Manolo Blahnik

Life’s Work: Manolo Blahnik

by Alison Beard 

The Magazin, December 2010

Manolo Blahnik is one of the world’s most successful shoe designers. Raised by his Spanish mother and Czech father on a banana plantation in the Canary Islands, he studied law, languages, and art in Geneva and Paris before opening his London boutique in 1973. His eponymous company now has shops or department store concessions in 20 countries, yet Blahnik has retained full control of the business and still designs every shoe—even hand-carving the wooden form around which it’s crafted—himself.

 

Life’s Work: An Interview with Tina Turner

El trabajo de la vida / una entrevista con Tina Turner

by Alison Beard
From the Magazine (January–February 2021)

As a young girl growing up in Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock liked to sing and recite movie dialogue to entertain her family. By age 20 she had a new name—Tina Turner—and a burgeoning music career with her partner, Ike. But behind the scenes, he was abusing her. Eventually, she found the courage to leave him and move on as a chart-topping, world-touring solo artist. She now lives out of the spotlight in Switzerland and recently released a new book, Happiness Becomes You.

A Japanese company is selling Spain’s botched art restorations as keychains

 

The restoration of the ‘Ecce Homo’ from a church in Borja, in Aragón, is one of the works that has been turned into a keyring.

A Japanese company is selling Spain’s botched art restorations as keychains

The notorious ‘Ecce Homo’ painting from Borja and the cartoonish work on a 16th-century sculpture are two of four works that are being dispensed in Gashapon vending machines

Spain’s botched art restorations have found a niche in Japan thanks to a series of keychains dubbed “Failed restorations” or Shufuku Shuppai in Japanese. These items are distributed in plastic capsules called Gashapon that can be found in vending machines in train stations, airports and recreational centers.

Jean-Philippe Charbonier / Photos

 

Jean-Philippe Charbonnier

PHOTOS

Today, we'll get to know the life and works of a lesser known, but highly influential photographer, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier (1921 – 2004). He was a French photographer whose works typify the humanist impulse in that medium in his homeland of the period after World War II. 

Takeuma / I only believe in what I see

jan 29, 2014

Takeuma

I only believe in what I see

Interview with japanese illustrator 

The kyoto-based illustrator, takeuma tells us 

more about himself and his work in this short interview.

DB: which have been your most satisfying projects to date?

T: magazine covers can be difficult but rewarding – you have to consider that there will be many letters and lots of information shown alongside your illustration. it’s a challenge to express the client’s idea in this very confined and compromised type of space.

Wold of Old Japanese Tattoos / Circa late 1880s

World of Old Japanese Tattoos, circa late 1880s

Since the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism on the Japanese culture, tattoo art has a negative connotation for the majority of the Japanese people. In the eyes of an average Japanese a tattoo is considered a mark of a yakuza - a member of the Japanese mafia - or a macho symbol of members of the lower classes.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums / Review

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums review – slow-burning storytelling

A favourite of film buffs, this Japanese classic about a Kabuki actor finding his muse is elegant, rich and ultimately heartbreaking

New Yorkers looking to duck into a theater over Christmastime without having their Force awakened have an option whose speed couldn’t be more different from JJ Abrams’ hyperspace velocity. Director Kenji Mizoguchi is best known to wider audiences for his 1950s films Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff, but one can see glimpses of his signature style of long takes, dolly shots and an emphasis on strong women characters in his earlier, pre-war work.