Film and Photography

These photographs of 1950s New York by Saul Leither, an American photographer and painter, are currently on show at a major retrospective of his work at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany. Born in 1923, Leiter came to New York in 1946 and, with no formal training, made his living as a photographer shooting fashion magazine spreads for publications such as Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. In his spare time he walked the streets of the city photographing everyday New York life, often with an expired roll of color film, which created the distinctive, muted colours.

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This hypnotic, interactive art installation by Annica Cuppetelli and Cristobal Mendoza combines a physical structure of 144 vertical lengths of elastic that are illuminated by a software-driven video projection. The projection reacts to the movement of passers by creating waves of pattern across the structure like ripples in water.

The installation was shown at Bienal de Video y Artes Mediales in Chile last month. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another great making of video, this time of Faceture by Phil Cuttance.The vases are handmade faceted vessels that are produced individually by casting a water-based resin into a mold, which is then manipulated to create a unique form before each casting. Cuttance says of the process: “The mould’s final shape, and strength, is dictated by which triangular facets I pop in and out. I do this each time I ready the mould for the next object, meaning that no two castings are the same.” This is a captivating example of a device used to make an object being just as beautiful and thoughtfully designed as the object itself.

I’ve been slightly obsessed with dutch design studio Studio Drift since I saw them in Milan last year at Ventura Lambrate, where they showcased their delicate lighting installations Fly Light and Fragilefuture. Here’s a video of them installing Fly Light, an interactive lighting installation, that responds to people within close proximity to the its floating light tubes. The two pieces are currently on display at Curious Minds: New Approaches in Design, an exhibit at The Israel Museum until April 30, 2012.