Bubblegum Club

Tag: styling

  • Bubblegum Club selected to be part of the 2018 Aperture Summer Open

    Bubblegum Club selected to be part of the 2018 Aperture Summer Open

    A picture is worth a thousand words. This idiom speaks to the premise behind the 2018 Aperture Summer Open exhibition titled The Way We Live Now. Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York. It features work selected by a prominent curator or editor, with the exhibition unpacking critical themes and trends influencing international contemporary photographic practice.

    As a point of departure for this year’s exhibition, the photographs from the selected artists and photographers look at how images come to capture and become visual markers of rapid change in society, politics, beauty, and self-expression. The exhibition features 18 artists and the way in which they engage with the “currents and contradictions of life” in the 21st century. These artists and photographers reflect on how we define images and how images define our lives. This year Bubblegum Club was selected as one of the displaying artists.

    As an online magazine and content agency reporting on and contextualizing trends across creative practices in South Africa, Africa and across the world, we have developed a fluid aesthetic that responds and contributes to cultural moods. This taps into grunge, DIY approaches to styling and photographic strategies that plug into references that are reflective of the discursive and visual languages present in urban subcultures. The construction of the image becomes a condensed moment in time, a contextualized mirror of current ways of being.

    The images chosen by Bubblegum Club were drawn from different aspects of our work, including cover shoots and editorials. Makeup artists Orli Oh, Katelyn Gerke and Nuzhah Jacobs, as well as hair stylist Mimi Duma and styling assistant Lebogang Ramfete, contributed to the creation of the images on show, with styling and photography by creative director Jamal Nxedlana. Lightfarm has continued to assist with post production and with printing. A special thank you to adidas South Africa for supporting the trip to New York.

    The 2018 exhibition taking place from 27 June – 16 August is curated by Siobhán Bohnacker, senior photo editor, the New Yorker; Brendan Embser, managing editor, Aperture magazine; Marvin Orellana, photo editor, New York magazine; and Antwaun Sargent, independent writer and critic.

  • Internet Friends – A Photographic Series Exploring relationships that manifest online by Katya Abedian

    Internet Friends – A Photographic Series Exploring relationships that manifest online by Katya Abedian

    “Internet Friends is a story about transcending social media’s pitfalls while aspiring to form meaningful, sincere friendships.

    The title in itself is such an oxymoron. We often associate the internet with ominous feelings. It’s a place we go to get and give information. To buy and sell products but never ever to find meaningful friendships and relationships. The title paints a warmer picture of a distant tool responsible for globalisation. It implies that the internet connects us in ways we never thought possible. If, we allow it to.”

    – an excerpt from the artist statement written by Candace Redlinghys.

    Internet Friends blossomed from of a state of transition for young photographer and filmmaker Katya Abedian. Living in India for six months resulted in the development of other facets of her photographic eye. During this period, it became apparent to her that she is more interested in capturing “people or life as it moves and breathes” rather than constructed situations – a hankering to document real life.

    The concept for the shoot was one that Katya has been exploring in her head for some time and was concentrated on the idea to capture friends together in a natural setting, as they would spend time together in their daily lives. “I told each of them I was merely there to capture how they presented themselves to me…”.

    This story project was grounded in Katya’s conviction that each of her models should have control of their own representation for the project, and therefore an organic sense of who these models/friends are is projected in a believable and moving manner. Katya viewed this moment of interaction between her friends as one where their bodies functioned as vessels of expression. Emotions that the work evokes is heightened by the friends’ direct control of their representation that included their own styling and choice of makeup.

    The paradox of the virtual space is a factor that can be said to have contributed to this narrative. During her time spent in India, she experienced feelings of both closeness and distance in relation to the loved ones she was communicating with online. The story created collaboratively between herself and her internet friends conveys the open space between feeling close to someone and experiencing feelings of loneliness.

    “We need distance and the pangs of separation to fully appreciate closeness. We also need loneliness to truly understand what it means to be close to someone spiritually versus physically and how the two are related. I feel this through the movement and tone we set through this body of work.”

    Katya explains the beach as a setting for some of the images in the series by stating that the landscape represents “the sense of endlessness that love and separation bring.” This project presented an opportunity to experiment with and sculpt the bodies of her friends to organically mould into one another as is sometimes seen in Renaissance and Classic paintings.

    Recurring motifs in this body of work are that of the vintage car and flowers acting as an enunciation of friends about to embark on a road trip. While creating this body of work she realised that cars and flowers are commonly associated with weddings and funerals, a juxtaposition that sparked introspection.

    “I quite enjoy the visual juxtaposition of the car’s steely-ness and the flowers life-force. I feel that connects to the concept of virtual relationships a lot because there is a fair amount of the conundrum between feeling close to a person and being delighted to speak to them but the frustration of not being able to hold them in your arms.”

    Katya gave her internet friends reign to take ownership of their own representation with this body of work resulting in an artist statement written by one of her friends, self-styled clothes and self-applied makeup – a beautiful collaboration. These aspects of realness make her shoot and the emotions it attempts to convey authentic and heartfelt.

     

    Credits:

    Photography & Creative Direction: Katya Abedian

    Models: Candace Redlinghys, Nathaniel Edwards, TarrynTippens, Stephanie Edwards, Wanda Banda

    Assistance: Jonty Knight

     

  • Azania Forest and her artistic expression

    Azania Forest and her artistic expression

    Azania was the alternative name proposed for post-apartheid South Africa. During the racial segregation and discrimination of the era, the name Azania manifested the idea of a people that were emancipated to move the rhythms of freedom, belonging and becoming. Clinging onto the essence of this name, Lesego Seoketsa has made it her own.

    Azania, Azania Forest, is the fashion savvy explorer that is a vessel for Lesego’s creative expression. Azania Forest was born in 2012. Uncertain of everything she undertook a hiatus which allowed her to centralise her vision, and in 2015 Azania started her blog where she shared her creative experiences and expressions. In 2016, Azania announced that she would be launching a magazine in February the following year. The hype was an ego-booster and a debilitating reminder of her deadline. Now in 2018, Azania magazine has not launched and is being reimagined.

    Azania expresses herself through photography, fashion design, styling and writing.  Her exploration and understanding of the experiences of Black Womxn have fuelled the subject of her work, especially her photography. Capturing captivating personal portraits became a crucial part of creative expression and in the time she was meant to be focusing on her magazine, she was consumed by the complexity of photography.

    Even though it began with the simple need to “just take pictures”, her photo series are deeply inspired. Azania’s series Woman with the Brown Eyes was inspired by Kees van Dongen’s Woman with Blue Eyes and aimed to counter and challenge European beauty standards. “A black girl with chubby cheeks and a wide nose and short hair is also a subject to be celebrated.”

    The muse for her series We Will Rise was the brilliant queer communist painter, Frida Khalo. This series celebrated the persistence of Khalo’s spirit and Azania’s journey of self-celebration and self-empowerment.

    Lastly, Mbona Lisa borrows its name and framing from Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. This series spoke to the qualms about land in South Africa and how womxn need to reclaim their bodies from societal constraints for it is their personal land.

    Both Woman with the Brown Eyes and We Will Rise were exhibited in a traditional art gallery space and with the constant production of artistic expressions, Azania has been often referred to as an artist. Without any formal training in the fine arts, Azania is still battling with the acceptance of this label. However, from the belief that as a human being created in the likeness of a Creator that creatively expresses, Azania is an artist.

    Like a forest, Azania is a dense unpredictable space that manifests without manipulation and houses beautiful, mysterious and sometimes dangerous creations. A forest is where Azania moves towards her highest calling. To this young black curious creator, the climax is internal and with divine intervention she believes her celebratory creative expressions will continue to presents themselves as love and freedom.

  • DOOMSNITE // A new party for young people of colour in Cape Town

    “We are the future, for the kids by the kids,” states Antonio Druchen, one of the organisers of DOOMSNITE, a new party for young people in Cape Town. Antonio along with Qaanid Hassen, Naledi Holtman, Raeez Kilshaw and Likhona Camane created the event with the intention of gathering young people like themselves in one space for celebrating and connecting. Under the guidance of Crayons’ Ra-ees Saiet, they were able to host their first event on the 29th of January. Their hope is that this event will grow and become a space that represent creative freedom.

    Reflecting on the time that sparked the idea for the collective, Raeez expressed that, “I felt as though we [had] all met before, in a spiritual realm.” This is representative of the kind of collective connection they have already created through their time together since meeting at a project hosted by Corner Store called Summer Camp. This was an apprentice programme for young up-and-coming artists in Cape Town to show them that they can cultivate skills in creative practices such as DJing, styling, and photography, and be successful.

    The team refers to themselves as a kind of collective that also allows for each member to work on their individual practices independently too. This allows them to build a brand for their event, and offer each other support, without being completely absorbed by one project. Therefore, their collective is not exclusively about producing together, but also about providing each other with creative and emotional support. This is reflective of the direction that a number of people of colour from Cape Town are taking with regards to cultural production.

    Influenced by underground, English-born hip hop artists MF DOOM, the team curated their first event around this. “MF DOOM’s ability to use music to portray many different characters reflects how music came first for him and for us, it’s the same thing,” explains Naledi. “Inspired by MF DOOM, we find beauty in creating a whole new world of intricate personas, vivid visuals and detailed bodies of music, all behind a mask,” Likhona expressed. Ensuring that the space was representative of the energy that has brought them all together – freedom, creative pleasures and wholesome music – their first party was explosive. Expressive visuals, music and dance coloured the night, and this included performances by Garth Ross and Guillotine Squad.

    In addition to being a space for having a good time, the aim for the party is for it to be a platform that can facilitate networking between young people. This extends the party into an informal support structure.

    Be sure to check out their next event in February at The Living Room.

  • SANDTON CITY // an ever evolving landscape

    Sandton, often described as the richest square mile in Africa, is a concrete and glass habitat that is constantly transforming. In the last few years, it’s evolution has been increasing at a rapid rate. Yellow sand, piles of bricks, and orange cones have become the welcoming party for anyone walking or driving through the area. Buildings are getting taller, wider, and even more over-the-top. We are exposed to the operations of the corporate and construction surgeons who make building plans and rip our electric cables to give the area a new face lift.

    Sandton. A place married to the rich with luxury as its maiden name. However, for this marriage to continue there has been a necessary combination of the formal and informal sectors. People who were never imagined as the occupiers of streets in Sandton, have now made a way for themselves to be accommodated for in this space. While they may be viewed by some as the people who are out of place, they are in fact the arteries that keep the money pumping through Sandton’s veins.

    Photographer Jonathan Kope saw an opportunity to photograph Sandton in the midst of its evolution. I interviewed him to find out more about the story behind the shoot.

    Tell me about the decision to make the backdrop for the shoot Sandton?

    When a production decides to shoot on ‘location’ in Johannesburg, especially in a commercial or fashion sense, creatives often seems to want ‘ generic South African urban grit’. Teams shoot the CBD, or on top of buildings overlooking the cityscape and aim to capture the ‘real’ city. But the repetition of that urban trope ends up being a dishonest representation of the wider city as it dismisses the more ‘everyday’ places as unworthy of celebrating. The idea of shooting Sandton – the most banal, normal, peak Joburgy place –seems somehow both an interesting departure from the tired usual and the most obvious backdrop for a pairing that wants to take a more realistic and honest approach to shooting the city.

    What is the basic story that you were trying to get across with placing the model in various locations in Sandton (particularly spaces that show construction sites and unfinished buildings in the background)?

    Sandton, to quote its promotional material, is the richest square mile in Africa. It’s also experiencing an unprecedented building boom, with a new shining corporate HQ seemingly going up on every corner. This burgeoning creates an interesting landscape of contrasts – slick surfaces and roadways torn apart to lay electrical cables, Sandton’s old landmarks about half-finished buildings. It’s a perfect mess of a place in which to shoot; atop the initial concept of depicting somewhere well known and well recognized, we see said space in total disarray. It’s odd.

    And it’s also a moment in time that is finite – we needed to shoot it before it was put back together.

    In the initial email about the shoot there was mention of an informal economy that has developed around this area to cater for those who are part of building this new Sandton landscape but who fall outside of the formal economy. Can you share a bit about how this falls into the story?

    It’s yet another layer of complexity which makes the site so compelling, or at least so compelling at present. Sandton is usually a sheltered enclave peopled by the wealthy of Johannesburg. Much of what happens in Sandton takes place in hi-rise office blocks, or inside the various malls around the area. One seldom sees people out on the street, except perhaps getting in and out of Ubers to nip down to the Gautrain. This describes much of suburban Joburg – no evidence of street life. The key exception to this being the CBD. Now, however, with the intense construction work taking place all around it, there is an influx of workers who ordinarily wouldn’t be seen in the area, and most definitely are not taking lunch breaks at the Flamingo room on Nelson Mandela square. So a sort of informal trade has developed to service the needs of this populace, and it all takes place on the street outside the shopping mall. There are food stalls, tuck-shops and the like doing a brisk trade with the men in safety gear and dirty overalls, as professionals in luxury vehicles drive past to park their cars for the evening’s shopping at the Sandton Woolies. Suddenly, temporarily, Sandton has a semblance of being a vibrant and dynamic place.

    Share a bit about your creative and conceptual process while putting this shoot together?

    We, that is Bee and myself, have found that we are in a similar creative space. We want to create ‘honest’ natural imagery that is tied to a place and a time and that reflects a certain common humanity that is recognizable and without pretense, but is at the same time alluring. A mix of the odd and the normal. Just like people.

    Conceptualizing becomes a fluid process when the team is in sync. We started with the kernel of ‘why are we shooting what we’re shooting’ and ‘why here’ and built layers from that, with the help of some spontaneity, good logistics and good luck.

    Credits:

    Photographer: Jonathan Kope

    Styling: Bee Diamondhead

    MUA: Annice Roux

    Model: Hauwa Dauda Asingar from Ice Models

    Fashion Assistants: Amy Zama, Shawn Ntuli

    Fashion: Stylist’s Own

  • The Seppis – Two lovers. One vision

    The Seppis is a collective consisting of married couple, Seemaa Allie and Taariq September. The Cape Town based collective toil together in art direction, styling and photography. Their imagery and practice creates an aesthetic verging on unease and unconventional beauty.

    The Seppis was molded 11 years ago when Allie and Taariq started collaborating together during their dating phase. They started working under the brand, The Seppis about 3 years ago when the two creatives ventured into freelancing. In Allie’s words, “We are all about creating whether it be stills or videos. We are passionate about collaborating and learning as we go.”

    Having collaborated with Dope Saint Jude, Slabofmisuse, Simon Deporres, Mehnaaz Maleta and others, The Seppis are as involved in the production, photography, art direction and styling as a job brief allows. Allie states that in their practice they choose to have input in all aspects of the projects they are involved in.

     

    As a collective they largely create their own projects or collaborate with other creatives on projects that they have been a part of since their inception. “I think the major drawing card for us with regard to projects is the possibility of working with other creatives we respect and admire. The other elements that come into play is if the project has ‘meat’; by this I mean substance and is it relevant” – Seemaa Allie.

    Art directing their lives knowingly from a young age, photography was an art form they experimented with in their early years. It became their main medium of expression as they progressed in their artistic careers. The Seppis were trained within the realm of analogue photography and still practice it to some extent. They do however, shoot predominantly in a digital format at the current stage in their practice.

    Allie tells me that the lighting choices they work with in their projects is dictated by the required mood of the shoot stipulated in the brief for each individual shoot. The Seppis focuses on creating evocative imagery as the final product of their creative expression.  Within each individual project, they create continuity in their imagery, whether it be from the same series or project, or that from another projects entirely. Their focus or aim can be seen as the element that gives their imagery it’s signature look and feel.

    The Seppis are hands on with the location scouting of the projects they take on, their choice being directed by their project brief. “Location plays a big role in getting your narrative across especially when it comes to stills so careful consideration is put into choosing the location. There have been occasions that we happen upon a location and the location forms the base or the kick off point for a concept.”

    “We still have a very long list of people we would love to work with. We want to work, we want to create, we want to have kids, the future is bright and chaotic. Just the way we like it.”