A Favourite Photographer: Ben Hassett

Mystery, strategic color, contrast and drama. Those are the words that describe this fine art and fashion photographer's work. He brings art to fashion and fashion to drama...

Photos: http://www.benhassett.com/

In the Mood for... Something Beautiful

Zhang Jingna, only 22 years of age, was an expert with an air rifle at 14, but became an expert with a camera at age 20 and now shoots for countless high profile clients, such as Harper's Bazaar Singapore, Elle, Lancôme and Random House Publishing. She is the youngest ever recipient of Fellowship in the Master Photographer's Association and divides her time between Singapore and Los Angeles.

Her photographs are romantic, intriguing and fantastical. The magical, mysterious and almost ominous atmosphere in her work is what grabs every viewer.

Visit her website at http://www.zhangjingna.com/

Or go HERE for her blog

Paolo Roversi and the Meaning of Magic

Paolo Roversi was born in Ravenna in 1947 and started out in a cellar for a darkroom. Some of his first jobs included photographing a funeral and celebrities, but he moved to Paris in 1973 and after working as a journalist for the Huppert Agency, he turned to fashion photography. He has worked for a large variety of fahion magazined, including Elle, Depeche Mode and Marie Claire (who gave him his first big break.)

I love how he makes his subjects seem mysterious, intriguing, maybe even out of this world.

 "Photography goes beyond the limits of reality and illusion. It brushes up against another life, another dimension, revealing not only what is there but was is no there. Every photograph is an encounter, an intimate, reciprocal confession."

- Paolo Roversi 

Photography is art, but in his photos, there is a romantic meeting between fine art and photography.

"Like any art worthy of the name, the most brazen lie can evolve into surprising and seductive truth."

- Paolo Roversi

For more: http://www.paoloroversi.com/

A Favorite Photographer: Ruth Orkin

The Comic Book Readers  -  Ruth Orkin

It is great when you stumble across something, or someone, utterly inspiring. Ruth Orkin (1921-1985) was a renowned photojournalist and filmmaker who proved in a difficult time that the world is open for us to discover and learn from. She grew up in Hollywood, but worked everywhere in the USA, especially New York, as well as in Europe and Israel. Her film "The Little Fugitive" was nominated for an Academy Award in 1953 and some of her well-known photography projects include "American Girl in Italy" and "A World Through My Window". She captured what she thought was important in the moment and made everyday characters look magical, interesting and intriguing. 



Jinx in Goggles, Florence  -  Ruth Orkin

"Being a photographer is making people look at what I want them to look at."

- Ruth Orkin

Still from her 1953 film, The Little Fugitive

"To be a photojournalist takes experience, skill, endurence, energy, salesmanship, organization, wheedling, climbing, gatecrashing, etc. – plus an eye and patience."

- Ruth Orkin

Thanks to www.orkinphoto.com