New work by Serial Cut

Here is a preview of the new, exciting work from Serial Cut... http://www.vimeo.com/11102428 and http://www.vimeo.com/11082703

Pocko Bunnies

Spring Glorious Spring

 Olaf Hajek

 

 

Runny's Rig Bomance

Runny had a firlgriend,
Her name was Sunny Bue.
He called her nots of licknames,
Like "kitchy-Itchy Koo."
Sometimes he called her "Boney-Hun,"
And sometimes "Dovey Lear,"
But he only called her "Peety-Swie"
When no one else could hear.

    By Shel Silverstein

For more work by Olaf Hajek, please click here

Interview with Jeff Mermelstein

Best know for his photographs of quirky inhabitants in New York City, Jeff Mermelstein is considered one of the world's most prolific photojournalists. After completing an internship in photography in 1981, Jeff Mermelstein began a career that's combined personal photographs with assignment work for major publications including Life Magazine, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine.

In 1991, he received the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship, and in 1999 he won the European Publishers Award for Photography, which resulted in the publication of his first book SideWalk (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 1999). His advertising clients include AT&T Wireless, Commes des Garcons, Intel, Samsung, Red Stripe, Clarks Shoes and Hewlett Packard.



Can you tell us about your background and how you got into photography?

As a biology student in college I was very unhappy. I had been taking photographs since the age of 13 after I was given a camera from my older brother for my Bar Mitzvah. I am one of those lucky ones who never struggled to find what to do with their life. I was born a photographer. My mother would rather I had been a dentist but that is another story.



What were some real turning points in your career?

In 1983 GEO Magazine gave me my first big break in magazine photography at the age of 25. I proposed doing a feature story on Animal Actors such as Morris the Cat, Benji, Lassie, The Exxon Tiger etc., and I was given the assignment which ended up as a cover story. Another huge turning point for me was winning The European Publishers Award for Photography in 1999 which enabled my first book Sidewalk to be published.



Who or what has been the biggest influence on your work?

Ultimately it is the people around you that influence you the most. For me it was and is my family. I am the son of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to America in 1947. I know that the Yiddish speaking family that surrounded me has fed my drive and help to define my curiosity, humor and way of dealing with life. All artists are also influenced by other artists and I am no different. Arbus, Winogrand, Friedlander, Eggleston, Lartigue, Weegee, Faurer. There are so many and they keep changing.



What are you excited about right now?

I remain as excited as ever making pictures mostly in New York. I never tire of it and maintain a constant passion, love and obsession for my next New York image. New York is attractive to me because it has an edge. A grey grit even in color. There is an energy unlike any other city. It never bores me.



Which part of the process of photography is it you enjoy the most? Is it meeting the people, viewing the final image or something else?

Of course going out and making the pictures is exciting. But what is even more exciting is the feeling that I get in viewing pictures I made for the first time. Sometimes it is more than a month or two before I first view pictures I have taken. There is a perpetual thrill of catching up.



How do people generally respond to your voyeuristic curiosity, and has it ever got you into trouble?

There is a danger in what I do because I can not ask people ahead of time to take their picture to get the kind of picture I am looking for. I avoid tension. There have been rough moments, but I like to forget about them.



Much of your work looks at re-occurring patterns in human behaviour; notably the hair-twirlers and runners in New York city. Does your search for such themes ever become something of an obsession for you?

My obsession is with making photographs. I generally do not have a theme when in the act of photographing. Themes emerge after the photographs begin to accumulate. This happened in a clear way with my new book and exhibition Twirl / Run. For me picture taking is pure instinct. Gut. That is why I love doing it. I'm not thinking when I am working.



What are your thoughts on the validity of photojournalism as fine art?

Of course photojournalism can be fine art. The photojournalism of Winogrand is fine art of the highest order. Photojournalism with a personal point of view and expressiveness is fine art.



As the world is steadily becoming over-saturated with digital images, how do you see the future of photography?

Good images will always be good images and the huge increase in image numbers doesn't really effect what is good but just makes it harder to sift out.



Do you have any advice for young photographers?

In my opinion what is most important is to stay true to your personal vision and create a body of work that expresses that. I never believed in making pictures with the goal of showing those to obtain commercial work. Do what you do best and love the most and you will be doing all that you can to be happy.


See more of Jeff Mermelstein's work online, or to see his portfolio, drop us an email

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Ben Newman reveals how he put he comic together in an interview on Illustration Mundo

Museum of Small Things Review

Museum of Small Things on CNA Taiwan!

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Interview with Ollie from McFaul Studio

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Olaf Hajek exhibition

Olaf Hajek's "Masquerade" exhibition is open until March 20th 2010, at the Marci Wood gallery in Atlanta.


Hajek's work has been described as representing "an emerging new breed of contemporary fine artists dissolving the boundaries between high and low and challenging the division between commercial and personal work. Hajek's acrylic paintings on paper are vividly fanciful renderings of strange and wondrous worlds full of magic and beauty."

Interview with Alex Majoli

Alex Majoli was born 1971 in Ravenna, Italy. Covering stories in a gritty documentary, yet graphically individual style, from war torn countries to the privileged decadent lifestyles of the New York fashion scene, Alex Majoli empathises with his subject matter, combining beauty and balance.

His highly acclaimed book Leros was published for the second time in 2002. His book One Vote, depicting a series of high contrast portraits of US Democratic voters, was published in 2004.

Alex Majoli resides in both New York and Milan.

Can you tell us about your background and how you got into photography?

My dad gave me a camera when I was about 10 years old and I loved it. I lived with my mom but she was always working. To keep me off the street, she took me to studio f45 in Ravenna and they taught me basically everything I know.

What were some real turning points in your career?
I don't really see it as a career, rather a way of life and I guess the turning points would be some of the people I met and the conversations I had with them.

What most influences your work today?

Literature.

What are you excited about right now?

Besides drinking Luretta wine, the idea to pick olives with my wife and kids in Sicily.

What is your process for gaining people’s trust, either before, while starting out a project, or when you’re in the middle of the project, how do you get to the core of what you’re going after? I try to keep it casual, that is always good and you just have to be truthful otherwise it will never work.

Which part of the process of photography is it you enjoy the most? Is it meeting the people, viewing the final image or something else? Definitely meeting people from all over the world from any social background.

Tell us more about the divine light
It’s the name I gave to the light I used for a project about "masks" or portraits in black.

There is a constant debate around how important education is in relation to photography, and whether college/university is a waste of time compared to hands on experience. What’s your opinion?
I don't believe that a school can teach you what experience or something unexpected can.

What is best advice anyone has given to you about photography? The best advice some of the world's best photographers have given me was always about editing.

Do you have any advice for young photographers? Don’t look at what other photographers do, but read books instead.

See more of Alex Majoli's work online, or to see his portfolio, drop us an email

POCKO TIMES, SMALL IS BIG LAUNCH OF NEW ISSUE AT M.O.S.T. (Museum Of Small Things)

We are excited to launch issue 2 of The Pocko Times, called small is big. This issue has been made in collaboration with the hugely anticipated Museum of Small Things, opening at Selfridges this Friday, 5th Feb.

It is packed full with some of the most exciting contemporary collage, featuring work by James Dawe, Richard Wentworth and Wangechi Mutu among others.

You will be able to buy a copy at the Selfridges in the M.O.S.T. shop, or if you can’t make it, you can buy one online at the Pocko Shop.