Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players

I know it's been a while since you've seen me around..it's not really for lack of things to talk about...but happily I have been working and haven't had all that much time to DISCUSS all the cool things I have seen and done in the last few months. But I know you miss me, so who am I to disappoint my 3 fans? ;)

Last night I was on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art having a glass of wine under the Big Bambu sculpture, which is a whole other blog post waiting to happen..that thing is amazing so go run to see it if you haven't already. The wine's a little pricey, but thankfully they fill those glasses to the brim, which is why I only had one...either way, on my way back down to civilization the sign for the Leon Levinstein exhibit caught my eye, so I dragged my companion clear to the other side of the museum to have a look.

Leon Levinstein is best known for his candids of New Yorkers, although I was not familiar with him or his work prior to seeing this exhibit. I guess he was also a graphic designer who did not do a lot of assignment work, but shot in his spare time and mainly for his own enjoyment. Well now you can enjoy his work as well, as it is on display through 10/17. It was amazing to see his perspective of the characters of NYC from the '50s, '60's and 70's..the subjects ran the gamut from prostitutes to old neighborhood ladies to sun-bathers on Coney Island. I loved the life that he breathed into each of his subjects and seeing a grittier New York City. Some of the images we saw:

©Leon Levinstein (via Metropolitan Museum of Art)
My favorite shot; I especially liked that behind the passionate makeout display is a shopping bag from the "Meat Store".

©Leon Levinstein (via Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Sweet shot of family napping on the beach

©Leon Levinstein (via Metropolitan Museum of Art)
I would have loved this hipster back in the day.

©Leon Levinstein (via Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Wanna date?

©Leon Levinstein (via Metropolitan Museum of Art)
This chick could totes be hanging out at a Williamsburg Pool Party circa 2009.

Show N Tell

I was invited to join some friends at Dot Editions, a post-production house in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. Gowanus is becoming quite the artists' enclave, a la Williamsburg or Dumbo without the attitude, and the building that Dot is housed in reminds me of old school West Chelsea before the gallery scene really blew up. Owner Rocky Kenworthy is hosting Show N Tell nights, where he invites photographers to come his space, present a slideshow of their work and talk about how and why they got into the photography business.

For some reason, I have become the friend who ends up early at everything (anyone who knows me knows this is a bizarre and abnormal behavior for me, and it must be stopped, pronto!), and, as you can read here, I am a terrible networker, so I walked into the studio, alone, sheepish, holding a box of wine (shut up. boxed wine is cool). Rocky was kind enough to greet me warmly and introduce himself as the owner, and we chatted a bit until my friends arrived and, shortly after, the show began.

The three photographers were all featured in PDNs 30 (every year PDN, the photographer's version of porn, picks 30 emerging photographers and singles them out and showcases them) and were very, very different. Adrien Mueller spoke first, but who could pay attention to what he was saying when he had mouthwatering images of food projecting on continuous loop?
©Adrien Mueller

He talked about his start in photojournalism and his current role as sometime corporate advertising photographer. His work ranges from food to still-life and location/people. Do not look at his website if you are hungry!

Elizabeth Weinberg is a girl after my own heart--she shoots a lot of cool, hip bands, some of whom I've never even heard of (cuz I'm old, and a nerd) but am totally checking out, pinky swear. She has started to move away from the music and is doing more fashion and portraiture. I especially enjoyed the more personal portraits of her younger sister, who is a favorite subject for her.

©Elizabeth Weinberg
This is not a picture of her younger sister, but a picture of the band Beach House...one of the cool, hip bands I've never heard of (oh shut up, have you?).

Last but not least, we saw Gabriele Stabile, a photojournalist who has done a lot of work in Gaza but who has also shot cookbooks for the likes of Ramen King
David Chang, an interesting crossover to be sure.
©Gabriele Stabile

At the end of the night there was a raffle and one of our friends won $250 worth of services from Dot Editions! Which is only one of many reasons why you should attend the next Show N Tell night in mid-May!

More info and pics from Show n Tell night here

It's a Small World (NSFW)

In the last year or so I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with photographer Sarah Small and her photography.

I am a great fan of Sarah's work, it being equal parts humorous and dark, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing.

One of her most recent projects, a book for Toys in Babeland called Moregasm, features beautiful images of beautiful people, accompanying a very modern how-to sex book (I'd like to interject that a male friend and I actually considered posing for some of the pictures before remembering that our friends and family might actually see said pictures...but I digress).

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the opening night of Sarah's exhibit The Delirium Constructions at the Tribeca Y Gallery. Each image invokes contemplation as to why the subjects have been placed together in certain situations. Here are some of my favorite images from her show.


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small

The exhibit will be up at the Tribeca Y Gallery through March 26th. Unfortunately for you they won't be serving the delicious Belgian Delirium Tremens beer (interesting name for a beer, no?). You can also see a wide variety of Sarah's work here.

Christina Hendricks for New York Magazine

Being one of the few people who work in advertising (or maybe even the UNIVERSE) who doesn't watch Mad Men, I never really paid attention to the characters or the actors who played them. I mean, everyone knows who Jon Hamm is, of course, I don't live under a rock, after all! But other than Don Draper, I really didn't know the difference between the characters on the show, they all sort of looked the same to me.

And then I discovered Christina Hendricks while watching the Golden Globes this year. I'm sure I'm the last person in captivity to have noticed Christina's, er, golden globes, but being a woman of curves, I have grown to embrace, appreciate, and applaud beautiful women with shapely, feminine bodies.


(via http://justjared.buzznet.com/)

Christina appears on this week's issue of New York Magazine, and the photography by Marco Grob is stunning.



I was particularly in awe of the inside shot, lit so beautifully and enhancing ALL of Christina's assets. I kind of can't stop staring at it.



Well, if Jon Hamm wasn't enough of a reason for me to jump on the Mad Men bandwagon, maybe Christina will be an incentive. Anyone got a copy of the DVD you wanna loan me?

Joey L and the Cradle of Mankind

Last Saturday I ventured into the urban jungle of Long Island City in support of photographer Joey L's opening, the Cradle of Mankind.

The show, curated by the fabulous ladies at Heart Art Productions , Celeste Holt-Walters and Audrie Lawrence, was housed at The Foundry, a gorgeous 19th century building that was the perfect backdrop to Joey L's cinematic images of natives of Ethiopia.

20 year old Joey L already has quite an impressive portfolio of images as well as extensive travels under his belt. These particular portraits of folks from various Ethiopian tribes are stunning; all of the subjects seems quite relaxed in front of the camera and clearly trust the photographer to do their likenesses justice.

The portraits were displayed throughout The Foundry with a soundtrack provided by Karaoke Killed the Kat's Chris Goldteeth and Lord Easy, and free-flowing booze. There was also a production company shooting footage of the party for a documentary about Joey L and his travels (I think I did a really good job of avoiding the cameras--nobody needs to see my silly mug on tv!)

Congrats to Joey L and Heart Art Productions for an awesome turnout and beautiful show! Check out the pics, courtesy of Celeste Holt-Walters:

America's Refrigerators

I stumbled upon this photo essay at Art Bistro, a really great community for artists and people who love art.

As someone who loves food, photography, and voyeurism, I thought this was pretty brilliant.

Mark Menjivar, a photographer in San Antonio, TX, photographed the contents of various peoples' fridges, and then includes information about said people.

Here are a few of my favorites:


(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)

The woman who resides in this household can bench press over 200 pounds. Note the snake in the freezer.





(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)

This person is the owner of a defunct amusement park, and a former WW II Prisoner of War. He really likes packaged foods, canned goods and fruit cups!

You can see more over here or at http://markmenjivar.com/.