Khuong Nguyen x Louboutin

Trendland.net appears to be guiding me to some fascinating people lately. One of which is Khuong Nguyen. A brilliant talent who has done commission work for the ah-mazing Christian Louboutin. Browsing Khuong's site, it's like getting lost in a fantasy world of rich colours and surreal imagery. The AW '10 campaign has recurrent references to Alice in Wonderland, what a beautiful fairytale....

 

Khuong's Spring Summer Tour for Louboutin continues with a sleeker vision, maintaining the surrealist perspective and sharp details. See more @ Khuong Nguyen.

Lanvin Spring 2011 Campaign

Hintmag.com blogged about Lanvin's Spring campaign a couple days ago and wow I love it!
Sexualising cat-fighting (slightly dominatrix?) glamorous women... I think that's the way to sum it all up. Luscious chiffon dresses and 70s interior with lashings of animal print rugs and fur stoles. Thumbs up to Alber Elbaz and Steven Meisel for making this the least-Dynasty-70s-tacky it could've turned out to be.

All pics courtesy of Hint blog.

09 Photographic Portrait Prize

After my yummy noodle soup in london's chinatown, I headed over to the National Portrait Gallery yesterday to see the Taylor Wessing - Photographic Portrait Prize.

I love going to see the latest contemporary portrait competitions... there's something so personal and intimate about a photographic portrait that can be so moving - it compells me to pick up a cam and try to emulate what other talented photographers do (but i just never achieve anything half as good and i don't have a good camera).

I wanted to post my favourites - sharing the most moving photographs with my followers. Here they are:


This was part of a series of photographs documenting the livelihoods of regular civilians in Bangladesh. Arif made a living by collecting railway passengers rubbish and selling this on.


This won 3rd prize. The photographer took a series of pics of inmates at a high security prison. He described this subject as distant and almost unresponsive. He later found out he had been sentenced for murder.

This was a commissioned piece to act as the architect's portrait for a magazine. Something about the perfect balance of lighting and saturation captured my attention. Beautiful.


This was from a series of portraits showing various birth defects in Vietnam. I thought this was particularly interesting as the eyes are usually significant into learning about a person through portraiture. There's something very uncomfortable and moving about this image.


I almost started crying in the middle of the gallery when I saw this. (click to see a bigger pic) From the series 'Rape is a Weapon of War' - "Forgotten woman of Genocide" was difficult to look at. The woman's tears and sorrow is clear and the scar from the rape looks brutal.

All photographs and captions courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

Unseen, Guy Bourdin @ The Wapping Project

On a lovely sunnday day a few weekends ago I trundled all the way to Wapping to view Guy Bourdin's 'Unseen'. Set in a 19th century power station (which later turned into a pumping station), it still inhabits much of its original hydraulic equipment and machinery. The Wapping Project has played host to numerous fantastical art and fashion exhibitions and holds a restaurant and bar within its engine and turbine rooms... anyway, a large steel door toward the back of the beautifully naturally lit buliding leads down to the Guy Bourdin exhibition... wonderful. Small but the grassy floor and the atmospheric lighting was just lush.

Hedi Slimane Teenagers

Think it's worth a click through if you're into photography/portraiture... some wonderful shots that were done for Dazed & Confused for their jan issue by Hedi Slimane