TINSEL TOWN HEROES
Ellen Von Unwerth
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Quantum Lens
Visit Photography HomeThe world's best curated Photography
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Fugue State Revisited, is an on-going exploration of the future legacies of photography, with a focus on the life span of digital files. After the loss of a hard drive that held 20 years of analog scans, I received only half the files back in recovery. The rest of the files were corrupted, each totally unique in how the machine damages and reinterprets the pixels. This alarming result made me begin to consider ever-shifting digital platforms and file formats, and I realized that much of the data we produce today could eventually fall into a black hole of inaccessibility. The Getty Research Institute states, “While you are still able to view family photographs printed over 100 years ago, a CD with digital files on it from only 10 years ago might be unreadable because of rapid changes to software and the devices we use to access digital content.” As an analog photographer, rather than let the machine have the last word, I have cyanotyped over my damaged digital scans. I use silhouettes of portraits from my archives as a way to conceal and reveal the corruption. By using historical processes to create a physical object, I guarantee that this image will not be lost in the current clash between the digital file and the materiality of a photographic print. Fugue State Revisited calls attention to the fact that today’s digital files may not retain their original state, or even exist, in the next century. As we are reliant on technology to keep our images intact for future generations, it begs the question, who will maintain our hard drives after we are gone? Will we be able to conserve photographs that speak to family histories? These are important considerations for our visual futures, as we may be leaving behind photographs that will be reimagined by machines.
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Richard Renaldi’s Touching Strangers embodies the human desire to connect despite our differences. Renaldi directed strangers to pose in front of a large-format, 8-by-10-inch view camera in towns and cities all over the United States. These startlingly intimate portraits reveal “humanity as it could be as most of us wish it would be and as it was, at least for those one fleeting moments in time.” These relationships may have only lasted for one moment, but the resulting photographs are moving and provocative, and continue to raise profound questions about the possibilities for breaking down social barriers with positive human connection in a diverse society.
ICONS deals with self creation. We are all costumed characters whether we realize it or not. Beyond the genetic hands we’re dealt, we forge our personas through occupation, clothing and hairstyle choices, our possessions, and how we communicate through body language and expressions. Too often, people believe that they are locked into social roles and play their parts such as that of a doting mother, a respected priest, a right-wing conservative, or an anti-establishment iconoclast. In casting themselves as singular identities, they forget the fullness of who they are. ICONS invites you to approach identity with a sense of play and malleability, and to recognize the forgotten parts of yourself as you see them reflected in these portraits.
Tokyo Nude confronts the ever-changing outlines of the metropolis. As we discard the garments of civilization, is this dystopia or utopia? Tokyo exists in a state of continuous renewal. The crowded buildings almost feel like forms deeply rooted forms, cemented into the city's fabric. Living in Tokyo, I exist symbiotically with these rigid forms. Conversely, the sense of community between people seems to be shifting into places unseen in public; mainly the Internet. Virtual connections have become more important than physical relationships with neighbors, thus shifting the historic ideals of "real life." The outlines of Tokyo have become blurred. These works deal with my wonder for what this metropolis will look like when we no longer desire material functions. There are no entrances, no exits; a world filled with rectangular structures working their way into the horizon. All activity happens within the structures, and traces of consumption disappear from public view; a discarding of civilization's ideals, the garments and decorations.
The world's best curated Photography
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Fugue State Revisited, is an on-going exploration of the future legacies of photography, with a focus on the life span of digital files. After the loss of a hard drive that held 20 years of analog scans, I received only half the files back in recovery. The rest of the files were corrupted, each totally unique in how the machine damages and reinterprets the pixels. This alarming result made me begin to consider ever-shifting digital platforms and file formats, and I realized that much of the data we produce today could eventually fall into a black hole of inaccessibility. The Getty Research Institute states, “While you are still able to view family photographs printed over 100 years ago, a CD with digital files on it from only 10 years ago might be unreadable because of rapid changes to software and the devices we use to access digital content.” As an analog photographer, rather than let the machine have the last word, I have cyanotyped over my damaged digital scans. I use silhouettes of portraits from my archives as a way to conceal and reveal the corruption. By using historical processes to create a physical object, I guarantee that this image will not be lost in the current clash between the digital file and the materiality of a photographic print. Fugue State Revisited calls attention to the fact that today’s digital files may not retain their original state, or even exist, in the next century. As we are reliant on technology to keep our images intact for future generations, it begs the question, who will maintain our hard drives after we are gone? Will we be able to conserve photographs that speak to family histories? These are important considerations for our visual futures, as we may be leaving behind photographs that will be reimagined by machines.
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Richard Renaldi’s Touching Strangers embodies the human desire to connect despite our differences. Renaldi directed strangers to pose in front of a large-format, 8-by-10-inch view camera in towns and cities all over the United States. These startlingly intimate portraits reveal “humanity as it could be as most of us wish it would be and as it was, at least for those one fleeting moments in time.” These relationships may have only lasted for one moment, but the resulting photographs are moving and provocative, and continue to raise profound questions about the possibilities for breaking down social barriers with positive human connection in a diverse society.
ICONS deals with self creation. We are all costumed characters whether we realize it or not. Beyond the genetic hands we’re dealt, we forge our personas through occupation, clothing and hairstyle choices, our possessions, and how we communicate through body language and expressions. Too often, people believe that they are locked into social roles and play their parts such as that of a doting mother, a respected priest, a right-wing conservative, or an anti-establishment iconoclast. In casting themselves as singular identities, they forget the fullness of who they are. ICONS invites you to approach identity with a sense of play and malleability, and to recognize the forgotten parts of yourself as you see them reflected in these portraits.
Tokyo Nude confronts the ever-changing outlines of the metropolis. As we discard the garments of civilization, is this dystopia or utopia? Tokyo exists in a state of continuous renewal. The crowded buildings almost feel like forms deeply rooted forms, cemented into the city's fabric. Living in Tokyo, I exist symbiotically with these rigid forms. Conversely, the sense of community between people seems to be shifting into places unseen in public; mainly the Internet. Virtual connections have become more important than physical relationships with neighbors, thus shifting the historic ideals of "real life." The outlines of Tokyo have become blurred. These works deal with my wonder for what this metropolis will look like when we no longer desire material functions. There are no entrances, no exits; a world filled with rectangular structures working their way into the horizon. All activity happens within the structures, and traces of consumption disappear from public view; a discarding of civilization's ideals, the garments and decorations.
Ellen Von Unwerth’s thirty-year storied career defined the aesthetic of the 90’s and 2000’s and has made her a staple of fashion photography. Crafting cinematic scenarios for her shoots, Von Unwerth’s flashy, kinky, and humorous photographs invite viewers to come along on a boisterous escapade. By furnishing each of her subjects with a new persona to inhabit, she allows their inhibitions to melt away. The story telling aspect in her creative process has allowed her to create images that are never static and begs the question, “what is really going on here?” The inherent sexuality in her images is never without fun, and the subjects within her works are always powerful - positioned in control of their sex appeal.
Richard Renaldi’s Touching Strangers embodies the human desire to connect despite our differences. Renaldi directed strangers to pose in front of a large-format, 8-by-10-inch view camera in towns and cities all over the United States. These startlingly intimate portraits reveal “humanity as it could be as most of us wish it would be and as it was, at least for those one fleeting moments in time.” These relationships may have only lasted for one moment, but the resulting photographs are moving and provocative, and continue to raise profound questions about the possibilities for breaking down social barriers with positive human connection in a diverse society.
ICONS deals with self creation. We are all costumed characters whether we realize it or not. Beyond the genetic hands we’re dealt, we forge our personas through occupation, clothing and hairstyle choices, our possessions, and how we communicate through body language and expressions. Too often, people believe that they are locked into social roles and play their parts such as that of a doting mother, a respected priest, a right-wing conservative, or an anti-establishment iconoclast. In casting themselves as singular identities, they forget the fullness of who they are. ICONS invites you to approach identity with a sense of play and malleability, and to recognize the forgotten parts of yourself as you see them reflected in these portraits.
Tokyo Nude confronts the ever-changing outlines of the metropolis. As we discard the garments of civilization, is this dystopia or utopia? Tokyo exists in a state of continuous renewal. The crowded buildings almost feel like forms deeply rooted forms, cemented into the city's fabric. Living in Tokyo, I exist symbiotically with these rigid forms. Conversely, the sense of community between people seems to be shifting into places unseen in public; mainly the Internet. Virtual connections have become more important than physical relationships with neighbors, thus shifting the historic ideals of "real life." The outlines of Tokyo have become blurred. These works deal with my wonder for what this metropolis will look like when we no longer desire material functions. There are no entrances, no exits; a world filled with rectangular structures working their way into the horizon. All activity happens within the structures, and traces of consumption disappear from public view; a discarding of civilization's ideals, the garments and decorations.
Quantum Canvas
Visit Digital Art HomeThe finest Digital Art, carefully curated by our team of experts
Khuwab ki Tabeer ‘Interpretation of a dream’ is Maliha Abidi’s latest series. This collection of 4 NFTs follows a story of a South-Asian girl and all the things she dreams about because to her, there is no limit, restrictions or barriers that stand in her way of achieving any of it. Each of the unique art pieces celebrate Maliha’s heritage as a Pakistani-American artist through use of distinct elements native to Pakistan’s culture. The series reminds us of our younger self and takes us back to the times when we used to wonder during the nights about our dreams, what we want to be and how it’ll escape the challenges we faced as our young selves. A fifth part (not for sale) to this series is a piece which follows on from the story where the protagonist reflects and comes face to face with her inner fearlessness.
GAMUT-93 is a series of pixel-based video paintings informed by the Op art movement, primitive computer graphics, and contemporary graffiti. Gravitating between symbolism and abstraction, the artwork whispers in micro-narratives through the use of silent haiku charades, hypnotic visual ambience, and vivid graphic techno.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq
Super User is a series of generative artworks that include abstract pyroscapes, shadowy tunnels, shimmering surfaces, and golden moiré patterns with characteristically dark themes for Vaden. These images represent a world full of beauty and horror, created with statistical tools commonly used for scientific research. Carefully developed algorithms were used to create unique artwork each time that they were run, with output curated by the artist.
SANCTUARY is a collection of pixel paintings that investigate the proliferation and permeation of digitized memory in the post internet age. Its conceptually layered armature and visually poetic distillation process encourage us to experience the full bandwidth of a visceral nostalgia in locating the pulse of a lost paradise we refer to as “our youth”. Remixed source material are reduced to shimmering pixelated outlines dancing across a contrasting dark digital canvas co-inhabited by scrolling text (appropriated from 80’s and 90’s era song lyrics), functioning as internal dialogue and instinctive meta prose. These motifs operate on the subconscious level wherein the visible and symbolic merge to produce evocative allusions referred to as vignettes, which are divided into three categorical types: Moments, Objects, and Mementos. Combining these vignettes into diptychs and triptychs engenders the transmission of personal narratives and private myths. Such permutations symbolize the piecing together of fragmented memories, as if downloading one’s own recollective echo to ultimately reveal an intrinsic cerebral blueprint—inviting us to reflect and reconcile with the forces and events that have shaped our present selves.
COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is a collection of 30 media-rich textblocks comprising one long AI-powered poem. Each textblock, representing a single stanza, exists as a standalone visual poem that is inextricably connected to every other piece. The original text of the poem appears in Stiles’ new book, TECHNELEGY, a hybrid collection of poetry and art written in collaboration with her AI alter ego, Technelegy -- a custom text generator fine-tuned on my own writing, research and reference materials. COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is one poem in an ongoing series called COMPLETION POEMS, in which Stiles use natural language processing AI as a co-author. By translating the printed text into media-rich visual poems, with visualizations by Stiles and original music and sound design by her studio partner Kris Bones, the collection looks to the future of generative and metaversal literature while evolving the ancient, immersive, experiential oral tradition of poetry and the 16th century invention of moveable type. The title FRAGMENTS refers to the surviving fragments of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho’s literary work.
The finest Digital Art, carefully curated by our team of experts
Khuwab ki Tabeer ‘Interpretation of a dream’ is Maliha Abidi’s latest series. This collection of 4 NFTs follows a story of a South-Asian girl and all the things she dreams about because to her, there is no limit, restrictions or barriers that stand in her way of achieving any of it. Each of the unique art pieces celebrate Maliha’s heritage as a Pakistani-American artist through use of distinct elements native to Pakistan’s culture. The series reminds us of our younger self and takes us back to the times when we used to wonder during the nights about our dreams, what we want to be and how it’ll escape the challenges we faced as our young selves. A fifth part (not for sale) to this series is a piece which follows on from the story where the protagonist reflects and comes face to face with her inner fearlessness.
GAMUT-93 is a series of pixel-based video paintings informed by the Op art movement, primitive computer graphics, and contemporary graffiti. Gravitating between symbolism and abstraction, the artwork whispers in micro-narratives through the use of silent haiku charades, hypnotic visual ambience, and vivid graphic techno.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq
Super User is a series of generative artworks that include abstract pyroscapes, shadowy tunnels, shimmering surfaces, and golden moiré patterns with characteristically dark themes for Vaden. These images represent a world full of beauty and horror, created with statistical tools commonly used for scientific research. Carefully developed algorithms were used to create unique artwork each time that they were run, with output curated by the artist.
SANCTUARY is a collection of pixel paintings that investigate the proliferation and permeation of digitized memory in the post internet age. Its conceptually layered armature and visually poetic distillation process encourage us to experience the full bandwidth of a visceral nostalgia in locating the pulse of a lost paradise we refer to as “our youth”. Remixed source material are reduced to shimmering pixelated outlines dancing across a contrasting dark digital canvas co-inhabited by scrolling text (appropriated from 80’s and 90’s era song lyrics), functioning as internal dialogue and instinctive meta prose. These motifs operate on the subconscious level wherein the visible and symbolic merge to produce evocative allusions referred to as vignettes, which are divided into three categorical types: Moments, Objects, and Mementos. Combining these vignettes into diptychs and triptychs engenders the transmission of personal narratives and private myths. Such permutations symbolize the piecing together of fragmented memories, as if downloading one’s own recollective echo to ultimately reveal an intrinsic cerebral blueprint—inviting us to reflect and reconcile with the forces and events that have shaped our present selves.
COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is a collection of 30 media-rich textblocks comprising one long AI-powered poem. Each textblock, representing a single stanza, exists as a standalone visual poem that is inextricably connected to every other piece. The original text of the poem appears in Stiles’ new book, TECHNELEGY, a hybrid collection of poetry and art written in collaboration with her AI alter ego, Technelegy -- a custom text generator fine-tuned on my own writing, research and reference materials. COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is one poem in an ongoing series called COMPLETION POEMS, in which Stiles use natural language processing AI as a co-author. By translating the printed text into media-rich visual poems, with visualizations by Stiles and original music and sound design by her studio partner Kris Bones, the collection looks to the future of generative and metaversal literature while evolving the ancient, immersive, experiential oral tradition of poetry and the 16th century invention of moveable type. The title FRAGMENTS refers to the surviving fragments of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho’s literary work.
Math Art is the first NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke, forefather of media art. This 100 piece-collection is drawn from his iconic 80s series Math Art where mathematical investigation is translated into visual art, with a stunning variety of forms that is strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art. License: https://quantum.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmUnSepLccUajd2kJi3hX7bFvzUuFHr39UUP1TTk9yHaaq
Super User is a series of generative artworks that include abstract pyroscapes, shadowy tunnels, shimmering surfaces, and golden moiré patterns with characteristically dark themes for Vaden. These images represent a world full of beauty and horror, created with statistical tools commonly used for scientific research. Carefully developed algorithms were used to create unique artwork each time that they were run, with output curated by the artist.
SANCTUARY is a collection of pixel paintings that investigate the proliferation and permeation of digitized memory in the post internet age. Its conceptually layered armature and visually poetic distillation process encourage us to experience the full bandwidth of a visceral nostalgia in locating the pulse of a lost paradise we refer to as “our youth”. Remixed source material are reduced to shimmering pixelated outlines dancing across a contrasting dark digital canvas co-inhabited by scrolling text (appropriated from 80’s and 90’s era song lyrics), functioning as internal dialogue and instinctive meta prose. These motifs operate on the subconscious level wherein the visible and symbolic merge to produce evocative allusions referred to as vignettes, which are divided into three categorical types: Moments, Objects, and Mementos. Combining these vignettes into diptychs and triptychs engenders the transmission of personal narratives and private myths. Such permutations symbolize the piecing together of fragmented memories, as if downloading one’s own recollective echo to ultimately reveal an intrinsic cerebral blueprint—inviting us to reflect and reconcile with the forces and events that have shaped our present selves.
COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is a collection of 30 media-rich textblocks comprising one long AI-powered poem. Each textblock, representing a single stanza, exists as a standalone visual poem that is inextricably connected to every other piece. The original text of the poem appears in Stiles’ new book, TECHNELEGY, a hybrid collection of poetry and art written in collaboration with her AI alter ego, Technelegy -- a custom text generator fine-tuned on my own writing, research and reference materials. COMPLETION: FRAGMENTS is one poem in an ongoing series called COMPLETION POEMS, in which Stiles use natural language processing AI as a co-author. By translating the printed text into media-rich visual poems, with visualizations by Stiles and original music and sound design by her studio partner Kris Bones, the collection looks to the future of generative and metaversal literature while evolving the ancient, immersive, experiential oral tradition of poetry and the 16th century invention of moveable type. The title FRAGMENTS refers to the surviving fragments of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho’s literary work.