Transylvania

At the lake Bâlea, atop the Făgăraș Mountains
Carpatians, Romania

Motifs

From the 'Motifs' photo series by Juha Nenonen, a Finnish photographer.

Greenland

These are from the series of photographs set in Greenland by Tiina Itkonen, a Finnish photographer.
"There are no roads that I could take to get away," said Tiina Itkonen.
"I follow my own paths. There are no trees: I can see the horizon far off in all directions. I am incapable of judging distances. I am not used to seeing this far."

Get a grip

Title: Ducks


Title: Grip

Perhaps you've noticed already: for the time being I've abandoned the weekly themes. It became too limiting. I may still spin a week theme now and then, but generally I'll be posting random finds: a selection of those that not only catch my interest, but prompt a reaction.
I chose to open my newly found freedom with these photos of Marijke van Warmerdam, a Dutch multimedia artist. I spend most of my time living atop the same unbearably levelled Dutch landscape. It seems impossible for me to live (on it) without that warped perspective and imagination.


Title: A-side


Title: B-side

500 photographers

I have already written about Yeondoo Jung earlier this year (see here). This Korean photographer is best known for his photographic series.
The featured photographs are from his Wonderland series (2005), in which he recreated children's drawings in real life with people and props.
All photographers featured on gem this week are taken from 500 photographers, a weblog run by Pieter Wisse, a photographer from Rotterdam. For 100 weeks in total (still running), Wisse is bringing carefully selected photographers to our attention. A photographer a day.

Adeline Mai

Adeline Mai is a 21-year-old French photographer, who makes intimate, nostalgic and poetic portraits of her generation. If you are interested to see more of her work (photo and video), press here for her internet page and here for her blog.

Landscapes

Levi van Veluw is a Dutch photographer. Lanscapes is his 4-piece self-portrait series.

Everybody knows this is nowhere

Ryan McGinley is a photographer from the United States. While I have chosen his individual (non-series) photographs, McGinley is more known for his project work. See Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere series.

Hyper

Denis Darzacq is a French photographer. The featured photographs are from his Hyper and La chute series, and they are not digitally manipulated.

Snow White

This is 'Snow White' from the 2005 'Wonderland' series of Yeondoo Jung, a Korean photographer. Jung staged children drawings in real life and then took photographs of the actors and props. For more, press here.

Le Petit Chaperon rouge II

The stills were taken by Sarah Moon, and they are featured in Le Petit Chaperon Rouge - Perrault et Sarah Moon (1983).

Goab, the desert of colour

And finally Ibex, an awarded photograph shot by Joe Bell in the dunes of Ibex.
Is this Goab, the desert of colours that each night gives birth to Perelin, the night forest? The plants of light that grow in Perelin at night, disintegrate in the morning into a desert of all and any colours. Travelers must begin and end their journeys in a single night, if only because the sand in Goab is as hot as lava.

Ajs, ice

Greenland Iceberg, an awarded photograph in a series of near-sculptural photographs of icebergs shot by David Burdeny in Greenland and Antarctica (2007). In order to view the entire series, press here.

Portrait

Wild Horse of Assateague Island, an awarded photograph of Hope McCall (2009). While Assateague Island (located off the eastern coast of Maryland and Virginia) is known for its free-roaming horses, these horses are not descendants of the wild horses of the past. With the exception of Przewalski hourses from Mongolia, the wild horses are extinct. The last Tarpan horse died in Russia in the mid 1980s.

Stories of old

I bet you expected spring?
These powerful Angkor trees in Cambodia were shot by Viviane Moos in her awarded Ode to the Trees series of photographs (2008). Moos told that she “was drawn by the spirit of these enormous, shimmering silken trees and their mighty roots, as they grow above ground and destroy the ancient stones, seemingly drawing from them the energy to grow into giants."
This is how I imagined the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel, once you'd eaten through the layer of cookies.

Winter in 9 squares

This is Cathedral, an awarded photograph from the Winter in 9 squares aerial photo series by Kacper Kowalski (2009). The series depicts a forest near Gdynia in north Poland. In order to see winter in all 9 squares, press here.

Parting hommage

Gloria Swanson, as photographed by Edward Steichen somewhere at the beginning of the 20th century.
We didn't need dialogues in those days.
We had faces.

Moon

A tiny peek into a Little Red Riding Hood, a photobook by Sarah Moon (2002).
Don't overlook the soundtrack under the photograph: Werewolf by Cat Power (the song appeared on the album You Are Free, 2003).
Press here, if you wish to see and hear Werewolf performed live by Chan Marshall aka Cat Power.