I had my passport photo taken today. Yikes. Now, I understand the need for secure (yet boring) images but I can still daydream about what would happen if art and border security mixed. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to apply some bold pigments to their face in war paint fashion?

(photograph by Lara Jade and make-up by Keiko Nakamura)

(image via model mayhem)

I love this photograph of vibrant sarees scattered across the stairs of the Ahilya temple in Maheshwar, India. Captured by photographer Eli Shams, the contrast of old stonework and drops of rich colour create one smashing palette…

(photograph by eli shams; via imagekind)   

“Private Moon” by Russian artist Leonid Tishkov has captivated me for quite some time. The mobile art installation and visual poem tells the story of “a man who met the Moon and stayed with her forever”. Leonid has travelled the world with the piece for ten years, placing the illuminated artificial moon in unexpected places across China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Moscow, Italy, the Arctic, France, Austria and so forth. I love the massive scale and glowing beauty of this work and how it manages to bring a rather inaccessible natural wonder down to earth. A “private moon” indeed. As Leonid puts it, “the moon is a shining point that brings people together from different countries, of different nationalities and cultures. And everyone who gets in its orbit does not forget it ever. It gives fairytale and poetry in our prosy and mercantile world.” Personally, I find it simply magical. Fingers crossed this installation reaches Canada one day very soon. I will be first in line to see it…

(there is a great interview with leonid about this project on his blog. read it here)
(photographs by boris bendikov, po-i chen and marcus williams, all via leonid tishkov) 

The hues attributed to fruit photography often focus on juicy primary colours. Captured by Jojo Filer-Cooper, this beautiful photograph caught my eye because it is a unique showcase of the elegant colours and textures of fruit (all against an ocean turquoise backdrop). Not your average fruit bowl…

(photograph via jojo filer-cooper)  

British artist Richard Caldicott creates beautiful abstract colour in his series “Chance/Fall”. What could easily be striking geometric paintings are actually layered photographs full of ethereal and filtered light. Oh, the blocks of vibrant colour…

(photographs via galerie f5,6) 

I love the aerial photography of Katrin Korfmann and the striking way she highlights the beauty and chaos of people and places. What gorgeous colour madness she captures at Holi in India as thousands of people throw vibrant powder. Katrin layers several recordings of a place into one image so both time progression and the energy of a location can be felt. From example, in the group above, she photographs a graduation at Cambridge University over 2 days, Madison Avenue in New York over 64 minutes, a Hong Kong highway over 40 minutes and people waiting for Julia Roberts on a Berlin red carpet over 30 minutes. Such a fascinating study of time, people, colour and composition. I particularly love Katrin’s image of a busy market in Vrindavan, India. Oh how I’d love to have a print on my wall. It showcases that hot pink really is the navy blue of India…

(check out katrin’s portfolio where you can zoom into each image and see every little detail. captivating!)

(photographs via katrin korfmann; spotted on design boom )

Yep, my colourful powder and pigment obsession seems unstoppable. Photographer Marcel Christ is a still-life mastermind and I love how his “Big Bang” and “Powder” projects showcase vibrant pigments full of explosive life (but in very different ways). One set are bold, contained fireworks while the other series feel like diffused, romantic gradients of powder…

(photographs via marcel christ; spotted on abc news) 

Oops, I am slightly behind in my palettes of the week! But I think this fantastic photograph taken outside the shows of SS13 Paris Fashion Week makes up for it. Captured by Kuba Dabrowski, the image is a smashing combination of sidewalk grey and vibrant blue (with a pop of red). Birds-eye fashion photography might become my new obsession…

(photograph by kuba dabrowski via women’s wear daily)

Birds are sort of like flying colour swatches, contrasting beautifully against blue skies, rich vegetation and pure snow. Up close, they are extraordinary layers of textured hue and pattern. Delving into the popular British hobby of bird keeping, photographer Luke Stephenson artfully showcases exotic winged creatures in his series “The Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds”. I love the visible detail, modern style and colour palettes created against perfectly selected backdrops. The birds are really posing, don’t you think?

(photographs via luke stephenson; book available for pre-order here)

Stunning autumnal hues with a dash of pink is how I would describe these gorgeous spices for sale in the Souks of Marrakech captured by British photographer Shoreham Boy. I am mesmerized by how full of life neutrals become when mixed with a couple vibrant hues. From Holi powder to piles of spice, exotic markets always seem to have the best colour palettes…

(photograph via shoreham boy)  

Colour powder photography has been a popular trend in the art world lately but what about something slightly more opaque, vibrant and explosive? Enter the Paint Pigment Photographs series by Rob and Nick Carter. Inspired by Holi, the British husband-and-wife team captured these bursts of hue against a blue sky and the final result is, as designboom beautifully described, a unique kind of daytime firework show. While colourful powder is soft and dreamy, the use of paint pigment creates bold saturated colour with some pretty fabulous droplets. Oh how I love this series…

(photographs via rob and nick carter & designboom)  

Designed by Studio Iknoki, I love this packaging for the album “Black Rainbow” by band Aucan. The Italian studio took a series of coloured smoke photographs at night and in the rain “trying to reproduce the dark energy, color and explosive music that emerges from Aucan”. I love when music packaging feels more like art than vapid promotional images. Colour and music are so intertwined and this identity showcases the connection beautifully…

(photographs via studio iknoki)