Up close and personal Portraits

August 21, 2015 marceleverts Leave a comment

This week started off great! Three wonderful photo shoots with three wonderful ladies; Sophie, Leonie and Jacqueline.

After my trip to the United States of America I’ll be continuing on this path. I’ll be more focused on photographing portraits headshot-style. Who doesn’t need a good online presence, right? And a good portrait photo will always help with that!

I shot this with my Nikon D800, tethered to my iMac. And wow, does that make things better. Being able to review the photos instantly with the model is so much more efficient than selecting the best photos on my own. It saves time and even better, we can change things on the spot. Small adjustments to once appearance does so much to make a better photograph. A little squint of the eye (Peter Hurley style), adjusting the shoulders a bit or noticing that rouge hair during the shoot.

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DSC_0316k Leonie

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Jacqueline

Holiday Selfie

August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 marceleverts Leave a comment

Soon I will be traveling to the United States of America. I’ll be traveling to some nice places on the east coast and the south of the country. In preparation of this trip I made a ‘selfie’. Just for fun

Guess to what city I’ll be heading first…

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FourFiveSeconds

February 3, 2015 marceleverts Leave a comment

Watch this beautifully filmed music video by Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney. Shot by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin. This fantastic photographic duo are well-known in the photography industry. And now they have created this amazing video. It’s like they used a classic hasselblad. That iconic square format. And all in black and white. As if each frame could be a strong portrait image in it self. A perfect blend of photographic mastery, moving images and music.

2D or not 2D

February 21, 2014 marceleverts Leave a comment

Combining or taking inspiration from different art forms can bring about wonderful pieces of work. Photographer Alexander Khokhlov created portraits of woman with wonderfully painted faces. The faces references to all kinds of different works of art. We recognize the comic style, or for the art lovers pop style, of Roy Lichtenstein; we see a pixellated portrait we all know so well by looking at pictures on our computer screens. Even the iconic Obama Hope poster by Shepard Fairey is painted and photographed wonderfully by this Russian artist.

A wonderful series to celebrate both photography and art in general. Below the series. Visit his website for more of his work.

Alexander’s webiste: www.alexanderkhokhlov.com

Of Beards and Men

July 18, 2013May 7, 2014 marceleverts Leave a comment

A couple of months ago PforPHOTO featured the fantastic beard series by Joseph Daniel Robert Oleary. The series’ called Of beards and Men. He just launched a Kickstarter to make a fine art book of all the incredible portraits. He made 130+ photos. So plenty of masculine hairiness to explore.

Check out the video below and head to Kickstarter to help Joseph reach his goal.

And, of course, check out his website: www.ofbeardsandmen.com

Is Media Child’s play?

May 7, 2013May 7, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

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In the Playroom is a series by Canadian and award-winning photographer Jonathan Hobin. The photographs show us children playing out events that we all recognize. From the tragedy of 9/11, the torture at Guantanamo bay to the devastating tsunami on boxing day 2004. At fist glance we see a scene of children playing. But quickly we notice that what we see isn’t all that innocent or cheerful.

Jonathan Hobin created this series to comment on what it means to live in a world with the constant presents of media. The shift from the consumption of media to generating it as well. And on top of that Johanathan’s work also depicts the darker side of childhood. That it’s not all that normal that childhood is a happy and innocent time for many of us.

What ever you feel by seeing the images I do believe this artist really knows how to push buttons and therefore make you stand still by reflecting on how we go about media and news in this time and age.

Jonathan Hobin’s website: www.jhobin.com

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Jonathan Hobin’s website: www.jhobin.com

The Little Prince by Matej Peljhan

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

In this series, called The Little Prince, Slovenian photographer Matej Peljhan lets a 12-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy play again. He lets him do things he wouldn’t be able to do in real life because of his muscle disorder. The boy, Luke, is walking, skating, sporting and even breakdancing. The photographer has made this kid a kid again through this wonderful series.

I’ve seen and even used this style of creating a scene by laying the person, or in my case a baby, down on the floor. It opens up all kinds of possibilities. On PforPHOTO we have seen this technique before in the series Honkey Kong.

Matej Peljhan’s website: mate.1x.com

Drive by Shooting by Johnny Tergo

April 10, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

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Google Streets eat your hearth out. Photographer Johnny Tergo combined the mapping style of google with the drive by shooting we know out of those certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Which happens to be the photographers home town. Tergo drives around in a car tricked out with strobes. He shoots LA’s pedestrians. Some photographs look to be straight from a hollywood movie. His strobes help to achieve this effect. The side mirror of the car can be seen in each image. It reminds us of being in a car. Looking at people whom we come across as we drive along the streets of Los Angeles. The series is called Passenger Side Window. The complete series now consist out of 62 photographs. Visit his website to see the complete set.

“I am Constantly seeing interesting people whom I have the urge to photograph while driving past them on the streets. I built a series of interesting images of people on the street without the individuals knowledge, just as I saw it before me. I accomplished this by building a custom rig in my truck that is made up of generators, strobes, a digital capture station with remote fire capability and of course a mounted camera. This method also allowed me to light the images without having to set-up a series of lights for each individual portrait. In essence I built myself a driving studio.

In this series I seek to explore the interplay of environment and the individuals that occupy the space.“

Johnny Tergo’s website: johnnytergo.com

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Not only for Santa and Chuck Norris Anymore

April 5, 2013April 10, 2013 marceleverts 1 Comment

Beards. You see them everywhere now. It’s not only for santa and Chuck Norris anymore. The beard can be shaped and trimmed to match your preferred identity. A way of expressing yourself. And of course for men who don’t like to shave. It’s a time saver too.

Photographer Joseph Daniel Robert Oleary shot men with facial hair in the series called of Beards and Men. He shows them wearing their own clothes and with some accessories to give us a sense of who they are. An exploration between facial hair and what it means to be a man in our “contemporary society”. The photographs are wonderfully lit. The vignette really pulls you into the photograph. To the subject. And the colors are rough and dark. Not just the subject breaths masculinity the style of photography does too.

Visit his website to see the complete set (a total of 48 beards).

Joseph D R Oleary’s website: www.jdro.com and www.ofbeardsandmen.com