While you're not looking » Photography

The analogue revolution

Wendy Cooper — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:25:14 +0000

Polapremium is a retail museum of all things related to analogue photography. It was not surprising to discovered that the operation was conceived by an ex-employee of Lomography. It was perhaps a spurred of desire to save Polaroid when they decided to shut shop of their entire film production. But Florian Kaps invested his heart and money to a niche that stiff, number-driven investors refused to see when they purchased Polaroid only a few years back and surely enough, Polaroid’s analogue products have been on a landslide to now its demise. Timing is also a key—from rapid purchasing of factories and negotiations to gathering sponsors and generating interests. Both ends have to play their part to ensure a positive outcome, the concrete concept of demand and supply. The passion and clever economic tactics generated from this operation will reap its undeniable success in the near future. Meanwhile to self-generate interest through the vernacular of consumerism, their latest instalment is the Polaroid Creative Kit. A perfect fit to the DIY revolution that marches head strong along with the slow food, self-sustaining eating ideology. This kit replicates the peel back film process with the capabillity of image transfer, and as the company name suggests, the price tag attached to this fun is unsurprisingly premium.
Related: Polaroid’s Chapter 11

The monolith and the minotaur

Wendy Cooper — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:51:54 +0000

As time passes and careers fade into history, musos will capitalise by having a reunion tour and/or release a definitive collection to commemorate their glory years. My dear and ol’ time favourite The Pixies have hopped onto that bandwagon to collect their retirement fund again in releasing an undeniably in your face box set titled Minotaur. The limited edition contains a monolithic two feet tall hard cover that is reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001 and it’s designed by A+R; curated by Vaughan Oliver; shot by Simon Larbalestier. Needless to say that no-one else can ever take on this task but the original team of Oliver and Larbalestier. A+R is a justifiable choice especially with their recent folio of NIN’s Ghosts, Beck’s The Information and Sigur Rós’ In A Frozen Sea. To bow at this feat is to willingly forgo your wallet and drown in the pool of commercialism with your feet in the air and head on the ground. Then again, who wouldn’t try this trick when put into their shoes.

Slapstick as modern art

Wendy Cooper — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:56:22 +0000

Harvey Opgenorth’s Museum Camoflauge sits on the superficial side of contemporary art. His photography is perfunctory, demonstrating a simply joy of posing.

Museum Camoflauge: Christopher Wool, 2001

Museum Camoflauge: Helen Frankenthaller, 1999

Museum Camoflauge: Ellsworth Kelly, 1998

Museum Camoflauge: Henri Matisse, 1998

Sharper and more compact imaging with Single-Pixel

Wendy Cooper — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:27:58 +0000

A new experimental camera captures images by taking many snaps with an array of micro-mirrors. The single-pixel camera developed by researchers Richard Baraniuk and Kevin Kelly at Rice University in Houston, Texas, US, takes a completely different approach. It reflects light from 1024 x 768 micro-mirrors onto a single photodiode. Then it changes the arrangement of micro-mirrors and repeats the process — all in a split second.

Source: New Scientist
Image: Rubikcubism by Space Invaders