As written in may last post, Copenhagen Fashion Week will cast a glum shadow over the pretty and deserted streets of wonderous Copenhagen in a few days. As my position as anthropology student is far away from the press or fashion buyers, I haven’t got much to do with it this year. But as Copenhagen is rather small, most people will notice 50,000 people more, Paris Hilton and the extreme amounts of parties beginning with the in vogue word; ‘Fashion…’
Anyhow; set aside my title as a student. Friday day and night I helped out my old employer, Vs. Magazine, with setting up their launch party celebrating their 6th magazine and their, now, annual photography exhibition.
The new edition is much better than the previous ones, with 4 different covers and some great pictures and editorials. My only drag was the name of the photographic exhibition: Keep it Fashion (But Keep it Real). I mean, that would be like saying ‘Be Vegetarian (Eat Chicken)’. Keeping something fashion is to me a quite illusory as the fashion realm is somewhat superficial, which makes me unsure what to keep real? Your own fashion? Who then knows it’s fashion? Hmm… Maybe I’m just a little ignorant. Please help me out?
Yesterday’s event was an exhibition in partnership with WWF and RFC (Forest Stewardship Council) as Vs. Magazine is now ‘green certified’, which is really great i think. It was held at 5 star Hotel Skt. Petri, in the center of Copenhagen.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
For most people a trip to Spain in July equals lots of pork, cheap lambrusco and Chesterfield cigarettes. People from Scandinavia, Germany and England make each year thousands of peregrinations to enjoy some sun and warmth - and you probably can’t find anywhere else in Europe with such good chances for perfect summer weather, as in Spain. This means, that even though most probably won’t admit it, Ray Winton’s life as Gal Dove in Sexy Beast is daunting. Costa Del Sol. The North European bourgeoisie’s Elysium, if I may. The asocial Neo-Nazism as CV Jørgensen calls it. The world is a cliché.
But during the last couple of years some things in Andalusia have changed. With a great deal of books starting with either ‘A Locals Insight To…’ or ‘An Insiders Guide To…’, a lot of people are starting to move from porky Fuengirola in West to the more unspoiled villages such as Nerja and Torre Del Mar, East of Malaga. This is mainly because you won’t sit at the Irish Pub next to your neighbour, Joe, from back home in Chesire. Or will you?
I am pretty sure you can’t escape tourism or the before mentioned clichés when going to South Spain. And that I understand. With cheap accommodation, nice affordable restaurants and great wine, the sunny Costa Del Sol is a perfect choice for retired couples, teenagers in party mode or simply just the regular family next door.
I’ve just spent a week in a country-house between Sayalonga and Competa, an hours drive east of Malaga. Competa, which I’ve been coming to regularly the last 6 years, has become more touristed than earlier, which is quite a shame. Sayalonga is still more local though, and has a very charming street life in the evenings, and no British Pubs where Cruz Campo or San Miguel is substituted with John Smith’s or Strongbow.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
Eric Cartman of South Park can finally agree upon something with God; Hippies. “Hippies. They’re everywhere, They wanna save the world, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad”. And go to festivals, I might add to Cartman’s classic itch. Anyhow, it seems like the same interpretation God has of them, as he every year decides to let it rain during both Roskilde and Glastonbury Music Festival.
I went to Roskilde in 2004 - one of the many years where it rained cats and dogs nearly 6 out of 6 days. I mean, not that watching Iggy Pop while water from the heavy rain was diluting my beer wasn’t cool enough in itself, but still, the mud is generally pretty annoying in the long run. Last year was even worse as far as I’ve heard. Hippies almost drowned in rain and mud, and a lot of people headed early home because of the terrible weather. This year seems to run into the same problem. But, what is really dense in my opinion, is to keep running the festivals in these specific last week of June/ first week of July. For as long as I’ve lived the two weeks of Wimbledon, which is pretty much the same, have been a combination of washouts and extreme heat-waves, so why is it that late July or early August isn’t the festival weeks? I really can’t figure it out…
But maybe I’m being this negative only because I’m not going. Neil Young is there, Radiohead will be playing and then of course Mike Skinner as The Streets. Even Slayer, Cat Power and Jay-Z will be rocking up the crowd… So why am I not a proud Roskilde festivalgoer this year? Well first of all, I haven’t got a ticket and don’t really want to pay 1800 DKK for one (call me niggardly). It might also be Platon and Aristotle’s idea of the human nature as reacting on background of prudence.
But then again; prudence my ass… - I fear that I’ve turned boring and old before time…
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
Tuesday and Wednesday was quite unique to me. I went with Mark to the Western part of Greater London (typical Aryan England (in a nice way, don’t get me wrong)) to do a photo-shoot of two English National rugby players and one of the English rowers of the Olympic four. The photo-shoot is a campaign for IC Companies as they are trying to build up some brand-awareness for their Matinique and Cottonfield brands through sponsoring some of the brave national ‘hero’s’ (good lads, eh).
And not only was is fun, as always, to be part of a thing like this, but what also struck me was the size of these guys. I mean, they were literally double the size of me and their arms reminded me of a footballers legs. Creepy and yet a bit amazing without sounding too gay.
The place we were shooting was really really nice, typical English society seen in telly, and we actually ended the shoot Wednesday in the most British manner by drinking tea at a balcony facing the Thames while the next-door cricket players began to warm up for their weekly practice. But it was simply one amazing place, actually so much it made me realize I am living in the wrong part of town, spending too much time doing anything and nothing. At least I am going to Denmark during the summer, where I can get some D-Vitamins in the sun, and get a bit away from the tandoori smell, smog and pollution and the many pub temptations that East London offers.
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I have in recent days read a lot about the urban planning and modernistic architecture of Brasilia. One might ask, why do such a thing? Well, as part of an assessment essay I had to compare two ethnographies and one of the two books, written by James Holston, were about Brasilia. Holston is showing how he can focus on different parts of the society trespassing in various disciplines, to make a very interesting conclusion on the architectural and urban planning in relation to the social stratifications found in Brasilia.
Nonetheless, this posts won’t be on Brasilia. Nor Holston for that matter. No, I have decided to make a little tribute to Walter Gropius and his amazing modernistic Bauhaus school of architecture and design. Last year i visited the famous school in Dessau and I must admit that I still can’t forget how beautiful and genius that place were. The other day, when I was browsing my photo archieve, I realized I had taken some quite good pictures of the place and decided to upload them here to simplecommonsense (see pictures below the text). I like to think they represent the simplicity of Bauhaus ans well as the tight and neat line of work they have done. Bauhaus, to those who don’t already know this, was a school that had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography with specific focus on functionality and simplicity. Just like simplecommonsense, right 
See some of the Bauhaus work here.
The Bauhaus school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different directors: Gropius from 1919 to 1927, Hannes Meyer from 1927 to 1930 and Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933 (then the school was closed by the Nazis). The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics which clearly can be seen on the design and architecture throughout the years. If you ever get the chance to go to Dessau, you should definitely go to Bauhaus yourself as it is truly amazing! I guess the city is a little boring though.
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
The famous photographer Bert Stern did an even more famous photo series of Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s as part of a magazine. A month ago, the brilliantly and gorgeous American actress Lindsey Lohan was shot by the same photographer for the very trendy and ever so amazing New York magazine. Marilyn was a washed up pill popper whose star was on the wane when her ictures were taken, and I don’t know if poor Lindsey is still suffering from a little bit of alcoholica, but nonetheless I guess Michael Musto do. Musto’s pictures are not shot by Stern, but they show Musto as Lohan (or Monroe for that matter)! Have a look yourself - this is hilarious!
These pictures portrait what an urban center would look like after years without human footprints!
The former nuclear power plant that used to be the workplace for thousands of people and later reason to their death is now turning into a ghost town where areas are covered in moss, grass and other plants. Space Collective is showing some amazing (and scary) pictures of the area that for the last 20 years have been the home of nothing except some stray dogs, but now also some of natures more orthodox elements!
A bit too much ‘Vice Magazine’ for some, but I find Alex Brown’s pictures pretty damn cool.
