Editorial Style: Virgine #1 “The Icons”

For its premier issue, Virgine Magazine utilizes ten photographers and twenty models to recreate iconic looks from the past.

See more images here

Click on these images for links to the originals

Photo File: Boogie

When Belgrade-born, Brooklyn-based photographer Boogie isn’t shooting Brooklyn gangs, Serbian skinheads or drug addicts, he’s locked away experimenting with the 19th century photographic technique known as “wet plate“, which he used to produce these ghostly portraits. It’s by no means an easy process to create a “wet plate” exposure - practitioners need to be equal parts photographer and alchemist to navigate the unpredictable nature of the chemical variables used. Plus the entire process, from coating to developing, had to be done before the plate dried. This gives the photographer no more than 10 minutes to complete everything.

“It was amazing to feel like an alchemist, mixing chemicals and pouring plates in my tiny dirty basement. Thereʼs dust and dirt everywhere and temperature varies, so the results are unpredictable. After doing the first few plates, I realised that something about this process captures peoplesʼ darker side. So I named the series Demons. Every picture was taken in Belgrade in late autumn and winter. It was grey and gloomy, the photo exposures were long, and you could see people going crazy trying to keep still and staring in the lens.”

Boogie’s latest exhibition Demons opens on May 27 and runs through June 25 at The Outsiders Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

See more of Boogie’s work on his blog

Photo Flash: Joplin, MO – The Aftermath (And How to Help)

Residents of Joplin, Mo, walk west on 26th Street near Maiden Lane after a tornado hit the southwest Missouri city on Sunday evening, May 22, 2011. The tornado tore a path a mile wide and four miles long destroying homes and businesses. (AP/Mike Gullett)

I’ve got some family living in Joplin, MO and I’m happy to say that to the best of my knowledge none of them were hurt. At least 89 people died and countless others were injured in the most destructive tornado in Missouri’s history. My Grandmother’s house of 53 years was completely destroyed. Luckily 82-year-old Treva was out of town visiting her sister when the tornado struck. My father, who also lives in Joplin, said this in an email last night, “The center of Joplin is gone – looks like a nuclear bomb went off…”

See more photos of the destruction here

Read about 4 ways to help the tornado victims

Watch a video of the tornado here

Donate money to the Red Cross here

Facebook pages of note:  Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery / Joplin, Mo. Tornado Survivors

Photo Flash: The Camel Thorn Trees of Namibia, Africa

photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic

Tinted orange by the morning sun, a soaring dune is the backdrop for the hulks of camel thorn trees in Namib-Naukluft Park.

In 1990 newly independent Namibia became one of the world’s first nations to write environmental protection into its constitution. Read more about Namibia’s unqiue efforts at land stewardship here.

See more photos of Namibia’s stunning “Super Parks” here

*Note: This was not photoshopped

Photo File: Spomeniks of the Former Yugoslavia

Although these monuments are full of symbolism that no longer applies, their beauty remains nonetheless.

Spomenik is the Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian word for monument. In the 1960s and 70s, the former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito commissioned these structures to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). Designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković…), the strong and powerful blending of art and architecture come together in these monuments to convey the sense of confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. However, after the Republic gradually died down in 1992, they lost their sense of wonder and no longer attracted the millions of visitors a year.  From 2006 to 2009, Jan Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region to photograph these amazing structures.

source: Crack Two

See more images here