Sleeve Face: The Portrait within A Portrait

The money shot or banknote face featured previously was a nice diversion from the more serious portraits of this blog. If you tried to make your own money shot at home, you probably encountered some difficulty because of the small size of the bill. Not so with Sleevefaces or LP Portraits. If you happen to have any old vinyl record covers, simply put them up to your face, pose appropriately, and click the shutter. You now have yourself a sleeveface, the instant portrait within a portrait.

A sleeveface, otherwise known as a vinyl portrait or LP portrait, is a hybrid photographic portrait wherein the subject holds up a vinyl cover to his face, with the cover design's outline matching that of the subject's body. The resulting photograph should give the impression that the sleeve's face is really the subject's face. Hence the name sleeveface.

The current fad began around 2007 when a sleeveface was uploaded to Facebook, but it's not unreasonable to believe that the idea to put up a vinyl cover to one's face and take a picture must have existed long before the Internet.

The beauty of vinyl record covers as alternate real-life faces is that they're large enough to carry life-sized images on them. All you need to do is put your face up to a cover and take a picture. This in contrast to moneyfaces wherein you have to carefully adjust the distance between the banknote, your face and the camera. With the right lighting and angle, sleevefaces can create a satisfyingly good illusion.

The style of the past decades in which vinyl records were still popular also presents a unique twist to creating sleevefaces. Many cover design can be over-the-top, but even the more somber ones can present photographic challenges. Remember, the cover only takes up the area of your face, so you're free to pose the rest of the set as you will. In most cases, what's happening outside of the cover is what's actually most interesting.

Looking to find more portraits within portraits? There are a number of websites that cater to sleeve faces, the most popular by far is SleeveFace.com. There's also SleeveFaced.com and SleeveMyFace.com. Don't forget about the Facebook Group and Flickr Group. Finally, if you find yourself online, flip through the pages of the book Sleeveface: Be the Vinyl which is 192 pages of album cover fun.

Karl Blossfeldt: Majestic Plant Portraits

In line with Nick Brandt's majestic animal portraits, it's only fair that this blog should also feature plant portraits of the same quality. As with animals, plants have also been featured on the blog, from Fong Qi Wei's exploded flowers to Carl Werner's amazing foodscapes to Michel Tcherevkoff's flowery shoes and bags. As with Nick Brandt, these previous flowery creations are no match for the simple yet majestic plant portraits created by artist and photographer Karl Blossfeldt.

Karl Blossfeldt made a living as an artist and teacher in but it's his magnificent close-up photographs of plants that made him famous. These close-ups were used to aid him in teaching his students in the late 19th century and early 20th century about the natural beauty of nature, something which is obviously evident in all his photographs.

His position as an artist and art teacher and his passion for nature allowed for his conviction that nature and art weren't inherently different, but in fact should be related. He postulated that art should take its cue from the basic forms found in the natural world, beginning with the simplest petals, leaves and stems of ordinary plants found in the backyard.

The photographs themselves are simple enough in their content and Blossfeldt made sure that they weren't overly complicated. He used a simple white, grey or black cardboard as a background with evenly diffused lighting. If these techniques sound familiar, it's because they're the same techniques used for portrait photography when the medium was still in its infancy. In Blossfeldt's case, the process is quite fitting as the results are indeed nothing short of portraits, only that of plants and not of people.

The uniformity of the photographs were intentional as Blossfeldt intended them to be used as tools for teaching art students about forms in nature, ensuring that they could see that almost everything man made from the simplest sculptures to the most elaborate architectural marvels all derived their basic ideas from the microscopic forms of plants.

In 1928, Blossfeldt published 120 of his photographs in the well-received "Urformen der Kunst" ("Natural Forms of Art" or sometimes translated to "Art Forms in Nature"). In 1932, the year of his death, a second book was published under the title "Wundergarten der Natur" (Wonders of the Garden of Nature).

It's amazing to think that the images you see here are but a fraction of the almost 6,000 shots Blossfeldt made in his lifetime. Even with all the variety of plantlife he saw, Blossfeldt managed to show his students and the rest of the world an intimate view of flora that's usually ignored, even by the most discerning of art lovers. And all from a home-made camera and a little creativity.

You can go to the Karl Blossfeldt archive for more of his majestic plant portraits. There are also a few more samples of his photographs over at Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs, Soulcatcher Studio and Karl Blossfeldt Photos. Since the original release of his first book in 1928, publishers have made different versions of his images available. So far, the most popular modern reproductions include Karl Blossfeldt: The Complete Published Work (Taschen 25th Anniversary), Karl Blossfeldt: The Alphabet of Plants, and Karl Blossfeldt: Art Forms In Nature: The Complete Edition.

Michel Tcherevkoff: Design by Nature

From the simple flower disassemblies of Fong Qi Wei to the more elaborate constructions of Klaus Enrique Gerdes and Carl Warner, the number of permutations one can do with simple ingredients such as flowers, fruits and vegetables is mind-boggling. These creations, however, take the cake. From a simple creation based on a single leaf, photographer Michel Tcherevkoff has truly elevated design inspired by nature in his Shoe Fleur.

Michael Tcherevkoff is an advertising photographer and has worked for such companies as Estée Lauder and L'Oréal. While he's been active in the advertising industry since the 1970s, it's only been a few years that he gained fame for his mind-blowing creations he named "Shoe-Fleur".

These inventions stem from his passion for the new and exciting. According Tcherevkoff, “Taking pictures of something that just exists was never interesting to me. I’ve always gravitated to photography that’s more illustrative in nature, where I can create my own reality - with a twist.”

Tcherevkoff mentions that he was inspired by an upside down leaf which looked like a shoe. From there, he slowly developed his Shoe Fleur designs, the first one just a leaf arranged to look like a shoe, but the succeeding creations being more daring and beautiful.

Since 2007, his portfolio of flowery inventions has extended to bags in addition to the shoes. In addition to his Shoe Fleur, he's also experimented with creating insects, animals and other creatures in his Metafleur, butterflies in his Butter Fleur, hats and millinery in his Chapeau de Fleur and even some sexy lingerie in his Passion Flower (all of which can be found on his website).

For his Shoe-Fleur, Tcherevkoff starts by collecting different kinds of flowers and leaves to take back to his studio, he then studies and listens to them as the kind of shoe that they might become depends on what they are. Depending on the kind of plant, one might become a platform shoe while another might transform into a more formal stiletto heel shoe.

Based on these images alone, it's safe to say that Tcherevkoff listens well to these flowers.

For more of these amazing designs by nature, check out Michel Tcherevkoff's website here. For his photography portfolio, check this website. For prints of his works, you can purchase them here. You can also purchase his books and calendars: Shoe Fleur: A Footwear Fantasy, Petals, Purses, and Pumps 2012 Engagement (calendar), and Shoe Fleur: Notecard Boxes.

Fong Qi Wei: Creating Flowers from Flowers

Fruits, vegetables and other flora have been featured on this blog as intricate portrait recreations and impressive mini-landscapes. It was only a matter of time until somebody else took the idea into a different direction. Here, the photographer Photographer Fong Qi Wei creates flowers out flowers, crafting something simple and beautiful out of something that's already simple and beautiful. In his series Exploded Flowers these natural constructions are given a clever and enchanting man-made touch.

Fong Qi Wei mentions that he found inspiration for his Exploded Flowers from Todd McLellan and his photographs of different kinds of disassembled electronics laid out in an orderly manner. In Wei's case, flowers provided an easier but likewise interesting option; it allowed him to create new flowers out of old flowers while still preserving their identity.

Wei began his flower creations around the middle of August this year and ended just a few days ago in November, with 20 complete artworks in the set. His collection features some very simple flowers such as orchids and hibiscuses to more ornate species such as gerberas and chrysanthemums. It's amazing how even the simplest flowers can look quite grand and how the more elaborate ones look orderly and random at the same time.

There's nothing overly extravagant about these creations; they're simple and beautiful artworks made in a simple and beautiful manner, and that in itself makes them even more fascinating. They're austere, thoughtful, sometimes majestic, but always charming.

Fong Qi Wei's website is here, with the whole set of exploding flowers over here. You can also buy prints of his wonderful disassembled flowers created from flowers over here. And check out this related post on the amazing portraits you can make with fruits and vegetables, and this other post on equally impressive landscapes made also from produce.