Irving Penn: Photographing a cake can be art

 The brilliant  fashion photographer Irving Penn said,  "Photographing a cake can be art." Much is made of the phrase 'a true genius' and is too often over used. In terms of the development of fashion photography, "true genius' rightly applies to Irving Penn. He changed the way we saw the world, and our perception of what is beautiful.   He went on from black and white to color. Women to  still life. 

Irving Penn can single-handedly be credited with elevating fashion photography to an art form  .  His pictures often appeared in the pages of Vogue. And  shooting up to his last days. Penn frequently stressed the ephemeral nature of life by bringing out interesting flaws and impurities in his subjects, such as wrinkles, hairs, or dirt, which would have gone unnoticed on cluttered, distraction , or ornate backgrounds. He said,  "Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world. Very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe."  Irving Penn, 1917-2009. RIP.

Irving Penn at a photo shoot with a New Guinea mud man and his child in 1972. 

All sources acknowledged. Do let me know if you need any changes.

Beauty by a Thousand Cuts

 Paper cuts and eyelids.  Would you utter two phrases in the same sentence? I doubt it.   But  Ting yu Wang has created intricately cut paper eyelashes that blends elements of traditional culture with contemporary design.

As delicate as lace, each pair of lashes is based on the Chinese art of jian zi, or paper cutting. They feature traditional motifs such as peonies (for happiness),  peach blossoms (romance)  and horses (success) .

Practical or not ? I leave it to fashionistas . But from a point of design, innovation and attention to details, I admire Ting yu Wang for his inspirational  craft.

 

 

Happy Republic Day: Patent Number 3,192,863: Blood Pump and Artificial Heart

For an  Indian,  Republic Day is no  Army Day. Or  Air Force Day.  Or Navy Day. Or  even Independence  Day.   In fact on the list  of  Indian holiday makers get excited  over Republic Day  because  it’s  right between  our previous working day and the next working day. And while those are all fine traditions,  patriotism  and love for our country, but we  rarely get thrilled  about making  a difference for our motherland .

So, in an effort to  show  that I too am a robot,  what better way for an Indian  to celebrate Republic  Day than with Patent Number 3,192,863: Blood Pump and Artificial Heart? 

 India! You really get my heart pumping!

~Sunil, R2D2, Astromech Droid.

Where the mind is without fear

~Rabindiranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic wars;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action -

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

 

Language: Hindi

Happy 62nd Republic Day, India!



Client: Times of India

Ad Agency: Umbrella Design

Creative Director/ Art Director: Bhupal Ramnathkar

Producer:  Sanjay Sure

Copywriter: Sunil Shibad

Tips for Indians to win an Oscar award

Sure, plenty of brilliant actors have been nominated and won the Oscar because they were the right person for the right part. But, if the rejections from the ‘Lagaan year’ have decreased your patience level to zero, here are quick, easy and time-tested ways to get the nod in a hurry and dramatically improve your chances of winning. Not just that Indians will have something to brag about and live in reflected glory for the next decade.

Step 1: Though American media and people refer to  celebrities as citizens of  a country called  Los  Fruitcake Angel Dust,  all denizens of Hollywood  have earned degrees in  BS (Bachelor of Shit ), MS (Master of Shit), PhD  (Piled Higher and Deeper) from Buffalo University, don’t fall for your own bull-crap and underestimate Hollywood .  

Has any Hollywood actor, director or producer entered Filmfare, Screen and assorted Indian film awards? No? Just accept it.   Don’t shout from  the roofs that the world audience love Bollywood. How did the American diplomatic corps describe India? “ Self-proclaimed permanent UN security council nation.”  Pride cometh before the fall. 

See: Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Peepli: Live

Step 2:   Write a script keeping Americans in mind. Specifically, Los Angeles. Forget India. Who in America understands cricket?  Americans often describe cricket as baseball on Valium. Do Indians understand American football and baseball?  Americas are into sprinting and jogging.

See: Lagaan, Chariots Of Fire, Marathon Man.

Step 3:  Don’t fall for the trap of Best Foreign Language Film Oscar award. You’ll be pigeonholed as a foreign film actor or director. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Kindly read the rules. Carefully.

“Every country is invited to submit what it considers its best film to the Academy. The designation of each country's official submission has to be done by an organization, jury or committee composed of people from the film industry, whose members' names must be sent to the Academy. Only one film is accepted from each country. The Foreign Language Film Award is not given to a specific individual but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole.”

Just one film represents one billion Indians.

 If you want to protest, don’t submit an entry. Take the Foreign Language Film Oscar award or leave it.  

See:  Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Lagaan and Devdas.

Step 4: Don’t rip off Hollywood films and then expect to win an Oscar Award. See Step One. They will dig up the original film and then reject you for plagiarizing the idea. Your “inspiration” excuse is just shooting yourself in the foot.

See: Rang De Basanti (Jesus of Montreal), Peepli: Live. ( Ace In The Hole) .

Step 5: Get a foreign director even though script is about India. But think big. Get Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Danny Boyle, Francis Ford Coppola,  or Steven Soderbergh to sign on the dotted line. Keep your distance  from  John Woo, Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-Liang. Too close. Living on the same continent.  

See: Gandhi, Slumdog Millionaire  

Step 6: Avoid a female foreign director or scriptwriter.  As an Indian, you may be find it astonishing that it has taken more than 80 years for a woman to win the Best Director Oscar.  Hollywood is male dominated.  There is a good reason why the Statue of Liberty is on the East Coast and not on the West Coast. 

See: Hurt Locker, The Piano, Lost In Translation.

Step  7: Don’t feel smug.  Compared to Hollywood, Bollywood male artists act like Taliban war lords.  With a Bollywood mindset, you’ll never win an Oscar. You’ll cast a 45- year-old artist to portray the angst of a   23-year-old college student.   At best, your gaffe will provide comic relief to the judges.   

See: Driving Miss Daisy, On Golden Pond, Blue Sky, Million Dollar Baby, The Reader.

Step 8: Biopic is a good bet. How about Mother Theresa? Buddha?  Their biopic will be universally understood. Bonus  to  title the movie with the individual you are portraying.

See: Gandhi, Erin Brockovich, Ray, Patton.

Step 9: A production company from Hollywood allows you to enter the Academy Awards in as many categories. Even though it is about India or by an Indian.

  

See: Unbreakable, Gandhi, Elizabeth.

Step 10: Star a handicapped or mentally ill character.   Disability induces massive guilt in judges.   Even though a brave, courageous person came over any disability, never use him/her as an actor. Hollywood studios market star power very well but in subtle ways.

See:  My Left Foot, Coming Home, Ray, Rain Man, Forrest Gump, And A Beautiful Mind. Scent Of A Woman, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

Step 11: Just like women who veer toward bad boys and men who seek out trophy wives, the Academy Awards jury go for handicapped or mentally ill character, you relentlessly pursue insensitivity.  Urban Indians have their strong points too. How about two paedophiliacs cannibalizing 100 innocent girls?   A poor farmer selling a 10-year-old girl to a 60-year-old man for 50 bucks?  Female foeticide ?  Filching kidneys from the impoverished and selling it to the rich?  No need to make the film. Academy Award jury will get anxiety attacks just reading you script.  But get graphic when writing your screenplay. In fact, the judges will fund your movie  to get over their PTSD (Post-Traumatic Screenplay Disorder ) you triggered.

See: Anything going on in India not covered by mainstream media.

Step 12: Banish “method acting” “, “perfectionist”, “sensitivity, “passion” and assorted words from your Bollywood filmmaking vocabulary.  Quit being a poseur. See Step One.

 Remember you are dealing with an actor who did his own makeup and used cotton balls to simulate the puffed-cheek look. An actor who gained 55 pounds and learned how to box to bring the real-life story of boxer Jake La Motta to the screen. An actress, who gained 30 pounds, shaved her eyebrows and wore prosthetic teeth to play female serial killer Aileen Wuronos.

A director, who was so obsessive about getting the camera right, often filming scenes over a 100 times. A director’s eyesight had deteriorated almost completely by the time principal photography began and he could only frame shots with the help of assistants, who used his storyboard paintings as guidelines. A director of a legendary rockumentary was airbrushed out in the infamous cocaine drop hanging from a rock. He also directed for free.

See: Marlon Brando (The Godfather), Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Charlize Theron (Monster), Stanley Kubrick (The Shining), Akira Kurosawa (Ran), Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz). 

  

Step 13:  Stinginess is raised to an art form in India but not in Hollywood. In their drug haze or busy stepping in and out of rehab, Hollywood stars donate millions of dollars. Not just for some publicity stunt or photo-ops.  Why do you think no Bollywood actor to date has made an Oscar acceptance speech? What goes around come around.

See: All Hollywood celebrities.

Step 14:  If nothing works, make a statue and  call it "The Aamir". Get all your Bollywood hangers- on to organize a mini Academy award ceremony. And get one of them to present The Aamir to you.

See: Aamir Khan

Step 15: Still in clinical depression after winning The Aamir for Best Actor? Even your dog is tired of you and barking at you?  Then go back in time when India made great Hindi films. Get inspired. Forget winning an Oscar award. Follow in the footsteps of legendary actors, producers, directors and music composers to make art for art’s sake.

See: Mother India, Pakeezah, Barsaat, Naya Daur, Guide, Pyasaa, Deewar, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Nishaant, Saraansh, Sholay, Aradhana, Mere Apne, Mausam, Koshish, Junoon, Vijyeta, Jane Bi Do Yaaron. Aashirwad.

~Sunil Shibad.  All Lefts Reserved to Hollywood. All Rights Reserved to India. All Center Reserved to me.

Vintage letterheads of famous actors, singers and directors

 A year after I posted about   Letterheady,  the fantastic website run by Shaun Usher showcasing interesting letterhead designs, mainly legendary artist, politicians, scientists and corporations, I find Letterheady  is still going strong.  Its collection is delightfully getting bigger.  This time I have picked out a few actors, musicians and directors. I just see in my mind's eye  the days before email, Facebook and Twitter. Charlie Chaplin taking the to send me a hand-written letter. What better example of humility? Here  are  some of  my favorites. And for those who don’t know the names I have listed below , I can just quote the great Groucho Marx: “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”

Groucho Marx, 1961

Charlie Chaplin, 1967

Michael Jackson, date unknown

Steven Spielberg, 1982

Marilyn Monroe Productions, 1962

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1989

 

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong,  date unknown.

Steve McQueen, 1969

Johnny Cash’s personal letterhead, date unknown

Letterhead used by Freddie Mercury in 1973, the year Queen’s debut album was released.
Queen, 1973 

James Dean, 1955

Marlene Dietrich, date unknown

The characters to the left of the taijitu translate as ’Using no way as way’, whilst those on the right read ‘Having no limitation as limitation’.

 Bruce Lee , 1968

In the early-1970s, legendary  artist Frank Frazetta was asked by Bo Derek and her husband, John, to design the letterhead for their new production company: Svengali Productions. This stunning rough sketch, in which a nude Bo Derek acts as svengali to an unidentified male puppet below, was one of Frazetta’s preliminary ideas. 

Svengali Productions., c 1970

Elvis Presley, 1965

 

Harpo Marx, 1930

 

Aged just 8 in 1936, Shirley Temple already had her own letterhead. And an Oscar.
Shirley Temple, 1936

 

Jean Harlow, 1934

Madonna, 1994

TCB Band of Elvis, 1969

"The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and The Range:

BRUCE HORNSBY-THE WAY IT IS
Uploaded by pierrot77. - See the latest featured music videos.

The  song's discussion of the troubled economy and race relations resonated with the American public and it remains Hornsby's best known song. Beautiful.  Not only pleasant to listen  but thought provoking.  The chorus presents several lines insisting that social ills are "just the way it is", and repeatedly suggests resigning oneself to them as a fact of life. However, the chorus ends with the  Bruce Hornsby rebukes this attitude by insisting "ah, but don't you believe them."   

The Way It Is

~ Bruce  Hornsby And The Range. 1986

Standing in line marking time--
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says "Get a job"

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
But don't you believe them

They say hey little boy you can't go
Where the others go
'Cause you don't look like they do
Said hey old man how can you stand
To think that way
Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules
He said, Son

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
But don't you believe them

Well they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
Because the law another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
But don't you believe them

Resolutions? You? Well as far I’m concerned you’re perfect the way you are

Resolution? You? Just what are people implying? That you need to change? Well, as far I’m concerned you’re perfect the way you are.

Happy 2011  and I wish the best for every day for the next 365 days.

Initially. I had mailed all New Year’s greetings and not many appreciated my wry sense of humor  it.   But to paraphrase Douglas Adams:

“Sunil  is  a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher . Or, as the digerati  , would have it, an idiot.”

I empathize with James Joyce’s last words:

“Does nobody understand?"

WikiLeaks exposes your unalienable right to be happy in 2011.

To be what you want to be.

To smile, cry, laugh, sad, worried, joyous or what you want to be.

Julian Assange has shown a video on the day of your birth all around you celebrated.

Since then Big Brother has tried to put you under complete surveillance by his authorities but you have successfully escaped his propaganda of misery and pain .

Time and again.

In fact, Big Brother and the powers that be have surrendered to you and agree they will dance all through 2011 along with you.

~Sunil Shibad

Reporter At Large , Mischievous and Prankster

Mumbai, India.