Close-up toy photography by Sonic Youth's Richard Edson
Richard Edson, of Sonic Youth, has a photography show called "Beyond the Valley of the Micro-Bops" on at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, featuring gorgeous, precise and lush close-up photos of toys.
Link (Thanks, Mark!)
Richard Edson's pictures are close-ups of toys, shot with incredible attention to lighting, background, color, context, and focal points. The show will be running until April 5, so if you don't make the opening, you've still got time to check out the work.
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Seriously? "Of Sonic Youth"? Why not "of Ferris Beuller's Day Off"? "You loved him in Good Morning Vietnam"? Or how about "Onetime Austin Stories guest star"? Or (checks imdb) (jeeze, he's been in some unmemorable crap) "Richard Edson, late of The Astronaut Farmer and Momma's Man"? However influential he may have been on the band or their sound, he was only with them for one year (and one EP). That's like saying "Pete Best of the Beatles"... if Pete had gone on to a successful 25-year-plus acting career.
That said, he's one of my all-time favorite character actors, and I quite like his photos.
Similar to this?
@Devophill -- c'mon, cut Cory some slack, he was just (lazily) distilling the original blog post, which itself was clearly trying way too hard to be "hip" by name-checking SY & Stranger Than Paradise, when it's a safe bet that 85% of people who recognize Richard Edson would do so from "Do The Right Thing." Or wait, crap, that was ~20 years ago too.
Reminds me of (the late) Larry Gianettino. Close up photos of toys can be surprisingly expressive.
@RossGrady ---agreed, we love Cory though he could have at least said "ex-sonic youth"
but DevoPhil is also correct that the hoi polloi would most likely recognize him as the garage attendant from Ferris Bueller ---pretty sure he's done a lot of TV shows too. Mostly portraying a petty criminal. DNRTFA
More like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diastema/2261207346/
only I think hers are better.
David Levinthal, y'all.
Wow - that blows me away! His work is extremely similar to mine. I also did some ballerina cake-topping pieces. Here's a link to the gallery that carries my work. (the Pez pieces were at Paris Photo - these are pretty bad scans, they're all 35mm or larger film) Or my personal site: Rob Adams - which hasn't been updated in a loooong time. Very wild...
As long as we’re all “me too”ing, here’s my stuff on FLICKR: Small scale car photos & Microman plus other Japanese toys.
Whoops! Incorrect link to the “Microman plus other Japanese toys” above. This one is correct.
Aww... I really didn't mean to sound too hip by name checking Sonic Youth, and I didn't mean to belittle Edson's long, varied career as an actor. Yes, he's been in tons of movies, which I wanted to make clear by linking to his IMDB page.
But he is the lead character in Stranger Than Paradise, and it's a movie that deserves to get rediscovered regularly (unlike Good Morning Vietnam), which is why I mentioned it.
And he is flat out great in the film. His photos though - who knew? They're excellent.
Being part of a well known band sounds better than being supporting actor in a gazillion movies.
(Then again, I recognize the face (after checking imdb) from the movies and not the band, but still...)
What kind of a stupid headline would it be to say "Close-up toy photography by Edson, character actor in Ferris Bueller" ... ?!?
Hi, Theresa Seelye here. I have been photographing miniatures and toys for the past 20 years and have been selling stock imagery through Graphistock for the past 12 years. My work has been featured in numerous media. Recently, my husband pointed out Edsons work. We both were shocked to find so many close similarities to my work. Especially since I have put my blood sweat and tears & money into promoting it. I was told long ago it was too edgy. Still, when I looked at his work and saw that it was being favorably reviewed. My heart sank.
Oddly, the similarities are so close he has used some of the same objects, placement and similar lighting and color pallets.
I wonder if I inspired him...:) Atlas, I missed my boat.
I did feel compelled to share with all of you...and Rob Adams your work is similar but not quite AS similar as mine is.
Take a look all, the site has some dead links and is a bit rusty but you can get the gist. I also have a couple images of the same objects that have been photographed from the same angle. Weird, we share the exact same vision;)
http://www.minutiaeimages.com/
and Matchbox dude. Your cars are beautiful!