Lado Alexi's Hauntingly Beautiful Amazones.

Russian-born and German-based fashion and beauty photographer Lado Alexi has many stunning images to his credit. His impressive clients include Vogue, Estee Lauder, Swarovski, YSL, Tush Beauty, Triumph Lingerie, HYPE and Icon Magazine to name a few. But his series of portraits titled Amazones II blends beauty with incredible makeup and styling for such hauntingly gothic portraits, I wanted to share them with you here.



Used on the cover and in a Fall 2011 editorial called Witchcraft in HYPE Magazine, the model is Yulia Petrova, with stunning make-up by Loni Baur, hair by Karim Amerchih and fabulously styled by Nadia Rath who frequently works with Alexi. Only 6 of the 7 images (all shown here) from the series were used in the publication.








In a brief interview with Art+Commerce, Lado answers a few key questions about his photography and inspiration:

What interested you about becoming a photographer?
– Strong interest in film and fashion. The fascination of capturing mechanically time and the visual power one single image can develop. As a son of actress and a doctor in Moscow photography was a good way to reflect the world around.

Where do you find inspiration to make your photographs?
– Mostly in cinema - but also art, music and daily observation. Sometimes also a certain mood, or thing that happen in the world.

What do you most like to photograph?
– Faces and people.

Who are your favorite photographers?
– Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, NIck Knight and many more.

See more of Lado Alexi's beautiful photography here.

Pets Rock. Takkoda's Cast of Characters and New Calendars for 2013.

The word "Takkoda" is derived from the Sioux word meaning ‘friend to all’. The company with the same name was created because of their love of animals and because they see pets as big personalities.

Takkoda is all about funny images of our favorite friends. They photograph real pets in their homes and capture their natural expressions in their natural state! Later they develop their characters by dressing them up digitally to bring out their iconic personalities. They don't dress them up for real silly!

For 2013, they've got both a PETS ROCK wall calendar and desk calendar available:

The 2013 PETS ROCK Wall Calendar:







The 2013 PETS ROCK Desk Calendar:






Here's their entire cast of characters, available on mugs, coasters, cards, homewares, clothing and more:






Shop for these and many other items here.

Photographer Alejandro Cartagena Captures Car Poolers In Mexico.

The Car Poolers in Mexico is a project by photographer Alejandro Cartagena that takes a peek into the world of flatbed trucks that carry Mexican workers to their jobs. Shown last week at Kopeikin Gallery's booth at Miami Project (and earlier this summer at the Kopeikin Gallery), the photographs reveal intimate glimpses of laborers in the beds of the trucks, heading to or from the massive, low-quality housing complexes being built close to the country's border with the U.S.


above: The winner of the 2012 International Street Photography Award, Cartagena stands in front of his Car Poolers series the show's exhibit in London. (photo by Maciej Dakowicz)


The images, most of which were taken in Monterrey, have been honored in respected photography competitions for documenting some of the more obscure details in the life of a day laborer.

Below are 14 images from the project:








Prints on photorag cotton, paper edition of 10+4AP.
images courtesy of the photographer.


See all 30 photos from the project at  Kopeikin Gallery.

The photographer's own site.

A Monopoly Makeover By Artist and Designer Matthew Hollet.

Unlike the modernization of the original MONOPOLY board game by Hasbro, MONOPOLY REVOLUTION, ONOPO is a conceptual re-imagining of the iconic American board game by visual artist and web designer Matthew Hollet.


above: The ONOPO board. The visual echo between the three Os in the original game title and the groups of three spaces on the board inspired my design. The original game presented plenty of opportunity for distilling the design down to an iconographic system representing its basic mechanics.

In an attempt to simplify and clarify the game system, he removed the thematic metaphors (such as place names) and other non-essential elements. Inspired by abstract strategy games, he then designed a minimal iconographic system which uses as little language as possible.


above: Property cards from ONOPO. All text on the original cards has been translated into an iconographic system. The symbols for different types of spaces were designed so that each of these cards would have a bisected circle centered at the top.

Matt says "I enjoy designing and working with systems, and this project was an exercise in consistency and constraint." The name is partly a reduction of the original and partly an homage to Oulipo, the "workshop for potential literature."


above: Instructional cards and bills from ONOPO. The instructional cards were the most challenging part of the game to translate visually for Matt. One constraint he gave himself was to using the same size board, cards and bills as the original. He thought of the project as a re-skinning of the game rather than a complete redesign. Leaving certain remnants of the original also makes the project easier to understand at a glance. For that same reason,he used mostly similar colours.

descriptions, images and quotes courtesy of Matthew Hollet 

If you never saw Hasbro's own modern version of the game, below are some images of Monolopy Revolution Edition which is available to purchase:





Buy MONOPOLY Revolution here

A Shoe Lovers' Holiday Fantasy. Red-Soled Christmas Trees For Christian Louboutin Boutiques.

Shoe lovers and Foot Fetishists will delight in these designer Christmas Trees. Studio XAG has created fabulous red-soled Christmas Trees inspired by Christian Louboutin's classic Pigalle spike-heeled pumps that are featured in the windows and interiors of the Christian Louboutin boutiques in Paris and Geneva. As admirers of the brand know, the red sole is an attribute of the luxury label's stunning shoes.



A cast of the brand's classic Pigalle shoe served as the bulk of the design for the trees:








Each red-soled tree is topped with a sparkly Pigalle open-toed pump in various colors as the 'star':



The trees in the windows are set against mirrored backdrops and rotate for the full effect:


photos (some cropped) by Susie Rea, courtesy of Studio XAG