With You, Today / Brian

My portraits of Brian on With You, Today

©Ava Alamshah

withyoutoday.com

I'm very happy with how these turned out.  I particularly love the blue tint from Brian's 1904 (?) home. On top of that, the weather was really warm in Pasadena (almost like a summer day). I just wanted to relax in the tall grass and sip on some iced tea.  We had iced green tea with a hint of brown rice (indoors to avoid the sun).  I've written about Brian before, and you can see that here.

your friend,

ava

Brian

C O M I N G    S O O N

©Ava Alamshah 

www.withyoutoday.com

Talent Magazine

©Ava Alamshah

My work has been featured on Talent Magazine, along with an interview!  Very happy and humbled. There are so many talented photographers who have exhibited for this online publication and it feels so inspiring to be a part of it. Check out my interview here. Lots of enthusiastic rambling/nerdy camera speak. Hope you enjoy, my friends, and thank you for the support! 

your friend,

ava

Happy Monday!

Look at this image of Lucille Ball!

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your friend,

ava

Beach Daze

Hello friends!  

I really wish life was in technicolor, don't you?!   I'm feeling so inspired by these classic beach photos, and cannot wait to frolic in the ocean very soon!  I absolutely  L O V E  vintage bathing suits, and find them the most flattering, not to mention very chic.  They look amazing underneath circle skirts, or paired with jeans.  I've been thinking about the perfect beach cover ups lately, like a cozy fair isle sweater (such as the one on Marilyn pictured below), or a light denim button down.  I have a few bathing suits from the 1950s/60s that I purchased on ebay.  It was an obsession for a while.  A few of them even have cone bra!  Cheeky!!  

That photo above makes me really happy.  I mean, how perfect are those women?  That pineapple! 

Beautiful Marilyn.  I bet that sweater was hand knitted. She looks so warm and peaceful in this image.  Taken in 1962 by George Barris.  His shots of her have such a California feel to them.  Check out this one, and this one!  

OH!!  THIS ONE!!!

Obsessed. 

This photo has some interesting commentary behind it.  I suggest you take a gander. 

I'd like to create a self portrait just like this!  ^

...or this one!  ^  What?

 Y E S

Lace and perfect eyebrows! 

Bettie had some glorious gams! 

I was named after this bathing beauty.  Ava Gardner rocked it!  Wow, just wow. 

Happy, breezy beach days!

your friend,

ava

All images provided by the google rabbit hole. 

On Hiatus

To all my friends,


I'm sorry for my absence (from my blog), but rest assured, I will be back in no time. 


Mean while, I hope you enjoy these images. 




your friend,


ava

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A friend from work put Shelley Duvall on my mind

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Another discovery down the rabbit hole. Really digging on this girl's illustrations. 

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Shelley Duvall, some guy, and cotton candy 

The Drums - Money from Tim Heinrich on Vimeo.


My new favorite band, courtesy of my boyfriend.  This song rings true to our situation at the moment.  These guys are dreamy. High school crushing X infinity. 

Lydia! 

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Gonna go back to this hair

From Lula Mag, Issue 5

I thought this was really cute

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English Card Deck 1820

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also, thanks to my friend, Ema, for introducing me to the first two sources. 

circus showgirl, 1950

Hello we heart vintage, for the last three images! 

xoxoxxx

Vivian Maier

When sifting through pages of the LA Weekly during a break at work, I came across this little tidbit about the photographer Vivian Maier.  I remember seeing something about her almost a year ago.  

I'm excited to see these images knowing that they were hidden for so long.  It's like unlocking the pages of a diary. This is exactly the photographic style I've always been drawn to.  Stylized images of every day.  William Eggleston is my favorite example of this. 

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The opening reception was tonight.  Hosted by Tim Roth.  Is that the Tim Roth I'm thinking of?  Oh, , ,pumpkin.  

The work will be up till January 28th at Merry Karnowsky Gallery.  

your friend,

ava

Back to the Future Part II

A while back I posted some beautiful photos from Irina Werning.  Her series "Back to the Future" is brilliant and I love her attention to detail when replicating photographs from the past.  It looks like she was in LA for some of them, and I wish I would have known sooner because I would have LOVED to be one of her subjects.  About 8 years ago or so, back at CalArts, I had this project in my head about childhood that never got made.  My mother was rummaging through the garage and found some vintage super 8 footage of me and my family in the early 1980s.  It showed images of "Baby Ava" playing dress up (not too different from today), my 1st birthday is on film with brief images of my grandpa who passed on before I ever got to know him...

Footage of seeing my uncle in his late 20s holding me was really surreal, like from another realm, and just seeing myself as a child brought forth so much raw emotion.  I wept, and thought, "I have to use this somehow".  Something compelled me to use this footage, maybe to possibly relive my childhood in a way, but to come up with an execution was impossible at the time.  The ideas were too vague back then.  I know I wanted to evoke a certain feeling I got from watching the footage for the first time.  I had some present footage of me, at the time, trying to act like a little girl while driving around my neighborhood.  Reenacting the actual events, with pain staking detail, never occurred to me.  I love how Werning's project takes these past photographs and recreates them, forcing the subject to re-live their childhood for just a moment.  I would be curious to read about what kinds of feelings these images evoked for the subjects captured.  Her photographs give me inspiration to finish what I started and just getting ideas out there is the first step. 

Here are some more of my favorites.  To see more, click here.

Andy 1964 & 2011 Los Angeles

Alexandra 1970 & 2011 Paris

Christoph 1990 & 2011 Berlin Wall

Jackie 1990 & 2011 Buenos Aires

Maartje 1990 & 2011 Amsterdam

Marcela 1970 & 2011 Buenos Aires

Puna 2003 & 2011 Buenos Aires

Maria Jose 1983 & 2011 Buenos Aires

Sonia y Laurita 1998 & 2011 Buenos 

The Zurbanos 1999 & 2011 Buenos Air

All images copyright Irina Werning, 2011.

your friend,

ava