Grand Prize Winner : Ross Andersson

Advertising Photographers of America holds a photo competition every year to recognize the commercial talent of photographers in different industries. APA is a great resource for anyone looking to book photographers for advertising and other commercial media. I spent a great amount of time diligently looking through the portfolio’s of all 26 winners of this year’s competition and came up with this edited synopsis of my favorite winning portfolio’s. Note : Some of the winner’s were recognized in different categories than the work selected for this feature. This is an exclusive selection of the winners so all winners are not featured here, for a full list of the winners you may visit 2009 PHOTO COMPETITION WINNERS.

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Born in Copenhagen, raised between Europe and West Africa, Sune Czajkowski is a photographer now based in Paris. Her passion for photography started at an early age and with much dedication has resulted in an elegant and sophisticated style.

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Maryam Nassir Zadeh at the Lower East Side features an array of eclectic mix of worldly and unusual items that will make anyone inspired by such keen curation. Continue reading below…

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Supermodels undress for a good cause ! The Planet is getting warmer everyday, we need to do something…This cool and pretty simple video, gets the point across the best way we know. How? with clothes, or really with the lack of clothes. I guess you get the point! 350.org’s Global Day of Climate Action is a great cause and you should all participate !

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I discovered Swedish photographer Peter Gehrke when I was reviewing the FW 2009 Sandra Backlund collection awhile back. There was a magic present in those pictures that sparked my intrigue. It seemed as though the the clothing and the models were shot in different light and then merged together, but to be honest I was even questioning if it was a photo or an illustration because of softness of the girls. He images often portray a feminine heroine that is both striking and depicts a kind of nonchalance in her demeanor. I really could have featured almost every picture I saw, but Ill leave you some space to explore on your own. Check out Peter Gehrke’s website for many more photos.

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When walking into Greg Lauren’s installation, you may be quite unsure of what is happening. The scenario is composed of over 40 pieces of worn-looking garments with a dark color palette ranging from blacks, whites and earth-tones such as sepia, ebony and umber.

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I don’t know if its really comfortable to be restricting in one of these latex contraptions, but visually it looks great. And if I remember well, I think I saw some editorials in the past mixing latex/S&M props with some high fashion outfits…

HighGlossDolls presents a selection of their Fashion shoot for the Faulein Ehrhardt label – Shot by the designer herself Katja Ehrhardt – Take this as inspiration and think props, props !!

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I would describe Thomas Barbey’s work as a process of surrealistic narration, in which he combines photos he has taken over a span of 20 years from places near and far, into fascinating imaginary worlds. His stories really come together once he titles them, bringing to them a whole new meaning. Like in the photo above you see a montage of a bedroom scene and a beach scene, which he titles, “Wet Dreams” and you think, well of course what else would it be, but clearly only the vision of a true artist could marry those two contrasting images into such a seamless concept.

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Alex Prager’s photography sends you in a backward time capsule of retro imagery, perfectly executed through context and styling. California born and based Prager does an amazing job portraying the iconic vibe of the California lifestyle in her photos to a degree that makes me jealous. Her images often have a very cinematic quality that remind me of Hitchcock’s style in ways.

Prager has released two books in the last few years, one in 2007 titled, “Polyester”, of which some images are featured here, and another in 2005 titled “The Book of Disquiet, The Seven Deadly Sins”, in which she and Mercedes Helnwein illustrate the concept by the juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy.

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The first US west coast solo exhibition of new works by Brooklyn based artist Dan Witz – Dark Doings Exhibition @ Carmichael Gallery from November 5 to December 3, 2009

Created both for the street and gallery, the subtle, haunting images of human and animal faces trapped behind dirty glass windows are inspired by a recent visit earlier in the year to the red light district of Amsterdam.

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We’ve been contacted by conceptual art photographer Elisabeth Molin, to showcase her work and her ‘different way of looking at the world’. Elisabeth will have her first solo exhibition in New York at the AC Institute starting December 10, to January 23, 2010.

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You know we love Pin-ups ( especially me ! ) and when an editorial uses it as theme (and it looks nice) I have to post it. Here is a preview of the upcoming V Magazine #62

Miranda Kerr and Ana Beatriz Barros as beautiful ‘post-modern’ pin-ups photographed by Willy Vanderperre;  Styling by Olivier Rizzo

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A few months ago we introduced you to the fascinating work of photographer and environmentalist Chris Jordan. Here his newest project entitled, “The Message from Gyre”, shot at Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. To portray the pollution in the waters of this area he photographed deteriorating albatross chicks who had died from eating toxic waste. The photos  illustrate the contents in their stomach without any exaggeration. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

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Round up of all the latest Fashion Editorial from Paper Mode
‘KEITH ME’ editorial with Isabeli Fontana photographed by David Sims and styled by Carine Roitfield for Vogue Paris – November 2009. SEE FULL EDITORIAL HERE

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Here is the amazing beach photography of Massimo Vitali, but when I dig a little bit it reminds me a lot of some of the Prada prints from their Spring 2010 runway!

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