Things

In this weeks Things we welcome Gordo from Zine Swap, Daniel Stier, KirstopherH (I imagine you pronounce the “H” at the end by just extending the “pher” for ages, getting louder all the time), Brendan Monroe and David A Gray. In a totally non-competitive, the-prize-is-participation, who’s-counting-anyhow, why-is-this-even-comment-worthy sort of way, the five things selected stand at illustration 3 – 2 Photography. Just saying.

Photographs Daniel Stier

A small book filled with sharp still lives, impossibly colourful and clashing in every texture possible, all to excellent effect. Photos featured include a visit to Adel Rootstein mannequin factory and an uncanny portrait of a real life model in the midst. I’d like to define Stier as a cleverly abstract or maybe abstractly clever photographer… either way these are wonderful works that literally gleam with the surrealness of it all.
www.danielstier.com

Buzz Axe Gordo

Some collection of imagery here from a guy that goes by “Gordo”. He’s one half of Zine Swap, the self-appointed bibliographers of the zine world and, from the looks of Buzz Axe, he has made more then a fair share of contributions. Immediate and great, there are a couple recognisable characters in here like Lil’Wayne and Tom Selleck, as well as a host of unknown (frequently dismembered) people inhabiting a world that would otherwise be populised by flying daggers, snakes in skulls and angry lines.
www.thisisgordo.com

The Dream that Breaks the Day: Portfolio David A Gray

Great title, beautiful books. The four volumes in this portfolio of photography – Vampire, Surge, Thunderbolts Way and Drift – are filled with cerebral landscapes of colour and sublime moments of light. In fact, every image possesses a jewel-like moment that pulls the image together, be it the day-glow of a jacket or street light at dusk.
www.76degreesandclear.co.uk

Islands Brendan Monroe

Was seriously going to photograph every single page of Islands but somehow resisted. Instead I must convey in inadequate sentences how great this comic is. Very striking, involved black and white line ink drawings of a character having some physical epiphany with the quantum planes of existence where he gets to walk in space, through time and confront his own being. It’s pretty wild. Beautiful stuff.
www.brendanmonroe.com

The Golden Memory KristopherH

KristopherH was given a pen and paper by his mother because he “talked to much” – though I doubt whether every vocal child who is distracted by doodling would ever go on to create such minutely detailed, wonderfully composed images as he does. All of these images are inspired by animator Hayao Miyazaki and painter Naohisa Inoue and centre around Iblard – which, from what I can gather is a place that KristopherH treats as a visual metaphor for ideas, imagination and possibilities…
www.kristopherh.com