artsy forager

Tag: photography

  • Wild Things: Katerina Plotnikova

    Wild Things: Katerina Plotnikova

    I rarely feel more at peace or more excited than when Mr. Forager & I are hiking in the woods.  To be among the wildness, where plants and animals live and roam freely is completely exhilarating and intoxicating.  The forests are full of magic and wonder, it isn’t surprising that so many fairy tales get their start in such a place.  Moscow-based photographer Katerina Plotnikova takes her lens to wild places, creating stunning photographs telling fantastical tales.

    Katerina Plotnikova | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Katerina Plotnikova | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Katerina Plotnikova | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Katerina Plotnikova | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Katerina Plotnikova | artsy forager #art #artists #photography

    She weaves her models into their surroundings, often posing them intimately with real wild animals, producing that beautiful, slightly horrific feeling the best fairy tales provide.  When we are out hiking, I am always blown away by nature’s beauty and bounty, yet continually cautious and on alert, knowing that we are trespassing into the home of wildness.

    To see more of Katerina Plotnikova‘s work, please visit her 500px page and follow her work via her Facebook page.

    All images via the artist’s 500px page.  Artist found via I Need a Guide.

  • April Featured Artist: Alexandra Bellissimo

    April Featured Artist: Alexandra Bellissimo

    April showers bring.. a new Featured Artist!  Yay!  I’ve been having a serious photography moment lately so I’m excited to feature one of my favorite photographic finds of the last year, LA artist Alexandra Bellissimo all throughout the month of April.

    Alexandra Bellissimo | artsy forager #art #artists #collage #photography Alexandra Bellissimo | artsy forager #art #artists #collage #photography Alexandra Bellissimo | artsy forager #art #artists #collage #photography Alexandra Bellissimo | artsy forager #art #artists #collage #photography Alexandra Bellissimo | artsy forager #art #artists #collage #photography

    Alexandra’s work has an incredibly elegant, graphic simplicity.  Nude figures photographed, just a touch of digital manipulation, then natural elements are collaged into the composition by hand.  Human, animal and flora meet, becoming one to create a new, fantastical reality.  The more I look at her work, the more I fall in love with it.  A story is told with minimal language, and I long to hear more.

    Alexandra Bellissimo‘s work will be featured on Artsy Forager all throughout the month of April, but if you can’t wait to see more, head over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see her cover photo, as well as an album of my favorite Bellissimo finds.  Be sure to visit the artist’s website, too!

    PS– A new project collaboration will launch soon featuring work by Alexandra Bellissimo’s work along with three other fabulous artists!  Stay tuned for more details!

    All images via the artist’s website.

  • Oppressive Abundance: Danielle Mourning

    Oppressive Abundance: Danielle Mourning

    As first world citizens, we are so beyond lucky.  We throw away more food than the majority of the world’s population ever sees.  And yet we still continually fuel our desire for more and more.  The work of photographer Danielle Mourning struck me in its quiet melancholy and its lavishness of pattern and lifestyle.

    Danielle Mourning | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Danielle Mourning | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Danielle Mourning | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Danielle Mourning | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Danielle Mourning | artsy forager #art #artists #photography

    In her photographs, we usually find women surrounded by life or luxury, but often looking out, perhaps longing for freedom from the trappings of an abundant life.  Since Mr. Forager and I have been traveling, it has definitely been a slow letting go of material things.  We can only travel with so much, even less now that we’re fitting everything into the back of our car, leaving little room for impulsive hoarding.  This life forces us to seriously evaluate every purchase and for me, anything new has to either replace an existing item or be super-functional or too beautiful to live without.  But I’ve also learned that less can be more.  There is a freedom to be found in a minimal life.  And we are still blessed beyond measure.

    If you’d like to see more work by Danielle Mourning, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Super Naturale: Jacqui Stockdale

    Super Naturale: Jacqui Stockdale

    We are all creatures of our past and present.  Influenced and affected by what has come before us, as well as our current experiences, our future selves a hybrid of what was and is.  In her latest portraiture, Australian photographer Jacqui Stockdale weaves fantastical tales of identity inherited and identity discovered.

    Jacqui Stockdale | artsy forager #art #photography #artists Jacqui Stockdale | artsy forager #art #photography #artists Jacqui Stockdale | artsy forager #art #photography #artists Jacqui Stockdale | artsy forager #art #photography #artists Jacqui Stockdale | artsy forager #art #photography #artists

    Her work has a vintage, tin-type feel, yet the figures we see are utterly contemporary.  Modern masks mimic ancient ritualistic garb and figures pose rigidly as if sitting for a daguerrotype.  But there seems to be a defiance in each face, a fight against a past, perhaps an assertion of the future.

    To see more of Jacqui Stockdale‘s intriguing work, please visit her website.  This latest series of work can be seen in person at Helen Gory Gallery in Australia.

    All images via the artist’s representing gallery website.

  • Long For This World: Rebecca Reeve

    Long For This World: Rebecca Reeve

    Some people are urbanites.  And I used to think I might be one.  But then we lived in Seattle for three months ( and not even in a super-urban neighborhood! ), and I quickly confirmed that while I love and occasionally need a visit to a concrete jungle, the city just isn’t me.  Give me trees and an unobstructed view across the landscape and my heart is at peace.  In her series, Marjory’s World, New York photographer Rebecca Reeve captures the experience of our loss of connection to the natural world.

    Rebecca Reeve | artsy forager #art #photography #nature Rebecca Reeve | artsy forager #art #photography #nature Rebecca Reeve | artsy forager #art #photography #nature Rebecca Reeve | artsy forager #art #photography #nature Rebecca Reeve | artsy forager #art #photography #nature

    Taking inspiration from the 1800s Dutch practice of covering mirrors, landscape paintings and portraits, Reeve chose to point her lens toward the disappearing landscape of the Florida Everglades.  Using household drapery to frame each scene, the photographer reminds us of our continuing forsaking and consumption of the natural world.

    To see more of Rebecca Reeve‘s work, please visit her website.  Happy weekend, Artsies!  Mr. F and I are planning to immerse ourselves in the magnificence of the Redwoods a bit this weekend.  Hope you can get out and enjoy the beauty around you.

    All images via the artist’s website.

  • Fragile Figures: Angelica Garcia

    Fragile Figures: Angelica Garcia

    Remember the old days, when all your photographs were on paper and were precious and fragile?  If you’ve ever had a photo destroyed by heat or liquid, you know what I’m talking about.  The once familiar image becomes distorted, a face we knew now obliterated.  The work of Venezuelan photographer Angelica Garcia reminds us that though our photographs can now be “backed up” and last forever, their subjects are still fragile and fading.

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    The photographer manipulates each photograph, not with digital software, but hand manipulates each one post printing.  Purposefully distorting and abstracting each figure, we are left with ghostly apparitions of what was once.  The plainclothes style of each figure makes them universal and relatable,  someone we might have known.

    To see more of Angelica Garcia‘s work, please visit her see.me page.

    All images via the artist’s see.me page.  Artist found via The Artful Desperado.

  • Humor in the Chaos: Zack Seckler

    Humor in the Chaos: Zack Seckler

    It’s been a stressful few weeks, ya’ll.  Whenever we get toward the end of Mr. Forager’s contract and we start looking at new places to go, the stress just piles on.  The whole process is definitely not for the faint of heart!  But everything has fallen into place and while things are still crazy while we get packed up and plan our road trip to Eureka, we’ve gone from stressed out to excited.  I discovered the work of photographer Zack Seckler in the midst of a particularly stressful day and the quiet humor calmed my soul.  Perfect way to end the week!

    Zack Seckler | artsy forager #art #photography Zack Seckler | artsy forager #art #photography Zack Seckler | artsy forager #art #photography Zack Seckler | artsy forager #art #photography Zack Seckler | artsy forager #art #photography

    I love the ironic juxtaposition and obliviousness of Seckler’s subjects.  They reminded me that the joy and fun in life is still all around, even in the midst of trial.  You just have to be able to see it!  Happy weekend, Artsies!

    To see more of Zack Seckler’s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • The Everyday is Beautiful: Marie Chantale Turgeon

    The Everyday is Beautiful: Marie Chantale Turgeon

    It’s so easy to take the gift of each day for granted.  We move through the paces of everyday living, often forgetting to revel in its beauty.  In her polaroid series, artist Marie Chantale Turgeon captures those moments of the everyday that can take our breath away, if only we take the time to notice.

    Marie-Chantale Turgeon | artsy forager #art #photography Marie-Chantale Turgeon | artsy forager #art #photography Marie-Chantale Turgeon | artsy forager #art #photography Marie-Chantale Turgeon | artsy forager #art #photography Marie-Chantale Turgeon | artsy forager #art #photography

    There are so many things in life to distract us from our current view and often, we fall into the trap of thinking that the everyday isn’t so special.  Yet, that is what each of our lives is made up of.  Those ordinary moments, standing at the kitchen sink or sitting down for a meal, those are where we define who we are.  If we can’t see the beauty in the ordinary, how will we ever recognize the exceptional?

    To see more of Marie Chantale Turgeon‘s work, please visit her website.  Have a happy weekend, Artsies!  Enjoy some everyday moments.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • A Letter to Molly: Graeme Mitchell

    A Letter to Molly: Graeme Mitchell

    It seems such a shame that we hardly write letters anymore.  Especially love letters.  There was once a time when a couple’s main source of communication before marriage was the exchange of letters.  Putting thoughts and feelings into words, on paper, give them an importance and a permanence– and something to pour over when our love is far away.  But then there is something even sweeter about expressing your feelings in a non-verbal way.  Brooklyn photographer Graeme Mitchell created a beautiful book of drawings and photographs for his wife-to-be, Molly, presented to her on their wedding day.

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    The juxtaposition of those little abstract drawings ( perhaps they are a secret short-hand? ) and tender scenes from their life together speak so much love.  It’s true that it is in those small moments that our hearts swell most, the every day glimpses of a life built together with the person you love most in the world that fortify us when things get tough.

    I imagine that when Mitchell’s wife Molly looks back at this collection of images, she doesn’t think of the spectacle of a wedding day, but of the constant, every moment of every day love her husband expressed without saying a word.  Perhaps his gift might inspire you to find ways to express the tenderness you feel to your own loved ones.

    To see more of Graeme Mitchell‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Color Harvest: Pink Passion

    Color Harvest: Pink Passion

    I don’t wear much pink, I’ve never decorated with it much, but it seems to have some strange kind of power over me ( see blog logo & graphics! ).  I find the shade completely irresistible in artwork, and in, well, pretty much everything, about this time every year.  I’m going to blame it on succumbing to mass advertising!  Ha.  You must admit, it is a lovely shade, this shade of love.  The color of lips and roses and sunsets, it isn’t any wonder we find it so gosh darn romantic.

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    image by artsy forager

    Here’s a little round up of a few rose-colored favorites from around my Pinterest boards lately..

    Pink collage

    found here here here here here and here

    And just because it’s so fun and one of my favorite movie scenes ever..

    What’s your pink passion?  Dusty rose?  Hot fuchsia?  Brilliant magenta?

    All image sources linked above.