, since humans are usually seeing the world in colour for the last few thousands of years. So maybe it is the fact that things appear more intriguing if the distractions of colour are taken away ... Now that I think about it, we actually do see the world in black & white sometimes and that is at night time. However, not all black & white images have a connotation with night or darkness, but possibly there is something unconscious going on?

In any case I do love black & white and, yes, film too! My recent ventures into black & white have, however, turned out to be quite challenging, as I think it's really hard to take great black & white pictures which underline the very charm of not being in colour.

There is one guy who, in my opinion, is an absolute genius of black & white and on top of that, he shoots medium format! Here's one of my favourites:

Photo by Maxim Chelak, Mai 2009.

His Flickr name is just great too: Maxim Chelak. I haven't worked out yet whether this is made up or his real name, he is Russian after all. No offense, but for my ears both sounds reasonable.

Here is another one which is really fantastic (and an absolutely beautiful model, lucky blizzard!):

Photo by Maxim Chelak, November 2009, Model: Natalia Vlasova.

If you find these pictures inspiring too, here are some more links to his photos and his website:

Website

Photograph

Edina Tokodi (her website)

Happy Easter !

After a very busy March, I think it's time to catch some breath over Easter! I even managed to take an arty snap of our Easter Tree with painted eggs ;-).

Have a great Easter, lots of food and chocolate!

Photo by Martin Trefzer, Easter 2010.

Light Directions

This is a composition I had in mind for a long time. Thanks Tatjana for your patience when I took dozens of pictures while moving the lights all around you! I think I managed to keep her happy, since she still smiled on pictures taken later during the portrait session. If you are interested, you can find a set of photos here.

I used one D-Lite strobe from different directions in order to obtain a number of pictures which I then put together to get this one:

Photo by Me (large on Flickr), 2010.

I was interested in how it would look like when pictures of the same face, lit from different angles, were put together in one image. The pictures are ordered according to the angle of the light in the respective photograph. The one in the middle is the starting point where the light comes from the direction of the camera. To the left and right the horizontal angle is then increased/ decreased in 45° steps. The same applies to the vertical axis. The single pictures on the right, at the top and at the bottom are lit from behind, from the top and from the bottom.

The whole set of pictures could be kind of wrapped around to form a sphere around the model. Hope that doesn't sound too complicated!?

Anyways, I think it looks quite funky and it is interesting to see how such a simple thing like the position of one single light source can change the character of a face in a portrait entirely. From now on I will have a nice example at the ready, when I have to give another flash or studio light workshop ;-).

Wedding Photographs Follow Up

I just came across another (this time not trashing wedding dresses) great wedding shot:

Photo by Ronald Soliman 2009 (I believe), Delaware, US

This wedding picture is just great. There is everything in there: a memorable moment, the groom may now kiss the bride, excited relatives and kids who behave!

On top of that I think you are a pretty good wedding photographer, if you are able to see and capture(!) moments like this on a mayhem wedding day.

Trash the Wedding Dress!

"Now why would you want to do that to such a bloody expensive thing?", I thought when I came across an article with this very title by Dahlia Rideout on divine caroline. The article features winner pictures of a photo competition "Trash the Wedding Dress". Here's my favourite one:

Photo by Bartosz Jastal, Poland, 2009.

Reading through the article I was then once more utterly amazed that this photo contest takes place regularly and is organised -amongst other ones- by the Wedding Photojournalist Association. Their website states: "WPJA is a professional organization composed of photojournalists and wedding photographers from around the world. What sets our members apart in the industry is their candid, documentary approach – a distinctly artistic vision toward wedding photography."

And that's exactly what's going on. Here's one of the most original wedding shots I've ever seen:
Photo by Deborah Kates, Illinois US, 2009.

Looking at the amazing shots on those websites I reconsidered and thought: "Actually why wouldn't you for such a great shot!?!".

Just think about it: there is no other occasion where you will wear your wedding dress ever again. After the wedding you spend another couple of hundred to have it dry-cleaned, then you wrap it up and put it somewhere until your grandchildren either find it eaten by moths or cry out in amazement: "Unbelievable, did you really fit into this dress when you were young grandma?"

I think you will agree with me that it would be better to have a great framed trash-the-wedding-dress picture at your wall or even on the attic which is actually interesting to look at and the line you hear will be a different one: "Wow grandma! Are you a princess who had to go to a great deal of trouble before she could rule just like the Disney ones?!"

I know it hurts a little when thinking about the price, but it's everybody's own choice whether one wants to be cool or lame!

Margie Gillis at Glorious Vintage

I found this absolutely fantastic photo on Flickr:

Photo Scanned from Margie Gillis Booklet (1995 Place des Arts, Montréal Performance) by Glorious Vintage, November 2009.

I absolutely would love to do a shooting like this myself! Any willing North Yorkshire dancers reading this ;-)?

The photograph shows professional dancer Margie Gillis. You can find her biography and more information about her work in the Canadian Encyclopedia. I wonder how often she had to do this jump in order to capture the perfect moment. She has this amazing grace in her movement, which looks just great and gives the picture its dynamic. Margie Gillis was invested as a Member of the ORDER OF CANADA in 1988 and received the Walter Carsen Prize for career achievement in the performing arts in 2008. How cool is that?

I'm not quite sure who the photographer is, since it says on Flickr that the picture was scanned from one of Margie Gillis' own booklets. There is another guy mentioned alongside the photograph, Jack Udashkin. However, he is a bespoke producer of dance and was at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa for 12 years (1988-2000), so he is most likely not the one who took the picture. At the moment, he is developing a project to mount Festival Chaosmos, a biannual international dance festival in Montreal, which began in 2007.

I love her style so much, I just have to post another picture of her, which is on top of that taken by one of my favourite photographers Annie Leibovitz!

Photo by Annie Leibovitz, showing Margie Gillis in "Torn Roots, Broken Branches," choreographed by Margie Gillis

I want a studio!

A Douglas Adams Moment

Sometimes when we encounter something strange, there seems to be a driving force that tries very hard to make it appear to be the most ordinary thing in the world which makes perfect sense (at the time). However, if you remember and think about it later, you might think: "What the hell was that?" or "Did I miss something?".

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me give you an example: last summer holliday, my wife and I were wandering around in a small mediterranean village in Croatia when we found an abandoned house that was inhabited by a cow. My wife discovered the cow when looking through a window and took this photograph:

Photo by Gordana Malicevic, September 2009. View large on Flickr.

We were all excited about the cow standing in what was once a living room and apparently it was eating the sofa (or the straw with which it was stuffed, that was not entirely clear). Since we both find cows are rather cool animals, we watched it for a while and then waited in front of the house with the intention to take another picture when the cow would come out. After a while we got tired of waiting in vain and left.

It was much later back home when I was looking at this picture and I had this Douglas Adams moment; I was (and still am) worried that the poor cow is still there, trapped in that house together with the sofa. Fact is we saw the cow in the house and the picture proves it. The room is quite small and-now that I think about it-the doors of the house are very narrow and small too. In fact, it is astonishing that the cow managed to get in in the first place. However, it is unlikely that the cow is a quantum physicist and in the posession of an Improbability Drive, so it must have gotten in there one or the other usual way through the door.

The question is will the cow get out again? Is there enough room for it to turn around? The problem is that cows cannot walk backwards, at least not the common ones! Will the straw from the sofa keep it healthy and alive until I can check on it next year?

If you now think: "What is this guy talking about? Of course it will get out of there, why should it not?", then go and get the book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams and read what happened to the sofa and the staircase!

80ies, Me Thinks!

Photo by Fabe-DSI, September 2009.

Which is - for me - an enjoyable thought that brings back memories (I really should look for 80ies themed photographs and blog them, in order to colour up the world a bit more).

You might ask yourself, why this picture? Beacause, oddly enough, I found it after I had joined the Flickr pool Andy Warhol's Factory, which does contain some interesting pop art pictures! For the record and those of you who have not heard of Andy Warhol: his original name is Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), he was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker and he was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. As usual, Encyclopedia Galactica knows a lot more, in case you are interested!

After immediately thinking "80ies, me thinks!" after seeing this photograph, I was curious what might have lead the photographer to submit it to an Andy Warhol pop-art pool? It is certainly not pop art from the 1960ies. Maybe it could fit in with Hollywood Glamour from the 1980ies, but that feels a bit far fetched... So I clicked on the thumbnail and read the comments and here are some examples of what I found. Allow me to translate some of the comments, as not all of your might be familiar wiesith the technical terms:

"nice bokeh": picked up a fancy word, old chap ;-)?

"beautiful picture!" : captain subtext means: "Handsome girl wearing a bikini!"

"This photo is a Spirit Of Photography" : or rather a Spirit of the Hawk? (I apologise to all of you who will not get the song out of their minds for the rest of the day, the thought did the same to me if that helps.)

"wonderful taste for nice fashion" : if you refer to all clothing as fashion, the term "nice" is spot on!

As you can see, I was not enlightened about the reason of submission to the Warholic pool, but I was so well entertained for 10 minutes (and another 15 minutes writing this post!) that this question does not matter anymore anyways!

It remains to say that if you hear me saying that I don't enjoy looking at ladies in swimwear, you are officially allowed to call me a liar! In that respect, part of my brain thinks this is an awesome shot. Luckily the picture and comments make another (still sufficiently large ;-)) part chuckle ...