
Maki Kawakita’s fashion photography
If I was a fashion photographer instead of an illustrator, I would probably be Maki Kawakita, or at least be like her. And it’s not because we are both Japanese. I definitely relate to the strong sense of design, composition, angles and color she uses, and most of all, I like how she slips in a funny sense of humor into her fashion photography. I saw some of her work in a show called Click Chic last year, and it was amazing.


Tagged: Japan, Japanese photographers, portraits
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Hidden descrimination in Japan
Photographer Masaru Goto has an interesting series of portraits up at Global Compassion that show every day Burakumin, an ethnically Japanese group of people descended from the untouchables of the feudal Japanese caste system. Read more

We featured Bruce Osborn’s fascinating photo series, Oyako, a little while back on Lost At E Minor. Osborn lives in both Los Angeles and Tokyo, where he works as a commercial photographer and directs TV commercials and music videos. This shot is one of my favourites from this series that looks at the relationships between Japanese parents and their children, running the gamete of society ‘including Kabuki actors, punk musicians, policemen, Buddhist monks, and porno actresses’.

The first publication of the book 101 Unuseless Japenese Inventions, at the end of the 90s, was centered around Chindogu art. Created by author Kenji Kawakami, this art of unusual and useless inventions, displayed different ways of solving the everyday problems. One of the Chindogus is the Baby Mop, a pair of trousers and a sweatshirt for babies with strips that clean the floor while the baby crawls. Read more
Also by YUKO SHIMIZU

PostlerFerguson’s Paper Gun Model Kit
London-based design studio PostlerFerguson has been creating super realistic and accurate looking paper guns and other arms. Three of them will be released by German design publisher Gestalten. So now you can make your own! Read more

I have been in search of a cool and functional laptop bag for years. This will totally be on my wish list. Designed by Hard Graft, it’s the coolest Macbook case I have seen so far. I guarantee everyone will ask: ‘where did you get this from?’

Victoria Reynolds’s meat paintings
I look at so much art, it’s rare that I see something that ‘wows’ me. But I love bumping into that rare moment. I was doing photo research (nothing related to meat) and bumped into Victoria Reynolds’ work. WOW. Gross-ugly-beautiful. I especially love the ones in matching meaty looking frames.
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Teatrio, an arts association in Italy, is behind an amazing traveling exhibition titled The Fabulous Colored Pencils which has been touring through Italy for more than a year and features what they consider to be the best 40 female illustrators worldwide. Read more
Pickle Hut was designed by architect Dan Hoffman and The Cranbrook Architectural Office. It is a place where the children of Brookside School can play, recite stories and dream. Set up for children to enter into this mysterious U-Shape building, the Pickle Hut offers up a little hub of sanctuary in order to let their imaginations fly. If only I had such a magical edifice to call my own and run to when head nun, Sister Mary, was on one of her many Catholic tirades. Eek! [photo by Paul Hitz]
I’m not much of a jewelry guy, but if bling is in order, it’s ordered from my man Osa at Complete Technique. Originally from Japan, Osa is now based in Dumbo, Brooklyn and makes the finest metal jewelry, on par with any of his ancestor’s samurai swords. From speaker rings to turntable pendants, it’s all fresh and mostly music or hip-hop related. He’s been at it for about ten years and works harder than most people I know. If you need some jewelry, show him some love.
I love the colour and textures that permeate Brooklyn illustrator Ilana Kohn’s work. A Pratt graduate, Kohn ‘works mainly through combining traditional painting techniques with various manners of collage and occasional digital media’. Read more
In the wake of America’s historic presidential election, nearly two years of divisive campaigning, and eight years of a controversial administration, the nation is in desperate need of healing. Beloved Internet personality Ze Frank started From 58 to 42 with Love where contributors use their webcams to post messages reaching out to the side of the country that didn’t vote for their guy. It’s saccharine at times, and there are one or two borderline nasty posts from people that don’t seem completely onboard with the project’s objective. But overall, it’s pretty effective and moving. I’ll admit I needed a couple tissues while reading it.
If animated wall drawings of severed heads and insect men ejecting their brains from their craniums is what people produce when they have too much time on their hands, then we should do their laundry for them and cook them dinner so they’ll have even more time on their hands.
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
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Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more

Amazing cake designs by Charm City Cakes
Baltimore company Charm City Cakes produces the most innovative wedding and party cakes on the market. Inspiration for these creative bakers comes from everywhere: art, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, and music, and each cake is individually designed to match your personality, and the theme of the occasion you are celebrating. Don’t miss these cakey engineering masterpieces. Read more

Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more

Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
The Demekin is an ultra compact camera with a preference for wide angles. It is the world’s first 110mm film camera with the fisheye lens, which gives each shot a soft focus, creating a gentle curve within the frame. We have them in the Lost At E Minor store for just $55. Read more
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Belle said | 14 March, 2008
Wow.. these are really great…