The Blogazine

Illustrative’s Night in Berlin

Berlin is probably today’s definitive melting pot, the most raw and creative place on earth. Word on the street is that it uncannily resembles the unchained New York of 20 years ago. In Berlin people worship tradition and destroy convention; it is truly the city where the vintage of the future is being made. It therefore comes as no surprise that the German capital is playing host to the planet’s largest festival for contemporary illustration and graphic arts, which will take place for the sixth time in May 2011.

The illustrators night presented by Swatch and Illustrative e.V. will award a winning illustrator, animator or book artist with the world’s foremost prize for contemporary illustration on November 5th 2010 at Direktorenhaus, a space for contemporary applied arts and experimental design in Berlin developed by Illustrative’s initiators Pascal Johanssen and Katja Kleiss. The winning artist will gain (in addition to a €6000 prize in publications and contracts with agencies) the opportunity to showcase his or her work during next year’s event, and will additionally play part in the design process of a limited edition Swatch.

The blueprint for this event is a platform for the exchange of ideas between illustrators, animators, book artists, art directors, journalists. While enjoying a grand gala dinner including performances, the new exhibition, an after-party, this event most importantly allows creatives to discuss and celebrate illustration in the word’s purer sense, enlightenment through visualization. The Swatch Young Illustrators Award gives an alluring sample of what is sure to be an excellent showcase at Illustrative 2011.

By Safia Brown

Secret by Dossier Magazine

“Another secret: this is what photographs do. They whisper in your ear, saying, ‘You were there.’ This is no lullaby, no sleepy remembering. Instead, it is a jolt of recognition. ‘I was there,’ you think to yourself, amazed. ‘I was there, and so were you.’” – Emma Straub

It comes as no surprise that 2DM photographer Skye Parrot in collaboration with Alec Friedman, co-founders of Dossier Journal, curate a photographic exhibition around the brainchild secrets from October 29 to November 14, at Space 15 Twenty in Los Angeles,CA.

Just as the inception of Dossier Journal in May 2008, which was born around the theme of having no theme, using images that evoke raw emotions and playing around the method of filing interesting ideas that are usually left in the dark, this exhibition is portraying the one thing that we all have the urge to do in the end of the day: tell secrets.

So why not ask 39 photographers to give a visual response when asked to tell a secret, which evokes the essence of the photographic medium, capturing ones most personal and hidden thoughts and turning it into something visually creative yet showcasing it to the rest of the world as dark, delightful, or occasionally both, as is the case with Friedman’s bittersweet portrait of a sunburned back.

It was about time that we get to take photography back to its original essence. Giving photographers the freedom of capturing something solely personal, leaving constrictions, perfection, and consciousness in the background, Secrets evokes rawness, intimacy, and most importantly emotions. In the end of the day when telling a secret it’ s less about throwing dust in somebody’s eyes but about telling the blank truth.

By Safia Brown