Category — javier lovera

our very own javier lovera was selected as one of the artists featured in poor but sexy volume iii. poor but sexy is a canadian independent publication created by seed9 photography, which provides a fresh avenue for artists, marketers and new artists to showcase their work through editorial spreads, profiles, stories and interviews. the photographers are given a thematic challenge, and have two months to create their interpretations. after two editions, the publication has the industry a’buzzing.

“I’m pretty excited to be one of the selected photographers, it should be a good and fun challenge, also an opportunity to create some interesting imagery for a publication” commented javier.

a description from the poor but sexy manifesto:
the phrase poor but sexy was used by klaus wowereit, mayor of berlin, to describe his city, as it struggled with debt and unemployment but simmered as a hotbed for artistic talent and staggering innovation. poor but sexy is a hotbed for artists, a gathering place on its pages that mirror the raw creative energy found in our own city streets. from cover to cover of the magazine, artists are given the chance to shake off inhibitions and produce work that is fresh and original — to challenge the norms of art and industry. fearlessly.

see javier lovera’s introduction on PBS here

watch for the final editorial due out in september.

some highlights from javier:

based on the Selby’s recent visit, thought a re-post was in order

The public’s fascination with learning the intimate details of the lives of others has lately, from a humble observer, been edging toward a greater emphasis and attention to satisfy society’s need to understand what inspires and captivates creative minds.

Audiences have developed this insatiable desire to see and understand what makes creative people…well… creative.

We aspire to dissect these individuals, deconstruct them into easily digestible pieces, to mould this insight to fit our own lives.

It is an innate curiosity, to uncover the process that makes up a “creative’s” talent – what are they listening to, inspired by, who are they wearing, socializing with, living amongst.

During what can almost be considered a cultural renaissance emerges a new breed of celebrity – one who acts as curator, collector and critic. They base their cultural relevancy on their almost prized ability to expose the minute esoterica of creative people. The likes of the Satorialist (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/), the many incarnations of ‘Street Style’, Tommy Ton (http://jakandjil.com/), the Selby (www.theselby.com) and on. We look to their keen eye to lead our interpretations of what is authentically cool and illustrate to us how creative people are integrating those elements into their lives.

The ‘fashionation’ with deconstructing the elements that create genius has been around for ages. Many works have uncovered the mysteries behind the talent of such minds as Andy Warhol, Coco Chanel, and Diane Arbus – those works in turn offering inspiration to the people striving to unleash their own creative endeavours. Great art always inspires new art.

However, this preoccupation has taken a deeper hold of the public’s attention in a way far different than it once did.

As the creative pool stretches further, deeper, and broader, we require guidance to filter and assess what is genuinely innovative/unique/fashionable, the very service that these popular critics offer.

In our quest for unabridged individualism and uniqueness, we look at the creative leaders and innately creative people through the lens of these cultural guides. Hmm… disconnect?

And with their power to sufficiently dissect each creative brain into something far more digestible and attainable to the average consumer, brands are increasingly latching onto this societal curiosity, engaging said guides in their endeavours to reach an even wider audience – i.e. The Satorialist for Burberry (http://artofthetrench.com/), and the Selby for Nike (http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nke6/en_US/apparel#/Michel-Bourez).

The below: ION the Street, ION magazine #57, by Javier Lovera.

Simon and I have made a lot of progress with our installation and exhibit. The deadline is looming and we’ve been putting some long hours to develop our presentation and concept. The most time consuming part so far has been building the optometry installation.

To the beat of some Latin-American rock and folk music we have constructed a small cardboard box, fully recyclable, and completely modular which enables us to read the viewers eyes to re-project them onto our piece.

Here are some images of our little box under development.

Next time we’ll be talking about our second piece as promised. This one involves photography, video, and fiducials. Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you all interacting with our exhibit!

Our CONTACT exhibit has been an amazing project to work in. As one of festival’s featured exhibits we have a great opportunity to develop and deliver something unique and interesting!

With Simon (@derooted) we have been working on a photography + video installation. Our work is based on our thesis that the ubiquity of photography has resulted in shorter attention spans from the viewer. In order to expand the viewers attention span, we are mixing photographs with video events that are triggered by viewer’s interaction with the piece. (For some background references you can read Marshall McLuhan’s hot media essays, and Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction). Our pieces are dependent on the viewer for them to exist as art, hence there is no art without the spectator.

We have been developing two pieces. The first one is a portrait in which the subject is wearing a pair of optician frame measuring glasses.

The eyes of the viewer (which are being read by a web cam installed within a completely modular and recyclable box) are projected in real time within the glasses’ negative space, making the spectator part of our piece. To do so, we are using Modul8, an iCam, and a Mac Mini to run the software.

This post also found on the Applied Arts Blog:

Javier recently returned from three weeks of travel in his home country: Colombia. Here are a few of his images and thoughts about his experience.

I’ve said it in my other 2 posts about Colombia: this is a country of extreme contrasts, and often contradictions. It amazes me to see the spirit of colombian people. We are a country that has endured an undeclared civil war for the past 50 years, the levels of poverty are quite significant, and the corruption keeps bleeding the country in every sense. However, the colombian people are proud and happy – for the most part – of being colombian, of their culture and heritage. Its a love-hate relationship, which for me has slowly shifted into the love section.

Here are few portraits of people I was able to spend some time with. They were shot in Bogota, Medellin, and Capurgana. Three distinct and very different regions of the country, where the complexity and rhythm of people are completely different. I hope you enjoy them. Its been a real pleasure to write and post photographs from my home country, and I hope you have enjoyed them as well. I hope to develop more work in and about Colombia in the near future…I will keep you posted.

girl: christmas light installations, medellin.

girl: plaza museo de antioquia, medellin.

alejandro: capurgana.

market man: cajica (bogota region).

mother and daughter: cajica (bogota region).

newspaper reader: plaza museo de antioquie, medellin.

cottage builder: capurgana.

gladis: chia (bogota region).

kid playing in the pier: capurgana.

jonider: capurgana.

Javier spent sometime in Vancouver in December shooting Solid State: a 6 pg. fashion editorial for Nuvo Magazine which is now on news stands.

Photography by: Javier Lovera
Styling by: Leila Bani @ They Rep
Editor: Claudia Cusano
Art Director: Mark Reynolds
Producer: Katie Nanton
Set Designer: Hitoshi Okamoto
Grooming: Jon Hennessey @ Nobasura
Model: Brent @ Richard’s Model Management
Photo Assistant: Rob Seebacher
Styling Assistant: Blake Grayson Kehler

Vancouver is always fun, but its so much more fun when you get to work with talented people, and for a great publication like NUVO. The whole team was lovely to work with. They all put their 110% into the shoot, and I’m very happy and proud of the results.

Javier’s collaboration with Filler Magazine continues with the recent launch of the fashion film VERSUS for their men’s issue. Below the film and some ‘behind the scenes’ shots and a little bit about the video from Javier’s perspective.

Directed by: Javier Lovera
Creative Director: Ryan Johnson
DOP: Henry Sansom
Styling: Alicia Simpson @ Plutino
Make up and grooming: Sheri Stroh @ Plutino
Models: Paul Mason @ Spot 6 + Brendan @ Elmer Olsen
Editing: Cory Vanderploeg + Javier Lovera
Digital Colourist: Scott McIntyre
Music: Metamorphoses  I & II by Philip Glass
Featured Fashion: J. Lindeberg, Phillip Sparks, Hugo Boss (@ Harry Rosen)

The VERSUS shoot was a really exciting one. Initially we had planned for it to be in October, but the location manager surprised us at the last minute and we had to cancel the shoot with only 1/2 day to production day (we did however ended up shooting another men’s story for FILLER. You can read more about that here).

After regrouping we developed the concept further, had 1 more storyboarding meeting, and really took the opportunity to solidify the thematic. This is one of the things (among many others) that’s exciting about working with Ryan and Henry: we are always striving to make the best possible end product. We take pre-production very seriously, and have a great collaboration. Everyone’s ideas are equally valid, but only the best ones move forward, which is the same approach I carry on to editing and colouring. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to work with them, and I thank all of the people involved in making this such a fun and successful shoot. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it!

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Here are some Behind the Scenes photos (© cory vanderploeg).

On location at  5:30 am for setup and were happy with what we saw:

The rest of the team showed up at around 6:30am to start shooting. Here you see our fashion editor Alicia, and our makeup artist Sheri. Both amazing at what they do and pleasure to work with.

Below is Henry setting up for the first shot. I’ve been working with Henry for a while now. His aesthetic is amazing and he is an all-around super nice guy.

Our models Brendan @ Elmer Olsen and Paul @ Spot 6 Management were great to work with. Very professional and hard working, jokers, and incredibly talented.

Reviewing one of the shots with the whole crew.

Giving some direction while Alicia takes care of wardrobe details.

AND, that’s a wrap!