tmax – Ann Street Studio

Autumn in Provence

January 24, 2017June 22, 2017Posted in Lifestyle, ProvenceTagged apt, B&W, black and white, black and white film, blackandwhite, blackandwhitefilm, country, film, france, kodak, lifestyle, luberon, provence, south of france, southoffrance, t-max, tmax, tri-x, trix, vaucluse32 Comments

I like the soft and dreamy and romantic. Sometimes I make believe it, but always, I look for it in everyday life. A French afternoon dappled in light, a glowing wine glass. Smudgy and dreamy, never completely clear or harsh. The world is harsh enough, don’t you just want to live in a dream? I know I do…

When I set foot in Provence early last autumn I started myself on a new journey. Self discovery and reawakening my vision. I just wanted to experience something entirely new. I wanted to fulfill a dream to live in France. I wanted to find new challenges, new inspiration, a new way to see life. I’ve seen it through the eyes of the girl who grew up in Texas, then I saw it through the adult eyes of the woman who worked in New York. Much like the landscape outside my window, I let each chapter change me as the seasons change the vines and I hope, with spring’s new awakening, something even greater blooms.

Here are a collection of photographs from autumn in Provence~

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Winter Whites

January 8, 2014March 1, 2015Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged ann street studio, annstreetstudio, B&W, bess wyrick, BessLove, black and white, blackandwhite, couture, evening gowns, fashion, fashion editorial, fashion flowers, film, flower crowns, flowerpower, flowers, gowns, jamie beck, jamiebeck, jennifer nam, jennifernam, kelly framel, leah reynolds, medium format film, pentax, pentax 67, studio, tmax, tmax100, winter white12 Comments

We are all flowers in the garden of the world, but she –

she is an orchid, pure and white and lovely,

a small blossom on willowy stem.

she blooms, and I am lost

in her delicate lines.

She breathes life into me –

I was adrift in winter;

she gives me the promise of spring.

Youthful yet wise,

elegant and profound,

I dream of the day I may see her again.

For what other flower can there be?

What other love?

None but my orchid.

above and below: Zuhair Murad gown, Chopard bracelet

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Notes from the Photographer

September 20, 2013March 13, 2018Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged ana sicat, ann street studio, annstreetstudio, behind the scenes, black and white, eastendwork, fashion, fashion editorial, fashioneditorial, film, heather lilleston, jamie beck, jamiebeck, kelly framel, kellyframel, kumi sawyers, kumisawyers, maiyet, maiyet2014, maiyetmontauk, montauk, pentax, pentax 67, pentax67, sian gordon, tmax, tmax 100, tmax1009 Comments

We shoot a lot of beautiful women here at the studio. The funny thing is…as I get older they seem to always stay the same age. What is it about youth we are so attracted to? When Kelly texted me images of these three incredibly beautiful, real women, women with businesses, with a history of past love affairs, and with a real friendship out in Montauk as a casting option for our Beauty + Truth story, I was in love.

Their grace, their confidence that only women who have lived a little can possess, their intelligence and peace were so inspiring I could have shot them for days. I could do a photographic study around the lines on their faces…the lines of life are signs of living, and isn’t life a beautiful thing?

As a photographer you have all the control. Whoever is put in front of your lens has to put complete trust in you: how you light them, how you make them feel when you’re shooting them; the crop, what you show and what you leave out; the direction, mood and feeling you set.

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Beauty & Truth

September 19, 2013March 13, 2018Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged ana sicat, ann street studio, annstreetstudio, B&W, black and white, fashion, fashion editorial, film, heather lilleston, heatherlilleston, jamie beck, jamiebeck, kelly framel, kellyframel, maiyet, maiyet2014, maiyetmontauk, montauk, tmax, tmax100, tri-x, tri-x400, truth+beauty4 Comments

This week, I’ve been talking to you all about the ancient Egyptian idea of maat, which dealt with conceptions of balance, order, and truth. As with all the stories I tell, I’ve strived to come at it from a place of celebration, a love of beauty, and a simplistic honesty.

The quest for truth is a challenging thing. It’s been difficult for me to claim in this medium called blogging, especially as I have tried to redefine what this site means, making it about something greater, more important, and more interesting than simply myself. I’ve been writing from China this week, where censorship has made posting unbelievably challenging. I have to switch IP addresses with every paragraph, as I keep getting booted off each new server. Is aesthetic expression really such a threat? Well, personal truths do not seem to carry much weight here.

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Beauty & Truth

September 18, 2013March 13, 2018Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged ana sicat, ann street studio, annstreetstudio, B&W, beach, black and white, blackandwhite, eastendwork, fashion, fashion editorial, fashioneditorial, film, jamie beck, jamiebeck, kelly framel, kellyframel, maiyet, maiyet2014, maiyetmontauk, montauk, pentax, pentax 67, pentax67, sian gordon, siangordon, tmax, tmax 100, tri-x, tri-x400, truth+beauty3 Comments

Our story began with three women, three mythical beings: Maat and her handmaidens, Beauty and Truth. In mythology and Egyptian heiroglyphics, Maat was represented by an ostrich feather. The equal-sidedness of the feather, with its division into halves, rendered it a fitting symbol of balance.

Feathers recur as a sacred talisman in many cultures, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, by Mexicans and by Native Americans, who used them in headdresses and in dreamcatchers. Just as Maat was trusted to control the daily path of the sun, so the moon controls the tides ~ and so people have believed for centuries that we can control our dreams.

Dreamcatchers originated with the Ojibwe nation, who believed that, when hung above the bed, only good dreams would be allowed to filter through their sinewy webs; they would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper, while bad dreams would be caught and trapped in the net. The tides of today bring both nightmares and dreams, for along the shore we find countless cigarette butts and plastic bottles mixed in with natural treasures like seashells and driftwood.

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Beauty & Truth

September 16, 2013March 13, 2018Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged ana sicat, ann street studio, annstreetstudio, B&W, black and white, blackandwhite, eastendwork, fashion, fashion editorial, fashioneditorial, film, heather lilleston, jamie beck, jamiebeck, kelly framel, kellyframel, kodak, maiyet, maiyet2014, maiyetmontauk, pentax, pentax 67, pentax67, sian gordon, tmax, tmax 100, tmax100, tri-x, tri-x 40, tri-x400, truth+beauty7 Comments

In the ancient world, myths were used as a means to understand the inexplicable, as a way to make sense of the great wonders and mysteries of the earth and to give meaning to humanity. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the mythology of ancient Egypt still holds our imaginations in its sway today. Ancient Egyptians saw time in the present as a repetition of the linear events of their myths; to them, this mirroring served to renew ma’at (or mayet), the fundamental order of all existence.

Myths were a way of passing down behavioral expectations, codes of conduct, and moral obligation. They were reminders that the actions we take today create the context for tomorrow. Today’s decisions are the gifts and curses we bestow upon our descendants.

Ma’at was the Egyptian concept of truth, balance, and order. Ma’at was personified as the goddess of the stars; it was she who conducted cosmic harmony out of the chaos of creation, she who maintained the equilibrium of the universe ~ the setting of the sun, the rising of the tides. She was justice and she was reason.

Ma’at was the central principle of Egyptian cosmology and ethics, and so the primary duty of an Egyptian king was to be the champion of ma’at. All the daily rituals and sacrifices would be deemed meaningless unless the king and his people were living righteous, balanced lives. The word itself indicated ‘that which is real’, and so for the ancient Egyptians, ma’at came to imply anything that was true, genuine or harmonious.

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The Lucky Ones

March 19, 2013April 30, 2013Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged acne, billy reid, black and white, film, hasselblad, jack spade, jannuzzi, john jannuzzi, portrait, rollei, tmax, tri-x, warby parker3 Comments

The first time I met John Jannuzzi was right before he took his current editorial job at Lucky Magazine; we shared a cab to the showrooms of Oscar de la Renta during NYFW and for the entirety of the drive he had me giggling with his snarky, sharp, cynical humor. It was love. John is one of those guys I wouldn’t mind running into no matter what mood I’m in, because I know he’ll be in a mood too and at least we can have a laugh about it.

Just follow his Twitter to see what I mean…

The editor on style:

“All I can tell you about fashion and style is this:

buy and wear what makes you happy.”

Above: Jacket by John Varvatos [similar], sweater by Acne

Above and below: knit cap by Jack Spade [similar], sweater by Acne, glasses by Warby Parker

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Shooting the Brownie’ B

May 31, 2011Posted in UncategorizedTagged black and white, brownie, DIY, how to, kodak, tmax, vintage cameraLeave a comment

You’ve seen them in nostalga stores, on tables at flea markets or even in your grandparent’s attic: little box cameras from byegone days like the Kodak Brownie-

Super easy to use, all you need is some 620 film!

Open the camera back, pull the winding nob out to release the film container from the box camera:

Put your film in the holder at the top, pull out just enough to wrap around the container and feed into the existing empty film spool on the bottom, put film container back into camera box and push the winding nob back in so we can advance the film:

Close the back of the box and wind until you see “1” in the back window and you’re ready to shoot!

Follow the exposure chart on the side of the camera to know what settings to use. For the example photo at the bottom, a very dark cloudy day, a used setting “40”:

How the film came out– The view of the Hudson River from West Point Military Academy:

May 18, 2011August 14, 2012Posted in UncategorizedTagged beaufort, black and white, film, hasselblad, horse, horses, kodak, north carolina, Outer Banks, shackleford, Shackleford Banks, tmax, TMX, tmx100Leave a comment

Running wild & free

24 Hours in Beaufort

Hasselblad 500C / Kodak TMX100

(Source: http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/post/5614042726/24-hours-in-beaufort)

24 Hours in Beaufort

May 18, 2011Posted in UncategorizedTagged 24 hours, beach, beaufort, black and white, boats, film, hasselblad, kodak, north carolina, ocean, Outer Banks, shackleford, tmax, tmx100Leave a comment

Dewy mornings, seaside lunches, historic houses, and wild horses… 24 hours in Beaufort, North Carolina is one of beautiful surroundings and peaceful walks.

24 Hours in is a series to capture an honest portrayal of a place through my experience and what I see within 24 hours shared in 24 frames. All images taken with my Hasselblad 500c and black & white TMX 100 film.

November 12, 2010August 14, 2012Posted in UncategorizedTagged 3200, Anne Sage, black and white, film, kodak, launch party, NYDC, pentax, Rue Magazine, tgif, tmaxLeave a comment

On the heels of Anne Sage

Have a fabulous weekend!

Pentax / TMax 3200

Tango Dancers

October 11, 2010Posted in UncategorizedTagged 3200, black and white, dancers, dancing, film, kodak, manhattan, pentax, pier, tango, tmaxLeave a comment

As the sunset on the pier I watched tango dancers enjoy the simple pleasures of life~

All images taken with my Pentax Spotmatic and T-Max 3200 film.

Portrait of an Artist

October 6, 2010Posted in UncategorizedTagged artist, black and white, brooklyn, film, kodak, Noah Kalina, pentax, portrait, tmaxLeave a comment

Noah Kalina is a Photographer and a great contemporary artist. These are my photographs of Noah at his Brooklyn studio as he photographed me and we talked about the business of being a photographer.

Thanks Noah, for inviting me to your studio, I have such a respect for you and your work.

All images taken with my Pentax Spotmatic and T-Max 3200 film.