Risto Joost is no ordinary guy, so his portraits must be something different and more contemporary.
"Conductor Risto Joost and invisible friends"
Ocucaje desert was a seabed 12 million years ago. But thanks to extraordinary dry climate and combination of specific metals and calcium it still looks like a seabed, just without water. Petrified corals, whales and even prehistoric giant shark with petrified teeth and brains.
Ocucaje is isolated landscape of loneliness and using some of your imaginations it feels like a planet from outer space. For me it is a iconic "Dune" by Frank Herbert.
I love stories and a good story is usually behind interesting personality. Interesting characters are often bit unusual and even little complicated to connect with, but if they allow you to see their world, it's always priceless.
Willy have been hairdresser in Belen for 20 years (Belen is a huge market, and I may say a slum, in Iquitos. Most of it will be flooded on rainy season, it mean's that half of the city is floating on river at that time)
After every half a year Willy spends month or two at the border in the city of Tabatinga. There are more trendy and fashionable people from Brazil and more interesting work, but really hard to manage, because of tough competition. Of course he would like to work all the time there instead of this slum here in Iquitos.
In the end of his work Willy couldn't resist and said that I should try boys and he could be the first one. I rejected modestly.
My new haircut cost 2,5 euros and beard design another 2,5 and everything is done with trimmer, no scissors engaged.
This is my last post from Peru and now it's a really last moment to return back home. :)
"Willy and the boys"
Belen, Iquitos.
Actually I'm not back yet, but we are out from the big forest. We finished our expedition in Javari valley today. A final was todays flight from Agamos with furious Peru Air Forces plane, just five of us and three mighty fighter pilots :)
Anyways, we are back from the Matsés people. All tired but happy.
Halftones of gray on a black and white photograph are like 88 piano keys. It's so easy to make a sound, but it's so hard to make music.
Sten is good friend of mine and one of the most intelligent guy I know.
Pianist Sten Lassmann,
London, Regent's Park
I have been travelling in Amazon for quite a number of times. To be honest - dogs have never been a purpose of my journey. But again and again when I see one, I just have to take a snap. Dogs here in Amazon mostly look bit strange and sinister, but at the same time particularly charismatic. So let me introduce you - canis amazonicus :)
"The First Supper"
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and their new principal conductor Risto Joost
Probably now I sound like a real oldtimer, but I really adore film. To be honest I haven't shoot film for some years and I even sold my cameras. But now I got again nice 6x6 Rollei and for some special cases I'll bring it out and work with it.
....the smell of film, smell of my old bit mossy Rollei, touch of film grain and in the end just holding the negative in my hands....
It's very rare to portrait another photographer and it's absolutely unique to shoot photographer you admire. Stina is definately the one! Take a closer look to her work.
Miss Filmgrain
April 2013
At this very moment I'm hurrying to the airport to catch my flight to Moscow. I have a session there with a young extraordinary cellist. Then quickly back home and only one day to pack my bags and then to next flight. It will be Iquitos, Peru where I'll spend my next 6 weeks. Hopefully it will be very interesting and many thing will happen. It's my fourth time in Amazon now and this time our expedition is pointed to Yavari valley tribes.
So I'm still going wrong....constantly out of money, but life is like a ride on a roller-coaster. Actually I can consider it already as a lifelong anthropological survey. Hopefully one day somebody will invent a machine that could transfer all this interesting data from my brain to some museum archive.
Anyways, this time my photo story is slightly different of the usual stuff and it is part of my longer series I call "Wildscapes" This is a ongoing landscape series from my journey's in USA wild-wild west.
I hope you enjoy...and who said desert is boring.
My second session in London was in beautiful City of Westminster, where every house is a piece of art on it's own. And this time I had a chance to sneak inside to one building next to Wigmore hall and work with wonderful clarinetist Sarah Beaty.
"Sarah and her clarinets"
London. March 2013.
Enchantment of colors. Music reflection in photography.
Pianist Mei Yi Foo. London. March 2013
Meet Eugene and Scott, probably hottest names in the contemporary classical music scene at the moment! Now You feel stupid because you haven't really heard about these guys?
Don't have to, it's ok. Eugene and Scott's first opera "Nostra Culpa" (or to be exact - cantata for singer and string orchestra) will premier in April and this is their first joint project. But still, why they are so hot? Beside that they are such a nice looking fellows.
Opera "Nostra Culpa" tells you a story about Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves fight in Twitter. And in the world where state just took away 6% of the the money from each bank account in their own country, austerity is a hot topic. Specially, if it's told in opera language.
Eugen's and Scott's story is already broadcasted in BBC, NPR, AP, Wall Street Journal and in many others world top channels and I'm sure you want to be in the hall when it premiers. So go and get a ticket fast if there are any seats left.
"Nostra Culpa"
Eugene Birman and Scott Diel.
I'm happily back home, terrible jetlag but thanks to that I woke at 6 AM and admitted that most beautiful sunrise is always at home.
So, I just arrived from Vegas, from WPPI convention and the good news is that I collected unexpected trophy from there - first prize in commercial/editorial category. Competition itself was 16x20 print competition, which is really prestigious stuff and I love it, because it is old school print competition. Jury sits in a row and print handler (wearing white gloves) will bring out the print and jury will give points in live.
I'm usually loner, when I'm doing my portrait work, but to do a good commercial work you need a good team. And I had a dream team. In this case even all my budget went to my team, so now finally this prize is my salary for the shoot :)
Client: Laservisioon
Client project manager: Robert Jakobson ( Thank You Robert for supporting crazy ideas)
Photographer's assistant: Liis Tamra
Make-up and hair: Wonderful Aune Aasoja
Stylist: Gerly Tinn
Models: Karin and Eugen
Thank you all my dear friends for your support! I'm a lucky guy.
(other photos are just a little documentation from the event, taken with a phone)
My winter ended suddenly today. In the morning it was -12 Celsius and tomorrow I'll be in Death Valley, Califronia +29 C. When I'll return from my journeys, it should be spring here in full power. This winter have been extraordinary busy for me, filled with works and projects and there have been constant lack of time. So I decided to dedicate my last days of this winter to Estonian nature.
I'm happy to share these moments of Estonian winter with you. Maybe I can bring you a bit of this unique northern melancholy vibe what is unique to us.
It "tastes" best together with Jan Johansson music. Remarkable Swedish pianist, who died as a young man in 1964. But his musical language is so fresh and fits perfectly together with these moments.
Mihhail Gerts in conductor of Estonian National Opera. But Misha is also a good friend and schoolmate of mine...not to mention his extraordinary talent!
Estonian composer and musician Valter Ojakäär will soon turn 90. His songs are deep in our hearts!
Warmest feelings and my unlimited respect Mr. Valter!
Last weeks have been busiest ever by far. There have been no time for my friends, family or even for proper sleep. There has been only Work work work in very different dimensions. The biggest reason for that madness was a last stage of my project called "The Miner".
It was two years ago when I entered first time to the functional underground mine and the seed of an idea started to sprout. Now two years later, after countless hours of work it's done and I can say it was a great success! First time in my life it really worked out the way I saw it as a imaginary picture in my head.
...Heroes from the dark and deep depths of the earth, of whom the dwellers on top don’t know much about. These are the portraits of men, whose task has remained unchanged for hundreds (,if not thousands,) of years.
The very first time that I ended up in a mine, I knew at once that this place deserved my attention. The feeling you get while standing in a dark tunnel with mind-boggling (measureless) tons of earth, of the plant’s crust above you, is emotionally comparable with diving or flying. However those underground temples (tunnels) are nothing without the men burrowing them. Thus it was clear that I wished to create a project portraying those men and through their portraits maybe, just maybe, transfer an inkling of that feeling to the wider audience.
I pondered long
about the format or way best suited for capturing all that down
there. The pure form of documenting
was not really possible due to the difficult conditions and staged
photographs lose the sincerity and serve another purpose. Thus I
chose a method that I prefer to call controlled documenting.
For me it was very important that the men were aware of my presence
and that there was a principled agreement from them. At the same time
I didn’t want to change anything about their daily routines(, as
far as it was possible). My aim was for them to halt for a moment and
look into the camera as if gazing into the eyes of a friend...
My biggest thanks goes to:
The Miners, VKG, Jõhvi Cocert Hall, Art Print, Andres Toodo, Roman Purga, Kristian Saks, Andreas Jupits, Caspar Lootsmann, and to everyone who helped!
THANK YOU!
Here is little photo documentation of this installation.
Peeter is a forest officer of Järvamaa county.
"Peeter and the great oak"
We have been giving studio lighting courses with my great fellow Koshkin already for five years. When we teach light metering then one of us sits on a stool to be a dummy and the other one shows metering. This time it was Koshkin who sits and I was playing with meter. To proves the numbers are right I took a test shot. Usually after our workshop I delete these photos, but this time there were some previous works on memory card and I couldn't format it. Some days later after downloading stuff from memory card I found these three test shots of Koshkin, just one single image of each lighting scheme. And here it is - one click test shot which is better than 500 photos from two hour session.
Light test - Koshkin
It might sound really like a cliche - but I love to work with young and talented artists! It is just so damn interesting and gives you so much in return of your energy! Holger Marjamaa is brillant young pianist who is equally good in classical and jazz scene. In one day he is performing with National Symphony Orchestra playing Brahms and in next moment he is jammi'n in studio like a crazy. I really hope that world will soon hear a lot about this guy!
Holger Marjamaa at recording session.
You can enjoy some of his beats here or if you prefer Chopin, then its here
