Photography

Xiaomi 15 Pro: A Glimpse into the Future of Smartphone Photography

By in Photography

Xiaomi 15 Pro: A Glimpse into the Future of Smartphone Photography

Xiaomi is gearing up to revolutionize smartphone cameras with its upcoming release of the Xiaomi 15 Pro. Following the success of the Xiaomi 14 Pro last October, the tech giant is hard at work on its successor, stirring a buzz across the internet with the rumored capabilities of the new gadget.

Enhanced Camera Capabilities of the Xiaomi 15 Pro are expected to make substantial advancements from its predecessor. Based on recent leaks, the new model will retain a 50 MP main camera but will be equipped with a groundbreaking 1-inch sensor by OmniVision, the OV50K. This latest development is significant considering its predecessor used the OVX9000 sensor. The term “game-changing” accurately captures the potential impact of the OmniVision sensor, especially since it’s set to replace the OV50H found in the Honor Magic6 Pro, a smartphone that occupies the top tiers in the DxOMark camera rankings.

Improved Telephoto Experience is also on the agenda for the Xiaomi 15 Pro, with an upgrade to a larger Sony IMX882 sensor when compared to the Samsung ISOCELL JN1 used previously. This more substantial sensor promises enhanced light sensitivity and reduced noise, translating to superior photo quality, especially in low light conditions.

Xiaomi 15 Pro’s Anticipated Arrival is the buzz of the tech community, with rumors suggesting a September 2024 unveiling. Adding to its repertoire of features, the Xiaomi 15 Pro is expected to support satellite communication and debut as the first device to incorporate an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner from a Chinese tech firm, setting new benchmarks in the smartphone industry.

While the article presents several key advancements and features of the Xiaomi 15 Pro, there are other areas of smartphone technology and market context that can enrich our understanding of the device and its potential impact.

The importance of the camera in smartphone competition cannot be overstated. With every release, manufacturers strive to outdo each other, and the camera is often the battlefield where these wars are waged. The Xiaomi 15 Pro’s use of the OV50K sensor and the shift to improved sensor technology could position Xiaomi as a strong competitor in the high-end smartphone market, where camera capabilities are a significant factor for many consumers.

Key questions and answers:
– What is the expected price point of the Xiaomi 15 Pro?
While specific pricing details are often announced closer to the release date, it is anticipated that the Xiaomi 15 Pro will be priced competitively within the flagship tier of smartphones.
– How does the Xiaomi 15 Pro fit into the broader market trends?
The Xiaomi 15 Pro fits into the current trend of smartphones offering specialized cameras with advanced sensors and is part of the push towards incorporating professional-grade photography capabilities into mobile devices.

Challenges and controversies associated with smartphone photography advancements may include concerns about privacy with increasingly powerful cameras, the potential increase in cost due to high-end components, and debates over the actual usefulness of ultra-high-resolution sensors for the average user.

Advantages:
– Enhanced photo quality, particularly in low light conditions
– Potential to boost Xiaomi’s presence and market share in the high-end smartphone segment
– Introduction of new functionalities like satellite communication and advanced biometric security

Disadvantages:
– High-end camera specifications can lead to a possible increase in the price of the device, potentially alienating budget-conscious consumers
– Incremental upgrades can sometimes be seen as insufficient to justify an upgrade from the previous model, affecting market reception

In the landscape of mobile technology, companies like Xiaomi are contributing to rapid advancements. For more information about the company and its offerings, you can visit Xiaomi’s main website through this link. Please note that the specifics about the Xiaomi 15 Pro such as price, official specifications, availability, and other features will be confirmed by the company closer to the device’s launch.

Remember, while I strive to ensure that the links are 100% valid, the dynamic nature of the web means that URLs and content are subject to change.

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Perspective | These famously controversial photos have been resurrected anew

By in Photography

Perspective | These famously controversial photos have been resurrected anew

When Richard Billingham’s “Ray’s a Laugh” was first published by Scalo in 1996, it created quite the stir.

For some, it was a deeply disturbing look at life in the Midlands region of England. For others, it was a collection of photographs with a uniquely fresh perspective, at once primitive and poetic.

Both perspectives had at least one thing in common: Looking at Billingham’s images elicited strong responses — their power, however uncanny, could not be denied.

Twenty-eight years later, Billingham has published a new version of the work with MACK. The book remains as powerful as ever and still has its fans and detractors. The intervening years surely don’t seem to have made the work any less palatable and neither have they diminished its ability to elicit strong reactions.

One of the most interesting things about this body of work remains that it was basically accidental. Billingham made the images of his mother, father and brother as reference points for paintings he hoped to create during the course of his university art studies.

So, how was the work discovered?

Julian Germain, a tutor at the University of Sunderland, where Billingham was studying, saw some of the images and encouraged Billingham to show them to one of his friends, the eminent photo editor Michael Collins.

With a few twists and turns along the way, this set Billingham on the path to stardom. He partnered with Germain and Collins, poring over the images and sequencing them to create what would become a glimpse into a home life characterized by a sense of despair — his family lost their livelihood and lived in public housing. His father turned to drink out of a sense of hopelessness and the family unit began to unravel.

Importantly, the work that was published by Scalo had been reedited by the publisher to emphasize the calamity of his family’s life, somewhat different than what he, Collins and Germain had envisioned.

MACK has worked with Billingham to produce a volume more in line with how Billingham wants the world to see his work.

The results are a little bit softer, but those who found his work queasy and exploitative still have fodder to make that claim.

The work can still be difficult to look at, particularly scenes showing his father’s descent into alcoholism — stumbling to the ground or hugging a toilet in a restroom.

Billingham has said that his family was always aware of what he was doing. That is, he didn’t hide the fact that he was photographing them. But he has said on numerous occasions that they didn’t put up a fight. In fact, Billingham says they were more or less disinterested, even when they attended gallery openings for the work.

Some have argued that “Ray’s a Laugh” lacks empathy. And you can certainly level that claim at the current iteration of the book.

But I see it as an almost unconscious stab in the dark of an artist coming to terms with a less than ideal upbringing marred by poverty and dysfunction, maybe as a way of making sense of and surviving it all.

To be sure, I ache for Liz and Ray (Billingham’s mother and father). I weep for his brother’s struggles with addiction. Why? Because the photos, as raw as they are, pull no punches in showing life’s rough edges. And, as odd as it may sound, I see glimmers of empathy in them. There can be beauty amid despair; art throughout its time has continually shown that.

I know many people will disagree with all of that. And that’s okay. That’s life, too.

You can find out more about the book, and buy it, here.

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts’ latest exhibit in Las Vegas celebrates Chinese conceptual photography

By in Photography

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts’ latest exhibit in Las Vegas celebrates Chinese conceptual photography

China faced a second cultural revolution after the debut of digital cameras. As the world’s second-most populous country moved toward its version of a market economy in the ’90s, its photographers began experimenting with digital photography long before it could be posted to the world via social media. Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art’s From Grain to Pixel: Contemporary Chinese Photography draws on that period to shed light on a previously underrepresented period in art history.

The transition from analog to digital technology created a sea change for visual artists. Precious film stock was less of a costly liability and memory chips enabled near-infinite exposures. Approaches to composition, technique and post-work changed. Chinese artists gathered in new creative enclaves and took more risks.

From Grain to Pixel covers the period of 1993 to 2006 and draws on the visions of 14 artists. A vine-festooned gateway entrance provides a transition from the outer world to the abundance of imagery inside. An illuminated cityscape covers one wall and wish tags hang from gold chains, with visitors encouraged to make one and tie it to a chain.

Large-scale works sometimes feature artists as central characters, such as Wang Qingsong’s 1999 photo Requesting Buddha No. 1. Buddhist iconography and digital manipulation are used to create an 11-armed figure with symbols of commercialism and consumerism in each hand. He draws on art history for panoramic Romantique, which pays homage to Manet, Botticelli and Masaccio in an elaborate multicharacter scene.

Installation view from left to right: ©Hong Lei, After the Dynasty: Ma Lin’s Fragrance with Sparse Shadow (Song Dynasty), (1999) and ©Huang Yan, Chinese Landscape No. 8 (1999), Chinese Landscape No. 1 (1999) in From Grain to Pixel: Contemporary Chinese Photography, 2024. Artwork courtesy of Private Collector. Image courtesy of Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.

Photo: Jenks Imaging

Installation view from left to right: ©Hong Lei, After the Dynasty: Ma Lin’s Fragrance with Sparse Shadow (Song Dynasty), (1999) and ©Huang Yan, Chinese Landscape No. 8 (1999), Chinese Landscape No. 1 (1999) in From Grain to Pixel: Contemporary Chinese Photography, 2024. Artwork courtesy of Private Collector. Image courtesy of Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.

Hong Lei, Tong Dazhuang and Cui Xiuwen also stage scenarios inspired by past masters, with the latter’s whimsical Sanjie recreating The Last Supper with a young girl standing in for the apostles. Other artists who use the body as a canvas are Huang Yan, Zhang Huan and Qiu Zhijie, the latter of
whom used brush and ink painting to make patterns on his body that continue on the backgrounds behind him.

Rong Rong and Cang Xin capture fleeting moments of artistic performance. Two of the latter’s Communication Series are close-ups that depict him ritually licking, respectively, a 100 Yuan bill and rusted sheet metal. He places plaster molds of his face on the ground and invited people to smash them for East Village, Beijing (1994, No. 70) and, with Zhang Huan, convinced a group of volunteers to lie naked atop one another to form a pyramid for 1995’s To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain.

The exhibit is bookended by works of repetition and appropriation. Zhang Peili’s Continuous Reproduction is the first work revealed upon entering the gallery and depicts Mao-era peasant girls in a series of 15 images that deteriorate further with each take, representing fading memories of China’s past.

The penultimate piece in a counterclockwise tour of the gallery is Untitled (Andy Warhol). Inspired by Warhol’s Chairman Mao series of silkscreens, Tong Dazhuang lines up rows of Warhol portraits starting at a size smaller than a postage stamp to create a noisy canvas that demands to be looked at from different distances.

Bellagio. 702.693.7871. bellagio.mgmresorts.com

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In photos: Elaine Constantine’s wildest northern soul nights

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In photos: Elaine Constantine’s wildest northern soul nights

The acclaimed photographer tells us the stories behind her latest photo book and exhibition, I’m Com’un Home In The Morn’un – an archive ‘recording the culture and emotion’ of underground Northern Soul club nights

10June 2024

Growing up in a big Catholic community in north Manchester, formed mainly of working-class Irish immigrants, Sunday nights in Elaine Constantine’s household were busy. Food would be prepared, a hodgepodge of relatives would come over, and they would all gather in the living room to watch family films her father had shot on his simple cine-camera. “It was a reflective household,” the photographer and youngest of five says. “The advent of photography available to ordinary people is what got me started. I think rather than the actual physicality of taking pictures, that was what interested me: it was about recording culture, recording emotions and this lovely colour.”

Marked by an honest kind of anti-glamour, Constantine’s images of British youth helped shape the identity of The Face in the 1990s and 00s, later bringing a fresh energy to the pages of Italian, French and American Vogue. Whether shooting teenage girls in the suburbs for fashion campaigns or secret pockets of British subculture, such as elderly tea dances in the north of England, Constantine’s photographic career – like those early family videos – has been defined by searing colour and a raw kind of joy.

Beyond photography, Constantine’s deepest obsession has always been northern soul, a dance culture sprung from niche American soul music that exploded in places like Blackpool and Wigan during the late 1970s. “It was a really fascinating time to be in my age group,” she remembers. “Disco just happened, then mods came about, these bands were coming up like The Jam and The Secret Affair, and then you had scar and two-tone. You just had this amazing crossover of brilliant independent music.” As a teenager, she started sneaking off to northern soul all-nighters in Manchester, shedding her buttoned-up mod outfits for t-shirts and baggy trousers as they were better suited for northern soul’s high tempo, packed-out dancefloors.

A new book and exhibition opening at the Martin Parr Foundation in July documents the moment Constantine returned to the northern soul scene after a seven-year hiatus. She had moved to London in her 20s and hadn’t stepped foot in a club since she was living at home up North. Sent on a commission by The Face, one fateful trip to London’s infamous 100 Club in 1993 changed the course of the years to come. Open since the war, the 350-person venue is a London institution which has been home to a spectrum of the city’s subcultures since the jazz age, witnessing the blues of Muddy Waters and BB King; the birth of punk with The Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees; and early gigs with Brit-pop icons Oasis and Blur. 

Home to a famous northern soul all-nighter since the 1980s, Constantine’s first visit to the 100 Club sparked a documentary project that saw the photographer travel to venues up and down the UK between 1993 and 1997. Largely forgotten until now, these images offer a glimpse into the heart of a dwindling hardcore community, capturing the “ritualised aerobic pleasure” of its frantic dancefloors in all their sweaty glory. Constantine worked on a BAFTA-nominated film about the scene a decade ago, titled Northern Soul, but this is the first time she is returning to her photographic archive for an exhibition.

Below, Constantine shares her memories of the fabled 100 Club:

“The 100 Club has a sort of hallowed reputation. It’s a place where a lot of bands start, like The Sex Pistols were there, and the family who own it are in their fourth generation. I think it’s the longest running club in the world, in terms of its name and having never been shut down. It was open through the jazz age, can you imagine?

“When I first went, I had no clue [about its history]. I only knew that there’d been a big punk thing there. I came to the party quite late. When Richard Benson at The Face asked me to go and cover an all-nighter, I remember thinking, ‘Shit, if I go in there, what’s going to happen? Is my life going to take a different path?’ I wasn’t part of that community at that time. When I heard the music as I was going downstairs, I was just like, ‘Oh fuck.’

“There was a very intense fervor for vinyl. I was not particularly a vinyl head, so that can be quite intimidating, and it was very, very male. There were probably only a handful of female DJ collectors in that period. I also remember it being quite tight because it’s a small venue, and northern soul venues can often be massive dance halls. I remember thinking that there was a real warmth to it and a real community of hardcore people in there. I didn’t feel great about taking pictures.

“What I’ve tried to capture my entire career, or my entire life as a photographer, is a moment of abandonment and freedom” – Elaine Constantine

“The first time I went, I stayed till morning and I photographed people once the lights were on. I talked to a group of more friendly people I recognised from my previous all-nighter life. They agreed to just dance with the lights on. Then I went back next month and I started taking pictures in the dark with the flash. I got the bug and I never stopped.

“Out of all the all nighters I’ve ever been to, it’s the darkest. They actively were like, ‘We’re not having lights in here’, which was brilliant. On these record stalls where people are looking through the seven-inch boxes, they’ve got these little lamps, where people huddle down [to hunt for records]. There’s something welcoming about [the darkness], because when you’re dancing, people aren’t watching you. You can kind of get lost in it, even though it’s a kind of peacocky dance in some respects. When you’re listening to a set and it builds, nothing breaks that.

“The great thing about it for me was that even though it was ancient as a scene, it was never a revival scene. There was always a new record being turned up that no one had heard before, and maybe there were only one or two copies of it. Certain DJs were really good at finding these unknowns and breaking them on the scene. Competition between them was so fierce and many of them had one-offs that no one else knew, and they did this thing called the ‘cover up’ with a white label across the top of a record [to keep its title secret].

“One night was quite devastating for the DJ that I thought was the best, Butch. He’s one of those kinds of guys who you just can’t fathom, private and not very sociable. Everything he did had this kind of myth around it, like a proper DJ should on an underground scene. Butch has few one-offs, but there was an absolutely brilliant one no one could get near, you could only hear it when he played. One night, another DJ turned up and played that record, and I just remember this kind of excitement but also devastation for the guy who’d had his cover blown.

“The book is called I’m Com’un Home In The Morn’un after an amazing record by a guy called Lou Pride. I once saw him perform it live, which was amazing. I think out of all the records that I’ve ever heard, it still gets me going. It still sends shivers down my spine. That record doesn’t ever get out of fashion on the scene either. I still go to the odd all-nighter, and there’s quite a lot of young people getting into northern soul now too, which is absolutely brilliant. Sometimes as an older person, you start to get curmudgeonly, don’t you? It’s nice to see the energy back on the floor and the enthusiasm.

“What I’ve tried to capture my entire career, or my entire life as a photographer, is a moment of abandonment and freedom. Northern Soul dancing is very much about that. It’s just the idea of uninterrupted joy: being part of a track and rising and falling with all the crescendos and beats. You are part of that music. I always wanted to capture that.”

I’m Com’un Home In The Morn’un is published by RRB Photobooks and is available for pre-order now. The exhibition will be on view at The Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol from July 11 – September 22, 2024. 

Authentic Photo of ‘Otherworldly Wreckage’ on Mars Spotted by NASA?

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Authentic Photo of ‘Otherworldly Wreckage’ on Mars Spotted by NASA?
image
Claim:

A NASA photo authentically shows “otherworldly wreckage” on Mars.

Context

While the photograph is genuine, what it shows is the NASA lander’s aeroshell (heat-shielded protective shell) – initially launched from Earth – and not “otherwordly wreckage,” as posts on social media misleadingly claimed.

A phenomenon described by some as “otherworldy wreckage on Mars” appears in a photograph shared across multiple social media platforms and websites since 2022. It consists of a white, triangular-shaped object with a debris field surrounding what looks to be a crash landing site.

One iteration of the “otherworldly wreckage” claim garnered more than 3.2 million views on X, as of this publication. 

A reverse-image search using Google Lens returned a public-domain image that identified the wreckage in the photo as the backshell and parachute from the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter. 

Therefore, while the photograph is genuine, it shows the NASA lander’s aeroshell – initially launched from Earth – and not “otherwordly wreckage,” as some posts on social media misleadingly claimed. 

Speaking to the Seattle Times in April 2022, Ian Clark, an engineer who worked on Perseverance’s parachute system, said of the photographs:

There’s definitely a sci-fi element to it… It exudes otherworldly, doesn’t it?

The photograph was captured from above the surface of the planet on April 19, 2022, by engineers working on the Mars Sample Return program, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It shows Perseverance’s backshell as it sits upright on the surface of Mars’ Jezero Crater. Collected from an altitude of about 26 feet, the photograph was captured by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 26th flight on Mars on April 19, 2022. 

Since February 18, 2021 – when the photograph in question was taken – the Perseverance rover has been exploring Jezero Crater, a location on Mars described by NASA as showing “promising signs of a place that was likely friendly to life in the distant past.” Perseverance studies the site by collecting rock cores and other samples of Mars material which scientists say could be retrieved and brought to Earth at a future date. 

To assist in the landing of rovers like Perseverance, scientists use what’s known as an aeroshell. An aeroshell is made up of two main components: a heat shield and a backshell. 

“Together, they encapsulate the spacecraft, tucking its science instruments, descent stage and other operational equipment safely inside,” writes Lockheed Martin, the aeronautics company that developed the Perseverance aeroshell. The company continues: 

The aeroshell’s shining moment occurs during entry, decent and landing (EDL). As the spacecraft performs a variety of maneuvers to safely land at its destination, the heat shield quite literally shields the spacecraft from the extreme heat generated during the initial descent through a planet’s atmosphere (typically around 2,700°F on Mars). In addition, the heat shield’s natural aerodynamics serve as a “brake” to help slow the spacecraft.

The cone-shaped backshell structure also plays an important role during EDL. The backshell supports the parachute and other mechanisms needed for a safe landing, including electronics and batteries. Plus, the backshell has holes for the small thrusters that help keep the spacecraft correctly oriented.

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The photograph was taken at the request of engineers working on the Mars Sample Return program, according to an accompanying description, which continued: 

The tangle of cables seen streaming out from the top of the backshell, and coated with Martian dust on the surface, are high-strength suspension lines that connect the backshell to Perseverance’s supersonic parachute (upper left). The backshell and parachute helped protect the rover in deep space and during its fiery descent toward the Martian surface.

Snopes has looked into other questionable photographs taken of Mars, including one of a so-called “portal and a wall” on the red planet, a color photograph that shows a “drilled hole,” and and another image of a supposedly mysterious object on the planet’s surface.

Photographer Cara Romero steps out of the box with her ‘First American Girl’ doll portraits

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Photographer Cara Romero steps out of the box with her ‘First American Girl’ doll portraits

HANOVER, N.H. — Earlier this month, photographer Cara Romero snapped away as Kaitlyn Anderson (Dartmouth College class of 2024) posed for what looked like a high-gloss fashion spread. Anderson wore a native Hawaiian costume and was surrounded by Hawaiian instruments and textiles — all inside a giant doll box.

Romero makes elaborately staged photographs imbued with mythic drama. They celebrate Indigenous American cultures. Her first major solo exhibition, “Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light),” opens at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art in January. The artist came to New Hampshire to create commissioned works with Native Hawaiian students for the show.

Kaitlyn Anderson poses in a doll-box set with Native Hawaiian props for photographer Cara Romero. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Where to find her: www.cararomero.com

Age: 47

Making a living: As an artist

Originally from: The Chemehuevi Valley Indian Reservation in California’s Mojave Desert

Lives in: Santa Fe

Studio: The doll-house set fit under a cathedral ceiling in a private home; boom lights shone from a landing above. The models for Romero’s other photos — Amedee Conley-Kapoi, Hope Ushiroda-Garma, and Teani DeFries — were working on costumes for their photo shoots. Some tore up Palapalai fern leaves for skirts.

Photographer Cara Romero, at left, with her crew creating a work for her “First American Girl” series, featuring Native Hawaiian Kaitlyn Anderson. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

What she makes: When Romero started making her “First American Girl” series in 2015, she said, she asked herself, “How can I create these dolls that harness the incredible beauty and diversity and authenticity of many different tribes and many different Indigenous people to counter this idea of Native Americans coming from a monolithic culture?”

How she started: A black-and-white film photography class at the University of Houston changed Romero’s life. Instructor Bill Thomas asked for panoramic photos that told something more. Most students made panoramics, but missed the content.

“I would struggle and struggle with the technical, but I had no problem coming up with a story,” Romero said. “He made me realize that was something special. And I fell in love with the power of storytelling,”

Photographer Cara Romero, at right, has a show coming to the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in January. She and her crew were creating works for that show. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

How she works: Romero came to photography at the crossroads between film and digital. She uses film practices with her digital camera.

“Everything has to be done in camera,” she said. “Even though I could Photoshop the whole frame, it’s not the same as building the whole doll box. I don’t think artificial intelligence and photo illustration is ever quite the same as the magic of real photography.”

Her work is intensely collaborative. “There’s a whole lot of jazz and a whole lot of improv and a whole lot of faith that we’re going to stay creative in the moment,” she said.

In the end, everyone involved signs off on the artwork. Given historic power dynamics in the representation of Native people, collaboration is essential to Romero.

“Photography is something that when we’re involved with it, we need to have agency over representation. It’s the only way I work,” she said.

Advice for artists: “Remember to play. It’s fun to have a relationship with the spirituality of it all. Everybody can be an artist, everybody can participate. It’s a human right to participate in art, and it always gives back.”

Photographer Cara Romero in front of the doll-box set crafted for photographs she was taking of Native American students at Dartmouth College.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram @cate.mcquaid.

Back in the Dazed: Rankin’s Cool Britannia

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Back in the Dazed: Rankin’s Cool Britannia
Photographyexhibition

Back in the Dazed è la prima retrospettiva nel Regno Unito a prendere in esame il decennio d’oro di Rankin come Photographic Editor da Dazed & Confused.

34 seconds ago

–

Anna Frattini

In London, specifically at 180 Studios, the exhibition Back in The Dazed opened a few weeks ago. This exhibit is dedicated to Rankin‘s career in the 1990s and his connection with Dazed & Confused, the iconic magazine he co-founded. It’s a true celebration of his works from 1991 to 2001, on display until June 23. The exhibition features everyone from cult celebrities to the supermodels of that era, including highly respected musical icons. Back in the Dazed is essentially a love letter to youthful creativity, all captured by a photographer who has become legendary.

Evan Dando, Lost & Found, Dazed & Confused, Issue 25, 1996
Highly Flammable, Dazed & Confused, Issue 31, 1997

Rankin was one of the key photographers of the time and a central figure of the so-called Cool Britannia. The 90s vibes are palpable in the showcased photos, demonstrating his crucial impact as the Photographic Editor of Dazed & Confused.

Rankin and the Cool Britannia Conveyed by Dazed & Confused

His perspective remains – even today – one of the reasons the magazine was so successful in shaping the style and aesthetics of future English generations (and beyond). Over his ten years as Photographic Editor, Rankin shot no less than two hundred editorials for Dazed & Confused. As noted in the exhibition’s press release, «his work from this period constitutes a manifesto on how to see the world, a political statement communicated not with words but through the lens of a camera.»

Roy Brown, Emperor’s New Clothes, Dazed & Confused, Issue 1, 1991
Sad Lad, Dazed & Confused, Issue 16, 1995
Helena Christensen, Flesh For Fantasy, Dazed & Confused, Issue 33, 1997

Not Just Celebrities

Rankin didn’t just focus on icons like Kate Moss, Jude Law, Helen Mirren, or Robbie Williams; he also photographed working-class kids and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. His approach allowed him to become the favored photographer for Brit-pop bands and capture images of cult actors that would remain in the public’s imagination for a long time (even today). Importantly, his approach made contemporary art and experimental music accessible to everyone, providing opinions and viewpoints on these subjects as well. Back in the Dazed is the first retrospective in the UK of Rankin’s groundbreaking works from this prescient decade. More vital than ever, through Rankin’s eye, you’re invited to explore the culture and creative community celebrated worldwide.

RGB Aron & Chris, Feel It, Dazed & Confused, Issue 63, 2000
Robbie Williams, Obsessive Behaviour, Dazed & Confused, Issue 25, 1996
The Changing Faces Of, Dazed & Confused, Issue 14, 1995

(c) Rankin

These folks are making sure people of all identities can be themselves in photography

By in Photography

These folks are making sure people of all identities can be themselves in photography
Three people stand next to each other smiling in a radio studio.
From left: Ali Pike, Tania Heath and Emyn Hayden are part of Project Power Back, a community photography project that aims to help people who are who are queer, trans, or have an otherwise underrepresented body or identity have themselves represented in photography. (Adam Walsh/CBC)

A St. John’s photography project aims to allow members of the queer, trans and other underrepresented communities feel their best — and feel like themselves.

The goal of Project Power Back, created by photographer Tania Heath, is to serve as a safe space for people of all identities to see themselves how they want to be seen and feel how they want to feel when getting their photo taken.

Heath said the concept came from parts of her own identity journey. Coming out as queer at 30, Heath said, they realized there was something missing in their work — which they discovered through learning to challenge societal norms around gender and the patriarchal system.

“The queer community gave myself the space to really dig deep into, like, ‘Who am I? Why do I do the things I do? Is it because I want to do it? Or is it because I’m being pushed?” Heath told CBC Radio’s The Signal. “Once I started exploring those and really digging for those answers, and finding out those answers for myself, that’s kind of when my photography stuff changed too.”

WATCH | See Wednesday’s full episode of The Signal: [embedded content]

Part of Project Power Back’s mission statement is making sure people feel seen and heard through a feminist, trauma-informed lens.

For hair specialist Emyn Hayden, that starts with consultations.

“We can take 20 minutes if you want to talk about your fringe for 20 minutes,” Hayden said. “If that’s where we’re at, I’m going to meet you there. And I think that consulting in a huge way allows you to meet somebody where they are.”

Stylist Ali Pike said creating that comfort also allows people to feel most like themselves, which translates to photos that subjects can feel shows them distinctly.

Pike also said locations are a key part of the process — often working in areas that don’t have inherent gender barriers like a barber shop for men or a salon for women.

“Even just to come into the salon sometimes is a barrier for folks. If you don’t see yourself represented, then it’s very hard to walk into that space with confidence. And especially to talk about who you are or how you want to be represented,”  Pike said.

“Once you start talking about who you are, as a stylist I feel like they’re the cues for me.”

Heath said more people get involved with each pop-up event, which she says is great to see as a community continues to grow.

“People coming together, like it’s so special for me,” she said. “That’s the stuff that really fires me up.”

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Photography helped Derek Hitchens see the world

By in Photography

Photography helped Derek Hitchens see the world
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In the 1950s, Derek Hitchens’ camera captured torn up postwar English landscapes as a photographer for the Royal Air Force. It must have been exciting work, though apparently he later complained about being sick and tired of having to hang out of aircraft shooting photos.

Derek was born Nov. 22, 1931, in London, one of Walter and Florence Hitchens’ three children. Walter had served with the RAF as a carpenter.

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