The world at my feet

Nobuyoshi Araki is one of the best living photographers. He has published over 350 books and is considered one of the most productive artists around the world. Many of his photos are erotic. He is best known for his pictures of bondage, with young women tied and often suspended and entangled in rope.

Now, a young French artist, Benjamin Deroche, has made a series of photos in honour of the master: Tribute to Araki. He has tried to reproduce with a dead chicken the pictures of bondage, with odd, but also disturbing, effects. In a interview given to Liberation’s blog Zoum Zoum, Deroche says Araki is one of his favourite photographers. Goodness knows what Araki thinks about it.

In parallel with his official site, the French fashion designer (Dior Homme) Hedi Slimane has a photo diary: Hedi Slimane Diary. The stylist is a rock fan, with many connections to British indie scene and these photos incarnate perfectly his rock temperament. The site collects more than 800 untitled and exclusively black-and-white works. It features photos of Slimane’s books about contemporary rock like the famous Stage, reportages on the New York musical scene and portraits of scandalous stars like Pete Doherty, Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse and Courtney Love. In short, it’s the cool, good, old triad: sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Do you remember the iconoclastic, lecher, over zonked Fritz the Cat, the comic character created by Robert Crumb? Well, there is another cat named Fritz that is going to dwarf the predecessor’s fame. In Germany it’s a little celebrity and the poor bear Klut begins to shudder. But what does this cat do? Fritz is a reporter and goes around with a digital camera, programmed for automatic shots, hung to the neck. The mistress puts the photos in this site that, to be blunt, is quite ugly and the mainstream media create a case. The world in the eyes of a cat: what a big idea! Nowadays any boob can become a case, however these photos are better than mine, I’m a dog as photographer. An interesting experiment would be to stuff Fritz with beer, Viagra and marijuana. The world in the eyes of an iconoclastic, lecher, over- zonked cat: that’s a big idea!