artquest.org

Incredible resource for any other artists out there who aren't sure how to build your careers:

http://www.artquest.org.uk/

Art For Life

For my second fashion shoot in 4 years, I couldn't be happier.

My thanks to designer, Josef Cechota; Rockstar, Charlie One (from Ohm Sqaure); Makeup artist, Katka,; and everyone else who chipped in.

Calendar launch, photography auction, and ensuing party: November 4th at the Globe, Prague.

See for www.artforlife.cz for more details.

Laughter and Forgetting, Prague 2009

So, the first LAF exhibition has come and gone.

Under the wide wings of Forum 2000, Martina and her LAF crew of artists and volenteers, managed to to create something that has cleverly placed itself in Czech history.

If your interested in a rather eclectic snapshot of post soviet Czech Republic seen through the eyes of a motley list of photographers, check it out... www.lafproject.org

I thank them for including me, and look quite forward to see how it develops from here.

International Photography Awards

Just a quick but happy note to say that, thanks to Martina’s encouragement and support, my work has been chosen 3rd in the internationally recognized International Photography Awards’ 2009 Fine Art: Abstract Pro category.

(Pretty cool considering that this year the IPA had received an unprecedented 18,000 submissions spanning 104 countries.)

I may still be far from where I would like to be with my art, but affirmations like this feel good in knowing that perhaps I am on the right track.

Spring has Sprung!

Prague Fashion Goes Underground

http://codemode.cz/ucastnici/moda/

Kutiman - YouTube Alchymist

http://thru-you.com

Low-fi new-generation Israeli beat-master cuts and pastes raw gems of obscure YouTube videos and polishes them with an eclectic shine in the light of predecessors from Mozart to Marley and Moby.

Be quick though. Copyright debates have run rampant since this blew up last month, and it already appears that some of the videos have been removed from YouTube.

Personal faves: 3.I'm New, 7.Just a Lady, and 2.This is What it Became

If you hear a squishing sound at any point, I don't think it's a YouTube sample as much as it is the sound of record companies shitting their pants.

Kutiman, bravo brother.

S Magazine

Found an AMAZING magazine yesterday through a rather random email from a girl in Toronto. (Thanks Amanda!)

If you like your sex served with style, you simply have to check it out: http://www.spublication.com

The homage to original fashion pervs Helmut Newton and Terry Richardson is about as subtle as a double-page full-frontal crotch shot….. neatly trimmed, of course.

If this makes absolutely no sense to you, think Italian Vogue meets Playboy.

Gotta love those Danes.

Artafacta

Spoke with an old friend and talented painter from my Cadiz daze last night. www.carloscriado.blogspot.com

He turned me on to www.artafacta.org - an online community of artists living mainly in Spain who express themselves collectively once a month through this very unique webzine.

This month, the so-called assignment is "HERMALDAD" which is a mix between the words "Hermanidad"(fraternity, brotherhood) and "Maldad" (evil).


I recommend to anyone interested in flexing their creative muscles once a month to check it out as well. I already look forward to next month's.

Gracias Matamatador.

Nos vemos en Barcelona....y Praga:)

Back in Black

It’s been a loooooooong time coming, but after an almost three year absence from shooting fashion, I seem to have made up for quite a bit of lost ground this last week.

Needless to say, the nervous energy leading up to my “return”, made me feel as giddy as a high-school schoolboy.

I’ve always said that people in this industry are only as good as the people working around them. And for this, I’m quite thankful to have gotten off to a good start.

Zuzana, Marti, DENISA, Brandon, IVETA….if any of you are reading this, please accept a huge THANK YOU for making the temporary move back so fun, and so easy.

That said, I would still have to re-affirm a certain doubt that I could ever be a truly great fashion photographer.

Luckily, however, one doesn't necessarily have to be a great photographer to make great photographs. And until anyone finds out, that’ll have to be good enough for me.

One small step for man....

I think that there are years that one can plan, and then there are years like 2009, that will just happen to us. No doubt, where many of us will find ourselves 12 short months from now is beyond even the clearest of crystal balls.

Clearly, it is in the face of this uncertainty that we get to test ourselves the most. Endurance, tenacity, and the ability to adapt, improvise, overcome and survive: I believe that it is in these qualities that we will measure ourselves beyond anything as calculated as percentages or quotas.

It would seem in many ways that, this isn’t exactly the ideal year to leave the so-called comforts of shooting for financial gain for more artistic ambitions. Yet to be honest, I don’t feel like I have chosen this time, as much as it has chosen me.

Simply stated, if I can accomplish one thing this year, it would be stop undermining my ability just to pay the bills, and start embracing my talent so as to satisfy my soul.

They say that if you do what you love than the money will follow. I suppose my real mission this year, is to put this theory to the test.

Prague Impressions, Volume 1

Decidedly Confused

Welcome to my confusion: 2009.