Modart » Bite! Magazine

Boombox Project

Maxi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:09 +0000

Harlan Levey, the founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, and creative director of Modart, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The fifth photographer on Bite! is Lyle Owerko and his Boombox Project.

Lyle Owerko is a photographer and filmmaker with a diverse roster of clients that include major brands, corporations and human rights groups. Known for his perception and knowledge of urban movements, his instinctually crafted visual images have found an incredible place in the lexicon of popular culture and journalism. In the morning that will stay with him forever, Lyle photographed the image that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine September 11, 2001 issue. His current projects seek to bridge ethnic borders in a manner that documents cultural groups for the betterment of the human condition.

Lyle was raised in Calgary, Canada, studied at The Pratt Institute in New York and currently resides in Tribeca with his girlfriend Shaundra and their dog Luna. For more information on Lyle and his work please visit his website.

They Smell of Wet Paint and Sweat

Maxi — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:40:04 +0000

Artist testimonial:
“When asked for an artist testimonial to this series, Just replied: “I don’t have any Info about my Series.” So here is an excerpt of his bio: The Berliner JUST documents the highlights of Urban Art and portrays artists who have become icons within the Urban Art scene. His work includes photographs of Brad Downeyʼs and Mark Jenkinsʼ inventions, monumental wall pieces of Blu, FAITH 47 and Nomad, radical performances of ZEVS, Doma and Dave the Chimp as well as gallery and museum shows of DAIM, D*Face and EVOL.

“JUST is part of this scene and this, he feels, is the reason why his unconventional photographs are so full of energy and passion. For more than half a decade the artist has been working on the streets himself, he knows his playground and the protagonists of that scene are his friends. This intimacy is the essence of his photographs. His photographs are lively; they symbolize the liberty on those rooftops and the aesthetics of those major cities. They smell of wet paint and sweat of a long night and they show the colour stains under fingernails and the coloured brushes in their vibrant beauty.”

JUST (1982) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Waste Management

Maxi — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:00:12 +0000

Harlan Levey, the founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, and creative director of Modart, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The second photographer of choice on Bite! is Vincent Skoglund and his Waste Management series.

“One of Sweden’s most respected photographers, Vincent’s remarkable depictions of the then emerging snowboard scene, set his name on the world map in the early 90’s. Since then he has received numerous honors, been featured in galleries and art fairs, while professionally covering various areas of fashion, action sports, music and art.

“Regardless of the subject matter or nature of the work, there is a strong recognizable style: photographer as narrator and not simply silent observer. This is the case, whether the image was taken on location or in the studio; whether he was occupied with a massive landscape or a minute still life.” (Harlan Levey)

Vincent Skoglund abut his Waste Management series: “To me, the dump is intriguing. It’s one of the most interesting places I have been to. Garbage inspires me. The randomness is so vast. Colors and materials are in different states of decay, coming together, to be piled into a new context. I rather spend any Saturday walking around a dump, than in a big shopping mall. New stuff bores me, I prefer things to be used or broken. I like it how a product’s life ends, it makes me wonder about what happened along the way. Why did this particular thing get thrown away? What is the history of all these things in decay? Every human is involved in making waste. An endless stream of products is made from nature, used briefly and inevitably gets shredded, buried, burned, or made into new raw materials. I let them live a little bit longer by rearranging bits and pieces. It smells. It’s noisy. It’s dusty. It’s in decay. It’s alive. It’s dangerous. It’s fantastic!”

A Village in the Clouds

Maxi — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:00:15 +0000

Harlan Levey, the creative director of Modart and founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The first photographer on Bite! is Alexia Webster.

Alexia Webster is is a South African photojournalist currently living in Cape Town. While she traveled widely through the African continent she documented its places, people and struggles. She hopes her work will be seen as not only record of the times, but also a commentator, a tool for change, an instigator and an agitator.

In her photo series Village in the Clouds Alexia documents the almost magical village of Hogsback in the Amatole Mountains of the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Alexia’s work has been published in numerous international and South African publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian and the UK Sunday Telegraph. In 2007 she received the Frank Arisman Scholarship at the International Center of Photography in New York City.