The view from last week in Tokyo. Never ceases to look exciting, fabulous and enticing.

Photographer Simon Roberts was featured recently in the FT Weekend Magazine.  His project documents the Economic Crisis experienced in the UK. Over the last 12 months, he has spent time looking at ways to represent these economic effects throughout Britain. The resultant images will be at The Swiss Cottage Gallery as part of the London Festival of Photography from May 23rd to June 30th. http://simoncroberts.com/news/let-this-be-a-sign-ft-weekend-magazine/

Photographer Gavin Hammond has just released some beautiful images of London, ‘reflecting’ the way that we always seem to be engulfed with grey and wet weather. This time, he uses it to his advantage, and has produced iconic images of London, without the obviousness usually associated with London Landmarks. Centrepoint, at Tottenham Court Road, will always be my favourite building in this City. http://gavinhammond.tumblr.com

The internet throws up so many things good and bad, but the most refreshing thing about it is discovering simple series of images that make you say to yourself “Why didn’t I think of that?”. Italian photographer, Andrea Simonato, has done just that to me. http://www.ilikethisblog.net/

I just came across this wonderfully lit imagery from Berlin based photographer Matthias Scade. The hecticness of everyday life often rushes by too fast for many reasons – and beautiful moments along with it. But the ordinary, everyday things are the real trophies of our information-overdosed life, for which we rarely make time for.  Schade was born in Berlin and is a photographer who mainly deals with the urban surroundings of his hometown. His photographs bring solitary environments that normally are densely populated to the fore and in doing so, these images help decelerate our daily lives. Stadia and Public access areas are beautifully lit and documented. http://www.matthiasschade.de

Ready to embark on an adventure? Let’s take a trip around the world. Got no cash? Strapped for time? No worries. On this vacation, you won’t be leaving your desk…Swiss-based Corinne Vionnet is our guide to the world’s most famous landmarks, monuments millions have visited before. Her art is created not by acrylic, oil, or watercolor, each piece is made by combining hundreds of tourist photos into one. After conducting an online keyword search and sifting through photo sharing sites, this Swiss/French artist carefully layers 200 to 300 photos on top of one another until she gets her desired result.
Look closely and you’ll see dim shadows, vague silhouettes that aimlessly wander around. More than anything, these haunting figures make us think about our own fading memories and the inevitable passage of time. I brings new meaning to the phrase ‘Crowd Sourcing’.

Is is so refreshing to come across imagery that reaffirms one’s faith in the power of photography. These images were shown to me by a work colleague, and the imagery really struck a chord with me. Alexey Titarenko studied at Leningrad’s Institute of Culture in 1983. He began taking photographs at the beginning of the 1970s, and in 1978 became a member of the well-known Leningrad photographic club Zerkalo, where he had his first solo exhibition (1978).

Since this was creative activity that had no connection with the official Soviet propaganda, the opportunity to declare himself publicly as an artist came only at the peak of Perestroika in 1989 with his “Nomenclature of Signs” exhibition and the creation of Ligovka 99, a photographers’ exhibition space that was independent of the Communist ideology. The work is timeless, ghostly and incredibly engaging.
http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/

Our ongoing collaboration with family has resulted in a story for Numero Japan. Simon Aboud’s forthcoming film, ‘Comes A Bright Day’ starring Imogen Poots, is featured in this month’s  issue. Paul Smith, who has dressed the cast, photographed Imogen in a variety of Paul Smith outfits. The story shows Imogen in and around the various sets used during the filming. Whilst the story is out now in Japan, the film premieres in London sometime in February 2012.

While we are on a ‘print’ roll, we thought we’d mention two recently published productions that we have art directed for Sir Paul Smith. The first is an ongoing collaboration that Paul has with Italian magazine Grazia Casa. Shown here, is James Perkin’s wonderful home, and venue, Aynhoe Park. We have shot several campaigns and stories there, and it ceaselessly proves to be a gem. Our favourite is the Unicorn who greets you at reception.

http://shotbyshooter.blogspot.com/ is a site that focuses on, currently, the interesting faces and characters that adorn the streets of London. Shooter documents the inhabitants of London as they go about their lives. All the portraits are impromptu and candid camera grabs; a blend of fashion portraiture and street theatre. It is slowly becoming a telling social document of the variety of cultures in london. In our business of fashion shoots and campaigns, we are blinkered in viewing models as vehicles for product, as opposed to looking for the character of the person as a primary deciding factor in casting. Voted as one of the top UK style blogs, it is well worth looking at. Beauty is evident in all of the people here.

I guess I inherited it from my father.

First Betamax (Bad call ultimately)

First Answering Machine.

First Circular TV.

First Pager.

It’s my turn to take the mantle now. And it’s with this (potentially) revolutionary camera called The Lytro. The Lytro lets you take pictures like never before. Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space. By instantly capturing complete light field data in one image, the Lytro gives you capabilities you’ve never had in a regular camera. It basically allows you to chose your focus point AFTER the event.

Since you’ll capture the colour, intensity, and direction of all the light, you can experience the first major light field capability – focusing after the fact. Focus and re-focus, anywhere in the picture. You can refocus your pictures at anytime, after the fact. And focusing after the fact, means no auto-focus motor. No auto-focus motor means no shutter delay.

It will possibly be the most revolutionary camera since 1800s. On limited pre-order until tonight, the camera is due to ship with USA in March 2012. It will be one of the most hotly anticipated releases.

Whilst initially destined for the Amateur market, there is definitely talk of a Pro version later the following year. Now that would make my life easier on shoots. https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/282

Just completed the second day here in Tokyo. Full Moon has risen over the city, and for a place that’s daytime population hits 15 million, it looks so serene from above. It seems very far from my days in New York last week, where the energy and pace of the city is evident in even the way the street lights shine out. These are two very special cities to me, for very different reasons, but both afford an incredible wealth of inspiration.

Intense few weeks at AC, and apologies for lack of posts. Normal service will resume when the NY/Tokyo/Seoul trip begins next week. ABOVE ALL ELSE opens in NY on October 6th, will be there with my friends and colleagues at PARTNERS and SPADE. In the meantime, a lovely image by Lisa at our studio shows how wonderful and uplifting this odd and beautiful weather is in lovely London. Enjoy.

It’s refreshing to see something that makes you appreciate traditional photographic imagery, with a twist. The bridge between still frame photography and video is a long one, but this style of ‘cinemagraph’ is quite haunting beautiful. Created by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, these animated GIFs are deceptively simple, but amazingly cinematic. Normal GIFs often are too speedy to be beautiful, but these slowed down, more subtle applications trick the viewer into thinking that they are looking at a still image. In a recent article, the pair delve deeper into these cinemagraphs:

‘We feel there are many exciting applications for this type of moving image. There’s movement in everything and by capturing that plus the great things about a still photograph you get to experience what a video has to offer without the time commitment a video requires. There’s something magical about a still photograph — a captured moment in time — that can simultaneously exist outside the fraction of a second the shutter captures.’ cinemagraphs.com

After a hectic week of preparation for next week’s launch of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, we can finally wind down for a few days in the knowledge that we are in the final stages of preparation for Gary Oldman and Jack English’s exhibition of on-set photography at TTSS (our abbreviation of Tinker Tailor…). The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 17th September and runs for a week at Paul Smith’s Furniture and Curiosities Shop at 9 Albermarle Street, London W1. It has been a great experience working again with real film and real photographic prints. It makes one realise how important it is to understand the basics of photography before even touching a digital camera. Gary’s images are shot on a 35mm panoramic camera. Basic, but beautiful. Try to get down to the show when it opens. The limited edition prints of TTSS film posters, signed by Paul will also be on show. These images are three of Gary’s.

Pinch and a punch and all that…..Here is a beautiful site showing amazingly calm and tranquil images from the sea. Wayne Levin was born in Los Angeles in 1945. His father gave him a Brownie camera, and a little kit to develop his own film, for his 12^th birthday and from that early age he was hooked on photography. After graduating high school in 1962 he attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. Motivated to participate in the Civil Rights movement he left Brooks in 1964. Over the next several years he worked with the Congress of Racial Equality and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.Skipping forward to the 90s, from 1999 to 2001, Wayne traveled throughout the United States and Japan photographing aquariums. His objective was to investigate the phenomena of society creating hi-tech mini oceans as the world’s oceans become increasingly endangered. This project led to the book, Other Oceans, published by University of Hawaii Press in 2001.

In recent years Wayne has continued to focus on depicting the underwater world in black and white. He has photographed sea life, surfers, canoe paddlers, free divers, swimmers, shipwrecks, seascapes and aquariums. In short, he has attempted to depict as many aspects of the ocean as possible within the boundaries of the black and white genre. The images, are superbly powerful when cast in black and white, often illustrating the ominous power of the deep. www.waynelevinimages.com

Whilst working in the creative industry, James Mooney keeps his photography strictly separate from his day job. Evenings are spent documenting and observing New York’s working class minorities, but in an extremely positive way. People are documented as lovers, fighters, musicians, families together. No social commentary is made, but the images are documented to illustrate how people live and survive in tough circumstances. The work varies from black and white to colour, shot on film with his Leica always around his neck. Recent shows in London and New York have been early testing grounds for larger ones due soon. Keep an eye on the work, it is building into a vast social document on life in New York. jamesmooneyphotography.tumblr.com/

I am still loving my D-LUX 3, and would be hard pressed to buy another camera. Most of the book ABOVE ALL ELSE was shot on this, and the quality is incredible.  This new customised D-LUX 5 is certainly one which I would seriously consider trading up to, if money was no object. Everything is customisable nowadays, from shoes to  sunglasses. Thanks to COLORWARE,  a company who specialise in altering the colour of existing products, you can do the same to the D-LUX. All you have to do is spend up $1200, pick your colours, and wait 2 – 3 weeks for it to arrive. My birthday is in May. www.colorware.com/p-281-leica-d-lux-5.aspx

Last week, my Ibiza soundtrack was Phoenix’s ‘It’s never been like that’ album. The French band, darlings of the L.A. set and fashion gangs,  have recently completed their new album, with no definite release date as of yet. During this time,  Fashion designer, Heidi Slimane has been documenting a variety of musicians and bands in his blog, ‘Rock Diary’. Most notably he spent time shooting Phoenix recording their album in New York. The more abstract images featured here, offer a refreshing change from the normal behind the scenes imagery often associated with rock and roll reportage.  www.hedislimane.com/rockdiary/