The xx are an English indie pop band, formed in London in 2005. The band’s members (Jamie Smith, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim) met while studying at Elliott School, notable for alumni including Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet. In September 2010 they won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. The xx recorded their debut album, with the title xx, in a small garage that was part of the XL studios, often at night, which contributed to the sleek, whispery nature of the album. The above music video shows their beautiful track called Islands.
The below Podcast contains the song called ‘Intro’ by The xx.
Legendary images of the 60s and 70s are brought together in the ‘Zeitgeist & Glamour’ exhibition at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf; the most spectacular photographs of an exciting era: the icons of an age, superstars and celebrities, and unmistakable milieux. There are both masterful photographs of the highest aesthetic order, ground-breaking in their finesse, and cheerful snapshots of a hidden world. Images of a culture celebrating itself in the midst of fame and glamour, wallowing in the pleasure of a beautiful moment. The pictures embody the spirit of the hour, the attitude of an entire generation. Public and private alike are captured, as are faces and atmospheres, the extravagant and the usual, glamour and its complement: melancholy and forlornness. The Zeitgeist & Glamour exhibition offers a kaleidoscope of life forms from the 60s and 70s that centres on the ‘stages’ of the major cities of the Western world.
The exhbition Zeitgeist & Glamour at the NRW forum in Düsseldorf will run until may 15, 2011.
See also an earlier posted article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos Blog about David Bailey.
David Bailey is an inspiring, unique and remarkable photographer who shot fascinating fashion and celebrity photos. In 1959 he became a photographic assistant at the John French studio, and in May 1960, he was a photographer for John Cole’s Studio Five before being contracted as a fashion photographer for British Vogue magazine later that year. Along with Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, he captured and helped create the ‘Swinging London’ of the 1960s: a culture of high fashion and celebrity chic. The three photographers socialised with actors, musicians and royalty, and found themselves elevated to celebrity status. Together, they were the first real celebrity photographers, named by Norman Parkinson as “the Black Trinity”.
Last year a retrospective of his most iconic photographs with the title “Pure sixties. Pure bailey” was on show at Bonhams. Fifty years on from a decade that changed our cultural history, his images celebrate a period of spontaneity and decadence, capturing the glamour and hedonism of the era. Among the famous faces immortalised by Bailey’s lens are Mick Jagger, Michael Caine and the Jean Shrimpton. In the below video interview he had an interesting talk with Sarfraz Manzoor about Picasso, body language and his dread of photographing modern celebrities.
Some of David Bailey’s photo’s are currently on exhibition at the NRW Forum Düsseldorf. This exhibition carries the title Zeitgeist & Glamour and will run until May 15, 2011. Read more about it in this article on the W&V Blog.
William Allen Butler was an American lawyer and writer of poetical satires. He contributed travel writing and comic writing to the Literary World, a series on ‘The Cities of Art and the Early Artists’ to the Art Union Bulletin. His most famous satirical poem, Nothing to Wear, was first published anonymously in Harper’s Weekly in 1857, though Butler was forced to reveal his name after someone else claimed authorship.
