x-ray delta one photostream on FLickr: “Shopping by TV” from the Populuxe album.

Previously on Skandalon : Paul Roberts, photorealistic paintings of bodies in or on water.

x-ray delta one photostream on Flickr: “Florida Orange Juice” 1951, from the Populuxe album

Life – Hosted by Google: Winning models Marianne Baba (L), Lois Conway (C) and Ruth Swensen standing next to plates of their x-ray during a Chiropractor Beauty contest. Photo by Wallace Kirkland, May 1956, US.

Artist statement:

“I use photos as references for my drawings but I am not after a perfect reproduction at all. I use a photo very loosely once the proportions are established. I usually work as if I were drawing from a live model actually. I work with movement and expression, working fast on larger, more unimportant areas, and slowing down on parts that need more attention. I am actually improvising a lot. My main concern is to capture the essence and substance of forms in order to get close to a perceptible presence of the subject.” (more)

Check Dirk Dzimirsky’s blog.

Browse the covert art gallery for DC’s Falling in Love series.

Previously on Skandalon

x-ray delta one photostream on Flickr: “Spun-Lo Undies”, from the Populuxe album

Rodgers late paintings are somehow reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis novel Glamorama.

About Terry Rodgers:

“Rodgers’ current work focuses on portraying contemporary body politics. His rendering of the upper-class leisure life stands as an iconic vision of today’s society. The resulting paintings are not snapshots or slices of life, not verite records of actual moments in actual party or family situations, or diaristic records of his life, but carefully constructed and composited fictions, designed to elicit the most meaning and sustain the maximum amount of ambiguity.

Terry Rodgers attended Amherst College, with a major in the Fine Arts. His strong interest in film and photography influenced his style in the direction of representational realism in art.” (more)

Artist statement:

“Importantly, however, is that nothing I create is meant to judge or criticize. I am merely looking closely at who we are, the density of influences upon us, the choices we make, and the recognitions that occur in trying to comprehend a universe with no signposts.” (more)

First spotted via This Isn’t Happiness.

Learn more about “romance comics” on Wikipedia.

X-Ray has a whole album dedicated to “Populuxe” :

“Populuxe (PAWP.yuh.luks, -looks) n. Low-cost consumer goods that are also perceived as being stylish or fashionable; a style that is reminiscent of or based on 1950s architecture and design.”

“”Populuxe” is a word created by the author and historian Thomas Hine for his 1986 book by the same name. It was this book that helped me to finally get a grasp on my interest and growing obsession with that period.”

“Populuxe is a synthetic word, created in the spirit of the many coined words of the time. Madison Avenue kept inventing words like “autodynamic,” which described a shape of car which made no sense aerodynamically. Gardol was an invisible shield that stopped bullets and hard-hit baseballs to dramatize the effectiveness of a toothpaste. It was more a metaphor than an ingredient. Slenderella was a way to lose weight, and maybe meet a prince besides. Like these synthetic words, Populuxe has readfly identifiable roots, and it reaches toward an ineffable emotion. It derives, of course, from populism and popularity, with just a fleeting allusion to pop art, which took Populuxe imagery and attitudes as subject matter. And it has luxury, popular luxury, luxury for all. This may be a contradiction in terms, but it is an expression of the spirit of the time and the rationale for many of the products that were produced. And, finally, Populuxe contains a thoroughly unnecessary “e,” to give it class. That final embellishment of a practical and straightforward invention is what makes the word Populuxe, well, Populuxe.” (more)

Previously on Skandalon

Greg Girard: Club Pussy Cat, Hong Kong, 1974 from In The Near Distance series, 1973-1986

“During and after High School I photographed in Vancouver in the area near the waterfront, staying in cheap hotels on weekends. Afterwards, I worked for a year, saved money and then took a Philippine freighter (as a passenger) to Hong Kong in the Summer of 1974. I was 18 years old, and it was 18 days across the Pacific.” (a whole lot more via Conscientious)

About Mona Kuhn:

“Mona Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. She earned her degree in the United States from Ohio State University. Since 1998, she has been an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited, and is included in public and private collections, internationally and in the United States. Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debut by Steidl in 2004; immediately followed by, Evidence, published by Steidl and released in Spring 2007. The images appearing in Evidence were photographed entirely in France, where she resides each summer.” (more)

Interesting comments about Kuhn’s work by Joerg Colberg (from his Conscientious’ blog):

“It’s probably not surprising that this kind of photography looks just like advertizing (minus the clothes) and that it usually is described as bringing back “youth” and “freedom” to photography when it is “discovered”. (more)

Colberg is quoting Alexander Adams’ analysis of Ryan McGinley’s work:

“It is here, ever more specifically, that the work continues its travel into the collective Spectacle – the domain of Guy Debord’s societal criticism – it joins product advertising in creating the image of an unattainable lifestyle – the “world vision which has become objectified [17].” McGinley shoots thousands of rolls of film, creates elaborate situations, to attain what he expresses as “the life I wish I was living.” If even he – young, hip, white, famous, and increasingly wealthy – cannot actually attain this lifestyle, it is hard to comprehend it as existing for anyone outside of the shallow frame of his camera.” (much more)

In McGinley’s case, I think it’s really hard to say if this is a weakness or a quality : his work is a symptom of its time. I find the reflexive quality in Kuhn’s work to be less evocative. Some of McGinley’s photos could offer great illustrations for Bret Easton Ellis’ novels. Just like Terry Rogers decadent photorealist paintings.