Richard Renaldi: Touching Strangers

by Jonah Samson

For most people, the thought of approaching a complete stranger on the street and asking to take their photograph is an incredibly daunting task. It's easy to forget about the uncomfortable meeting when you look at Richard Renaldi's photographs. In his images of strangers he's encountered on the street or in bus terminals, the people always look relaxed and comfortable, as if they had a previous relationship with their photographer. When you also consider that his images were made with a cumbersome 8x10 view camera, Renaldi's skill as a photographer and negotiator is truly inspiring.

But in his latest series of photographs called "Touching Strangers," the photographer pushes his social talents even further by not only asking random strangers to pose together but also to physically touch one another in the process. The series explores how notions of trust, social conventions and taboos are expressed through body language.

You can see more of these images on the artist’s website. You can also read an extensive interview about this series on the Conscientous blog.

LG GD910 Watch Phone

by Karen Day

In case you were wondering when all of those futuristic items we were promised back in the '80s would ever actually come about, one that seems like such a simple idea is finally here. Kept in a glass case at last year's CES, the touch-screen GD910 watch phone by LG is no longer just a prototype, it's a full blown, market-ready Touch Watch Phone with 3G Video Telephony service and GSM Quadband Network capabilities and has been getting lots of attention for it. (Although there's no price announced as of yet.) Set to compete with the smartest of smart phones, the watch phone boasts a list of features that include an MP3 player, text messaging, text to speech capability, a flash interface, large phonebook and scheduler, all in its tiny 1.43-inch screen size.

B&B Italia x Antonio Citterio: J.J. Rocking Chair

by Karen Day

B&B Italia will be showing off their latest version of Antonio Citterio's J.J. armchair, this time in rocking form, at the global furniture and interior design fair, imm Cologne this month. After much success with the initial chromed iron chair in 2005 and its Mongolian fur follow-up in 2007, they've reinvented the form once again, this time coming even closer to their goal of creating a chair to truly "relax" in.

via Rodeo Magazine

Alison Berger x Blackman Cruz

by Brian Fichtner

Los Angeles-based glass artist Alison Berger creates glass forms that transform mere lights, vessels and objects into timeless poetic expressions. Her recent collection of bottle-shaped vessels for the L.A. design mecca, Blackman Cruz, is an exercise in balance.

Combining the lightness of blown-crystal with the weightiness of hand-formed solid crystal, the objects allude to the momentous developments in alchemy and still life painting centuries ago.

Some of the pieces within the collection have historical references, while others merely allude to the passage of time. Flask 804 is etched with DaVinci’s writings on the nature of water; Bottle 806 has faded numbers etched on its surface as if they were part of an old label; and Bottle 808 has a buffed-acid finish that replicates the atmospheric effect of condensation.

A couple of the vessels, which Alison dubs “purchase at your own risk” pieces, Beakers 801 and 802, have a solid sphere of crystal at the base and can't be placed in direct sunlight because the light refraction can be strong enough to ignite a flame.

Berger's collection is available exclusively at Blackman Cruz, with prices ranging between $2,100 and $2,300 each.

Illustrator Ted McGrath

by Lost At E Minor

Anyone who has ever been a fan of those old school cut-and-paste zines, band fliers and the like, will really dig the work of Brooklyn illustrator, Ted McGrath, who creates the most fabulously rough and raw, spontaneous collages and ink drawings. Be sure to keep an eye out for the latest edition of American Illustration, as McGrath has had the honor of creating this year's cover.