sweet little kiwi chick

this is what tricksyness my lovely friend Kerrin aka sigmosaics (another Kiwi abroad) got up to yesterday ...
i am really touched
it is a great kindness
thank you so much Kerrin
it's a beautiful etsy treasury

the worlds 200 best ad photographers

...



ahhhh finally the book is out .....

and here is some shameless self promotion ..... i am chosen as one of the worlds 200 best ad photographers by Luerzers Archive 2008/2009.
I have followed Luerzers for years ...buying all their videos of the worlds best ads since the year 1763...i love them... and finally i find myself amongst my heroes ... so i'm really really over the moon

:)

my page .. i couldnt be happier with the layout or the other photographer i am placed beside ..its wonderful!!!

......
the actual campaign ran as billboards and posters.

i worked together with the brilliantly sensitive and creative art director in Milano called Massimo Verrone to create these little girls sleeping on threads and chasing stitching butterflies for Descamps, a superb linen company based in France
...
some of my favourite pages inside the Luerzers bible
...

...

i love Christmas

...call me old fashioned and a peter pan ...but i love it ...

this weekend i escaped from Milano up to my friends' country house
and we set to work making the most amazing Christmas tree ever ...

this involved a long walk in the melting snow and finding the most enormous tree that had fallen down with the weight of the recent snow...
we dragged it about a kilometer back to the house ... trimmed it a bit and started painting it ....
i managed to hand paint about 6 million leaves ... it is an oak
it stands about 10 foot high or about 3 metres :)
made pom poms and christmas cake and wrapped presents for all the rest of the weekend ...

and here it is


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my secret santa

i am over the moon ....

our european street team each year have a game ...."secret santa"

and this year it was organised by the wonderful Mitsy AKA "Artmind"
we all filled out a mega thorough questionnaire which she had compiled;
and then Mitsy matched us all up secretly ...
we have been sneakily working away on things we are almost sure that other person will love ...

fingers crossed fingers crossed...

mine arrived today and i was unable to hold back for Christmas ...
i managed to leave it unopened on my bed for the whole day ...while i tried to accomplish something ...

then at 6 pm there was no patience left
my parcel came from an address i recognised well ...one of my all time favourite etsy artists lives high in the mountains in France ....
..
the card is so brilliantly for me ... a little girl holding fireflies on spiderthread leads

with shaking fingers i opened my pressie ...


"NO WAY!!!!!"

and there it was the Frida Kahlo inspired, french glass garland to die for

..
so totally totally happy !!!!

part of our mission on receiving our secret santa is to photograph ourselves with it...
eeeek so here i am .. whizzing into the bath room to try and shoot myself and my wonderous garland from
Pamela Angus

...

thank you so very very much Pam !!! and thank you Mitsy for being so amazing always!!!!!!

now to find a beautiful little airy apartment in Paris to match my garland !!! :)

london tales #2

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there are very few living photographers whose work i find interesting ....this is one of them ...

I went to London to see the show of Giampiero Assumma whose work is brilliant, thoughtful and sometimes painful to see...
he has made a wonderful series of black and white shots in the criminally insane institutions in Italy...
always aware of the balance of exposing the subjects within, he has a very humble and sensitive approach that allows him to catch incredible moments without humiliating and exploiting people in sad situations... these can be seen here in the section OPG.
there are many other on-going projects that he is working on continuously ....
this is one of my all time favourite shots that Giampiero has ever taken ... here is the real Alice!!!
alive and well in Ireland



while in London we went to the magical exhibition of Tim Walker and Giampiero photographed me while there ...i see now i am not Alice in wonderland but in fact the "white rabbit"
always rushing, always out of time, living in another world.... :)

""curiouser and curiouser" ... said Alice"

snowing in Milano ... !

...

...
.....big fluffy white snowflakes falling down ..... on my neighbours terrace garden ... making the roses droop down ... and the robin is flying off and on my windowsill to collect some sunflowerseeds

hehehheh he just fell off when a big snowflake clocked him one..

today my dear friend Mitsy sent me a super sneaky birthday present that i wasnt expecting
so now her little happy girl angels are dancing in my window ...while the snow keeps tumbling down !!!

ahhhh finally... fairytales calendar 2009

oooo finally ... it has been a struggle but it is real now...
welcome to my little world... :)

deep deep in the enchanted forest there lurk many many tales ....

you can find them here on deviant art

or here on etsy

a day in the life of...

a friend of mine Heli Sengezer , who lives in Istanbul and makes the most wonderful bags and funny little crafted animals, asked me to track a day in my life for her friday blog-postings which have an almost cult following ...

i was surprised, but thought "why not" and so i made a little photo essay of one of my shoot days...
..it turned out to be a really interesting and strange exercise... and in fact i enjoyed it

as i am totally curious by nature, every friday it is a wonderful treat to look at other folk who are generally artists and artisans all over europe ,and see how a day in their life unfolds ...
so here it is from first awakening grumpy and kranky .....to falling into bed in the evening ....



friday is my day

6.25am

the alarm goes off and the first words that run through my head are "oooooo nooooo i'm already late!"

....

first steps straight into a wall...klonk...groan... dressing gown ..computer on ... and straight to the kitchen to set up a giant coffee .. the only way forward dazed wanderings for another 20 minutes check my emails and grumpily go back to get my coffee
..

6.50am

answer emails ... not sure how nicely .. i so dont like early mornings ...but today is a shoot day so i must soldier on

7.00 am

jump in the shower

no photos no photos!!!

7.30am

scan the news items on the sydney morning herald and wish i hadnt

pass by etsy and check the forum and my convos ...much more positive vibe

look at my little nest ..it looks so cosy but i have to go out in the big grey world of Milan

7.45am

jump downstairs with my equipment to the taxi already waiting

the city is grey and it starts raining

i go to the studio early to miss all the rush hour traffic

8.25am

arrive at condé nast studios

..

i drop off my equipment at the studio and wander off to second breakfast

(i do come from the land of Lord of the Rings after all)

here i am in my favourite bar in Milan "living"

..

they tell me off for taking photos inside

i ask why its not allowed but they dont know

it just isnt... o well ... italian logic ...

8.50am

back to the studio to meet everyone arriving i brief them on the idea which today is "Glamour and Glitter"

theatre style

studio, model and makeup room ...before..........

my magicians start to work

the model reads while the torture her into a new character

my usual assistant is away assisting Deborah Turbeville for Italian Vogue

so the new assistant (no photo) and i start to build up the set and construct the lighting i want

its a spaghetti bomb...

health and safety....!!!

i tell the assistant to lock down the wires and make it a bit less of a death trap

11.30am

finally we are ready

, the model is dressed and we put her in postiion

its always a good picture :)

i tell my assistant to do crew cam and he comes up with a few awful photos of me

..

and alot of nice ones of the model ....hmmmmmmmmmmmm

half way through the day he falls in love with the model and loses focus on the world

he asks her to marry him ... i photograph the proposal on his cell phone ...hmmmmmm

2pm

we have 3 shots under the belt and go for lunch next door

its very sheeshee

nice food too

3pm

espresso coffees all round and back to work

makeup and hair retouched and changed

,,

5.30pm

7 shots away and we are finished ,... one of the clients did not send their dress so we finish early ...

(there's a first for everything !)

we breakdown the set super fast and rush off to beat the milan deadly rainy weather rush hour traffic

unfortunately i cant show you the actual shots of the model as the magazine hasnt been published yet...

6pm

in the taxi its already dark

Milan floods when it rains...it is built on a massive system of canals designed by Leonardo da Vinci...most of which are still under the streets

the taxi driver thinks its funny me shooting blurry shots of lights through his window

...

6.45pm

arrive home starving

i eat some fresh handmade pasta (not handmade by me) and drink a glass of red wine and relax

checking my emails .. and my etsy pixie pals
...

10pm

my little brother rings from New Zealand and we talk nonsense and laugh for an hour

i go back to my computer world

nearly 12pm

my eyeballs feel like theyre about to fall out so i crawl exhausted into bed

and look at my palm trees in Fiji...

goodnight

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