Louisa Lee: Your photos seem very spontaneous. Do you have an idea in advance of what you’re going to photograph?
Petra Noordkamp: Most of the time I have a specific idea of what I want to photograph: lovers in an intimate situation, healing men hanging around the streets or dark seventies hallways. Sometimes I just wander around in big cities and around their outskirts and photograph more intuitively. I search for situations and locations which have a cinematographic quality.
LL: Despite your photos suggesting a further narrative, information pills they have a real stillness about them. Is this something you intend?
PN: It is not something I intend but when I come home after a trip and make a selection from my negatives it is the photos which possess this stillness that I like the best.
LL: Some of the photos, for instance your ‘Lovers’ sequence, are very intimate. How do you go about capturing this?
PN: I have to admit I really sneak around people. I never ask for permission to photograph them because I want to capture the ‘real’ emotion of that moment. I have a small zoom lens and I make these photos like a paparazzi. I also like the tension and excitement which goes along with these secret operations.
LL: Your series of photos for the Purple Journalare very beautiful, what initially inspired them?
PN: For a long time I tried to photograph young and older men in public places. I like the way men hang around on the streets. How they just stand on a street corner and look and wait. I am fascinated by the male gaze. So in a book about modern architecture in Casablanca I saw beautiful pictures of men hanging around an enormous public swimming pool hollowed out of the rocks. Because most of the pictures were taken in the fifties it wasn’t clear if the swimming pool was still there. I found the photos so appealing that I bought a ticket to Casablanca to take a look for myself. I discovered that this large public swimming pool was demolished in 1986 to make way for Casablanca’s grand mosque, but to my joy there were still some swimming pools left on the boulevard de la Corniche. Unfortunately there were no men hanging around the pool but I really loved the architecture of the pools and the buildings around them so I decided to photograph them.
LL: You’ve also produced a series of book covers. Is text and photography important to you?
PN: I like it very much when my photos are used as a book cover or in a magazine together with a short story or a different kind of text. I think it has to do with my love for magazines and books. I’ve worked in a bookshop for ten years now and I worked as an editor for magazines for quite a while. But I also think my work really comes to life in combination with a text, maybe it has to do with the narrative quality I am searching for. I would be very interested to do more with this. I am thinking of using a combination of a fictional story combined with photos like W.G. Sebald used to do in his books.
LL: Which author’s work would you like to produce a cover for?
PN: I am very inspired by the work of A.M. Homes, Lorrie Moore, J.M. Coetzee andRichard Yatesso it would be great if I could produce a cover for a book of one of these authors.
LL: Who or what else influences your photographs?
PN: I collect second-hand film-scripts; books in which a scenario is combined with photos from the movies. These books are an enormous inspiration for my archive and photo project Cinecitta. This archive consists of photos of locations which remind me of images I have seen in films of Antonioni,Rosselini and Godard; filmmakers who really influenced my way of experiencing and looking at the world. I admire the way the artist Aglaia Konrad uses her photos of buildings and cities in installations and books and I love the songs of PJ Harvey. Her CD‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’, inspired me to make the photo series ‘Pictures of the Sea.’ Also, the book ‘Youth’ by J.M. Coetzee made me look more intensely at ‘normal’ men.
LL: Where might we see your work next?
PN: I am working on different projects at the moment but I have no exhibitions planned in the near future. You can see my work on the internet onmy website and on two blogs. One at petranoordkamp.blogspot.com where I write about my latest projects and publications and the other is a more commercial one where I post pictures which I think will work as book covers.
Written by Louisa Lee on Thursday February 18th, 2010 3:04 pm
Queenly gowns. That’s the phrase that jumps to mind whilst watching Ashley Islam’s elegant collection. These are Red Carpet gowns for the red carpet, rx bridal for weddings, for the opera. Sleek Calvin Klein-esque nude maxi one shoulder dresses. These were power gowns coloured in Royal Blue, they gathered at the waist and fell full-length to the floor.
The hair and eyes were reminiscent of the Egyptians with sleek cat eyes and heavy gold lids. The hair was slicked back as if in homage to Greek goddesses.
A varied collection, Islam presented nude-tight-short-short body conscience dresses embellished with colour piping that was heavy-on-the-ruffles. It was an inspired jolt of energy reminiscent of Christopher Kane.
Continuing the laid back glamour, the collection heavily featured bustiers and corsets inlaid into the dresses, whether a strong feature or a material stitched to create a thought of a corset.
Islam displayed technical prowess with the short short seashell dress, the stitching of tiny pearls across the whole dress was particularly beautiful.
Summer dressers were present in sheer printed fabric, one dress provided a nod to the recent zip trend and the collection was filled with drapes and pleats
Continuing the varied nature of the collection and displaying the multiple thoughts occupying the designer’s head, a delicate, watercolour print blown up across the fabric stalked through down the catwalk.
The collection was democratic in the wide selection of dresses presented, each dress was presented in a maxi and mini version. It was a catwalk for the night. From the column to the cut out draped backless dresses, Ashley Islam sent nightwear flooding down the catwalk.
Eastern Princesses walked in their bridal gear, body conscious numbers, the fabric taped down until fanning out across the runway like the froth of the sea. No doubt we will see Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child (seated front row) gracing the red carpet in one of these designs soon.
Catwalk Hand Held snaps: Elizabeth Johnson
Despite last year’s reports of the economic sky falling and the gathering clouds sending buyers scurrying for safe ground, viagra 40mg one designer stood defiantly against the whipping winds of change and scanned the skies for a little golden sunshine. And gold he found….caves of the stuff.
He found refuge in the troves of religious iconography, viagra mosaics and relics in the massive hull of the Royal Academy of Art’s epic exhibit Byzantium. Designer Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi explains the concept behind the opulent armor-like boleros and satin sheaths, “It’s based on Byzantine women who have been woken up from a crypt and hauled on to the catwalk”. Wish I looked that good when I woke up, not to mention after a 2,500 year long catnap! What he has awoken is an appetite for unabashed opulence.
Qasimi’s legion of epic angular boleros of heavily jeweled gold crowned regal scarlet sheaths. Tomato satins and billowing turquoise gowns followed luxurious ivory jodhpurs. His Midas touch glazed eyelids and jackets alike in gold foil while halos of jutting geometry transformed models into saintly icons. The integration of geometry likely originated with one of the designer’s other inspirations, 84 yr old Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian whose use of mirror mosaics, Islamic geometric pattern and reverse-glass painting in modernist works.
Qasimi enlisted the skills of British jewellery designer Scott Wilson, who has worked with groundbreaking designer Hussein Chalayan, to collaborate on the project. One of the most enticing of which were the bejeweled (and interchangeable!) spats.
The bubble of Byzantium existed in the Dark Ages, in may ways not disimilar to tremors we’re experiencing these days. While the Roman Empire disintegrated around them, plunging Europe into the Dark Ages, the rich island nation of Byzantium continued to pour money into the arts by commissioning religious works . While the safety and priveleges enjoyed by some evaporated to be replaced by a constant state of danger and uncertainty, others simply exchanged one set of miseries for another. A fitting era to look to for clues. “I wanted to create something optimistic to lift us from all the financial doom and gloom,” said Al Qasimi.
Byzantium continued to advance the arts in a cloak of spirituality when the lights went out in the rest of the world and it helps to remember that there would have been no Renaissance without it.
Currently in talks with leading department stores to produce a capsule evening-wear line aimed at Middle Eastern women we can just imagine Dubain princesses licking their lips for these faberge dresses.
One person whose eye it pays to catch is that of Dazed and Confused creative director Nicola Formichetti. The style whisperer has already slipped Lady Gaga into a Qasimi creation for her new video and has tempted vocal vixen Florence Welch, from Florence and the Machine, into a new look by the designer.
Qasimi’s elevated tastes if not perspective never disappoints. So while we nibbled on our foil wrapped chocolates in the cavernous Old Sorting Building it was hard not to believe that luxury and limitless optimism were still kicking around out there somewhere.
Despite last year’s reports of the economic sky falling and the gathering clouds sending buyers scurrying for safe ground, viagra one designer stood defiantly against the whipping winds of change and scanned the skies for a little golden sunshine. And gold he found….caves of the stuff.
He found refuge in the troves of religious iconography, remedy mosaics and relics in the massive hull of the Royal Academy of Art’s epic exhibit Byzantium. Designer Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi explains the concept behind the opulent armor-like boleros and satin sheaths, nurse “It’s based on Byzantine women who have been woken up from a crypt and hauled on to the catwalk”. Wish I looked that good when I woke up, not to mention after a 2,500 year long catnap! What he has awoken is an appetite for unabashed opulence.
Qasimi’s legion of epic angular boleros of heavily jeweled gold crowned regal scarlet sheaths. Tomato satins and billowing turquoise gowns followed luxurious ivory jodhpurs. His Midas touch glazed eyelids and jackets alike in gold foil while halos of jutting geometry transformed models into saintly icons. The integration of geometry likely originated with one of the designer’s other inspirations, 84 yr old Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian whose use of mirror mosaics, Islamic geometric pattern and reverse-glass painting in modernist works.
Qasimi enlisted the skills of British jewellery designer Scott Wilson, who has worked with groundbreaking designer Hussein Chalayan, to collaborate on the project. One of the most enticing of which were the bejeweled (and interchangeable!) spats.
The bubble of Byzantium existed in the Dark Ages, in may ways not disimilar to tremors we’re experiencing these days. While the Roman Empire disintegrated around them, plunging Europe into the Dark Ages, the rich island nation of Byzantium continued to pour money into the arts by commissioning religious works . While the safety and priveleges enjoyed by some evaporated to be replaced by a constant state of danger and uncertainty, others simply exchanged one set of miseries for another. A fitting era to look to for clues. “I wanted to create something optimistic to lift us from all the financial doom and gloom,” said Al Qasimi.
Byzantium continued to advance the arts in a cloak of spirituality when the lights went out in the rest of the world and it helps to remember that there would have been no Renaissance without it.
Currently in talks with leading department stores to produce a capsule evening-wear line aimed at Middle Eastern women we can just imagine Dubain princesses licking their lips for these faberge dresses.
One person whose eye it pays to catch is that of Dazed and Confused creative director Nicola Formichetti. The style whisperer has already slipped Lady Gaga into a Qasimi creation for her new video and has tempted vocal vixen Florence Welch, from Florence and the Machine, into a new look by the designer.
Qasimi’s elevated tastes if not perspective never disappoints. So while we nibbled on our foil wrapped chocolates in the cavernous Old Sorting Building it was hard not to believe that luxury and limitless optimism were still kicking around out there somewhere.
Turner Prize
Enrico David, drug Roger Hiorns, page Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright are the lucky shortlisted ones on the Turner Prize’s notepad this year and it’s been noted that the Prize has gone for less shock and awe than usual, stuff resulting in a more thoughtful set of works on show. You will probably have at least heard of Roger Hiorns via his incredible work coating an entire flat in blue crystals.But it’s not about the fame of course. From Tuesday, you can go along to the Tate Britain and see for yourself.
Grayson Perry is trying his hand at something other than ceramics with his “Walthamstow Tapestry”, an amazing, detailed piece of work a bit like a Bayeaux Tapestry for 2009. They cared about war, we care about shopping, it seems. Perry examines our consumerism but has also made something that is anti-consumerist: a one-off object that is the opposite of fast fashion or instant gratification.
Dance Umbrella
In recent years we’ve all rediscovered how amazing it is to watch and do dancing that is more involved than shuffling from one foot to the other while hoping that person over there will notice you. A big part of this change, other than Strictly of course, is Dance Umbrella. The influential dance festival-makers annual season kicks off this week, with the theme “African Crossroads”. They are staging performances and “days out” where you can get a little taster of lots of the shows going on around London over the next few weeks.
Origin London Craft Fair
There’s something special about an item that’s been made with love by another human being and not just generated by a machine or made under duress in a sweatshop. All the 300-odd artisans at this craft fair at Somerset House make beautiful pieces that are worth treasuring or just getting inspiration for your own Autum projects from.
Written by Satu Fox on Monday October 5th, 2009 3:13 pm
