Annie Leibovitz

At the moment I'm totally inspired by photographer Annie Leibovitz. This has been started by an exhibition on in Sydney at the moment entitled 'Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005' which combines the photos of her private and family life with the portraiture she's so famous for. The idea that the two contrast so heavily yet can be combined seems quite interesting to me, purely because it creates such a visually obvious juxtaposition between the two, a stark contrast from glitz and glamour of celebrities to her subtle and banal personal life. The exhibition has an underlying feeling of mortality, also an interesting idea because of the capacity we believe photography to have- to immortalize a moment in time. And now what I really want is the accompanying book to the exhibition...

Over her career Leibovitz has photographed for both Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazines, toured with The Rolling Stones on their 'Tour of the Americas '75', and has since been frequently commissioned by celebrities. Here is some of her stunning photography:

Brad Pitt

John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Queen Elizabeth II

Keith Haring

Anyway, all this has inspired me to try some portraiture! Any volunteers for models?

xx


P.S. The next step for me is to look up Susan Sontag, a beautiful writer and essayist who was romantically involved with Leibovitz. I bet her writing was amazing...
Also, here's a good article on this...

I Love Mail

Yesterday contained a small but exciting change to my health sciences routine; in my pigeon-hole at Knox was an envelope addressed to me in beautiful, elaborate handwriting. Of course, it's not often that you receive such mail, and the sheer beauty amidst the typed university bills everyone else was receiving made it feel so very special. Part of the charm was that I honestly couldn't answer the looming question of who the heck was writing to me.

A slight disappointment was that it wasn't a long hand-written message after all. It contained no news of the weather in a little French town, the political situation in a huge American city, nor the family gossip back home in Wellington. Instead these romantic images floating through my head thanks to an excess of movie-watching and Jane Austen reading, along with thoughts of a secret admirer, dissipated as a small pre-printed card fell out.

But that card itself was wonderful- an invitation to preview the Ben Cauchi exhibition at Brett McDowell Gallery this Friday, which I'm now definitely going to of course.

Anyway, it's made me think just how great hand-writing actually is. And although it turned out not to be one, the  beauty of sending physical letters rather than emails. Sometimes I do curse the age we've grown up in and long for the times of the Bronte's.

Looking back at the envelope now I also realize that the Gallery is stamped on it. Awkward how an emotional response changes how you view things (or don't)...

xx

Intense

Intense, originally uploaded by Zaaane.

Loulou

Loulou 1, originally uploaded by Zaaane.

Sleep

Sleep, originally uploaded by Zaaane.

A photo I took in Colombia, January 2011

Night

Night, originally uploaded by Zaaane.

From my last night out with Alasdair and cameras last year... Good times

Photo Essay: Amazing Libraries Around The World

This photo essay is just inspiring, and I even feel they could have used the library here at Otago University

Ahhh such inspiring places to study! They're certainly much more attractive than the Physics lecture I'm struggling through as I blog this. I can only dream... 

xx

Barnaby Weir

Hey'all!

I'm back after a looong break from the blogging world, excited as hell to get back into it. First and foremost, my thoughts go out to all those families affected by the devastating earthquake in Christchurch last week. It was certainly a sobering down-buzz to our Orientation Week at Otago University. The minute silence yesterday was a great way to think over it; to put yourself into the mindset of families who have lost loved ones and homes, the architecture which has been ruined (the cathedral even needs to be demolished), etc. 

Anyway, to try and bring a bit of positivity back to life: the very day that the earthquake happened I was due to interview Barnaby Weir. This was only two hours after the rumble and so all the phone lines were dead, but luckily the next day it was all sorted. The interview (along with a review which I'm yet to do) will be appearing in this year's second issue of Tearaway, but for now here's the title track from Tarot Card Rock:

Barnaby Weir is the go-to guy of New Zealand music; he would seem to be New Zealand's present-day equivalent to, say, Bob Dylan. His previous projects included the incredibly successful band The Black Seeds, followed by Fly My Pretties and the lesser-known Flash Harry. His music is wonderful and my mates were all willing to confess their jealousy at my interview opportunity. 

Here's to Christchurch, here's to starting Uni, here's to New Zealand Music, and here's especially to Barnaby Weir

xx