Photographer #313: Ville Varumo

Ville Varumo, 1986, Finland, is a young conceptual fashion photographer based in Helsinki. He started taking pictures in his teenage years and hasn't done anything else since. His photography is an extension of his moods and his growth as a human. He is fascinated by the feeling of mystery. Next to his often soft-toned fashion photographs Ville focuses on landscape photography. The tone and style of his landcsape images have the same signature as his fashion photographs. There is a certain calmness and aspects of islation in his imagery. The following images come from the portfolios Fashion, Untitled Work and Tölö Gymnasium.

Website: www.villevarumo.com

Photographer #312: Scott Conarroe

Scott Conarroe, 1974, Canada, is a landscape photographer with a distinct eye. He received a BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001 and an MFA the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2005. His images of the sea or the railroad tracks in Northern America contain a subtle criticism on how humans interact with their environment. By Rail is the result of an eight month trip in his Chevy Van, often making long exposure photographs on a 4x5" large format camera. His series At Leisure contains images of recreational spaces in built environments that seem unfitting, out of order or just weird. Scott has also created series in Ontario, Halifax and Beijing among other places. He has exhibited in Canada, several places in the US and abroad. Scott is one of the PDN's 30 emerging photographers of 2010. The following images come from the series By Sea, By Rail and London.

Website: www.scottconarroe.com

Photographer #311: Lauren Dukoff

Lauren Dukoff, 1984, USA, is a portrait photographer. A vast amount of celebrities have been in front of her lens including Beyonce, Katy Perry, Sting and Beck. Her most known picture might be the cover of the album 21 by Adele. Lauren has also directed videos for Adele, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan and Devendra Banhart. For several years Lauren had been photographing close friends and Devendra Banhart, including an extended family of artists who share inspiration. The images were released in the book Family in 2009. It includes portraits and candid images of Devendra and many other artists, individually or together, in performance or in more private spaces. Her images have been published in numerous magazines as Rolling Stone, Dazed & Confused and L'Uomo Vogue. The following images come from her portfolios and her diary.

Website: www.laurendukoff.com

Lexi + Mike ENGAGED! | OC Engagement Photographer

I'm so excited for my nephew and his beautiful fiancee!  I have to admit its still a little strange for me to see him so grown up and taking such a huge step in life like getting married!  I guess I am getting older, but still picture him as a teenager, even though he is quite grown up and pretty darn close to the same age I was when I got married!  Wanna know something funny about Lexi?  Brad, my husband, used to BABYSIT her!  So, you can imagine how weird it is for him to see her all grown up and in love!  We are thrilled for them and can't wait for their wedding in July. 

They were so much fun to photograph and were very willing to do whatever I asked...as well as plenty of other fun stuff that they came up with on their own!  It was really hard to narrow it down (I love so many of  these images!) but, here's a not-so-brief preview of their session...

Do you have any favorites?

Photographer #310: Lalla Essaydi

Lalla Essaydi, 1956, is a fine art photographer from Morocco. She received an MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Besides photography she uses other media as painting, film and installations. Her art often contains islamic calligraphy in combination with the representation of the female body. She addresses the complex reality of the Arab female identity. She has looked at the western painting tradition, recreating the paintings in an orientalist setting. In Les Femmes du Maroc, all the props used, including the background and the clothes, are covered in caligraphy. The calligraphy is even on the bodies of the females with the use of henna. Essaydi has exhibited extensively, is represented by numerous galleries and her work is in private and public collections. The following images come from the series Les Femmes du Maroc and Harem.

Unfortunately Lalla does not have a website. For more images go to: www.schneidergallerychicago.com, www.houkgallery.com, www.artnet.com or www.lisasettegallery.com

Photographer #309: Jens Assur

Jens Assur, 1970, is a Swedish photographer and film maker. From 1990 until 1997 he worked as a photojournalist at Expressen, then the leading newspaper in Scandinavia, covering stories in nearly 100 countries. From 1997 until 2001 he worked on the project Under the Shifting Skies which resulted in a book comprised of two volumes. In the first volume he traveled through Sweden taking pictures of people slipping through the cracks, Sami, refugees, Hells Angels, neo-nazis and porn stars. As he found out that every situation in Sweden is tied to events in other countries he decided to make a second volume. In 2010 he released the book Hunger which consists of five seperate books dealing with how we consume and how we treat our world. The following images come from the books If you love global warming - honk, Hunger and Under the Shifting Skies Vol I.

Website: www.studiojensassur.com

fun with mike & lexi - a preview | OC Engagement Photographer

More of these crazy lovebirds coming soon!