Cool Hunting
I never really took to Hulk Hogan and his friends when I was a kid, preferring instead the low-rent British version of wrestling. Big Daddy in a leotard and top-hat was about as colorful as it got though, so looking at Malcolm Venville's vivid portraits of masked Mexican Lucha Libre wrestlers makes me feel like I missed out big time.
The British photographer and filmmaker (above middle, with furry luchador 'Alushe') has collected more than 120 pictures he took in Mexico City last year for new book Lucha Loco. Fighters like Raziel (above right) didn't just pose for shots, but also gave interviews to Venville about their noble sport. As one of them says, "Mexican wrestlers have that sparkle, we make people laugh and cry." Who are we to argue?
Lucha Loco is available for $80 or £45, plus shipping.
|
previous entry Social Suicide |
next entry Nau sneak peek |
Nieves, a Swiss-based indie publisher, recently released "Mister Lonely," the third script from film director, producer, screenwriter and author, Harmony Korine. Released 10 years after the widely acclaimed Gummo (1997), his third feature film, "Mister Lonely," examines what happens when a Michael Jackson impersonator (played by Diego Luna) meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton). Released in conjunction with the movie's release in the...
by Laurice Parkin Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography recently announced the editions for their 2008 Fine Print Program. The program offers the opportunity to collect contemporary photographs by internationally recognized artists while supporting the Museum. Definitely a win-win for all involved. This year's diverse selections feature the work of KayLynn Deveney, Greta Pratt, Simon Roberts, New Catalogue and Jan Theun van Rees. From Deveney’s...
The midday meanderings of New Yorkers on their lunch breaks, famously captured by Frank O'Hara in his 1964 collection "Lunch Poems," are the inspiration for "Manhattan Noon," the first large-scale New York presentation of works from Gus Powell. When writing his book, Frank O'Hara would step out of his mid-town office at lunch time and walk his way to the Olivetti typewriter showroom where...
Japanese artist Kazuumi Takahashi's beautiful first monograph, "High Tide Wane Moon", explores the relationship between the moon and the ocean. Having grown up near the sea as the son of a fisherman, the schedule of the tides influenced his daily activities, just as the moon influenced the tides. In this large-format book, Takahashi presents 25 double-page spreads, each with a photograph of the moon...
The celebrated Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky recently published a new book called "Quarries," which is also currently featured at London gallery Flowers Central. After his 2005 book on China, which looked at many aspects of their industrialized society and the 2006 award-winning documentary "Manufactured Landscapes," Burtynsky narrowed his focus to a very specific type of man-made landscape. The subject explores the scars left by...
I happened upon this new book of Robert Mapplethorpe's early Polaroids around the same time I read Ryan McGinley's recent interview of Jack Walls (Mapplethorpe's long-term boyfriend). Both the collection of black-and-white photographs and the interview are as great for their content as they are for insights into an era not usually glimpsed elsewhere. McGinley's involvement is like the exclamation mark highlighting how relevant...
