Email Of The Month

Even though I've been so busy that I can barely find time to empty my bladder (but I do - so no worries),

yet I MUST post this email I've received today.

Hello Beatrice,

I will be back in La from the 10th-18th.

Is there a possibility we can set aside a day to shoot?
I've heard so much about you and have even seen your genitals.
It's about fucking time I meet you.

I'm attaching photos taken last week.

Warmly,
Isabella



Ps: I have no idea where she may have seen my genitals but this lady deserves to be immortalized just for having the balls to say that.

You go girl!

; )

Helnwein On Los Angeles

Los Angeles is like an open wound that nobody has attempted connect.

It is the peripheral of a dying civilization - and if you want to see the uncensored version of the western world as it is NOW, this is the place.

Sometimes I feel like in 'Blade Runner' - where the collapse of all morals and values are displayed in a comic-like and apocalyptically surreal esthetic.

-Gottfried Helnwein

Imadlak, Draga Mimikem!

I won't be around my mom for mothers day because she's 6000 miles away.
Whoever does have a chance to be with their moms on Sunday (or any given Sunday or other day of the week in general) can call themselves lucky.

I haven't seen my mom in a long time.....
And have been living without the luxury of having her near in over 10 years now.

Celebrate and cherish every single moment you can share with your mothers - many of my friends have lost theirs so hold on to these precious beings while they're around you so you can give them the biggest hug and all your love.

Imadlak, draga mimikem!!!

Ice Cube for Bigshot Magazine

The new issue of Bigshot Magazine just hit the stands, featuring one of my Ice Cube photos that I shot at his West Hollywood office.

(Nice office, by the way!)

If you want to read the full article , click here.

The Continuous Shot : Mikhail Kalatozov vs Baillie Walsh

Baillie Walsh is definitely my favorite director, hands down, and to my surprise much under appreciated for his incredible talent.

He was one of the first directors to use continuous shots in music videos, one of the best known perhaps Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.

The in the mid 90's re-discovered film I Am Cuba , my favorite film to date, was shot wide angle and became famous for (seemingly) technically impossible continuous shots, and was shot in the early 60's by Mikhail Kalatozov.

There are too many to mention, but this scene is great example of the beautiful cinematography of the film:

Baillie Walsh's New Order Video "World" has so many elements of "I Am Cuba" that I was surprised to learn that he had shot all those videos long before he could have possibly seen "I Am Cuba" - this one was shot 1990, 5 years prior to its release.
This video reminds me of the famous "Havana Roof" scene in "I Am Cuba" .....

This is a great little clip, someone pasted different music over it, but it is the above mentioned scene with the much talked about 3 story camera drop that continues underwater as the camera follows a cuban beauty in the pool:


Maybe you can blame the Collective Unconscious ?

Either way - a beautiful thing.

If you haven't seen "I Am Cuba" , I'd highly recommend to buy it, because you'd want to watch it over and over again....
The visual poetry of the film can only be matched by the poetry that continues through it from the beginning:

I am Cuba.
Once Christopher Columbus landed here.
He wrote in his diary:
”This is the most beautiful land ever seen by human eyes.“
Thank you Señor Columbus.
When you saw me for the first time,
I was singing and laughing.
I waved the fronds of my palms to greet your sails.
I thought your ships brought happiness.

I am Cuba.
Ships took my sugar and left me tears...
Strange thing — sugar, Señor Columbus.
It contains so many tears, but it is sweet...

I am Cuba.
Why are you running away?
You came here to have fun.
Go ahead, have fun!
Isn’t this a happy picture?
Don’t avert your eyes. Look!
I am Cuba.
For you, I am the casino, the bar, hotels and brothels.
But the hands of these children and old people are also me.
I am Cuba.

I am Cuba.
Sometimes it seems to me that the trunks of my palm trees are full of blood.
Sometimes it seems to me that the murmuring sounds around us are not the ocean,
but choked-back tears.
Who answers for this blood?
Who is responsible for these tears?

I am Cuba.
There are two paths for people when they are born.
The path of slavery — it crushes and decays.
And the path of the star — it illuminates but kills.
These are the words of José Marti.
You will choose the star.
Your path will be hard, and it will be marked by blood.
But in the name of justice wherever a single person goes,
thousands more will rise up.
And when there will be no more people,
then the stones will rise up.
I am Cuba.

I am Cuba.
Your arms have gotten used to farming tools,
but now a rifle is in your hands.
You are not shooting to kill.
You are firing at the past.
You are firing to protect your future.

Valentina Lisitsa - Pianist Extraordinaire

Are the 2 things in my life that drive me : my passion for my work and my love for music.
And when I discover certain things that move me deeply, it confirms how music can move us and why i matters to me.
When I hear music, I see colors and shapes and what sounds like someone on acid, that's me listening to music.

Music like this for instance:



I'd say that Horowitz clearly is my favorite pianist .... but there is something about Valentina Lisitsa that wants to make my heart stop.

London, Part II - Helena Magone

Prior to the fateful day I blogged about previously, I shot Latvian Model Helena Magone.

At first, she was a bit weirded out by my idea to shoot her in my my friend's tiny flat in Chiswick but warmed up to me eventually.
Later it turned out she was into Snoop Dogg, so I played Snoop Dogg for her and she started dancing and flapped her hair around.

At the end of the day I was very excited about my shoot for the following day. Little did I know that sometimes things can take a turn in ways never expected.

That same night I had a dream - actually a disturbing nightmare- that made me want to cancel the shoot with those kids.
The only reason I didn't , was because I had nobody's number and it was a Saturday, and no one could be reached at their agencies.

I follow my gut instincts as much as I can, but it occasionally conflicts with that part of my ego that won't give up. Ever.

Perhaps I was born in the wrong century: I would have made an excellent gladiator.

The $51.000 Shoot

This was my last fashion shoot, shot in London, December 2007.
After the London shoot I had sworn to myself to never shoot fashion ever again.

Part of it was perhaps because 50K worth equipment amongst other things were stolen out of my rental car in Chiswick the morning of the shoot, which I didn't notice until I got to the studio in Camden Town (incredibly cold London morning) and the studio , that a makeup artist I knew had arranged for me, in fact had actually failed doing so.

For a moment I was drawing a blank - with the first freezing model, makeup artist and stylist in tow, and nowhere to shoot.
Shooting outdoors was "out of the question" for the stylist, so I had to book 2 awfully small rooms in a hotel a few streets over, which cost me around $1000 or so, but that was not really so much of my concern right then, cause that's pretty much small change after having run up a 50K bill that very morning, don't you think?

So there I was, in this tiny awfully furnished hotel room (that I had to myself with the model I was shooting, 6 altogether throughout the day), with the overly caffeinated stylist pacing back and forth in the room next to mine, pinching the 12 tops and 6 pairs of pants over and over, as if additional racks of clothes would miraculously appear that he didn't pull.

Anyone who knows me just a little, can tell you how much of a control freak I am.
Something like this could never happen to me -not even in theory.
Everything stolen? No studio? Stylist barely pulling anything? No assistant?

Since part of the equipment was stored in the front part of the car , there was still enough gear left enough to take pictures with. And so I did.

And as I quietly sat by myself for a few minutes ,expecting disappointed and confused models arriving at my lousy hotel room door shortly , I started laughing.
I felt like crying actually, but all I could do was laugh.

When Eliza walked in the room with that warm smile and those sparkling blue eyes of hers, she was only to be out sparkled by an extremely shiny metallic jacket and black hot pants, graced by a matching gold metallic cobra head - on said hot pants.

And then I knew : if I won't commit suicide at the end of this day, I will never shoot fashion ever again.

Surprisingly, these lovely beings greeted me with so much gratitude and excitement that I really didn't know if I was dreaming or if some hidden cameras will pop out of the walls and someone announcing the grand price I just had won.

Most of them came from as far as 5 hrs away and yet they all took the strange fashion they wore with a sense of humor .

All 6 of them did the same, independently from each other; winked or nodded once they've noticed my despair, and went on and said "So let's shoot!".

These kids, probably between 15 and 18, actually ended up teaching ME a valuable lesson about life that day, and a fashion shoot was the last scenario where I would have expected this.

I don't know if words can possibly describe the way I felt after the shoot was done. Having been robbed just a few hours prior to that, and jet lagged, I may as well could have jumped from any given bridge.

Instead, I felt incredibly happy having met these amazing kids. Some talked more than others but they were all very special and it was like a little gift -which sounds cheesy because I'm a tough chick and stuff - but these kids have turned the world upside down for me.

So who cares what they wore ?
I had met 6 amazing people that day and I have pictures of it.

And that truly is priceless.

The Herd Of Nerds

Ok - after Coop sent me these shots today, it's official.
We'll out nerd anyone. And it's Barely Legal.

Thanks, Coop! ; )

Making the Move from Assisting to Shooting

I don't really know how to answer this question when someone asks me.
Partly because I was always shooting while assisting and besides : I was an awful assistant, so I didn't really have much of a choice than to stick to shooting.

I believe that it takes a certain kind of personality to be a good assistant and one of my assistants simply LOVES assisting, much more than shooting, which is what probably makes him such an excellent assistant.

One of the first photographers I've ever assisted told me straight up that I suck at assisting because "I'm a Photographer".

I was very upset and moved to New York against his personal advice - he said "I would not even survive a week in New York" and should "just start shooting" instead.

How on earth was I supposed to go out there and shoot without knowing a damn thing?
So I survived more than a week, against his predictions, a whole 5 years even, before moving to LA (voluntarily).

My time assisting was extremely valuable ... not so much for the technical part (because I think that's relatively easy to learn) but more for being exposed to the various situations that photographers face on a daily basis.

To get to the point :

A friend of mine has been raving about this shooter Sebastian Kim ,who assisted Avedon for 4 years and Meisel for about 6 years.

I personally think that's an awful lot of assisting.

And I am not quite sure what to make of his work overall, although I do like some of his personal projects , but I mainly brought him up here because I've found this very insightful interview with him that gives an idea of the transitioning and the assistant vs photographer dilemma that many face and goes into a lot of detail on this topic:

The pros and cons of lengthy assisting, what to expect when you'll go off on your own, and also view a portfolio of someone who assisted 2 so very different photographers for long periods of time.

I cannot provide such valuable information in regards to assisting like Mr. Sebastian does. Period. And I've also heard that he's a nice guy, which is kinda rare for someone with his history of assisting.

Here's my fave from Sebastian's "Personal Projects" section:

I also like his funny series of spoof 80's prom shots, which shows in which ways assisting someone like Meisel can pay off:

Money Can't Buy You Style

While scouting for locations for my upcoming shoots, I've come across some deeply disturbing examples of bad taste.



Dear Americanos:
No, gold dipped roman statues won't make your lobby look European.
It will just look tacky.
Neither will your pseudo turn-of-the century decor.
Just stick to contemporary furniture or move to Europe.
Or import the stuff, just like Serrano does.

Uncle Terry agrees with me.