Friday, February 13, 2009

Frontal Truth of Alberto García-Alix



Considering how conservative Spanish society is, photographer Alberto García-Alix deserves double respect and attention than he receives. For some reason he is not very well known and represented beyond Spain. His raw and sensitive portraits of human soul materialized from the drops of the artist's blood and sweat, soaked in wine and cigarette smoke. He lives his images and photographs people alike, friends who balances danger, self destruction and lust for life. Alberto García-Alix's images very Spanish, Latin. When I look at his images it reminds me films of Argentine film director Jorge Polaco, who is even less known, yet makes wonderful and strange movies. Blend of machismo of corrida with passion and sexuality of flamenco serves more like shell and temporary safe place for naked bodies with vulnerable faces and sad wondering eyes.


Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The Album Art of Hipgnosis





You can't judge music record by the sleeve, but in most cases it works. Smart and talented musicians has good enough taste to pick right visuals. Sometimes record artwork much better than music it contains. Many wonderful vinyl album covers from 70's stuck in my mind, but I can hardly recall music of quite a few. Artwork alone was enough to enjoy record as an object. At that time I was not aware that majority of them was produced by single creative unit called Hipgnosis. Founded in 1968 by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell in London, this company created packing for the best albums of Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett, Scorpions, Styx and The Alan Parsons Project among others. Storm Thorgerson was responsible for the imagery of Pink Floyd stage shows. Based of photographic image, playful and daring ideas rather than gimmicks of Photoshop, Hipgnosis work remains unsurpassed by this day and most likely will never be, since Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell still in business and full of fresh ideas as ever.