Author: hovercraftdoggy

Its always nice when people find beauty in the every day things we pass by without a second thought…

From his series ‘ Means to an End’ – a set of photographs documenting electricity pylons that can be found criss-crossing the landscape around the city of Cape Town, South Africa by local photographer Marsh Dillon: “I was drawn to the seemingly haphazard variations of their designs and the cryptic reasoning behind their structuring”

We blend in

The Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany – beautifully photographed in black and white by German photographer Andreas Levers

We are surrounded

Architecture We Admire

‘A-art house’ by designed by Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima (of the Japanese studio SANAA) in collaboration with Yuko Hasegawa (chief curator of Tokyo’s Museum of Contemporary Art) for the Inujima art house project inI nujima, Japan / Photographed by Iwan Baan

We need some air

From the series ‘Atmosphere’ by Andreas Minge – “the power of mother nature reminds us how little we are. feel the atmosphere…”

We are going in circles

Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain – a walkable, large outdoor sculpture on the Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe in Duisburg Wanheim, Germany – designed by Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth / photographed by Manuela Martin

We work from home

Designs We Desire

The Workbed by Mira Schröder, exhibition designer for experimental design group BLESS. Mira created a unique furniture piece – a piece of furniture that flips from spacious desk into an instant bed. The Workbed’s mattress is unveiled by a rotating mechanism. Sheets are specially designed to latch to the underside of the table when it is turned upside down. It’s a perfect solution for small, urban living, it’s also ideal for offering nap options in a work setting. Work and then if you need – just take a nap after transforming the desk into the bed – it’s easy and comfortable! (text via digsdigs.com)

We have a virus

Photographs by Alexander Semenov of the Alitta virens (also called sandworm and king ragworm) used in the sea-bait industry…a little scary isn’t it?

This post is the last in our second Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 themes/inspirations for each post this week. Yet again you chose probably the most challenging theme we had listed: ‘Miniature’ Hope you enjoy… :)

We want to sail away

Sail Away – a constantly expanding, large-scale installation in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London, consisting of hundreds of small boats made from paper money bills, maps and tickets from all around the world by artist Susan Stockwell

This post is part of our second Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 themes/inspirations for each post this week. Yet again you chose probably the most challenging theme we had listed: ‘Miniature’ Hope you enjoy… :)

We are super heroes

The secret life of miniature batman – French artist and photographer Rémi Noël takes a classic ‘Batman’ 1989 movie action figure on a tour of the American Southwest in a fun and surprisingly moving photography series.

We crawl

Mechanical arthropods and insects made from watch parts and light bulbs by Chicago-based jeweler Justin Gershenson-Gates

Home is Where the Heart is

Beautiful sculpture work by Elle Nitters, from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her words:

I was asked by designer Koen de Wilde to participate in his project “huisnr.” (engl: House Number). He is fascinated by the basic shape of a house and hands out little wooden houses to designers and artists so they can do their own thing with it.

This is my contribution to the project. You can also see it on the project website: http://huisnr.koenst.nl/005

You have a choice! #2

THEME WEEK #02 !

Boys and Girls, time has come…again.

After our first so called ‘Theme Week’ at the start of February – hoping you enjoyed it as much as we did, we thought we would give it another go:

Next week, each post on Hovercraftdoggy will be inspired or revolve around a certain theme – which you get to pick below!

Please leave a comment to cast your vote for one of the following 5 themes. The one with the most number of votes cast here and on our social media sites, will be the theme for the coming week, beginning on monday… spoiled for choice:

1 – Color

2 – Light

3 – Portraiture

4 – Miniature

5 – Animal Kingdom

..let’s hear it people…Have a nice weekend!

/ photograph from the series ‘Head on Top’ by German photographer Thorsten Schmidtkord

We melt

Melting Ceramics – In her series ‘Nomad Patterns’ artist Livia Marin presents us with a set of intriguing sculptures of ceramic bowls, cups and tea pots that each melt into a surface whilst at the same time maintaining their original pattern. The sculptures were on display at the Eagle Gallery in London in 2012.

The Lantern

Architecture We Admire

THE LANTERN, NORWEGIAN WOOD. AWP Office for terrotorial reconfiguration & Atelier Oslo. Sandes_Norway. images (c) AWP (2)

The ‘Lantern Pavilion’ in Langgata, Sandnes, Norway by AWP / Atelier Oslo architects. Photographs by Jonas Adolfsen

We are having a bath

Tosua Ocean Trench – Lotofaga, Samoa

Tosua actually means a “Gigantic Swimming Hole”. It is believed that lava field blow holes making thees tide pools and walking paths along the shore and near the ocean’s edge. it is about 30 meters down from the ground level, one must climb down a long ladder to the natural pool. The pool is situated close to Lotofaga, which is a village on the south coast of Upolu island in Samoa. For more info about the village, visit Lotofaga on Wikipedia (via amazingplacesonearth.com)

Photographs by ‘spiceontour’, Mick Byrne and ‘Steven and Darusha’

We went sightseeing

Rather rare views – from his series ‘Empty London’ by Nick Dolding

We have company

‘Tischgesellschaft’ / Company at the Table – 1998 art installation by Katharina Fritsch.

We are ambitious

‘Dreaming of Dubai’ – photographed many times, but rarely quite as impressive of this – fascinating aerial photographs of Dubai by Johannes Heuckeroth

We fly

‘The Ships That Sail Through the Clouds’ by Luigi Prina, 83-year-old builder of flying model ships.

Luigi Prina, 83 years old, has been an architect for more than 50 years. He has been interested in aircraft modelling since a very young age. The flying ships are made from ultrathin paper and balsa wood. Everything is optimized for flight: from the weight (between 20 and 50 grams) to the aerodynamic shape. They fly like any propeller airplane. The only difference is that here the propeller is powered by an internal elastic band and not an engine. (Text by Blinking City, photographs by Gianluca Giannone)

Transparent City

Doggies We Must Have, Phenomenal Photography

‘Transparent City’ – a fantastic series of architectural photography portraying the city of Chicago by Micheal Wolf.

In 2005 Michael Wolf (German, b. 1956) visited Chicago for the first time to participate in a group exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary Photography. As he rode an elevated train from the airport into the city, he began to envision photographing Chicago. For the previous decade, Wolf had been living and working in Hong Kong, attempting to capture the sheer density of people living on the two small islands that make up that city. Wolf examined the endless ranks of residential housing complexes in Hong Kong by removing the horizon line and flattening the space to a relentless abstraction of urban expansion. He noticed, however, that Chicago had an entirely different feel. While Hong Kong is built of endless rows of structures designed and built in a nearly identical style, Chicago has more experimental, unique buildings of many different styles.

Wolf depicts the city more abstractly, focusing less on individual well-known structures and more on the contradictions and conflicts between architectural styles when visually flattened together in a photograph.

In 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, in collaboration with the U.S. Equities Reality artist-in-residence program, invited Wolf to create his first body of work to address an American city. Chicago is known for work by innovative architects such as David Adler, Daniel Burnham, Louis H. Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and after World War II, it established itself as a world capital of modern architecture influenced by the international style of Mies van der Rohe and home to notable projects by Helmut Jahn, Philip Johnson, and more recently Frank Gehry. While it has been common for photographers to glorify Chicago’s distinctive architecture and environmental context, Wolf depicts the city more abstractly, focusing less on individual well-known structures and more on the contradictions and conflicts between architectural styles when visually flattened together in a photograph. His pictures look through the multiple layers of glass to reveal the social constructs of living and working in an urban environment, focusing specifically on voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. Wolf explores the complex, sometimes blurred distinctions between private and public life in a city made transparent by his intense observation. Words by: Natasha Egan, Associate Director and Curator / Museum of Contemporary Photography

Happy Valentine

Travis and Gus – two German short haired pointers – are the furry duo in this shoot by Canadian photographer Steph McCombie / follow them on instagram @ifitwags

We make eye contact

“an animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” – martin buber“

‘My passion is exploring the depths of possibility in connecting humanity with the greatest minds in the water,” says photographer bryant austin. “The whale challenges us to reevaluate our perceptions of intelligent, conscious life on this planet,” he adds. “the world is so much bigger than our imagination and they teach that every time i am with them.” Bryant says he’s following the words of Thomas Berry, that “teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives.” to that end, Bryant has produced life sized photographs of whales, the largest and most detailed ever taken; each take up to 60GB of space on his computer.

Bryant’s journey to photographing whales began when, depressed and suicidal, he decided to quit his job and sell everything he owned in order to fund a four month trip to Tonga. “My whole life was built around the need for safety, security, a good paying job, and all the other things in life that you are told are important,” he said. but then he “remembered the whales and that quiet voice telling me that i had to leave all that is safe and familiar and i just honored it. it was like this weight was coming off my shoulders.” but he adds, “i had this fear that i would be alone during this whole process, and that no one would want to be with me because i had nothing material to offer.” and of course there was the fear of failure.

But the result of the trip would be a single life sized portrait of a twelve foot long calf. His goal was to recreate the feeling he had when he looked into the eye of a mother whale, and share that same experience of wonder and amazement with the millions of people who will never encounter a whale in their lifetime. “i’m always floating motionless, just watching from a distance and giving them space to explore their own natural curiosity,” he says of his process, which involves waiting hours for the whale to come to him. to create his final image, bryant will need to get within six feet of the animal, and will take up to 300 photographs, twenty of which will be selected and stitched together in a process that can take up to 300 hours. the photos, weighing up to 600 pounds, have now toured norway, iceland and japan – all countries where whaling still occurs – in the hopes that the detailed life size splendor will give audiences an emotional connection with the whales. as one viewer in japan commented, “i feel like the whales are talking to me with their eyes.” text from ny times, monterey county weekly, servicespace and bryant’s facebook

We look up

From the series ‘Vaults’ by photographer David Stephenson in which he beautifully captures cathedral and church ceilings across Europe transforming them into fascinating two dimensional patterns.

We could so with some sunshine

Incredible and powerful black and white photographs of storms across the central USA captured by Mitch Dobrowner. See much more of his work on his website.

Words by the photographer:

Landscape photographers count ourselves lucky to be in the right place at the right time if a storm system is moving through — but I wanted to actively pursue these events. Since storms are a process (not a thing) I needed a guide. I soon connected with Roger Hill (regarded as the most experienced storm-chaser in the world); he introduced me to Tornado Alley and the Great Plains of the United States.

In July 2009 Roger and I tracked a severe weather system for nine hours — from its formation outside of Sturgis, South Dakota, through Badlands National Park and into Valentine, Nebraska. Eventually we stopped in a field outside of Valentine, and there we stood in awe of the towering supercell (a thunderstorm with a deep rotating updraft) which was building with intake wind gusts of 60mph. It was like standing next to a 65,000-foot-high vacuum cleaner. It was unlike anything I had seen before in my life; the formation of the supercell had an ominous presence and power that I had never witnessed or experienced before. I remember turning to Roger, who was standing next to me, and saying, ‘what the ****… you have to be kidding me’. It was only the second day of my “experiment” in shooting storms, but I knew without a doubt that this experiment would become an important project to me.

Words are inadequate to describe the experience of photographing this immense power and beauty. And the most exciting part is with each trip I really don’t know what to expect. But now I see these storms as living, breathing things. They are born when the conditions are right, they gain strength as they grow, they fight against their environment to stay alive, they change form as they age… and eventually they die. They take on so many different aspects, personalities and faces; I’m in awe watching them. These storms are amazing sights to witness…. and I’m just happy to be there—shot or no shot; it’s watching Mother Nature at her finest. My only hope my images can do justice to these amazing phenomenona of nature.

—Mitch Dobrowner

We are under the microscope

Fernan Federicias microscopic images of plants, bacteria, and crystals are a classic example of finding art in unexpected places.

A couple years ago, Federici was working on his Ph.D. in biological sciences at Cambridge University studying self-organization, the process by which things organize themselves spontaneously and without direction. Like a flock of birds flying together.

More specifically, he was using microscopes and a process called fluorescence microscopy to see if he could identify these kinds of patterns on a cellular level. In fluorescence microscopy, scientists shine a particular kind of light at whatever theyare trying to illuminate and then that substance identifies itself by shining a different color or light back. Sometimes researchers will also attach proteins that they know emit a particular kind of light to substances as a kind of identifier. In the non-microscopic world, it as like using a black light on a stoner poster.

Federici grew up with photography as a hobby, so looking through the microscope at all the different colors and patterns he realized that the process was highly visual. He hadnat seen many images like what he was seeing published for the general public, so he asked for permission from his adviser Jim Haseloff to post the photos on his Flickr site. Today that site is filled with pages and pages of microscopic images, some of which are from his work, while others are just for fun.

“Microscopy is always serious science,a says Federici, who is now a researcher at Pontificia Univerisdad Catolica de Chile. aFor us [in the department at Cambridge] this was something we looked at as outreach. It was a way to bring this scientific data to the general public.” (text via techhumorblog)

We are back in our little house

Designs We Desire

Beautiful, playful and quirky mirror houses designed by photographer and creative director Autumn De Wilde as part of the Mirror House Cadillac 2015 ad campaign.

/// This is the last past in our first Theme Week, where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 theme/inspirations for each post this week – you chose ‘Reflection.’

We hope you enjoyed it! :) Happy Weekend Everyone

We sparkle

Mobile Mirrors: Manequins Covered in Mirror Shards by Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen

As part of her Mobile Mirrors exhibition at Christian Larsen gallery in Stockholm, artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen created a series of four reflective mannequins clad in shards of mirrors. Light was projected onto each sculpture creating a twinkling halo effect not unlike a disco ball, as a person wearing a similarly reflective body suit moved through the space. The exhibition was intended as commentary on consumerism; just as we project ourselves onto mannequins, Rasmussen’s is attempting to use the same object to reflect back on ourselves. Via thisiscolossal

/// This post is part of our first Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 theme/inspirations for each post this week. You chose ‘Reflection.’ :)

We are apart

Art That Inspires Us, Phenomenal Photography

Beautiful, abstract architectural photography of buildings & facades in Miami, Florida – captured by Diego Guevara

/// This post is part of our first Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 theme/inspirations for each post this week. You chose ‘Reflection.’ :)

We like our curves

Beautiful photographs during a foggy early morning of the Cloud Gate aka The Bean in Chicago – one of the most famous sculptures of world-renowned Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor.

Photographs by ‘rcruzniemiec‘

/// This post is part of our first Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 theme/inspirations for each post this week. You chose ‘Reflection.’ :)

Graffiti of Speed

‘In his project “Graffiti of Speed / Mirror Symmetry“, the Japanese photographer Shinichi Higashi offers striking images of Tokyo, by combining symmetry and long exposure with beautiful light trails.’ Fantastic photographs between architecture and light painting (text by ufunk.net)

/// This post is part of our first Theme Week where since last Friday, you the public had the chance to choose between 5 theme/inspirations for each post this week. You chose ‘Reflection.’ :)

You have a choice!

/ photograph from the series 'Head on Top' by German photographer Thorsten Schmidtkord

THEME WEEK #01 !

Trying something a little bit different, next week, each post on Hovercraftdoggy will be inspired or revolve around a certain theme – which you get to pick below!

Leave a comment to cast your vote for one of the following 5 themes. The one with the most number of votes cast here and on our social media sites, will be the theme for the coming week, beginning on monday…Starting with some easy ones:

1 – Portrait

2 – Black and White

3 – Reflection

4 – Small Things

5 – Animal Kingdom

..let’s hear it people.. :)

/ photograph from the series ‘Head on Top’ by German photographer Thorsten Schmidtkord

We hide

Self Portraits of a different kind – innovative and fun images of French photographer Olivier M. hiding behind trees and other objects (with a bit of digital help). See more of his work on flickr.

Here we flow again

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland

Vettisfossen Waterfall, Norway

Waterfall, Norway

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland

Skogafoss Waterfall, Iceland

Absolutely beautiful, stark black and white photographs of Waterfalls by award-winning Italian photographer Massimo Margagnoni who has been published in National Geographic and recently published a book of his work, Fotografia dell’essere.

Light Container

Designs We Desire

Suspended inside a floating metallic basket, the ‘light container’ by spanish designer Martin Azua treats rays of illumination as something with weight and volume. dipping accordingly to the side, the immaterial nature of light is captured within the sculptural frame. constructed in a series of three different sizes, the shades can be hung individually or in groups. the inner glass diffuser generates a warm, dim light that produces soft shadows – suitable for a range of different spaces. (text via designboom) Images courtesy of Martin Azua

We change direction

Phenomenal Photography, Places We Want To Visit

Great aerial photographs from the series ‘Highway Interchanges’ in which Canadian photographer Peter Andrew captures the delicate and complex web of modern day highways. Find more of this work on his Behance gallery.

We are a bit cold

Beautiful and almost surreal photographs of a frozen forest in Isosyötte, Finland captured by photographer Terry Gibbins

We count

‘What will you leave behind’ – an art installation in the Ardel Gallery in Bangkok, 2013 by Nino Sarabutra who filled a gallery floor with more than 100,000 miniature porcelain skulls that visitors would walk on. Words from the artist:

‘I want people to ask themselves how they live, what are they doing
– if today was your last on earth, what will you leave behind?’

Nino asked a range of people to help create the skulls – friends, family, neighbors, students, workers etc. While making them, they were asked to contemplate their life and think about what they will leave behind.

We have goose bumps

Fantastic Black and white photographs of the Selfridges Building in Birmingham, UK designed by architecture studio Future Systems, photographed by Giles McGarry

We have a lot to do

In his series ‘Totems’ set in Shanghai, China French photographer Alain Delorme pays homage to the underdog heroes of the city, migrant bicycle workers lugging around heaps of cargo to keep the ever-expanding city afloat. Delorme turns this real injustice into a surreal circus whereby he digitally alters his photos to better convey his message about the wealth disparity in China.

Hereby the migrants’ loads have been digitally retouched and purposefully exaggerated to draw attention to the symbolism within Delorme’s work. In addition, the photographer uses candy-coated hues to veer away from reality.

We are going for a workout

Monochromatic Alps by Polish photographer Jakub Polomski

Toy Story

In his series ‘The Real Toy Story’ photographer Michael Wolf captures the truth behind made in China stickers. The series exposes the viewer to row after row of anonymous faces, but it’s effective enough just to see that there are actual people behind the knickknacks rather than a succession of robotic machines. Interspersed within the wide shots of the factory are intimate portraits of laborers, giving even more of a human feel to the series. Though Wolf’s project is, at times, depressing, especially when you think about all the hard work these people put into their livelihood everyday without much acknowledgement, it is also eye-opening and insightful. It is through the photographer’s journalistic eye and his decision to share their faces and work environment that they are finally given some much deserved recognition. (text by my modern met)

We punch holes

Architecture We Admire

‘Ant House’ in Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan by mA-style architects / photographed by Kai Nakamura

We know what you are thinking

Beautiful and clever nude photo series ‘Fragmentation Of The Body’ by Giron Mathilde

We are surrounded

Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk island in Palau. This Micronesian island is home to five marine lakes that contain Mastigias papua, the golden jellyfish. It’s thought that these jellyfish have lost their ability to sting, but they do – it’s just rarely strongly enough to be felt by humans. See a video here

Photographs by David Kirkland, David Doubilet, Jody Macdonald and Chean Chong Lim

We do our own thing

In his series ‘Before They Pass Away’ photographer Jimmy Nelson created these beautiful and powerful portraits of secluded tribes from around the world whose cultures are at risk of fading away.

Inception

The urban landscape of New York City, manipulated by Oregon based photographer Brad Sloan into surreal, Inception-like, monochrome worlds.

We feel light

‘The Event of a Thread’ – a fantastic installation combining A field of swings suspended 70 feet in the air, a gargantuan white curtain attached to a network of ropes and pulleys by artist Anne Hamilton / filmed and photographed by Paul Octavious

“Visual artist Ann Hamilton combines the ephemeral presence of time with the material tactility for which she is best known to create a new large-scale installation for the Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Commissioned by the Armory, the event of a thread references the building’s architecture, as well as the individual encounters and congregational gatherings that have animated its rich social history. A multisensory affair, the work draws together readings, sound, and live events within a field of swings that together invite visitors to connect to the action of each other and the work itself, illuminating the experience of the singular and collective body, the relationship between the animal and the human. The address of the readers to the pigeons shifts at the end of each day, when a vocalist on the drill hall’s balcony serenades their release to flight. Each day’s song is cut with a record lathe, and the resulting recording is played back the next day.” (text by ‘park avenue armory’)

We want to play outside