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Tributes pour in for New Orleans native and ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ singer Jean Knight

By in Native

Tributes pour in for New Orleans native and ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ singer Jean Knight

FOR NEW ORLEANS NATIVE WHO WAS KNOWN FOR BIG SOUL HIT THE BIG STUFF. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? JEAN KNIGHT PASSED AWAY LAST WEEK AT THE AGE OF 80. SHE WAS THE POWERHOUSE VOCALIST BEHIND MR. BIG STUFF, WHICH WAS A A CHART TOPPING ANTHEM IN THE 1970S. SHE OFTEN PERFORMED AT ESSENCE AND JAZZ FEST OVER THE YEARS, ALWAYS SHOWI

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New Orleans native and ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ singer Jean Knight dies at 80

The Grammy nominated singer was most known for her hit “Mr. Big Stuff.”

Tributes are pouring in for the New Orleans singer Jean Knight. She passed away Nov. 22, 2023 at the age of 80. She is a New Orleans native and has become an integral part of the city’s musical legacy. She often performed at local events like Essence Fest and Jazz Fest. Jean Knight was well-known for her top hit, Mr. Big Stuff. This song was #2 on Billboard in 1971 and since then, it has been sampled more than 50 times for other songs and heard in numerous films and commercials. Other notable singles include “My Toot Toot,” “You Think You’re Hot Stuff,” “Carry On,” “Helping Man,” “Do Me,” “Jesse Joe (You Got to Go)” and more.A statement from her family says in part “Jean Knight’s legacy is not just a musical one; it is a testament to the enduring love between an artist, her hometown, and the fans who adored her. As we bid farewell to this iconic soulstress, New Orleans and her global fan base join together in gratitude for the indelible mark she left on the world.”The family requests privacy at this time.

NEW ORLEANS —

Tributes are pouring in for the New Orleans singer Jean Knight. She passed away Nov. 22, 2023 at the age of 80. She is a New Orleans native and has become an integral part of the city’s musical legacy. She often performed at local events like Essence Fest and Jazz Fest.

Jean Knight was well-known for her top hit, Mr. Big Stuff. This song was #2 on Billboard in 1971 and since then, it has been sampled more than 50 times for other songs and heard in numerous films and commercials. Other notable singles include “My Toot Toot,” “You Think You’re Hot Stuff,” “Carry On,” “Helping Man,” “Do Me,” “Jesse Joe (You Got to Go)” and more.

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A statement from her family says in part “Jean Knight’s legacy is not just a musical one; it is a testament to the enduring love between an artist, her hometown, and the fans who adored her. As we bid farewell to this iconic soulstress, New Orleans and her global fan base join together in gratitude for the indelible mark she left on the world.”

The family requests privacy at this time.

Winter Holiday Art Market Comes To First Americans Museum In OKC

By in Art World News

Winter Holiday Art Market Comes To First Americans Museum In OKC

This week the First Americans Museum is hosting its annual Winter Holiday Art Market.

FAM store Manager, Tom Farris joined News 9 at 9 to talk about what shoppers can expect this year. The market begins on Saturday, Dec. 2, and continues on Sunday, Dec. 3. There will also be a special preview Friday night.

The event is free and the museum is hoping people will come help support artists.

Holiday Art Market At First Americans Museum

‘They were creepy, a bit weird’: the mystery behind the ‘My TV Girls’ fetish archive

By in Photography

‘They were creepy, a bit weird’: the mystery behind the ‘My TV Girls’ fetish archive

In 2011, Sebastien Girard, a French photographer, publisher and curator, purchased a milk crate packed with private photo albums from an American auction house. An avid collector of found photography archives, he had no real idea what he was buying, nor who had taken the pictures. But when the cache of 911 Polaroids arrived at his home in Paris – each meticulously numbered, dated and captioned by hand – he noticed they were united by the umbrella label: “My TV Girls.”

Taken between 1978 and 1982, the fuzzy, filmy images all depict the same TV screen, presumably shot from a sofa. On the screen, there is always a female character, often undressing or nude. These women may be from popular TV shows of the era – Dallas, Charlie’s Angels, Happy Days, Three’s Company – but there are also snapshots of adverts for bras and even pregnancy tests, as the handwritten annotations reveal.

“I started to look at the captions,” says Girard, “and they were creepy, a little bit weird.” The Frenchman took the images along to the recent Paris Photo exhibition, presenting them with Christian Berst gallery, which specialises in art brut. The captions, daubed on the white borders in blue ink, describe their subjects – who include Debbie Harry, Raquel Welch and Brooke Shields – in starkly objectifying terms: “nipples of girl on right barely visible”, “girl in low cut jumpsuit”.

The shots convey a fascination with women’s bodies, and in particular a fetish for nightgowns, bras and breasts. Although they are images of images, the way the photographer appears to view women in the notes is reductive and degrading. It makes viewing them an uncomfortable experience, as if looking through the eyes of an obsessive, misogynistic stalker.

‘People love it’ … the My TV Girls photographs on show at Paris Photo.

And then Girard found one image that he believes changes how we should interpret the Polaroids. It was a self-portrait of the photographer, dated 27 March 1981. In the dimly-lit picture, the camera obscures the taker’s face, concealing his identity. The caption reads: “Me wearing 38B Playtex beautiful ones lace bra. Photograph was taken using a dressing mirror and an SX70 camera.” It is signed Tom Wilkins.

Girard believes this single self-portrait changes how we should view the My TV Girls collection. “This is the absolute key to deciphering the mystery enveloping the work,” says Girard. “Tom Wilkins was not a pervert. This archive was a documentation of what he wanted to become.” By taking the pictures, Girard believes, Wilkins appropriated a female body. “That’s the mystery and genius of it. This shows how, in photography, you dive into your subject – you become the subject.”

‘He also collected Barbies’ … Tom Wilkins in his Polaroid self-portrait

Wilkins stopped taking Polaroids of women on his television after January 1982. Little is known about him, other than that he died in 2007, age 56, at home in Jamaica Plain, Boston. The cause of his death is unknown. Girard says he had no friends or family. “He was very alone. He was a trainspotter, who took photographs of trains and collected electric trains. He also collected Barbies and would stage scenes with them and photograph them.”

It was an expert specialising in Barbie dolls, asked to appraise the collection after Wilkins’ house was repossessed, who came across the Polaroid albums in a bedroom. They were never, it seems, intended to be seen in public. Wilkins appears to have used the Polaroid format to avoid having someone else develop the films. His sexuality and his gender remain shrouded in mystery. But Girard believes the secrecy shows “how difficult things were in conservative Boston in the 1980s. It was difficult to change gender.”

At Paris Photo, around 100 Polaroids were organised into grids of nine running chronologically – a dizzying documentation that remains ambiguous, despite Girard’s efforts to explain it. A 1970s style sofa was set up in front of a vintage TV to “create a context for the work and a feeling of intimacy”. Girard has also produced a pocketsize book reproducing the complete archive. When asked, he doesn’t disclose how much he paid for the shots – perhaps fearing a lawsuit similar to the Vivian Maier case.

Was Wilkins a peeping tom? Or was he ultimately not much different from anyone else who sat on a sofa and watched these shows? What was the root of his obsession with these women? And would he want this hidden, private obsession to be displayed and sold in public? Girard’s project poses disquieting questions, and it is unlikely the truth will ever be known. The only answers – for now – are in the pictures.

At Paris Photo, throngs of visitors craned their necks to get a glimpse of the archive. “People love it,” says Girard. “It provides something we are lacking in photography today – the element of surprise.”

Lauren Good Day Is Making Wearable Native Art

By in Native

Lauren Good Day Is Making Wearable Native Art
A woman wearing her long dark hair in two braids poses for a portrait. She is wearing an outfit inspired by traditional tribal regalia..
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos:Debbie Black Hawk

Lauren Good Day got her introduction to Native art at 6 years old, when her mom taught her how to bead her first bracelet. As a Arikara, Hidatsa, Blackfeet, and Plains Cree teen in North Dakota, she became a sought-after designer of tribal regalia, including jingle dresses, shawls, and intricately beaded moccasins, for powwow dancers. “I made a decent amount of money too!” she says. After college, Good Day spent a decade showing her traditional Native drawings at galleries and selling her work; then, in 2019, she launched her first ready-to-wear collection based on her art. She’s since collaborated with brands like Sephora, Prados Beauty, and Sackcloth & Ashes. 

Her latest fall line — sold exclusively on laurengoodday.com — mimics traditional buffalo-robe paintings and features her original ledger art. (After the Civil War, Native artists and historians who drew on animal hides adopted ledger pages as a new medium.) Natives on horseback parade across one black satin maxi dress with puffed sleeves; a moss-green frill-neck top stands out for its elegant motif of elk teeth. “I’m always updating our traditional dress with digital prints and new textiles,” Good Day says, “but the root of my aesthetic is who we are as a people and a culture.” She lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, with her husband and three children, who are between 2 and 10 years old. Here’s how she gets it done.

On her morning routine: 
First things first: I get the kids up and get them ready. I always joke that I’m a mom all day and an artist by night. We usually start the morning this way: We pray and we smudge. Basically, that means we smoke ourselves off with our traditional plant medicines, which would be sage, cedar, and sweetgrass. We also pray that we’re kind and that kindness, luck, and good fortune come to us. We ask that we’re protected as we go about our day.

On what gets her through the day:
I’m a coffee lover and maybe even an addict. I was using artificial creamer until I realized how bad it is for you. So now, I make black coffee and add my protein shake for the cream. I have to be careful about sweeteners because Native people are more prone to diabetes — my mom and grandmother had it.

On her evening routine: 
The majority of my creative work happens after we have dinner as a family and put the kids to bed around 8:30. Many times, I’ll work on original art at night. I might dive into a beadwork project, which will later be turned into a print and pattern for my clothing. Or sometimes, I’ll get online and answer customer-service emails or update the website. On a good night, I go to bed at midnight. But sometimes, I’m up until 3 a.m.

On powwow dancing and staying fit: 
I love the stair-stepper because it has really helped prepare me as a powwow dancer. Powwow is our cultural celebration of life. I know dancers who train all year just to keep themselves in shape. Most days, I do anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes on the stair-stepper, and then I do some light weight lifting. As a mother, I have to make sure that I’m keeping my body healthy.

I call my husband a “powwow dad” because he helps me get our three kids ready to dance. I’m braiding hair, while he’s putting them into leggings and dresses. My husband once asked me, “Do you ever get nervous going out there and dancing in front of all those people?” I was like, “I never thought about it that way.” I guess it’s just natural to me. My mom took me to powwow before I could even walk. I’ve seen the celebrations get larger since then, too. Native families who were put in metropolitan areas to assimilate into white culture because of the Indian Relocation Act are finding powwow as a way to connect to their people. It’s one way our aesthetic culture is alive and thriving. If it wasn’t for powwow, I wouldn’t be where I am today as an artist.

On launching her first collection: 
For start-up funding, I put in $5,000 of my savings from selling my art, and my mother contributed the other half. It was a fairly small collection, eight pieces, and I launched on social media. I had a base audience of connections and friends from the Native powwow community. But still, I had no idea how it would hit with people or in the market. The pieces sold out and I restocked twice. I reinvested the money into my business, and after the launch of my second collection, my mom and I went out to dinner to celebrate.

On being flexible: 
My timeline is very fluid. I’m not a super-hard planner. I’ll be like, “I’m going to get my fall collection out sometime in September or October — around then.” This is something that I could improve on, I guess. It’s the nature of Native culture. There are certain times to do ceremonies, and those times are strict, but what we do as a people in our daily lives is more like, “It will get done when it’s meant to get done.” I love having the freedom to work on my terms as an artist. Maybe I don’t want to deal with the website right now, so I will go and work on a drawing. I can decide when I want to be creative or when I just want to spend time with my family.

On doing business with her community: 
I always try to work with other Native people to contribute to the Native economy. I have two employees: One of them is my husband, Bryce DeCory, and the other is my cousin Debbie Black Hawk, who is my assistant and photographer. When I do a shoot, I always try to work with Native models. And whenever I do really well with a new collection, I give back to other individual Native artists by purchasing some of their work.

On embracing her inner Auntie: 
I’m 36. One of my younger models called me an “Auntie” recently, and I was like, “What? Auntie?” But I have come to terms with getting into the middle range of life. This is my time. I’m finding a lot of success. I’m shining. In Native culture, you become an Auntie to a lot of people, whether you’re directly related to them or not. In my role as a Native woman designer and artist, I also need to remember to encourage our youth.

On the moment she felt like she made it:
Seeing my artwork at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., was a highlight. My piece was ledger artwork and called Independence Day Celebration. I actually come from a historical ledger artist named Bloody Knife, and his art is in the museum too.

On banishing self-doubt: 
Whenever I start doubting myself, I quickly change my thought pattern into positive thinking. And I’m a firm believer that what you put out there — whatever you think or say — will happen. If I start to think people aren’t going like this design or it won’t sell, I’m like, “No! People are going to feel empowered wearing it. They will be proud of who they are when they put this on. Or they will appreciate it if they’re not Natives.”

On cultural appropriation versus appreciation: 
People ask me about this on the daily. When you purchase directly from a Native artist or a designer, that’s cultural appreciation. When someone asks me, “But can I wear this dress? I’m not Native,” I tell them what I sell is always appropriate ready-to-wear. I would never create anything out of sacred pieces. It’s appreciation when you contribute directly to the Native community.

On the people who help her get it done: 
I have one part-time person who comes in and does maintenance for our studio space and the fulfillment area in the basement. My children model for me, and they’re also fit models for clothing. I did a campaign called “Indigenous Barbie,” and my two daughters are featured in it. My kids are such a driving force with my artwork because I create to keep our culture alive and available for the next generations.

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Lauren Good Day Is Making Wearable Native Art

A Photographer’s Warm Ode to the Radiant Spirit of Cuba

By in Photography

A Photographer’s Warm Ode to the Radiant Spirit of Cuba

Shot between 2020 and 2023, Diego Vourakis’s debut photo book captures the “love and energy that the Cubans radiate”

November 27, 2023

Photographer Diego Vourakis’s images brim with radiance and warmth – the radiance of love and the heat of the sun. De Cara Al Sol, which translates to ‘Facing the Sun’ in English, is a fitting title for his debut photo book, which features a collection of images taken in Cuba between February 2020 and April 2023. A deeply personal ode to the tenacity of the Cuban spirit, the book’s title derives from the final lines of the poem Yo quiero salir del mundo (‘I Wish to Leave the World’) by Cuban national hero José Martí: “¡Yo soy bueno, y como bueno / Moriré de cara al sol!” (“I am good, and like a good thing / I will die with my face to the sun!”)

16De Cara Al Sol by Diego Vourakis

Vourakis, who was born in Peru and emigrated to the United States at 12, has photographed campaigns for Nike Training Club, Esquire and V Magazine. No matter the subject, his photographs invite you to look closer and take your time. De Cara Al Sol features 201 images in total, as well as text written in both Spanish and English by Vourakis. He never set out to make a book about Cuba. “Traveling there for the first time was just out of curiosity,” he says. He went with just a camera and a backpack that contained whatever clothes he could fit inside. In the text, he outlines his journey throughout the island, five locations in total: La Habana, Viñales, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa. “I learned about beauty in Baracoa, in its purest form,” Vourakis writes in the book. “It exists within the people’s spirit.”

Cuba’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism, was hit especially hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vourakis saw this devastation firsthand when he returned for subsequent visits. “As you go down the island in Cuba, there [are] less and less resources that get to people,” he explains. “When you get to a place like Baracoa, which is all the way down [the island], they don’t get as much help.”

“I became so attached to Baracoa,” Vourakis says. The city, and country at large, immediately resonated with him, evoking his childhood in Peru. “It very quickly felt like home [in] the way that I interacted with people,” he says. “It felt like it was a piece of a puzzle.” When he returned to the United States with a library of photographs – which “carried a lot of emotions” – he kept thinking about the sense of familiarity he experienced. “I came back with so much love and energy that the Cubans radiate,” says Vourakis. “It felt wrong to use any of these images because it almost felt like I was taking something from the country and I wanted to do something about it,” he adds. “I wanted to do something that can help Cuba, and the idea of an exhibition came to mind, to be able to use these images, display them and be able to raise some funds.” In affiliation with The Cuba Foundation and Give2Cuba, 100 per cent of profits from the sales of each book will go towards the purchase of medicines, vitamins and other essentials for families and children in Cuba.

Vourakis has the ability to find beauty anywhere. Innocence, playfulness and possibility, too, especially in places where outsiders might see little or none. In Cuba, he found resilience everywhere. In a farm shed miraculously left standing after a Category 3 hurricane, for example, its walls titled, roof practically gone. “When I went inside,” writes Vourakis in the book, “beams of light shimmered through every crook in the walls, obscuring all evidence of decay.” This capturing of a glimmer of beauty is what gives the images in De Cara Al Sol their timelessness and presence. There’s a powerful formal strength to Vourakis’s photographs, too, yet that formality never overshadows the sense of strong emotion. His street photographs have the warmth of family photo albums. 

In De Cara Al Sol, Vourakis captures moments of relief: an overturned bucket to cool one’s body on a hot day, the blissful feeling of basking one’s face in the sun. Moments of movement, too, especially that of children. They leap, climb and bend, reaching for the heavens. Vourakis still talks to the families he photographed; he plans on returning to Cuba and hopes to continue the relationships he’s built. Of the children he encountered, he says simple, “They are the future … I feel like an older brother to them in many instances.”

Photography has always been personal for Vourakis, but after working on De Cara Al Sol, it has become even more so. “I’ve been able to get a little bit closer to myself,” he says, “I’ve always been very intentional, as far as getting to know whoever is in front of me. But this has definitely evolved into something deeper. It’s changed who I am, too.” For Vourakis, Martí’s phrase “with my face to the sun” encapsulates the strength and pride of the Cuban people. “No matter what situation they’re in,” says Vourakis, “they persevere and they make the best of what they have.” 

De Cara Al Sol by Diego Vourakis is published by Amile, and is out on December 1.

Bad Bunny Gives An Exclusive Tour Of His Budding Sports, Fashion And Entertainment Empire

By in Native

Bad Bunny Gives An Exclusive Tour Of His Budding Sports, Fashion And Entertainment Empire
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The Puerto Rican artist has expertly harnessed the power of music streaming and social media to become one of the most famous musicians on the planet. After partnering with companies like Gucci, Adidas and WWE, he’s wielding his fame to become a global brand.

It’s 11:30 p.m. on October 12, and the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is packed. More than 16,000 Bad Bunny superfans have gathered to become the first people on the planet to hear their hometown hero’s new album. Nobody knows what to expect.

Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a boundary-defying artist whose previous four studio albums have spanned hip-hop, reggaeton, Latin pop, Puerto Rican trap and Mexican country music. Tonight’s crowd embodies that vast spectrum: Hundreds are dressed in the white T-shirts and flat-brimmed blue caps from his recent song “Un Preview.” Others sport the cowboy hats from “Where She Goes.” Many simply wear bunny ears.

“I listened to a lot of salsa on my dad’s side, lots of ballads and merengue on my mom’s side. But being a ’90s kid, reggaeton and rap too,” says Bad Bunny in an interview in his native Spanish. “There’s lots of artists from different genres, countries and times that I feel are within me.”

If there’s one constant about Bad Bunny, who is 29, it’s that whatever he creates becomes a world- wide hit. Over the last three years, the alumnus of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist, with 35.9 billion plays. His YouTube channel has attracted more than 32 billion views—more than those of Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and, yes, Taylor Swift. He has won three Grammys and 11 Latin Grammys. In April, he made history as the first Latin artist to headline the Coachella music festival.

And he’s done it all while singing solely in Spanish. “Spanish is part of me, it’s in my DNA,” he says. “I like speaking it wherever I go—not to force it on people, but because it’s who I am.”

It has made him extremely wealthy. Last year, Bad Bunny earned an estimated $88 million (pretax) from world tours, billions of streams and high-profile brand deals with the likes of Adidas and Corona. That performance was good enough for a debut in the No. 10 spot on Forbes’ Highest- Paid Entertainers list.

“It’s not about the money all the time,” he says about how he picks partners. “It’s about how much I love the brand and how much they’re going to respect my creativity.”

Back in the arena, the audience explodes as Bad Bunny descends from the ceiling, perched atop a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

Tonight, the musician is wearing a fitted burgundy suit with a white button-down shirt open halfway. His face is covered in a mask reminiscent of Spider- man’s, but black with glowing red eyes. “I’m very shy about playing new songs that haven’t been released yet,” he says. He hits play on his iPhone and the listening party for his album Nadie Sabe lo que va a Pasar Mañana (No One Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow) Berupts.

Despite not knowing any of the lyrics, the crowd screams and dances to the new tracks. Bad Bunny doesn’t sing, save for the two songs from the album that he released earlier in the year. His face remains shrouded until after the clock hits midnight, whereupon he pulls off his mask to re- veal his new buzz cut, which, like the new album, pays homage to the early trap-style music that first shot him to global fame.

Bad Bunny is the archetype of a modern pop idol—a truly global artist who harnesses the vast reach of streaming services and social media to deliver what was once regional music to billions of listeners. “He has a finger on the pulse of culture like no one else,” says Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s head of music. “He’s dictating what culture becomes.”

Streaming is making the world smaller. Over the last five years, Spotify has seen a 170% surge in streams of Latin music, a genre that—along with other styles including West African Afro- beats and K-pop—has hooked hundreds of mil- lions of new listeners thanks to viral memes on Instagram and TikTok and streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. Says Spotify’s Erlich: “The historic Anglo dominance of music is getting broken down at a crazy pace.”

Bad Bunny hasn’t limited himself to music. Earlier this year, he appeared in the Amazon Prime film Cassandro. In October, he did double duty as the host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live. A digital version of Bad Bunny is body-slamming opponents in the blockbuster wrestling video game WWE 2k23. All this in a year that he had declared a time of rest.

His broad appeal allows him to move effortlessly from WWE cage matches to Italian couture. This fall, he appeared in Gucci ads, promoting its high-end Savoy luggage alongside supermodel Kendall Jenner. In the past he has partnered with Crocs, the cult rubber clog company, dropping a line of glow-in-the-dark shoes in 2020. They quickly sold out. Also sold out was his latest shoe with Adidas, the $160 “Paso Fino” trainer.

That was Bad Bunny’s 14th sneaker with the German athleticwear firm. Other shoe brands approached him, but only Adidas offered artistic control. “He inspires so many not just locally, but around the world,” says Torben Schumacher, global general manager of Adidas Originals.

Before he was a worldwide superstar, Bad Bunny was simply Benito, an audiovisual communications student at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. When he wasn’t in class, he bagged groceries at Econo stores and created Latin trap songs he’d upload to SoundCloud.

Everything changed in 2016, when his trap single “Soy Peor” (“I’m Worse”) transformed Bad Bunny into a household name. Full-force fame came with the release of “Diles Remix” the same year. By 2018 he was collaborating with some of the biggest names in music, including Drake, Cardi B and J Balvin. Just weeks before the Covid-19 lockdowns, he joined Shakira and Jennifer Lopez for the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show in Miami. During quarantine, he livestreamed on Instagram, where he has 46.8 million followers, and put out his collaboration-filled album Las que no Iban a Salir (The Unreleased).

“[I] can live off music,” he says. But he won’t settle for just that. There will be more surprising brand partnerships, acting gigs—and, down the road, his own fashion brand. All while never forgetting Puerto Rico.

His native island is central to his image—and his business. In 2021, he became co-owner of the Santurce Cangrejeros, a local pro basketball team. To support homegrown talent, he has started a sports management agency called Rimas Sports.

He’s building a charity arm, too. In 2018 he created the Good Bunny Foundation, a San Juan nonprofit that supports artistic and sports opportunities to children in Puerto Rico. It has given away roughly $2 million over the last two years. “In the absence of the government, it is artists that end up fulfilling those roles,” he says.

Whether Bad Bunny has the multidecade staying power of Madonna or Prince remains to be seen. But don’t expect him to spend too much time chilling out poolside at one of his mansions. He feels his obligation to those millions of fans, online and off. “Fame,” he says, “pushes me to keep working.”

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Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Review

By in Photography

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Review

Introduction

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is a fast ultra-wide-angle zoom lens for Sony, Leica, Panasonic, Sigma and Fujifilm APS-C sensor mirrorless cameras, where it provides a 15-27mm equivalent focal range in 35mm full-frame terms.

It is the world’s smallest and lightest ultra-wide-angle zoom lens with an F2.8 aperture for APS-C cameras.

The optical formula is comprised of 13 elements in 10 groups, including 4 “F” Low Dispersion (FLD) and 1 Special Low Dispersion (SLD) lens to reduce chromatic aberrations and color fringing, plus 4 aspherical lenses to limit distortion and spherical aberrations.

This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 11.7cm / 4.6″ with a maximum magnification ratio of 0.25x at the 10mm focal length.

It features a rounded 7-blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to out-of-focus areas of the image and an internal focusing mechanism which means the lens barrel doesn’t move.

This lens uses a stepping motor for fast, quiet and precise auto-focusing and full-time manual focus override is also possible.

The Super Multi-Layer coating helps to ensure that flare and ghosting are well-controlled even in backlit conditions and the lens mount has a dust and splash resistant structure.

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary lens is is available in Sony E-Mount, L-Mount and Fujifilm X-Mount versions and is priced at £599 / $599 in the UK and USA, respectively.

This lens was first announced in October 2023. It is designed and made in Japan.

Ease of Use

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is an amazingly small and lightweight lens, measuring 7.22cms in length and weighing in at a mere 255g / 9.0oz., yet it still manages to maintain a constant aperture of F2.8 throughout the entire zoom range.

This makes it the most compact ultra-wide-angle zoom lens in its class, when assessed as an AF compatible, F2.8 constant aperture zoom lens for APS-C sensor cameras.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

As demonstrated by the product images, it’s a great match for a camera like the Sony ZV-E1 that we tested it with, where it feels very well balanced.

Build quality is excellent given the affordable price tag. The lens has a plastic shell with a mixture of metallic parts and a compound material, TSC (Thermally Stable Composite), used inside.

It also incorporates a brass bayonet mount that’s supposed to be more durable than a normal metal mount. The optical elements are made of high-grade glass.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary feels solid enough in your hand, despite its mostly polycarbonate construction.

The zoom ring is generously wide considering how small the lens is, and it has a tactile ridged, rubberised grip band with a smooth action.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

The lens extends by about an extra 4cm when fully zoomed out to 18mm.

The focusing ring is on the narrow side and is located closer to the lens mount, making it easier to locate in a rush.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary features a stepping motor that allows for virtually silent auto-focusing, making it well-suited to video use.

Importantly, the lens is fully compatible with the “Direct Manual Focus (DMF)” system feature of Sony cameras that enables the user to instantly switch between autofocus and manual focus.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Focusing is fully internal but zooming is not, with the length of the lens changing as you zoom from 10mm to 18mm.

In use, we found the focusing system to be quiet, fast and reliable with the lens mounted on a Sony ZV-E1 camera.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary isn’t weather-proof, other than the mount having a rubber seal, and it doesn’t have built-in image stabilisation, which are the two main concessions that it makes in order to be both affordable and so small.

The lens is supplied with plastic lens caps and a plastic petal-shaped lens hood (LH706-02) – there’s no lens bag included. The filter size is 67mm.

Sigma have developed a brand new push-on lens hood for this lens which attaches using a spring and lever system. This new design reduces the size and thickness of the hood so that it matches the compact size of the lens.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Focal Range

At the 10mm focal length the angle of view is 109.7 degrees.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

18mm

At the 18mm focal length the angle of view is 76.5 degrees.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

50mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are well controlled with this lens.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Vignetting

With the Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary wide open at f/2.8, you can see some noticeable light fall-off in the corners. Stopping down helps, although to completely get rid of this phenomenon, you will need to use an f-stop of at least f/5.6 or smaller.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

18mm

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

50mm

Distortion

There’s quite a lot of barrel and pin-cushion distortion evident in both the JPEG and RAW files which you’ll need to correct in post-processing until a suitable lens profile is released for your editing software.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

10mm

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary


18mm

Sunstars and Flare

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary produces quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/22, as shown below, although it it a little prone to flare when shooting directly into the sun.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

18mm

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

50mm

Macro

The Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is a fairly competent macro lens, delivering 0.25x magnification and very close focusing at 10mm.

The close-focus point is an impressive 11.7cm from the film/sensor plane at the 10mm focal length (19.1cm at 18mm) and it has a maximum magnification ratio of 1:4 at the 10mm focal length (1:6.9 at 18mm).

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

One of the reason to buy such a fast lens as the Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is to be able to isolate the subject from the background.

Sigma have used an iris diaphragm with 7 rounded blades for a fairly pleasing rendering of the out-of-focus highlights.

Below you’ll find some examples, but you are also encouraged to check out our sample images.

Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary
Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following pages.

13 Virtual And IRL Things To Do Around D.C. This Week

By in Native

13 Virtual And IRL Things To Do Around D.C. This Week

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Cameras allowed into Jersey prison for photography course

By in Photography

Cameras allowed into Jersey prison for photography course

A Jersey photographer says he has helped capture and expose the perspectives of some of the island’s prisoners by teaching them on a photography course.

Photographer Rod Bryans said it was a “unique situation”, where cameras were allowed into the prison to “be on the inside, looking out”.

He said he taught six women prisoners in H wing at La Moye prison as well as one officer and, in return, they taught him about what life was like behind high security fences and barbed wire.

He said he hoped to embed a sense of “self-worth” into the prisoners, with new skills “they can take into the community”.

He said flowers were a main theme of the 10-lesson course and that one prisoner had shared an image of a bean plant’s tendrils, saying that sometimes, while sleeping, she imagined she was “climbing out of the prison up those things”.

Another prisoner said of her work, which was titled “shared light”, that “not all the cells have windows, so [there’s] no natural light”.

“My friend opens her call door and the light spills across from her cell into mine.”

Mr Bryan said prisoners described the inside of the prison as “so beige”.

He said prisoners often ended up “just staring at the sky because it’s the only thing of colour”.

One ex-prisoner said she went down to St Ouen’s beach on the day of her release to take photographs.

She said she was, “very emotional, the colours and the noise were just overwhelming”.

The ex-prisoner’s photographs are on display to show, “what it is like to be inside and outside the prison,” said Mr Bryan.

Le Moye prison officer, Susie Richardson said: “With a focus on public protection and the inevitability that all of our prisoners will be released, ‘constraint and restraint’ cannot be the only tools used in prison.”

Ms Richardson said she aimed to “serve the community” by releasing prisoners with a “sense of self-worth” because she was committed to “releasing better neighbours”.

The exhibition will be on display at The Jersey Arts Centre in the Berni Gallery until 6 December.

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