Invisible Man

Chinese artist Liu Bolin spends up to 10 hours being painted by world famous painters so that he can fully merge with his surroundings in hopes of becoming invisible by occupied passersby. Critics have called him a fraud and a cheat but the pictures below is the result of painstaking hours of patience, intricate painting, and most of all, a higher level of creative innovation.

Waldo just throws on his striped red-and-white outfits then sits among thousands of village idiots and waits to be found. Liu never wears the same outfit twice and is a self-sufficient, one man show. Need I say who wins? New and improved. Primped then polished.


"In a series of mind-boggling pictures Liu melts into any background, almost entirely invisible in front of red phone boxes, Chinese flags and even earthquake rubble.

It means people walking by while he is carrying out his performance often have no idea he is nearby until he moves away. Liu said he wanted to show how city surroundings affected people living in them and how.

He said the inspiration behind his work was a sense of not fitting in to modern society and as a silent protest against the Government's persecution of artists"

 

"Candice Does Copenhagen" by Mario Testino

If you do not have a clue as to who Mario Testino is, then I suggest that you swiftly click on the familiar x button on your tab and begone until clue in obtained, thankyouverymuch. I might not be a massive fan of all of his work but Testino is the Godfather of the fashion industry. His best friends are supermodels Kate Moss and his muse, Gisele Bundchen. Truth be told, he sometimes adopts the "whatever-the-artist-defecates-is-art" attitude (skim through his "Rio de Janeiro" book online - it vouches for that).


This post is about his latest shoot "Candice Does Copenhagen" for V magazine. I am fond of it for 2 reasons:

1. Considering that Denmark is my makeshift home, Copenhagen has become my makeshift city.

2. Photos of models stripping down to the bare basics gives you a reason to believe in Mother Nature's kindness again (however, all that goes to hell when it's time to face reality in your alone, in front of your full-length mirror). See, it's great to hear the naked truth except when it's the truth about what you look like naked. Either way, Candice & co. have nothing to worry about.

Greg Kadel

Now that I've attracted your full attention, here is visionary shutterbug and short movie-maker Greg Kadel. He may have mingled with the best of them and done more than his share of mingling with the mainstream crowd (celebrities and otherwise), Kadel held on to his authenticity as tightly as a priest to any given Sunday's altar boy. He puts the Greg in gregarious, with photographs speaking volumes to whomever, reminding the world of the beauty of the human race (or its potential, at least).

Colors or monochrome, the content is always captivating... A creative powerhouse minus the controversy/shock factor which is impressive considering the overpriced glossy pages and the everchanging world of fashion never bore of him, even after over a decade on the scene.

Voila, mes artistes!

Philip Toledano

Take Camus' theatre of the absurd could be transformed into a photograph, New York-based photographer Philip Toledano is as close as it can get. His work has the "HOW did he do that?" factor. In his work "Hope & Fear", where he explores external manifestations of our internal desires (which mostly happen to be materialistic or appearance-related), the costumes worn are all real. How that is possible is absolutely beyond me. His collection "Days with My Father" chronicles the last moments of his father's life. He's also quirky. I found this in a recent interview with him and thought it was charming.

Phil Toledano's Top 5

"Whenever I read people s top ten lists, I always wonder if they ve spent weeks Googling strange and obscure books/movies. Then again, they might actually BE interesting.

As I look at my top 5 list, I think I may actually be catatonically boring:

Chicken fried Rice/Mint Chip Ice cream (I m counting that as one, and don t try and stop me)
Halo
Light and the way it changes (I know it sounds poncy, but it s true)
The Clash
Linguistic acrobatics"

I found it almost impossible to select a handful of favorites so here you go. Be charmed by the brilliance of Philip Toledano.

Rankin

Real, raw, rowdy
Artistically decadent
Never to be shown to minors (well, what the heck, I discovered him when I was sixteen.)
Killer composition 
Instantly intriguing 
Neurotically appealing

Forgive my obvious bias but I have dwindled countless hours away ogling at Rankin's works. He covers fashion and portrait photography but his erotic/artistic nudes definitely steal the show. Similarly to Richardson (the 2nd featured artist), the excess flesh and that voyeuristic feeling that you can't shake are present. But Rankin's use of color, model choice, conceptual frameworks that'll put you in a creative trance and the general aesthetic appeal that he injects into his photographs place him on an even higher pedestal. He's also the co-creator of the magazine Dazed & Confused (a MUST if you are interested in fashion photography and popular culture). The recurrent beautiful blonde is his girlfriend, Tuuli.

Visual hedonists, enjoy the sheer talent that is Rankin.