start each day like it's your birthday

kolfinna kristófersdóttir, kate king, ophelie rupp, moa aberg & lena hardt photographed by richard bush & styled by véronique didry for i-D beauty.  easy for me to do today!

no alarms and no surprises, please.....

radiohead - no surprises.

behind the curtain at the new york city ballet

all photographs by henry leutwyler.

"this is the secret," says photographer henry leutwyler. "to completely blend in, to become invisible."

leutwyler spent last winter capturing backstage images in the new york city ballet's rehearsal studios. 

there is a book, ballet, (out in december from steidl) and an exhibit (at the foley gallery through january 6).  you can see more images at new york magazine.

О Мой Лорд!

nastya kusakina photographed by mariano vivanco & styled by ekaterina mukhina for vogue russia, december 2012.

home is where the heart is

adrian bosch photographed by tomas falmer & styled by isabelle thiry for sleek magazine #36.

norbert ghisoland

norbert ghisoland was born on 17 march 1878 at la bouverie, a village in the borinage district of belgium. his father was a deep-seam coal miner who wanted a better life for his sons: photography for one & carpentry for the other. when the photographer was killed in an accident, norbert, the carpenter, took his place. in 1902, aged 24, he moved to another village called frameries & opened his studio at 43 grand'rue. behind the studio's two display windows was his family home, his studio & his darkroom. he would live & work there until his death on 2 november 1939.

in the early years of the twentieth century, a stream of ordinary people filed into the studio, for full length portraits or photos for identity cards, taken in front of a trompe-l'oeil background or a simple white backdrop.

in total, he produced more than 90,000 glass-plate negatives, each numbered and filed in small cardboard boxes, of which the last 45,000 remain today. his son, edmond, took over the business when he returned from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1945 & continued to photograph the children & grandchildren of his father's portraits.  celluloid film replaced the glass plates. today, marc ghuisoland, edmond's son & norbert's grandson, continues to work in the same studio using digital photography.

vogue paris

carla bruni sarkozy photographed by mert alas & marcus pigggott for vogue paris december 2012/january 2013. i must say if her name wasn't on the cover i would barely recognize her.