Bootsie's pictures

My friend Bootsie is an AMAZING photographer. She took up the art form just a couple of years ago, but she's already got such a great eye for composition, color, and mood that I just have to share her work with our little readership. Aren't her photographs lovely? Such diverse styles, but there seems to be a thread of melancholy that runs through most of them that really strikes me...

{For more of Bootsie's photography, see her flickr page: *Bootsie.
She also has great taste which can be admired on her tumblr page.}

{all images courtesy of Bootsie's flickr}

Saul Leiter

Image courtesy of observatory.designobserver.com

I have been watching, or more like engrossed in, the "Mildred Pierce" mini-series on HBO. Even before the first parts aired, I watched "Making of Mildred Pierce", which was honestly nearly as interesting as the series itself , and it was the first time I had heard mention of the photographer/painter Saul Leiter.

Director Todd Haynes credits Production Designer Mark Friedberg with introducing him to the work of Leiter. According to Haynes, the photographer's use of reflection, use of windows or glass, seemed give a truer sense of being in a specific place at a specific time and that was the perfect feel for this period piece.

In a 2005 NYTimes review by Roberta Smith, she writes:

"Unlike such well-known street photographers as Robert Frank and William Klein, Mr. Leiter was a photographer less of people than of perception itself. His painter's instincts served him well in his emphasis on surface, spatial ambiguity and a lush, carefully calibrated palette. But the abstract allure of his work doesn't rely on soft focus, a persistent, often irritating photographic ploy, or the stark isolation of details, in the manner of Aaron Siskind or early Harry Callahan. Instead, Mr. Leiter captured the passing illusions of everyday life with a precision that might almost seem scientific, if it weren't so poetically resonant and visually layered."

I love that last part- poetically resonant and visually layered....When I did ultimately look up Leiter's work, I was moved and I could also see just how much his photographs informed Haynes and inspired his film making.

So if you have the opportunity, try to catch "Mildred Pierce" and if you don't- take in some of Leiter's work...

Image courtesy of vananodyne.blogspot.com

  Image courtesy of jacksonfineart.com
  Image courtesy of jacksonfineart.com
  Image courtesy of red-tshirt-blog.blogspot.com
 

Image courtesy of jacksonfineart.com 

 

Image courtesy of jacksonfineart.com

spots of time

My friend Sarah is the amazing photographer behind "spots of time photography." I think she can make anything look lovelier in one of her photographs. Just take a look at the series of pictures she's taken of miniature toys for her baby boy's room. I love the light and the captured texture and just the warmth of the animals. What lovely little scenes!

images by "spots of time" photography

Aline Smithson's "In Case of Rain"

I keep going back to Aline Smithson's photo series, "In Case of Rain" (discovered on kris atomic) with its beauty and brightness on this rainy and gloomy day. Hope you fall in love with it too....

"We live in a world of technical distractions. I see my children gathered around their computers as though it's a summer campfire, faces aglow, as they peer into a world of friends and fantasy, participating in a new form of entertainment that further remove them from the childhood that I experienced.

Today's generation has lost touch with the activities that previous generations have enjoyed—reading a good book in a comfortable chair, playing board games on a rainy day, flipping through Life magazines, or sprawling out on the living room rug while listening to records and reading the backs of album covers.

And it's because of this that I have been looking at book shelves and untouched childhood pursuits with a new eye. With great sadness, I realize that these objects will someday be obsolete, at least in their current incarnations. And like a curator of antiques, I see them now as beautiful objects to be admired and preserved, if only on film.

I can only hope for rain, a heavy rain and maybe a power outage."

— Aline Smithson on her photo series, "In Case of Rain"

the new "us"

"Ladies who Lunch"

Anyone remember that "Seinfeld" episode where George confessed his love of velvet by admitting that, if it were socially acceptable, he'd be "draped in velvet"? Yeah, as an analogy this might seem a little goofy, but it totally speaks to how much we love the photography of alice b. gardens here at "Hiving Out" - if we could we'd cover the blog with it (and kinda already have by posting her images here and here).

So, in a desire to spring clean the blog and change out our "Mad Men" avatars, we are so pleased that the talented photographer is letting us use her "Ladies who Lunch" to represent us. Though we're still figuring out who is who (though both Mae and I agree that the lady on the right is Lorelei even if we can't articulate exactly why that is...) - we are thrilled with the image and how fancy and pretty it makes the blog look So thanks again, Elle, we are truly smitten with your work!

{Below are also some of my favorite images from alice b. gardens, but you've also got to check out her other two beautiful etsy shops (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ellemoss and http://www.etsy.com/shop/birdandbloke) as well as her genius "music meets image" blog, http://alicebgardens.blogspot.com/, which is just one of my absolute favorites.}

"Before the Party"

"Pegs"

"Somewhere"

"Tiny Dancer"

"i luv books"

P.S. I love that in this last picture there is a volume of Dorthy Parker's work because it's also a good way to to remind you about our blogiversary giveaway....

"under"

I'm loving the photographs titled "under" by Brock Davis via his flickr photostream, Laser Bread. So fun and clever!

Nickolas Muray

I love a good discovery! On the always fun blog, KRISATOMIC, I found and fell in love with the photograph at the top of this post. I just adore the crispness of color, the composition, the slight furrow in the sleeping girl's brow. Turns out that the photographer, Nickolas Muray, was one of the first major commercial photographers and master of using color.

There's a little bit of a Norman Rockwell feel to Muray's work, but that actually appeals to me because a lot of his images also have a sense of humor about them and are so beautifully composed and lit (plus, I'll admit it, I kinda a sucker for Mr. Rockwell too).

Below are a few of my favorite images that Muray took in the 1930s and 40s (these are part of the George Eastman House archive).

Turns out that Muray also had a long term relationship with Frida Kahlo and took gorgeous pictures of her that also captured his talent and love of color. Aren't these lovely?

Nickolas Muray'a photographs of Frida Kahlo via Smith Kramer Traveling Exhibitions