Lisette Model's Fearless Eye

If Lisette Model took up photography as a way of earning a living, it is also true that she always fought for her own subjects, rather than simply carry out the assignments given by editors. She believed that for a photograph to be successful its subject had to be something that “hits you in the stomach.” This could be something familiar or something unfamiliar.

Model thought of the camera as a detection device, something that makes it possible to see what habit often hides. Concentrating on the frantic, compelling tempo of urban life, she was fascinated by people in the street and the clientele in nightclubs. As a photographer she followedher instincts, then cropped her negatives in the laboratory to eliminate any superflous details and thus obtain her direct, powerful and richly human images.

Her work evinces empathy, curiosity, compassion and admiration, and reflects the photographer’s attraction to voluminous forms, energy and liveliness, to emphatic gesture and expression: the world as stage.

Promenade des Anglais, Nice, 1934

Coney Island Bather, New York
c. 1939-July 1941

Reflection, New York
c. 1939-1945

Running Legs, Forty-second Street, New York
c. 1940-1941

Running Legs, Fifth Avenue, New York
c. 1940-1941

Lower East Side, New York
c. 1939-1945

San Francisco, 1949

Woman with Veil, San Francisco, 1949

Albert-Alberta, Hubert's Forty-second Street Flea Circus, New York
c. 1945

Officers' Club
c. 1944

Gallagher's, New York, 1945

Nick's, New York
c. 1940-August 1944

Café Metropole, New York
c. 1946

Sammy's, New York
c. 1940-1944

Opera, San Francisco, 1949

Four Seasons of "In Transit"

Regardless what time of the year it is, this is the way I commute.

Spring @ The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens

Summer @ Athens Metro

Autumn @ 東京メトロ

Winter @ MTA NYC Transit

Le printemps dernier à Paris

Memories of last spring in Paris were lingering subconciously somewhere in a hole of my mind, forming circles of anticipation to taste the sweet spring smell again. Somehow, a desire such strong could change the altitude on the earth and bring me towards reliazation. I believe so...

An Indian Love Story, Lakshmi & Prabuddha

In ancient times, India was a place where sensuality was unashamedly celebrated. Traditional Hindu culture saw aesthetic and physical pleasure as one of the main goals of life, giving rise to the Kama Sutra and the intricate erotic sculptures of the medieval temples at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh. For the last few hundred years, the country has had a more conservative outlook, but as Western influences gradually take hold in this rapidly changing society, clothes are coming off in contemporary Indian art.

Photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta—who counts Louis Vuitton among his commercial clients and is a regular contributor to Indian Vogue—is among those who have broken India’s taboos, shocking and inspiring with the publication of his book of nudes, Women, in 1996. For the past seven years, his muse has been his partner, Lakshmi Menon, who is arguably the biggest model to ever come out of southeast Asia, gracing the runways of major fashion designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella McCartney and Givenchy, as well as starring in campaigns for Hermès and appearing in editorials for V, L’Officiel India and Vogue.

“There must have been some kind of spark that shot out from those black and white images on my computer screen that hit me,” muses the photographer of the first pictures he ever saw of his long-term love. This series of intimate portraits reflects the geographical expanse of their relationship, from their home in Goa to the white sands of the Maldives where they retreat to relax. Menon says of their photographic dialogue: “It’s very private, but it’s just a part of our lives. It’s something I don’t think about anymore because it comes very naturally to us both.”

国境の南、太陽の西

I spent half of my day haunting the melancholy novel of Murakami, about the midlife crisis of Hajime. At 37, he had everything in his life, and wanted for almost nothing. Yet he always felt that something was lacking, till he met his love from the childhood, the void was filled, he decided to leave his family & career behind. However, there are certain things that we can't undo, it'll lead to another dead end. There is only moving forward...

South of the Border... As a kid who listened to this record, he wondered what is was that lay south of the border... As a grown up, he was dissapointed that it was just a song about Mexico.

West of the Sun... A land where the Siberian farmers who suffered from hysteria siberiana headed to, they walked for days and nights and eventually died... Somewhat more elusive, but he had conquer the urge and stay in place.

"Pretend you're happy when you're blue
It isn't very hard to do"
When he was 12-year-old, didn't understand any of the English lyrics, he listened to the song so many times that he could imitate the consolation lines.



It wasn't easy to pretend...

Sunday Harajuku Socializing

Tokyo street fashion is influenced by many styles and subculteres from around the world. In the 80s a great numbers of street performers and extravagantly dressed teenagers gathered around Omotesando and the street that goes through Yoyogi Park on Sundays when the roads were closed off to traffic. However the roads were reopened to traffic in the 1990s, and teens stopped meeting there. Today there is a revival in the amount of young adults dressing up and hanging out in Harajuku, most of them now congregate on Jingu-Bashi, across the railway tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park. Everything from British street punk fashion of the 70's, goth, and many other fashions from around the world have all moulded the teenage style in Tokyo today.

Myself in Digitaria SS10, the morning after.

Sweet Lolis create their look by combining various shades of pastels and white, often mini or knee-length frilly dresses with accents of crinoline and lace, corseting details and added ribbons. Accessories are also an major part of the look: tiny top hats worn to one side with a lace ribbon tied under the chin, headbands or bonnets, dolls or teddy bears, parasols, frilly thigh high or knee high socks, opaque or fishnet stockings, white frilled aprons, and chokers with charms such as cameos, spiders, cherries, or skulls. Their handbags and what they carry ranges from patterned rolling suitcases to hatboxes to Kelly bag styles.

Kawaii fashion generally relates to someone wearing clothing that appears to be made for young children or clothes that accentuates the cuteness of the individual wearing the clothing. Ruffles and pastel or bright colors may be worn, and accessories often include oversize toys or bags featuring anime characters.

Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupu-re), short for "costume play", is type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies.

Male to Female crossplayer (male costumed as female character, sometimes abbreviated "MtF"), who put on a formidable amount of preparation and effort into the ruse of a female persona, here as a "meido" (maid). Some males, particularly teenagers, frequently manage to recreate a striking image of femininity that can fool most unsuspecting bystanders.

Music is the main force in the creation of Visual Kei Fashion. It is exactly as it sounds - Rock music that incorporatesmany visual effects and ostentatious costumes to heighten the the music and the show. Visual Kei started in the 1980s and became so popular by the 1990s that the nearly all-female fans started dressing up like their favorite band members who were often males that wore striking make up and had crazy hair styles - most dressed androgynously or as females (usually, the more feminine the rock star, the more fans would try to copy them).

Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given an anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.

Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) refers to the fashion of frilly, ruffled knee-length dresses and head-bands etc. Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) refers to a more subtle and refined dressing consisting of longer dresses and coats. Most Goth Lolitas love the high-end Vivienne Westwood (her “Rocking Horse” wooden platform Mary Janes and boots are highly sort after) and Jean Paul Gaultier labels as well as the multitude of Japanese.

Decora consists of bright colors and hair clips with bows. Lots of layering and colorful accessories are used in Decora. The accessories include plastic and furry toys and jewelry, which stick together and make noise as the wearer moves.

While many people from all around the world are influenced by Harajuku, the real Harajuku style fashion stays where it originated from - in the area itself.