images from everywhere!

these wonderful images are curated by Erik Baker, he regularly shows series of images that he finds interesting and posts them on Design Observer . The posts always starts with a phrase "Here are Today's images". Some images from his posts are from established and widely known artists while some (i think more) of them are lesser known and date way back before our grandparents were even born. Here are the lists of series of his posts dating back on his first.

Click on the images below and they link to their original websites. however, a couple of them are not linked due to technical problems. sorry! :S

Julia Fullerton Batten

By Julia Fullerton Batten.

When searching more of her works and images, come across to websites discussing about her "Teenage Stories" project. One of the websites says:
"Earlier images in this series show girls involved in everyday leisure activities, at home, in the garden, at the swimming pool, or at the beach. More recently, she has placed the girls in a model village environment, dwarfing their surroundings. The project aims to capture the lives and feelings of young girls as they change from relative innocence to a heightened awareness of their adult life.

Uniquely, for these shoots, Julia deliberately select girls who are not professional models. Once she has the idea for the shoot, she street casts the models. This produces a slight awkwardness in the posture of the models that enhances the unusual surroundings. Another difference is Julia’s use of studio lighting to supplement daylight. She may use as many as seven or eight flash heads to achieve the impression that she wants. This combination of eye for the content of an image, the naturalness of the models, the unusual surroundings, the effect of the lighting all combine to yield a style that identifies her pictures."
(from Doobybrain.com)

More of her artworks..



And she said:
‘I used to approach unknown people on the streets in London and ask them to take part in my photo shoots. There are so many fascinating faces accompanied with wonderful personalities around. The freshness that street cast models have, has also benefited my work immeasurably. I now don’t have the time to find the amateur models myself. But I hire a producer to source models for me’
(from Lost at E Minor)




Lastly, I feel really cold by looking at the last photo above.

Hope you people like it :)

henri cartier bresson

like Picasso in art, Stravinsky in music, Henri Cartier Bresson (HCB) was the classic in photography. he was the father of modern photojournalism, helped develop what is now known as "street photography", coined the term "desicive moment", travelled throughout the world with his Leica, and co-founded Magnum- one of the most prestigious photography agencies known intenationally.

some of the very zen quotes from HCB:

"my passion has never been for photography in itself, but for the possibility of forgetting oneself and recording in a fraction of a second the emotion evoked by the subject and the beauty of the form- in other words, a geometry created by what is there."

"i never try to take great photographs. great photographs are offered to me. you have to be available to catch them, be there, not think too hard, forget yourslef, not force it, but use your senses, your intuition, your eye. there's no secret: there's no more to it than that."

"the subject only becomes important and the photography only gains strength when you succeed in forgetting yourself. it's through this attitude alone that you reach something real."

in an interview of HCB with Charlie Rose, Charlie asked HCB about he he takes his photographs, and asked him to give some technical information, HCB replied, "what is there to teach? it is just clicking with your finger"- while he made the clicking on shutter gesture.

HCB uses the beauty of geometry in his compositions. he despised staged pictures and banned any publisher from cropping his pictures. he even made a stamp that read "Do Not Crop" and stamped it on the back of his photographs with his signature and agency name.

although HCB is no longer with us in person, but his work continues to inspire photographers, not only in the photojournalism and street genre, but he also inspried great fashion photographers like Richard Avedon, Brigitte Lacombe and many others from a wider field.

inhale, digest, and be inspired by this legend~! :D

Matisse with his pigeons

the most famous photograph by HCB, look closely, there is another silhoutte with the similar pose in the background!

the examples of the photos here are just "the tip of an iceberg",
here are some links to more HCB~!

HCB's portfolio at Magnum

Exhibition of HCB's work at the Museum of Modern Art

Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson

Rosson Crow

Rosson Crow, I don't know what to introduce about her, but I get attracted by her works when I flipping through the i-D that I bought last month. However, I am a lazy person so I didn't read all the words of that paragraph. On the other hand, I don't feel good for not sharing the existence of such interesting painter/scene builder? whatever you call her..






So sorry for the lack of information due to my laziness.

Will try to read more next time. I admit I am a picture-person. I love seeing pictures only. Hope I can love words more.

You and Starbucks- it's bigger than coffee!

the winner of the BetaCup- Drink Sustainably contest.
its a contest encouraging the community to eliminate their paper coffee cups usage that end up in the landfills, creating mountains of garbage each year. Starbucks (the extra expensive coffee, but ok, they are helping to save the earth) is backing up this project and hopes to serve their drinks in recyclable paper cups by 2015. i think, with this idea supported by the major trendy place to buy your coffee it will sure bring more awareness to people when they buy take away coffee.

the mass population will easily and eagerly follow the trends set by big corporations, markets and designers. we are also quite prone to peer pressure ("why dont you have a reusable cup with you?"). to set a trend, i think you do need to be trendy in the first place. if one of the normal coffee shops (kopitiam) around the corner of your neighbourhood implements this idea, would you embrace it with such a big heart and open mind? well i cant say that there's no part of me that will be influenced by the feeling of "look cool and save the world!" vs "save the world!".

and now i understand that people loves to be awarded, and not punished. my grandma's coffee shop charges extra RM0.30 for each plastic container the customers use for take away. we actually bought the containers for RM0.45 because we didnt want to use the normal white PVC anymore. but a lot of customers do not like this idea. now i know, people do not like to have the feeling of being charged extra- even its thirty cents. but most of them still choose to be charged and complain about it rather than bringing their own containers! maybe we should implement this idea of "bring your own Tupperware, or reusable container and get an award".

anyway, let's save the world together! with our own glamorous and even unglamorous ways. :D
sharing some clever and creative ideas here:

click here to see more creative and honorable mentions!

listen to the background music of this one! it really brings in the mood of saving the world!

and, i found this community, (click here) - Jovoto that "links creative talent worldwide and evolves to become the largest creative department, in which the act of creation is free, collaborative, and above all, fair". looks interesting!

Hans Zimmer, the film composer.

There is always one saying: "人生就像一场戏" - Life is like a movie.
But for me, life is not only like a movie, it could be like as many different kind of movies as you want.

Talking about movie, soundtracks are so important to a movie.
It's very... I don't know what words I should use to describe the importance of soundtracks.
Without soundtracks, I think many movies would lose its spirits.
Without soundtracks, I don't think we will still cry for romance movies.
Etc.
And since life is like movies, I do think soundtracks/musics are important in our life.
Maybe I sound a little bit insane, but I really like soundtracks because it makes me feel like I am living in the movie, it makes me feel like I am one of the characters.
And I could actually be as many different kinds of character as I want by listening to different kind of soundtracks.
For example, by listening to It's Complicated soundtrack, I feel like I am the woman in the movie who can cook well and have her own house with children, although I don't wanna be divorced like her. But yes, I feel happier for doing the house chore when listening to its soundtrack.

Anyways, today I finally discover a film composer Hans Zimmer. Alright, I am outdated, but I am really happy to find out this composer because I can live in movies now! :D

Here are some soundtracks by Hans Zimmer which I think are pretty good and can lead us to a good living.


Movie title: It's Complicated.


Movie Title: The Holiday.


Movie title: As Good As it Gets.
(I haven't watched this movie but I found out that it won 2 oscars for best actor and best actress.)

Need a life with much more dramatic?
Then try these...


Movie title: The Lion King.


Movie title: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Lol.

Anyways, enjoy the life and create a life you want the most.
Be the leading character in your own life.

Enjoy!

more wise words... presented unforgettably. so that we wont forget

love this quote,
found it here

then i remembered i saw these awesome ones! by Stefan Sagmeister, a graphic designer


Trying To Look Good Limits My Life

Over Time I Get Used To Everything And Start Taking It For Granted

and now.... many people are inspired to do their own versions.

:)

tobias wong

why should anyone else care? (i love this!)

a ring that can kill, or scratch hard surfaces

silver glitter capsules to bling up your shit

to me, this is a sarcastic way of saying, in the end, everything that "the glitters" are as useful as our own waste.

can dreams be bought (or sold)?

provocative designs by the late Tobias Wong.

"who says everything has been designed?" - Tobias Wong

Alex Prager

Amazing photos by Alex Prager.
Click on it and you won't regret! :)





I love vintage! Vintage clothings vintage look vintage everything.
The photos just match my taste.
More photos to be found in his website.

Ps: found this photographer from my idol, Cheuk Wan Zhi. :D That's why I love her. I can always get different information from her page.

Enjoy!

hero

my mom asked me to read a passage from a very worn out booklet she picked up from a box full of recycled books.

i wanted to post this up and share with you immediately after reading it.

(if you have the time, please read starting from "一个母爱打造的金牌")

i found the soft copy here.

安金鹏 (in pic)'s story moved me to tears.

he was a very poor young boy who was the only student in school who didnt have the money to feed himself properly in the school canteen. But through his mother's love for him and her strong determination for him to study, he learned a lot by looking at how hard his mother worked in order for him to go to school. He became strong and won the national Olympic Maths and Physics competition in China, then, i later found out through a website, Harvard offerred him a scholarship.

here are some words i would like to share, taken from the passage:

"一个人必须能够先〈受得了〉，先能够〈忍受〉，忍受贫困，忍受失望， 忍受瞧不起， 甚至忍受病苦，然后才能找出意义， 然后才能自由自在的实现自己的理想。 "

another wise person shared his wise words:

"dreams, without materialising them, will only be day dreams"

movie posters

DES REVES's poster left me thinking, why did we preferred the poster than the other? (to those who are lost, pls refer here) why were we attracted to it? it is because of its vintage colors? its non-photoshoppy-ness? its fantasy and free flowing imagination? because knowing that the designer/ artist spent a whole lot of time (using their drawing skills) on it? there is just a certain feel to it. maybe there are just too many "glossy" and "photoshoppy" posters around now? with the limited technology during the olden days, the artists could only do posters by hand, or photos (film!) and these illustrations or images that represent or give a glimpse of what the movie is about is less realistic than the posters we see nowadays. so, there is more suspense and therefore surprise when we watch the movie. i found out some cool movie posters on this website and this website. almost all of them are so unique and full of emotions.

fast forward and then it came to our era, where we have posters like these:

i think wolverine and harry potter hired the same poster designer.

ok, maybe because i didnt like the movie either.

i loved the book! maybe it was what the designer wanted to do... but the movie poster looked like a book cover....

watched the movie, which was deeper than what the poster suggests...

could be better?? cos to me, the movie was awesome! not what i expected, and full of vintage and old london feel to it.

for this... i've seen before done more nicely in Love Actually and Valentine's Day....

this one feels a bit... arranged in a hurry.

blogger's last note: ofcourse, these are just some of the worst (in my opinion) that i chose from. there are also many many beautifully done posters, but i rarely come upon those that are as inspiring as the yerterdays.