American Motels
Not only would I like to live forever, I’d like to have lived forever. I want to see everything that ever was, is, and will be. Sadly, stupid mortality will get in the way and my experience of the universe will be incredibly limited. I’ve seen some impressive things (and a lot of crap too) but not enough for my liking, and every time I look back at historical photos or writings or consider the various scientific conclusions of evolutionary progress on this planet I get a welling up of a sense of, well, not quite nostalgia – since I never saw or lived through these things in the first place – but something akin to it. A temporal wanderlust, perhaps. For instance, take the following postcards of American motels from the glorious era of American motels (whenever that was) uploaded by Jordan Smith: I’m not American, I wasn’t alive in the forties, fifties, or sixties, and I can’t help but imagine that a lot of these places would have been just unbelievably terrible places to stay in. But don’t they look fantastic anyway? There’s a wonderful style there that’s gone now. But it’s only just gone. In the grand scale of things I missed out on seeing these with my own eyes by a tad less than a smidge of a fraction. In a word: buggerations! Below I’ve selected a handful of my favourite motels from the postcard collection. Check out the entire set (linked in the paragraph above) and subscribe to Jordan’s In The Heart Of Downtown site to be kept up-to-date with every new American motel discovery too. Alexandria Bay in New York is the location of Captain Thomson’s Motor Lodge, featuring air conditioning and private balconies over the water. Of course, wood panelling is present too. You have to have wood panelling. What’s slightly more interesting about the motel room pictured is the size of the beds. Two beds, I understand. Two double beds… has implications. This motor lodge may have catered for large people. Alternatively – and I’m favouring this thought – it may have been popular with swingers. Look at that couple by the window. They’re looking out for beautiful people in polyester suits and flowery dresses to join them for an afternoon romp. You know they are. This is the Colonial Statler Hilton Inn, just twenty minutes from downtown Boston, and it’s not hard to love this place instantly. A swimming pool in a dome; if that doesn’t scream The Future to you then you’re not seeing the world through my eyes. What’s even better than a motel with a Future Pool?...
Fashion Faves – Edita Vilkeviciute
Edita Vilkeviciute has featured before on this site and she’s here again thanks to photography by Sean and Seng and styling by Tamara Rothstein. I’ve always had a thing for seventies styling so this shoot with its wood panelling and simplistic lighting really appeals to me. Add to that Edita’s poses and the retro fashion worn and you’ve got a style winner. I also like this shot. For some...
Fashion Faves – Galadriel
Here are a couple of pictures of model Galadriel from Nous Models as photographed by Andrew Kuykendall for Blank Magazine‘s May 2011 edition. It’s not difficult to see what’s great about these photos: the use of light is just fantastic but the colour blend is also particularly attractive; Galadriel’s eyes and hair just work seamlessly into the pictures with the top she’s wearing, her skin tone, and even the floor. The skirt is a lovely counterpoint. The most engaging aspect of these two pictures from Andrew Kukendall, though, is the use of geometry. I absolutely adore straight lines, shapes, shadows, and patterns in pictures and these two are spectacularly good examples of the style. In addition to Andrew and Galadriel here, the wardrobe is by Lexi Wald, make-up is by Tsipporah Liebman, hair is by Karoliina Kangas, and assistant photography is by Eugene...
Fashion Faves – Julia Stegner
Well, this is just a gorgeous shot of Julia Stegner by Alexi Lubomirksi for Vogue Germany. The lighting and contrast are just superb. The paleness of the sand and light blue sky works so beautifully with the vivid, dark blue of the Giorgio Armani dress shown off. Julia’s stance is as strong as the outfit’s colour against the wind evidently pushing the palm trees and her veil. From a purely photographic perspective it’s a wonderfully-balanced photograph too; great framing and lovely use of the rule of...
Fashion Faves – Maryna Linchuk
Belarusian model Maryna Linchuk dons some geometric fashion for part of a shoot by Patrick Demarchelier for the May edition of Vogue Russia. You can see some more of the shots here but it’s this particular one that stands out for me thanks to the great use of lighting to really accentuate the style of the clothing. Those shadows are just superb and it’s great direction to get Maryna posing just right to strengthen every line and angle. The use of black and white really helps; those tones with that lighting are very indicative of film noir mood. And I do like film noir...
Fashion Photography by Greg Kadel
Browsing through the feeds for various style magazines and websites even as a complete amateur fan in the world of fashion you start to recognise those models, stylists, and photographers who get the lion’s share of the work thanks to their skill, eye for details, or cheap day rates. Probably not the latter actually. One such photographer often going ping on the fashion radar is New York-based Greg Kadel and, apropos of nothing at all other than thinking “what excuse can I come up with to plaster a few pictures of lovely models in gorgeous outfits photographed beautifully on my site?” here is a small selection of his pictures: Malgosia Bela by Greg Kadel for Numéro. Magdalena Frackowiak, also for Numéro. Eniko Mihalik for Vogue China. Maryna Linchuk photographed for Vogue Germany. And finally, from a very popular shoot for Numéro, this is Miranda Kerr by Greg...
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