THE LOOK PARTNERSHIP BLOG

Layered lettering painted ages ago, reveals its beauty now as a ghostly mashup of mixed monologues that once hustled this real estate.

Melissa Manning expands on her “Out There” series of photographs to manifest the weathered mysteries of rural desert life, tumbleweeds and all, in the lobby of The Standard, Hollywood. The opening event is Thursday, June 4.

The hotel, located on the Sunset Strip, is known for its chic turn on the retro motor lodge, as well as for one voyeuristic feature in particular: the glass box behind the front desk, where a model solitarily situates herself while the activity of the hotel swirls around outside. For the “Out There” installation, Manning translates the richness documented in the two-dimensional world of a photograph into the real space of the box, complete with artifacts, which will then be inhabited.

As an extension of Manning’s “Out There” photographic series that began six years ago, the latest project was inspired by observation, documentation, and scavenging from “many trips to the desert.”

“You notice how things change: furniture moves around, paintball marks appear, burn piles are found, and a burned desert floor changes into a field overgrown with future tumbleweeds that will eventually die and move on,” says Manning. “I guess it’s the cycle of life combined with the harsh conditions and wide open expanses that I am attracted to, where structures and possessions are abandoned and forgotten, left to degrade and to be scavenged by the elements, the wild life, and the characters that inhabit the desert.”

The opening reception for the “Out There” installation takes place June 4, 2009, from 8–10 p.m. at The Standard, Hollywood, at 8300 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA. The event is open to the public, with DJs (to be announced) and complimentary drinks. The installation will last about a month.

Following the opening, a video and event photos will be available on The Look Partnership website at thelookpartnership.com/outthere.

About Melissa Manning:
Melissa Manning photographs people, lifestyles, and product for commercial and editorial assignments. She earned her BFA in Photography/Imaging from Art Center College of Design, with honors, and later became well known as an L.A. society photographer for Flaunt magazine. She is co-founder and partner of The Look Partnership, a Los Angeles-based creative studio. Melissa has been featured on VH1, and her work is in the permanent collection of LACMA. She currently lives in Glendale, CA.

About The Look Partnership:
The Look Partnership is an interaction-driven creative studio headed by photographer Melissa Manning and graphic designer Jeff Warrington. As collaborators, they aim to position brands to create and sustain business momentum by reaching audiences through projects that reveal a provocative point of view. The company produces applied photographic and design projects, including publication, interactive, advertising, high-end marketing communications, and event photography and marketing tools. To view their portfolio and client experience, and to get more information, please visit: thelookpartnership.com

Make a date to party with us on June 4, from 8-10pm for this art opening. Melissa evolves her Out There series of photographs in 3D, fondly importing deserted specimens to the box at The Standard, Hollywood. More info to come…

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Delight yourself as we did with a trip to New High (M)art at 741 New High Street in China Town for “Cosmic Collision: Intelligent Design for the Second Big Bang.” A clever title for an intimate, cosmically-inclined retail exhibition at New High (M)art, co-curated by Dechel McKillian (Spacelite Vintage) and Jessica Willis. Featured is the debut of the first capsule collection by Costume Dept., created by Shaun Samson and Shawn Kelaka; a mostly sheer, future-savvy unisex expansion in addition to their highly-desirable leggings. The collection will be sold at New High (M)art through the month of October.

Costume Dept.
New High (M)art
More info at Threadtrend.com

You can now see photos from LA Flash at the LACMA microsite
Click here

Melissa took part in the sold-out “LA Flash” event last night, at LACMA. The event celebrated the 35th anniversary of a 1973 project/exhibition of LA street style. Last night’s images will soon be featured here (we’ll post an update), and will become a part of the museum’s archives. We were honored to participate.

Background: “In 1973, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art commissioned five photographers—David Alexander, Annette Del Zoppo, Peter Kredenser, Don Peterson, and Lester Sloan—to document L.A. street style. Curated by Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, the resulting 400-slide, life-size slideshow was on exhibition at LACMA from June 19 to September 17, 1973.”

Photo © 1973 David Alexander. LACMA collection.

More info and images: http://web.mac.com/lacmaweb/iWeb/laflash/home.html

The ye olde publication format is finally getting the full new media treatment, YouTube-style. In the past year-plus, documents (yes we think they can be sexy) can be uploaded, viewed, and shared in a rich interactive context just like photos and videos.

Issuu is one of our favorite new sites, with a solid offering of webzines and other culture-savvy visual endeavors. Scribd is another more text-oriented site we’ve been using for a while, which also just received a much-needed facelift. You can see both in action above. Issuu is still in beta, but has raised the bar in terms of a quality experience, with intuitive functionality and tactile cues that almost elicit the scent of ink.

Look for our projects on these sites. We also hope the social aspect creates a new audience for our clients, especially as a site like Issuu creates readership for the exciting realm of art/fashion/music/culture webzines.

Here’s a tree bearing strange fruit, that I spotted driving through the ghost town of Amboy, CA, yesterday.

Apparently shoe trees are a thing:
Here’s a bit of background

Amboy Shoe Tree location on Google