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MAGAZINE
WOWZA
Issue#1! the mixture of
CANADIAN
TALENT
LG Fashion Week
SHOCK VALUE
the potential of an image
EVERYTHING THAT’S A VISUAL ‘WOW’ SUMMER 2011
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WOWZA
Shock Value Editor’s Letter
The
ISSUE #1
the potential of an image
Welcome to the first issue of Wowza Magazine! Wowza is a visual art magazine that celebrates creativity in all of its modern manifestations, providing you with the latest and classic creative inspirations from fashion, television, print, ambient and interactive advertising, music videos, photography and design; anything and everything that’s a visual “WOW”. This is a hub for what’s cool, thoughtful, innovative and original. Our first issue focuses on shock value tactics. It seems lately everyone’s gone wild. With development of social media the competition for public attention escaladed to enormous proportions. Music, advertising, fashion and film industries have dramatically shifted their focus from entertainment to shock. Perhaps it is because of us - the consumer - that these industries no longer make products that are entertaining, not just shocking. Nowadays, we suffer from exceptionally short attention spans; unless an image grabs us by the collar and shakes us until our eyes are wide open, we move on to the next one. So let’s celebrate those images, go bright and bold, and cut some edges. Yet no matter how expressive or important an artist’s vision is, perhaps we can amend the recipe for success thusly: less shock value, more real substance:) Alla Frost twitter.com/allafrost
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FAT2011 Images by Michael Ho
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Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week was held during April 26-29, 2011 in Toronto, Canada to showcase the fine works created by different artists and fashion designers. Being the 6th year FAT has been operating, this year’s theme wasbased on “Fashion Schematics.” This was to reinterpret messages, systems, schemes and symbols inherent in the notion of fashion, through photography, video, fashion design, performance, installation and music. The festival was to look at the ways we create visual dialogues and make sense of the world through fashion and creative expression.
‘When I design a shoe I think about it as a sculpture to wear, an art piece you live with. You and your body affect its look and it affects yours. Footwear should have its life with and without being on the feet, on the contrary to cloths that exist only when being worn’.
KOBI LEVI Shoe Designer
Kobi Levi courageously blends the boundaries between fashion and art while creating every pair of shoes. Each pair is a complete sculpture. He invented a “bilateral” boots, flip-flops from the peel of bananas, sandals-slingshot and shoesdog. If you’ll decide to wear such shoes you’ll not be unnoticed! Wowza sat down with Kobi to talk about his extraordinary creations.
Why shoes? I’ve always liked shoes and was fascinated with its “sculpturistic” form, and that’s how design them- wearable art (sculpture)! It is a shoe fetish, but not as a shopaholic or other “familiar” shoe fetishes… ;)
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Summer White ‘It’ Things Here’s the simple truth about the iPad 2: There is nothing else like it. Once you pick up iPad 2, it’ll be hard to put down. That’s the idea behind the all-new design. It’s 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter, so it feels even more comfortable in your hands. And it makes surfing the web, checking email, watching movies, and reading books so natural, you might forget.
iPhone 4
Hyundai Elantra 2011
The iPhone 4 is arguably the best smartphone on the market. It’s build quality puts others to shame, it has a style all of its own, its operating system is the easiest and slickest to use, its app store is unsurpassed, and it has some class leading features. Hinally, the amazing iPhone 4 is available in white.
Why not get sub-compact car fuel economy with a slick compact auto that’s so roomy the EPA classifies it as a mid-size car and that even offers heated rear seats? With the first sales numbers for 2011 having just come in, Hyundai Canada has announced the new 2011 Elantra is the best-selling passenger car in the country. The new Elantra looks so stylish that it’s hard to believe it starts at only $14,830 for the base. Why not, indeed?
Samsung 3D White Rechargeable Glases
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Samsung’s next-generation ultra-lightweight 3D Active Glasses are light-years ahead. When you put them on and look at the screen, the technology first blocks the left and then the right lens. It happens faster than the blink of an eye – so your eye won’t notice it. But when images are shown to each eye separately this “staggered” effect achieves far more lifelike 3D images.
the mixture of
CANADIAN
Alla Frost wearing Aliax Sport. www.aliax.com Photo by Chris Belbin. Digital by Alla Frost.
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It’s not 3D, it’s real!
Kira Shaimanova is a three dimensional illustrator. That means she makes her illustrations, from scratch. Her process includes creating individual dolls from clay, hand-made sets and photographing the final work.
KIRA SHAIMANOVA Sculpture Illustrator
How did you discover you can make those? What was your first project? My mom had suggested a doll making class her friend was a part of. She told me I had nothing to lose and that I should try it out. After all, you get a handmade doll in the end that’s totally made by you. This class was taught by professional doll makers straight out of Russia. You create the whole body, add hair, clothes, the whole shabang. I had always loved dolls and Barbie’s as a kid so I agreed to it. The project was an open theme, but of course sketching out the costume and theme behind it was necessary as part of the process. I decided to make my own version of “Alice in Wonderland.”As soon as I got started on sculpting the head, I fell in love. I remember leaving the class that first day and being so amazed that this doll’s face was becoming alive before my eyes. I thought, “Oh my God, this is it! This is what I’m going to do.” The last year of university came around and my illustration thesis for the year was a series done completely out of this new doll style that I had discovered during the summer. My professors weren’t to sure how it would turn out, but I proved them all wrong. I had to learn how to create background sets, adjust lighting and photography in order to get this new sculpture illustration style up and running. Not to mention learn how to meet deadlines and quicken my sculpting pace.
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Behind the Lens: BABAK Would you give a brief walk through your work flow? |I am not a huge fan of shooting a lot of images on set, I like to make sure everything about the model works before shooting and if I see something not working then I stop and change the thing that makes the image “out of tune”. I Shoot up to 30 images on a card and download to computer. I think slowing down the shoot is a good thing, you need time to think about the feel of images. How do you describe your photographic style? I noticed you shoot a lot of hair, why is that? There is the aesthetic style that may change from time to time, things like image tones & lens usage, and there is the photographer’s personality that will get in the photos like a finger prints on a crime set. “This is where the photos take you”- I have been told that my images are about me even if I am not in them. I am obsessed with time, stopping or speeding it up! Hairdressing is an art that as soon as the model walks out it is gone, the hair changes with a wind or your first night sleep. I like that I can capture the 3 dimensional art in to a 2 dimensional photograph for the others to see. In general, during a session, how many pictures would you say you take to find “the right one”? Sometimes the first image is the one - when you see an amazing moment of light (that’s when you are at the stop light and you see a shot outside your window lined up perfect, it happens all the time now !) then the driver decides to move forward and it all ruined - why do they always do that? It’s always better to get the content or emotion feel right than to get the perfect technical images that says nothing. This is true on hair / fashion shoots as well. But sometimes you need to take many shots to show the crew what is wrong and what needs changing; it’s all so different every time. How do you decide on locations & subjects? For personal work it’s whatever that makes me feel a story, the viewer does not have to get in my store or they may get their own story from it. On a hair fashion shoot we need to shoot inside most of the time because the weather elements may interfere with the hair looks. 36
Do you ever feel that way and do you think there is such a thing as someone really having a “natural eye” for photography? Yes you need to “have an eye” whatever that is - I can hand you a camera and usually can tell how much of the “it “ you have. But training and practice can always gives you some of the “it” you need. Is Babak your real name? Yes it is and I am sure it means “the one that photographs” in some distant galaxy. What turns you off? Hypocrisy. What is your favourite curse word? Fuck! Have you ever offended anyone? People always feel they have to make a neutral / friendly comment on your photos, words like nice , wow, amazing are all over social media photo comment sections. You know you hit a nerve when you get a nasty message in your inbox. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I do Guitars, but it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do it like your life depends on it. I just saw a delivery driver under his van fixing the engine at dusk in a rain storm, presumably to get the deliveries done - now that’s doing it !! What is the ONE lasting impression you want to leave in your photos? If it’s not worth shooting it not worth looking at and if it’s that great that needs to seen by the others then it should be shot by someone that can transcend that greatness to the audience that wasn’t there and may come in the future.
Avant Garde
David Barron, Barron’s London Salon. Makeup by Elena Pacienza. Photography by Babak, www.babak.ca.
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SUMMER RUNWAYS
D&G SUMMER 2011 MILAN–Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce always put on a rollicking show for their D&G range, and Fall 2011 was no different. This season, they took inspiration from the early Nineties. Madonna’s “Vogue” (mixed with Duck Sauce’s “Barbra Streisand”) blared over the loudspeakers–even the usually stoic Vanessa Friedman (fashion editor at the Financial Times) tapped her foot and bobbed her head to the music. The clothes matched the soundtrack in every way. Done in bright neons and stamped with rows of random letters that looked like an ethnic print from afar, it was every Color Me Bad fan’s dream. The rainbow colored necklaces were also jumbled alphabets, and everything was paired with the wedge sneakers. All D&G needed this afternoon were arms full of slap bracelets. That would have put my inner 7-year-old over the moon.
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Texture
Hair by Dimitrios Tsioumas. Makeup by Jill Halouska.. Photography by Babak, www.babak.ca. -> p.52
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WOWZA Model: Alla Frost, self-portrait.
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I, ROBOT
WOWZA 3D by Vladislav Ociacia.
CitroĂŤn Survolt
2011 Shanghai Auto Show Citroen revealed a new concept car at the Geneva Motor Show: the Citroen Survolt Concept. Based rather clearly on the sexy Citroen Revolte, the Survolt is a pink-trimmed, black-andbold concept supercar. Because the car runs on battery power alone it is classed as a zero-emissions vehicle.
The Survolt is 3.85 metres (12.63 feet) long, 1.87 metres (6.14 feet) wide and 1.20 metres (3.94 feet) high and features an irreverent design with the front dominated by the vehicle’s badge located above the large oval-shaped grille.
The car has horizontal LED headlamps which have lower power consumption than traditional filament bulbs, important in a battery-operated vehicle. At the back the Survolt maintains the light cluster design used on the REVOLTe, and has a spoiler to increase rear downforce.
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Mercedes-Benz SLS
2011 Geneva Auto Show Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-CELL, which has been confirmed for production and will be the first ever all battery-powered vehicle from AMG. The electric supercar is being produced as part of Mercedes-Benz’s “AMG Performance 2015 strategy, which aims to continually reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Power for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-CELL comes from 4 synchronous electric motors, each positioned near to the wheels.
All motors have combined output of 526-hp with a maximum torque of 649 lb-ft. With one transmission per axle transmitting power, the green supercar goes from 0-62 mph 4 seconds with a top speed of 155 mph. How many miles does the SLS AMG E-CELL get on a full charge? Mercedes-Benz says less than 90 miles depending on how you drive.
Lola Photographer Styling Hair Styling Hair Assistant Make-Up Digital Art Prop Styling Model
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Mario Miotti www.mariomiotti.com Alexis Honce www.alexishonce.com Brennen Demelo www.fordmodels.com Rose Huggett Neil Schmidt www.neilschmidt.ca Dominique Fraser www.sublim.com Jeanie Lee www.plutinogroup.com Alla Frost www.allafrost.com
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2011 TOURS IN CANADA With her, in out opinion, best album of 2011, Taylor Momsen and her band The Pretty Reckless killed it at a rock club Tattoo in Toronto. Bright future ahead! Photos by Rebecca H.
UPCOMING HOT SUMMER TOURS Rihanna: Loud Tour with special guests B.O.B. and J. Cole
Toronto Air Canada Centre JUN6-7, Montreal Centre Bell Centre JUN10-11, Winnipeg MTS Centre JUN18, Saskatoon Credit Union Centre JUN19, Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome JUN21, Edmonton Rexall Place JUN22, Vancouver Rogers Arena JUN24.
U2 360 Tour
Toronto Rogers Centre JUL12, Winnipeg Canad Inns Stadium MAY29, Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium JUN1, Montreal Hippodrome JUL 8-9, Moncton Magnetic Hill Music Festival JUL30.
Kiss
Orilla Casino Rama JUL26 , Windsor The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor JUL27.
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Britney Spears with Nicki Minaj, Jessie and the Toy Boys, and Nervo Toronto Air Canada Centre AUG13-14, Vancouver Rogers Arena JUL1, Winnipeg MTS Centre JUL4, Montreal Bell Centre AUG11.
MUST DO
The first of its kind in North America, EdgeWalk is the world’s highest full circle hands-free walk on a 5 ft (1.5 m) wide ledge encircling the top of the CN Tower’s main pod, 356m, (1168 ft , 116 stories) above the ground. This adrenalin-fueled experience will allow thrill seekers to walk the edge of one of the world’s greatest man-made wonders beginning summer 2011. Adventure lovers will walk “hands-free” in groups of six to eight, while attached to an overhead safety rail via a trolley and harness system. Trained EdgeWalk guides will encourage visitors to push their personal limits, allowing those who dare to lean back over Toronto, with nothing but air beneath them. Everyone who meets the stipulated requirements (height and weight parameters) will be welcome to experience these breathtaking open-air views of Toronto and Lake Ontario. Every aspect of EdgeWalk, from design, to build, to attraction logistics and operation has been developed with the utmost safety and security in mind. The entire experience will run 1.5 hours, with the walk itself lasting between 20 to 30 minutes. “We think it’s fitting that Toronto’s newest attraction in 18 years should be at the city’s most defining landmark,” said Mark Laroche, President and CEO, Canada Lands Company, Owner and Operator of the CN Tower. “EdgeWalk is both thrilling and unique and will push visitors to their limits – literally and figuratively. This will be among Toronto’s, if not the world’s, greatest attractions.”
WOWZA
Issue#1 Preview Read it FREE in it’s entirety:
wowzamagazine.com/wowza-issues
twitter.com/allafrost
Wowza Magazine
facebook.com/pages/Wowza-Magazine/120109258060267
wowzamagazine.com
www.WowzaMagazine.com
MAGAZINE
WOWZA
Issue#1!
EVERYTHING THAT’S A VISUAL ‘WOW’ SUMMER 2011
the mixture of
CANADIAN
TALENT
LG Fashion Week
ISSN 1925-8291 (Online)
SHOCK VALUE
the potential of an image