Your Saturday Dose of Art

I just love discovering new photographers. It really makes my day. I just want to sit and analyze what makes them so amazing for hours and hours. What are they doing that I'm not or that I can't? How many degrees of separation are there between their work and mine, and more importantly, how do I narrow that separation? 

Did I mention that I'm a photographer? Cause I am. And not in the "I have a nice camera, so I'm clearly a photographer" kind of way. I have my B.A. and my M.A. in photography, and while I realize that that does not necessarily make me any more of a photographer than someone who is untrained or self-taught, I do feel like I get bragging rights to some degree. I mean, after all that time and money spent, I should at least get that, right?!

So, back to Miles Aldridge and my love...nay, unbridled, animalistic lust for his work. Apparently he was born in London and...yeah. That's about all I know. Because I hate researching photographers. It may be because I was forced to do it for so many years in school, or simply because it's boring, but either way, I don't know much about the guy. Other than the fact that he is a master with light, color and narrative. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the fashion is DIVINE. 

I think he is also a master of WTF?! images, as well. Here is how my brain typically processes these photographs: "Wow! The color. I DIE! The fashion. I LOVE! The composition. SO RAD! What the fuck is going on here?!"

I think that this is one of my favorite "WTF?!" photos of Aldridge's. The color! The fashion! The beauty! WTF?! Why is this girl eating watermelon in this outfit by the window? Why is she so pale in such a colorful room? What if she gets watermelon juice on that heavenly top? I also think I like it because it really reminds me of my friend Kat. I really don't know why. (meow)

 

So fun. Love love love the layering of textures and color. He also has a lot of, shall we say, "saucy" imagery. I actually found him through this series of really sexy watch advertisements that he shot (assumedly for a European ad agency as these would be far too controversial for America).

This is actually probably my favorite image in the series, and arguably one of the less explicit shots. But feel free to check them out and pick your favorite. So cheeky (ha!) and so well photographed. Sex sells, right? Aldridge isn't beating around the bush about that fact at all. You sell the lifestyle that the advertisers suggest accompany the product. And what hetero dude wouldn't want this lifestyle, and therefore this watch? Genius.