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

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Photo File: Evita Weed

Artist Bio:

Evita Weed (Eva M ª González López) was born in 1986 in a small village in the province of Jaen in Andalusia. In 2002, Evita moved to Granada (Spain), where she began studying photography and developing her own style. Here she started to see photography as more than just an activity but as a way to translate her feelings and impressions in the light and transform them into something tangible that can be seen in the paper.

Although born in the digital age, Evita Weed, focuses primarily on film. Her images are characterized by a touch of melancholy; soft subtle tones of vintage analog grain conveying a sense of time unrecognizable; and a well-studied use of light, where natural light is the key theme of the collection.

The picture for me is my window to the world. Everything around me is a huge desert of asphalt that I’m trying to escape, futile resistance against the loss of innocence. There are thousands of times in life, and some of them deserve to be captured. It’s so easy to get carried away and jump into the imaginary world of sublime landscapes, dynamic skies, dreamlike landscapes and feelings hidden in remote corners unimaginable.

See more on Evita Weed’s Website, Flickr, Tumblr, Issuu

Photo File: Matthew Brandt “Lakes and Reservoirs”

Matthew Brandt lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. For his Lakes and Reservoirs series, Brandt first photographs a body of water and then after developing soaks each image in the lake or reservoir water the photograph pictures.

See more of Matthew Brandt’s work here

See more of the Lakes and Reservoirs series here

“Wilma Lake CA 1″, C-print soaked in Wilma Lake water, 16″ x 20″, 2008

“Lake Casitas CA 3″, C-print soaked in Lake Casitas water, 30″ x 40″, 2008

“Shasta Lake CA 4″, C-print soaked in Shasta Lake water, 30″ x 40″, 2009

Photo File: Aëla Labbé

Artist Bio:

Aëla Labbé was born in 1986 in Brittany, France. From an early age she devoted herself to dancing, a passion which led her to Amsterdam where she studied theatre-dance at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten for three years. Back in France, she became increasingly interested in photography, which she sees as by essence connected to dance. Today, she works as a freelance photographer and contemporary dancer. “To create and to share my vision is a need and a goal after which I go unwaveringly. Inspiration overwhelms me ceaselessly – day…and night! My work is made up of my memories, my emotions, my hopes, my thoughts, and my inner turbulences. There is a certain wistfulness about it – a shroud of reverie perhaps”

See and learn more via Facebook and Flickr

Purchase prints on Etsy

Photo File: End of the Road – 40 Photos From BBC’s Human Planet

Double rainbow all the way, Central Mongolia

The leather Tannery, Fez, Morocco

According to Timothy Allen, photographer for BBC’s on-going series that delves into the wide spectrum of human existence entitled Human Planet:

After a year and a half of non-stop traveling with Human Planet, it appears that for me this particular journey is now over.

It’s been an amazing experience and one that has brought me into contact with our incredibly diverse species across almost every inhabitable environment on the planet. I’m sure you won’t be too surprised to learn that I can report back that human beings are the same the world over… individuals dealing with their own versions of personal struggles to secure food, find a mate, put a roof over their heads and protect their offspring. I’m also sure that you won’t be too shocked to discover that no matter where I went in the world, doors were opened to me, food was shared with me, knowledge was exchanged freely and help was offered unconditionally…

…I will leave you with my personal Top 40 roundup of favorite photos from my Human Planet journey to remind you of some of the amazing stories that will be appearing on the program when it hits your screens in January 2011.

Huli Tribe, Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

See the rest of the photos here