ari versluis + ellie uyttenbroek: exactitudes.

This article also appeared on Josh Spear

We’ve all experienced that high school moment where you realize that if you don’t wear the right jeans to your next hallway appearance, you… will… die.

Exactitudes, a 13-year collaboration between Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek, is a study of how groups of people around the world express their individuality… by dressing alike. Whether the pull is created by class, gender, rebellion or other faces of identity, each individual subject in a series is posed and shot exactly the same. When placed together it’s the groups ubiquitous style code that’s immediately apparent, but the real interest is that by looking through the convenient veneer of sameness it’s actually each person’s differences that begin to unexpectedly shine through.

Plus, there are French surfer boys with no shirts on. And that never hurts.

random website friday: weburbanist.

Sometimes you’re in the mood to wander the ‘net aimlessly but you’re not feeling Perez and all the usual suspects. Say you’re in the mood for something intellectual and architectural, yet completely random, with some culture and a good dollop of modern art thrown in. When you’re in that mood (and who isn’t, really?) that’s when you need to head to WebUrbanist.

This site is the shit. There hasn’t been a single visit where I haven’t come across something unexpected. For instance, right now the latest posts are on shopdropping (the subversive art of reverse shoplifting), the 3 most bizarre micronations in the world, the 7 smallest hotel rooms in the world, and urban camouflage.

If you’re saying “shopdrop who?” and “micronation what?” and “urban camowhazzit?” then that’s precisely why you need to go there. Now. Go now.

niedermeyer: osama camera.

Here’s a new print ad for Niedermeyer Cameras. Um, ok. So, not that I’m necessarily shocked by this, but I just find it really sort of mind-blowing that we’re using Osama Bin Laden to sell things (besides the War on Terror… he sold that really well). I’m not coming from any sort of neo-conservative “support our troops” standpoint. I don’t think anything should ever be off limits. I think I’m just surprised that the US manhunt for Osama is so engrained in the worldwide culture that it could be used to sell something as banal as a camera.

Besides that, the ad also makes total sense purely from it’s marketing pitch: hunt for Osama – can’t find him – got a camera – zooms really good – there’s Osama – great camera. Isn’t that, I dunno… just weird?

It’s also an odd statement on how the omnipresence of advertising has made it at least reasonable to market a product on this type of situation. I don’t care if people find it offensive or not (people are way too easily offended, in my opinion). I’m more interested that this was seen, by some camera company, as a viable idea. I’m pretty sure that up to this point we wouldn’t have used Hitler or Pol Pot or Stalin to sell electronics. Unless you’re in North Korea, of course. In which case you’re only using dictators to sell electronics. But that’s a whole other story…

vancouver 2010: mascotarded.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic people just “unveiled” the mascots for the next winter games. Ok, so let’s talk Olympics: Citius, Altius, Foritus and all that. “Imagine there’s no countries…it’s easy if you try”. The triumph of the human spirit embodied by the noble struggle that is… the luge. Anyway, the Olympics are cool and we all get that. I’ll be up at 4:00am to watch the Ladies Long Program with the best of ‘em. Plus, let’s face it – the Olympics are the biggest sport event in the history of the universe with even bigger brand dollars attached. The games come and the whole world watches. With that in mind, will somebody please, please… please tell me why Olympic mascots always look so stupid?

I was hoping that Vancouver wouldn’t cave in to convention and come up with some kind of plush killer whale holding a totem pole. Now I’m wishing they had. Instead, they went for a Japanimation/Haida mashup. It’s a little like Astroboy’s spirit animal does the Super G. We have a trio of Pokémon left-overs made up not just of the stereotypical animals you’d expect, but from different body parts of the stereotypical animals you’d expect: