THE LOOK PARTNERSHIP BLOG

Photographer: Melissa Manning, Concept/Art Direction/Styling: Mia Tidlund

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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We’re pleased to join Melis Kuris in launching her website, a portfolio of her impressive styling commissions for celebrity, commercial, music video, fashion, and runway clients. To brush just the surface of Melis’ swiftly expanding client list: the cast of Twilight, the band 100 Monkeys, Nickelodeon, Reebok, Panasonic, Shwayze, British GQ, Morphine Generation, and Tulle/Cloth Logic.

Visit the site at meliskuris.com

Our sincere thanks to everyone who has attended or shared their interest in the show. The opening night was good fun, and it was a pleasure to see everyone.

I’ve posted some pics from the event here:
http://www.thelookpartnership.com/projects/2009/02/

And the show is on the site as well:
http://www.thelookpartnership.com/projects/2009/01/

And of course, if you’re looking to acquire:
http://ghettogloss.com/exhibitions/

Jeff

(ps. Congrats to the Ghettogloss crew on celebrating 8 years)

Get your scroll’s worth of pics from the December 12th opening of “The paintings and photos of Mr. Ward and Daniel Louis Rivas” at Ghettogloss Gallery, in Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA.

Fiora and Jessica of Ghettogloss

Sean Sweeney

Unprovoked enthusiasm.

Sara Rivas and Daniel Louis Rivas

Daniel Luis Rivas

Heather Christie

Justin Kirk

Sherri Rogers, Mr. Ward, and Heather Christie

Heather Christie and Mr. Ward

Mr. Ward, Santino Rice, Daniel Louis Rivas

Santino Rice

From the press release:

“I said to Marlon Brando once you cant hurt me fat ass…

THE ART OF MR. WARD AND DANIEL LOUIS RIVAS

The art of Tony Ward and Daniel Louis Rivas is a culmination of emotions, experiences and places.
Things that once were and things that will never be again.
Passing moments and uncertain futures.
Looking inward and looking to the vast surrounding of their changing universe. The parallels of these two artists are that they met and collaborated at the crossroads of their journey to express thy self. Be it photography or painting. The things they have in common and the things that distinguish them separately.
Questioning authority and questioning themselves. Why?
To be an artist, to live out loud.”

Facebook | Ghettogloss | Mr. Ward |  Daniel Louis Rivas

There were two exciting technologies released this week that might make your inner geek giggle: Cooliris and the new iTunes.

Cooliris, is a browser plug-in that adds purely visual browsing to enabled websites. Instead of clicking through mundane, slow-loading pages like a Google image search with little thumbnails, Cooliris streamlines entire sites and searches worth of images in a slick 3d interface. It’s image browsing without the web clutter, and it’s actually faster, so you find images you like more easily.

This has potential to increase the stickiness of image-intensive web sites also, as users can really experience product shots, etc. without distraction, easily, with intuitively zooming on the fly.

We’ve enabled the Morphine Generation Fall 08 collection gallery. Install Cooliris (only takes a minute) then check it out here by clicking on the arrow icon (see bottom left).

A few years ago, when the experience of going to a Tower Records store (as well as some indie outposts) sank into the sands of memory, I got weepy for a minute. I wondered what would happen to the importance of album cover artwork in the presence of gigabytes of unromantically stored MP3s. Thankfully, with the introduction of Cover Flow (now an all too-ubiquitous look) Apple secured the future of the album cover and made it more important and enjoyable than ever. The new iTunes release gives the album cover another boost. Looking like they took inspiration from the Columbia House mail order ads of yore, the Album View indexes albums visually by cover, which also beats hunting through the text list view and looks glorious. Now what to do about those stacks of CDs cluttering my office…

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

Flaunt 94: The Issues Issue / Scene City LA

If you were there, maybe you’re here. Hope to see you soon!

Kudos to Tyler at Flaunt for the sharp page redesign. Get your copy of the new issue.