Be the Death of Her

Like a horseshoe crab coming to shore to find its mate, Anita felt the need to trawl the shore of Venice Beach every 6 months. She would leave a planned dinner, walk out of an art-house film, jump out of a moving vehicle, whenever she felt the calling to get her heels covered in the salty-fresh spray in the Pacific Ocean.

Today, Anita had attended the opening party for the new Vogue Los Angeles magazine. Mingling with all the usual suspects, Karl, Anna, Anna, Giorgio, Lady and the sorts, when the tingle in her heels began again. She brushed the feeling away as she smiled at Gandy's come-on: "your face looks absolutely radiant today...". She smiled and nodded staggering to the bar asking for a Martini with extra salt edging. Her Prada pumps were driving her crazy, she knew buying a size smaller would be the death of her.

The pulsing electro-hip-hop beats were driving her crazy, it all sounded like noise to her. She wondered the dance-floor in a daze, party blacked out, spinning around dizzily, the tabloids marked her as the soul of the party as her layered tissue-dress fluttered about the room.

Thirty minutes later, without any recollection of how she had gotten there, she was wondering wading in the sea shore with her wet Pradas, feeling the refreshingly cool water on her burning heels. She wondered about, dazed, until the burning sensation and primal instinct faded away. On her way back to find a taxi, she took a shortcut through the skate-park, that due to recession cutbacks hadn't had its lighting repaired since January 2010. 

Her bright red pump got caught in a grind-rail, she lurched, the sharp red stiletto heel snapped violently, she lost her balance, her perfectly manicured hands swung out, the tissue-dress fluttered beautifully (just as the shopping assistant had said), the dress fluttered beautifully to the concrete floor... billowing lightly around her recently... alive... body.

Images by Sonny Vandevelde - Autumn/Winter 2011

Left to right, top to bottom [Martin Grant, Foaming Waters of the Errol Dam by the US National Archives, Victor & Rolf, Victor & Rolf, Moonlight by the State Library of New South Wales)

Fusion Concepts 004 - SOWETO

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Fusion Concepts 003 - SOWETO

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Fusion Concepts 002 - SOWETO

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Fusion Concepts 001 - SOWETO

A friend (Tanya Zack) and I were asked if we could photograph a fashion collective from Soweto called Fusion Concepts. Over the next few days I'll be posting collages and the images used for them.

The photographs were taken around the Vilakazi Street Precinct, an area steeped in South African history. It is here where Nelson Mandela lived with his wife Winnie and Bishop Desmond Tutu lives to this day. I have been lucky enough to work of the Vilakazi Precinct (with my architecture day-job), it has been an amazing jump into South Africa's past and a peek into its future. As groups like Vision Concepts and the Smarteez show, the futre is bright :)

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On the Street…All My Fingers Again

I just take too many photographs of people and don't use my hands anymore! I've recently been clicking Darance's eye during the night mistaking it for my DSLR shutter button.
So I found one of my photographs, got some magazines out and with some magic-tape and scissors started on an old-school collage.
I felt so alive using all my fingers again.

PS click on the photo for a more detailed image.