Kissing Eyes Magazine

CHILL MEGA CHILL RECORDS

2012-03-01T01:43:00.010-08:00

So first of who the hell are you guys? how did chill mega chill get started?

We're chill mega chill records. CMC is actually two guys. Me (Tripp) and Ian we both had a desire to help bands we felt deserved attention but were struggling to get their music heard by the masses but we also wanted to create a brand that felt unique on to itself something that represented how we wanted to accomplish things.

So you feel that the design side of the label is just as important as the music you release?

Of course, we obviously don't supply the music, but we create a product that simultaneously acts as an extension of musical taste and represents a tangible product for the user to consume

So how much say do you guys have over the design of the tapes you release?

A lot... we basically ask the artist if they have anything in mind (or pre-made)... if not, then we typically get full creative control, on the design that is.

Being so involved in the design side of things do you have any plans to branch out into other forms of media?

As opposed to tapes?

Like the chiller video for example?

Well, we are currently preparing/finalizing our first vinyl project which we're really excited about

Is it a new artist or one you have already released?

:)
secret

(Fingers crossed its a repress of the ricky eat acid tape!)

haha
I think we are in a place to start doing some represses, we originally did all the dubbing ourselves but this became way too labor intensive and starting getting them done by a professional production co.

So would that be the reason behind the limited numbers or was that already the plan for the label?

Yes, dubbing 50 tapes is hard! time-consuming and unfortunately i'm starting med school in the fall and won't have that kind of time to devote to dubbing tapes :) well fortunately for me, unfortunate for the label but no worries, we plan on running strong :) another reason to stream line the process

You seem to have started off with a strong group of artists, how did you go about getting stuff to release?

Well, when I talked with ian initially, we both presented artists that we were wanting to work with, me: galapagos and ian: ricky eat acid

Working with someone else must lead to the odd argument about what to release, or are you pretty similar in tastes?

No arguments at all! we totally vibe off eachother

Do you try and vary the type of artists you release, or just relese what ever the hell you like?

No need to vary... we just ask whoever we love. The music we listen to just happens to be pretty varied.

Is there any profit in this or is it a straight up for the love of it type label? as you guys seem to have a pretty steady flow of releases

So one might think we get profit but actually we tune or expenses and profit just right as to keep a steady release flow, while looking ahead for bigger and better creative projects to tackle. so yes we do see a slight profit from our releases however it all goes to the next release and stickers, button.
soon: tshirts

Good to see people are there for the music first

:)

With such heavy involvement in the design do you have any plans to branch out into designing for other artists/labels?

Hmmmmm no plans
I mean we do things to help out other friends but merely small website stuff, like an image here or there but nothing big. ian probably does a bit more.

Do you guys have a background in art or design or just something you enjoy doing?

No background for me, just enjoy it, kind of picked it up. always been a creative person really.

Either you or ian make music? and if so will we ever hear any of it on chill mega?

haha I used to play a lot of instruments back in the day. Drums, saxophone, guitar however, once I graduated and started real life all those things sort of faded. so in short, I couldn't see putting out any music on cmc, not sure bout Ian

So no soft rock/smooth jazz project from you then?

Haha no

Any other labels or artists you hyping at the moment?

hmmm

Anyone our readers should check out? if anyone reads this that is

I'm really really really into sloslylove right now and their recent v-day release secret dreams we'd love to work with them, at least I would.

Any upcoming releases you can tell us about?

Yeah, we're gearing up for our next two releases
hips and houndsds, those will be ready real soon

Limited numbers again or have theses been dubbed by a company?

Professionally done :) only 50 though

Whats your personal favourite tape released by yourselves?

Haha they're all great! every release has been a unique experience and it's been fun to learn and grow with each tape. They're all of equal importance in my book and thus equal love

Very diplomatic answer

How about you? What's been your favorite?

Ricky Eat Acid is the first I heard from you guys and my favourite

Haha most excellent, well let's just say that there's more fun stuff for you

Now that you have a good roster of artists any plans to do some live events? Maybe a chill mega chill mini fest?

Hmmm hadn't thought about that, but yeah!

Haunt U Forever by Ricky Eat Acid

Anything For Now by Corduroi

Going Away by Roads & Boats

Bandcamp

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Jean-Michael Seminaro

2012-02-28T08:43:00.002-08:00

Where are you from/based now?

I’m from Montréal, Québec, Canada. I’m thinking of moving to a smaller town. To get out of the big city but for now I still live and work in Montréal.

What is your background in photography? What got you into it?

I studied in visual art and started photography in college just because i was force by my school. At the time I was more into painting and drawing. In university I had a job in a photo store (developing and selling cameras) so I had the chance to try all those new models of digital cameras. Without all the skills and knowledge of those so call professional photographers I start to try all kind of things and experiences with digital but also analog film. I like messing around with an object i don’t really understand. I find it really creative and i think it all started at that moment. Now it’s different just because I know a lot more about photography.

What equipment do you use?

I use all kind of digital cameras. Compact, DSLR, iphone but most of the time my main camera is a Canon 7D and a Bronica 1:1 medium format. I don’t really use analog now but it’s always there. For my opinion, digital is nearly perfect now. It’s just the white (part with no information in the picture) that is still a problem right now.

What is your creative process? Is your work planned or more spontaneous?

I like to work like a journalist but with more time. A lot more time. Right now I’m working on two projects: the night project and “The Asbestos Project”. To start I choose an area and just take a simple walk. I look around me and take photos when I’m intrigue. I don’t ask too much question on sight. I leave that for later. So for your question the subject is planned but the process is more spontaneous. At the end the result is truly planned.

I really like your use of diptych, how do you arrive with the two images, do you consider them before or after the shots are taken?

The diptych comes after when I look at it on my computer. I really don’t planned diptych in advance. The funny part is that most of the time they are reel side by side images that i took on sight. My use of diptych is more formal (colors and patterns) but they also have meaning hidden within.

You seem to embrace digital noise, especially with your night shots, could you tell us a bit about this process.

It started with a fail, a miss shot. One picture was way too dark so I decide to play with the adjustments level and shadows (most of my work is digital and I use Adobe Lightroom to store, organise and retouch all of my photographs). The end result of that picture was kind of a revelation for me and I start to love the digital noise that most photographers try to avoid. I also start to shoot everything with the built in flash. I was really intrigued with all the reflection that I can produce at night on all kind of things like glass, trees, rain, etc…

Who or what inspires you?

Right now it’s all about John Gossage and the love about book projects and process. There is also Paul Graham with his Shimmer of possibility book. Never forget also all the work of Robert Adams.

Are you working on a specific project at the moment?

There is always my night series going on but right now i’m hard at work submitting for financing “The Asbestos Project”. If everything goes right i will go live there soon for half a year and will study the town and the modified landscape of Asbestos town in Québec. It’s a big project with lots of subjects.

Flickr

Website

The Asbestos Project

Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

2012-02-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

Where are you from/based now?

I grew up in the mountain side of Austria, Tyrol. But I moved to Vienna six years ago where I now live and work.

What is your background in photography? What got you into it?

I just started taking pictures and still enjoy it.

What equipment do you use?

Both, analog and digital. I love to shoot with my Mamiya 7. For jobs I mostly shoot with my Contax 645 and Phase one p30+ back.

What is your creative process? Is your work planned or more spontaneous?

It depends. Both.

What drives you to keep taking pictures?

The urge to create. And I love to explore new places and people.

Who or what inspires you?

Almost everything.

Are you working on a specific project at the moment?

Yes. But I don't like to talk about open projects. I just finished a exhibition work which I did in Switzerland. The pictures will be exhibited in Vienna, March 6th at Edition Photo gallery. The series is called "Wintercamper" and a few of them got recently published in Die Zeit

Flickr
Website

Carl W. Heindl

2012-02-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Where are you from/based now?

I was born here, in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. I moved to downtown
Toronto about 10 years ago where I live and work.

What is your background in Photography? How did you get into it?

The only proper education I got was back in highschool. They still had a darkroom and all that so we did all our own B&W developing and processing. I later volunteered by building computers for my art
teacher so I could come and use the darkroom after school. Back then all I used was my fathers Minolta SLR. I can't remember a time when I wasn't framing things, I've always just been extremely visual.

What equipment do you use?

I have a rack of old cameras. I try each one out once, and usually that's it unless it really stood out. My main squeezes at the moment are my Bronica RF645 medium format rangefinder, my Yashica FX3 2000
Super, and then I always, always make sure I carry a film point and shoot. Used to be my trusty Yashica T4/5 but the door broke, a buddy gave me his Leica Mini 3 to use for the time being. With these three
cameras I have everything I need.

I used to lug around an umbrella and speedflashes for my portrait work, lately though I have been experimenting with soft soap-opera type lighting with a huge ringlight rig I build for $20 of shit from
the hardware store.

What is your creative process?

Oh it's very haphazard. I rarely like to start a shoot with little more than a vague idea of a mood, or look. I tell the models to come over and bring a bag of outfits and makeup and we come up with a look
together. The shoot finds itself. I find if you have such a specific image you picture and want, you constantly let yourself down trying to get it. I'd rather be loose, let the shoot find itself and the
person's character can shine through and be captured. My other photos are just daily scenes that I felt the need to capture, some variation of texture, pattern or just the way the light fell in a particular
moment.

What drives you to keep taking pictures?

It makes me happy. Also, when you carry around a camera you see the world differently. You look up and around at everything, noticing nuance. Boring trips to nowhere become photo adventures. I like seeing the world this way.

Who or what inspires you?

I just try to keep myself self-inspired and interested. I mean, people and situations always pop up where I just want to capture them. But day to day all I've got is myself to actually be productive. When I
find myself down or bummed about photography, something else kicks in and I'll start writing or making music. It all vents out somewhere.

Could you tell us a little about FOES and how it came about?

FOES is a magazine I have been "starting" for about a year and a half now. Originally it was to be just another photo zine, but the world has plenty of those. Also I had started with a Canadian collective of
photographers that were to help me with it, but people get busy.

In it's current iteration it's mostly back to just myself working on it with my sister who is a writer. We want to make it more or less a quarterly literary reader, short stories, poems, essays, splashed with
some small and thoughtful photo content. Collecting great photo work is easy, but finding great poets and writers is proving a lot harder.

Are you working on a particular project at the moment?

I suppose my latest stints at portraiture could count as a project. Come winter here nobody wants to shoot outside and it's dark when I get home from work so shooting people becomes difficult. I gutted my
kitchen and built that light rig I'd mentioned and have been doing a series of plain portraits. How visually interesting can I make a waist up classic sitting portrait? I play with the body's natural geometry
on each subject and try to lead the viewer into the eyes. It's all
about the eyes on these:

Flickr

Website

Tumblr

Carson Gilliland

2012-01-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

Where are you based?

Currently, I am based in Sarasota, Florida, where I attend Ringling College of Art and Design, pursuing my Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography.

What is your background in Photography? What got you into it?

To be quite honest, my background really is not that exciting. I originally took a liking to photography when I was a young lad, and my parents would take my brother and I on trips to around the states every Summer. I always carried my Polaroid camera due to my need for instant gratification. I guess this was the motivating factor that got me into photography classes at my high school and the rest is history.

What Equipment do you use?

I usually shoot with a Mamiya RZ 67, Bronica SQA, and sometimes a Canon 5D Mark II.

What is your creative process? Are your shots planned or spontaneous?

I really do not think I have a creative process for some strange reason, which is probably a bad thing once I hit the job market. I am more of a spontaneous kind of person, so most of my images were just stumbled upon while driving around town or hanging with my fellow friends.

At lot of your work seems to be taken at night, what draws you to this?

I am drawn to the night for many a reasons. The sense of dead calm allows me to concentrate on the subject, and the peacefulness of driving around with the windows down and cool wind rolling in just keeps me at peace no matter where or who I am with. With the five to ten minute exposures I partake in, the free time allows me to write to pass the time. I feel my poetry has also been dramatically affected by my fascination with the night.

Who or what inspires you?

I am always receiving inspiration from many photographers whose work I run across on a daily basis, but those who have had a profound affect on my work include Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Nicholas Haggard, Peter Granser, Rob Stephenson, Greg Miller, and Mathieu Bernard – Reymond.

What drives you to keep taking pictures?

There is not much of a driving force that keeps me shooting. To me, photography is like a really delicious food. You absolutely love it, but in commodity and time. I know this sounds absurd, but it is the best way for me to describe how I feel about photography. Sometimes I will be out every evening and night shooting for a week straight, while the week after I won’t go out once to shoot. It has nothing to do with a dying interest in photography, which is most certainly not the case. I just do not feel I will improve my work or style by pushing myself to go shoot, for that has never helped me. That is really the best way to explain it from my point of view.

What are you working on at the moment? Do you have a project on the go?

Currently I am working on my Senior Thesis, which pertains to documenting local natives in Sarasota, who have had life changing moments in their lives or those who are still facing these obstacles while trying to live a normal life. I wanted to steer away from my usual night imagery based upon my fascination with people. I like to people watch as it is called and imagine how their lives must be. This was my main motivation for going out and interviewing possible subjects for my thesis.

Tumblr
Flickr

Barnaby Hutchins

2012-01-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Where are you based?

Ghent, Belgium. I'm originally from Britain, though. 

What equipment do you use?

That's changed a lot as I've gradually been able to afford better equipment. Eventually, I came to be using a Mamiya 7 and a Contax T2. And they are pretty much perfect. Especially the Mamiya, which is exactly as amazing as I'd always dreamed it would be. The Contax is with me all the time. The other day, I had to go into Brussels for a couple of hours, and when I realised I'd forgotten the Contax, I felt genuinely weird. Later, on the station platform, there were buildings coming out of the fog, a silver train, and a man looking at his shoes, all in a line. I looked on sadly.

I often use a Pentax 6x7 as well. It's another wonderful camera. Or rather, it has wonderful lenses. My Pentax body is falling to pieces. I almost always shoot everything on Kodak Portra. The new emulsions are awfully good.

What is your background in photography? How did you get into it?

My neighbour's boyfriend gave me a little 110 Kodak Brownie when I was about four or five. He was a mechanic, and it had a Ford logo and the name of the garage printed on it. After that, I don't remember stopping taking pictures as a kid. A few years later, I found my parents' old Zenit and started using that. My aunt and uncle were always interested in photography, and they taught me a lot. My uncle had a darkroom and showed me how to develop film and print. I kept taking pictures. They were never good. I was a kid, and I'd never much looked at pictures, somehow. I just liked taking them. When I was about twelve, I saved up to buy a little Russian medium format TLR. I took a lot of pictures with that, and with my uncle's Seagull that replaced it a couple of years later. And then, for some reason, I stopped. I suppose I lost interest. For a long time, I didn't take any photographs. Then, about five years ago, lots of things fell apart. And all I wanted to do was to take pictures. So I started again. And I started looking at as many photographs as I could. And since then, I haven't stopped.

What is your working process? Are your shots planned or spontaneous?

I walk around with a camera, and that's pretty much all. There have been a few times when I've seen something I wanted to photograph, but the light wasn't right, or something else was wrong, so I went back later. That's as close as I've ever come to planning. That's not a deliberate strategy exactly. Sometimes, I'd benefit from more planning. But I like spontaneity and surprise in the process, and some kind of discovery. I could probably take better looking photographs if I put more work into constructing them, but I'd rather limit my involvement. That thing that Tod Papageorge said about the inadequacy of imagination in comparison to the mad, swirling possibilities of the world – that sounds right.

A lot of your Photos have quite a minimal feel to them, is that something that you consciously look for?

Not consciously, no. Consciously, I really thought I was looking for complexity. But you're right! I guess I just keep failing. Minimalism is the kind of thing I'm naturally drawn to, admittedly. I like flat, blank spaces. If I could take a good picture of a white wall, I'd probably be happy. My problem with minimalism, though, is that if you actually want to produce something minimal, it's kind of easy, and it ends up being a cheap gimmick. And then it gets boring very quickly. So, I think, if what I'm looking for is complexity, and I fail, and end up with something minimal, that's pretty okay. At least there can be some tension there. Maybe it can work like that and not get boring. I hope so.  

Who or what inspires you?

Honestly, it's a kind of panic. I really feel I have to save everything. I can't let things just go. It's completely stupid, but it's like trying to save the world. That's how it feels. If I see things line up in some way that works and I don't have a camera, I'll just stop and stare. It genuinely hurts if I let some little constellation of objects disappear.

But that's only one side of it: I take useless pictures if I don't look at other people's. I seriously love Takashi Homma. And Shomei Tomatsu was a huge influence on me. He was the first photographer whose work took my breath away. Doug DuBois has been important to me, although I'm not sure that influence is very apparent. And then there's Flickr and Tumblr. I think Flickr might be the most significant thing to happen to art photography so far this century. People denigrate it, but they shouldn't. Art develops in a context, and Flickr and Tumblr make a huge, aggregated context accessible. You can spend hours looking at great, new work every day. Access to that amount of work wasn't available before, unless you were one of the more important gallerists or curators. And there is some incredible work on Flickr (and Tumblr): Jeremy O'Sullivan, Mick van de Wiel, Andrés V, Thomas Albdorf, Alex Cretey-Systermans, Xiaopeng Yuan. Then there's my friend Neta Dror: we take very different kinds of pictures, but seem to understand each other's work. We critique each other, and that's good for inspiration.  

Are you working on any kind of project at the moment?

Yes! There's a project called because, which I've been working on for about a year. The best work I've ever done is coming out of that project. There is a concept behind it, but if I try to talk about it I just sound obnoxious. So I'm going to keep quiet.

Website
Flickr
Blog

Ye Rin Mok

2012-01-15T04:35:00.000-08:00

Ye Rin Mok was born in Seoul, Korea in 1980 and moved to U.S when she was 12 years old. After earning her BA from University of California at Irvine in 2003, she's been contributing photos for publications such as Apartamento, Monocle, W and Wired. She currently resides and works in Los Angeles.

Sebastien Tixier

2012-01-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

Where are you based?

Paris, France

What is your background in photography? How did you get started?

I’m self-taught. I came to photography late, 6 years ago when I finally bought my very first camera. Still, I’ve always been fascinated by photography since I was a child, but didn’t have the courage to start learning. I took some quick evening classes in drawing instead... But I kept being more fascinated by the photography medium because of its ambiguity: it might be visually realistic but yet it transcribes a bias. Thus when digital finally democratised I thought it was a great opportunity to start learning easily, and bought my first DSLR camera – I started with digital and went to film right after.

What equipment do you use?

I mostly use a medium format Mamiya RZ 67 for my personal work. A Canon 5D mk II for digital, that I also use to polaroid with. And some other film cameras 35mm and medium formats for special purposes.

What is your Creative Process, is your work planned or spontaneous?

It’s not an easy answer... I think my creative process is very different for each work. If I take for example the series “9288”, it went out very spontaneous. By nature it’s more a sort of “live photo report”, and it’s very different from my other works.

They share a more similar approach: generally I have something in mind that I want to turn into pictures, and start working on it. So it’s much more planned. But when I start, I quite never completely know everything it means to me; and it generally reveals over the months in the making of the series. Sometimes I will still discover things, years after it’s been finished! So I would rather describe the process as both planned and instinctive.

For example with “Ordinary Life Stories”, which are all stagings, I let the original idea grow for weeks and turn into an image all in my mind, mentally adding elements or changing the scene to add coherence/incoherence. Then I start sketching the image and see if it resists my thoughts for a few more weeks, to finally take the picture.

“Instant of Latencies” is somewhat in between: I found myself shooting some very similar kind of urban/landscape images for 3 years, until I actually understood the feeling they had in common and what felt important to me. So the series was then constructed by regrouping pictures from this period. Each picture is obviously not as planned as my stagings, but still most of them have not been taken “on a whim” but after identifications of the places and appropriate time for light.

Could you tell us a bit about your Ordinary Life series and 9288 (transsiberian) series? They are quite different in subject matter but have a similar stylistic quality. How did they both come about?

“9288” is indeed very different from my current other works. We decided to go through Siberia with another photographer friend in the mythic transsiberian train, from Moscow to Vladivostok. There weren’t many more plans at all, if any! The idea was basically to do the complete trip non-stop – it takes like 7/8 days – trying to capture the landscapes, mood and life, from the train through the window or on the platforms … and see what comes out. Of course sometimes it’s very frustrating not to be able to stop and explore a certain region that you see pass before your eyes, but doing the complete trip non-stop is just such a thrilling experience that not doing it would have been even more frustrating! There is a moment when you feel like you are part of the actual train.

“Ordinary Life Stories” is quite the exact opposite in terms of “process”. Each picture in this series is very planned and sketched first. This series actually went out as a collection of mini-series: I had first been working on some pictures originally planned to be separated (first the photos with the red wires, then those with the stars) and realized they were all talking about some similar things, so I decided to regroup them under the name “Ordinary Life Stories”. And the series was then extended with more photos. This work is much more “conceptualised”, it deals with our relationship with ourselves, our bodies, our experience, the doubts, hopes or disillusions that we carry.

Who or what inspires you?

Pretty much everything that affects or touches me, be it encounters, emotions or life conditions. Generally speaking, humanity with its cracks and poetry is what I want to represent, and more precisely so far my work mostly tends to present this as a general questioning about our urbanization and our physical or psychological isolation.

Speaking about influences, I think that David Lynch’s aestheticism has certainly been a great inspiration for me, and a lot of photographers of course. In random order, I would think of the works of Gregory Crewdson, Nadav Kander, Stephen Shore, Erwin Olaf … and a lot more obviously! I am continuously looking at images, in magazines, in the streets, on the web, from famous and unknown artists. Also the static and “overacted” poses of the models in Renaissance paintings are probably related to the way I often direct my models to.

What are you working on at the moment?

I think the series “Ordinary Life Stories” is not over yet, but for now I’ve started working on a new project: it isn’t titled yet but I can introduce it as a series that also has a conceptual approach, but with a repetitive pattern in the framing. Though the series is shot in colour, the aesthetic is stripped down to mostly only black and white items, and alternating stagings with models and still-life pictures. I am at the very early stage of this work so I still don’t know what it all means to me, but it’s probably focusing a little bit more on growing-up, the regrets and expectations it carries. On a very different approach, I have also started shooting scenes of urban/rural scenes at a large scale that I think are related, but right know I have no idea where it will bring me! Lots to do!

Website

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WARM THIGHS AND SLF TAPES

2011-12-24T02:29:00.000-08:00

So who is Warm Thighs and how long have you been producing music?

My name is Warm Thighs. More people possibly know me as _lip. 22 pound cat? I make weird beat instrumentals from

time to time and recently I've run a little digi-label called SLF Tapes.

I've not been doing the Warm Thigh's alias very long... Maybe 3-4 months max. It started when I was visiting my ex-girlfriend in Finland. We were coming up with cheesey ass alias/DJ names when she came up with the name DJ Warm Thighs.

That night I couldn't sleep so I ended up making a bunch of tracks on the SP-404 which started the whole Warm Thighs sound.

It's all because of my ex-girlfriend really... The whole sound and conceptually everything I put into Warm Thighs.

No one totally knows about the meaning/motivation behind the music save a few random ass people on soundcloud hahaha! I think my ex was a bit offended I stole her name actually.

SLF Tapes on the otherhand, started maybe one month ago. 1.5 max! Its actually super newish.

It was a spontanious decision, the whole blog and digi-label, despite wanting to run a site like this for a ages.

I started it off with a few Warm Thighs songs... "Warm Thighs 2". I ended up hating the songs but that isn't relevant. I was quite pleased how people responded to contributing and word got around to some cool people.

I got some weird emails as well.

You say some cool people are involved in slf, who in total contributes?
Do you all have equal input or do you decide if shit gets hosted? Are you a media mogul?

Well in reality, I've been managing everything. My homie Exaveyur I call my "Executive Associate" because we have frequent skype "business meetings" about various ideas or plans for SLF. He's asked a few people to contribute as well.

All the artwork, website crap, organisation and just about everything has been under my supervision and doing. Nothing too complicated though, I've just asked people to make a tape, they send me the mp3, I do all the artwork and put it up under SLF tapes and promote it a bit.

I've told a few people I have the ability to do a cassette release and did already invest in a fair amount of blank flat white cassettes, but no one has done enough tracks to fill it all yet haha! Most the people I know make 1 min tracks max anyways...

So far, a lot of people have agreed to contribute, a few people are maybes and I probably can't say who they are...

There's a long list of names in general... The list on the side of the website actually needs updating... I'll say everyone I'm allowed to that are buddies so to say of SLF.

Exaveyur, Culprit, Dpee, Nippletapes, Chushi, cy18291, Jalen, Parkerstewart, Dil Withers, Wednesday, Wodoo Wolcan, 1618, Vxlam... I think that's it, I might be forgetting someone, NOTHING PERSONAL.

Also there's a 100 percent chance someone will contribute under a different name because of... traditional reasons.

So there is hopefully going to be some physical releases at some point. Its a bit of a world wide affair then, was it through soundcloud you found the others? You've all got a similar feel to your stuff, was this just a meeting of like minds or a planned style?

Yeah, maybe...

I'm not a big fan of soundcloud, but it IS how I met all these people and even got my name out.

As to people thinking SLF was all the same person, I'm really alarmed. I've been listening to all these people so much I can tell everyone apart from each other so precisely. All of us can. Most the people I know, we can just immediately know who is who if some cat is trying to hide behind an alias and shit.

I won't lie, I was really careful who I asked regarding SLF. It was originally supposed to be a genre specific label and all SP dirty lofi. A little cave for random tapes and aliases people wanted to throw away and forget about it without giving their name away.

In present time SLF has kinda come to a stop, all of us are busy with life, I think. I'll have SLF in mind, and unlike all the similar projects we've started and tore down like the MAGIC KAMEN collective, I don't want to kill SLF.

I'm still going to do music as Warm Thighs, but SLF will probably be off and on infrequently.

You can check out all the Warm Thighs and other SLF releases on their website and make sure you go and see Warm Thighs supporting Shlohmo at the Green Door Store, Brighton on Feb 1st 2012

SLF Soundcloud
SLF Blog

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Christopher Hall

2011-12-18T04:27:00.000-08:00

What is your background in photography? What got you started?

I'm self taught. I started shooting with an old Agfa Optima as a teenager, and continued through my 20's. I was posted in West Berlin during the end of the cold war and shot a lot back then, street scenes and the like. I eventually lost interest in photography for several years, then started again around 2003 when I bought my first digital camera. I found my way back to film again a couple years after that. I found that using film made me slow down and carefully consider my compositions. I also really enjoy the anticipation bit of waiting for the film to come back from the shop, it's almost like Christmas eve, waiting to see what comes out.

What equipment do you use?

I shoot mostly in film, with either a Rolleiflex, or a Voigtländer Bessa III 667. I probably have more cameras than anyone could practically use, but I usually have one or both of those two with me. I keep flirting with various 35 mm cameras, but the 6x6 and 6x7 formats seems to click with me more, it's difficult to get a composition I like with 35 mm.

What is your creative process? Are your shots planned or spontaneous?

I like to get up early in the morning to go shooting. For one, I like the morning light, and I prefer scenes without people. I usually will go out Sunday morning, when most people are still sleeping. Most shots are spontaneous, "as found", but I've also planned some scenes, when I've had proper inspiration. The film all goes to a shop for developing and scanning, and I'll do minimal clean up, if needed. I hope to develop my own some day, maybe if I can retire, but holding down a regular day job means time is precious right now.

You have two book available, could you tell us a bit about how they came together?

I finished the first book, "Home is where the car is" about two years ago. I put it together after many people online had asked if I would do so, and I was pretty pleased with how it came out. It's mostly cars in suburban settings, but, really, they are scenes that remind me of what the world looked like when I was growing up. People tell me that the cars you can find here on the West Coast of the U.S. have largely disappeared from other parts of the country, I think the mild winters here help with that. I think a lot of the scenes I shoot won't be around much longer, so it's important o get out there and photograph them before they all disappear.

The second book is titled "going nowhere", and I was building a bit on the first book. I really like the idea of photographers getting their work out via books, and have been playing with the idea of self-publishing for several months now, I know a few others who have already put a few self-published editions out there. The concept interests me tremendously, but my time is always in such short supply, I'm not sure it will happen anytime soon. Blurb is a happy compromise for the moment. Blurb has been working on their quality issues, upgrading paper and cover choices, so I might work on a new book some time next year.
Both books can be found at Blurb

A lot of your photos are in suburban areas, what is it that draws you to these places?

Having grown up in the suburbs, I think there's a little bit of yearning for those days of childhood which are now long gone. Still, I manage to find little traces of it when I look hard enough. I live in a city now, which seems more "normal" to me. But somehow, the suburbs always pull me back. When I was a teenager, I couldn't wait to get out of the place I was living, so it's strange now to always be pulled back.

Who or what inspires you?

In the online world, there are so many. Patrick Joust and Scott Binkley both provide tremendous inspiration. I've also been lucky enough to go out and shoot and exchange ideas with Scott, I wish that could happen more often, but there are several hundred miles between us. I really love seeing the work of Dave Glass too. There are so many others, I couldn't begin to list them all.

I have a rapidly growing collection of books from more established photographers which also provides inspiration. Stephen Shore, of course, is a huge favorite for me.

Are you working on a project at the moment?

I have an on-going portrait project that I'm working on, and, I also like the idea of self-publishing, as mentioned. I have a small show up this month in Oakland, and hopefully a few more shows in the works. The project I should really work on is creating a 36 hour day, there's just never enough time to do everything that interests me.

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Sun Glitters

2011-12-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

For those that don't know you can you sum it up for them?

My name is Victor Ferreira, I live in Luxembourg and I’ve been performing under the Moniker Sun Glitters since March 2011.

You've had a pretty busy year, with releases and live dates, what's been the highlight so far?

The highlight so far is for sure the Buzz I'm having all around the world in several platforms, it is giving me the chance to live my dream and who knows, maybe it might be a full time job one day ;)

You released a split with halls, how did this come about and any plans for future collaborations?

To be honest, I can't remember exactly how this collab started... But what I do know, is that I discovered halls on his Bandcamp and fell in love with his sound from one listen! He’s a great guy! I had the pleasure of talking with him at the Binnacle Festival in London where we both performed.

The artwork for your releases features your own photography. The imagery fits the music really well, is this done along the same time as recording or once the record is completed?

Thanks for your kind words! It depends, I actually have a large stock of pictures... However, I often choose the picture(s) after the songs are finished.

What have been your favorite releases/New artists this year?

There are a lot! But I really like Burial (Street Halo), Holy Other (With U), Balam Acab (Wander/Wonder), Clams Casino (Instrumentals) and many many more!

What have you planned for the next year?

Playing shows and festivals and looking forward for my new album!

Any chance of a Christmas single?

There are still several projects open and still in process like this tribute to Mazzy Star that should come out for Christmas. It's a project curated by Jaxart Records.
There are some remixes and some collaborations also waiting to be released...

The new Sun Glitters remix EP is now available from his bandcamp page, you can pay what you want, so GET IT!

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Patrick Milsom

2011-12-11T03:41:00.001-08:00

What is your background as an artist?

I was raised in an environment where art and music was almost always present and my parents encouraged the freedom of creative expression so art was very much part of my everyday life from an early age.

I can remember being taken to see a Gary Hume exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery when I about was fifteen and that being the moment when I realised I wanted to be an artist.

I study fine art at Nottingham Trent and since leaving there I have been exhibiting my work around the UK and doing illustration work for a range of clients.

You work can almost be split in two, in technique they are quite similar, both time consuming and intricate, but have very different outcomes. Could you tell us a little about each of them?

The first style is illustrative based focusing on the perception of the individual, by using ambiguous suggestive narratives, the masking off any direct definition and presenting the work as if it is a frame from a comic or film. I try to encourage the viewer to draw on their own experience to find a personal definition within the images.

The second style is a direct result of my interest in the effects of time, the inter play between simplicity and complexity and the application of systems and patterns running parallel to research into quantum theory, relativity, chaos theory, causality and perceptions of reality. Though inspired by this research it is not exclusively informed by it, instead it acts as spring board for thoughts pertaining to a wider understanding of every level of the world around us.

How long do you spend on a piece? How do you find the process?

The amount of time applied to each piece is ultimately relative to what I am trying to achieve, the effect of time is of great importance to my work. With my new work each mark is representative of a moment in time and is as significant as the whole image, though each mark could be seen as irrelevant the part it plays in the whole is vital; its presence will affect every proceeding mark and in time will affect the whole image.

On a practical note the illustrative drawings and paintings can take weeks and even months to complete but once I start something I find it difficult not to finish it. With the dot images it takes approximately four hours to do ten thousand dots, I am currently working on a piece that has just reached the two hundred thousand mark, feel free to do the maths! Don’t get me started on the seven hundred and fifty thousand one!

When exhibiting work do you like to give an explanation or prefer the viewer to construct their own?

When exhibiting I prefer to keep any text to a minimum though I do appreciate the value of giving some guidance, I carefully consider titles and if necessary accompanying text but I find it incredibly important to allow the viewer to find their own interpretations.

Who or what inspires you?

I find I draw most of the inspiration from the things I read, I enjoy fiction and listen to a lot of audio books whilst I am working but I find the nonfiction I read inspires me more. The most recent books that have had an effect on my current thoughts are “13 Things That Don’t Make Sense.” Michael Brooks, “Why Does E=MC2?” Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, “The Quark and the Jaguar.” Murray Gell-Mann. “Chaos.” James Gleik and “The Grand Design.” Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.

I find visually I draw inspiration from a wide range of sources and I collect images from the internet almost obsessively but from the art world I most enjoy the works of Gustav Dore, John Martin, Nigel Cooke, Francisco Goya, Pieter Bruegel and Caspar David Friedrich.

Do you have any new projects on the go at the moment?

I dedicate a lot of time to my work and I am always juggling quite a few pieces at a time, I m not sure I would identify what I do as projects as each piece informs my thinking and therefore informs all the work I create, though I am currently doing some experiments in painting and sculpture and also considering a performance piece.

Patrick is exhibiting at The Contemporary London exhibition Pop Up Art Gallery/Shop in Kensington, London from Thursday 15th December - Saturday 24th December 2011. The address is 12 St Albans Grove, Kensington, London W8 5PN.

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Ryan Hancock

2011-12-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

Where are you based?

Brooklyn, New York.

What is your background in photography? How did you get started?

I took a couple of classes in undergrad. I enjoyed them, but didn't really pick up a camera again for ten years. I alternately loved and hated painting, but then when I moved to New York I didn't have a space to paint in, so I started taking pictures instead.

What equipment do you use?

I use various medium and large format cameras.. and a dslr to polaroid with. Mamiya RZ, Hasselblad, Toyo 4x5. Smaller strobes mostly, but occasionally I'll borrow a Profoto kit or something like that.

Do you have a fixed idea of an image you want to create or is it more of a spontaneous process?

Certainly it's both. It's a constant back and forth. I don't carry a camera around everywhere, but I take notes on things I see and want to photograph, and I'll either return and photograph it later, or recreate whatever aspect of a situation I'm interested in out of different elements and photograph that. Other times, in the process of editing I'll realize that I need some certain image, and look for it with a more fixed idea of what I want. Not that it matters, since what I end up with is always something other than what I started out to make. I feel like my intentions are just a starting point.. something to search for with a camera in hand. Usually the image I wind up using was shot as a tangent to the image I had in mind, and during the time it takes to process and scan in the film, hopefully I let go of my idea enough to see what I actually shot with fresh eyes.

What drives you to take photographs?

The world seems to me increasingly incomprehensible, and there are times when I feel there isn't anything that I know for certain. For me, making photographs (or painting, or whatever) is necessary to translate the unintelligible reality of being into a more coherent form. Or at least to illustrate my best guesses. There is vastly more "nothing" in the universe than "something", and I try to create images that recognize the grace by which anything at all exists.

Who or what inspires you?

Books... right now I'm really enjoying the collected stories of Lydia Davis. Also, I've been consistently blown away by Viviane Sassen since I first stumbled on her work in a Chelsea gallery a few years ago. Also, several people I see online.. David Branden Geeting for example.

Are you working on a specific project at the moment?

Right now I'm shooting for a book I'm publishing in 2012, as well as showing some work here and there around NYC. I'm also in production of a documentary film called "Bonebreakers"... It's about street dancers in a part of Brooklyn called East New York who are completely incredible.

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Sander Meisner

2011-11-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

Sander Meisner uses a film medium format camera to create stunning images, in his own words:

"I am a self-taught photographer (Amsterdam, 1979) living and working in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I photograph the sleeping infrastructure of the urban environment, shooting in the middle of the night I often going out at ten or eleven, photographing until sunrise. I photograph when everybody is asleep, and sometimes it's so quiet it is as if the city itself is asleep.

I tend to go to the outer regions of a city, to the more industrial and commercial areas to shoot. These areas are similar in any city. That's part of the reason why they interest me so much, everybody recognises them for what they are, yet nobody likes them.

By night, people often feel a lot of places become quiet sinister, but if you look deeper, the night creates a lot of beauty in places that aren't considered beautiful. The colors, shadows and transformation of texture and geometric appearance of a lot of places at night can dramatically increase their beauty. People fear the dark, but when photographed with long shutter speeds the dark turns out to be both very colorful and pretty."

He is represented by the Brandt Gallery in Amsterdam.

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Raphael Bourelly

2011-11-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

How did you get into Photogrpahy? What is your background?

I discovered photography in the laboratory of a photo club, when I was in secondary school, but at this time what interested me was the magic of the chemistry above all, not really the shooting. The photo club closed, and I just shot a roll or two, from time to time.

About three years ago, I started taking pictures again, a lot, I discovered something new, a way of expression and communication that suited me. I taught myself, and also had help from some gifted friends.

What equipment do you use?

Now I almost exclusively use a Mamiya 7II with a 65 mm lens, but I really want to buy a new FM2 to replace the one I broke. it’s a great camera,it’s sentimental, and was my first analog camera!

Could you tell us a bit about your Road Trip series.

I’m afraid there is not much to say about this series... I have a friend, a great photographer, who had some time to loose, and a car. We took to the road twice, with an idea of the final direction, but no hurry. We had total freedom, we could stop at any moment and see where the road would take us. It’s really great to have the opportunity to do that. It offers a really different look at your environment since you can take a highway, travel a lot of kilometers, and then decide to loose yourself on small roads... And again, stop each time you saw something that was worthwhile.Of course, these subjects are not chosen at random, they are the continuation of my urban work. I’m often questioning the place of human beings in their environment, and this series is like a rough portrait of an industrial France... Maybe the start of a bigger work.

What is your creative process, do you plan your shots or are they spontaneous?

I do plan my week-ends but most of my series are quite spontaneous. However, I can spend a lot of time on maps and on internet in order to check if there are some good spots to go to. The fact is I have no driving license, that’s why I have to walk a lot to take my pictures, which I think is an important factor in my “process”. Walking gives you time to imerse yourself in a place, and to think a lot.

I’m also a perfectionist, and sometimes almost a monomaniac, I can have images, or just feelings in my mind and take a lot of similar pictures, until I feel I have what I really wanted.

Who or what inspires your work?

Music and cinema have a great place in my inspiration, as well as a lot of photographers of course. It would be hard to make a list of them. Raymon Depardon may be one of the photographers that most inspired me when I started to shoot again, for his ability to tell stories with “nothing”, his approach, so human, and his colors (and black and white of course). Then, I discovered New Objectivity, Helsinsky School, and the “modern” American photographers like Alec Soth, and I’m closely following some great young photographers on flickr, like Alex Catt, or Salva Lopez.

Audrey Leignel, the person I live with, also photographer, is very inspiring too, because she helps me to progress a lot and often ask the good questions...

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

Well, yes and no... I almost always have something on my mind, but not always the time or the money to do it.

For the moment, I would like to finish editing the pictures of my Mongolian trip, make a selection, and maybe work on a book project, I don’t know, we’ll see!

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YOSIGO YOSIGO

2011-11-10T03:15:00.001-08:00

Yosigo, real name Jose Javier Serrano is a graphic designer and photographer from San Serrano, Spain who now lives in Hondarribia (a small town in the north of Spain, 5 minutes from France).
Starting out taking pictures around 5 years ago with a small 3 mega pixel camera Jose now uses both digital and analogue equipment saying he "loves photography and the visual world in general".
He has a personal diary project shot on 35mm that portrays his everyday emotions and feelings that can be found here: www.yosigo.es/diary. He's currently working on a project using an ipod camera based on his town in the summer.

Yosigo also has a project with photographer Salva Lopez called Have a Nice Book, a platform that accommodates everything related to printed photography, from classics to self published books and fanzines.

...Oh, and he's a supporter of the football team of San Sebastia, Real Sociedad!

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Have a Nice Book

New Site!

2011-11-08T11:19:00.001-08:00

First feature coming soon. If you would like to submit work to be featured or get in touch please email kissingeyesmagazine@gmail.com. You can also submit work on flickr. Thanks.