Masters of color photography

June 10, 2006 6:58 AM

The 2006 winners and nominees in the first International Color Awards offers a broad sampling of work from some of the world's finest professional and amateur color photographers. View more from Erwin Olaf, Photographer of the Year in the professional category.
posted by madamjujujive (9 comments total)

Those Vermeer-style photographs ("People of the labyrinth", in assignments on Olaf's site) are exceptional.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 7:30 AM on June 10, 2006

Oh wow madamjujujive, as usual, an exceptionally interesting post. What a visual feast.


The look on that poor hound's face.

At first I didn't like Erwin Olaf's stuff, too camp, cheap shock, too much, slickly sardonic, too caricature and then, bam, I was utterly drawn in. Here's a link to a page of his pics, easy to see at a glance. Those are ones that seemed ok but not that exceptional, except for the luscious neoVermeers.. What drew me in after the erotic pics of the Fashion Victims was his Borek Sipek images, my favs, darkly intelligent and funny. The cognitive dissonance is mesmerising. Damn, he's good. An energy charge. And now I'm interested in Borek Sipek's intriguing work too, full of entertaining contrasts, which is also beautiful.

I'm particularly fond of images of patterns in/on/of water, either the surface or the webs of light. And the complex patterns of tree branches, light and shadow. This is a baby boomer humble pie.

The amateur abstracts are a treat. Indian bouquet of turbans. Frisky. Awesome nature pics.
posted by nickyskye at 1:13 PM on June 10, 2006

Thanks, mj³ — your batting average and eye are as impressive as any of these shutterbugs'! The quality of the amateur shots seemed to me as high as the pros'.

Speaking of Vermeer, I thought I'd add links to two latter-day Rembrandts on flickr that I found wonderful.
posted by rob511 at 6:08 PM on June 10, 2006

Oh, and I wonder if this priceless shot will be a nominee next year? (Story here.) And if so, in which, er, category?
posted by rob511 at 6:12 PM on June 10, 2006

Marvelous priceless shot rob511! ROFL! And loved the Rembrandts too, especially the first one.
posted by nickyskye at 7:37 PM on June 10, 2006

Thanks MJJJ, these are great!
posted by dhruva at 4:01 AM on June 11, 2006

There are a lot of really great photographs here. Very cool.
posted by caddis at 10:36 AM on June 11, 2006

nickyskye and rob511, thank you both for adding so much to the post ... rob511, those Rembrandt-ish photos are great and the kitty story is a hoot.
... and nickyskye, your thoughtful and smart commentary here and elsewhere is much appreciated.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:53 AM on June 11, 2006

I foresee myself spending a good long time checking out these tremendous photos. Thanks for the post.
posted by diddlegnome at 3:10 PM on June 11, 2006