Graciela Iturbide

Graciela Iturbide was born in 1942 in Mexico City. Her mentor was Mexican modernist photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo who she assisted on various photographic journeys throughout Mexico in her twenties. During the 1970s, Iturbide traveled widely across Latin America and Panama where she developed an interest in documentary style ethnographic photography.

“In 1979 she was invited by the artist Francisco Toledo to photograph the Juchitán people who form part of the Zapotec culture native to Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Iturbide’s series that started in 1979 and runs through to 1988 resulted in the publication of her book ‘Juchitán de las Mujeres’ in 1989.”

Rodney Graham at Home

Rodney Graham is a Canadian artist/musician and if these photographs are anything to go by he is one cool cat. Jennilee Marigomen documented the artist in his home in Vancouver for Free & Easy Magazine‘s Dad’s Style Issue (Japan). His house is an interesting mix of modernist furniture, musical paraphernalia  plant life and art – a good combination indeed.

 

Miscellany

An amazing photograph titled Hugh and Chicken in Profile by David Stewart, which is one of the finalist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery.

The autumn/winter 2013 collection of Mozambican designer Taibo Bacar is really beautiful, featuring a local African fabric called “Capulana” as a central motif. (via: missmillib)

I would like to eat this and this. Please and thank you.

Micah Lidberg’s beautiful peony pattern designed for a series of limited edition Hugo & Marie silk scarves.

A walnut letter opener designed by Andrea Kuo, that deals with the following everyday problem in a beautiful way:

“We often get anxious about the content in our letters when we receive them, and naturally we tend to tear them apart with our own hands, occassionally running our fingers like a blade through the end of the envelope. Sometimes, we get paper cuts on our fingers, but ironically, we use our fingers to cut paper as well.”

Rajni Perera is a Sri-Lankan artist who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Her bold and colourful paintings are inspired by a number of influences including Rajput miniaturism, comics, cartoons, textile patterns, Ukiyo-e block prints, paleontology, astronomy and geometry. She describes her work as “spiritual and whimsical, a pooja (religious ritual) and a porno at the same time”.

This fellow is very cool and rather well dressed.

Although the concept of a meat snack bar is completely off-putting to me, I can’t deny that the packaging for these EPIC Protein Bars are superb. Their website design is good too.

Air plant wreaths by Los Angeles floral design studio Robin Charlotte.

Karin & Craig

I always knew Karin and Craig’s wedding was going to be beautiful. Karin is the talent behind Dear Rae Jewellery and Craig owns his own hair salon called The Lobby – both have stores in The Woodstock Foundry. I have been lucky to get to know both of them since moving to Cape Town, and from the little I do know they are a great match with an acute sense for good aesthetics.

When I saw their wedding pictures by Love Made Visible (who never disappoint) I was floored by what a wonderful event it was. From Karin’s dress, to the floral arrangements by Opus Studio and their amazing wedding crowns…it looked like a memorable occasion full of merriment, beauty, shared love and personal details. Congratulations Karin and Craig! I wish you many happy years together.

 

Dog Collector

Libby Hall is fanatical about dogs. She is a born and bred New Yorker, who moved to the United Kingdom in 1967, where she currently resides. For three decades (1966-2006) she collected close to six thousand archival photographs of dogs, which have since been documented in four books.

“My husband Tony and I used to go to Kingsland Waste, where we had a friend who did house clearances, and in those days they sold old photo albums and threw away the pictures. So I used to rescue them and I began sorting out the dogs – because I always liked dogs – and it became a collection. Then I started collecting properly, looking for them at car boot sales and auctions. And eventually a publisher offered me an advance of two thousand pounds for a book of them…

Dogs have always been powerfully important to me, I’ve lived with dogs since the beginning of my days. There’s a photo of my father holding me as baby in one arm and a dog in the other – dog’s faces were imprinted upon my consciousness as early as humans, and I’ve always lived with dogs.”

Here are some photographs from her collection. You’ll have to excuse the length of this post, I got a little carried away.

Bleu de Chauffe

Bleu de Chauffe is a French bag company that reinvents the traditional form of tool bags into a more contemporary and fashionable accessory that is both aesthetic and functional. Every bag is unique – hand made from organically tanned leather and assembled by skilled artisans who individually date and sign each bag.

Alexia Webster

Alexia Webster is a Johannesburg-born documentary photographer who currently resides in Cape Town. She has travelled extensively through Africa – capturing poignant photographs of its’ landscapes, people and the socio-political issues that they face.