Photography, video/film development and advertising from the same people who create this magazine – under one roof in Stony Hill, Jamaica.

http://first-studio.net/
Tel: +876.756.2893

Remember that girl in grade 6 who’s head you used to pound with chalkbrush erasers?

The one with the funny name whose lunch smelled.

The geek who would sit alone in the corner of the cafeteria, eating fried bologna and chocolate milk; stopping every now and then to peer nervously over her thick Coca-Cola bottle eyeglasses as if on constant alert for any incoming spitballs?

Remember her?

You flung mud at her once and poisoned her goldfish that she brought in for ‘Pet Day’–then laughed when she tried to revive it with mouth-to-mouth.

That’s how she got the name Fishlips.

Ah, that nerdy girl…even if you don’t remember her, she remembers you.

If you liked this, check:

March 26: Oreinthia Russell
March 12: Sabina
February 26: The Quiet Racquel Jones
February 19: Candice McCalla X Lime Cay
February 12: Bianca Carr
Also… The Girl Next Door is Dead (with Cindy Wright)
Not forgetting… Yendi Phillips
Racquel again… The Devil and Miss Jones

Every now and then a photographer shows up on the radar that just makes you wonder what the hell he/she was thinking. This time around we can blame the Swiss. His name is David Houncheringer.

Like many working photographers, Houncheringer applies his imagery to several areas including advertising, editorial and video but it was a particular series titled ‘Would you like to die today?’ that had special appeal to us.

From a Columbine-type school shooting to a hunter caught in a bear trap, the images from Die? series are instantly recognisable as fake, funny and peppered with hilarious hidden details.

So, we got in touch and asked him a few questions.

Q. Who are you?

David Houncheringer. I was born in Switzerland in 1983

Q. When did you begin shooting?

In 98 or 99. I was first in love with skateboard photography but I quickly started some contextual portrait work.

Q. I got to your website from a Swiss-Jamaican here in Kingston and one of the first things I noticed was a set called Would you like to die today? which featured some outrageous images of people meeting their often gruesome but always entertaining end. How did this concept come to you?

I had this idea for a long time: to let people choose how they’ll die, and then to kill them. Last year I met an special effects makeup artist called Vanaelle Mercanton. After a conversation we noticed that we had the same idea so we just went out and started to practice. We were really excited about the project. It’s really fun and interesting to do.

You can really do what you want. Some photos can be a bit more sarcastic, political, or just entertaining.

Those pictures are made to be printed at 70×100 cm. It allowed us to include a lot of small details that help you discover the ‘reason’ why the subject ‘died.’

I really enjoy seeing people watching these ‘hard’ pictures. Most of them laugh. Others are shocked. But they watch 15 murders a day on TV so I don’t care.

Q. Do you have any rules that you live by as it pertains to your technique?

I don’t like to shoot reality without changing it a bit. I often use lots of different pictures to create one, and I take my time. I love being able to control everything as much as possible. I like working on little details.

Q. Could you tell us a little about living and working in Switzerland?

Switzerland is a peaceful country. For working and partying.The only irritating thing is the bad/changing weather. It’s sometimes hard to organise shooting a free party outside.
We should really come to visit Jamaica. If someone wants to die, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Q. What do you know about Jamaica?

Bob Marley and in cheap police TV shows, the weed always come from Jamaica.

Related Links: http://www.dada.fm/die , http://www.rougevernismakeup.com, http://www.supermafia.com, http://myspace.com/dadafm

Here’s just a few samples from her online gallery which features over 150 self-portraits of the artist dressed as brides from different cultures throughout history.

I‘m in Belgrade at the moment, digging through some old photos that my grandfather, Radomir Milivojevich (1900-1973), took of the Allied Bombing of Belgrade in 1944.

This is what WIKIPEDIA says about it:

Belgrade was bombed by Anglo-American air forces on April 16 and 17, 1944, which was Orthodox Easter Day. The most important unit that took part was American 15th Air Force, based in Foggia in the south of Italy. This carpet bombing raid was executed by 600 bombers flying at high altitude. Civilian casualties were 1,160, while German military losses were 18.

Bombing of the city was repeated on April 21, April 24, May 18, June 6, July 8, and September 3, 1944.

…and they’re dressed up like schoolchildren.

A movie poster in the city. Peshawar’s booming business in illicit Western and Indian DVDs has been another target of the militants. Many of the city’s myriad retail outlets have closed after being bombed, or threatened with violence.

SOURCE : The New York Times – Peshawar Under Siege (Slideshow)

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

Stolen from: http://www.exactitudes.com