These Ancient Trees Have Stories to Tell

These Ancient Trees Have Stories to Tell: 

National Geographic Photo Blog Becky Harlan Photos Beth Moon

In 1999, photographer Beth Moon began documenting some well seasoned trees. Specifically, she sought out aged subjects that were “unique in their exceptional size, heredity, or folklore.” 

And it was a quest. “So many of our old trees have been cut down,” she says, “that without a concerted effort you are not likely to run across one.”

The great western red cedar of Gelli Aur, Thuja plicata, in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The arboretum at Gelli Aur (Golden Grove) is home to an impressive selection of mature specimen trees, but none so magnificent as the multitrunked western red cedar, thought to have been planted in 1863.

Many of the real trees represented, however, face hard times ahead. “Quiver trees are dying from lack of water in Namibia. Dragon’s blood trees are in decline and on the endangered list, and three species of baobab trees are currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List” says Moon. “The disappearance of old-growth forests may be one of the most serious environmental issues today.”

http://www.bethmoon.com/TouchWood01.html [image: Quiver Tree, Aloe dichotoma, ub Keetmanshoop, Namibia. The Quiver Tree Forest in southern Namibia is home to a spectacular collection of some of Earth’s most unusual trees, some of which are three centuries old. Strictly speaking, they are actually succulent aloe plants that can grow up to 33 feet high. The Bushman and Hottentot tribes use the hollow branches of this plant to make quivers for their arrows. The forest was made a Namibian national monument
for full article please visit http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/24/these-ancient-trees-have-stories-to-tell/ or www.bethmoon.com

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Stripes on the Runway SS16 Collections inspiration from the street to the catwalk

Taking inspiration form the urban street stripes lose their Nautical influence and take reference from the Urban jungle street culture and Arcitecture. Photo picture credits James Cochrane courtesy of Vogue online.

Sony World Photography Awards final Shortlist 2016

 Sony World Photography Awards 2016: the final shortlist

More than 230,000 images were entered into the World Photography Organisation’s professional, open and youth categories, encompassing the delicate handling of private moments to the capturing of the year’s biggest news stories.

Themes covered include the Ukraine conflict, Europe’s refugee crisis, and drone and underwater photography.

All shortlisted images will go on show at London’s Somerset House from 22 April to 8 May

Lucy Nicholson,

UK

Professional; EnvironmentSony World Photography awards final Shortlist 2016

A worker walks through dry farm fields in Los Banos, California. Water regulators have adopted strict quotas in urban areas as the state’s drought enters its fourth year.

Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/Sony World Photography Awards

Alexander Semenov, Russia

Professional; Environment

“This series represent exploration of the most extreme and far cold-water seas, washing the coasts of Russia, because only few people in the world had chance to dive there. These seas are true pearls of nature, hiding mysteries and treasures not only for divers and scientists - there is another universe with it’s own aliens and fantastic creatures.”

Photograph: Alexander Semenov/Sony World Photography Awards

#Hoxton Old_Street Painted Building

Found this in #Hoxtons in the summer our own UK finest exciting #painted #building in the heart of #Shoreditch just off #Old_Street roundabout. So lovely to find a #contemporary #urban #painting to liven up the streets will be posting more here when I find them..

We highlight some of the key urban regeneration projects transforming Johannesburg's Maboneng Precinct, including Craftsmen's Ship (pictured) on 260 Main Street, an industrial building soon to turned into residential and retail spaces, with a façade by artist Stephen Hobbs

Jonathan Liebmann is one of those born-entrepreneur types you read about in business magazines; the sort who takes on seven paper rounds at 12 and has a series of business adventures and misadventures before finding an all-consuming commercial calling. For Liebmann, after running a chain of laundromats and a mobile coffee maker, that calling was real-estate development.

Born in Johannesburg, the son of an interior designer mother and banker/artist father, Liebmann first developed a number of flats when he was just 18. But the light-bulb moment came when he developed an old factory into an apartment for himself and imagined a new, profitable life for Joburg's stockpile of empty industrial buildings.

In 2008 he formed Propertuity, bought the old offices and warehouses of a construction company east of the inner city and recruited local architect Enrico Daffonchio to help him turn the buildings into a buzzy hub that would draw the city's creative types.

Having studied the form in creative quarters from São Paulo's Vila Madalena to London's Shoreditch, Liebmann knew he needed art heavyweights as anchor tenants. Artist William Kentridge and photographer Mikhael Subotzky signed up for studio space and soon the development, Arts on Main, was fully tenanted. It opened in 2009 with galleries, a restaurant and design stores.

After its success, Liebmann decided he was not just a property developer but rather a 'community developer', and he would create a new neighbourhood that would tempt young professionals, black and white, out of their gated communities. In 2010, he opened Main Street Life, a 1970s warehouse-turned-apartment building that also houses an independent cinema and boutique hotel. And last year, he added The Main Change office development, including the inevitable co-working space for start-ups and freelancers.

Liebmann's operation now owns 35 buildings spread across a square-kilometre area he has christened the Maboneng Precinct. All of this has been done without government assistance, although Propertuity has just started a partnership with the Johannesburg Development Agency to upgrade the pavements. Liebmann remains a de facto mayor of Maboneng, a benevolent landlord and social architect, but he denies control-freakery and utopian inflexibility. 'I definitely have a mission to turn Maboneng into the best neighbourhood in the world, but I am very flexible in the way it plays out.'

Read more at http://www.wallpaper.com/travel/street-view-maboneng-precinct-in-johannesburg/6827#zAqgoEuEpsWtFZb0.99

From Waste to Wear: ECONYL® recycled nylon is cleaning up our seas | The Ethical Fashion Source

From Waste to Wear: ECONYL® recycled nylon is cleaning up our seas | The Ethical Fashion Source

Paul Smith takes us on a tour of his recreated HQ at London's Design Museum design / 14 Nov 2013 / By Katrina Israel

http://www.wallpaper.com/design/paul-smith-takes-us-on-a-tour-of-his-recreated-hq-at-londons-design-museum/6959

The creative clutter that makes up Sir Paul Smith's everyday existence has been decamped into a new exhibition titled 'Hello, My Name is Paul Smith' at London's Design Museum. The inspirational showcase includes a replica of the designer's famed Covent Garden office pictured here

'The stuff that refines you', and taking one look around Sir Paul Smith's new exhibition at London's Design Museum, you get the sense that the designer is similarly inspired. The creative clutter that makes up Smith's everyday existence has been decamped into the showcase 'Hello, My Name is Paul Smith'.

Just don't call it a retrospective. 'It's absolutely not a retrospective,' he insists, heading a tour around the exhibit, his renowned wit and curiousity leading the way, and adding with a smile 'the show comes from the heart, not from the wallet'. The installation instead celebrates the stuff of his life's work, much of which has fuelled his design process and vice versa, rather than a plotted timeline of collections and career successes.

And while many designers crave a clean, sterilised space in order to sustain their creativity, Smith is legendarily quite the opposite. A trait that his fans have well and truly caught onto, to the extend that his former Kean street London office is famously bursting at the seams with curios to the point where it's almost a personal museum. 'The post is fantastic!' Smith continues, 'I just had five huge cartons of spinning tops delivered from Italy, which just said: "I know Paul Smith likes things".' Of course, as an accomplished collector he also has an impressive portfolio of art and retail conquests, but it's the little things (toy robots, buttons, Rolleiflex cameras) that fuel his creativity, and they're almost all decamped here, including 70,000 buttons.
Read more at http://www.wallpaper.com/design/paul-smith-takes-us-on-a-tour-of-his-recreated-hq-at-londons-design-museum/6959#Rsj1i4RPXVc4XjAK.99

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9817520/Vanessa-Paradis-fronts-HandMs-Conscious-campaign.html

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9817520/Vanessa-Paradis-fronts-HandMs-Conscious-campaign.html Conscious Cool as it ever was..

and some of our archive originals from back in the day Conscious Eathwear Collections..

Cover shoot from the archive Conscious organic cotton dress 1992..

Conscious collections continued with Ciel ..

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/TMG9941053/Livia-Firth-brings-glamour-to-Sustainable-City-Awards.html

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/TMG9941053/Livia-Firth-brings-glamour-to-Sustainable-City-Awards.html

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/TMG9941053/Livia-Firth-brings-glamour-to-Sustainable-City-Awards.html

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/TMG9941053/Livia-Firth-brings-glamour-to-Sustainable-City-Awards.html

Cielshop Liberty Print Shell Pink Camisole

Cielshop Liberty Print Shell Pink Camisole

lovely pretty things theses camisoles are on
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Eco Age, Livia Firth Christmas Gift Guide! Ciel silky knickers

By poplular request archive images from Conscious Earthwear of the early Conscious Collections I created ..

The Story Teller exhibition at Somerset House showcases prolific fashion photographer Tim Walker's work over the past four years. Photography: James Stopforth

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By Lauren Cochrane

A giant doll kicks a supermodel down a hill, a blue horse wanders through a country house, a Spitfire whistles through a domestic interior, Tilda Swinton stares out from behind skydiver goggles… Walking through Tim Walker's exhibition at London's Somerset House, you quickly come to the conclusion that, for him, nothing is impossible.

Instead, fantasy is all part of the magic of his medium. The exhibition, supported byMulberry, is subtitled 'storyteller', which couldn't be more apt. 'I create worlds,' he says, 'and place them in front of you.'

Spurning the modern techniques of photoshop and image manipulation, Walker instead painstakingly prepares for his shoots. Working with a team of set design collaborators include Shona Heath, Andy Hillman and Rhea Thierstein, he makes his fantasies become a reality - or, at least, an unforgettable image.

'A lot of it is about wondering what something will look like,' muses Walker, 'and playing with ideas.' Indeed, Walker's wonderful imagination is vividly represented here with over 150 images taken over the past four years, as well as some of the props - including that life-sized Spitfire, a band of insects and the giant doll.

While Walker shot his first story for a fashion magazine more than 15 years ago, you could say he was preparing for it long before that. As an intern at Vogue House at the age of 19, he set up the Condé Nast's Cecil Beaton Archive and was later a full-time assistant to Richard Avedon. 'He was a great communicator,' remembers Walker. 'Once, on set of a shoot for Versace, he directed the girls as little blackbirds. He always had a story - I get that from him.'

Arguably, Walker has taken this trait and supersized it. Narrative is key to his work, with a transition into film inevitable. His first short, The Lost Explorer, came out in 2010 and more are in the pipeline. 'I'm working on several ideas,' he says 'but I can only work if I'm moved by something.' Fashion's favourite storyteller has found a new medium - watch this space for his next enchanting, possibly moving, images.

The Story Teller exhibition at Somerset House showcases prolific fashion photographer Tim Walker's work over the past four years. Photography: James Stopforth

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By Lauren Cochrane 'STORY TELLER' EXHIBITION OPENING OCTOBER 2012 AT SOMERSET HOUSE Aug 2012 October 18th 2012 will see the opening of Walker's major new show, Story Teller, at Somerset House in London. Open until January 2013, the show is supported by Mulberry. To coincide with the show, Thames and Hudson are publishing Story Teller the book, featuring over 175 images, collages and snapshots from Walker's personal archives, many on display in the exhibition. A series of events will happen during the show including a film series curated by Tim and an 'in conversation' between himself and Penny Martin. For more information please visit... http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/tim-walker-story-teller