Fancy having your photographs exhibited at galleries from New York to Brazil? Today is the last chance to enter Manhattan based Milk Gallery’s emerging talent competition, Milk Underground. Dedicated to pushing open doors for young and unknown photographers, for the second Milk Underground competition, the judges are looking for innovative and progressive images from industry outsiders. All you need are two strong images and your work could be featured in a show at Milk Gallery opening 17^th November, before moving to Milk’s sister gallery in Brazil. Get milking.

milkmade.com

Past winners – Above Photo: Jason O’Neal.  Top Photo: Khaki Bedford

Tags: Competition, Milk Gallery, Milk Studios, Milk Underground, new york

Amie Norris takes starkly beautiful and intimate nude portraits. The London based photographer shoots her subjects in their own surroundings to ensure the viewer gets a deeper insight into who this person is, what they represent and more importantly what Amie wants to portray.

Norris says: “I really enjoy seeing and being a part of my models’ personal space. It’s not about invading the space, but adding a comforting and relaxed feeling to the images. It also makes the image more intriguing, giving the image just a little more than a studio image would.”

The 26-year-old is soon due to début her work in an exhibition in New York. “My plan is to exhibit work internationally, and to publish as many books as possible. I do it for the sheer joy it gives me; to be able to make something into a piece of art gives you an inexplicable buzz.”

amienorris.com

Tags: Amie Norris, Nude Portraits

With Frieze Art Fair having turned London into a kaleidoscope of visionary talents, the timing could not have been more ripe for Seana Gavin’s Alternate Dimensions exhibition at the b Store.

The artist will be showing exactly what makes her space psychedelia work so magnetic. The exhibit will include a three-dimensional collage window installation and otherworldly landscape pieces such as Lost In Space.

Gavin, for whom dreams, science fiction and her upbringing in Woodstock, NY all act as inspirations, has previously exhibited her pieces alongside the likes of Tracey Emin, Mark Titchner, and Jake and Dinos Chapman.

A graduate from the Camberwell College of Art, she explores different states of consciousness in her work, in reaction to the imagery overload and visual noise that constitute our modern-day world.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Gavin’s work so compelling: is it the full spectral range of colour, the seemingly unconnected elements that are blended into one cohesive image or the fact that her collages transport its viewer into another dimension?

The definite explanation of its attraction may still be up in space, but it’s clear that the only worthy  way to experience Seana Gavin’s work is up close and personal.

Alternate Dimensions is at b Store, 24a Savile Row, W1S 3PR until 5 November.

Tags: b Store, Frieze Art Fair, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mark Titchner, Seana Gavin, tracey emin

Carsten Höller’s (BELVEDERE)RED Double Sphere Hanging, debuted at the pre-Grammy Awards party in Los Angeles, is truly a more than meets the eye piece of art.

Composed of red and white flashing bulbs, the light installation was inspired by Höller’s desire to unbalance the rational mind and create a piece which puts the viewer’s personal experience at the forefront of its purpose.

Built in partnership with Belvedere Vodka and (RED), the piece will be auctioned off at Art Basel Miami in December. All proceeds from the sale will go to the Global Fund, an international organisation dedicated to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, making the Double Sphere Hanging both benevolent and beautiful.

Tags: Art Basel Miami, Belvedere Vodka, Carsten Höller, Global Fund, Red

Dover Street Market is engulfed by a variety of installations this week, all in celebration of London’s Frieze Art Fair.

The work of Brazilian/French artist duo Vivid Astro Focus encases the ground floor entrance, creating a 360-degree tunnel of vibrant paintings, which the DSM team is calling it “one of the greatest installations we have ever done”. Three stories upwards resides an exhibition of creations by heel-less shoe God/Daphne Guinness favourite Noritaka Tatehana and New Yorker ceramicist/sculptor James Salaiz.

The store is also exclusively hosting Dr Marten’s Bespoke in its basement event space, where the iconic boots can be completely customised, right down to the last eyelet.

If you ever needed an excuse to get lost in Dover Street Market for a few hours, this is it.

Tags: Comme des Garçons, Daphne Guinness, Dover Street Market, Dr Martens, Frieze, James Salaiz, Noritaka Tatehana, Vivid Astro Focus

It’s your last chance to see the Artists for Women for Women International exhibition at Christie’s before each of the 22 works are sold off at auction tomorrow. Contemporary artists Nadja Romain and Jenny Savile invited a stellar list of artists including Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Tacita Dean and Bridget Riley to create entirely new work in order to raise money for the charity, which fights for gender equality in the developing world.

“I have found it incredibly empowering to realise that by using my professional and personal skills to do a project like this one, I can have an impact on thousands of lives,” says Romain.

For every £100,000 raised through Artists for Women for Women International, the organisation can help 400 women move from victim, to survivor, to active citizen. There’s never been a better chance for the art world to change the world, one woman at a time.

womenforwomen.org.uk

Tags: Anthony Gormley, Artists for Women for Women International, Bridget Riley, Christie's, Jenny Savile, Nadja Romain, Tacita Dean, tracey emin

If you’re looking for a warm up tomorrow ahead of the Frieze art fair, may we suggest a visit to the new waterside contemporary gallery in Hoxton? The inaugural show They don’t know why, but they keep doing it, a group affair, asks questions about ideology in a post-ideological reality.

The six artists, Grzegorz Drozd, Javier Rodriguez, Maciek Stępiński, Radek Szlaga, Konrad Smoleński and artist duo Karen Mizra and Brad Butler, reject archaic symbolic structures in favour of something a little less obvious. Visitors can expect works in paint, installation and video. Creating their own visual language, though, surely fosters new, individualized ideologies; a puzzling paradox. They don’t know why, but they keep doing it.

Tags: Brad Butler, Frieze, Grzegorz Drozd, Hoxton, Javier Rodrequez, Karen Mizra, Konrad Smolenski, Maciek Stepinski, Radek Szlaga, They don't know why but they keep doing it, Waterside Contemporary Gallery

In his film to celebrate the launch of Maison Martin Margiela’s second scent (Untitled) L’Eau, Mark Borthwick has made the scent’s essence almost tangible. The photographer and filmmaker takes us through a garden of saturated light and beauty, yet the blown focus of his camera stops just short of revealing everything. Instead there’s a heavenly quality to the wild flowers bathed in light that is as amorphic as Margiela itself.

Inspired by the fragrance’s natural tones of Mandarin orange, curly-leaf mint, Amalfi lemon, buchu essential oil and African orange flower, Borthwick’s film makes poetry of nature, captured and bottled.

Watch the film at nowness.com

Tags: Maison Martin Margiela, Mark Borthwick, Nowness, Untitled L'Eau

Tomas Alfredson’s Cold War thriller  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is packed with soberly suited men in Seventies London. The look is all in the cut, the mood and the colour. So it’s not surprising that he took advice from Britain’s first man of style, Sir Paul Smith about how to recreate the era. As well as consulting on the film, Smith has turned his hand to poster design and created four limited edition silk screen posters. Slickly minimalistic and graphically coloured, they belong to the golden age of film poster design.

A run of 50 per poster is available from Paul Smith stores with proceeds going to Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres.

Tags: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, Seventies, Sir Paul Smith, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson

Artist Gillian Wearing has said, “I’m always trying to find ways of discovering new things about people, and in the process discover more about myself.” In her film and photography work, the self-confessed reality TV-junkie has always probed the psychological secrets of her subjects.

On release from Friday, Wearing’s first full-length film is no less an exploration of the workings within. Self Made is the distillation of hundreds of individuals who responded to an advert she placed in newspapers and job centres saying, “Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character. Call Gillian.”

A process of auditions resulted in five non-actors, each with their own fears and anxities, whom she set to work with a London method-acting teacher. At once documentary, artwork, social experiment and performance project, Self Made is cathartic and uncomfortable viewing.

The audience witnesses the film’s “actors” being pushed to the limits of self-exposure. Reality and acting finally blur to take the shape of portraits of people, lost in the search for their own identity. Wearing’s film is a work of art, with each character delivering the performance of their life. But it’s a journey for her audience too, who are unlikely to walk away unscathed.

Self Made, directed by Gillian Wearing is at selected cinemas from 2 September 2011.
selfmade.org.uk

Tags: Gillian Wearing, Method Acting, Self Made

Next Summer, all eyes will be on London for the Olympics and with the recent riots on the streets, the world may well be wondering how much the city has really changed since Thatcher’s Eighties.

Throughout that decade, Berris Conolly photographed Hackney’s streets and open spaces, from Dalston lane to the River Lea. His black and white images showed a Hackney full of empty stillness and fly-tipping. Over twenty years on and despite now living in Sheffield, he has collaborated with Alex Pink, a young urban photographer, to show the ways in which the area has changed and stayed the same. Despite the two photographers having never met, Hackney: Revisited is a fascinating insight into the changing urban environment.

Twin asked Alex about the project…

Are you both from Hackney?
I am from East London, but lived in Hackney for a short period. A lot of my time is spent in the borough. Berris lived in Hackney in the Eighties but is now in Sheffield.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourselves?
I am a local photographer who spends much of my spare time photographing London & Hackney, mainly for my blog snapshotlondon.co.uk Berris is a commercial photographer, who 30 years ago documented the streets in his spare time.

Where did the idea for the project come from?
I brought Berris’ book for my girlfriend’s birthday. I was instantly taken by the unique collection of powerful photographs and knew that they had to be updated.

How would you sum up the changes?
I have long been fascinated by the urban landscape and how it effects our everyday life’s London is an inspiring place, Hackney in particular. The changes in some cases have been quite subtle, simply changes to the street furniture or buildings. Others are no longer recognisable and show the scale of redevelopment in the area. Many old beautiful buildings are being replaced by modern ugly flats, and once they are gone, they are gone forever.

Your pictures don’t tend to have people in them – why is that?
The focus of the pictures is the urban landscape, people would divert the viewers attention from this and completely change the scene.

What’s next for the project?
I have an exciting project lined up after this which ties in with the Olympics, but that’s all I’m going to say about it at this stage.

hackneyrevisited.com

Tags: Alex Pink, Berris Conolly, Dalston Lane, Eighties, Hackney Revisited, Olympics, River Lea, Sheffield

Artist Penny Slinger weaves narratives of life and death. In the Seventies her photographic collages challenged many of her peers with their anarchic approach to life and explicit depiction of feminine power. A new exhibition, A Photo-Romance, at the Riflemaker gallery focuses on her seminal surrealist images. in Presenting herself as both subject and object, Slinger used Surrealism to penetrate the feminine psyche. Her images of a deserted country mansion and empty rooms represent the many chambers of women’s being and consciousness. While the introspective drama of her work places her alongside artists such as Francesca Woodman and Leonora Carrington, Slinger’s collages are an encircling story of the ultimate romance – the death and rebirth of Self.

Penny Slinger: A Photo-Romance is at the Riflemaker from Monday 12 September – Saturday 30 October 2011.
riflemaker.org

Tags: A Photo-Romance, Francesca Woodman, Leonora Carrington, Penny Slinger, Riflemaker, Surrealism

We’re not sure quite what to expect from the Demon Hell Riders show this Sunday and whether there will be actual go-kart races, but we’re certain it’s going to be a clash of colourful creativity.

The one-day art show at The Rag Factory will feature artwork from a selection of artists including Petro and Suzannah Pettigrew. Channeling the spirit of an Eighties childhood adventure, laughter, hobbies and friendship, there will be handmade go-karts, complimentary tea and biscuits and the Demon Hell Riders new zine hot off the press.

Demon Hell Riders is at The Rag Factory 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1
Midday until Midnight, Sunday 21st August.

Tags: Demon Hell Riders, go-karts, Petro, Suzannah Pettigrew

Boy waifs and androgynous dreamers have long captivated fashion photographer Toyin Ibidapo. After years of recording her subjects from her West London home she’s finally created a mesmerizing scrapbook of her poetic portraits. Cult of Boys is an adoring tribute to the raw vulnerability of youth.

Twin spoke to Toyin about her life’s work…

When did you start taking photos?
I started when I was 18 or 19, I started by doing photograms which was fun. Still at this time I hadn’t any particular calling, it was just something I enjoyed along with all the other students. Then it progressed to shooting my fellow students, friends and family and still I didn’t know I was becoming a photographer as it was a hobby. I was on a general art and design course at Kingsway in clerkenwell 90/92. Then I decided I was better at taking pics and got into Bournemouth.

Are you self-taught or did you study photography?
I am self taught, but I also studied at Bournemouth and Poole  College Of Art And Design 92/94. I realize it’s the eye which is most important…well for me it is as I cant speak for anyone else.

When did you start shooting fashion photography?
I came into the fashion industry in 97 and tested until my portfolio was nice and juicy. I got my first break shooting for ” The Face ”  back in 98.

When did you first start photographing adolescent boys?
I guess since my student days. I had a few muses even back then, we were all students but on different courses. But if you mean the youth of the “skinny white boy ” a.k.a “The Cult Of…”  More seriously when I came into the fashion industry from 97. But I was mostly shooting girls and just the random boy here and there in the beginning. I really got it going in 99.

Aesthetically what kind of boys inspire you and why?
It’s the ones whose presence seem to go beyond just being beautiful looking and you can’t help but react to something in their personality. Maybe it’s shyness or someone who has an interesting state of mind. Yes those that inspire me must have the thing that makes you want to stare at them. They have invisible pull.

How do you cast your subjects – are they models or do you scout them yourself?
Mainly the majority are models and one or two of them have introduced me to faces they think I’d like to shoot. I prefer to meet them face to face before booking if possible so they can see what I’m about and visa versa.

What’s been the response to your work over the years?
The general response has been “when are you gonna get that bloody book out!” Lol. I would say more but my head might start to swell.

How long have you wanted to put together the Cult of Boys?
It began in 99. It was a goal I’d given myself, I didn’t stop shooting it till 09, then I had to work on the dummy, which I’d started since 08 and yes it was a head fuck and yes it took me ages.

What other photographers and artists do you admire?
Any photographer whose image makes me want to look at it just a little bit too long gets my seal of approval no matter what the technique.  Paul Outerbridge, Helmut Newton, Avedon, Will Mcbride, Bill Henson, Mary Ellen Mark, Michael Sanders, David Vasiljevic,Gregory Crewdson, Tim Walker.

Writer and Poet Maya Angelou – more people need to know about her. She’s just so inspiring. Ben Whishaw, when I first saw Perfume I was totally inspired by his performance, knocked the socks off me. Sally Man, writer Charlie Kaufman – boy I’d like to pick his brain, such an original. Him and Tim Burton. Bruce Lee, Frida Kahlo for her body to be in that much pain and still to paint – makes me love her all the more.

Then there’s this beautiful man called Simon he gets me to try and go beyond a bit like David Lynch. I admire anyone that makes me think. I deeply admire anyone  in adversity because it’s only a matter of time until they claw their way back up if they want. There are many many more.

Who is your current muse?
I have no current muses just my old skool Daniel Tighe. He’ll always be my muse as I know him best. As he dos me.  I still love Finnian Smith and Chris Tanner, I could still shoot them as It feels a bit unfinished. New muses…that’s yet to come. I’ve not been looking for a while now, plus it takes a lot to pull me in.

What’s next up for you?
I’m writing…

Cult of Boys by Toyin Ibidapo with a foreword by Tim Walker is published by teNeues in September 2011.
toyinibidapo.com

Tags: Ben Whishaw, Bournemouth, Cult of Boys, Daniel Tighe, Maya Angelou, teNeues, The Face, Tim Walker, Toyin Ibidapo

X Marks the Bökship are having a love affair with the letter X. Between July and December this year the project space for independent publishers on Cambridge Heath Road is releasing 26 Xs by 26 artists, designers and writers. First up is an X by Hansjörg Mayer from his 1969 Last Alphabet series followed by one by designer Harsh Patel. The individual prints will be for sale throughout the project for £15 with sales going towards funding future projects at X Marks the Bökship. All 26 Xs will be available at the end of the series. It’s an experience worth following.

bokship.org

Tags: Cambridge Heath Road, Hansjorg Mayer, Harsh Patel, Last Alphabet XALPHABET, X Marks the Bokship

Legendary Austrian fashion designer turned artist Helmut Lang has destroyed his fashion archive and in return created a series of sartorial sculptures featuring pulped and twisted fabrics and fibers, scorched plastics and metals. Having given away much of his catalogue to design collections around the world, the master of Nineties minimalism decided to shred some 6,000 pieces for the exhibition at The Fireplace Project Gallery in East Hampton, New York. Inspired after a fire in the building of his New York studio almost destroyed his life’s achievements, Lang decided to complete the task himself. Out of the carnage emerge eerily, slender columns that resemble elegant birch trees. They give shape and permanence to the transience of fashion and life itself.

MAKE IT HARD, a solo exhibition by Helmut Lang is at The FIREPLACE PROJECT until August 8, 2011.
fireplaceproject.com

Tags: East Hampton, Helmut Lang, new york, Nineties minimalism, The Fireplace Project

The Helmut Newton Foundation is one of those gems in the West of Berlin that’s well worth the journey from the more hip Bezirke of Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain.  This month, alongside the permanent exhibition offering a glimpse into Helmut Newton the man, a new exhibition opens celebrating his Polaroids.  Using them as an initial point of reference for his fashion shoots, he was able to test lighting and composition.

But more than that, the idea of Polaroids excited Newton: he published Pola Woman, a book exclusively made up of his Polaroids, in 1992.  Shooting down accusations that the images in the book didn’t stand up to his usual standard he said: “but that was exactly what was exciting – the spontaneity, the speed”.  Indeed in some ways this attitude prefigures the speed of photography – particularly street style photography – today.

The romance of a Polaroid picture is most definitely back in vogue again.

See the 300 works on display until 20^th November 2011
Helmut Newton Foundation, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin

Tags: Berlin, Charlottenburg, Helmut Newton, Helmut Newton Foundation, Polaroids, West Berlin

Irish photographer and filmmaker Niall O’Brien is fascinated with youths on the edge of society. His Good Rats series, the result of following a group of young South London punks across Europe, was a stand-out story from Twin‘s debut issue. Having shot for McQ and Nike, for his latest video project, Anger, he turned to the subject of youthful rage.

Twin spoke to O’Brien about the project.

Why did you chose to make a film about anger?
It was originally part of a commission that fell through. I was given an emotion and the idea of angry kids appealed to me and fascinated me. Temper tantrums are almost in everyone’s breaking point and I think it can come out easier in youth. I know I was a bit of a shit when younger. Recreating it was almost a salute to the way we once were, or still are as the case may be.

Where and when did you shoot the film?
I shot Anger a year ago. It was shot in an estate below my flat in Tower Hamlets. I’d been looking at it for over a year, so when the project came up it was a perfect location.

How does your film work fit with your photography?
I don’t know really, I try to keep the two separate and use it as an opportunity to collaborate. I’m confident in my photography and in my film there is still room for learning.

I’ve been shooting films for four years now and I’m still looking for my voice, I only found what I felt comfortable sticking with in photography about 12 years after I picked up a camera. I love it and have a great crew but I don’t want to be employed to shoot a film because of my photography. I want to be chosen because of my films. But… it all comes from the same person so it must relate somehow.

When and why did you start taking photographs?

I used to be involved with the skateboard industry in Ireland and started taking pictures of my friends. A few magazines and board companies started commissioning me and buying my photos so I decided to study it. I thought I was going to further sports photography, but I ended up doing fine art.

What draws you to documenting the adolescent sub-cultures you’ve photographed?
Reliving my youth I think. Being a kid was a very important time for me. The boy I was then and my friends needed to be documented, but I never had a camera. Some mental stuff went on as a boy, so when I met the punk kids it was the perfect opportunity to recapture it and in many ways relive it. It took me two years to feel like part of the group and when I did, I got a kick out of it. It is a rare opportunity and an almost VIP ticket into the lives of an amazing bunch of lads.

How do you build trust with your subjects?
Getting arrested to protect them helped (for Good Rats), but I think becoming one of them is important. If I approached them with questions and with a mature way I’d be told to fuck right off. It’s easy enough for me as I’m a bit of a kid at heart and don’t mind going there.

Who are your creative influences, photographically and otherwise?
I’m influenced by people who have drive and get stuff done. No matter what they do so long as they put their heart and soul into it and most of all stick to their guns. There is a risk of losing what you have by watching other people too much. Keep the blinkers on, move yourself forward and don’t worry about the other person.

What would you do if you weren’t a photographer?
I’d be a painter decorator.

niallobrien.co.uk

Tags: Anger, Good Rats, McQ, niall o'brien, Nike, Tower Hamlets

Garages, junk fields, abandoned quarter-pipes and dirty mattresses are the photographic heartland of Germany-based photographer Sergej Vutuc’s work. Since the mid-Nineties he has made the skateboard and punk community his home – and with it, its DIY landscape. His black and white shots are less about urban edge than an amorphous playground.

Vutuc’s latest show, Something In-between at Gallerie Michael Janssen in Berlin features a series of monochrome photographs hand printed on Baryt paper. Like the dilapidated buildings and rough terrain of his mis-en-scene, Vutuc scratches and scrapes at his image, engaging with his work in the same way as a skateboarder does with his environment.

“I don’t give any description to my images,” he says. “I leave them to speak for themselves. It’s not about where I shoot them or subject,  it’s more like a collection of fragments – moments and building stories… The mouth can never say, what eyes can see…“ Vutuc’s camera is a view from inside the subculture.

SERGEJ VUTUC: Something in between is at Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin until July 30.
galeriemichaeljanssen.de

Tags: Berlin, Gallerie Michael Janssen, Sergej Vutuc

Something’s happening in Hackney Wick.  Between the East and Westbound traffic of the A12 next to the Lea Navigation canal a temporary theatre has popped up.  Except it’s not just a theatre.  Folly for a Flyover is hosting six weeks of waterside cinema, performances, workshops and boat trips as part of the East London CREATE 11 programme.

By day expect Disco Loco family parties, puppet-making and optical trickery workshops and a café serving up a hearty British blend of Forman’s smoked salmon, homemade cakes and Mr Whippy ice cream.  You can also enjoy guided row-boat tours of the waterways in conjunction casino spiele with Floating House Productions – take Marek’s canoe-catamaran for a trip through Hackney Wick, Fish Island and down to Old Ford Lock & the Olympic Stadium.

For summer nights grab a blanket and some snacks and watch films like Tron and The Wild One.  Accompanying the screenings are live scores, light shows and performances such as a ‘night of burlesque delight’ with a backdrop of jazz music.

The entire space has been hand-built with local, reclaimed and donated materials which, at the end of the summer, will be disassembled and the materials donated to other local projects.  Conscious culture. We like.

Under the A12 Flyover,
 Hackney Wick,
London, E9 5HW runs until July 31.
follyforaflyover.co.uk

Tags: CREATE11, Floating House Productions, Folly for a Flyover, Hackney Wick, Lea Navigation Canal, Mr Bagel