Real People

Here are a few stories
about some of the people we have met
during our travels through India.

Museum of Kitsch

Over the past 20 years, Dina has collected many items from the obscure to unique. Panning across the haunts of her home lays further evidence of her passion towards this hobby. Dina has devoted a majority of her time not only expanding her arsenal but also arranging its display.
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A Rash of Good Behavior
Contradictory to other Indian households, the welcome mat is ushered into the kitchen to continue its ugly discharge. The tea and biscuits are relegated to storage as if a precious commodity on the brink of extinction. Only to be filed out on display for those willing to flash their foreign currency.
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The Chor Bizarre
Being that posession is 9/10 the law in India struck great fear in the Irani household.
Subsequently, locks were changed and the vicious circle created by the Ahmed's was relegated downstairs.
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Spotlight on Art: Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin is an example of an artist who works at the most intimate level: her life is her work and her work, her life. It is nearly impossible to discuss Goldin's photographs without referring to their subjects by name, as though the people pictured were one's own family and friends. It is this intimate and raw style for which Goldin has become internationally renowned. Her "snapshot"-esque images of her friends -- drag queens, drug addicts, lovers and family -- are intense, searing portraits that, together, make a document of Goldin's life. Goldin herself has commented on her photographic style and philosophy, saying, "My work originally came from the snapshot aesthetic . . . Snapshots are taken out of love and to remember people, places, and shared times. They're about creating a history by recording a history."

Her work continues to evolve with her life. Of this she writes, "My work changes as I change. I feel an artist's work has to change, otherwise you become a replication of yourself." With Goldin's close, immediate style and stunningly beautiful images, there is no threat of her becoming a replication.

find out more HERE

Spotlight on Art: Stephanie Harvey

Stephanie Harvey

Stephanie is a semester away from my BFA degree in printmaking and photography from Rowan University. She is in love with screenprinting and everything handmade.

See Stephanies work HERE.

Visit Manila

MANILA landed in 2003 featuring the super surreal vocal talents of Compton´s very own 12-year-old rapper Michael Smith. The sheer craziness of this kids lyrics is brillant, sitting ever so nicely off key and awkwardly over Seelenluft´s bass heavy tweaks and bleeps. Michael Smith raps like a kid on a flashback with a Saturday night mash up mentality, only the aeroplane is going down.

Spotlight on Art: Rajhubir Singh

Raghubir Singh

Indian born Raghubir Singh (1942-99) lived and worked in London, Paris and New York. A pioneer of the use of colour in photojournalism, he is particularly known for his images of his country of birth, emphatic colour images that show India as dramatic and exotic, but are never simply sentimental or touristic.

When Singh was 24 he met Henri Cartier-Bresson who was then photographing India, and the master of photojournalism became very much a model for his own photography.

Despite this, Singh chose to work in colour,feeling that this was at the very heart of his view of India.

find out more HERE

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Spotlight on Art: Philip-Lorca DiCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

DiCorcia is often acknowledged as one of the most influential photographers of his generation, and his work is frequently shown alongside that of his peers in exhibitions addressing our cultural zeitgeist. At the beginning of his career in the late 1970s, diCorcia situated his friends and family within fictional interior tableaus. He later shifted his attention outward, photographing strangers in urban spaces—Berlin, Calcutta, Hollywood, New York, Rome, Tokyo—and infused the pictures with supplementary lighting to achieve a sense of heightened drama. Each of his series, “Hustlers,” “Streetwork,” “Heads,” “A Storybook Life,” and “Lucky Thirteen,” can be considered progressive explorations of diCorcia’s formal and conceptual fields of interest.

DiCorcia has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2001, diCorcia won the Infinity Award for Applied Photography from the International Center of Photography in New York.

find out more HERE

Spotlight on Fashion: The Graphic T

Tonic Clothing

Tonic Clothing is an ethical clothing label, offering a range of t-shirts, polo shirts, hoodies and bags. I'm not wild about a lot of the designs on the site, but I do like this Shootist t-shirt.

At first glance, you might think this is a Scarface t-shirt, but it's actually Amitabh Bachchan, star of 1979 Bollywood blockbuster The Great Gambler.

The shirt is made from ethically-sourced cotton, with the design sat rather smartly at the bottom left-and corner.

Pick one up HERE

Amitabh Bachan

The trademark deep baritone voice, the tall, brooding persona, and intense eyes, made Amitabh Bachchan the ideal "Angry Young Man" in the 1970s, thereby changing the face of Hindi cinema.The lanky, dark, and intensely brooding persona did not go down well with directors who were looking for wise-cracking, fair, loverboys - the trademark of the Indian hero in the 1960s.

His persona seemed apt for the 1970s, capturing the resentment of underemployed youth and the increasing cult of violence. Bachchan reworked the image of the Hindi film hero with major hits like Deewar, Sholay, Trishul, Don, Kala Patthar, and Shakti. Adapting former screen idol Dilip Kumar's mannerisms and adding his own flamboyance, he popularized the violent melodrama.

Currently, he is one of the most busiest actors and singers in Bollywood as well as on TV, as can be seen from the commercials that he appears on, especially on Sahara One. Looks like there are no limits for this super-star and once the "Angry Young Man". of Bollywood.

New and Noteworthy Music

Everything is Borrowed by The Streets

Everything is Borrowed emphasizes more intricate arrangements for live instrumentation, and while its expansiveness doesn't always work, Skinner can still grab your attention with well-placed touches. These songs, though, are definitely clear and present. This the thinking mans rap album.

Double Night Time by Mogan Geist

After turning the Dance music world on its head with his Metro Area project (alongside collaborator Darshan Jesrani) and mining rare disco gems with the seminal obscure disco DJ mix Unclassics (2004), Geist decided it was time to turn his attention to a solo album that would indulge his own early influences and guilty pleasures: Techno-Pop, Prog Rock and pure Electronic music.

Nectar by Natalia Clavier

You probably don't know the name, but you may recognize the voice, as she supplies vocals for most of the best tracks on Federico Aubele's "Panamericana," including the haunting "Maria Jose." Her voice is a soothing aural pillow, only it won't put you to sleep. You will want to wrap yourself up in sound of her mellifluous voice time and again.

Rejoin by Brightblack Morning Light

Motion to Rejoin is like the Sunday morning day after, when everything looks a little less sexy as you're veeery slooowly trying to find the coffee while your hook-up insists on reading headlines from the paper out loud. The Rhodes is still there, but it's less obtuse funk than sepia waves of sound.

Magic Monday by Michna

A former Diplo collaborator and one-time Jandek remixer — about as unlikely a resume you will ever find — the young Michna is the newest DJ in the Ghostly International roster, and immediately its least serious and most fun. Across Magic Monday, Michna gets coy and playful, composing pieces that fans of Gotan Project and their ilk would absolutely dig.

One Color by Up, Bustle and Out

Great album from a consistently great band. This is from back when they were a big group. (Now they're just a couple or three guys who work with other musicians an album at a time.) The basic idea is incorporation of music from all over the world with fantastic electronica beats with a bit of Latin American Revolutionary fervor and worldly awareness.

Git by Skeletons and Girl Faced Boys
Git is scrambled-up pop with loads of electronics and blissfully boyish melodies, as if Butterfly Child's Joe Cassidy found lifelong happiness, ditched his string section, and decided to use Todd Rundgren's sprawling '70s albums for some sonic direction. You'll either embrace the album or dismiss it for its many eccentricities.