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Showing posts with label child photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label child photography. Show all posts

Meet Zoey and Jasper, An Adorable Pet Project by Photographer Grace Chon.



Art director turned commercial photographer Grace Chon specializes in animals, lifestyle and celebrities with their pets. Grace, who confesses to having dressed her dogs in ridiculous clothes for years, turned into a baby-hat fanatic once she gave birth to her son Jasper. It wasn't long before she realized that, not only do the hats look cute on her adorable child, but they looked pretty darn sweet on her shy rescue dog Zoey as well.

Inspiring Little Girls Beyond Disney Princesses - The NOT Just A Girl Series by Jaime Moore.



Wedding and lifestyle photographer Jaime Moore had been searching everywhere for some new creative inspiration for her daughter Emma's 5th birthday photos. When researching she noticed the prevalence of girls dressing as pretty Disney Princesses and no matter where she looked, 95% of the 'ideas' and 'how-to's' featured more of the same. Despite loving Disney Princesses herself (who doesn't?), after giving it much thought Jaime really wanted to use REAL women as inspiration for her daughter.

Passionate, Poignant and Personal - The Portrait Photography of Heward Jue.



Heward Jue began his career as an advertising art director, creating campaigns for some of the most visible brands in the country. He developed a keen interest in photography while working with photographers on commercial productions. “It became clear to me that the camera was a very powerful tool for not only bringing my advertising ideas to life, but for expressing my personal view of the world.” Eager to define that vision, Heward developed a love affair with travel and a passion for travel portraiture. His favorite subjects are children. “They are always the most generous in spirit, and remind me of the beauty of simplicity.”

Branded Babies, Real and Silicone, by Dietrich Wegner.


above image composite by if it's hip, it's here

Australian born artist Dietrich Wagner's Cumulous Brand is a series of sculptures and photos in which babies (real and silicone models) are covered in multicolored tattoos in a meditation on how our identities evolve and how we declare them.

Winter Magic. Spellbinding Photographs by Per Breiehagen For Italian Children's Brand Chicco.





I came across these stunning winter landscapes by photographer Per Breiehagen and discovered that they began as a personal project and blossomed into an international ad campaign.




In 2007 Breiehagen photographed his three year old daughter Anja, styled by his wife Lori Evert, as a traditional Nordic elf near his home in Minnesota. The images expertly and magically captured the holiday spirit for his personal Christmas cards.

Several of these images are also available in this lovely children's book, The Christmas Wish.





Encouraged by the feedback, Breiehagen embarked on a much larger project. Born and raised in Norway, his childhood had centered around the fairytales and lore that are rich in Norwegian culture. Stories of elves, trolls and other creatures have inspired his narratives, instilling a sense of magic and mystery in his imagery. “Growing up in a storytelling tradition, these mental images would always be there and certainly influenced my creativity,” he says.





The first round of images went to Getty Images to be used as stock photography. Within a year, the elf girl series had been picked up by agencies in South America, Northern Europe and Asia for a variety of advertising and editorial campaigns, including AT&T. In 2010 ad agency McCann Erickson used the images for Italian baby brand Chicco's holiday campaign.




This year, Breiehagen has worked again with McCann Erickson to shoot his daughter Anja in an exclusive set of images for the 2011 Chicco brand holiday campaign, making the sweet little elf in the red cap the icon for the brand.


above: One of the images as used on Chicco's website.

The images can be seen on billboards, on television, in print and on their web site throughout this holiday season.














Breiehagen and wife Evert are now actively on the hunt for a publisher to create a Christmas book featuring these images. Anja is getting older but Breiehagen hopes her legacy as the little elf girl will continue to represent a timeless holiday spirit.

I have chosen my favorites from his Winter Magic Series to place in this post, to see all the shots, visit Per Breiehagen's site.

To learn more about the props, styling and digital compositing for these beautiful images, read Jacqui Palumbo's detailed article on this project for PDN, here.

all images courtesy of Per Breiehagen

Nina Levy's Family Portraits Make Yours Look Less Frightening.



above: family resemblance, 30" x 24" EDITION OF 6 + A.P.

Artist Nina Levy has been living and working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 1996. A prolific photographer and sculptor, her work has been widely exhibited across the United States, including The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. where her life sized portraits of four artists' heads hung as part of the gallery reopening in 2007 (shown below):


above: a view of the installation in the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian, 2007

above: life-sized self-portrait sculpture Spectator, 2002 (also used in the 2007 National Portrait Gallery installation)

An artist who has long worked with body parts made of oil-painted resin, gypsum or clay, fiberglass, cast polyurethane and other materials for over a decade to create large outdoor sculptures, indoor installations, portrait heads, and self-portraits in many forms, created her own series of family portraits or 'family resemblance' from 2006-2008.


above: Woman with huge fist (self-portrait) 2008

She has a very impressive education, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Yale with a B.A. in English and Art in 1989 and she received a Masters in Fine Arts from The University of Chicago in 1993. She's also the mother of two young boys, whom are frequently the subjects of her recent photographs. But these aren't the kind of family photos you're used to seeing embellishing hallways and mantels.

To say that her portraits of herself and her family, consisting largely of her two sons, Archer, now 6 and Ansel, now 2, are bizarre is an understatement. Creepy and disturbing may be more appropriate descriptors for some viewers.


above: Nina's older son Archer with giant prosthetic baby head,2007

above: Nina's youngest son Ansel with giant prosthetic baby head, 2007

What's respectable, and certainly unexpected nowadays, is that there is no digital manipulation involved in her photographs. She actually sculpts the enlarged body parts or prostheses and then juxtaposes them with her subjects, so that the size relationships you see are actual real physical representations.



Babies eating babies, children cradling what look like lifeless bodies and small-framed, vulnerable boys sporting hulk-like hands and steroidal limbs are the subjects of some of her these recent photos. Here's a look at much of her family portraits and family resemblance photographs, 2006-2008:





Nina explains: "I have been interested in using fragmentation and shifts in scale to explore both discomfort with the human body and with other people"








"I started to make photographs, mostly featuring myself interacting with a series of sculptural props and prosthetics that I modeled and fabricated from clay or plaster and cast in resin," she says.



I am now the mother of two small boys, and the primary subject of my work has become my own dysfunctional parenting and the often overwhelming intensity of small children"






"Ansel, however, boycotted my last photo shoot," says Nina, "and is under-represented... but thanks to the promise of a highly desirable set of action figures, Archer was willing to assist me"







"The photographs were, and still remain, very low tech - there is no digital manipulation," says Nina. "All of the objects and people in the images exist exactly as they appear."



Special thanks to the UK's Telegraph for the quotes from the interview with Nina.

HER PORTRAIT COMMISSIONS:

Her commissioned portrait heads are available cast in resin, ultracal or gypsum painted with oils and in more traditional treatments and materials (bronze, plaster, cement). Please contact Nina Levy for more information.

See her website here.
To check out her work prior to 2002, go here.
all photos: NINA LEVY/REX FEATURES

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