Sunday, September 9, 2012

One year later....


And the book is out in stores!

Walking by a book store a month ago - I happened upon a familiar face in the window.
It was Mary McFadden.

Then, last week, my copy came in the mail!

Last summer I had the pleasure of working on a project for Rizzoli books - shooting a curated collection for McFaddens' new book; Mary McFadden: A Lifetime of Design, Collecting and Adventure.

The amazingly talented Aoife Wasser hooked me up with this project and I am so glad she did!
Jennifer Holley joined us and styled the garments beautifully.



If you happen upon this book, take a look inside. The clothes and jewelry are pretty incredible, but so is Ms. McFadden's truly unique life!

 available at Rizzoli, and most books stores.



Sunday, May 27, 2012

Work in Group Show at Stone Crop Gallery













I am so happy to be included in this group show at The Stone Crop Gallery in beautiful Ogunquit Maine!

Please check out the site: http://www.stonecropgallery.com/current-exhibitions.php
here are my selected works –








On view May 26 - June 26, 2012

Opening Reception
Saturday

June 9

4pm - 6pm

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A little sunshine on a rainy day

Hello!

It's a rainy day in NYC, but things are looking brighter ...

This morning I received this email:

 Hello Lolly,
 Congratulations! You are Camera Club Los Angeles Artist of the day!

 Your work can be viewed at the link below: http://cameraclublosangeles.tumblr.com/post/22259929143/lolly-koon 

Best, CCLA TEAM


 It's a great blog for contemporary photography - So go check it out!
 And put it on your list of blogs to follow!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Ensenada Trip: Baha California, Mexico, March 2012

Hi everyone, I know this is long but I wanted to give you an insight into the wonderful experience you helped become a reality!!



Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico:

We stayed in the Lantern on the Hill community Center located in Baja 89.  This area was a shanty town with no paved roads and  very little in the way of amenities.  Most people build their homes with concrete and add on as they earn money- and many homes are unfinished, with holes patched with whatever they can use- fabric, pillows. etc.

It felt very much like a frontier, with the dusty roads and people staking a claim to whatever they could afford. 

But amid all the simple living, people are technologically very much in the 21st century- with cell phones, TV, and internet in some houses.



People here are very hard working, they take buses to their factory jobs or domestic jobs in the city.
Many work 7 days a week and most adolescents must leave school to work.
Here are some images of the neighborhood and a saturday morning market:



 








Ginger and I had the unique experience to go out into the community to meet families and photograph them in their homes.  The children especially loved this and they dressed to their best and posed for a million pictures!


Ensenada Trip 3/2012



























Ginger was a great translator and I tried my best to speak what I could. Basically I just said "puedo tomar fotos?"??
- can i take pictures?

I brought a Polaroid back for my camera so I could give people a small copy to keep while they wait for the bigger ones to be mailed from the US.  the kids really loved that.

I also baked a LOT of banana bread to bring with me as a thank you gift.






The people we were living with are a very Christian community. They are not Catholic, they call themselves "Christianos" and are very outspoken and zealous about 'spreading the word'.
Mexico is a mostly Catholic country, so the people are a minority in their religious practice. 
There was a lot more "letting lose" and emotion in their church. 

There is a lot of dancing, singing and even crying in church. It seemed to be a very accepting place and I felt that it was a much needed place for people to get away from their troubles and come to be with their community.

Ginger preached a sermon in Spanish! She got a lot of "Amens"!









Ginger and the pastor of the church.



Ginger preaching a sermon.




Lantern On the Hill's Community Center in Baja 89 is a house where missionaries stay, and children from the community come to learn and play.


Children go to school for a few hours each day. A lot of the families we met were involved in the community center- sending their children in for the art and english classes or the bible study held there.

The mission group had many projects, they worked on the grounds of the community cleaning up, getting the class rooms ready, and roofing new the house of the foundation's Mexican counterpart, Javier Felix. 

Javier and his family live above the center and were our life-line to the people of the neighborhood.




the community center





martha (javier's wife) and pastor frank







the team helping roof Javier's house
Javier in front of his new house


Finally- on our last day .... 
Ginger and I had a wonderful day, we were invited by the founders of Lantern on the Hill (JJ and Abby) to come to a new community that they are interested in helping, 
called Zorillo (in spanish this means Skunk!)

The people here are Oaxacan migrants, who work in the agricultural fields in the valley. 
They are paid much less for their hard work and are very discriminated against for their indigenous heritage, their dark-skinned appearance, and their native language.

Abby works with a woman there named Maria, who weaves bags to sell at the tourist markets. 
She is a really amazing woman who, like the majority of the Oaxacan people living in Zorillo speaks a native tongue called "Trique" (pronounced Triki).

She has taught herself Spanish and is raising her young granddaughter here. She owns her home, a great feat, and is working to make a better life for her granddaughter.

Abby is working to raise more interest in her bags on some free trade shop websites around the world.

Here are some images from our photo shoot.











































































Maria and her newly attained social security card






Maria's home







More images from Zorillo:


























Wow. 

Well by now I'm sure you've stopped reading and are just browsing the images :)

I hope you can see from this how amazing the trip was, and I hope you know how glad and grateful we are to have friends and family like you, who have supported us! 

Thank you again a million times-- and there are more more more images to come! 
I will be in touch once I get them all online.

xoxo

Lolly + Ginger

all images © lolly koon 2012