Photo Essay: Milan in Light and Shadow

Photo-journalists Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes and photographer Serena Muccifuora capture Milan's suffused, grey light and the play of sharply delineated shadows cast by sober palazzi lining the boulevards radiating from the city's vast central Piazza del Duomo.

The photographers criss-cross the city to shoot Milan's inner urban grandeur: the great, domed Galleria, the lacy spires of it’s colossal medieval Duomo, the bristling aggression of the vast, towered Castello Sforzesco and the delicately stencilled walls of Art nouveau palaces.

But the weighty, decorative sobriety of Milan's centro storico and the über-modernity of it's design galleries where the scent of good coffee exudes a rich warmth is a stark contrast to the grittier urban reality of long, trafficked streets tightly enclosed by graffiti-clad, post-war apartments blocks.

These ceramic-tiled, blind buildings - metal window shutters pulled down - fill the suburban streets now housing most of the city's population. Canals wind through the fashionable Naviglio area and glint dully in the flat, foggy light - a reminder that Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the city's early town-planners and that Milan once rivalled Venice for it's watery beauty.  ~ Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Please click on photographs for full-screen slideshow.

David Adams: Interview with the Filmmaker & Photojournalist

 David Adams riding across the plains during filming in Afghanistan of his enthralling documentary series "Alexander's Lost World."

Australian filmmaker and photojournalist David Adam’s exciting television series Alexander’s Lost World is broadcast on networks around the world. Jeanne-Marie Cilento interviewed the inveterate traveller about his adventures at his beautiful mud-brick home overlooking the Bilgola Plateau in Sydney

DAVID Adams and his cameraman travelled through the most remote regions of Afghanistan over a period of five years researching and filming the documentary series Alexander's Lost World. They travelled and lived like Afghans gaining a profound insight into the people and their culture. 

During the engaging six part series, David Adams takes viewers on a dramatic 2,400 kilometre journey through war-torn Afghanistan and Central Asia, following the course of the Oxus River. While the Ancient Greeks have long been credited for bringing ‘civilization’ to the East, Adams’ series shows how Alexander the Great discovered a highly developed civilisation that predated even the Persians.

 

He explores the mysteries of the Oxus Civilisations and their tremendous fortress cities, recreated with evocative visual effects that make you feel like you are actually there amid the great walls of these ancient bastions.

As a filmmaker and photojournalist, David Adams is well known for his investigative work, particularly focused on indigenous peoples and their disappearing cultures. He has written, directed and produced many documentary films over the past 20 years, including Journeys to the Ends of the Earth, a 13-part documentary series made for the Discovery network.

Adams' passion for archaeology, anthropology and history has taken him around the world from Iran, Siberia and central Asia to the Pacific Rim, Northern and Central Africa. As a widely published photojournalist, his articles have appeared in more than 50 different countries and he has been a war correspondent reporting from Afghanistan and Georgia.
 

For more information about David Adam's work and Alexander's Lost World visit: davidadamsfilms.com.au.

 

NYC Dance Project: Photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory

Ashley Ellis, Principal Dancer at the Boston Ballet shot by photographers Deborah Ory and Ken Browar at their studio in New York City.

American photographers Deborah Ory and Ken Browar created the NYC Dance Project to shoot contemporary and classical dancers in New York, capturing their dynamism and beauty, Antonio Visconti reports

DEBORAH Ory started her career as a modern dancer while Ken Browar worked as a fashion photographer. Today, working together they are able to use each of their different strengths to create startling portraits of New York's top dancers. The dance project grew from their shared love of the human body in motion. 

“It is a celebration of dancers’ bodies," says Ken Browar. "Dancers must simultaneously be artists and athletes, and we try to highlight both qualities of our subjects in the photographs.” Ory and Browar describe their collaboration as one of  "give and take" between both them and their subjects.  

“We want to showcase and celebrate the dancers as individuals so that our project becomes a diverse portrait of New York's dance community,’’ says Browar. “Even in photographs where the dancers wear costumes, we look for the human being within the character they are playing.”

They prepare each shoot as though it is a dance production, working like choreographers and designing the sets, lighting, mood and movement to reflect the particular qualities of each dancer. “Our favorite moments are the simple ones: the breath the dancer takes after a jump, the quiet introverted moments often only seen backstage, or the second, mid-motion, when the dancer feels free,’’ says Deborah Ory.

Today, Browar and Ory live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with two teenage daughters who are studying to be ballerinas. Browar’s passion for dance began when he lived in Paris and photographed dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. His fashion photography has appeared in Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and other European fashion magazines.

Ory began studying dance as a child and  made it her profession until she was injured and began her photography career, shooting the rehearsals she could not participate in. After moving to New York City, she worked as a photo editor at magazines such as House & Garden and Mirabella and began shooting editorial work for international design publications.

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Marcelo Gomes, Principal Dancer at the American Ballet Theatre. “Our work is a celebration of dancers’ bodies," says Ken Browar. "Dancers must simultaneously be artists and athletes, and we try to highlight both qualities of our subjects in the photographs.” 

Ashley Ellis, Principal Dancer from the Boston Ballet making a graceful pose in New York. “Our favorite moments are the simple ones: the breath the dancer takes after a jump, the quiet introverted moments often only seen backstage, or the second, mid-motion, when the dancer feels free,’’ says Deborah Ory

The sheer physicality of dance ~ Alexandre Hammoudi, Soloist at American Ballet Theatre. They prepare each shoot as though it is a dance production, working like choreographers and designing the sets, lighting, mood and movement to reflect the particular qualities of each dancer. 

“Even in photographs where the dancers wear costumes, we look for the human being within the character they are playing,” says Ken Browar. Dancer Gabrielle Salvatto, currently shooting the film Flesh & Bone. Photographed in New York at Browar and Ory's studio.

The expressive Daniil Simpkin, Principal Dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.

Stretching ~ Daniil Simpkin of the American Ballet Theatre. 

Anthony Javier Savoy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem shows his elegance and strength.

Perfect alignment ~ Anthony Javier Savoy and Gabrielle Salvatto, dancers from the Dance Theatre of Harlem 

Expressive contemporary dance ~ Anthony Javier Savoy and Gabrielle Salvatto from the Dance Theatre of Harlem

Taking a flying leap ~ Anthony Javier Savoy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Dancer Gabrielle Salvatto, currently shooting the film Flesh & Bone. Photographed in New York at Browar and Ory's NY studio.

Hee Seo is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Born in Seoul, Seo is the first South Korean principal with the ABT as well as being one of the youngest dancers in the company to hold this title.

All suited up and ready to dance ~ Daniil Simkin of the American Ballet Theatre.

10 Question Column: Artist America Martin in Los Angeles

Painter America Martin photographed in front of her recent works at her studio in Silverlake, Los Angeles. 

America Martin's series of paintings Native Americans, Bathers and Still Life are inspired by her travels in Taos and Aix-en-Provence. The artist answers Jeanne-Marie Cilento's 10 Questions about her life and work. Additional reporting by Ambrogio De Lauro

WHEN I first saw America Martin’s paintings of the human form, I was entranced by the bold lines, rich color and the beatific energy they radiate. Her figurative works are emblematic and yet resonate with feeling and expression. The paintings’ graphic quality is contemporary and yet has a profound connection to the masters of 20th Century Modernism such as Cézanne, Modigliani and Picasso.

Looking back today, Martin says her passion for painting began when she bought a book about Van Gogh at the age of nine years old. As a precocious child of Los Angeles, by ten she had already begun studying with Vernon Wilson, a professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Growing up in the Hollywood Hills, Martin continued this apprenticeship for the next eight years while attending the Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California.

After high school, she went on to study at the Boston Museum School and then moved back to Los Angeles. Martin soon began exhibiting and selling her work with other young artists, and being Los Angeles, they asked celebrities or people interested in their work to host the shows. Working from her mother’s garage, she was able to build up enough work to get the attention of art galleries. By starting to sell her work early, Martin was able to create a career in full-time painting in her twenties. 

One of Martin’s key focuses has always been exploring the female figure along with Native Americans, jazz musicians, street scenes, landscapes and still life studies. Today, Martin paints in a large and light studio in Los Angeles's Silverlake which she has also made a hub for local cultural events. The artist has had many solo shows and participated in group exhibitions across North America and she has published two books about her work, the most recent called Yes came out in December 2013.

1. What part of painting and sculpting gives you the most happiness? And do you find your creative process is more rational or instinctive?

I have always believed that the life of an artist is not one that you choose ~ it is a life that chooses you. It is something you have to do. But to do what you love, to do what you dream, is happiness. I have found that art, when true, when it is good, when it breathes and lets you breathe, comes only from instinct.

I believe that art dies when it is created from rationality. For artists are inherently ridiculously irrational people. They feel too much, they dream too much and they are led around by their enormous hearts. Nevertheless, can you think of an era throughout history that was not influenced by artists?

2. Where did you grow up and does this influence your artwork?

I grew up in the wonderful city of Los Angeles, California. Being a native of L.A has greatly influenced my work. The temperate weather, the abundant resources and the cultural diversity is endlessly inspiring.

3. Why did you choose painting and sculpture as your artistic métier?

I am in love with life and with being alive. When I participate in and observe the world, painting and sculpture are the natural ways in which I am inclined to respond. Painting uses the eye and the heart; sculpture uses the hand and the mind. To do both is like breathing with both lungs.

4. How did your apprenticeship with Vernon Wilson at the Art Center College of Design and studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston influence your work?

Both experiences have given me a life-long desire to be be intensely curious. They taught me that the duty of an artist is to be ready to learn .

5. You have a singular and bold line in your drawings, paintings and sculpture. How did you develop this style of work?

To me, line is love. It is how I admire a subject. Line is how my eye naturally simplifies what I see. When I look at a woman, a man, I instantly see the lines that stand out - and I watch the lines that are less important fade. I know within a few minutes how I would paint them and how I would sculpt them. This line, this intensely joyful curiosity, is something that comes without thinking. It is something with which I believe I was born.

6. Is there a particular color or palette of colors you like to work with?

I take great delight in color. But I also find that there is always more to discover about the many hues of gray, blue and brown.

7. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday in your studio in Los Angeles or is the process more fluid?

I work six days a week. I do not work on Sundays. I have found that art shows up only when you do.

8. What is it like working as an artist in Los Angeles?

Los Angeles is a wonderful place for artists. The sun shines and the sea and the mountains are close by. People come here ready to work and make their dreams come true. That kind of intention has made the air in Los Angeles rich with hope.

9. What inspired you to create the Native American, Bathers and Still Life series?

The mountains and planes of New Mexico are vast. The sky is constantly changing while the land lies still and welcomes the wind to come rolling in, full of memory. In July last year, I attended the enormous Pueblo Pow-wow in Taos, New Mexico. I took photos and listened to a visual story of people who create ceremony to celebrate community, to commemorate and to remember.

Native Faces is a series of paintings and works on paper inspired by the people I met. They are not meant to be strictly representational, but come from a reverence for the dignity of the men, women and children whom I had a chance to meet and observe, who gathered together to honor not only their own ancestors and their own history, but time itself.

The Bathers is a series of paintings created in homage to Paul Cézanne, one of the great masters of Impressionism. He created countless paintings centered on the bather theme that have long enthralled me. I recently visited Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence. There I was able to see the landscape that fed his palette: the green of the hills, the lean of the trees, the jagged mountains and the sky.

I came away inspired and hungry to create a bathers series in my own voice, color and form. The human form is a landscape that never tires me. There are always new discoveries to be made and great joy in capturing the figure with a few simple lines.

The Still Life paintings arise from quiet, daily adventures. On Saturdays I have a routine. I go to my neighborhood farmer’s market where I buy a few robust pieces of fruit, a languid leek or a bunch of cheerful flowers. I arrange a still life and do a drawing, a painting, or a sculpture. I discover new shapes from fruit, from flowers and from simple pieces of pottery. After I complete a piece, I eat the fruit or cook the leek. 

10. In our digital age what do painting and sculpture give us as art forms?

This is a fantastic time because technology makes the sharing of communication and information so much easier than at any other time in history. The world and all its bounty are but a click away. Nevertheless, the prime function of all artists is still to create something from nothing, to solve problems, to dare to dream ~ and to find ways to realize those dreams. 

However slick we get as a society, there is still beauty in work, dignity in sweat, and triumph in confronting things that are difficult. The style and the voices of artists will continue to be as unique as each individual regardless of the advancements of time and technology.

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow of America Martin's new paintings

Artist America Martin working in her large and light studio in Silverlake, Los Angeles

Bathers, Birds and Flowers Ink on paper 20 x 30 inches and framed 25.5 x 30 inches.

Women Gathering Lantern Flowers Oil and acrylic on canvas 57 x 67 inches.

America Martin photographed at her studio in Los Angeles.

Bathers in Orange and Blue Oil and acrylic on canvas 81.5 x 72 inches. 

Bathers Picking Flowers Ink on Paper 30 x 20 inches and framed 36 x 26 inches. 

Siren in Sea of Flowers Oil and acrylic on canvas 35 x 78 inches. 

Yellow Pitcher and Watermelon Oil and acrylic on canvas  46.5 x 56 inches.

Bear Claw Necklace Oil and acrylic on canvas 58.5 x 52.5 inches. 

Blue Felt Hat  Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. 57 x 50 inches.

Chrysanthemum and Trumpet Flowers  Oil and acrylic with resin on canvas 26 x 20 inches.

Sunshine Man Oil and acrylic on canvas. 48 x 48 inches

New Architecture: Mirage House on the Island of Tinos, Greece

“We wanted to make a house fused with its surroundings, a hidden almost invisible oasis.The rimless pool makes it seem as if the water extends to the horizon, vanishing and merging with the seascape," says architect Stelios Kois (pictured above).

A spectacular new house being built on the rocky coastline of Greece’s Tinos Island will have an enormous, sparkling rooftop pool that appears to merge with the Aegean sea beyond, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Additional reporting from Greece by Antonio Visconti

ARCHITECT Stelios Kois was born near Mount Athos amid the wild landscape of red earth, dotted with monasteries full of Byzantine icon paintings. This mystical environment plus his university studies in Italy and Japan influenced his vision of architecture and predeliction for a purity of design that expresses spatial and spiritual serenity.

Kois Associated Architects' new project is located on the rocky south-west coastline of the Island of Tinos in the Cyclades. Known as the Island of the Madonna, Tinos is the greatest centre of pilgrimage in Greece. Among the rugged, rocky terrain are more than 40 white, picturesque stone villages. There are also more than a thousand churches amid the hills and valleys as well as thousands of dovecotes and windmills and kilometres of dry stonewalls that make this landscape unique.

Called Mirage, the house designed by Stelios Kois is situated on a steep, rocky site overlooking the Aegean Sea. The position commands panoramic views of the land and water. “Our goal is to integrate the building into the landscape like it is part of it,’’ says Kois. “The living space will be covered by a rimless pool that produces a visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing and merging with the seascape.”

As you approach the house from above you will only be able to see the sparkling water of the infinity pool seemingly becoming one with the sea. During the day, the water will reflect the surrounding rock formations and at night the stars in the sky.

“We wanted to make a house fused with its surroundings, an invisible oasis hidden from unsuspecting eyes,” says Kois. "The house is almost like an observation point as it clings to the rocks and oversees the dramatic cascading landscape.”

The building is being constructed from local materials using traditional techniques such as the characteristic dry wall construction found on the island. Like the rooftop pool, the stone parts of the house will also merge into the surrounding rocky landscape.

Hidden in the stony landscape, the Mirage house will be an oasis where the owners can enjoy the wide-ranging views over the Aegean Sea without giving up their privacy. Kois decided to bury part of the building in the coastline. He created a large open-air living room at the front sheltered beneath the rooftop pool, which will act as a huge mirror and help camouflage the building among its surroundings.

"Some of our clients' major concerns were visibility and privacy," says project architect Nikos Patsiaouras. "At first we were concerned with the concept of invisibility. We asked ourselves 'How can you make a building disappear?'. Our response was to mimic elements of the landscape. The effect of the mirroring of the pool in combination with the concept of invisibility brought to mind the visual phenomenon of the mirage, from which the project was named," he says. Dry stone walls will surround sections of the interior and also frame the building's entrance. These are designed to echo the traditional walls that can be seen all over the scenic island.

"The elements that stirred our imagination most were the linear drywall constructions that articulate the landscape and the scattered shallow concrete water-reservoirs used for agricultural purposes," Patsiaouras explains. Also using the area’s stone will have a low impact on the environment and will be very efficient as an insulating material. Kois plans to add rammed-earth walls around the rear of the building, with layers of vegetation that will help to create a cool internal environment.

As the house is located on a natural plateau, inside it will have 200 square metres of space forming a simple single-storey layout, including three bedrooms, a kitchen and an outdoor living room.

Click on photographs for full screen slideshow

Called Mirage, the house designed by Stelios Kois is situated on a steep, rocky site overlooking the Aegean Sea. The position commands panoramic views of the land and water.  

"We asked ourselves 'How can you make a building disappear?'. Our response was to mimic elements of the landscape. The effect of the mirroring of the pool in combination with the concept of invisibility brought to mind the visual phenomenon of the mirage, from which the project was named," says Nicos Patsiaouras.

"The elements that stirred our imagination most were the linear drywall constructions that articulate the landscape and the scattered shallow concrete water-reservoirs used for agricultural purposes," project architect Nick Patsiaouras explains. 

As you approach the house from above you will only be able to see the sparkling water of the infinity pool seemingly becoming one with the sea. During the day, the water will reflect the surrounding rock formations and at night the stars in the sky. 

The building is being constructed from local materials using traditional techniques such as the characteristic dry wall construction found on the island. Like the rooftop pool, the stone parts of the house will also merge into the surrounding rocky landscape. 

Kois decided to bury part of the building in the coastline. He created a large open-air living room at the front sheltered beneath the rooftop pool, which will act as a huge mirror and help camouflage the building among its surroundings.