Pixar Fest “Coco” Sculpture
The sculpture is in a flowerbed between Tortilla Jo’s and Jazz Kitchen Coastal Grill & Patio. It has a similar retrofutu
In 2012, Yaw Asiedu was working towards a biology and chemistry degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I had a friend who had a modeling agent’s contact [information] and told me I should reach out to them,” Asiedu explains over Zoom. “I spoke to my mom about pivoting to [modeling], and she said, ‘No, you’re going to finish your degree.’” And so he did. After school, he started modeling, but his career didn’t really begin to progress until, on a whim, he moved to South Africa in 2015. There, in Johannesburg, Asiedu discovered he also had a knack for photography. Much of Asiedu’s work revolves around faces. Each tightly-cropped portrait is layered with color and light, revealing a dynamic face, full of emotion. On set, Asiedu aims to gain the model’s trust. When he can get the person in front of the camera to trust him and relax, he’s able to take a snapshot of what appears to be an intimate moment.
Ahead, we talk to Asiedu about being a self-taught photographer, his approach to his work, his inspirations, and more.
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Coveteur: Why did you decide to move to South Africa?
Yaw Asiedu: “I had a photographer friend that came down [to South Africa] for a vacation, and he told me that he thought I’d do well in the modeling market there. So I bought a ticket and joined him on this trip, and he ended up being right. I got signed here [in 2016], so I lived in South Africa for a year. It went really well. And while I was here, I had my camera with me.
Going back a bit, when I was in college, I bought a small point-and-shoot camera just for fun to take photos of everyday life. And I brought that camera with me to South Africa. I lived with a bunch of models, so I started taking their photos. My agency liked the photos, so they were like, ‘Hey, why don’t we pay you to start taking photos of our models?’ So that’s how I really started off. That was my first paid gig, and I transitioned to full-time photography in 2018.”
Would you say that in regards to photography you’re self-taught?
YA: “Yes, I would say that. I am a student of and believer in YouTube University. I learned a lot from YouTube, but also [through] trial and error and just shooting a lot. Then I got lucky and interned for a photographer in New York City. Then I assisted a couple of photographers, and I learned a lot from them.”
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Do you feel that because you’re self-taught, you don’t necessarily feel boxed in by those traditional rules?
YA: “I feel like it was very beneficial, especially being on the modeling side too. It gives me a bit of an advantage because I know what to say or do to make a model feel more comfortable on set. Not going to a traditional photography school or learning in a traditional way has helped me feel like I don’t have to subscribe to those rules. I can just keep trying different things and seeing what works for me.”
How would you describe your photography style?
YA: “I try to show the connection that the talent and I have through the image. So it’s clean, soulful, very crisp with aesthetically pleasing tones.”
What are your inspirations? Are there any artists that you’re drawn to?
YA: “When I first started, I was really drawn to Patrick Demarchelier and Peter Lindbergh’s work. They’re different in terms of how they approached light in their work, but both were influential to me. Peter usually did a lot of natural lighting, and he didn’t really like retouching at all. He hated retouching. And then there’s Patrick Demarchelier on the other side where he used strobes in the studio, usually one light. I also admire Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, and Steven Meisel. I draw a little bit from each one.”
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Courtesy of Yaw Asiedu
Do you remember the first work of art you saw that had an emotional impact on you?
YA: “I went to the British Museum a while back, probably in 2015, and I saw a lot of African art that was stolen—or gifted, as they say—to the British. Seeing that art did kind of spark a little something in me. [The art] reminded me of back home, and it brought back memories of growing up in Ghana and being able to see those kinds of sculptures in the market or around the neighborhood.
I moved to the States when I was 11. I didn’t want to leave friends and family that I had back in Ghana at all. But I knew I didn’t have a choice because Mom already made that decision that we were going to move over to the States. We moved to Virginia when we first came here, and that’s where I grew up.”
Was there a culture shock?
YA: “Yeah, I would say that. I mean, I was still kind of a child, so there were some things that were done here that I was just like, ‘It’s kind of weird.’ I grew up in a place where it was a community—everybody took care of each other, everybody shared resources. And in the States, it’s completely different; there’s no real community in the neighborhood. Everybody really keeps to themselves.”
When did you feel comfortable calling yourself an artist?
YA: “I don’t even think I really have hit that point yet where I feel comfortable calling myself an artist per se. I’m still learning. There’s something I’m still looking for. I haven’t reached that point for myself. I know other people say all that stuff, but in my head, I haven’t really gotten there yet.”
The collected works of Yaw Asiedu are represented by Trunk Archive.
So Inigo Philbrick, the art market’s golden boy-turned-convicted fraudster, left jail in January this year, after less than four years into his seven-year sentence. He still has two years of supervised release to serve; as for the £70m he stiffed from colleagues, well, he’s supposed to start paying that back.
His fiancée and mother of his daughter Gaia-Grace, the Made in Chelsea star Victoria Baker-Harber, lost little time in announcing the happy news of his release to her 193,000 followers on Instagram, with a carefully styled image. Over 8,000 people expressed their approval, littering the comments with heart emojis. “I bursted [sic] into tears of joy…So happy for the three of you,” went one post…
Meanwhile, has Philbrick truly owned his wrongdoing, despite pleading guilty? “Of course I did things the wrong way,” he told Vanity Fair, “But creatively and with the best of intentions.” Eh? Tell that to those he sold part shares of artworks to, who are now embroiled in years of civil litigation to establish who the works actually belong to.
In a curious parallel, Philbrick sounds a bit like Sam Bankman-Fried, who has just been convicted of stealing $8bn from customers of FTX, his crypto company; he copped 25 years in prison (he is appealing the sentence).
“I made a series of bad decisions…They weren’t selfish decisions. They weren’t selfless decisions. They were bad decisions,” he told the court. Both men seem to be in denial, but there is a difference—Bankman-Fried will never be able to return to the financial sector, thanks to its regulatory framework. But Philbrick has already said he wants to get reestablished as an art dealer. And nothing can stop him, technically.
Indeed, there are other examples of dealers, convicted or merely tarnished, who have returned to the market after encounters with the law or even prison sentences.
Ezra Chowaiki wrote about his 18 months in prison for fraud—and once out, proclaimed: “I’m still selling paintings. From the minute I was released, I kept getting phone calls from people wanting to buy paintings from me, or wanting me to sell their paintings, or even partner with me. I’m good at dealing art.”
The celebrity art adviser Helge Achenbach, after leaving the jail where he had landed after defrauding clients, has written his memoirs and runs Culture without Borders, a centre for persecuted artists in Germany. Ann Freedman, who was splattered in the Knoedler faking scandal but was never accused of wrongdoing, still runs a Manhattan gallery. The convicted art faker Wolfgang Beltracchi continues to sell his paintings, now under his own name rather than that of Campendonk, Ernst or Derain.
So the chances of Philbrick returning to the market seem high; it is, after all, what he knows how to do. And as long as he can make money for clients, they may well be tempted to ignore his past—caveat emptor or not.
WHEN Prince Andrew was snapped taking a stroll in Central Park with Jeffery Epstein, it was a photograph that would haunt him forever.
Jae Donnelly was the man who took that infamous picture of the royal and the paedophile, and his story is being told in Netflix’s Scoop.
Jae Donnelly is the photographer who shot to fame after he took the picture of Prince Andrew and Jeffery Epstein in Central Park on December 5, 2010.
He is a member of the National Press Photographers Association and started his career in the UK .
Jae was later recruited by an American agency, which led to his move to New York where he was assigned to photograph celebrities.
It was during this job that he managed to snap the biggest picture of his career, Prince Andrew and Epstein.
Jae previously revealed how he learnt “endurance under pressure”, which is vital in his job, by undergoing “military-style training”.
He did this so he could be trusted and insured to “go to places and cover the dangerous stuff”.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2021, Jae said: “ [It’s about] Gathering intel and evidence for whoever I’m on contract to find.
“And to do that he must remain invisible, and never get caught.”
Still living in New York and now in his early 50s, Jae continues to work as a photojournalist
According to TheCinemaholic, due to his reputation he can get between $30K to $60K (£23K and £47K) for his pictures.
Because of the infamous snap, his work has also featured in Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020), and Prince Andrew and Scandal in the Royal House of York (2019).
In 2024, Jae was back in the spotlight as he is depicted in the Netflix’s film, Scoop.
The movie is about Prince Andrew’s ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview where he had to address his relationship with Epstein.
Playing the role of Jae in Netflix’s Scoop is rising star Connor Swindells.
The film will show him taking that famous photograph which then spiralled a chain of events leading to the Prince Andrew Newsnight interview.
Actor Connor shot to fame playing Adam Groff in Netflix‘s Sex Education.
He has since had roles in Emma, Vigil and SAS Rogue Heroes.
However, Connor hit the big time when he played Aaron Dinkins in the smash hit 2023 movie Barbie.
THE Netflix film brings to life the real events of the 2019 Prince Andrew Newsnight interview.
For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best Winter Landscape images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will get a licence for Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high, and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.
We love the simplicity of this shot. We saw many amazing images of far-flung locations in this round, but the great thing about such scenes is that they can be found anywhere. The photographer has turned what is otherwise a flat, empty landscape into a minimalist study with great compositional features. Well done!
This one is a classic composition of an increasingly famous location. This image’s alignment is ideal for using the cave entrance as a natural frame for the distant mountain. The colour palette is almost monochromatic, allowing us to focus on smooth and rough textures. Nicely conceived and put together.
When the snow falls, the temptation for many landscape photographers is to capture big, broad scenes. However, looking closer is a great strategy for capturing engaging details. We are drawn to the naturally deep contrast of this scene, the bright snow excellently rendered against the dark shadows. It’s a beautifully quiet composition. Well done!
This a gorgeously tranquil shot. It’s also a little different in that it embraces colour when many winter images focus on bleak, barren landscapes. The placement of the sun in the centre of the image, framed by the snow-frosted trees is a magnet to the eye and the white balance has been handled with expertise.
Here, we have another wonderful display of minimalism. The sparseness of detail allows the tree’s skeletal form to stand out against the plain background and sky, while the off-center composition draws in the eye. We like how the contours of the snow-covered ground almost look like paper cutouts.
What an iconic winter landscape! Although we have seen many images of this location, the arrangement of detail in this shot is exceptional. The subtle reflection, wintery hues and low clouds add atmosphere. The balance created by the focal length choice is also spot-on and the exposure is perfect. Nicely done!
Enter at photocrowd.com/digitalphotographer for a chance to win a licence to Affinity Photo editing software (worth £49 for Mac or Windows). The monthly rounds that are currently open are on the themes of Capture Color and Macro Studies.
Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals. Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing, and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.
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April 05, 2024
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