Last year my very good friend, Mark--photographer, painter, art director, Renaissance man at large--shot a series of photo portraits of his friends in locations they had chosen that were of some import to them. Having been one of his volunteers, I can attest that it was an interesting experience for someone who dislikes having their picture taken (Glenda knows well how I generally squirm when there's a camera on me), but I was absolutely fascinated by the results. Flipping through the dozen or so finished photographs, most of which being of people I haven't met, was so engaging; who were these people? Why had they chosen their particular locations? What were they thinking of when the picture was snapped? What stories lie here!One photo I most certainly did recognize was the one above. Despite splitting her time between Toronto and Japan whilst slaving away at post-graduate research, Sara manages to come and investigate our skirts on a pretty regular basis. In this portrait she is looking quite contemplative in, I believe, one of the very few short-sleeved John Wayne tops from last year. Sara also writes a fantastic blog all about her Japanese adventures called Tokyo Beaute, which I highly recommend. ...Hhmmm, maybe we'll have to get her to send us some pictures of her Smoking Lily collection in action on the streets of Japan!
4 comments:
Mark's photographs are pretty cool! Is that your husband in one?
Yes, Anon., my Scott would be the rather wooly looking man staring forlornly over the excavation pit that had been Richard's. (That shoot was sort of funny because I tagged along and, lo and behold, who comes out of the apartment building we're camped out in front of but one of our Vancouver regulars. Smoking Lily is everywhere!)
It's hard to tell from the website, but some of Mark's photos are quite large. For instance, the super creepy wedding dresses--which are photos of vintage Barbie outfits he got off eBay--are about five feet high in real life and the effect is amazing. I also really, really love the tinned meats. In person, the effect of the light playing off the metal, the darkness of the backgrounds, and the extreme detail of the contents works so that they are strikingly similar to Dutch still life paintings--weird!
tickled pink to see it up!
Glad to hear it, Sara:) You must send us some photos from Japan!
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