At the office...

Paul's new book is out. Check it out!

Every Holga is unique. Mine has a light leak on its upper right corner. I've seen some Holga pictures with multiple light leaks or none at all.
To enforce the light leak I put the light on the camera instead of the subject and made an exposure of more than 20 secs. The only light the scene received was reflected from the camera and the walls to the left. It somehow reminds me of this poem.
This one goes to Ilke for introducing me to the wonderful world of polaroids.

What is the difference between seeing a copy and the original of a painting? The scrupulous observers at the Rudolfinum Gallery have found an invaluable answer to this question. Let me explain.

The great Viennese artist Gottfried Helnwein held a retrospective (Angels Sleeping) at Pragues lovely Rudolfinum. It would be a crime to miss it, so I went there. For those of you who don't know, Helnwein is obsessed with the subject of child exposed to torture/agression (das maltratierte kind/l'enfant maltraité) as a metaphor for the human condition. The children of Helnwein are a wee bit different than their traditional counterparts: Look at the expression in the face of the Sonntagskind(a painting that should've been in the exhibiton), she has lost the innocence so commonly associated with the child, the chocolate bar given as a bribe to keep her silent accentuates the tradegy we infer from the blood dripping between her legs. The duck welcomes her to the surreal, absurd world of adulthood.

Sonntagskind and loads of other das maltratierte kind paintings usually convey their message by the scars on faces(our primordial medium of expression).

For Helnwein, the artist under the Nazi regime is the abused child (he later developped the idea and made the Art In America series). So, Angels Sleeping starts with a self portrait full of pain, a reckless critique of freedom of expression.

Ok, I would love to, but I'm not going to guide you through all the paintings in the exhibition. Just look at this before I get to the point. What do you see?

The child (this time depicted as the traditional innocent child) is about to be tortured by some scarfaced nazi-like (look at the over confident expression in their faces) burocrats. One can see that maybe once these people gathered around the altar were as innocent as her. Our scars are transitive.





The viewers of the exhibiton were astonished by the sheer size and the amazing detail of one of the untitled paintings. It is about a large mass of people gathered in front of a monument that resembles the Reichstag.



Now let's look at the lower left corner of the painting so you can see the details, regret the fact that you missed an exhibition, and maybe see the lead that Helnwein left us to link this painting to his other masterpieces.


Our clue is 2 brushstrokes that remind us this is not reality, it is just a beautifully crafted masterpiece. A masterpiece crafted by an intelligent man who can not settle with creating something beautiful but tries to tell something new with it. Look closer:








And finally, if you change the angle you see the painting, where the 2 brushstrokes end, you will find a secret painted on all of the faces, a white stain that doesn't only brighten their brows, but connects this painting with all the das maltratierte kind paintings: it is their scars. The scars that they hide, but who gather them all in front of the building and gives the oppressors the power they need to diffuse the oppression.

Here is a photoshopped version for the faint hearted:

She's got the looks

And if you get close

She might bite your head off

To G...
I will find a way, I promise.

A Little Something By Me




All the molecules
every single one
the atoms
their spin
their charge
their charme
in circles
in beauty

[Raphael Hefti and his series Beauticians, from reGeneration. Get it!]
Raphael Hefti found his models in department stores. Choosing a frontal view, he wanted to capture in as much detail as possible 'the face as an image'- a concept that is further justified by the fact that the women photographed all sell cosmetics and are meant to represent the brand that employs them: Clarins, Lancôme, Chanel, etc. Individuality disappears behind a face that is coated in a layer of foundation and blusher, reminiscent of a mask. Hefti tells us that rather than faces themselves, we should talk about the desire for a face. Make-up and skincare products, visible in the background but impossible to distinguish because they remain out of focus, try to make us beleive that we can all change our faces and that it is possible to fight against time and the body's own fraglie nature. In its seductive appeal but also sometimes in its excess, creating a face means creating an image, as is eloquently demonstrated by Hefti's portraits of saleswomen as soldiers of consumerism.

Sorry for poor quality pics folks (another reason why you should buy a book of his).





There is something utterly interesting about these pictures. The gaze and the posture of these women are identical. The facial expression is reinforced with the reflection of the lightning panels from their eyes. This reflection is what gives them the horrifying look. Their masks cannot hide their bestiality.





Link to Hefti's site.