Photographer Profile ~ Alex Prager

Alex Prager (American, born 1979), a self-taught photographer, takes her cues from pulp fiction, the cinematic conventions of movie directors such as Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock ( and the work of acclaimed photographer William Eggleston.) Resembling movie stills, her unnerving photographs—crisp, boldly colored, shot from unexpected angles, and dramatically lit—feature women disguised in wigs, dramatic makeup, and retro attire. Focusing on the actress’s face to capture one intense emotion, Prager engages in the construction of images that are intentionally loaded, reflecting her fascination with and understanding of cinematic melodrama. [via MoMA]

Alex's work was recently exhibited at MOMA as part of the 'New Photography 2010' exhibition.

*Click on images for larger view

Behind the Shot: "Since my mum had recently come back to live in LA, I used her in lots of the pictures, as well as her friends. I did a lot more setting up than usual – it was as if I was making a movie. I often watch old films for inspiration; if I like a scene, I'll pause it and take pictures of it. I don't remember the name of the movie that inspired this – it was a scene with Marilyn Monroe getting out of a taxi in the rain. I thought it looked beautiful, with her bright blond hair and yellow dress. I didn't want to recreate the image. I just wanted the idea of the rain and the taxi.

I shot this on the streets of LA. As I was using lights and a rain machine, I needed a permit. I'm really not used to doing things that way. I wanted a liquor store with a bit of colour and a quaint, old-fashioned feel. I drove around LA for three or four days looking. LA is so huge I can usually find what I want eventually.

The woman, Irene, was a friend of my mum's. She'd been a model in her 20s and was used to being taken care of. But we didn't have much of a budget: there was no trailer for her, the car was a fake and leaked. We couldn't control the rain machine, so she kept getting soaked; she was miserable and didn't want to get out of the taxi. I wanted her to look behind her like she was looking at something mysterious but the water was pounding down so hard she would only look down, to stay clear of all the leaks. I was trying to direct her with a walkie-talkie and she couldn't hear me. It was nuts.

And then she looked up for one second and that's the shot I got. Her face was perfectly lit. There's a lot of emotion in there – that's because she was unhappy for real." ~  Prager

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/

Alex Prager was born in Los Angeles in 1979. She was raised by her grand- mother in a small apartment in the suburb of Los Feliz. Her nomadic upbringing saw her splitting her time between Florida, California, and Switzerland without truly settling down long enough for a formal education.

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/


Behind the scenes of Alex's photoshoot for BOTTEGA VENETA

Bottega Veneta SS'11 AOC with Alex Prager from BootLegs on Vimeo.

http://www.alexprager.com/

http://www.alexprager.com/




Accustomed to running a one-woman show on her shoots, where she usually plays photographer, stylist, set-designer and everything in between, Prager was ensnared by the collaborative nature of creating a film. “It’s like taking every art medium and melding it into one,” she says. “It’s incredible!”
http://www.alexprager.com/

Here are some fantastic shorts by Prager that were influenced by film classics.

Eraserhead


The Invisible Man



http://www.alexprager.com/



See more of these shorts here

"Waste Land" images by Photographer/Artist ~ Vik Muniz

Drawing its title from T.S. Eliot’s signature poem (“… what branches grow out of this stony rubbish…”), WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores," self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores’ portraits with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both their dignity and despair as they begin to re-imagine their lives.


An estimated 3,000-5,000 people live in the Jardim Gramacho, 15,000 derive their income from activities related to it, and some that Muniz met come from families that had been working there for three generations. Catadores, like the trash heaps they call home, are shunned to the margins of society and made invisible to the average Brazilian.

“These people are at the other end of consumer culture,” said Muniz. “I was expecting to see people who were beaten and broken, but they were survivors.”

Muniz quickly befriended and collaborated with a number of catadores on large-scale portraits of themselves including Irma, a cook who sells food in the dump; Zumbi, the resident intellectual who has held onto every book he’s scavenged; and 18-year-old Suelem, who first arrived there when she was 7. Calling upon his resources as a world famous artist, Muniz raised more than $64,000 at the esteemed Phillips de Pury auction house in London by selling one of his garbage portraits. 100% of the profits went to the Garbage Pickers Association of Jardim Gramacho.

“I’m at this point in my career where I’m trying to step away from the realm of fine arts, because I think it’s a very exclusive, very restrictive place to be. What I want to be able to do is to change the lives of people with the same materials they deal with every day.” “I grew up poor,” Mr. Muniz says. “Now I’ve reached the point where I want to give back.”

Photographer Profile ~ Ed Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is known as one of Canada's most respected photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.

Born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage at St. Catharines, Ontario, Burtynsky is a graduate of Ryerson University (Bachelor of Applied Arts in Photography) and studied Graphic Art at Niagara College in Welland. He links his early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown to the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places. In 1985, Burtynsky also founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community. Mr. Burtynsky also sits on the board of directors for: Toronto’s international photography festival, Contact and The Ryerson Gallery and Research Center.
 [via edburtynsky.com]