Autumn De Wilde

Autumn de Wilde (born 1970) is an American photographer best known for her portraiture and commercial work photography of musicians.

"De Wilde has photographed CD covers for Elliott Smith, Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Fiona Apple, Beck, Built to Spill, Wilco, Monsters of Folk, and a number of other musicians. In addition, she has directed music videos for Elliott Smith, Spoon, Ingrid Michaelson, The Raconteurs, Rilo Kiley and Death Cab for Cutie. Her portrait subjects include Willie Nelson, Sean Watkins, Ryan Adams, Sonic Youth, Tegan and Sara, and Wolfmother. De Wilde's live concert documentary work includes the Flaming Lips, Spoon, and the Arcade Fire. De Wilde's photos have appeared on the cover of Spin magazine and in the pages of Rolling Stone, Filter Nylon, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times. Autumn de Wilde also documents the couture designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte.In 2007 De Wilde released a book that featured photographs she had taken of late musician Elliott Smith. The book included handwritten lyrics, interviews with close friends and family, and a bonus CD of a live performance."

Album covers and band photography are an area that have always interested me. Passing through a record store, the album art and posters of artists are the first impression your get. I must admit to buying more than one cd just because it "looked cool." A photograph of an artist can be as telling of their style as their music. Iconic images of artists stay lodged in our memories as symbols for these people.

Who could forget this one of Johnny Cash, taken by Jim Marshall:

as a reaction to: "Let me take one for the warden."

I discovered Autumne De Wilde because I'm a huge Elliott Smith fan and she took some of the most famous pictures of him. Its fascinating to me that pictures of him as well as his music are the only things left of him today. (Well, besides a legacy of greatest...)

Can I have her job? She photographs some of the best musicians out there today. Some of these are very candid. Especially the ones of Elliott, I believe she was a friend of his. Others are staged and a studio and more conceptual but I find them all appealing. They have a wonderful sense of humor. She does a great job at capturing the artist's personality through her photographs. I think this a good example of someone getting paid to do something really awesome in photography... Commercial photography that isn't boring, which is very intriguing to me and my wallet. Not that I care about money at all. That's impossible for someone who gets as many wilmington parking tickets as me.

God don't make no junk

Some old color work I did in highschool, "remastered" in photoshop.

Visually Badass

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Avatar (2009)

I've realized I like movies that look like video games. Maybe its because I suck at video games but like watching other people play them.

Animation and cinemetography can teach alot about photography. Stop motion filmmaking is my favorite. This guy, Jan Svankmajer makes the coolest stuff I've ever seen in my life.

Momuments and Melodies

Photography by Anastasia Cazabon

I'm interested in this sentimental, style of photography that's popping up all over the internet. I think the message here is to draw images from your own life- not to go too far off the block in finding pictures, but rather to go within. Are these images too easy, too everyday? Or is there something deeper in the everyday that most of us are missing and maybe should spend more time with? Are these pictures better suited in a personal memory bank, or can they stand as fine art photography?

I enjoy Anastasia Cazabon's obsession with hair and the way her photographs build to create a loosely woven story. It always looks like there's more to the picture and you automatically fill in the blanks with your imagination.

Another photographer I've been following for a while is Camille Riley. The simple beauty of her pictures is astounding. Blended with art and poetry, they're life embracing and warm-fuzzy and read like a diary. So inspiring!

Love Hurts

Now that my blog title successfully looks like an American Apparel ad, I think I'm ready to start my blog!

I'm still really obsessed with relationship/intimacy pictures. The ups and downs of romance- can they be captured on film? On my quest I stumbled on one artist who makes an interesting attempt, though she focuses more on the lows than the highs. This photographer is Nan Goldin, and if you've never taken a look at her blood stained portrait of intimacy, I suggest you try to stomach it.

Another photographer I discovered while fishing for Nan Goldin photos was a Czech photographer named Jan Saudek.

"The work of the Czech photographer Jan Saudek (born 1935) is always about people. It is people who intrigue, fascinate and move him. His inspiration comes from deep down inside: ´Art is born in the soul´, he once said. The nature of his work is intimate and personal, revealing his own desires, fantasies, loves and anxieties. It shows his obsessive fears like the fleeting force of desire, the body´s ageing and disintegration, the loss of beauty or the ambiguous nature of the sexes. Generally it is Saudek´s family and friends who pose for him, but he occasionally poses himself."

Here's a few I really liked. All of these are hand colored which adds a surreal touch.