©Eric Chang

Not many photographers can brag about having their prints hanging on a wall in sir Elton John’s home. But Eric Chang can. And just like the knighted singer, Eric likes his art exceptionally extravagant and beautifully bizarre.

Eric Chang is a Los Angeles-based photographer and film director born in East Java, Indonesia. The son of a sculptor and a ceramic designer, Eric spent his early years in his parent’s workshop, playing and writing music and poetry, sketching with charcoals and sculpting gypsum.

“My family taught me a lot of things,” says Eric. “From drawing, painting, sculpting and creative writing to playing and writing music. These experiences have grown inside me ever since. They brought me an enormous amount of freedom and joy, but I still felt restrained and could not articulate my point of view. It wasn’t until I discovered photography that I also discovered a way to express myself and communicate my ideas to people.”

When you meet someone at a party who don’t know the first things about photography and they ask you what it is that you shoot, what do you reply?

“I never give the same reply twice,” says Eric. “Part of it depends on who’s asking, of course, but generally I always say something beautifully bizarre.”

What does that mean?

“What I want to suggest is that I don’t just shoot beautiful fashion portraits. For me, that’s boring. It has to be more to it than just assembling a team, getting models and designer clothes, and ‘wam-bam’ shooting it straight away. I like to spend time thinking of different ideas and combining to make something unique. And most of the time, the result of that process is something that is … beautifully bizarre. (more…)

We were first introduced to the work of Brittany McLaren through her project Meet the Quirkies, whose lighthearted subject matter and bright, poppy lighting style caught our eye. Since then, she’s been hard at work shooting more projects and graciously filling us in on the details. Read on for her account of the shoot, a behind the scenes video, and the images themselves.

I’m very pleased to share my most recent personal series, “The Girl Returns.” I’ve always been fascinated with that delicate period of time as one passes from childhood into adulthood and wanted to explore it photographically. I sketched out a series about a girl on the cusp of becoming an adult – rejecting and leaving behind adult constructs and manners to become carefree, wild, and joyful. The title, “The Girl Returns,” references the fact that while she is making a journey she is also making a return – to nature (as in wilderness) but also to a more raw, basic state of human nature itself. Throughout the course of the imagery, the girl sheds her clothes, her hair falls down, her makeup smears off. While original sketches involved a lot of interior shots, I decided to take advantage of California’s gorgeous “winter” weather and shoot everything out in nature, from beginning to end. (more…)

resourcemagonline.com

Photographer Brittany McLaren started out as a writer, so it’s no surprise storytelling is at the heart of her photography. She has been featured by Resource Magazine Online as their photographer of the week with an interview and a selection of her images.

Brittany didn’t realize photography was her calling until she took a black and white darkroom course as an elective in college. She soon realized she was having a lot more fun shooting than she was pursuing a writing career. A new career path was calling.

Her work is most often described as “quirky.” With project names like “Taxidermy Love” and “Meet the Quirkies,” even she’ll agree that’s a pretty accurate description. She says, “I like to examine human nature, poke fun at it, comment on stereotypes, and subvert them.” Her portraiture style fits her concept — it’s poppy, fun, lighthearted — and she uses Profoto gear to get it.

Read the full interview on Resource Magazine, see more of her photography on her site, and check out some behind-the-scenes videos to see some of that Profoto gear in action. Connect with Resource Magazine on Twitter and Facebook. (more…)

125 Magazine | ©Aorta

Marco Grizelj and Kristian Krän are two Swedish photographers, operating under the somewhat cryptic name of Aorta. The two met at photography school, where they soon came to realize that they shared the same vision and were working toward the same goal. They also shared the notion that the life of a freelance photographer appeared somewhat lonely. Hence, they decided to form a team. And Aorta was born.

“The actual name Aorta just happened,” says Marco. “I guess we felt that Krän & Grizelj sounded too much like a law firm.”

What do the two of you have in common?

“Hard to say. Well, there is actually one thing we do have in common: none of us is very talkative. Nor do we like to over-analyze stuff. I guess we both believe that you’ll kill the joy of photography if you think too much about it. We’d rather just trust our gut feeling.”

Can you tell us a little about the images in this article?

“The first images were done for 125 Magazine. It’s a fashion and arts magazine. It’s pretty thick and there is almost no advertising in it. They give you a certain theme, but other than that, you’re pretty much free to do whatever it is you want to do. In this case, the theme was ‘art.’ Kristian and I brainstormed for a while and came up with this idea of an alien that travels to earth, determined to have a deep and profound art experience. So, he goes to an art museum, he visits the Museum of Natural History, he approaches some cows in a pasture and so on. Nothing happens. But then he experiences the sunrise and things get a little better…” (more…)

©AndrewMcGibbon

Did you read our interview with Andrew McGibbon earlier this week but felt that you wanted to know (and see) more? Well, by coincidence, PxlEyes just published their own interview with Andrew.

For obvious reasons, the article focuses less on lighting and more on the artistic aspect of Andrew’s work. Still, it is a nice article, and if you really do feel like seeing more of Andrew’s images, PxlEyes did a fine job selecting images that shows the broad range of his work.