(afternoon?) delight

from "on the street....big bad plaid, bowery. january 5, 2009. photo by the sartorialist.

some days i miss living on the lower east side...

getting up early on a saturday, and heading over to the essex street market to say hello to ms. anne saxelby (and getting schooled on american farmstead cheeses. personal favorites: brebis blanche. the grayson. and mmm the mecox sunrise...) and sir jeffrey, of jeffery's meat market (where kids can get a pig's foot for free). or skipping over to my favorite "appetizing shop" so that i could create a little herring smorgasbord at home...

this "big bad plaid, bowery" photo brought back some nice memories.

i really like the light here (does it look like afternoon to you?) and his hands-in-pockets (thumbs out).

*******

i've not been following the sartorialist for very long, but i'm definitely hooked. one of the things i've been curious about is how he approaches his subjects.

i found reuel golden's interview with him, re-posted on pdnonline (it was one of their top 40 online stories of 2008). he sheds a little light:

Tell me a little about the shooting process.

It's pretty quick. If I'm in New York, I will pick a certain area to roam, downtown, or Williamsburg or Harlem, and then head out with a Canon 5D and a 50mm lens. If I spot someone whose outfit I like I will maybe walk a half block behind him or her, and then try and stop him or her in a place that will make a good picture. You can tell from person to person who is in to it and will give you time and who just wants you to take the shot. As I've become more known it's become a lot easier. I generally don't pose them too much or move them away from the place that I stopped them.

What about the editing?

I don't shoot a lot and I'm picky about what I put up. In a very good day I'll get five shots, but most of the time maybe two or three. The biggest challenge is trying to look at the photos that I've got and then thinking how do I spread it out so I can have people constantly returning from the site. I look at where I've been and try and mix it up with different neighborhoods and getting different looks. It's not all about bespoke. Right now I've got a lot of high end fashion from the shows in Milan and Paris, so I can really put in some street style in there.

it suddenly seems ok to have a little "stalker" in me.

here's a link to the entire (albeit brief) interview. there are some good tips for folks who want to try to market their blogs to a wider audience (calla style? film snobs?)...

street chic and hollywood glam

photo via the sartorialist, may 2007.

"on the street.....pixie, sodermalm stockholm."

posted may 11 at 8:00 am.

when i'm too too distracted or brain-numbed to read (or write), i troll design blogs and fashion sites for inspiration--not so much for fashion inspiration (while i do love looking at how the gals on street chic and the sartorialist combine colors, choose accessories, layer upon layer, that kind of unstudied chic or high style is not something i am apt [read: able] to mimic) but for pure, romantic, creative jolts.

the actual photos are glorious for light and color. i love that some are charmingly posed, others discreetly snapped...

it's lovely escapism.

i can imagine the kiss of an autumn breeze in paris...

the sartorialist via style.com september 30, 2008

or happily growing old in milan...

via the sartorialist, style.com, september 25, 2008.

i can witness "a moment"...

via the sartorialist at style.com, september 27, 2008.

i look at the backgrounds, the locations, and am reminded of my trip to france earlier this year and some of the things i loved: luxurious afternoons and evenings in outdoor cafes... blue-grey sky enriched by triumphant afternoon sun...mopeds and cool architecture... trees...windy strolls about the eiffel tower...crepes...

and sometimes from these blogs, i can uncover something new.

last week, i noticed the teaser for a post called "depression era beauties" that featured a famous george hurrell glamour shot of of jean harlow, and when i clicked through the accompanying slideshow, i fell in love with these photos of my favorite actresses:

myrna loy

carole lombard

i looked at the credits to note the names of the photographers, and found that more than a few were from the collection of john kobal. and i wondered, who is he?

it turns out he was a writer, film historian and the premier collector of hollywood film photography. if you read the bio on his foundation's website, you'll see he's basically a film superfan, who smartly amassed movie memorabilia, surely believing that others would share his obsession, and their preservation would be of eventual value to film historians and photographers.

there is a "made in hollywood" exhibition, featuring 90 vintage prints by some of the most important film photographers from the 1930s-60s that will open in may 2009, at the knoxville museum of art in knoxville, TN.

for a bit more context, check out this la times piece, first published in august 2008, when the exhibit opened in santa barbara.

exhibition "travel details" here.

and for a peek at photos from the accompanying book, "the glamour of the gods," visit newsweek's gallery.