Kenza Lab

Olivia Bee is the artist’s/Flickr name of Olivia Grace Bolles, who has already built up an impressive collection of distinctive documentary photographs of her teenage friends and family in the form of a photographic diary. This american 17 year old girl started taking pictures with an old Pentax, a gift from her mother. She now works with a Canon 5D Mark II, which is “the best camera in the world” according to her. She bought it thanks to a job for Nike. Since then, she has been contacted by Fiat, Converse and other brands to shoot lookbooks or advertising campaigns. She sometimes take more than 100 photos a day that she puts online on Flickr and on her blog. This is how she was noticed by professionals.

I am impressed by the number of comments and likes of fans that she gets online. I have also recognized so many times her photos on Pinterest, We heart it or Tumblr. Everyone can relate to her photos as they depict in a poetic, dreamy and joyfull way a phase of life we have all been through: teenagerhood. Her shots remind me of the atmosphere created by Sofia Coppola in Virgin Suicides without the depressing aspect. You can see for yourself with these few photos:

I discovered Yasmine Hamdan music in Lebanon when she was part of the  first indie underground arabic speaking band Soapkills, along with Zeid Hamdan.Yasmine is back with her first solo album produced by Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague) that will be released in France on April 23rd 2012. I listened to this new album for the first time last Thursday at Le Tigre in Paris, where she  invited her friends and fans for a showcase. I loved her performance. It was captivating and sensual. It reminded me of the classical arabic voices I was listening to on the radio when I was a kid, with a modern touch. To me, this album is the perfect mix between Oriental and Western music.

You can listen to a teaser here:

I wish you a happy new year, may all your dreams come true!

I was at Paris Photo last week-end, an annual photography fair, which took place this year at Le Grand Palais for its 15th anniversary. There were 117 galleries from 23 countries. I just kept noticing these large-scale  pictures from beaches saturated in blue from the Italian photographer Massimo Vitali. When you were walking across the galleries, you could tell straight away which of the photographies where his.

Vitali is renowned for his beach scenes, ski resorts and tourist destinations depicting the masses at leisure.  He considers himself as a “concerned photographer” expressing issues through art. In these photographies, he speaks about overpopulation,  the disturbance of normality, the oversimplified nature of leisure and the negative results of conformism. When watching these pictures, it is difficult to fully enjoy the beauty of the landscapes as the crowd of people is always there.

I discovered Idriss Bengana’s work on Facebook and I really liked it. I wanted to share a few of the pictures that were shot during his trip around the world as well as the story behind these pictures:

Embarking on a Journey around the world has been a life changing experience: One’s perception of life, death, luck and blessing changes considerably. I had the incredible chance to document those experiences which made me aware of how lucky most of us are. I took this set of pictures to keep this in mind. I could have had the choice to close my eyes on them! While reading The little book of shocking global facts, all those pictures made sense to me, the comments or quotes where taken from this book.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Coachella, USA

Coachella, USA

And I could not help ending this post on a more positive note !

Je connaissais son premier album éponyme, je viens de découvrir ce beau titre issu de l’album The Sea. Si vous êtes à Paris en ce moment et que vous subissez les pluies diluviennes de ce mois de Juillet, ce clip vous réconciliera avec la ville!

Cette vidéo a été réalisée par National Geographic et fait partie de la série “7 billion”. Elle présente des données instructives et étonnantes sur la population mondiale.

7 Billion: Are You Typical? — National Geographic Magazine from Jamie Lee Godfrey on Vimeo.

”I believe in a more altruistic world, where people are less self-centred and more concerned about everyone’s happiness not just their family and friends” Lucas.

Sponsorisé par Atrapalo, Adeu Barcelona est un hommage à Barcelone par Lucas, un brésilien de 29 ans. Il a souhaité remercier la ville pour les trois belles années qu’elle lui a offert en lâchant des ballons contenant chacun un billet gratuit pour un spectacle.

Je trouve cette idée très belle. C’est une façon créative d’offrir un moment magique à des inconnus sans rien attendre en retour. Dans la vidéo, on voit leur visage s’illuminer lorsqu’ils découvrent qu’un cadeau est “tombé du ciel”. La musique de Jessica Allossery “I wanna change the world” est d’ailleurs très bien choisie.

Et vous qu’allez vous faire pour changer le monde?

© Mariana Rezende

J’ai découvert cette initiative sur le web alors que je me renseignais sur la prochaine édition du Festival Coachella,  l’un des plus grands Festivals au monde.  The Creators Projects a été lancé en 2010 à New York dans le but  de découvrir et promouvoir le travail d’artistes visionnaires et un peu fous venant du monde entier, et de devenir un studio de créations artistiques. Le contenu est disponible à cette adresse www.thecreatorsproject.com sous la forme d’interviews, de films et de prestations d’artistes. Le studio lui vient d’être lancé et la première série d’événements  aura lieu au festival Coachella.

Une belle initiative née d’un partenariat entre Vice et Intel qui se sont retrouvés sur l’envie d’aider des artistes de toutes disciplines qui révolutionnent la création d’oeuvres en utilisant des technologies numériques.

Cette vidéo permet d’en savoir plus: