across the ravaged land

all photographs by nick brandt

across the ravaged land is the third series from photographer nick brandt's effort to capture the vanishing world & changing landscape of east africa.  the images above show the petrified creatures that washed up along the shoreline of lake natron in northern tanzania.  brandt found them on the shoreline & then placed them in "living" positions - in a way reanimating them. 

no one is sure exactly how they die - it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake's surface confuses them & the birds crash into the water.  the water has an extremely high soda & salt content causing the animals to calcify, perfectly preserving them as they dry.

this is not the only focus in the book - brandt photographed animals that are disappearing as they are being both aggressively poached or crowded out by a growing population.  "this further sense of foreboding, this greater level of melancholy on my part, informs the way that i photograph the animals in this book as opposed to the previous two."

the work is on display at fahey/klein in los angeles through november 2, 2013.

azzedine alaïa retropective

the palais galliera in paris reopened wednesday after four years of renovations with a tribute exhibit to designer azzedine alaïa.  snaking around the block for the opening was a line of models, editors, designers, artists, celebrities & even the mayor of paris who exclaimed "ça, c'est la classe!"

"the word sexy in not savage enough when it comes to alaïa.  we need a new word," added the musée galliera's director, olivier saillard, who curated the exhibition. "he is like a plastic surgeon, but with scissors. it's an incredible body of work. only a truly great designer can get away with repeating himself for forty years. owning an alaïa is like having an hermès bag. you transmit it from one generation to the next." the exhibition represents over three decades of work but the designs "against time, he's timeless," added saillard. when asked how it felt to see his work displayed, alaïa simply smiled.

this is alaïa's first parisian retrospective & opens to the public on saturday september 28 & runs through january 26, 2014. for more details go here.

out of this world!

cartier

solid gold replica of the 1969 apollo 11 lunar excursion module 

 donna distefano 

the love that moves the sun & the other stars ring 

22k gold, meteorite & diamond

genevieve yang cuff bracelet, 

18k gold, oxidized sterling silver & white diamond

1950's "neutron blaster" toy space gun, 1950s

collection of richard thomas

 claudio pino

sistema ring 

jason mcleod

time traveler constellation cuff 

14k yellow & 18k yellow gold, platinum & turquoise

steven kretchmer design

venus earrings 

polarium, 18K gold & diamond

van cleef & arpels

moon landing pendant, 1969 

yellow gold & ruby

sergey jivetin

star trek pyramid box (open) 

sterling silver

björn weckström

satellite collar, 1988

sterling silver & plastic,

by chuck dimotrovich

satellite earrings

pol bury

earrings & ring suite, 1975, 

gold

pankowski

ring

sterling sliver, 18k gold, ruby & mexican fire opal 

van cleef & arpels 

tampa necklace

white & yellow gold, diamond, sapphire, garnet, spinel & beryl

space has always been in our consciousness & often expressed in jewelry. the ancients wore amulets depicting the moon; in georgian & victorian jewelry we see numerous depictions of the moon, stars, & halley's comet. the mid-20th century saw an explosion of "space age jewelry" which continues through today. 

forbes galleries presents out of this world! jewelry in the space age featuring jewelry that is inspired by space, has been to space, is made out of materials that came from space & materials created by NASA for space exploration. 

club to catwalk: london fashion in the '80s

vivienne westwood with her (then) partner, music manager malcolm mclaren, ca. 1985. photograph by david montgomery.

fallen angel suit by john galliano, 1985.

denim jacket, "blitz" by levi strauss & co. customized by vivienne westwood, 1986.

khaki suit by katharine hamnett, 1985.

(i have that t-shirt!)

denim jacket, "blitz" by levi strauss & co customized by leigh bowery, 1986.

sketch for levi strauss & co denim jacket, "blitz" by stephen jones, 1986.

the victoria and albert museum announced its 2013 exhibition club to catwalk: london fashion in the '80s, curated by the v&a head of fashion, claire wilcox. it will look at how the impact of underground club culture reinvented fashion. more than 85 outfits from designers such as john galliano, vivienne westwood, betty jackson, rifat ozbek, pam hogg & katherine hamnett will be on display.  the show will be divided into fashion "tribes":  fetish, goth, rave, high camp & new romantics.

in addition, the organizers are working to reunite a series of 22 levi's jackets commissioned by blitz magazine & customized by designers that include vivienne westwood, richard cornejo, zandra rhodes, paul smith & jasper conran. (there is also a denim jacket customized by leigh bowery with fringes of bobby pins!)

the show will also include accessories from designers that include judy blame, patrick cox & bernstock speirs and archive magazines such as the face, i-D & blitz.

the show opens in july 2013.

man, this takes me back....i used to stay up all night making "outfits" and getting dressed to go out.  now that "hipster" fashion is available at the local mall i wonder what will happen to the creativity of this generation?  i remember going to new york & seeing all the club kids dressed in crazy outfits & make-up and being so inspired. it was all about originality and creativity.... i'm going to have to dig out my old hamnett t-shirt!

helmut newton at the onassis cultural centre

rouge à lèvres étalé, vogue paris, 1983

bergstrom, au-dessus de paris, 1976

yves saint laurent, rue aubriot, vogue paris, 1975

walter steiger, vogue paris, 1983

monte carlo, vogue us, 1998

a scene from pina bausch's ballet, 1983

yves saint laurent for vogue paris, 1979

elle, 1969

helmut newton had his own unique way of photographing the beauty, sensuality, humour & violence he saw underlying the behavior of people in the world of fashion, luxury & power. this retrospective covers the core aspects of his provocative & often shocking oeuvre, which include fashion, nudes, portraits, sex & humour. newton's classic photography transcends fashion & marks him out as an artist who, brushing aside the limitations imposed by his medium, experimented with subjects & genres; he expanded the scope of contemporary visual culture with his singular vision.

13 november 2012 - 3 march 2013

onassis cultural centre

athens, greece

nihilistic optimistic

my beautiful mistake, 2012 

wheelbarrow, two chairs, stool, books, tube of paint, pencil, wood, steel, aluminium, rubber, cotton sheet

nasty pieces of work, 2008-2009 

two wooden stepladders, discarded wood, broken tools, light projector

self-imposed misery, 2010 

wooden stepladder, discarded wood, light projector

wild mood swings, 2009-10 

two wooden stepladders, discarded wood, light projector

youngman, 2012 

wooden stepladder, discarded wood, light projector

tim noble & sue webster 

photo by peter mallet

tim noble and sue webster/nihilistic optimistic

10 october 2012 - 24 november 2012

nihilistic optimistic is tim nboble & sue webster's first major solo exhibition in london since 2006. featuring 6 large scale works, the show builds upon the artists' sustained investigation into self-portraiture, further deconstructing the relationship between materiality & form which has been so intrinsic to their practice.

constructed principally from discarded wood & other materials, the artists describe these sculptures as 'street compositions'. each work appears abstracted or even unfinished as the debris of the artists' studio - gathered sawdust, wood shavings & tools - lie scattered around the sculptures. a sense of urban chaos is implicit within the construction of the surrounding gallery environment.

the exhibition's dualistic title, nihilistic optimistic, responds to the oppositional forces present within these works, & indeed within the artists themselves; the show is at once constructive & destructive, hopeful & despairing. light & shadow, form & absence, figuration & abstraction all inform one another & exist in a constant state of tension.

david bowie is

cover shoot for aladdin sane photographed by brian duffy, makeup by pierre laroche, 1973.

david bowie in striped bodysuit for aladdin sane tour by kansai yamamoto photo by masayoshi sukita, 1973.

photo collage of manipulated film stills from the man who fell to earth, 1976.

bowie (davie jones) in the kon-rads photographed by roy ainsworth, 1963.

self portrat adopted for album cover of heroes, 1978.

david bowie & william burroughs photographed by terry o'neill handpainted by bowie, 1974.

the thin white duke during the station to station tour by john robert rowlands 1976

in coat designed by alexander mcqueen for earthling album cover photographed by frank w. ockenfels, 1997.

the v&a has been given unprecedented access to the david bowie archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of david bowie - one of the most pioneering & influential performers of modern times. david bowie is will explore the creative processes of bowie as a musical innovator & cultural icon, tracing his shifting style & sustained reinvention across five decades.

the v&a's theatre & performance curators, victoria broackes & geoffrey marsh have selected more than 300 objects that will be brought together for the first time, including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, instruments, films, music videos, set design & album artwork.

the show begins 23 march running through 28 july, 2013.