Charles II – The Merrie Monarch (1630 -1685)
You might recognize the style from Alexia Sinclair's sister series, The Regal Twelve. This one features twelve nobles and monarchs.To create these amazing works, Alexia weaved together very specific elements from her own photos and illustrations. Here is how the series is described on her site:
"Legends of the lives of the nobles continue to captivate us today, from the pampered decadence of Louis XIV to the epic legend of Alexander the Great. Other rulers who also form this series are less renowned yet equally intriguing. An unusual blend of Royalty, their selection was based on their contrasts in leadership, their flamboyancies and their enduring influence upon society."
To read more about this series, check out her website post.
Vlad Drăculea – Son of the Dragon (1431 – 1476)
Alexander the Great – Son of Zeus (356–323 bc)
Genghis Khan – The Mongol Warrior (1162–1227)
Hannibal – Grace of Baal (247–182 bc)
Pope Alexander VI – The Borgia Pope (1431 –1503)
Shah Jahan – King of the World (1592 –1666)
Louis XIV – The Sun King (1638–1715)
Peter Romanov - The Great (1672–1725)
Marquis de Sade – The Sadist (1740–1814)
Napoleon Bonaparte – Emperor of the French (1769–1821)
Lorenzo de' Medici – The Magnificent (1449–92)
I absolutely love these collages by Stephen Wilkes. Wilkes masterfully blends thirty to fifty photos of each location, going from day to night, into one fluid image. You can check them out in person at the Clamp Art Gallery in New York City from September 8th to October 29th.
Heather Sitarzewski makes these amazing lunches for her son and posts them on her Tumblr Lunchbox Awesome. Each one is in the shape of a famous character.
"I decided this past summer that I wanted to make a fun bento every day for my son's lunches this school year. I dug around online for a bit to see ideas and found some very fun sites that have recipes and tutorials for how to manipulate food into shapes and patterns that you don't envision initially when you think about it.
Day one I put together a cute, generic style bento. I knew immediately that I wanted to do Disney characters and other fun imagery. But little did I know, that crazy idea I had during the summer would be received so warmly with my Facebook friends. I started posting them daily there and got so many requests for a place to see them all at once. A book, a blog... a tumblog."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I may have found the most beautiful Asian woman on the planet. All I know is her name is Jiang Hailun and she takes amazing photos. Enjoy!
Lust for Love tells an amazing story that needs no words. Photographer Nicoline Patricia Malina creates an incredibly rich, touching, and emotional images for this Harper's Bazaar Indonesia Febuary 2011 editorial. It feels as if each vibrant image was pulled straight from a movie.
To truly appreciate these photos, you must go visit The Big Picture and see the higher resolution photos with captions. Here are just some of the entries for National Geographic's 2010 Photo Contest or you can check out the winners from previous years.
There's something strangely fascinating about these Renaissance costume photographs by Christian Tagliavini. They are odd, intriguing and beautiful all at the same time. I think the abnormally long necks and interesting hats both make the costumes seem odd, but also help draw your attention. If you like these, I also recommend checking out his Dame di Cartone series.
Richard Estes is an American artist best known for his photo-realist paintings. They often consist of clean inatimate scenes of cities. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the photorealist movement of the 1960's. His paintings make you realize how even the mundane things in life can be quite beautiful.
The phrase "Don't play with your food" clearly never resinated with London-based photographer Carl Warner. All the elements in his work are created using different foods, and he admits to spending a lot of time staring at vegetables in the supermarket.
Each image starts with a drawing in order to get the composition worked out. Then model makers and food stylists help to create the sets. The landscapes are photographed in different layers, then stitched together later. He hopes to produce a book in the future, which I will almost assuredly purchase.
If you like these, check out the work of Matthew Albanese.
