Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion
Sometimes I feel a little blah when I'm taking pictures in Second Life. Maybe everything that can go wrong is, and the frustration is overwhelming the fun and creativity that usually makes it worthwhile. That's when I take a break to flip through some of my favourite SL fashion photographers on Flickr. Maybe they aren't the most edgy and artistic SL photographers out there, but their beautiful snapshots and excellent ensembles inspire and invigorate me to keep going with this frequently maddening hobby. Here's who I'm talking about:
The top image by Eve Kazan is called "Créatures", and it uses this free reptilian avatar I mentioned last month. Eve is a French resident who also runs one of my favourite blogs, Mademoisl-eve.com. The highlight of her pictures is as much the location as the fashion, and she has amazing knowledge of all the most unique and interesting places to photograph. Her stream and her blog are both absolute must-visit sites when you need to refresh your surroundings and get out of a visual rut.
Rose N.'s Flickr stream is filled with pages that could have been torn out of a print magazine. She takes very clean shots with simple composition, soft depth of field, and very evocative lighting. She then peppers them with careful typography to create a standalone work that really makes her stand out from the rest of us. It's more than that, though... She always seems to inject a little more humanity into her models than most. Something about the subtlety of the poses and her careful photography really makes these avatars feel like more than digital dolls.
Nomak Nyoki's Flickr stream is, if nothing else, way too small. Though he has shots in a variety of styles showing off a variety of different aspects of Sl fashion, the work that shines brightest are definitely his portraits of both male and female avatars. His work is a good blend of vanilla avatars with careful post-processing that never goes too far. I'm not a fan of the overly fussy and tweaked-to-death photoshopping that has become popular with SL snapshots, but Nomak usually seems to find the perfect balance. He uses just the right amount to add detail to key features like the hair and lips and ultimately produces some breathtaking work. To me, Nomak is one of those rare SL artists that is almost an ideal, someone that is just miles ahead of the rest of us lowly mortals.
If you like Nomak's style as much as I do, it would be worthwhile to check out Asa Pin, another SL artist who has the balance of pre- and post-work down to a science. (Full disclosure: I was lucky enough to be one of Asa's subjects last year, so I may be biased!)
Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.
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