seen but not heard

Monday, April 11, 2011

sakura, sweet spots and secret societies

Some may have mistaken my lack of posting on the blogways for my having misplaced my camera in the move. The truth of the matter is I've been stockpiling semi-dramatic reveals, some wildly belated, to make it look like more as I've been hard at work... doing design work... I know, I know, I am a stranger to myself these days. And aside from a few photo jobs, I've been missing having my camera in hand regularly, makes me itchy. Since it has been monopolizing my time of late, and I really enjoyed working on it - I'd like to share the video I worked on at Marcolina Design for Adobe - a teaser video for their soon-to-be-released watercolor painting app for iPad, Eazel. The video just went up on Photoshop.com today (scroll down a little to see the video)!

Also on a semi-design-related note, a few of my images are included in this book now available on Amazon, which is an ode to photographic typography:

Honestly, if you do want to buy it, wait a bit, they mis-credited one of my favorite images and said that in the next printing it will run corrected, soon!

Early this year Lensbaby asked me to give their recently released Sweet 35 Optic a beta-test drive and make some images to use in their press kit and their online gallery. I had never used any of their lenses before so I was very curious to see how it felt. Since their lenses force you to relinquish a lot of control generally speaking - the pivoting ball joint in the lens allow you to change the sweet spot of focus in the midst of distortion and blur - and I am a bit of a control freak, it was definitely an intriguing and challenging experience. I actually made some images I really love with some of my favorite people.

model: sonja robson (who, in a roundabout way, introduced me to Thyme House - where we shot- and Grey Gardens via a play she starred in written by her husband back in 2006 I think?)

a few small repairs © Laura Kicey

making an entrance © Laura Kicey

passage © Laura Kicey

silver gardens © Laura Kicey

model: daniel s - long-time friend

protection © Laura Kicey

amber waves © Laura Kicey

model: katie m - my intriguing neighbor and friend who has a fascinating collection of antiquities and ancient paraphenalia

quarry © Laura Kicey

hothouse flower © Laura Kicey

novella © Laura Kicey

and the first image I made, a self-portrait

barren © Laura Kicey

I had had a fashion-shaped hole in my photographic heart for many months, and I had been longing to do a lookbook... and what should happen upon me but one of my favorite creative co-conspirators, Sarah Beaver, with a plot: she had decided to design a line a jewelry and she wished for me to photograph a lookbook and product shots for her etsy shop and blogs.

She describes the line:

The initial collection of jewelry is inspired by secret societies: The Free Masons, Shriner's, and Odd Fellows. As well as sculptors of both marble and wood: Constantin Brancusi, Mark Lindquist, and Isamu Noguchi. All of the components in these pieces are recycled, dead-stock parts combined with small-scale artisan-crafted new materials.

Sarah also did the wardrobe styling for the shoot, along with model Sarah MM and makeup and hair by April Al-Zahrani. Visit the shop we never sleep

Eye of Providence Necklace © Laura Kicey

Shriners Fez Necklace © Laura Kicey

Shriners Fez Necklace © Laura Kicey

Odd Fellowship Necklace © Laura Kicey

Jewel of the Order Necklace © Laura Kicey

Odd Fellowship Necklace © Laura Kicey

Jewel of the Order Earrings © Laura Kicey

Supreme Forest Necklace © Laura Kicey

Eye of Providence Necklace © Laura Kicey

This last weekend saw the much anticipated arrival of actual concrete Spring weather (followed immediately by very SUMMER weather today) and coincidentally the annual Sakura Festival which goes down in the Japanese Garden of Fairmount Park West, which I had never been to at any time of year prior. I would like to return (today would have been ideal!) to see the park in fullest bloom and sans people. I arrived a bit later in the afternoon, in time to miss the awkward cosplay and harajuku fashion shows, I also skipped the food and vendors. Really the number one reason to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival after you are done admiring the cherry blossoms themselves would be to see the Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance group perform. They were amazing and clearly having a really great time putting on a beautiful show. I'll leave you with some images of their performance:

Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey

Labels: adobe, daniel, lensbaby, philadelphia, philly, photography, publicity, winter, work

Monday, January 24, 2011

moving and shivering

It has been nearly 8 years since I last moved. It didn't really count when I moved to the apartment across the hall in the same house. This move is only slightly further by about 5 blocks, but a greater leap in that I actually have to process stuff that hasn't seen the light of day in that long. A lot of weird history has shaken loose along with some corroded batteries stuck to the bottom of every drawer I get to the bottom of (who keeps old dead batteries? me, it seems). I've found emails printed out from 2000-2003 which were strangely enlightening. And photographs of a girl I hardly recognized: me.

Though 2010 ended with a mostly quiet thud, 2011 has been going splendidly. Like, unbelievably well. Besides moving into The Most Amazing House Ever with Goldberg in a couple weeks, so many other cool things have been happening– most of which I can't discuss yet and I can't release the visuals yet (in time!). Instead I will leave you with some quick snaps of my fabulous house-to-be by night (only the downstairs but the rest is as colorful) and some images from a very recent revisiting of Thyme House last week for a (top secret) portrait session. I finally got to see the entire house (well - there are still undiscovered rooms unfolding behinds its endless doors, half floors and labyrinthine stairs) much to my delight. The contrast of these two houses - both empty is a bit jarring, but one is much more livable in the present tense, the other, I remain hopeful for...

Just before the year came to a close - I had the opportunity to see a live performance of a group that has haunted me since my youth – Mummenschanz – as well as photograph them and write a review of the show for Philly Weekly