Albert Cadabra © Leland Bobbé
My portrait of Albert Cadabra was just given a gold award in the Graphis 100 Best in Photography 2011 Competition. This is the second year in a row images from my Neo-Burlesque series have been chosen by Graphis for this prestigious award.
© Leland Bobbé
A series of my Women of Fifth Avenue project was just named as a finalist in the Worldwide Photography Awards Storyteller Contest. 1200 series were received from 44 countries for the first screening and of those 178 passed to the second screening. One winner, 4 runner ups and 29 honorable mentions were awarded while another 100 were finalists. All will be featured in the book Storyteller.
Apathy Angel © Leland Bobbé
This is my recent portrait of Neo-Burlesque performer Apathy Angel. One of a handful of performers I’ve shot with masks, this was one of the most intense. I love that silver and black.
A quote from Apathy:
“Burlesque is performing and entertaining but it’s also a way of expressing the things that I’m feeling. I like to think of it more as performance art than a sideshow or as body entertainment or stripping. When someone comes up to me after one of my more ‘out there’ performances and asks, did this symbolize or mean anything personal to me, then I feel like I’ve succeeded in getting across my message beyond the audience just seeing a girl get naked on stage. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.”
Green Building © Leland Bobbé
Green Building, 11 in a series from a road trip.
Adrian Buckmaster © Leland Bobbé
I met photographer Adrian Buckmaster at the opening of the “Unsung Heroes of Burlesque” show as we were both showing images. As soon as I saw him I knew that I wanted to take his portrait. I asked and he agreed. I’ve been experimenting with hard direct light and tight cropping for maximum impact and in this case I think it really worked.
9AM © Leland Bobbé
This shot was taken on a cold winter morning into a fogged up small coffee shop. I’ve always been attracted to street photography that is somewhat non-literal and in this case I was attracted to the partially obscured face. This was actually taken on film and the yellow on the left side of the image is from a flash of light caused when the back my old Nikon FM opened up for a second. What could have been the end of the shot in my opinion actually added to it. This shot along with 2 others of mine will be appearing in a book being published by Photo District News from the NYC Photobook contest.
Ryan @ Leland Bobbé
I noticed Ryan at the Chelsea Piers Gym where i work out. I was struck not only by his bone structure but also the inner intensity he displayed while exercising. I approached him about doing a portrait session and he was game. My goal was to capture in the studio what I saw at the gym. He had never been in front of the camera before but when i explained to him what my approach would be we were on the same page. Lit with just a beauty dish, i love the hard contrasty light.
Little Brooklyn © Leland Bobbé
Little Brooklyn, the long time co-producer of the infamous Starshine Burlesque is one of the most original neo-burlesque performers on the scene. Her acts mix classic tease with a slapstick sense of humor. Everything we shot together had an element of comedy but when she pulled out “the worlds largest underpants” with the Pee Wee Herman tie I knew this was the one.
A quote from Little Brooklyn:
“Where did all the baggy pants comedians go? They’re right here, they’re just wearing pasties now.”
Snow Bench © Leland Bobbé
Three of my images have been recognized in the 2010 International Awards Competition. Snow Bench won a silver award for Landscape while Red Man and Albert Cadabra won bronze in Abstract/Illustrative and People and Portrait . This is the second straight year that three of my images have been awarded in this competition.
Red Man ©Leland Bobbé
© Leland Bobbé
This is me in front of my two large scale 40×60″ prints at the opening of the Unsung Heroes Of Burlesque group show that opened last week. It was a great turnout with lots of burlesque performers showing up. There was a live performance by Jenny C’est Quo and almost one by Apathy Angel until the “hi-tech” ipod driven music system stopped working. A great time was had by all! The show will be up until 12/18 at The Fog Gallery at 508 226th Street. 5G.
