Promoted Work: Trembl

Trembl is a digital label that pairs music and photography; each single released is accompanied by a series of photographs.

The music has two threads, Beats and Textures; it's quite experimental and at times quite beautiful. This isn't Pitchfork so I'm not going to give you a rated review of it (I like it); the thing that really interests me is the combination of music and photography.

You can stream all of the music from their main site as well as see examples of the images that come with each EP; I also recommend following them on Tumblr & Soundcloud (or Facebook if that's your thing).

You can support them by buying their music and they also have an Indiegogo campaign if you want to support them more directly.

Promoted Work: Bless Your Heart by Grant Ellis - Kickstarter

Grant Ellis is an American photographer from Cleveland, a town right in the heart of the Mississippi Delta; now shooting in New York, he would like to return in the summer and continue a project that he's been developing for several years.

Bless Your Heart only has a couple of days to go and his goal is within touching distance. If you have an interest in the Deep South then go and give him your support. He has some work up from his previous trips here.

Promoted Work: The Quiet Front - Book 1

The Quiet Front started out as a collection of the photography that I find most compelling - it’s the type of work that is at odds with convention; it’s provocative; it’s beautiful; I was and still am completely obsessed with it.

The site has grown over the last two years; it has benefited from a few good links but mostly from the steady accumulation of people who find it and stick around. There are a lot of people who share this obsession and this site is now a lot bigger than just me.

I now want to push this into being more than just a reflection of the work that is already out there, I also want it to be a catalyst for artists and photographers to do the work they love.

There are some fantastic artists committed to Book 1.

On Creative Freedom

Artists shouldn’t be told what to do; they should be able to do whatever the fuck they want without any regard for anything but their own vision.

On Contributing Artists

The contributing artists are going come from the pages of this blog; some of the photographers are well established but I’m also going to make point of choosing artists that aren’t well known - there really is no point in making these books if I’m not risking it on the young. There is nothing more exciting than seeing new artists come up. I’m also going to make a point of showing artists from all over the world.

For now the books won’t be open for submissions but that may change in the future

On Paying Artists

Each book is going to be limited to a few artists and the lion’s share of the budget is going to go directly to them; as the publication grows, so too will their budget.

On Design

There is no design; nothing is going to get in the way of the work. Don’t expect fancy title pages or credits all over the images (they’ll be tucked away at the end of each set).

On Digital vs Print

There are obvious advantages to both of these mediums; digital books mean we can dedicate a much larger portion of the budget for artists and physical books have an intrinsic beauty. We’re going to stick to digital in the beginning and at the end of each year we’ll collect the work into a high quality physical book.

On Platforms

We’re on our own; this is mostly because of the overbearing restrictions of all the major platforms. A lot of the work is going to be provocative and will be subject to either outright censorship or the passive censorship of simply making your work impossible to find. There is also the issue of DRM which is a clusterfuck all round. The books will be DRM-free and sold directly from this site using Squarespace’s built in commerce.

On Pricing 

I am still weighing the cost of the books. We are not going to cater to the broadest market and advertising / sponsorships are never going to be an option. I want to try to get the right balance between offering good value to the audience and also supporting the artists and this site.

The blog will always remain free.

On How and When

I am finalising the contributors for Book 1 and putting together an Indiegogo campaign which should go up in a few weeks time. (We can't use Kickstarter because of regional restrictions - I run this site from Cape Town)

 

I would love feed back on this project; if you have any ideas or comments then hit me @thequietfront.

If you would like to keep posted on the release then you can subscribe here:

Promoted Work: Mike Shulhan

Mike Shulhan is a photographer from Calgary, Canada. The work that first caught my attention was his wonderful series of Johanna; his work is very versatile and accomplished. He does it all with very little retouching (maybe even none) which is something that I really admire - for me, it gives a much stronger connection to the subject.

You can find his portfolio site here and you can also follow him on Tumblr.

Mike shoots some great portraits:

And beautiful landscapes:

Promoted Work: White Noise White Shores

A lot of people think I'm a luddite because I often go on rants about digital editing; I actually don't have a problem with technology, I just have a problem with the visual equivalents of Auto-Tune.

White Noise White Shores is a project where new-school 3D technology meets old-school photography; the models was shot with a series of still photographs which where then stitched together into a 3D model.

I like this project because these are guys pushing what they can do by collaborating with their different mediums and stripping the process bare so we can see inside.

Per Zennstrom's work can be found here. Thorsten Jasper Weese is a managing partner of recom.

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Promoted Work: Reality Project

I've got a thing; if you spend any time on this site then you wouldn't have much difficulty unpacking just what that thing is but I still respect people for doing their thing; this is a project I am going to get behind even if it does walk down a different path. 

Reality Project is the work of two photographers, Alex & Teo, from Milan who shoot natural women in their every day worlds; it's a refreshingly honest search for beauty.