New Wave Magazine by NADA STANOJEVIC

N E W W AV E Art Magazine

Italy

THE POWER OF PERSONALITY

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

CONTENTS featured in this issue

04 ALBUS TABOO BY J U S TI N D I N G WA L

As first section is centered around social issues, first one to go through is being albus in in the South African society.

37 FASHION OUTTAKES BY JO ROSENTHAL

Collection of tasteful high fashion nudes, smiling models, and dynamic poses that make a vibrant experience.

SENIOR EDITOR Nađa Stanojević

DON'T DO IT ALONE B Y N AY Y I M E N E Z

EDITOR Nađa Stanojević

Story of the artist who succeeded having a job of her dreams, a great team and exploring the art of food.

EDITORIAL ADVISOR Nađa Stanojević CHIEF EDITOR Nađa Stanojević JOURNALISTS Nađa Stanojević i-D journalists Vice articles PHOTOGRAPHERS Various freelancers Online galleries

The New Wave is a collection of projects and articles that explore topics connected to art such as issues in today's society, fashion, photography, and food. All centered around visual language as a statement. Designers, students, artists and other ceatives meet together to create a world which is understandable and interesting to nonartists, as well as professionals in these fields.

86 GUATEMALA HEART BY JUAN BRENNER

The same journey once done by the Spanish conquistador portrayed with photos of places and inhabitants all around.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

A TIMELESS ART DEBATE Art is a problematically inclusive term; anything in the world can be called “art.” The main difference between art and design, then, is that design is simply more restrained. Any artist can look at their work and see it as an extension of themselves, but designers don’t have that liberty. This is what design is: It’s art with expectations, patterns and consistency.

Michlos Philips, designer

Spend any amount of time working among professional designers and you learn that equating art with design is a surefire way to stir the pot and hear bold statements like: “Design is not art. Design has to function.” ; “Art is meant to provoke thought and emotions, but it doesn’t solve problems.” “Artists primarily work off instinct, whereas designers employ a methodical, data-driven process.” Unfortunately, the designer vs. artist discussion often deteriorates into ranting and raving. Lines are drawn, battle flags are raised, and productive dialogue becomes impossible. What’s really going on here? Why have art and design been pitted against each other, and why are the designers so adamant that design cannot be art? It's a never-ending debate.

touch gloves and go to your corners. Let’s be clear, I’m aware of how unpopular my position is, especially among my design peers. I’ve been to talks, read books, spoken with colleagues, and taken classes determined to establish the irreconcilable differences between art and design. Whenever I share my views, the backlash comes quick and fierce, but I remain unmoved by the counter-arguments.The insistence on a distinction between art and design has been like a constant, low-grade fever that’s bothered me for the last 15 years—first through my industrial design training, then during a fine arts graduate degree, and on into my career in branding and illustration.

My position is this: Great design is first and foremost art. What is this belief rooted Bowers is a brand designer and illustrator in? A philosophical understanding of art. who believes that art encompasses many The quest to define art is steeped in cencreative disciplines, design being one, and turies of debate. Greek philosopher Plato therefore design is art. Philips, a UX de- believed that art is essentially a reflection signer and lead editor for the Toptal Design of a reflection of what is real. But his views Blog, takes the position that art and design are widely contested, and since we have to may intersect, but they are distinctly differ- start somewhere, we must aim for an unent fields. With our contestants in the ring, derstanding that acknowledges history and it’s time for the debate to begin. Gentlemen, the diversity of global thought and culture.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

ALBUS TABOO B Y J U S T I N D I N G WA L

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

ALBINISM T H A N D O H O PA SANELE X ABA

Nothing should be a taboo this year. That's why Justin Dingwal decided to work on a topic which will further explore the topic of taboos and show us a whole new perspective. The discourse about albinism is generally avoided as a taboo in the South African context. When discussed, it is usually viewed as negative or as a sought after “oddity” in fashion and art trends. Justin Dingwall, photographer and creator of the series Albus, aims for an intimate perspective to foreground the perceptions surrounding the topic of albinism. It began as an interest to capture something not conventionally perceived as "beauty". Dingwall began this project with the ethereal portraits of Thando Hopa, a legal prosecutor who is using her visibility to address the negative perceptions surrounding the topic of albinism. Dingwall’s inspiring new work features Sanele Xaba, a young model with albinism, and uses specific elements to foreground the important symbolic meaning behind each work with strong visual imagery. Dingwall’s intention is for the images to become a celebration of beauty in difference. “They are not about race or fashion, but about perception, and what we subjectively perceive as beautiful. I wanted to create a series of images that resonate with humanity and make people question what is beautiful” Dingwall’s interest lies in the unique and the different. “To me diversity is what makes humanity interesting and beautiful”. Dingwall has foregrounded certain elements in his work. These symbols have inspired his perceptions as an artist, and are significant in his intention to affect the viewers’ perspective. The symbols of light and dark are a reflection of his medium. Dingwall uses the characteristic nature of photography to capture a unique frame of reference. Dingwall paints with

light in such a way as to represent the revealing of the unseen, hidden beauty. Light represents truth, and it is contrasted against the element of darkness to emphasise the unenlightened state of mind of previously mentioned ‘mis’conceptions. Water is another important element Dingwall uses to reflect society’s altering perceptions. Water suggests self-reflection and it is often used in literature as a symbol of change. Another symbol of change is represented in the images of butterflies. In the process of transformation, butterflies alter to such an extreme that they are unrecognisable at the end of their metamorphosis. The butterfly unquestioningly embraces all the changes of their environment and their body. For this reason butterflies have become symbols of growth, surrender, transition and celebration. These works aim to create an equilibrium, which is defined as “a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced”. In this way, the artist aims to create a harmony in consciousness. The snake that Dingwall used in his newer works connotes transformation - as in the shedding of old skin to make way for new and also, as in medical discourse, to represent healing. Though introduction of snake had many roles, it also influenced the idea of strong visual images and different division between good and the bad, same as the public's opinion regarding the topic of the snakes and their role in today's world. As in the title of one of his works “In with the new”, Dingwall reinterprets the old English saying as “out with old ideologies and in with a new perspective”. That is one of the important elements which is portrayed throughout the pages of this magazine and which shows the true nature of The New Wave. Out with the old, in with the new. 7

OPPOSIN G FORCES BAL ANCE

Albus aims to create an equilibrium, which is defined as “a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced”. In this way, harmony is consciousness.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

01. Ubuntu, 2014 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

02. In With The New, 2014 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

03. Albus , 2015 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

NEED TO KNOW Justin Dingwall is a successful Johannesburg based artistic photographer. He achieved a Baccalaureus Technologies in Photography from the Tshwane University of Technology in 2004. The artist creates images that resonate with emotion and challenges traditional notions of beauty. His works leans towards the unusual, avenues less travelled with cultural undertones.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

04. Reveali, 2015 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

05. Albus II, 2015 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

06. Albus II, 2015 Giclée print on 100% cotton fine art paper

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

A SEAT AT THE TABLE Photo by Justin Dingwall Article by Nađa Stanojević Justin Dingwall worked with the old saying “a seat at the table” to represent the idea of an opportunity to be heard, to be seen to have a voice and an opinion, and in this way to make a difference.

he images that he had created with Moostapha aim to start conversations about preconceived ideas and perceptions based on the appearance and how what we see affects what we think.It began whith Moostapha Saidi contacting Justin in April 2018 via Facebook and Instagram. He was interested in his previous projects- Fly by Night and Albus, and the process of creating those works. Justin suggested that they meet and do a test shoot. When they met, Moostapha told him his story and what he was trying to achieve. He was very ambitious and Justin was very keen to help him however he could, and he knew that he could use his art and photography to do so. Moostapha worked at a cellular company where he operated in the call centre, but his goals and aims were bigger. He aimed to move more into the modelling, music and acting industry. This is where Justin, as a commercial photographer and artist could use what he knows. My artist side was immediately struck by the juxtaposition of Moostapha being in a call center where he dealt with people on a daily bases, but where no one every saw him. During our conversation, I realised that we could not only use my work for Moostapha as an individual in his career, but I could also engage with the larger topic of vitiligo as I had in previous series’. Vitiligo is a topic that I did not know much about and I am always interested to expand my world through my art and learn about something that is not seen as “usual”. I decided to

create a body of work that engages with this topic on a much deeper level, and that raises questions about perspective, as well as how the media and representations subjectively perceive the world and other people.

here are some main aspects of symbolism that are important in the work. I was especially interested in using everyday objects. I like to reinterpret these objects by slightly altering their appearance and presenting them in new ways to the viewer. What I have found very interesting, together with Moostahpha, is how people react to these everyday objects once they have been altered and used within the imagery or visual arts. Everyone interprets their own significances based on their own experiences from life - be it positive or negative.

NEED TO KNOW Vitiligo is a condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of the skin, causing whitish patches, often with no clear cause or caused by a loss of pigment in the skin, due to destruction of pigment forming cells known as melanocytes.

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

e has received numerous interesting feedbacks on the works that he had not seen when creating them. To adapt it to an old saying: art is in the eye of the beholder. Viewers bring their own life experience and perceptions to the work, since the aim is for the topics to be openly discussed and brought into everyday life, for people to engage and question their own ideas. The reason for the precious stones on Moostaphaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skin came from the discussions we had about his life and how the world perceives him as a person living with vitiligo. He has talked about the way people stare and point at him for being different. That is why they used thousands of eyes to be a representation of society and how we stare at someone when they look different, when people do not fit into our preconceived ideas.

In our conversations, Moostapha talked how hard it was growing up, but through these challenges he has gained enough strength and confidence. He no longer sees his vitiligo as a hindrance, but as something precious, different and unique. As in previous bodies of work, he hopes these images will highlight that beauty is in the difference. In these images it is now Moostapha who is staring back at the viewer. Questioning our infinite gaze. 01

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

01. Mostapha bearing the burden of his illness throughout his whole life, like carrying a bowl of corn. 02. Taking a breakfast at a public spot indicates a pressure of people watching and judging. 03. The uselessness of media, since it is not covering the topic of vitiligo and the acceptance of difference in society.

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

Moostapha has been suffering from vitiligo for years and this project came as the outcome of his courage and selfimprovement after many years of fighting.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

THE IDEA OF BODY Lotte van Raalte spent more than a year photographing 46 women, aged 13 to 94, and bundled the impressive result in her new book ‘BODY’. These beautiful compositions are an ode to the female body. Lotte has been on our radar for quite some years now. Known for her crisp and colourful compositions, the 30-year-old photographer from Amsterdam has been making a name for herself, shooting campaigns for the likes of Arket, Stella McCartney and Adidas. Rather than photographing models stoically gazing into the camera, Lotte captures her subjects during those dynamic and candid in-between-moments. When her models are squinting their eyes against the sun with scrunched up noses, for example, or laughing in the camera while revealing gapped teeth. As her career took off, Lotte realised that the type of beauty she was looking for wasn’t always offered by modelling agents. Instead, she started to otte van Raalte clearly remembers streetcast, sometimes with the help of the important moment in which she a casting director friend, developing a was captivated by the beautiful freck- keen eye for unconventional looks that les on her producer’s face while she was could refresh her fashion photography. working on a shoot prompting her to want to capture them up close. Little did Lotte began posting these beautiful comshe know it would mark the beginning positions and portraits on her Instagram, of an extensive project, lasting more than as a celebration of diversity she encouna year, during which she would explore tered in her work. And then, last year, the female body and skin in all its facets something unexpected happened. Lotte and details. A huge project that would received a notification from the platform open her eyes to the way stretchmarks, that her account was going to be shadow scars, moles, creases, wrinkles and blem- banned after it was reported by various ishes together make up a body’s beauty. users for its ‘explicit content’. Note that Over the course of 16 months, Lotte van the so-called ‘explicit’ content she posted Raalte shot 46 women up close, aged 13 was nothing more than close-ups of the to 94, some of them strangers she just met, curve of a stomach, moles on a back, or a others friends or family. In few months middle-aged woman’s sun-kissed cleavshe launches the impressive result dur- age. By bundling the photos in a book and ing a solo exhibition in Amsterdam, to- hanging them in a gallery space, she was gether with her first book entitled Body. able to shield them from online scrutiny.

P H O T O B Y L O T T E V A N R A A LT E ARTICLE BY ROLIEN ZONNE VELD

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

WOMEN ARE UNREALISTICALLY PORTRAYED IN TH E FAS H ION, MOVIE AND MUSIC INDUSTRY ,

Photo 2: We should be focusing on the female body as the “carrier of new life”. 2

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1 Photo 1: As the years go by, our skins gets wrinkles, cars, freckles and stretch marks which are absolutely normal.

Photo 3: The idea of freedom as the main part of connecting with our bodies and the feeling of being ourselves.

he shadow banning made me feel really frustrated with the platform, which clearly not only censures the female body but also doesn’t really seem to be very consistent in its policy implementation. Compare it with Pornhub’s page for example, which showcases girls in their underwear, which do not receive the same treatment as I did. My photos of women’s bodies are so far removed from that, so desexualised, but still end up being reported.” By bundling the photos in a book and hanging them in a gallery space, she was able to shield them from online scrutiny. Body is not only a statement against an industry long dominated by one-dimensional beauty ideals but, more importantly, it is an invitation to us spectators to interrogate our ideas about the female form. How do we respond to the realities of the body – to its colours, shapes, curves and textures? How do we deal with the fact that our bodies age and that we tend to look at them not always through the kindest lens, rather through the smooth and blurred one, previously redone in many apps ?

“I noticed while photographing these women how they would liberate themselves from a certain feeling of shame. How they would start getting comfortable in their bodies,” Lotte explains. “I wanted these photos to have a raw quality to them but still be very beautiful. They needed to be powerful, but not provocative.” She adds: “The project’s collaborative nature was also very important to me: I really needed to listen closely how these women wanted to be captured. After the shoots I received an overwhelming amount of messages about how the shoot had made them look at their own bodies differently.” Will the book be the end of the project? Her crowning achievement? “There will always be more bodies. I could continue this project until my own body gives up on me,” she answers.

In terms of her fascination for the female form, she focuses on the hard-truth that “women are dominantly sexualized and unrealistically portrayed in the fashion, movie and music industry,” and instead, we should be focusing on the female body as the “carrier of new life”. This is not Lotte’s first foray into issues around womanhood, although it is her first photography book. She has multiple ongoing personal projects around the topic, alongside others such as sustainability and education rights, yet, at this moment in time, Body is the most real and powerful reflection of her positioning on the female gaze in the world of photography. 23

WHATS HIDIN G INSIDE YOU Plastic surgeons and dermatologists are expecting to provide this year more fillers, Botox, and noninvasive body contouring treatments than ever before.

Photos Fashion book project under the thematic of Unity focus on inner conflicts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a kind of schizophrenic approach to self â&#x20AC;&#x201C; by creating various characters with a single model.

This year trends are coming hard Though we're inclined to categorize past beauty trends by the decade in which they were popular (curtain bangs from the '70s, blush contour from the '80s, blue eye shadow from the '90s), in this day and age, every single year has its own defining trends. Rapid advancements in technology and the lightning-fast spread of social media has led to an era when dozens of nail, hair, and makeup trends pop up every single week. The same can surely be said for cosmetic procedures: Thanks to its versatility, Botox's popularity continues to skyrocket year after year, whereas injectable fillers and other lip augmentation procedures have seen seeing steady increases since a massive boom in 2015, according to data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Those are just two noninvasive options in an always-expanding world of plastic surgery.

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

FOCUS O N IN N ER CON FLICTS KIND O F SCH IZOPH RENIC APPROACH TO S ELF Fillers will give folks fuller jawlines Ava Shamban, a dermatologist based in Los Angeles, says with unwavering confidence that filler for the jawline will be the most popular procedure for the year. "The jawline is a big thing," she tells Allure. Dendy Engleman, a fellow dermatologist in New York City, agrees. "Everyone is so hyperaware of every angle when we're taking so many more images of ourselves," she says. Think of the jawline as a grade-school geometry assignment: From the side profile, the outline of the hairline all the way down to the tip of the chin creates an obtuse angle. Based on facial symmetry and what clients request most, Shamban says the most visually appealing angle for women's jawlines specifically is about 125 degrees (she offers Rihanna and Angelina Jolie as examples). To mimic that, Shamban has been using a filler called Radiesse (for which she just completed a trial study), a synthetic calcium complex that feels a lot more like bone than your typical hyaluronic acid injectable. During the procedure, she fills out the back of a client's jaw to achieve their desired angle and visually separate the jaw from the neck. There's little to no downtime, but swelling and soreness can endure around the injection site the day of the procedure. Chin fillers Alongside the jawline, Engelman has seen an uptick in patients who want to change the shape of their chins for the exact same reason. Men, for example, have been seeking fillers to accomplish symmetry between the edges of the chin and the outermost corners of the mouth for what society deems more masculine facial metrics, she says.

Cosmetic tattooing New York City dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank is opening a new practice next spring in downtown Manhattan, which will be one of the first American practices offering BB Glow, a form of semi-permanent makeup originating in Korea. "What we are doing is we are literally microneedling organic makeup into [skin]," Frank says. "If patients who don't have the time or want to do laser procedures, or who have problems with their makeup or problems with their skin from putting it on and washing it off, we can actually create a flawless complexion that lasts weeks." As exciting as a full face of semi-permanent makeup sounds, BB Glow does come with its downsides. Like eyebrow microblading, the BB Glow procedure is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Per previous Allure reporting, many experts are wary of the procedure because of its current lack of study. "Microneedling with insertion of skin-colored pigments can cause many potential unknown complications," says dermatologist Melissa Kanchanapoomi Levin. "There are many unknowns about how these inks and particles will interact with the skin." Proceed with caution and consult a doctor before attempting BB Glow, especially if you have a history of psoriasis, eczema, or keloid scars, she advises.

Single model The battle between the alter egos contrasted nicely with the sweet, clean and harmonious idea of unity.

Body Contouring

Though the words "body contouring" sound selfexplanatory, the procedures used to achieve it are varied. Liposuction and tummy tucks both fall under the body-contouring umbrella, but nonsurgical procedures such as temperature-based fat reduction, skin tightening, muscle enhancements, and even cellulite-reducing injectables have wildly increased over the course of the past few years. In 2020, those noninvasive options will definitely continue to flourish. "We have numerous technologies to achieve nonsurgical volume reduction in sculpting," says Wexler. " The Lumenis NuEra Tight uses powerful radiofrequency waves to treat both superficially and deep tissue to improve the appearance of skin laxity, achieve skin tightening, skin toning, and improve cellulite." Those waves produce heat within the skin's deeper layers to promote collagen and elastin production alongside faster cell turnover,

all of which contribute to a tighter and smoother skin appearance. Because body contouring no longer requires invasive measures such as liposuction, she predicts she'll be seeing more bodycontouring patients than ever. "Numerous handpieces allow treatment to many areas of the face and body, including the abdomen, knees, thighs, arms, and back as well as the eyes, perioral area, cheeks, and neck. It is virtually painless, quick, and requires four to six treatments done weekly." Dermatologist Sapna Palep echos the important sentiment which is: "This wave has already started, and we are now seeing its refinement," she says. "Body contouring has also shifted to being able to build muscle mass. With technologies like TruSculpt Flex, we can increase muscle mass by an average of 30 percent in two weeks with four 45-minute treatments over a two-week span, with peak results being seen at three months."

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

BEIN G NATURAL IS COMIN G BACK AS A TREND AND MAS KS ARE COMIN G O FF

Art of the gesture The first coffee-table book, the FlanelleBook that is about the thematic of Unity and the gestures of a female body.

Walk on a noisy streets...

Though prior trends swept in record-breaking demand for breast implants in the last decade, smaller breasts are requested more than ever before, according to New York Cit-based plastic surgeon Norman Rowe. "As more and more women are looking for smaller, more naturalappearing breasts, we've seen a large uptick in implant removal, now either altogether or trading them in for smaller implants," he says. And that's not the only reason women are having them removed in droves. "Aside from this trend, women are more frequently removing their implants due to the recent concerns of some breast implants, namely, those that have been linked to some forms of cancer," says Norman. Regardless of what's trending in the year ahead, be sure to consult a board-certified dermatologist and/or plastic surgeon before making decisions about any and all procedures. 27

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

MEDIATION OF FEMALES With her first solo show Grass, Peony, Bum about to debut, we caught up with the artist herself and co-curator Mia Pfeifer to talk about sex, sensuality and the mediation on female sexuality. of the launch, we caught up with Mia and Maisie to talk flesh prisons and femininity. They talk about the first impression of each other; Maise's coat and those cowboy boots killed me, says Mia. Maisie is an extension of her work and we clicked instantly. We've been in this process, producing the show, for over a year now and we became very close. Maisie is a rare breed: Transparent, straightforward and with a heart of gold. I love her. On the other hand, Maisie says that Mia is tiny, but you don't realise she is tiny because her personality is so big and open and passionate about her work. We really clicked straight away, I adore her.

PHOTO BY MAISIE COUSINS ARTICLE BY TISH WEINSTOCK

aisie Cousins and Mia Pfeifer first met over an Irish coffee. Mia had wanted Maisie to exhibit in a group show she was curating, but ended up agreeing to co-curate Maisie's first ever solo show instead. Launching next week, Grass, peony, bum is the culmination of years of work that centres around themes of sexuality, femininity, power, and nature. Hedonistic and performative, the British photographer uses photography to actively challenge normative standards of beauty and societal definitions of what it means to be a woman. Whether it's a close up of glistening flesh or the textured imprint of grass on skin, her photographs move seamlessly between humour and eroticism. As well as showcasing her work, Maisie has teamed up with esteemed perfumer Azzi Glasser, to create an immersive installation, providing viewers with a multi-sensory experience. Ahead

I find photography really hard to title. It's a lot easier for me to title something like a painting. With photography it's so literal, and for me it feels pretentious to give them fancy names. I like a list or a factual title. I think I approach taking images in quite a biology related way, close up, getting evidence of natural things, looking at skin. I like science books. Here are my sexy versions of them, I guess. Now it is the first show because of practicalities, money, timing, etc. You don't realise how much you need initially. It's actually gone on quite a journey, and I am so happy with how it's ended up here and who is involved. Maisie's work attracts me and inspires me. I could see in her Instagram something that was quite exceptional, and although playful, it was not banal. Then we had our first meeting, which in fact was for a group show, and decided that I really wanted to work with her. I only collaborate with

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

TODAY WOMEN ARE BURDEN ED WITH UNREALISTIC IDEAS CREATED BY MANY H OT INDUSTRIES ,

Photo 2: There is a whole series that is based on touching women inner parts of body. 2

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1 Photo 1: Peonies and jewelry which present a symbol of femininity and elegance, specially the inner part of the flower.

Photo 3: She played with inserting different objects into a pink milk bath that could potentially symbolize women.

people that I truly admire, respect and want to spend time with. I've learned that in a hard way! Maisie has a prolific future ahead of her and her new work is amazing. Besides, Maisie would describe the exhibition in one word as 'sexy', to someone who has never seen Maisie's work, which she really appreciates. Regarding the way physical space of the gallery and it's influence, I think that is what I am most excited about, I've been putting my work online for so long and it's not satisfying anymore. I am a little nervous, I have one room that I want as a real immersive experience but I have no experience with installations, thus I feel I have all the ingredients ready and I just hope they pull together as whole, as the plan was initially. Which is scary, because sometimes I make a tasty sauce and then other times it goes straight in the bin. I am so excited to be working with Azzi Glasser, she is making me a scent for the show. I love smell and find it the most evocative sense and working with a perfumer is a goal accomplished. Overall message that I am trying to convey about gender, beauty, and sexuality is that everyday we are made to feel bad about something, usually multiple things a day. Everyone and everything all the time saying "Be clean and not gross! Be polite and don't fart. Don't be fat! Don't be too horny!" It's just nice sometimes to just feel the complete opposite of this. I don't think that's radical, it's just a way of surviving it all together. It is very dangerous to put all women in one category. I don't think Maisie talks about "Women". It's about feelings, emotions and ideas and how to express them and to be free to do so. I don't necessarily think it's much about gender specifically. But I was having a conversation with a friend recently who pointed out that women have had less time to express their sexuality than men. Off the top of my head I can't think of one movie where there's a female sexually in charge protagonist.

The one who isn't portrayed as unhinged, we haven't got any references, so it's like making it up as we go along. Which is why it's complicated and amazing. I am most proud about the fact that I know that resilience pays off. It's difficult sometimes when you work and work and things don't happen for a while. But hard work is the key and everyone should be proud of it. This show is the best way to prove it. Exhibition opens at TJ Boulting on 16th May and will be part of Fitzrovia galleries opening late night in collaboration with Photo London where Maisie will be showing in TJ Boulting's booth in the Discovery section along with Juno Calypso portant. Besides this one, there will be many more projects in the future.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

PHOTOGRAPHING A QUEER ROAD TRIP Inspired by a radical travelling community of lesbians from the 70s, photographer Devyn Galindo and girlfriend Hope Steinman-Iacullo set out on their own trip. B Y R YA N W H I T E PHOTOS BY DEV YN GALINDO

I wanted to approach this with grace, I didn’t want to show up with an agenda and a camera in someone’s face

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

he Van Dykes, the story goes, were a caravan of lesbians that travelled throughout the US and Mexico in the 70s. Living off the grid, they sought a life of “radical rebellion and feminist empowerment” away from dreary humdrum normality and the heteronormative-patriarchal constraints of American society. “It’s sort of an urban legend at this point,” photographer Devyn Galindo says, who first found out about the collective via a New Yorker article; "Lesbian Nation: When gay women took to the road". “I was preparing for our first trip in the van and my girlfriend sent me the story by Ariel Levy. I was in love with the fantasy of this caravan and to find evidence that it actually existed was surreal, and that we were living in this parallel universe where we were going to embark on a similar journey. It felt like a spiritual passing of the torch.”

01.

03.

05.

In good in bad, in young

A new form of vulnerability,

Ode to life on the road and

in old, always and forever.

closeness, new life and

the moving stories you can

Couple found along the way.

opportunities.

find along the way.

02.

04.

06.

Exploring each other through

Typical day in life on the

Courage to be different, even

the lens of the camera,

road, portrayed artistically,

if it means being alone. Hair

creating artwork together.

yet realistic.

as a statement.

her extended Latinx family, and partly moving around the American South and Midwest with her mother. “They’re the two most formative experiences of my life. They allowed me to understand the vastness of the American experience.” At 13 she began taking photographs and developing her own film, an experience that, like many photographers before her offered creative expression and moments of respite when life around her was difficult. “I was lured in by the darkroom. Watching the images appear like magic on paper, mixing chemicals, and timing everything satisfied both my analytical and artistic brain. I could get lost in that world for hours.”

communities I care most about: queer stories, POC stories, and women-focused. The visual world has been dictated by men and their desires for so long. My work is here to be a break in the monotony. My work is here to challenge your perception of reality in the realms of gender, sexuality and race.”

Born in California, Devyn grew up partly in Garden Grove, a small city in northern Orange County, with

Inspired by the work of Catherine Opie “Her exchange with her subjects feels intimate and raw”, Devyn channels vulnerability and respect for her subjects in her all her work; creating beautiful portraits of communities historically ignored in mainstream photography. “I find inspiration from the

Her new zine, taking both its inspiration and name from the Van Dykes, chronicles Devyn and her girlfriend’s three-month trip across America and the moving stories they uncovered along the way. “I wanted to approach this with grace, I didn’t want to show up with an agenda and a camera in someone’s face,” she says. “I almost wanted to be a fly on the wall for this project. The art was in the story and the exchange. I wanted the visual component to feel natural and not forced or glamorised. I like to showcase the power of individuals, their identities, and their beauty: I believe that they are worthy of holding our gaze and our focus as a society, especially as so many of these communities are made invisible.”

NATURE IN ITS HUGE , GLORY With 'You are my favourite tree', photographer Clara Nebeling brings together work from the likes of David Uzochukwu and Hollie Fernando to create an ecoconsiderate, yet natural photobook.

PHOTO BY CL AR A NEBELING ARTICLE BY ZOE WHITFIELD

“I grew up in the German countryside and there wasn’t much to do, so I picked up the camera and started taking portraits of my sister and my best friend after school,” says Clara Nebeling of her introduction to photography. “In a way that’s still my process today.”Now based between London and Berlin, and working with clients like Prada and Paul Smith, Clara’s curiosity remains intact. Whether on set, around her neighbour’s kids or with members of Germany’s last remaining female swim club, her approach remains the same; achieving a particular type of warmth in her work generated by a genuine interest in culture and identity. “It’s crazy to think that the whole world, if they want to or not, participates in the fashion industry. It should be a democratic, inclusive industry, but of course it is not. It’s that field of tension I find intriguing, where the potential for change lies.”

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

AIM IS TO BRIN G CH ILDREN S DISTINCT OPINIO N S WH ICH ARE O FTEN OVERLOO KED Regularly eschewing the industry’s traditional visual narratives, her work marries seemingly personal projects with professional assignments. It’s this same simultaneous delight and disappointment in humanity that saw her engineer last spring’s ‘Our Vote, Our Future’ campaign. A “shock reaction” to the low turnout amongst young voters in 2014’s European Election (just 28% for adults aged 1824), Clara introduced the campaign on Instagram, employing the skills of her creative network to produce a series of posters encouraging young voters to engage. Happy and inspired by the response and no doubt motivated by the increased 42% turnout, in 2020 Clara’s sights are on growth: enter Walking Home, a new initiative similarly aimed at emboldening those within her immediate community to use their platform. Inspired by a quote from the American spiritual teacher Ram Dass “we are all walking each other home” the phrase “transmits a sense of community and life as a constant lesson you share with people around you,” says. “For me also, one of the most beautiful feelings is literally walking home after a night out or a long journey.” The first offering is an eco-considerate photobook, You are my favourite tree. Comprised of photographs, handwritten text and illustrations, the project was thought up between Clara and a childhood friend in Brazil, and produced to finance tree planting in the country: approximately 20 trees will be planted for a copy sold. I had the idea to transform it to combine social initiatives with a creative input. In our industry, we are often so busy marketing ourselves and products that we forget our skills can be useful in many disciplines. We should fins space for non-commercial projects and products that nourish, fund and support creativity worldwide.

I saw my friend from Brazil, Valeria planting trees in her hometown. We went to high school together , I was an exchange student, so Brazil is a very dear place to me, full of people I love. But what sometimes is missing in the region is funding, so we decided to create something which could generate money to finance the tree planting further. In a time of forests burning around the globe, it’s important to help reforestation. Valeria studied agriculture so I knew she had the skills, and I had a lot of creative friends who could contribute to a publication. I learned about Beuys in high school and felt inspired ever since then: his way of opening up the art world, he introduced completely new ways of understanding creativity. For him, every act of humanity could be a work of art and therefore every individual could be an artist, that is an incredibly democratic point of view. It’s not easy to abandon learned structures and develop new ones, but that is something we can learn from his own work. 7000 Oak Trees is definitely an inspiration. Always the trees as a goal. This made design decisions easier, as we had a central task: from choosing paper to printing, the focus was to waste the least resources possible and have as much profit as possible [for planting]. Also to bring people of different backgrounds and skill levels together. All the photos and texts are very personal to me because they are made by friends, or friends of friends.

Differentiation The most important ability an artist has to have is the ability of creating different type of quality content.

Walking home

In addition to the photographs the book features illustrations, including work by school kids. It was important to bring together people, especially children, as they have distinct opinions which are often overlooked. I called up my former elementary and middle school, and to my surprise they remembered me and let me interview the kids. Talking and drawing with them was definitely one of my highlights of creating this publication. Valeria lives on the other side of the world so we don’t get to see each other a lot. It’s been even more pleasant that it is still possible to work together, coming from different backgrounds and places; that is a benefit of a globalised, connected space. Sometimes it’s easy to fall for the gloom of the modern world but it also brings a lot of joy and opportunity. This is one of them for me. Walking Home is super interesting, and part of a growing framework in terms of creatives using their platform for social change. The world we

live in is quite self-centred, which has its right to exist, but in the current decade it is more important than ever to bridge the social and ecological divide. Art and photography has a place to help. No one is going to change the world’s problems in one day, and maybe not a decade, but it is important to keep trying. The only persistent thing in history is change, and we play a part in influencing the direction. The biggest lesson from all of this is that it’s possible to create new things. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by the planning that it kills a good idea, but if you stay pragmatic there is room for newness. And if it fails, that is ok, but it’s important to not stop. Since we are talking about trees, my favourite tree is a lilac tree that was in my childhood garden. It’s not alive anymore but I have a lot of memories of climbing, jumping and taking pictures of it. It smelled wonderful and I think that the love for nature came from the very early age of mine.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

FASHION OUTTAKES The 22-year-old artist tells New Wave about moving to New York, finding her style, and self-publishing Outtakes, her second book.

BY JO ROSENTHAL PHOTOS BY CHLOE HORSEMAN

t only 22 years old, photographer Chloe Horseman has shot lookbooks and collabs for every designer from Bottega Veneta to Simon Miller, which makes her resume read like a who’s who among cool brands of the moment. Even though Chloe fell in love with the art form at a young age, posing for her dad who’s also a photographer, she never planned on making a career out of it herself. Let alone releasing her own photo book named Outtakes, which she self-published last month. Chloe grew up in Augusta, Georgia and went on to study photography at a small school in Nashville, but it wasn’t until she dropped out and moved to New York in 2015, with only $500 to her name, that things began to fall into place. “I spent a lot of my time in the dark room [in school], and I spent even more time being depressed,” Chloe explains. “On a whim I moved to New York. I thought maybe it would be for the summer, but I’m still here.” She wants people to know that just like anyone else, she’s a person with real baggage. Photography is her outlet, her performance, and much more than just her job.

Tasteful nudes, smiling models, and dynamic poses are only a fraction of what makes her work so vibrant.

Outtakes

Chloe’s book Outtakes features select images taken over the past four years of her life. They highlight the in-between moments and the inimitable intimacy she captures on film. New Wave caught up with Chloe to talk about her new book, what it’s like to be on set, and how family is always the best place to look for inspiration. "Childhood is one of my favorite parts of my life. My father has always been supportive of me being free and creative. He gave me my first film camera around age eight. He was always taking photographs. My mom and sister found that really annoying, but I loved it. I loved posing and framing images with him. He forced me to go to a fine art middle school that really made me come out of my shell. He never had boundaries when it came to art or ideas. I tried all types of art, but photography was it for me. I acted and danced growing up, which helped me learn how to be on set working, and how to

work with other people as a team. It took me a while to figure out that photography is actually a performance, that I am just as valuable to the set as the model, stylist, etc. I’ve always loved how fast the camera is; how I am the only person that is looking through the viewfinder. It’s like a solo performance that no one else is watching." All the photos of my dog are my favorite ones. He is my sunshine and makes my life so much happier. I love having images of him in all of his different stages and poses. He reminds me to not take life too seriously. My great aunt Barbara is an artist who inspires me in every part of my life. She’s just a really sweet woman with the best smile. I have a bunch of artists and photographers I look up to, but honestly, good people inspire me more. I constantly find myself looking up to people like her; people with great hearts and honest intentions. All I can ask is that people see both myself and my work in the same light.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

BEIN G BEH IND TH E CAMERA IS JUST AS HARD AS BEIN G IN FRO NT O F IT .

Photography is a very intimate form of art. Being behind the camera is just as hard as being in front of it.

Walk on a fashion street

I can’t imagine being a photographer in any other time. I feel so lucky to work as a female photographer, and be respected as a freelancer. I think we have a long way to go with the concepts of beauty and sustainability in film, but I do think we are moving in the right direction. Its growing really fast and it feels like everyone wants to be a fashion photographer nowadays which is really exciting. I’m constantly finding new work and meeting new photographers. Fashion photography and art are the same for me at least. I never just want to take a photo to sell a product. Every image is a piece of artwork for me. It's hard to have this outlook, but I swear my work is better when I am thinking about each image going into my portfolio. As soon as I stop thinking like that I lose touch with the love I have for what I do. Themes of tenderness and what it means to be gentle are key elements, portrayed in the way Chloe interacts with models. 41

Chloe talks about the fact that Outtakes is a collection of my favorite images over the past four years of my life. It's a very personal piece of work, as these images have helped me find the style and voice I have in the fashion and art world. Over the years, many people have told me that my photos don’t say anything or 'move' anything, and it’s always hard to hear that. For a while I felt like I was forcing a certain style. One day my friend Hillary showed me a few young artists online, and told me to just be myself, to figure out what I have to say or what I would like to say. I don’t think I have that totally It was kind of a shit show to be honest. Self-publishing a figured out, but once I stopped trying so book is a nightmare and it’s really expensive. I’m really hard hard, my photographs felt way more genuine on myself when it comes to my own work, so I decided to and people started to align with them more. make only three proofs and just do it—no book reviews or proofreading. The more I looked at my work, the more fearful I became so I quickly paid the invoice and sent the proof to make sure I wouldn’t chicken out. The process of laying it out and getting it printed took around three months. I don’t know if I would do it again since self-publishing is expensive, however I would definitely love to make another book. Maybe one every four years?

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

CITY'S LOVE LETTER B Y B E AT R I C E H A Z L E H U R S T PHOTOS BY ANJA NIEMI

o combat our daily saturation in a soup of highly-scrollable images, photo curation in the digital age has veered in a different direction. Just one common denominator unites the thousands of pictures selected for the West Coast’s largest photo fair: inaccessibility, if for only an instant. “We strive to look at things from a different perspective and create something new,” she explains. “The medium of photography covers so much: art, popular culture, history, science… we want to create an experience that allows the attendee a moment of discovery.” It’s 35,000-square-feet of provocative content, which is exactly as owner and director, Claudia James Bartlett, intended.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

If photography exhibitions are the medium’s lifeblood, then photo fairs must be its beating heart. Also the West Side’s longest-running fair, 28-year-old photo l.a. not only sustains the industry but reanimates it. The secret to the fair’s continued success, Bartlett tells New Wave, is the fact both artist and audience craves in-person connection. Whether the subject is familiar or foreign, each photograph forces the viewer to confront the artist with their own interpretation. “It's critical for the industry to create situations where the audience can see work in person and have the chance to interact with a gallerist or artist,” Bartlett says. “This exchange of ideas moves the art form along.”

The work of Anthony Hernandez, native Angeleno and this year’s honoree, inspires just that. His hazy hometown portraits of the city’s poverty are as discernible as Monet’s classics, and further obscured by a superimposed filter: the mesh walls of bus shelters around the city. As drivers roll up their windows to avoid the stench of Skid Row en route to Downtown LA’s new Soho ‘Ware’House, Hernandez’s hazy depiction of homelessness seems a relevant echo of the dramatic economic divide, to be in LA, he offers, is to witness these scenes without really seeing them. The series is two years in the making, and described by Hernandez as a warts-and-all “love letter to Los Angeles.”

Local works

Les Honoring Hernandez, claims Bartlett, was a natural choice. “I felt the caliber of Anthony’s work demanded we honor it. Anthony has been known in the art and photography realm for many years and yet he has not always gotten the attention he should locally.”“For me, this is an opportunity to engage with photography I might otherwise have never seen,” adds Hernandez, “as well as the chance to connect with the community over my work.” Southern California’s underbelly is not the only territory to explore at the 28th photo l.a. fair. Tens of thousands of West Coast locals will flock to the historic Barkar Hangar this weekend to see works from across three continents that addresses immigration, environmental issues, the history of Photoshop, and more. Curated

by Bartlett with an emphasis on diversity, the fair marries rare historical finds with the best in contemporary photography, a process that begins the minute the most recent show closes, and only ends when the next edition opens. “I’ve walked around five times and still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface,” one attendee shares with another at the bathroom sink, on opening night. It might take the next three days to delve beneath it. For example, Anja Niemi has had exhibitions in Amsterdam, London, New York, Oslo, and Paris. Her rst museum retrospective show is opening at Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm in February 2019. Besides her and her amazing artwork, many others will exhibit as well.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

I ON LY E XISTS IN FRONT O F AN AUDIENCE WH EN N OBODY LOO KS AT ME I START TO DISAPPEAR.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

FASHION COLOR SNAP

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

Japanese Pop culture has a way of attracting people and making them think about positivity. Is it colors or the way it is made, Kota will say more.

Choice is there, choose.

Digital artist, designer, video director based in Tokyo, Japan. In 2015, graduated from Tama Art University bachelor of graphic design. In the University, he had been fascinated by computer graphics, video editing techniques, so he started to make artworks and music videos using these techniques. After graduating, he started working as a freelance designer and video director and started exploring pop culture and the use of colors. Surrealism, bold colors, and influence of Japanese pop culture often find themselves together in Tokyo, Japan based Kota Yamaji’s works. Kota is a digital artist, video director, and designer. He studied Graphic Design from Tama Art University. Over an email, Kota talks to TFM about his work and what inspires it. "I grew up in Tokyo, Japan in a family of five. I am the only artist in the family, but they’ve always supported my art. I often spent my childhood playing on my father’s computer, making illustrations, and working on websites with school friends. I was always intrigued by the power and impact of illustrations. Eventually, I decided to go to Tama Art University to explore art and design. I grew up being influenced by a wide range of films, games, animation videos, comic strips, books, etc. However, Japanese comics like One Piece and Naruto have helped pave my creative journey. I think when I made up my mind to attend Tama Art University, I was quite sure about exploring my journey as an artist. I often spent my childhood playing on my father’s computer, making illustrations, and working on websites with school friends."

P H O T O B Y K O TA YA M A J I A R T I C L E B Y A E K TA K H U B C H A N D A N I

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

FASHION SNAP

Color combination that work strongly resonates with. 2018

FASHION SNAP V2

Photoshop as the final retouching tool for brightness and saturation. 2019

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

FASHION SNAP V3

Modelled with 4D Cinema digital rendering program in the most realistic way.

GRAPHIC WORKS

Aspects like color palette, camera angles and the look and feel explored by combining and coloring motifs shown in photos.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

LAST PAST PATTERN A new exhibition in Rotterdam explores the role of the last truly political fashion garment, hoodie , tracing its evolution from 1930s workwear to an icon of streetwear today. the black hoodies the youths pull over their heads to become anonymous and intimidating. While the hoodie is at the centre of contemporary fashion, embraced by streetwear loving youth all over the world for its ease and simplicity, it is, in the minds of reactionary commentators, a shorthand for crime and anti-social behaviour. Ever since its inception, the hoodie has been a container for many narratives, telling tales of social inequality, athletics, youth culture, police brutality, racism, privacy, fear and style. It is an item of clothing that extends way beyond the realm of fashion but rather ties in with ideas of privilege: who enjoys the right to wear one without challenge?

BY ROLIEN ZONNE VELD PHOTOS BY OL AB CONTESSA

hen the video Stress by French group This question is at the heart of a new exJustice was uploaded on Kanye hibition curated by Lou Stoppard opening West’s website back in 2008, it immedi- in Rotterdam, titled The Hoodie, the exately sparked controversy. The film, shot hibition grapples with the ubiquitous naby Romain Gavras, follows a gang of black ture of the garment and contextualises it in clad, hooded youths causing havoc in the fashion history, tracing its evolution from banlieues of Paris; keying cars, harassing 1930s workwear to an icon of streetwear. civilians and fighting with the police. The “We’ve really tried to think about the hoodvideo immediately drew heavy criticism in ie not just in terms of a garment, but also France and was banned from TV. Critics as a space that you occupy,” Lou explains a accused the film of being voyeuristic, of few days ahead of the opening. “Whether demonising French black youth. Justice the garment provides you with a sense of responded by saying the film was never in- privacy or security or comfort - there will tended as a stigmatisation of the banlieue always be this tension between the wearer’s but merely served as a clip unairable for intentions and how the viewer perceives it.” TV, to match a song unairable for the radio. Depending on the context, the hoodie can be banal or iconic; bourgeois or rebellious; Whether you think the video is brilliant or provide a safe haven or trigger aggression; not, it certainly presents an interesting so- ensure anonymity; or make an explicit ciological case. It is full of sartorial signifi- statement. “I really believe the hoodie is ers we are all very familiar with, specifically our last truly political item of clothing.”

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WHAT DID YOU DREAM? From an image of Jack urinating on Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star to a coffee cup with Trump’s name on it, we caught up with the tongue in-cheek photographer to talk humour, politics, and why it’s so important to always be yourself. BY TISH WEINSTOCK PHOTOS BY JACK DALE

01. Girl in the pool, 2016 How life seems when we think we can handle it all.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

fter moving from rural England to LA, Jack Daly has been fascinated by the individuals he's met along the way, or observed through mainstream media. The 23-year-old's past work is largely based around fictional characters but for his latest series, amongst the likes of people like Ronald MacDonald, Stormtroopers and Star-Spangled Banner wavers, the caricature that is presidential hopeful Mr. Donald Trump, was too good to miss. From an image of Jack urinating on Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star to a coffee cup with Trump's name on, it's controversial but all very tongue-in-cheek. With Election Day looming large, we caught up with Jack to talk humour, politics, and why it's so important to always be yourself. I try to keep things humorous and quite positive. I don't really have strong opinions or a personal point of view I'm trying to get across, but more things that make me laugh with what's going on in the world. I'm fascinated by characters rather than real life so I guess I try to tell stories that I find interesting, using themes and props that make things feel more fiction than reality. Concept is I grew up with American accents dominating most of the movies I watched, so it was quite interesting heading straight to Hollywood and observing it all live. There's some pieces about stereotypical LA and the US in general, as well as some that were just documenting experiences with people I've met. I like to keep most of my work spontaneous and low key, I'm not a very technical photographer so my photos are traces of things I've done, usually with just me and the subject rather than 10 people behind camera and tons of Photoshop. The US is also going through some sort of election, so I made a few pieces with my naïve British viewpoint on the whole thing. Game of American presidency and the idea of American dream boosted my work. 59

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

LOO K UP LOO K DOWN LOO K LEFT

01. Jack Daly urinating in LA, on Donald Trump's star in Hollywood Walk of Fame, titled Walk of Shame. 02. The contrast and the absurd of tattooing a permanent tattoo with the idea that nothing is permanent. 03. Fortune Condom, connecting the idea of fortune cookies and the secret message to girls today.

The New Wave â&#x20AC;˘ February 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Issue 1

As for art being the topic of politics, I don't think it should be so political. My work revolves around characters that stand out to me that I can use to tell a story or make something funny. Usually they're fictional but The Donald lends himself very well as a subject. Which is what makes the whole situation so terrifying, because, he is in fact a real human being that might have a lot of power and not a funny character in a Scorsese movie. New project I have worked on is called "Make America Love Again" which deals with problems of today's society, as well as typical stereotypes. "If Trump becomes president it would probably stop me being able to move to California unless I duck tape myself to the bottom of a 747. As much as he could mess up the whole of the states, I just fear for humanity that he's got this far. That being said there's always a positive, if he does win, there's going to be no shortage of art based around him." These were the words I said few years ago, yet today I feel like we are still free and can create art no metter who is in the government, yet it made everythnig even more interesting. The bravest thing you can do as a young person is to be yourself. Jack Daly thinks not caring about what anyone thinks of you and being the most amazing version of yourself is one of the hardest things to do, and he admires anyone who has fully mastered it, if they exist. He will continue working on projects that deal with society, yet emphasize his own style of making photographs. 61

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YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE Photo by Les Garçons Article by Maria Teresa Salvati

his series was inspired by the concept for the much-anticipated Man Ray wine bar in Toronto. The visual approach is inspired by the surrealist photographer’s playful sensuality, and by the bar’s location, which was once a famous peep show. Paranoid Sleep Psychosis Liza Ambrossio, from Mexico, lives and works between Madrid and Paris. She began her artistic practice in Mexico City at the age of sixteen, when she asked a housekeeper to steal photographs from family albums. Ambrossio portrayed her passage from adolescence to adulthood, with a strong desire to destroy the world she came from, a place that impedes people, especially females, to detach from the biological connection of their natural family. By deconstructing her past, she rebuilds it by using fragments from her grim archive. This is almost a therapeutic and feminist act. In these moments, she discovers that the hell she holds inside is the same as outside and gives voice to the power of her imagination. In this context the first project was conceived, The Rage Of Devotion, which received worldwide recognition. Liza says that she is an artist who intends to free herself from the obligations of a genre, of age, of a culture, of a time, of a way of making art. "This sense of freedom helps me to spit ideas that come to my mind before the images

are made. My only responsibility is with my artwork and my greatest aspiration is to achieve the greatest freedom I can live with. This is the way I built my life and this text: “I have the suspicion that to be truly free it is necessary to see your father die and kill your mother. Or was it the other way around? A section of my mind remains in the dark. My hands sweat, a chill runs through my body. I feel the anguish, temptation and desire of the one who has to commit a crime. Or has it already happened? I can’t look away. Everything is emotionally disconcerting, amorphous, strange. Am I haunted or am I the witch? My feet are burning like hell. I have already thrown everything overboard: honour, pride, love, security, happiness, everything, to build myself as an artist.” For me,

everything converges with a mental image: an orange that bleeds. Infected by the aesthetics of Japanese counterculture and the Aztec rituals of human sacrifice, I mix performance, intervention, videos, installations, psychological manipulation practices, science fiction, and witchcraft. Paranoid Sleep Psychosis is realized after years of a nomadic life in different countries that have allowed me to build a narrative based on my lucid nightmares and the hypothesis of a psychological syndrome that is self-styled as "Paranoid sleep psychosis" based on experiments and research of neuroscience and neurophysiology. I believe that there are ways to demonstrate these inherited traumas through the genetic load that can be glimpsed in dreams and symptoms, or in apparently

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

MAN RAY BAR

Inspired by the surrealist bar's and photographer’s playful sensuality 2019

''It has been very hard for me, from a very young age until now, to distinguish reality from fiction.'' Lizza Ambrossio

inexplicable diseases of the body, and it is are arteries of the same heart. It would be possible to read the physical future and improper for me to separate from a state of understand the behaviour of a person. All obsession as it’s been the symbolic revenge the decisions we made in the past, and even against my mother in the last ten years of those of people from the same genetic line, my life; or from the strong cultural critihave a consanguineous weight that leads cism that I have against sexist education us inexorably into the future. Confronting exercised throughout the world but esthe sense of uprooting and the need to con- pecially in some Latin countries. Still, in nect with the deepest origins of humanity, some places, life for people who decide not I trace a narrative using the force of emo- to accept “the rules” can be complicated. tional survival in the framework of a world This project is full of obsession and passion whose laws of life are equally marked by and, in that, there is only place for my own love and violence. A world where what’s thoughts, opinions and criticisms towards felt and lived sometimes merges in a magi- my culture, my family, a world where other cal or tragic way. My universe is an affront women also contribute to the oppression of to terror and dehumanization because ac- others, a world of machismo, fear and ancording to me, passion is itself an act of de- ger. I discovered stories of other relatives, fiance. The words derail the image where a of murders committed in my family, bad way of being is a way of seeing and a way thoughts, witchcraft, madness, terror and of seeing is a way of being. Both projects war. I was in a state of permanent pain.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

FOURNIER STREET 12 Photo by Miles Aldridge Article by Felix Petty

The photographer’s new body of work sees him collaborate with a few iconic artists, to tell a story about the power of imagery.

oor opening is the beginning of many great stories,” Miles Aldridge says, when asked about an image of the artists Gilbert & George opening the front door of their house at number 12, Fournier Street. The collaboration with Gilbert & George forms one third of the Miles’ new exhibition, not so long time ago opened at London’s Lyndsey Ingram Gallery. Storytelling is at the heart of much of the work in which transforms the work of sculptor Maurizio Cattelan and painter Harland Miller, alongside Gilbert & George, into the raw material of Miles’ photographic work. He creates surreal images of Maurizio sculptures confronted by an otherworldly nude female or imagines Gilbert & George in a chamber drama, playing host to a mysterious androgynous visiter. Harland Miller’s large scale paintings of book covers are turned into paperbacks and found in the hands of kitsch 50s pin ups. “I think it’s a mark of great confidence, and beautiful modesty, for an artist to let another do this to their work,” Miles adds.

Each series threads a cinematic narrative throughout, but it’s also a story about collaborations and the medium of photography itself; forgoing traditional photographic techniques and turning to screen prints and the Victorian process of photogravure to create the images. “Working with Maurizio began simply, as many things do, when you look back on them. It turned out,

via someone I was working with, that we were both mutual fans of each other. So they put us in touch. I got an email from Maurizio, saying he loved my work, and he added something like ‘In the sea of images it’s still possible to create meaningful work’ referring to Instagram and the endless unstoppable diarrhea of images online. I’d been doing a lot of work for Italian Vogue, working in a very slick advertising aesthetic but trying to convey some kind of anxiety or unease with it, questioning consumerism. It was all down to Franca Sozzani, who really trusted me to create the work. It was important not to make it too dark and keep it a little mysterious. We didn’t have conversations about what something meant, it didn’t need to be said with great Franca.

NEED TO KNOW The fashion shoot that took place at Maurizio Cattelan's show in the Monnaie de Paris, the shiny paper gives an almost artificial aspect to the statues. The images inspired by Harland Miller on the other hand evoke the aesthetic of 1960s and 70s newspapers, while the series dedicated to Gilbert & George uses the photoengraving technique.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

ON E O F TH E POINTS O F ART IS TO PL AY AND TO S EE WH ERE IT LEADS YOU

02. UpperStudio Inc x Maurizio Cattelan and Miles Aldridge. Dead bodies, girl doll, horse and a bodyguard.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1

01.

03.

UpperStudio Inc x Maurizio Cattelan and

UpperStudio, Maurizio Cattelan and Miles

Miles Aldridge who loves the idea of the

Aldridge; We tend to live with such a high

camera being used as a fictional device, as

level of pretension and critical theory that

a way to create a story.

something so obvious wouldn’t seem right.

Personally, I think my style is very similar to Maurizio’s, with Toilet Paper especially, which used a similar style to create images that seemed to be saying that consumerism and modern culture is attacking us. Rather like Andy Warhol’s Car Crashes, the things we covet, kill us. I’d grown up with an older sister who was a successful model. When I got my chance to be a fashion photographer I didn’t want to promote the idea that being rich and beautiful means you are happy. Life and the world isn’t like that. That’s what I wanted to say with my Italian Vogue work. You just have read five pages of a newspaper to know the world isn’t the way magazines present it. We went back and forth talking about photography over email, talking about starting to maybe do something together. One day he sent me an email and said ‘Look I’ve got a show opening in Paris which I think would be a great background to your photography.’ The exhibition was full of all his famous sculptures, and I had the idea to have these quite kitsch female fury’s confronting them; their modernity confronted by the classical female nude. So we planned to meet at 7PM, as the museum closed, and work through the night. Maurizio had a little bed set up in one room and he’d sneak off and nap occasionally. We worked right through till the museum opened in the morning. He was kind of obsessed with photography, talking about lenses, film, processing, printing, the lights we were using. Like all good artists he’s managed to keep that childish enthusiasm for everything. He was very free and easy to work with, very inquisitive, and kind of let me do my thing, putting some ideas in too. Maurizio was the first artist I worked with, and from there it became not just about the relationship with the different artists, but also about my relationship with photography, and the different processes and possibilities of the medium.”

On Harland Miller... “I asked him and he said it was doomed to failure but he was happy to see my try.”; “I’ve known Harland for about 20 years. When we first met Harland was trying to be a novelist and I wanted to be a filmmaker, trying to find a way into Hollywood. I started taking pictures of Harland before I was really a photographer and before he was a painter. His paintings are all about writing -- without the titles they would, I suppose, be a form of abstract expressionism, blocks of colour, paint and texture. With the titles they become whole I think. The humour in his work is undeniably British. Slightly kitchen sink, full of innuendo, but also very profound, they do strike your imagination. 67

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I sat in the cathedral-like space of the white cube looking at Harland’s works, wondering what I could do with these paintings that reminded me of so many things about my own childhood. One of the points of art is to play and to see where it leads you. In a way that was very much how I saw this project unfolding. I loved the idea of doing something as simple as turning his fake book covers into real books, it’s so obvious. I think my naivety carried it through. I think you have to try and retain that childish simplicity. My father was a great artist but at the same time, he was an eternal child and his artistic logic was like a children’s storybook, it was really strange, really charmingly naive. We tend to live with such a high level of pretension and critical theory that something so obvious wouldn’t seem right. A door opening is the beginning of many great stories. The story of entering in a new world. I love the idea of the camera being used as a fictional device, as a way to create a story, a cinematic conceit. 01

01. In Shadows I Boogie; after Miller's book, the most comprehensive monograph

02. New Utopia, 2018; attempts to explore the collision of popular culture with so called serious Art 02

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03. Better Than Life, 2017; from a series that was a response by Aldridge to the large-scale, photorealistic paintings of the British artist Harland Miller.

04. Untitled (after Cattelan) #1

05. Circling The Small Ads, 2017; highly-staged erotic shoot, film-noir narratives set in the mid-20th century.

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NOT ABLE TO DO IT ALONE Her name is Nay Jimenez, owner of Fruta Studio and this is a story about her beginning five years ago and how she started making content for social networks.

The beginning of everything I want to start by clarifying why I talk about "we", because Fruta is a big team, I would never be alone, I couldn't, "they" are everything. I am a publicist by profession, but I always scratched photography; I took pictures of myself or my friends, played to create worlds and experimented with lots of things, since I was fed up with Photoshop to get new images. At that time, Pinterest or Instagram were not so powerful, therefore everything seemed as it is something new. I did my practice and then spent a year working as an Art Director at Mccan Ericsson, until I couldn't stand it anymore and quit, not because I didn't like being a publicist, but it was because of the high machismo that is lived in the agencies. Something that I basically couldn't stand; I left my complaint card in Human Resources and went out the wide door. I went to Buenos Aires and did some photography and stained glass courses ... I decided again to be a photographer, I was going to make it, it was my destiny ... but ups! It did not work out. Soon I was again at Mccan Ericsson

KINGSBURY CAMPAIGN

Promotion of Kingsbury, made as a photo shoot with micro elements 2018

WITH OUT TH E TEAM N OTH IN G WOULD BE POSSIBLE AND I DO APPRECIATE TH EM

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working as Art Director, don't judge me, I needed to survive. The beautiful part is that in 2013, I had cultivated a small obsession with Instagram (this network was born in 2012); For creating images and uploading a unique content, closely linked to color, closely linked to symmetry and aesthetics. I spent hours taking pictures and adjusting colors and nothing was more fun than that, I knew it was something unique and it would be incredibly big. At the time Instagram began to follow me and my followers shot up. I got to have 30 thousand (at that time, having that amount was something unthinkable), so many brands started looking for me. Among those, it was Falabella who invited me to officially keep their account and produce photos on their social networks. At my 24 years old, I said "ciao boss" (again) and I started to take pictures for Falabella. Then Sybilla joined, then Americanino. I remember taking pictures and then not sleeping, but retouching.

TH E ROAD TO TH E TOP WAS QUITE HARD AND ROCKY That year my sister got sick, gave her leukemia and that was definitely the heaviest of all. Having to show my face with everything I was carrying and having to grab my family, support her, comfort her and push her. Honestly it could not have been for Gabriel, my partner, and Feco, with whom we took this project to in front of. In the midst of this family chaos, Homy joined us as a brand, huge dimension to a 24-year-old penute in charge of such an important brand. With that happening and the condition of my sister, I didn't even sleep, but I felt that everything would be fine and that we had to give it to heart and be confident in results. If you asked me if it was my dream to be a businesswoman, I would say: No! It happened quickly since we had such a big brand and we were required to bill. We met the vat, the income! The ballots, the surrender, the Excel! I swear I have a love hate relationship with that program, without it I would be on the broken bench.

We call my company Fruta Studio; we liked the idea, it could be something very colorful, varied and fresh. A year later, my sister was discharged. With company and with my sister again at home, I thought "now I will win the whole world", but life told me "wait for another surprise" and I got pregnant. It makes me laugh because it is not something bad, but it does imply changing the switch, realizing and mentalizing that your life will never be the same (especially sleeping). I think that millions of times I have felt overwhelmed by being “blocked”, having a company in my head and a daughter who is just understanding what the world is. It has been something beautifully hard. Hard mainly because I think I was creatively blocked for a long time and that hurt me a lot. It is not that it creates an eminence of art, but it had never happened to me that ideas did not pass through my mind. But now that this stage is finally behind me, I think it has enough to do with the fact that I have learned much better to cope with the issue of "business", now that I am almost 30 and my daughter walks alone, I think I can finally breathe. Currently in this small Frutosa famiy, there is six of us, the administrator, lifeguard Mauricio Lopez, Joaquín Soffia (producer-model; you can see it in commercials or in the last campaign we did for Santa Carolina), the Cata Fravega, Art Director (our Marie Kondo), Romina Riveros as an assistant, Gabriel, who helps me in administration and without him this burden would have been unsustainable and I, as creative head, photographer, art director, producer, assistant and everything my company needs. Well, soon another guy will be added that has me very excited, he will work with social networks. I could mention many brands we have worked with, but mainly the Falabella, Homy, Americanino, Concha y toro family, which are my gifts to Samsung of whom I am currently an ambassador as well as Puma. Lounge! With those who have been working together for three years now. Life has taught me that getting to the top, not that I'm there, but I know I'm on the right trackm, is hard. And I have learned at the cost of mistakes, mistakes with people, administrative errors, disorders, that until a year ago I felt like a little goat stuck in the paws of horses, talking with managers of important brands. In spite of all the mistakes, I have always been faithful to the conviction of believing that this dream will accompany me for much longer and that we will continue to do so.

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FOOD STORY B Y N AY J I M É N E Z

ANXIET Y DO ES N OT RESO LVE TOMORROWS PROBLEMS , BUT TAKES AWAY TODAYS PEACE

RED FUSION

Play of complimentary colors, age, laboratory equipment and food. 2019

SMOKING RED

Closeup of the tubes and Erlenmeyer flask, as well as the post added smoke.

When it comes to food photography, color is essential to produce a maximum mouthwatering effect. It’s also an effective creative component to present food in a different way, as today’s featured food photography project shows. If you’ve ever wanted to capture food through an out-of-the-box approach, we’re sure the perfect vibrant editorial snapped by Chile-based creative director and photographer Nay Jiménez will give you lots of ideas. Titled Banquetera, this food story goes beyond making our mouths water or enticing us with food presentations. Guided by the art direction of Jose Sumar and Joaquin Soffia of Fruta Studio, the series features tasty morsels as storytelling elements. The goal is to show how certain food items can be matched with colors and integrated into other genres like fashion editorials. Everything about the impeccable set design screams style, out of the box thinking, and playful concepts that bring

to life a very creative story about food. Instead of just visually consuming food, Nay invites us to think of food differently, as style elements, symbols of opulence, or tools for harnessing creative ideas, for example. There’s always been a creative side to presenting food, and we all know how plating and food styling have the power to make food more appealing to us. Even fries can get a luxurious look if portrayed in such setting or putting a silver fork next to it. While Banquetera is a showcase of mostly fancy-looking deserts and fancier-looking drinks, it’s a vital part of the visual package. The series is a banquet of colors and a buffet of visual ideas. It’s an invitation to explore the possibilities of food photography, food presentation, editorials, and tasty concepts. We’re told not to play with our food, but in this case, we think Nay Jiménez and the team behind this project are braking the rules and proving just how appetizing the results can be.

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Laboratory and food

Today, in the food industry, it is widely accepted that a quality management system is a tool to support business survival and growth in the long term. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a preventive system designed to ensure that all food safety production is operated according to the Codex Alimentarius International Food Standards. The objective of the system is to prove that products are properly manufactured for the health and safety of consumers by avoiding three hazard sources such as Biological hazards which are derived from microbial hazards such as salmonella and E. coli bacteria. Chemical hazards refer to contamination with chemicals used in agriculture and the production processes of raw materials such as antibiotics, plant growth substances and pesticides, as well as food additives such as preservatives, and including chemicals that are used in the production/processing plant such as oil, grease and cleaning agents for equipment and machinery. Physical hazards are the foreign objects in food that can cause illness or injury to the consumer such as glass, pieces of metal, plastic or wood. Laboratory testing is quiet an important process, which relies on scientific analysis to identify problems with food products.

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CONTRAST BALLOON

The game of elegance and fast food portrayed together 2019

LADY AND A GENTLEMAN

Game of red and black, along with a lady and a man dining 2019

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MAN WITH FLOWERS

Table full of desserts, along with a huge bouquet which makes a whole 2019

FLAMING SETUP

Mix of coctails, along with a vase with multiple faces 2019

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FOODWARE ENGINEERING Experimental food art and photography series exploring the concept of Food Engineering, or better say 'the Nuts and Bolts of Food Engineering'. The main question is 'Where is our food coming from?'. – regions, or hotspots, that harbor a disproportionately high percentage of all plant, livestock, and cultural diversity. Our farming ancestors are responsible for the priceless genetic variability that we depend on to breed resistance to new pests and diseases, and to survive climate extremes. Today, all of us depend on crop and livestock diversity that originated elsewhere, but most agricultural biodiversity is still concentrated in the global South where it is increasingly threatened. The way to safeguard our food supply is by protecting these centres of diversity, as well as using and continuing to adapt the plant and genetic diversity carefully bred and nurtured by farmers. Centres of diversity refer to both regions his series is about classic hardware where crops and livestock were originally equipment is creatively combined with domesticated from their wild ancestors (reeveryday fruits and vegetables on an earthy gions of true origin) as well as regions of soil background, resulting in an unexpected subsequent spread where they are continuvisual collage and encouraging the playful ally evolving a diversity of new varieties yet poignant question: Where is our food and traits through ongoing adaptation to coming from? A diversity of food is vital their environment and selection by farmfor our health. Different taste, colours, and ers- that’s why a specific crop can be listed textures also makes our food an enjoyable in more than just one centre of diversity. part of our everyday lives. In modern soci- Goldberg, a plant molecular biologist that ety, we often take this diversity for granted. works at the University of California, Los Whether fruits, veggies our meat, most of Angeles, is not battling psychosis at all. He these foods were not originally available to is expressing despair at the relentless need us. They came from lands hundreds or even to confront what he sees as bogus fears over thousand kilometers away. Virtually all of the health risks of genetically modified the foods we eat today– our major crops (GM) crops and food. Particularly frusand most livestock species – have their trating to him, he says, is that this long deorigins in the tropics and subtropics of bate should have ended decades ago, when Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. researchers produced a stream of exoneratScientists have identified at least twelve ing evidence: “Today we're facing the same major geographic “centres of diversity” objections that we faced 40 years ago.”

P H O T O B Y H E N R Y H A R G E AV E S A R T I C L E B Y N A Đ A S TA N O J E V I Ć

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N O FRUIT DIES SO VILE AND O FFEN SIVE A DEATH AS TH E BANANA

Photo 2: Plying Tomatoes Idea of connecting electricity through wires and tomatoes.

The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1 Photo 1: Monkey Wrenching Bananas Even though Banana is among the softest fruits, impression of thoughness is portrayed in this photo.

Photo 3: Bolting Berries that represent an idea of sweetness combined with the hardness of the metal bolts.

Across campus, David Williams, a cellular biologist who specializes in vision, has the opposite complaint. “A lot of naive science has been involved in pushing this technology,” he says. “Thirty years ago we didn't know that when you throw any gene into a different genome, the genome reacts to it. But now anyone in this field knows the genome is not a static environment. Inserted genes can be transformed by several different means, and it can happen generations later.” The result, he insists, could very well be potentially toxic plants slipping through testing. Williams concedes that he is among a tiny minority of biologists raising sharp questions about the safety of GM crops. But he says this is only because the field of plant molecular biology is protecting its interests. Funding, much of it from the companies that sell GM seeds, heavily favors researchers who are exploring ways to further the use of genetic modification in agriculture. He says that biologists who point out health or other risks associated with GM crops who merely report or defend experimental findings that imply there may be risks find themselves the focus of vicious attacks on their credibility, which leads scientists who see problems with GM foods to keep quiet. Whether Williams is right or wrong, one thing is undeniable: despite overwhelming evidence that GM crops are safe to eat, the debate over their use continues to rage, and in some parts of the world, it is growing ever louder. Skeptics would argue that this contentiousness of food can be considered quite a good thing that we cannot be too cautious when tinkering with the genetic basis of the world's food supply. To researchers such as Goldberg, however, the persistence of fears about it is nothing short of exasperating. “In spite of hundreds of millions of genetic experiments involving every type of organism on earth,” he says, “and people eating billions of meals without a problem or care in the world, we've gone back to being jut too

ignorant.” So who is right: advocates of GM or critics? When we look at the evidence for both sides and weigh the risks and benefits, we find a surprisingly clear path out of this food dilemma that we are facing. Stepped-up testing would pose a burden for GM researchers, and it could slow down the introduction of new crops. “Even under the current testing standards, most conventionally bred crops wouldn't have made it to market, what's going to happen if we become even more strict?” That is a fair question. But with governments and consumers increasingly coming down against crops altogether, additional testing may be the compromise that enables the human race to benefit from those crops' significant advantages.

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A TIMELESS ART DEBATE For 180 years, people have been asking the question: is photography art? At an early meeting of the Photographic Society of London, established in 1853, one of the members complained that the new technique was "too literal to compete with works of art" because it was unable to "elevate the imagination". Conception of mechanical recording never fully died away.

Michael Prodger, Guardian

Even by the 1960s and 70s, art photography and the idea that photographs could capture more than just surface appearances – was, in the words of the photographer Jeff Wall, a "photo ghetto" of niche galleries, aficionados and publications. But over the past few decades the question has been heard with ever decreasing frequency. Andreas Gursky's photograph of a grey river Rhine under an equally colourless sky sold for a world record price of £2.7 million last year, the debate finished. National Gallery is now holding its first major exhibition, Seduced by Art. The show is not a survey but rather examines how early photographers looked to paintings when they were exploring their tech potential, and how their modern descendants are looking both to those photographic old masters and in turn to the old master paintings.

of a person was taken by Louis Daguerre, with Henry Talbot, one of two great pioneers, when he set up his camera high above the Boulevard de Temple in Paris in 1838. His 10-minute exposure time meant that passing traffic and pedestrians moved too fast to register on the plate, but a boulevardier stood still long enough for both him and the bootblack who buffed his shoes to be captured for ever.

When Daguerre turned his camera on people rather than places the results were revelatory. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was so struck by Daguerreotypes that she rhapsodised over "the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever". The fidelity of features captured meant that she "would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist's work ever produced" not "in respect (or disrespect) What paintings offered was a catalogue of Art, but for Love's sake". If, however, of transferable subjects, from portraits to her photographer followed the advice of nudes, still lifes to landscapes, that photog- Eugène Disdéri, who wrote in 1863 that: raphers could mimic and adapt. Because of "It is in the works of the great masters that the lengthy exposures necessary for early we must study the simple, yet grand, methcameras, moving subjects were impossible od of composing a portrait," she could satto capture. The earliest known photograph isfy love with both physiognomy and art.

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JOURNEY TO THE GUATEM HEART Warlike path of the Spanish conquistadors It was 1524 when Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala. Driven by the desire for conquest, he traveled the territory leaving behind him violence and wars that lasted until 1821, the year of the country's independence. Almost 500 years later, Juan Brenner, a photographer and art director based in Guatemala City, decided to embark on the same journey as the Spanish conquistador. Photos of places and inhabitants thus become the medium through which Brenner portrays a nation in a phase of profound transformation, but at the same time anchored to traditions and customs of the past. We met Juan to tell us about the new project he was working on, from how it was born to how it developed, resulting in his first published book: Tonatiuh. Tonatiuh is the nickname the inhabitants of Mexico gave Pedro de Alvarado: his blond hair, pale skin and blue eyes fascinated the natives of the New World. Tonatiuh is the Sun God of the Aztec mythology, there’s a claim that Pre-Columbian people mistook the newly arrived conquistadors for supernatural beings. I’m fascinated with the idea that native morale or will to resist was undermined by awe at the Spaniards’ divine powers.

TONATIUH

Juan Brenner, traces the warlike path of the Spanish conquistadors through his native Guatemala. 2020

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GOLDEN TEETH

As early as the sixth century, Guatemala’s Indian groups encrusted their teeth with pieces of jade. Later, after trade routes to Peru were established, they began to use gold. The custom teeth have become so widespread that almost every market place in Guatemala has a dental practice. Indians from outlying regions often use their weekly trips to town to fix few of their rotten teeth with 24- or 28-carat gold crowns.

TONATIUH

Juan Brenner, happenings on the street, people-oriented 2020

I am a self-taught Guatemalan photographer, I started photographing in the late 1990s, mainly street portraits. As a teenager I just wanted to be an artist. Both my parents and my three brothers are professionals and were very successful in school. I just needed to get away from that. I tried to write, draw and even sing. I came across photography by chance, I never thought of it as a means of communicating, but it came at a very critical moment in my life and just opened the doors of a world of creation and destruction that I had never experienced before. The idea first came to me in 2015, while traveling through Peru and Ecuador. It matured in my mind for almost two years, until I started investigating and doing research. From there everything just snowballed. In the beginning I wanted to work around the topic of indigenous power in Guatemala, but reality hit me very fast after I started talking to indigenous leaders. I understood that power is still controlled by the white man, by the coloniser. So I went all the way back to the moment I

POVERTY

Owner of the dental office, Pedro Juárez, who has been putting gold in people’s mouths for 40 years says that he has rarely known it this bad. “A year ago, I was paying 160 quetzales for a piece of gold. Today, I have to pay 200 ($26). People don’t have the money.” A 200-quetzal piece of gold is enough to buy a single tooth crown, in a country where a third of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

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believe was the turning point of our history, and that was the conquest of the Americas by the Spanish Crown. I also had to minimise the geographical coverage of the idea, as trying to do something about the whole continent felt like an impossible task. I had to read a lot, I didn’t want to pretend to be a historian, but I knew that I needed to be very keen on facts to be taken seriously. Also, talking to historians and anthropologists gave me a more realistic context on how the invasion went down, after that it was just a matter of being able to map Alvarado’s steps and start a journey. When I was in my early 20s and was defining my conceptual pillars, I swore I was never going to shoot in Guatemala. I really didn’t want to be a part of a “tourist porn” machine and felt that shooting volcanoes, landscapes and smiling indigenous people was the tackiest thing ever. Fast-forward almost 20 years and here I am, finding myself and dealing with my own reality. Life

really taught me to accept my Guatemalanness with a major slap in the face. This project was very important on a personal level. I connected with a bunch of ideas I was just putting away and trying to ignore: ideas of origins, heritage and racism were things that didn’t matter as much before.

TONATIUH

Juan Brenner, happenings on the street, situation-oriented 2020

It's really strange. I had so many images in mind, so many situations that I knew I would encounter. And it happened! It was magical. I didn't have a "planned aesthetic", which was later defined by the content, and I think it is one of the reasons why the project resonates in so many different niches. I think I was driven by a sort of sense of democracy in the choice of shots. I knew I wanted to create a book, and from a design standpoint I had a structure in mind even before I started taking pictures, for example the colour of the book. I felt in my veins that orange was my way to go, I wanted to talk about the sun and how his figure had played such an important role in the narrative that I was about to start. 91

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FLOWERS BOND The Brazilian photographer mixing fetishism with flowers. Fabio DaMotta is making bondage a little more poetic than before.

BY LUKE SMITH P H O T O S B Y F A B I O D A M O T TA

here queerness is the antithesis of heteronormativity, and BDSM is a subversion of conventional sexuality, is it then possible to subvert the already subversive? Fabio DaMotta is an artist answering this question, breathing softness into BDSM to broaden our understanding of fetishism, believing it can be both intense and poetic. Fabio is also subverting the idea that bondage is only something used for submission: it can be liberating, shedding light on the oppressed queer body. Born in the south of Brazil, Fabio moved to São Paulo when he was 19 to study Graphic Design and Photography. From college, he went on to work for Erika Palomino -- the renowned Brazilian fashion journalist and previous Editor-inChief of L’Officiel Brazil -- who he describes affectionately as "the hottest fashion editor” around. "I was going out every night to photograph amazing cultural happenings in Sāo Paulo, like fashion week and all the good parties,” he says. “The underground scene helped me figure out who I am."

"We hired a shibari master, and I fell in love with the art of the clean knots and shapes of shibari."

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ut since 2004, Fabio has pursued his own work. Seeking to demystify fetish through the use of shibari, a style of Japanese bondage which works with simple yet visually intricate patterns of knots, sFabio’s photography is both poetic and intense. When asked when he first came into contact with BDSM, Fabio explains he discovered it in his romantic relationships, which often have a kinky, dominant side. The notion to use it as a form of art came when he was working for a queer magazine: "I had this idea for a fetish photo shoot. We hired a shibari master, and I was mesmerised by his beautiful work. I fell in love with the art of the clean knots and shapes of shibari." Fabio’s work is just as much a political act as it is art, subverting the idea of BDSM and opening it up to further interpretation. "I like to twist the idea of what bondage can be and step away from the cliche colours,” he says. “I try something with a different approach. That's where my art is." He does this through juxtaposing tied up nude bodies with soft colours and flowers, allowing people to see that BDSM is more than just erotic, but elegant too. Aside from subverting, Fabio also aims to liberate the queer body. By using nude queer people in his work, he is “going against the traditional Catholic beliefs that Brazilian society is based on."

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01. Model enduring the pain or satisfaction, depending on the emotions photo envokes. 02. Most portraits were done in a way that head is main part that is occupied and bondaged. 03. Some pieces are centered around the juxtaposition of elegance seen in flowers and the face filled with pain.

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Signature Some photos are based on secret messages, while some are made as a branding project of the artist.

Domino Effect

The imagery is “bringing to light all the issues that the current administration likes to hide in the shadows," protesting that "being a gay artist in Brazil right now is an act of rebellion.” Besides being an art piece, it shares an important message. In the last year, this has felt like a particular act of defiance. Under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, a self-declared homophobe, much of Brazil’s LGBT+ community feel incredibly vulnerable and with little state protection. Between cancelling state investment in a queer TV series, discouraging gay tourism and criticising the Supreme Court’s decision to criminalise homophobia, Bolsonaro’s government turned the clock back on progress for LGBT+ civil rights in Brazil. The domino effect of the current administration can be felt throughout the country, something Fabio has noticed while touring his bondage shows. "When I'm travelling to other parts

of the country, I see more closeted people, and under this administration, it's become harder and more dangerous being a queer person in Brazil," he says. "Unfortunately, as long as I can remember, this is the worst time to be gay in Brazil after the ending of the military dictatorship in 1985." Fabio is currently working on his third self published art book, named BRA ZINE, where he travels around Brazil photographing bondage sessions with people he meets on Instagram or Grindr. He is also working on a short documentary called Motta, which follows the artist on his European tour of bondage performances. "My work took me to unexpected places. I like to roll with it because it worked for me before, I let it take me instead of having crazy plans," he says finally. "I hope to do more bondage tours to countries I haven't been before and make more books about it, as long as Instagram doesn't report me."

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LIFE AFTER DARK The Rihanna-approved director on his latest exhibit From Dusk To Dawn and why he approaches photography like a tourist.

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Mood to remember

French photographer Léo Berne knows how to capture a mood: be it a muted landscape blasted with bleary, gossamer light or a back-alley filmnoir moodiness seemingly ripped out of a Wong Kar-wai fever dream. As a video director of both commercials (for Dior, Nike, Eurostar, Ikea) and music videos (Tame Impala, Metronomy, the exalted Rihanna), he travels widely, and has extracted memorable stills from places as vast as Taiwan, Sweden, Thailand, Cuba, Italy and China. He mixes appealing accidents of street photography with intimate moments within his well-lit Parisian style apartment. Lightly absurd juxtapositions are his signature. He nudges candid moments ever so slightly to heighten them further, creating an alertness blended with provocation. The results can be playful, like a chair thrown upwards against the sunset-backed skyline in Dubai, or jarring, like a friend breastfeeding in a car while a plane flies claustrophobically overhead. His work is currently on display at Galerie &co119 in Paris, and the disparate corpus is sifted using a nocturnal theme: "From Dusk To Dawn" (January 24-February 21). New Wave mag talked to the photographer about embracing inertia, the ethics of exhibiting sorrowful moments, and why he rejects the word inspiration. I wouldn't say I'm a photographer. It depends on what people [infer] behind this word, it means something different for everybody. Everyone is a photographer because they take pictures. But photographer as a job. I don't consider myself that; I’m a director. I firstly started directing music videos, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Madonna, Rihanna, and commercials with a collective called Megaforce. We’re four French guys who have been working together since 2009. Taking pictures is something I do on the side; these are stills from my everyday life.

PHOTO BY LÉO BERNE ARTICLE BY SAR AH MOROZ

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frame it better, but that’s it. It’s difficult to take photos in the street because the light has to be perfect; otherwise it’s too messy. What’s happening has to be strange. It doesn't happen all the time. Photography is not a lot of work, it’s a lazy thing, because things are coming and you're taking them. It’s about being attentive to those moments and keeping your eyes open. I don't feel I create, when I take pictures. When people say, ‘Oh, that’s a great picture,’ I say ‘thank you’, but I feel like I should say thank you to the landscape, because the landscape is nice. I don't mean effort, I mean purpose.

I make the decision about when to click. What I do in my job is different because it’s constructed. Most of the time we have a brief, we have something to make, we have to find a comfortable common ground. Sometimes there is a little bit of construction in my photos, but it’s like a tourist visiting and telling his friend: ‘place yourself here’ or ‘do this, it’s funny.’ I don't do photography for any purpose other than having souvenirs. It’s not for artistic purposes, with an intention of creating something. It’s more like stealing. Or… not stealing, harvesting. Harvesting moments that are magically great for some reason. Sometimes, there’s stuff I just want to keep for myself. When it’s in a gallery, it’s a market world, so I’m not going to show stuff that’s not appropriate to share. For instance, I have some pictures of homeless people: I don't want to share them. When my grandfather died, I wanted to take a picture of him in the coffin. I had to keep a trace of this. There’s stuff that marks me, I don't know why I want to take a picture of it, but it’s not for sharing. Still, here is something that makes me want to preserve it. I’m not a street photographer because street photographers are hunters. I’m too lazy for it, and I don't want to look for an image on purpose. Sometimes I have the opportunity to see something happening in front of me, and I maybe take one extra step to

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When you try to ‘mean’ something, you create something in order to ‘mean’ this. For me, it’s not conscious. I don't try to ‘mean’ something when I take a picture. I don't define art like that, by intention. Most people consider art, like: ‘OK you want to say something. You have a message. You have to create something that states this message.’ If this is the definition of art, I’m not doing that. For me, art is wider. It is to convey a sense of interiority through a form. There is something that I feel, and framing it expresses what I feel. I click, and then I think after. The more I take pictures, the more I know how to convey what I feel when I see it. It’s just technical. Before, when I took the picture, it didn’t look like how I felt. Now I know a bit more how to translate that: framing-wise, and technique-wise, what I want to keep from a moment. Because it can be a real constraint: photography is mostly deceptive. You have a nice memory and you’re left with a flat thing that represents the moment you lived. I like the image, but I prefer the moment that I experience. It is a simple way to show a whole range over the 24-hour period. ‘From Dawn To Dusk’ was mostly about sunlight, and the shadows it creates. We all know that night is another world, it is really different.

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PHANTASMAGORIA The Brazilian photographer mixing fetishism with flowers. Fabio DaMotta is making bondage a little more poetic than before.

B Y L O U T S AT S A S PHOTOS BY XIANGYU LIU

y models are my muses. I like to capture people that I find interesting in life. Though they do not always have ‘the perfect feature’, they fascinate me – they are normal people yet whimsical” Xiangyu Liu says. The Chinese photographer moved to Russia to study fine arts before turning to photography. There, he discovered another way to see the world. “I love the culture, the vibe, the people there. Even though I now travel a lot for work, I still go to Moscow whenever I can because it feels like my home”, he tells us. Favouring a spontaneous approach, the photographer captures strange moments – either raw, violent, sensual or even poetic. Taken with a flash on, the images seem to freeze the surreal aura of the mundane. “My work reflects my personality: it is positive and energetic. It enables me to express my most secret emotions”, he adds. A phantasmagorical journey into the imagination of an artist in search of freedom. He began collecting all types of cameras, “studying their differences and documenting funny things in life,” he says. “Gradually, I came to meet many people who worked in fashion and I found the industry very appealing, so I began shooting for several magazines.”

"A phantasmagorical journey into the imagination of an artist in search of freedom."

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Photo 01: Whether it’s an elf, an axed-up doll, a green goblin or a model brawling with a pig, the work of Chinese photographer Xiangyu Liu is seemingly unpredictable.

Photo 02: It’s the kind of portfolio that makes you take a second glimpse, and one that you can find yourself scrolling through for days gawking at the scurrilous compositions and playful use of props. 01

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Photo 03: “Creative process is about living in the moment, mostly because I tend to encounter a lot of surprises on set. An example of this is discovering hidden props or finding new subjects during the shooting process. I enjoy every surprise that this world has given me.”

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DREAMS AND OUR NATURE B Y L O U T S AT S A S PHOTOS BY SYNCHRODOGS

ocumenting the relation between men and nature, the photographic duo Synchrodogs produces hallucinatory images, inspired by their dreams and our planet. Roman Noven and Tania Shcheglova have formed, since 2008, the Ukrainian photographic duo Synchrodogs. An alliance they always deemed necessary. “If you have this artistic streak in you it is quite impossible to escape your urge to create, so we just followed that unavoidable path”, they explain. From the start, the two artists have been producing personal projects as well as commissions for various fashion brands, and they keep developing their own sense of identity.

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SPEAK OUT LOUD ON TH E ISSUES YOUR COUNTRY DEALS WITH

Photo 2: “Now the algorithms are so strong and know so much about you that they only give you what you know you like.” 2

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The New Wave • February 2020 • Issue 1 Photo 1: There are pros and cons of the use of social media platforms – but essentially news generates in full speed. Everyone has a voice now, a voice spoken out loud by their online persona.

Photo 3: The intention behind the invention of the world wide web was to create a platform where information could be shared freely, but unfortunately the internet is being highly abused now.

“Our work in an intimate exploration of Earth, of nature”, they say. A theme that has followed their steps for 12 years, resisting their creative transformation, their evolution, their need to renew themselves. “Over time, we have become more committed. Our productions are now staged and planned, compared to early works that were of a more documentary nature”, the artists tell us. A knowledge of the medium that enabled them to highlight their ecologic convictions, and even to immerse themselves into a mastered surrealism. “Over the last 10 years we’ve developed our own night time meditation technique, trying to catch the moment between wakefulness and sleep. We’d usually wake ourselves up in the middle of the night to make a note of what we had just seen, gathering our dreams to be staged afterwards”. Inspired by the nonREM sleep, during which some people experience hallucinations, the photographers try to capture with their cameras the trace a dream leaves behind. A body of work that carried them to the borders of reality, thus revealing a taste for abstraction all around human bodies. Nature and body merge in Synchrodogs’s creations. “We focus on their complex relationship, their interdependency, and the urge to go back to the natural world, which is much wider than the cities we live in”, they say. Yet, mankind’s presence, either ghostly or out of place, contrasts with its environment. “The intention is always to make people appear as something abstract, existing only in relation to the Earth”, they add. In this illusory world, strange fabrics decorate the trees, the landscapes. The models’ naked skin is not viewed as sensual, but vulnerable. It defines the forms of bodies, and gets buried under matters, natural like artificial. Turned into mere objects, men stop being predators and hide among elements, becoming one with our planet. A hallucinatory universe filled with hope and creativity.

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