happy friday

Happy Friday bloggers!
I watched this last night & it absolutely brought tear to my eye. Wes Anderson's films (full length or short) are so visually beautiful. Check it out & appreciate the beauty in each frame. If you haven't seen some of Anderson's other works you should absolutely check them out.
Some of my favorites: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums, Darjeeling Limited, & Fantastic Mr. Fox.
You basically can't go wrong.

Have a lovely weekend! See you next week!

Why I'm Wearing Black on Valentines Day

Happy week-of-Valentines-Day! The most loathed holiday by singles everywhere…. and me. Mostly because I hate everyone that is obsessed with a stupid Hallmark Holiday & the color pink. The only time I've ever owned something pink was a pair of underwear my boyfriend mistakenly bought me. I mean lets be honest… when am I not wearing black? Refer to my favorite quote, "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color." Of course I apply this to every other day of the year so why not the oh-so-sacred-V-Day. Vom. If there is anything ever related solely to the color pink I'm obviously not about it... especially a holiday.

Holidays in particular have never really been my "thing". My pessimistic personality is probably mainly the reason, but I always feel extremely disappointed & let down. I always secretly get my hopes up that my birthday will always be super fun & people will care that I was born more than I do, or that my boyfriend will always show up and whisk me away on some amazing date on Valentines Day. None of that ever happens. I celebrated my birthday last year with my parents and a friend at a Japanese restaurant in New York. Sure it was delicious and free food is aways a plus, but I wish I was drunk somewhere instead. And to be honest, I can't even remember what I did for V Day last year with my boyfriend of the time. I guess it obviously wasn't anything particularly different than any other day.

I do believe strongly in the concept of: why only celebrate your love for each other on one day, when you should be celebrating it every day. No matter how corny or lame that sounds, it is true. Hating the holiday is also the perfect excuse for me to not wear pink; & for me to not get completely pissed off when my boyfriend doesn't take me on that "amazing" date I will always wish secretly wish for.

Even if Grumpy Cat is my spirit animal & I will be dressed head-to-toe in black, I will always secretly look forward to my boyfriend surprising me on any holiday. I've just learned to not get my hopes up. I don't plan on celebrating it at all this year & just wearing my signature color, black, like every other day. So if you're one of those people that is going to be dressed like the color pink exploded on their bodies on February 14, I condemn you to death.

Here's what I'm listening to:

Thirteen Thirtyfive - Dillon

&

Dance Little Liar - Arctic Monkeys

Thank fucking god its Friday. AMIRIGHT. Not really though… I'll be spending my weekend studying for midterms that I have next week. Yup you heard it here folks.. midterms! & it's not even February yet.. well it will be next week but #ugh. My school is a lot of work & sometimes it just really sucks. On  a more positive note, my favorite part of the week is here, friday obviously, but photographer friday!!

William Eggleston is an American color photographer born in Tennessee (I suck at American geography, I had to spell check Tennessee how embarrassing). He exhibits work similar to Stephen Shore, as in he is drawn to the ordinary. Again, something I find myself drawn to as well. Recently, three dozen of his large format prints were sold $5.9 million in an auction at Chritie's to benefit his own organization, Eggleston Artistic Trust. Which sounds like a loud of crap to me because it's his own organization to preserve his own images. One of his prints set a world auction record for 'single print by the photographer' for $578,000. He has been quoted saying, "I only photograph one thing one time." As a photographer I find that extremely hard to believe. In order to get the perfection he is able to achieve in every shot (compositionally, etc.) there is just no way. There is also just no point. Why only photograph something one time? If you have the option to photograph it a few times at a few different angles, distances, etc., why not? How do you know that just stepping a few feet back won't completely change the image in an amazing way? Or flipping it from horizontal to vertical won't redefine the image and the subject? Whether his remark is true or not, his imagery is beautiful. 

All images © William Eggleston

Here's what I'm listening to:

Let It Fall - Lykke Li

&

Auburn and Ivory - Beach House

& 

Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Breeders

Mostly I find myself writing about the stupid and clumsy events that occur in my life, but I want to start something other than just that. Photography has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember.  I'm hoping to post every Friday about photographers that I find are influential and inspiring to my own work. I'm hoping this will enlighten any readers that I have to the art world and specifically to photographers of all different ages and styles. So here we go!

The first photographer I wanted to display is a young photographer: Petra Collins.
Although only 21 years old, her work has been exhibited in many different periodicals and galleries. Her clients ranging from Urban Outfitters to American Apparel. She describes herself as a portraiture, fashion photographer and fashion designer. I have only recently come in contact with her work and all of it has managed to really impress me. Although I am not personally interested in her fashion photography her personal work is beautiful. Her recent series of photographs, The Teenage Gaze, is extremely inspiring. Although its unlike anything I shoot, I still really find myself connecting with the work. Maybe because I know what its like to be a teenager photographer and have that "teenage gaze" or maybe because she just really knows how to capture a moment. Either way, I'm obsessed.

All images copyrighted © Petra Collins