This is one of my favorite frames in any movie. It’s Nicole Kidman and it’s from Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut. The movie is not my favorite Kubrick film but this frame is easily one of my favorite stills of all time. I remember the first time I saw it. I nearly jumped off the couch in experiencing the sheer brilliance of it. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
This shot could easily be a still photograph, separated from the rest of the film. It has a story all its own. It’s powerful and emotional and compelling. But I think the reason I like it so much is because it really shows Kubrick’s background in photography. The composition is beautiful with Kidman angling down the middle of the frame with…wait for it…an exact split of warm and cool colors falling on opposite sides of her. The left side of the shot is bathed in cool blues with the right side in warm oranges. They don’t mix. One side is warm and the other is cool. That split in color is brilliant. I’ve yet to see another movie still with such a thoughtful composition as this. It’s just beautiful.
I enjoyed reading this two part series from Imprint on the history of the color wheel and color theory. Along with some great history, there are some fantastic images of vintage color wheels that are absolutely gorgeous:
This particularly fine specimen was the British entomologist’s attempt to explain the color interplay he saw in his own favorite kind of bugs, flies.
I am completely in awe of the abstract paintings by Robert Hart. The combinations of textures and colors is absolutely beautiful and make for an interesting airy/outer space/heavenly feel. I’d love to hang one in my home.
Information is Beautiful has a fascinating infographic on what colors mean in different cultures. Very well designed and a great resource.
Designer Ian Edward has designed a series of posters whose purpose is to educate young children about color mixing and blending. The results are a beautiful mix of color, information graphics and graphic simplicity. I’d love to have this set hanging on my wall.
Pantone has just launched their Pantone Plus Series that includes over 500 new colors. In conjunction with the new series, multi-disciplinary design firm Base has produced an excellent short film titled 360º Color: A Peek Inside Pantone on the Release of The Plus Series. The video is a great look at Pantone’s process and influence over the years and what directions they are pursuing for the future.
Kitsune Noir points me towards The Library of Congress’s Flickr set of Photochrom Prints. The fact that these were likely taken in the late 1800s-early 1900s just blows me away. The saturation is fantastic.
The work of Julien Vallee is extremely creative and whimsical. I love how he works across various mediums from cut paper to graphic design to motion graphics and the bright colors make for some playful pieces. The video above is just fantastic and probably my favorite piece in the portfolio (it’s actually just a making-of video, but it could easily be seen as a finished piece).
I’m really enjoying the photography of Flickr user Hello, Don’t Hang Up (sorry, they don’t have their real name listed). The work has a terrific vintage, airy feel that displays a strange innocence. The saturation in the colors is absolutely gorgeous.
Not To See
Paul LaFarge on black:
The contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben, following Aristotle, remarks that the fact that we see darkness means that our eyes have not only the potential to see, but also the potential not to see. (If we had only the potential to see, we would never have the experience of not-seeing.) This twofold potential, to do and not to do, is not only a feature of our sight, Agamben argues; it is the essence of our humanity: “The greatness—and also the abyss—of human potentiality is that it is first of all potential not to act, potential for darkness.”3 Because we are capable of inaction, we know that we have the ability to act, and also the choice of whether to act or not. Black, the color of not seeing, not doing, is in that sense the color of freedom.No wonder the cool kids wear black.
Completely fascinating.
