“I didn’t feel very grounded as a kid.
After moving a lot, dropping out of high school and moving out of the house at 16, I turned to photography as a place of refuge. There was a lot of stuff in the world I wanted to take control of. I wanted create a world that’s a little bit magical, that people can kind of get lost in. Photography became my safe haven. I felt lost, and taking pictures gave me a purpose. It felt like the most natural way to express myself. I always want to create a peaceful space.”
—
Excerpt from Laura Taylor’s Interview on The Photographic Journal
photo credit: Laura Taylor
Great read, great photos. Go spend a few minutes, why don’t ya.
When I asked her to dance, I assumed she’d shake a little, make a face, understated. We’re in public, there are many eyes watching us! I probably would’ve just said no.
Whitney did not just shake a little. She GOT DOWN. Got down to the sounds of three teenage siblings belting out mediocre pop songs on the Santa Monica Promenade while their dad worked the tiny soundboard, their braces no doubt contributing to the strange shapes their mouths made while they gyrated uncomfortably for the awestruck crowd.
I, meanwhile, was awestruck by Whitney’s utter lack of self-consciousness. Completely alien to me, it is.
Lou O’Bedlam
louobedlam.com
Secrets to creating good rapport with your subject:
- let them hit you
- stumble upon a hoarder’s backyard
- be warned about rattlesnakes
- hide amongst the bushes and talk about people taking pictures over themselves
- hike in the wrong shoes
- have them manipulate the wind with their mind
“Black Hole Sun” by Paul Anka
originally by Soundgarden
(via topherchris)
Listening to a lot of covers today, and this one takes the cake. Paul Anka fucking TEARS BLACK HOLE SUN APART.
This is what a cover is all about. It’s not just singing the song, it’s not just maybe adding an inflection or two.
Anka pulls a Six Million Dollar Man on this song, taking it apart, rebuilding it with his own personal bionics.
Anka Owns this song for me, now.
(via topherchris)
I don’t even know when I posted this, but it’s still fantastic and deserves more attention.
I hide ever so well amongst the legions of tourists. No ones knows that, instead of capturing Rachel’s face for the slideshow that’ll accompany my Adventures in Los Angeles, I’m actually making art!
All of you visitors with your cameras and your eyes gone wide from the madness that is my city, you are my camouflage.
Train Announcements : The New Yorker
“Attention, passengers: we have a very full train today so please don’t block the doors. We will be moving shortly.
Attention, passengers: we cannot move the train unless you keep out of the way of the closing doors. Stand clear.
Will the passenger holding the train doors open in the second-to-last car please step on or off the train so that we can continue.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a passenger holding the doors of the train open, and we cannot move until the woman he is speaking to either gathers her suitcases and steps off the train with him, or convinces him that it is really over and he should just let her go. We apologize for the delay.
Attention, passengers: this is your conductor speaking. The train is being delayed while the woman with the suitcases tells the man holding the doors that she just wants to go back to Chicago and try and remember who she used to be before he convinced her to give up on her dreams to watch him follow through on his. She makes a fair point so we will be delayed until the gentleman holding the doors accepts that it’s time to move on…”
In LA, I stayed at what can only be described as a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tiny house at Chateau Marmont. It even had a tiny kitchen.
Lou Noble took this photo.
The episode of Last Call with Carson Daly that I’m on airs on the 16th
Oh how I would love to do one a them Strobist diagrams for this shot:
“On the left I had a lamp I found in the bedroom. It had…um, some kind of bulb in it? Next to that, just to the left of me, I had another lamp, also found in the bedroom, same bulb mabye. My assistant, Emily, was holding that, pointing it at Molly. Then I had ANOTHER lamp, found that one in the living room, that was off to the right. Ooh, then there were the lights in the kitchen walls, those were on. And everything was kinda pointed at Molly?”
And oy vey, a challenge getting all that just right. There was a food tray on that table on the left, that had to go, had to get that red…what is that, a sari? That had to be just right.
See, usually I just shoot, kibbitz, keep it loose. But once we had Molly up on the counter, there was a specific shot that slowly formed in my head, and once it appeared, it had to be Just Right.
Molly was a real trooper about it, my butt probably would’ve falled asleep, up on that counter. Tons of fun shooting her.
Sometimes…sometimes I just feel like Jim Rockford walking along the beach at night, cigarette in hand, adidas on his feet, looking out at the water, ya know?
Always get a kick out of visitors to the city squealing with joy when they jump into the ocean.
Gravity (2013) - Teaser Trailer
This is the kind of teaser I want. Make ‘em like this, Hollywood.
