Friday Video Feed!

Incredible Deep Sea Photographs by Andreas Franke

Originally posted here.

Austrian photographer and deep sea diving enthusiast Andreas Franke has released a new series titled Stavronikita Project: The Life Above Refined Below being exhibited deep at the bottom of the Caribbean right off the coast of Barbados. It was less than two years ago that the adventurous photographer first introduced his idea of an underwater gallery, at 130 ft. deep, with his photography affixed to the sunken USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg ship. This new exhibit, though similar in its approach, offers a new set of surreal images to view by diving undersea.

Franke's latest project explores the decadent lifestyle of the wealthy during the Rococo era as it is juxtaposed with the decaying freight ship and swarming marine life as its backdrop. The Viennese artist uses images of his models imitating the period of opulent abundance as a contrasting visual to his deep sea captures of the SS Stavronikita, creating an intriguing image rich with interpretation. Like his previous work, Stavronikita is on display underwater, behind a plane of plexiglas, sealed in with silicone and a steel frame and attached to the ship with strong magnets. The exhibit can currently be seen, at a depth of 80 ft., through April 2013.

"The Wholly Family" - 20 Minute Short Film by Terry Gilliam

A crowded street in Naples city center, plenty of shops selling presepi. A wealthy American couple and Jake, their 10 years-old child, try to push their way through the crowd. While husband and wife argue which street to take, the boy is unwillingly separated from them.

Watch the preview or rent the film at Terry Gilliam's official website!

Atelier Olschinsky

Atelier Olschinsky, founded in 2002 is a small creative studio based in Vienna, Austria. Peter Olschinsky and Verena Weiss are operating in various fields such as graphic design, illustration, photography and art direction.

Ellen Rogers Photography

Ellen Rogers is a London-based all analogue photographer and filmmaker.  To date she has been featured and interviewed in numerous magazines such as i-D, Vice, Tank, Dazed And Confused, British Journal of Photography, The Guardian, Vogue IT, Glamour, Lula; Girl of my dreams, Pheonix Magazine, Harper's Bazaar China, Grazia IT and worked for fashion designers such as Charlotte Olympia, Piers Atkinson, Sorcha O'Raghallaigh, Maria Francesca Pepe and many more.

Her time is separated between shooting fashion and personal work. Ellen has also been lecturing in various institutions around England, including London College of Fashion, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester College and Goldsmiths College.

Gotta get up and try.

"Movement has always been a necessary part of my life...like breathing or eating.  Movement, at my very core, is an external expression of all that I think, dream, and imagine.  I remember being a young child, and how I was always happiest when dancing.  Even in car rides, or at school, I would dance a complete piece of choreography with my fingers, and still get similar satisfaction.  And now as an adult, movement is vital to connect with my creative consciousness.  I'm always amazed with the high frequency bliss that results from even a few minutes of moving about.  Of course, being an artist, if the movement does not feel right, it can also put you in the worst of moods.  What i've learned in my experiences so far as a student, professional dancer, and choreographer, is to really trust in the movement that is created by one's self.  That is truly a part of being in flow.  That is also a huge part of experiencing the gift of movement that is uniquely yours." - Nick Florez 

Nick Florez has been working with pop star Pink on her new video "Try". BreakOut cannot express how excited and proud we are for Nick's latest accomplishments and honored to have him tied into our BreakOut Studios community. We wish him the best of luck with his new journey. Check out the amazing choreography done by Nick in the video below. Life Moves .. Move with it. 

Letters to BreakOut

We've been lucky enough to receive some of the most beautiful and touching letters about how BreakOut Studios has touched so many lives.  This video is one of three where we share these inspirational letters.

Move Forward: Prima Ballerina Olga Aru

Cirque Inspiration: Alex Mizzen

Alex Mizzen’s background has left a wonderful imprint on the artist we find today. As a trained gymnast and a graduate from the National Theatre Ballet, Alex worked as a contemporary dancer, honing her skills and performance before embarking on the circus arena. Performing across many different countries the delight she now finds is in the collaboration of these two art forms & witnessing the magic that unfolds when they do.

Fairy-Tale Artwork for a Mother Lost

Artist Kirsty Mitchell (Facebook Page) has been creating a series of "Wonderland" images to commemorate her mother who lost her battle to cancer.  Mitchell's artist statement reads:

‘Wonderland' began in July 2009, as a small summer project in memory of my mother Maureen whom I lost to cancer 7 months before. She was an English teacher who spent a lifetime inspiring myself, and generations of children with her captivating stories and plays. She was my best friend, and so escapism through my camera quickly became the only way to deal with the reality of my loss. Nothing prepared me for the enormous personal journey that followed, as the project spiralled into a 3-year adventure, leading me to leave my 10-year career as a fashion designer, to commit my future to producing the book and exhibition of the series. The project has been created out of nothing, and is the result of relentless hard work, in which almost everything within the frame has been made or designed by myself with the help of the hair and make-up artist Elbie Van Eeden and the occasional kindness of friends. There are no large support teams, designers or stylists involved, and nothing has been commissioned. The characters and their worlds are the blurred hybrids of the stories and book illustrations from my childhood memories with my mother. Nothing is a direct recreation of a particular tale, and the title ‘Wonderland,' was purely to express a girl's escapism through the pages of her book – something that echoed my personal situation in real life.
Despite initial impressions, my work is not the result of multiple digital composites and Photoshop special effects. It is for this reason that my work sits between the lines of traditional photography and digital artistry as all the elements including their locations and colours are real, made by hand, and true scale. The pictures are polished with retouching, and in a few exceptions I add small manipulations to suggest a sense of magic, but that is all. My focus is to create ‘fantasy for real' using anything from smoke bombs glued to umbrellas, to painting trees and making giantesses out of models balancing in 8ft dresses. I push myself to create whatever is necessary to bring the illusions to life, and then document the process in my online ‘Diary'
The support for the project from around the world has been overwhelming and at times deeply moving. I never imagined anyone to understand the emotion I felt behind the camera, yet I continue to receive letters from people from all walks of life who feel connected with its sentiment and find beauty with the frame.
The series is now in its final stages with its completion planned for the end of the summer 2012. There are currently 60 pieces in the collection.