Sarah Stephens - Graphic Design Portfolio by Sarah Stephens

Sarah Stephens GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Toronto Architectural Conservancy

Sarah Stephens

Toronto Architectural Conservancy

BRANDING TORONTO ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVANCY Rebranded identity of the Toronto Architectural Conservancy, in order to elevate image and increase awareness of their cause.

DAVE BRUBECK WAS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR AND INNOVATIVE AMERICAN JAZZ MUSICIANS DURING HIS LIFETIME. IN THIS ARTICLE, WE OUTLINE HIS LIFE AND HIS MUSIC, INCLUDING HIS “TAKE FIVE” RECORDING.

To put Dave Brubeck in a box was an unwise thing to do. He’d just jump right out again, big, broad and strong, with those horn-rimmed glasses and that crazy, slightly cross-eyed smile. Call him cool, and he’d tell you that many of his jazz arrange-

ments were so hot, they sizzled. Lump him with players of white west-coast jazz, and he’d object that he felt more black than white. Suggest he was influenced by the pelting, intellectual strain of bebop that took over jazz in the 1940s, and he would say nope,

he didn’t listen to it; he only ever wanted to do his own thing. Call him the usher of a new jazz age, put him on the cover of Time magazine, where he landed in 1954, and he was crestfallen. Duke Ellington deserved all that, he said, but not him. E

EDITED AND DESIGNED BY SARAH STEPHENS

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Sarah Stephens

EDITORIAL DAVE BRUBECK ARTICLE Esquire magazine article on the life and music of Jazz musician Dave Brubeck, featuring infographics highlighting key facts.

TOP FIVE

THE WHOLE ORCHESTRA

MOST POPULAR

DAVE BRUBECK'S COMPOSITIONS

DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET

ALBUMS

CHORAL WORKS

WORKS FOR CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA

& HONOURS

TIME OUT (1959)

ORCHESTRAL PIECES

Being a popular Jazz musician, it's no wonder that Brubeck received a number of awards and honorary degrees during his career. Here's some information about his accolades. E like him: Paul Desmond on feather-light, floating alto sax, Joe Morello razor-sharp and witty on drums, Eugene Wright rock-solid on bass. Their greatest success, an album called “Time Out” (1959) that sold more than 1m copies, was a collection of breezily poly tonal pieces in wild time signatures, centring on a Desmond piece called “Take Five” written in teasing 5/4, and “Blue Rondo à la Turk”, devised by Mr Brubeck after hearing street musicians playing in 9/8 in Istanbul. These two pieces alone consolidated the quartet’s fame on campuses and in clubs all over America; but Columbia Records refused to release the album for a year, just baffled, said Mr. Brubeck impatiently, by the fact that it broke so many rules. It did, but hey, it sounded good. Whenever he sat down at the piano— an instrument as satisfying, to him, as a whole orchestra—his aim was to get

19 15

The Dave Brubeck Quartet produced some of the most popular Jazzrecordings of the mid 20th century. According to research by Google, the following are their most commonly mentioned albums online. E

AWARDS

His contrarian ways went further. Give him a few bars of Beethoven, and he’d weave a jazz riff through it; but put him in the middle of a jazz set, and he would come up with classic counterpoint as strict as the “Goldberg Variations”. Sing him a tune in C, and his left hand would play it in E flat; give him a jazz line in standard 4/4 time and he would play 5/4, 7/4, even 13/4 against it, relentlessly underpinning the adventure with big fat blocks of chords. He was a jazzman who struggled to read notation and who graduated on a wing and an ear from his college music school; and he was also, in later years, a composer of cantatas and oratorios who was proud to have written a Credo for Mozart’s unfinished “Mass in C minor”. The musicians he picked for his quartet, which dominated the popular jazz scene from 1951 to 1967, were chosen because they could break out of the box

A prolific composer of jazz and classical pieces, Brubeck wrote 290 original compositions during his career. Here's the breakdown of these works. E

TIME FURTHER OUT (1961)

JAZZ IMPRESSIONS OF JAPAN (1964)

JAZZ AT BERLIN (1953)

JAZZ AT THE COLLEGE OF THE PACIFIC (1953)

From 1960 until 2011, Dave Brubeck received

K39k

awards for his work as a composer and jazz musician.

K9k

honorary degrees from universities and

JAZZ WORKS

BALLETS

STRING QUARTET

IN HIS OWN WORDS, HE PLAYED DANGEROUSLY, PREPARED TO MAKE ANY NUMBER OF MISTAKES IN ORDER TO CREATE SOMETHING HE HAD NEVER CREATED BEFORE.

He also received

colleges, both national and international.

245

somewhere he had never got before. It didn’t matter how tired he was, how beatup he felt. He wanted to be so inspired in his explorations that he would get beyond himself. He liked to quote Louis Armstrong, who once told a woman who asked what he thought about as he played: “Lady, if I told you, your mind would explode.” In his own words, he

played dangerously, prepared to make any number of mistakes in order to create something he had never created before. Several people had set him on this path. His mother had first taught him piano when he preferred to be a rodeoroper; her rippling playing of Chopin round the house he remembered in a piece called “Thank You”. His platoon

TIMELINE F A LOOK AT DAVE BRUBECK’S LIFE & MUSIC 1920

Born December 6 in Concord, California

1940

1942

Studies music College of the Pacific, Stockton, California

Enlists in army and marries his high school sweetheart, Iola Whitlock

1944

1946

Leads first racially integrated military jazz band, the Wolfpack, while fighting in WWII

Leaves army, begins studying at Mills College, with composer Darius Milhaud, forms Dave Brubeck Octet

1949

Forms Dave Brubeck Quartet which features Paul Desmond on Alto Saxophone

1951

Forms Dave Brubeck Trio and records their first album

1954

1958

His popularity inspires a Time magazine cover story - it is the second cover to feature a jazz musician

Becomes jazz ambassador to the US State department

1959

1967

Releases the recording “Time Out” – it becomes one of the best-selling Jazz albums of all time

Disbands the quartet to spend more time with family and compose classical music

1987

Re-forms the Dave Brubeck Quartet with three of his sons

120 E S Q U I R E • A P R I L 2 0 1 4

1996

Receives Grammy lifetime achievement award

2000

2009

University of the Pacific establishes the Brubeck Institute

Stockton Symphony premieres Brubeck’s multimedia orchestral piece “Ansel Adams: America,”

2012

Dies of heart failure the day before his 92nd birthday

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TAKE FIVE

THE FAMOUS TRACK Written in 1959 by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, "Take Five" is The Dave Brubeck Quartet's most famous song (chances are you've heard it in a movie, ad, or TV show before). Here are some facts about it. E "TIME OUT," THE ALBUM FEATURING "TAKE FIVE," WAS THE FIRST JAZZ RECORD TO SELL OVER

K1,000,000k

OTHER FACTS •

He has appeared in 33 TV shows and documentaries.

•

He is credited on over 20 TV and Film soundtracks.

•

When he was admitted to college in 1938, he didn't know how to read music.

•

He suffered a spinal cord injury in 1951 that forced him to change his playing style from complex, single run notes, to block chords.

•

He played so well during concert duty in WWII, he was pulled from combat, avoiding the Battle of the Bulge.

•

In 1960 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People thanked Dave publicly for his “courageous stand against submitting your band to the pressures of immoral racial discrimination.”

COPIES

SINCE 1962, THERE HAVE BEEN OVER

ONE OF THE FIRST JAZZ SONGS WRITTEN IN

COVERS

METER

K42k

commander in 1944, having heard him doodling on a piano, kept him away from the front line. And Darius Milhaud, his teacher after the war, taught him to see jazz as the natural idiom of America and the music of free men. Mr Brubeck believed seriously in jazz as a force for democracy: in post-Nazi Germany, in the Soviet Union, in the fragile post-war world (where he toured on behalf of the State Department) and in America’s South, where he insisted on performing with his black bassist and, when he could, pushed him to the front of the stage. Yet his mission was never to make jazz freer or more popular; it was to make music, pure and simple, any way he could. He sang his first polyrhythms against the

K4/5k

steady trot of his horse as he rode round the 45,000 acres near Concord, California, where his father managed cattle. In high school, playing at rough miners’ dances in the foothills of the Sierras, he would riskily “screw up the shuffle” by adding triplets to it. He wrote on the road, dreaming up “Unsquare Dance” (in 7/4) while driving to New York, and composing “The Duke”, his tribute to Ellington, against the beating windscreen wipers of his car. All this, with his use of folk songs and hymns and blues and birdcalls, his little snatches of homage to George Gershwin or Aaron Copland, and the freight-train urging of his playing, gave his jazz a flavour less of smoky dives than of open skies and plains.

Critics attacked him for getting rich from it. He said he had never wanted more than the union scale. They said he was too “European”, too college-focused, that his music couldn’t be danced to and hadn’t got swing; he pointed out the happy feet tapping at his concerts, and the number of records he sold. Above all they found it hard to believe that the most successful jazz in America was being played by a family man, a laid-back Californian, modest, gentle and open, who would happily have been a rancher all his days—except that he couldn’t live without performing, because the rhythm of jazz, under all his extrapolation and exploration, was, he had discovered, the rhythm of his heart. �

EXPENSIVO DESIGNER WATCHES

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Sarah Stephens

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INSIDE: MORE CONTENT ONLINE:

dailycanvas.com @dailycanvas

P h

ANSEL ADAMS The life and works of one of the 20th Century’s most quintessential photographers is examined.

SHELLEY CAMPBELL BOGAERT A look at one of San Diego California’s rising sculptors. C1

P a

An overview of the provocative paintings by one of the Expressionism’s poster boys. B1

The

DAILY CANVAS ARTISTIC NEWS AND INSPIRATION

OCTOBER 25th, 2013

$2.00

MUSIC, ART, & TYPOGRAPHY: THE WORKS OF FERDINAND KRIWET

NEWS IN BRIEF ALZBETA JARESOVA WINS GRIFFIN ART PRIZE 2012

Alzbeta Jaresova, has been announced as the winner of the inaugural Griffin Art Prize, winning a six month studio residency culminating in a solo show in September 2013. PAINTING, B2

Combining graphic design, typography, fine arts, and music is not an easy feat unless you’re Kriwet.

BRANCUSI & BRAIN WAVES: 3-D PRINTING GOES TO THE MUSEUM

By ICA (http://www.ica.org.uk/)

Kriwet’s work in Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. brings together poetic language, commercial function and mystical forms. Ferdinand Kriwet is a multimedia artist who has engaged with text, language and concrete poetry since the 1960s. Kriwet’s Text Signs, 1968, a set of which are shown in the ICA’s Lower Gallery, are made from stamped aluminium. The format implies a commercial function, and the pieces resonate with advertising culture. However, Kriwet’s circular use of text also has strong associations with the

Brain Wave Sofa is one of more than 100 pieces featured in “Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital.” Opening at MAD on October 16, the exhibition showcases works of art, fashion, furniture, and architecture that have been constructed with 3-D printing and CNC milling devices. SCULPTURE, C1

SHOW AND TELL: THE DOS AND DON’TS OF THE ART STUDIO VISIT

Art-world insiders dispense advice on what you should say, how the artist ought to display the work, and which refreshments to serve, if any. BUSINESS OF ART, E1

MUNCH’S BACKYARD REVEALS ITS SECRETS

The first thing the ground yielded was cobalt blue: blobs of intense color, and then dirt-encrusted paint tubes. Archeologists are literally uncovering the secrets of Edvard Munch as they sift through the earth at Nedre Ramme, the Symbolist painter’s summer home in southern Norway. PAINTING, B3

MAGRITTE’S GRAND ILLUSIONS

EGON SCHIELE

The curator of “Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926– 1938,” opening September 28 at MoMA, explores how three photographs of the Belgian Surrealist provide insights into his painting techniques. PHOTOGRAPHY, D2

Painting by Rebecca Fountaine-Wolf

POWERFUL WOMEN; POWERFUL ART The works of Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf are unique, inspiring, and powerful. We interview her to find out more about her creative process. By Adelaide Damoah (http://www.adelaidedamoah.com/)

I first came across Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf’s work in 2009 when we took part in a group show at the Opera Gallery in Budapest called “British Art in the Twenty First Century.” There were several other artists involved in the exhibition, but for me, the work that stood out the most was Rebecca’s work and I have been following her progress ever since, right up until her most recent success which was her inclusion in a reality TV show about art called “Show me the Monet.” Rebecca’s work entitled “June,” a

self portrait got all the way through to the end, which meant inclusion in a big group show in Central London at the Royal College of Art. Adelaide Damoah (AD): Rebecca, how long have you been a professional artist? Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf (RFW): I have been selling work since my degree show, which was in 2004. I worked in a gallery for about a year year and then after that, I really started doing it professionally and full time as well.

AD: Can you share with our readers any of your secrets to success? RFW: Well, if you want to call it that. I would say I just threw myself in at the deep end I think. Because I worked at this gallery for a year and I was just basically working on a till and it made me really really miserable. I had my studio, but I didn’t really have the time or energy after work to go to the studio. I’m going to do it. I’m gonna stop working and do these odd jobs here and there so that I can just really concentrate on my painting. Continued on B1.

Kriwet’s signs, like Finlay’s landscape pieces and wall paintings, were an attempt to move concrete poetry quite literally into the world. mandala, an Indian form imbued with spiritual significance in Buddhism and Hinduism. Moreover, it has the function of disrupting the linear process of writing, as words and names join together or are juxtaposed to suggest a clashing and fusing of ideas. Kriwet’s signs, like Finlay’s landscape pieces and wall paintings, were an attempt to move concrete poetry quite literally into the world. The use of the sign form to contest subjects such as militarism and sexuality, and to co-opt the public inscription of power, is also an interesting precedent for the work of Jenny Holzer and other artists in the 1980s. The circular form is further explored in Kriwet’s Text Dias and Text Sails, 1970, giant signs printed on PVC, a group of which are displayed in the ICA’s Concourse. Kriwet was included in the seminal concrete poetry exhibition at the ICA, Between Poetry and Painting, curated by Jasia Reichardt in 1965. Continued on A2.

INDEX Business of Art E1 Classifieds E8 Graphic Design D5

Sarah Stephens

Horoscope E10 Illustration B 5 Mixed Media A4

Opinion A8 Painting B1 Photography D1

Printing D7 Sculpture C1

EDITORIAL THE DAILY CANVAS NEWSPAPER A daily newspaper geared towards those in the field of arts and culture. Reports on the latest in the world of fine arts and features articles on exhibitions and interviews with upcoming young artists.

ARTISTIC NEWS AND INSPIRATION

OCTOBER 25th, 2013

DC PAINTING SEX, DEATH, AND VIENNA: THE WORKS OF EGON SCHIELE ‘Egon Schiele and His Age’ is a new exhibit that highlights the tumultuous, provocative, and unsettling works of one of the Viennese Expressionist movements most unforgettable painters. By Adelaide Damoah (http://www.adelaidedamoah.com/)

The two cornerstones of Viennese society, Sex and death, engraved their mark in the canvasses of the city’s most controversial Secessionist. Tormented, brilliant Egon Schiele rose through the ranks of the avant-garde in the Viennese Expressionist movement, a shooting star that was extinguished at the tender age of 28. Schiele might have been guided by Gustav Klimt as his master, whose gold leaves on fleshy canvas captured the decadent sensuality of an era, yet even at a young age Schiele broke away from the shackles of being his master’s pupil. Egon Schiele and His Age, on display at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, showcases a thematic and chronological progression of the artist’s life and art, side by side with canvases from his contemporaries, including the likes of Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka. The exhibition is displayed in two halves, and opens with the artist’s “Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant” (1912). This expressive portrait, which marks some of the artist’s most emblematic work, demonstrates Schiele’s contrasting use of dulled colours from a mixed palette of white and black, that is starkly contrasted against a violent red. The artist’s skill for capturing facial expressions is marked in his own face. While the lines are disjointed and chaotic at times,

“A Tree In Late Autumn” 1911

Through the rough lines and the loose brushstrokes of the artist, his subjects, especially those featuring the artist himself as the sitter, are almost vulgar and provocative in their expression, carrying just a hint of aggressive sensuality. sometimes even rendering the image as a caricature, the expressive nature of the artist’s feelings becomes transparent. This is where Schiele’s skill lies. He might not be an artist with an eye for paintings of photographic detail, but as an expressionist, he became one of the best. Schiele as a man is both easy to read, and also complex to understand at time. His paintings were mostly painted on wooden panels, reflecting his dire financial situation. The exhibition showcases a series of sketches, and rough, unfinished drawings. Through the rough lines and the loose brushstrokes of the artist, his subjects, especially those featuring the artist himself as the sitter, are almost vulgar and provocative in their expression. Egon Schiele predominantly focused on portraiture, mostly of himself, as he recorded each tremor of the soul and his transition through

“Hermits” 1912

“Self Portrait” by Egon Schiele

both the physical and psychological. In each canvas, the artist creates a new identity defined by emotion, from passion through to anger and even vanity, creating evocative and even disturbing works. His work also went beyond the emotional basis into the realm of

“Mother and Daughter“ 1913

symbolism. His portrait “Self-Seer II” (1911), was produced during the most hectic era of his life, and symbolises a unity of death and man. The painting also draws on themes covering the idea of a split personality and the theme of Doppelgangers, as rooted in Romanticism.

“Four Trees” 1917

“The Hermets” (1912) also follows a similar theme as the “Self Seer”, featuring two male figures entwined. One of the figures clearly represents Schiele, whereas the other could be Klimt or Schiele’s father, or even a symbolic mix of people. The construction of the painting is typical for Schiele’s early work, where a simple, light background is used to draw attention to the faces of the figures. To understand Schiele, it’s important to look to his master. The artist studied under Klimt, whose work left a big impression on him, so much so, many even accused Schiele of plagiarism. Klimt’s style showed up in some of Schiele’s early work, like the curls of a woman’s hair or the cheques used on blankets used in some of his portraiture. The second room of the exhibition already shows a shift in Schiele’s style. There is a sense of experimentation in other styles, like Cubism, as showcased in “Still Life with Books (Schiele’s Desk)” (1914). This particular painting is interesting, since it acts as an alternative still life, symbolising the artist through the contents of his study. It’s a still life that hangs in the balance, where the object could topple over at anytime. Much like Egon himself. •

“Edge of Town” 1918

POWERFUL WOMEN; POWERUL ART Continued from front page.

AD: Was there anything else in addition to that? It’s one thing making the decision that your going to go ahead and make a commitment to doing art full time, but were there any other specific things that you did that you feel kind of catapulted you to the point where you started to actually sell work and attract dealers? RFW: Just getting myself out there really. I think just doing art fairs, just being online, seeing what opportunities are out there, exhibiting stuff in pubs and just sort of bit by bit starting to show work and get it out there. I think that’s all it was really and then from each thing something else comes. Somebody else has seen your work or other little bits just sort of come together. So I think that would be really just it. Just trying to

“I want to be feeling completely happy with my work which I don’t know if that’s ever really possible to be 100% happy.” get your work out there and it’s a bit difficult because there is no sort of set path as an artist or as a painter, sort of this is how you move up the ladder and move up the scales, so I think everybody has to figure it out for themselves and that is what the hard thing is. My mother is an artist which sort of helps as well but she works a lot more on commission, she’s a portrait painter primarily, so although she is an artist, her path is quite different than my path. So although I could get support and some advice from her, I still had to figure it out.

AD: So what would you say your main objectives are for sort of the next twelve months going forward? What are your goals? RFW: Some of the artists from the “Show me the Monet” exhibition have decided to put on another exhibit with our work because it wasn’t open to the public, so we’re doing that from the middle of August. But other than that I think it will be just working on my actual paintings and where that’s going. I’ve got a couple of ideas of the direction I want it to go into, but I think I need to really crystallise that and work on it because sometimes I feel that my work could be that much better and you know, that much more powerful and really that’s where I want it to be. I want to

be feeling completely happy with my work which I don’t know if that’s ever really possible to be 100% happy and think yes, this is it. But, that’s what I’m aiming for anyway. AD: Good, so do I. So you mentioned that you have got your show with the “Show me the Monet” people coming up, are there any other shows where people can come and see your work? RFW: I haven’t actually got anything lined up at the moment, but things will come in. I’m doing the “Untitled Art Fair” next year in June. So that’s quite far in the future but yea, I’ll be there. With my mum as well. She is going to be exhibiting, so we will be doing that together which will be quite nice.

AD: And what are your ultimate dreams for success? RFW: Ultimate dream would be I think what every artist wants which is to be able to create something lasting, something that has a lasting impact on people that will be remembered for years to come past your lifetime and will sort of play a big part in art history. I think that’s the ultimate goal that I think most of us have really, deep down. AD: Yea. OK. So, where can people see your work online? RFW: You can see it on my website, www.rebeccafontaine-wolf.com, and on a few different art websites, but if you type my name, then you will find me on google. •

Sarah Stephens

Promotional materials (poster and playing cards) produced for the martial arts / noir film Socho. FILM PROMOTION SOCHO (TEAM PROJECT) NEW LINE CINEMA LIONSGATE FILMS ANG LEE GODFREY GAO KEN WATANABE — — TADANOBU ASANO “SOCHO” KERRY BARDEN GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA JOHN A. DUNN CHRIS DICKENS YOHEI TANEDA XAVI GIMÉNEZ ERICA STEINBERG MARK WAHLBERG GUILLERMO DEL TORO HIROSHI FUKAZAWA ROY BUTTON SARAH STEPHENS ROY BUTTON SARAH STEPHENS ANG LEE PRESENTS A

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HIKI-KABU Number of Players: 2 or more Cards Used: 1 full deck of 40 kabufuda cards Game Length: Not set Goal: To get as close to 9 as possible At the beginning of each round of play the dealer is decided by having each player draw a card from the deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. The other players should sit in a circle in the order of their drawn cards, from right to left. Play now begins. The dealer shuffles the deck and passes it to each player. Any player can shuffle or cut the deck as they wish. Once they are all satisfied, the dealer deals one card face-up to each player including himself. Each player bets the same amount as their card. If they have a 5, then they bet 5. Once each player has placed their bet, the dealer deals each player one card face-down. The players look at their cards and add the total of the two cards. The goal of Hiki-kabu is to get a total of 9 or as close to 9 as possible. If the total is 10 or greater, the first digit of the number is ignored. So a hand of 17 is the same as a hand of 7, and a hand of 10 is the same as a hand of 0. Once all the players have learned their current totals, the dealer asks each player

(going right to left) if they would like any more cards. If they do, the dealer deals them a third card face-up. There are two rules in Hiki-kabu concerning taking cards that apply to all of the players (including the dealer): players are not allowed to take a 3rd card if their current total is 7 or higher, and they are required to take another card if their total is 3 or less. Now for the showdown. The cards are revealed. The player with the highest total wins the pot. If there is a tie, the players split the pot evenly. If all players have the same total, then the dealer wins the pot. There are two more special rules for Hiki-kabu. If a player has three identical cards in their hand, their hand counts as a 9 and all players have to pay triple their bet. The other rule applies only to the dealer. If the dealer's first card is a 9 and his second card is a 1, he wins regardless of what cards the other players have (even if its a three of a kind like above). If his first card is a 1 and his second card is a 9, this rule does not apply.

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WORLD PREMIERE January 21, 2014 7:oopm - 10:oopm EL CAPITAN THEATRE 6838 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028

January 21, 2014 at 7:00pm EL CAPITAN THEATRE 6838 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA

APPEARING Stars Godfrey Gao & Ken Watanabe Director Ang Lee

Sarah Stephens

WEB DESIGN WINE COUNTRY ONTARIO WEBSITE Website designed for the Wine Country Ontario campaign “See the World in a Weekend.”

d in the rain”

PORTRAIRE photographers & their work / vol. 18, winter 2015 / “the mood that passes through you”

in this issue

am sitchinava leg oprisco t wisniewski

brigette bloom sophie fontaine dominique hille

Sarah Stephens

jeanne madic laura makabresku ellen rogers

annie stephens maura stephens meryem yildiz

EDITORIAL PORTRAIRE MAGAZINE Portraire is a magazine published quarterly, featuring the works of national and international photographers, interviews, and techniques for shooting with digital or analogue cameras.

contents

A SOFT, MACABRE TOUCH

107

UN SILENCE D’ALGUE

strange places, both physical and psychological, are explored in the works of meryem yildiz 42

EDITOR’S NOTE

INTERVIEWS

musings from our editor, jane mullen 4

jeanne madic 18 rebecca cairns 84 brigette bloom 107

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

a look at this issue’s theme and how each photographer’s work relates to it 6

PORTFOLIOS

ellen rogers 8 maura stephens 61 dominique hille 90 joanna pallaris 101

TECHNIQUE

we talk about the differences between shooting analogue and digital 38 TRINKETS AND ALLEGORIES

objects as symbols, and quiet moments of still life in the works of annie stephens 115

portraire

/ winter 2015

editor’s note

portraire

GAZING INTO A MIRROR AT TWO REFLECTIONS

chief editor jane mullen editorial consultant georgiana jones creative director sarah stephens graphic editor kristian greve

hen we discussed who we might feature in our winter issue, which focuses on photographers whose work evokes a distinct mood, or feeling, in the viewer, my mind coursed through the many talented photographers whose work ranges from analogue, to digital, with techniques from the learned to the more experimental. My mind nestled on several unique and intriguing female photographers; these included cover photographer, Meryem Yildiz, and other featured photographers, Laura Makabresku and Annie Stephens, and the photographers we featured in our Interview and Portfolio departments, including Ellen Rogers, Brigette Bloom, and Jeanne Madis. Each of these women work in their own, uniquely beautiful ways. They create haunting imagery that explores multiple worlds, from natural world to the supernatural, home and hearth, to all-encompassing nature. More so than this, they explore themselves as individuals, and as artists. In many cases, what they find is both beautiful, and unnerving. And, as viewers, we are guided by these photographers to gaze not only at them, but at ourselves. The process of looking at their photos, looking at their reflections of their physical and psychological selves, in an almost voyeuristic light, allows us to

editorial department mary jones advertising donald rapier pr management jennifer jackson circulation holly lundgreen

PORTRAIRE / WINTER

www.portraire.com portraire is published quarterly by portraire house publishing, 3199 lake shore blvd w, toronto, on m8v 1k8, telephone 416.345.6432, fax 416.432.2345. periodicals postage paid at toronto, on, m8v 1k7 and additional mailing offices. copyright 2015 by portraire house publishing. all rights reserved. reprinting in whole or in part is expressly forbidden except written permission from the publisher. POSTMASTER

then step back and reconsider our own selves, and our own worlds, either the physical ones around us, or the psychological ones that we have consciously or subconsciously forged throughout our individual lives. I invite Portraire readers to meditate on the works of the artists featured in this issue and observe their own reactions; what do they tell you about the artist, but, more importantly, what do they tell you about ourselves? Sincerely,

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for subscription inquiries, call 416.382.0580, fax 416.382.0587 or write to portraire 3199 lake shore blvd w, toronto, on m8v 1k8; for change of address, please include old address along with new address, and if possible, an address label from a recent issue. please allow six weeks for address to be changed. if an address is not updated when the magazine is mailed, we are not responsible for delivery of your magazine. if the post office alerts us that your magazine, we will suspend your subscription until a corrected address is received. SUBMISSIONS

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we do not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. opportunities to have work selected for publication are provided by our two annual contests. single image (spring) and portfolio contest (fall). for contest information, call 416.474.6633 PRINTED IN TORONTO, CANADA.

portraire

/ winter 2015

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

we glance into the intriguing fairytale world of polish photographer laura makabresku 24

feature

A Soft,

Macabre Touch Polish photographer Laura Makabresku’s works are a haunting, intimate look into a world inspired by fairytales and dark dream worlds

written by karolina rybaciauskaite photography by laura makabresku

portraire

/ winter 2015

was originally asked to inter view Laura Makabresku, but I quickly realized that I cannot continue on searching for stories behind her photographs – it simply wasn’t the way to do this. If I were to reveal all the answers to the questions Laura asks in her works, I’d steal the element of surprise off each of you. I became aware of this subtle lack of taste quite late; the true essence of her work – the macabre fairy tales hidden within her photos came alive to me, and I realized how the author feels them. Thus, it would be more appropriate for me to tell the tale of Laura’s world in such a way that it would leave you with nothing else but questions to which Laura’s photographs would be the answers. Laura is a 24 year old photographer from Poland, currently residing in the city of Krakow and studying Polish literature. Laura describes herself in the following way: “I don’t have anything in common with myself. I’m a poet and an owl. I’m the sensitiveness and the empty space. Sometimes I feel that I grew up beside death.”

portraire

/ winter 2015

technique

photograph by khairil faizi

nvisible images are recorded on small sheets of plastic coated in crystals of silver halide salts when the shutter on a camera with film in it is pressed. Chemical processes are then applied to this film, which can get fairly complicated if you’re developing the film with your own hands, that render the images visible. Film is a fragile thing. Accidentally expose a roll of film to light, even if it’s only for a split second, and the whole roll of pictures can be ruined, and you would never even have known how they could have turned out. Film photography resides in an entirely different world than digital photography. There’s no convenience of a storage card or a nice, colorful screen on the camera to preview your pictures on. Most film rolls can record only 24 or 36 images, while a single memory card can hold hundreds or thousands at a time. With film, you have to finish an entire roll first before you’re able to change film types, whereas ISO in digital cameras, like everything else, is virtualized, and can be adjusted with the touch of a button. Any digital photographer that makes the switch to film will tell you how much more difficult and tedious it is to see results (but it can be so rewarding too).

TECHNICAL PROCESS But because the technical process in taking a photo (Adjusting aperture, shutter speed, etc) is the same, your skill development in film photography will transfer over to digital photography. Aesthetic and design rules, for the most part, are consistent as well. Some things, such as sharpness and depth of field, do require different techniques or at least different thinking in analogue photography, but for the most part, you would practice shooting with a vintage film camera the same way you would with a DSLR. Digital pictures emphasize sharpness, clarity, and other aspects of technical perfection whereas film photos are judged more for their fundamental aesthetics and candor. This is the reason

Film and digital photography are like two separate art forms capable of creating the same piece or image, just using different instruments with their own distinct styles.

Shooting analogue is one thing; shooting analogoe with vintage cameras is another beast altogether. In this article, Johnny Dunn walks through the ins and outs of shooting with vintage cameras, and gives his own tips and tricks on how to use them.

photograph by chris ford

A REWARDING EXPERIENCE The seemingly inconvenient drawbacks you’ll encounter in analogue photography, however, can become the driving force behind a creative mechanism that’s not feasible in digital photography. The limiting aspects of film forces you to slow down your workflow and processes. Add development times and costs on top of that and it can become rather difficult for the very casual photographer to continue pursuing analogue ambitions after the initial waves of retro reminiscence and nostalgia pass.

& TIPS FOR SHOOTING FILM

written by johnny dunn

portraire

/ winter 2015

technique

A STRIKING DIFFERENCE A very striking difference, for example, is that image noise in digital photography, even if it’s just barely noticeable amount, is essentially unacceptable and can ruin an otherwise great photo. Noise is the digital equivalent of film grain. Image grain and noise can both be defined as random variations of brightness and other color qualities, and becomes obvious and ugly after an extent. In film photography, a certain amount of grain or is not only expected, especially given the decades of wear and tear vintage cameras have suffered, but they can be used to give off desirable aesthetic effects. A grainy digital photo has flaws and needs to be fixed in post-production, but a grainy film photo has character and inherent value through the noise. A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH A good digital photograph should be superbly sharp, unless the subject captured is an exceedingly rare moment or event, so a bit of blurriness and grain is accepted because the content makes up for the technical faults. On the other hand, with film photos, sharpness is still a desirable quality, but too much sharpness will actually be counter-beneficial. At a certain point, an extremely sharp film photograph tends to look more like a digital image, and as

such will be compared to a digital one. But because digital and film are two different mediums and comprise of different standards, a film photo judged by digital standards, and vice-versa, will not succeed in fully connecting with the person viewing the photo. THE QUALITIES OF FILM Sharpness aside, many of the flaws and disagreeable qualities found in digital photography can be considered attractive qualities in film. You can do wonders with contrast sheets and filters in any darkroom, but there’s no need for the endless polishing, sharpening, and editing with a mouse in Photoshop. Film photos, in terms of technical quality, are generally held to much lower standards than digital photographs, and post-production should be done much differently depending on which medium

The standards for both film and digital photos differ depending on the medium; grain in a film photo can be beautiful, but too much noise in a digital photo can look pretty terrible. you are working in. Sharpening and polishing a film photo with a digital toolkit and digital standards can end up with very adverse results for the final picture, and so Photoshopping a film photo to death is highly unrecommended. As said above, a film photo with Photoshop and other digital post-production qualities will inevitably draw comparisons with an actual digital image, defeating the purpose of film by removing what makes analog different and replacing it with a beguiling sense of mimicry and even of deception. Keeping these differences in mind, when shooting film, you need to focus a lot more on pre-visualizing the photo in

portraire

/ winter 2015

photograph by dan morris

why analogue photography, why the fifty year old cameras, films, and processes of the past are able to remain just as relevant as the latest digital cameras coming out on the market today. Digital photography focuses on and standardizes different qualities than the vintage film cameras, and so, even though the mechanical and technical processes of taking a picture is the same in both mediums, analogue photography is just different.

your head, as well as accurately adjusting the mechanisms of the camera in accordance with your environment and your circumstances in order to achieve a satisfying photograph, whether you are shooting in analogue, or digital; with a vintage camera, or a brand new one. You won’t be able to fix your mistakes and faults with Photoshop; the darkroom has much less functionality than software. In essence, you have to slow down your processes when shooting in analog because you can’t afford to make careless errors in adjusting or focusing. Shooting film means you not only will not know how your images turn out until post-production, but you’ll have a very limited supply of shots for every subject. If it’s truly a spectacular image, you may want to shoot the same picture several times in case your first few shots are out of focus or blurred, but choosing to retake an image seven different times

(which is a fairly modest number of retakes in digital photography) means spending a quarter of your roll of film on just one image! Slowing down your shooting process and ensuring that everything’s in its right place will allow you to conserve your limited shots. Exposure problems are perhaps the most common technical mistakes next to out of focus images. Perhaps the most important thing you can rely on in film photography is your light meter. Many analogue camera models will not need batteries in order to record images due to the fact that everything’s mechanical except the built-in light meter. So, always make sure you have fresh batteries, and make sure you know how to accurately read your light meter. A majority of light meters are as simple as a red minus showing up in the viewfinder for underexposure, a red plus for overexposure, and a green circle when

everything’s just right. And remember, overexposing is an easier fix in the darkroom than shooting an underexposed picture; you can increase contrast, apply filter sheets, and do other things to darken a picture, but there’s no way to make underexposures and shades of black visible in the darkroom. But the only way to truly get away from exposure issues in film is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. And a separate, more advanced and accurate light meter is definitely a purchase worthy of the financial cost and physical burden, as a camera’s built-in light meter isn’t always going to be entirely reliable. Whether you are shooting film or digital, I hope that these tips will have been of some use to you. &

Sarah Stephens

WEB DESIGN A MONTH OF OLD MEDIA Parallax scrolling infographic website showcasing research done over a month-long period on the consumption of old media while working on homework.

Sarah Stephens

PACKAGING TEA BRAND PACKAGE DESIGN Elevated tea packaging (dieline, graphics) for Uxbridge, Makers of Fine Tea. Features unique compartments containing loose leaf tea and accessories.

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