Foto Motel

Stephen Crowley hits up "Tableaux Vivant"

Bought the NYT today at Starbucks on 7th & G because of the beautiful poster like image of Bush and Alito by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters on the front page. How could I resist the blurry absence of George and the lost-in-space puckered kiss of Alito. Well was I in for a pleasant surprise on page A18-A19. That's right, a Stephen Crowley spread. This guy's work and the forward thinking of his editors has produced an amazing image. I presume it to be two images again (see earlier post HERE). This is the newspaper version of the triple fold-outs Leibovitz does for Vanity Fair. See HERE & HERE. Frankly Alex, I'll take Stephen Crowley for the NYT for a dollar (in DC) over Vanity Fair any day. Though, I do a a sweet spot or two for it.

Talk about telling looks. Bush looks down. Alito spys on Bush to his right from almost closed eyelids. An empty chair to his left. The Alito family stand in the second panel. Daughter and son both look down. Maybe mesmerized by the positions the unseen photographers must take on the floor to make a picture of their father. Only his wife is seen proudly looking in the direction of the podium. Random photographers in foreground and one hiding behind a plotted plant. Not only is Bush pictured, but we get two others presidents as well. A Portrait of Kennedy is tucked away in the center of the image, arms folded looking down. Clinton's portrait beems above the Alito family. And wouldn't you know it, his painted hand appears to be on Laura Alito's shoulder. This image by Stephen Crowley is almost pure American "Tableaux Vivant" history painting.

Robin Gavhin, I hope you explore this nominee and his family through their fashion sense as you did Robert's earlier, HERE.

Madonna sited in DC...

...sorry, the other Madonna. Walking up Connecticut Avenue in DC I passed a long line of newspaper boxes and stopped at the "madonna and child" on Friday's cover of the NYT. The colors, the focus are beautiful. The reference to the "madonna and child" is helped by the gray cloth wrapped around the mother's head and the impoverished surronding in the image caused by the earthquake on the Pakistan/Indian border. Not wanting to put any more of a "western eye" on a woman and child that are unknown to me, I'll stop.

The photodesk at the NYT has once again proved they have a great eye. Photographer Gurinder Osan for the Associated Press deserves much of the credit. See more of Osan's work HERE and HERE.

Donate to UNICEF.

Tagging Madonna

Madonna.com wants you to tag. The "Icon's" newly launched site now has a place for fans to send in their collected pictures of Madonna. By sending an email to tagging@madonna.com of a photo "tagged" with numerous one word descriptions. This will create a searchable archive much like Wikipedia. I hope its as self correcting too. Guidelines are posted HERE. I find this interesting because there is a small history of photography that runs through Madonna, from Herb Ritts to Horst P. Horst.  I wonder if people realize this?

Tagging brings the fans together
Strike a tag
What it feels like for a tag
Desperately Seeking a tag
Don't tag Me
Tagline
Tagging Up
Live to tag
Tag another day
Sidewalk Tag
You must be my lucky-tag
Like a Tag
Like a Tag
Beautiful Tagger
Justify My Tag
Where's the Tag
Tag a Bow

Yeah, I couldn't help myself.

Who loves a magazine

The American Society of Magazine Editors announces their list of the top 40 magazine covers from that past 40 years. The 1981 RollingStone cover of Lennon & Ono doing their best ying yang for Annie Leibovitz, tops the list. HERE's the rest of the list. AL shot the number two cover-image of a pregnant Demi Moore on Vanity Fair in 1991. The controversy over that image was only barely surpassed by the one that surrounded a presidential candidate.

Thanks to the Reliable Source.

Bush Clinton Happy Together

Photographer, Doug Mills was allowed to capture our past two Presidents frolicking (almost skipping) out of The Oval Office together. Click HERE.

Abercrombie-Vogue

Some things I never got to post this summer:

• The Polaroid Book, from Tashen
• "Who is Platon?"
• My fantastical idea to collect every magazine cover by Herb Ritts.
• Pitt & Jolie's romp through W
• David Hilliard
• Being underemployed
• American & Other Works, by Andres Serrano
• Why I bought the 800 paged Vogue
• My desire to buy Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs from ebay. I bought a red hoody instead.
• Leitmotif: Photos of celebrities with guns; Madonna and here, Morrissey, Nancy Sinatra, Brad Pitt, Mapplethorpe

Richard Avedon's latest book

Looked through the book, Woman In The Mirror, published posthumously by Richard Avedon, recently during a very un-Funny Face lunch break at Olsson's. Not into this one. The NYT had this to say, "Avedon's photography animated women with spirit and determination." Read the rest HERE. OK, I get it, Dick liked women. Well, I like men and I'm over this. Seriously, In what seems like a pattern of a new book of Avedon's every two years, Woman In The Mirror, is the weakest. We've seen more than 90% of this stuff too recently in other collections. I will say, it was nice to recall a previous fall afternoon when I discovered Avedon's "return to fashion" in the New Yorker years ago, where Nadja Auermann was paired with a skeleton. Which brings up the question, when will his last project (unfinshed), for the New Yorker, "Democracy" be put in book form? Might I suggest pairing it with his 1976 work for Rolling Stone, "The Family," as was done earlier this year at Andrea Rosen Gallery. An election year is right around the corner, get ready.

Seperation of Cover & Ad

Wanna see George Clooney turn into Ralph Lauren?Then buy (well just browse) the premier issue of Men's Vogue. Its like a really really simple flip book. See GC in a camel cashmere double-breasted coat on cover. See Ralph in a camel cashmere double-breasted coat in ad on next page. At least Ralph knew better and keeps his hands in his pocket, unlike George who fell for the old "put one finger to your mouth cause its sexy" photographer's trick. Cause, well its sexy. That's as far as got.

I bought it so you don't have to. But you should make up your own mind.

Newsstand Marriage

A famous couple avoids being seen in public and eventually breaks up. But they are forced to meet on the newstand. Here's a close example, minus the breakup. See HERE and HERE.