Collaborations – shape+colour

ten:15.

The web has allowed a whole new medium of collaborative photography to flourish. Artists teaming together is obviously nothing new, but the ease and instance of the interwebs make it totally free-flow for strangers around the world to shed their own little bit of creative light together onto one project.

I’ve noticed that lots of these collabs have found a way to focus on something universal and immutable: time. Our locations and cultures and languages are all different, but it’s always going to be 10:15 am everywhere and that’s not changing anytime soon. Similar to Craig Geffen’s awesome Humanclock, which collects photos from around the world visualizing every minute of every day, ten:15 wants you to send in a picture of whatever you happen to be doing at 10:15 am no matter where you are in the world.

There’s something about the communal collection of our banalities that make them become completely fascinating. Having photographic proof that some dude in Manila is putting cream in his morning coffee somehow creates a little more balance and order in the universe. While I was there, I noticed that a frequent collaborator to ten:15 is Michael Surtees, the man behind the lovely “New York City Colour Project”.

Uploaders can create their own user portfolio and the site and link it back to their personal site, making it a great way to search for new photographers or just to voyeuristically photo-creep on other people’s lives. You can search the archives by photographer, date, or location. There’s something about the casual nature of the photographs, that sort of laid back moment where someone picked up their camera or phone at 10:15 and just snapped, that creates some really beautiful shots – with an inherent spontaneity that can’t really be faked:

David Y. Lee – Brooklyn, NY

Verna Pitts – Minnesota

Barry Choi – Toronto

Jody Sugrue – Toronto

Here’s my first submission, sent in today. It’s my bonsai tree, Mr. Miyagi…

Via Gerry Mak @ Lost At E Minor

you are beautiful.

We all know it, but it’s hard to resist. We live in a world that bombards us with fear-inducing marketing aiming to convince us that we’re too ugly, too fat, or too old so that we’ll go out and buy shit to fix it. How often, if ever, do we get sweetly and succinctly told that there’s nothing wrong with us? It’s the simplicity behind You Are Beautiful that makes it’s message so immediate and powerful.

The creators of the site and all it’s members are anonymous, choosing to let their message speak for itself. Collaborators design different versions of the three words “you are beautiful” and then hi-jack public areas that would normally contain advertising. From more traditional graffiti spaces to usurping billboards and lining the insides of advertising-riddled subway cars, the idea is to replace the ubiquitous consumer-driven messaging we normally see with a compliment. A little burst of positivity, unexpected in the midst of buy-buy-buy messaging, that asks us to do absolutely nothing but feel good about ourselves.

The collected images of how the message has manifested itself created an exhibition that’s appeared in galleries around the world. Living up to the true nature of it’s movement, You Are Beautiful seeks out individuals to contribute as well. People can let out their inner artist with their very own version of the message, be it public or private, and send pics to the site for posting. The only thing they ask is that the message not be commodified or sold in any way – to just always be free and always be true to itself.

Plus, for just the price of postage, Are You Beautiful will mail you a free package of stickers. Spread the message, take pics of where you put your stickers, and send them to the site to be added to the collection: