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Ed Ruscha has a way with words and a sharp eye for typefaces (the sleek and squared-off sans-serif that appears frequently in his paintings is “Boy Scout Utility Modern,” his own creation). He delivers thoughtful insights in a distinguished voice that shimmers with the broken short vowels and gentle cadence of his Oklahoma upbringing. Turns out he also makes a great fashion model. That’s Ruscha in the spring-summer 2012 lookbook for Band of Outsiders, Scott Sternberg‘s beloved Los Angeles-based label. The photos, shot on vintage Polaroid film, show the artist hanging around his L.A. studio: he juggles paintbrushes in a chambray shirt, studies a copy of Acrylic Painting for Dummies, dons a cherry-red anorak to attack a Sudoku puzzle, samples the contents of a ramshackle refrigerator, and points westward, to the future, where there will be a dog and a motorcycle for everyone. It’s enough to make us want to string together Ruscha’s exotic textual feats into a song that tells the world how much we want to hang out with him. Oh, wait, someone already did that. Hit it, Richard Bell and David G.A. Stephenson:

It’s a project of firsts: Marc Newson’s first crack at camera design, Pentax’s plunge into design world collaborations, and the first time a Pentax product will be sold at retail outlets other than camera stores. Behold, the Pentax K-01, a 16-megapixel digital SLR hybrid that uses sleek interchangeable lenses (the world’s thinnest, according to the company). Envisioned with “clean and simple lines that create an elegant graphical composition,” the new model was developed in line with Newson’s design themes to be “timeless, trusty, and touchable,” which translates to features such as original-design push buttons and control levers, a mode dial and power switch in his beloved machined aluminum, and a rubberized grip. Newson’s touch extends to the product logo, camera strap, and start-up screen.

“The inspiration behind this design, like many projects that I work on, is simply the desire to create something which as a consumer, I myself would like to own or would like to purchase,” says the designer, who describes the K-01 as “not gimmicky at all.” The camera has already sold out at Colette in Paris, where its release was feted by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Dior jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane at a bash hosted by Olympia le Tan. Take one for a test drive at A+R, which is hosting a “Shoot+See” event this Saturday, March 17, at its Venice, California store. And click below to watch Newson lovingly fondle the “compact and trim” body of the K-01 as he answers questions about its development.
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(Photos from left: Estefania Meana, two untitled works from Graham’s End of an Age series)

This just in: British photographer Paul Graham is the recipient of the 2012 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. Past winners range from Irving Penn and Robert Frank to Jeff Wall and Sophie Calle. The prize, announced this morning, includes 1 million Swedish Krona (approximately $150,000, at current exchange), a diploma, and a gold medal, all of which will be presented to Graham this evening at a ceremony in London. “Who can say no to a bit of bling?!” said the photographer via online chat a few hours after the Gothenburg, Sweden-based foundation announced the award, which Graham described as “a great honor and surprise.”

This fall, the Hasselblad Center at the Gothenburg Museum of Art will mount an exhibition of his work. “I think it could be interesting to show some work from 30 years ago and the most recent photographs,” said Graham, 56, whose latest work—New York street photography—is on view through March 24 at Pace/MacGill. When asked about what drives him these days, he cited the desire “to make a contribution to that wonderful unique genre of street photography, that so many of my photographic heroes worked in.” Added Graham, “It’s a mountain range that the foolhardy will throw themselves upon. And I’m that fool.”

This writer is suffering a bit today from having endured three hours in a dentist’s chair to get some crowns put in, so instead of a heady and/or lengthy write-up, we instead turn to the magic of video. This trailer in particular has helped us get through the pain and Novocain numbness: Ben Shaprio’s documentary about photographer Gregory Crewdson, Brief Encounters. More than a decade in the making, it documents Crewdson’s film set-like process of capturing almost-surreal, haunting images of small town America. Knowing that the film will have its premiere in just a few days, launching with four screenings in Austin for SXSW (the first on March 10th at the Alamo Lamar) means that it’s that much close to starting a tour, which means it might come to Chicago so we can see it, which was the extra push we needed today to keep our sore head up. Here’s the film’s site and here’s the trailer, which is guaranteed to have you hooked within seconds:

“You push the button, we do the rest!” promised George Eastman in 1888, touting his freshly patented rollfilm box camera. Now the company he founded has decided to have someone else do the rest when it comes to making cameras. Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy last month, has announced that it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital picture frames, as it “phases out its dedicated capture devices business” over the next several months. Kodak-branded cameras may eventually reappear on the market, however, through Polaroid-style licensing deals that the company said it will pursue. The decision to shutter the digital camera business that Kodak pioneered is expected to save the embattled company more than $100 million (although it will cost about $30 million to shut down the operation). So, what’s left at Kodak? On the consumer side, the focus will be on online and retail-based photo printing, as well as desktop inkjet printing. Kodak’s commercial businesses segment includes its digital and functional printing, enterprise services and solutions, and graphics, entertainment ,and commercial films units. Meanwhile, if you’re still stumped for a Valentine’s Day gift, may we suggest a cherry red Easyshare Sport C135? Waterproof up to 16 feet, it comes with a free case. Act fast, because neither the offer nor the camera will be around for long.

Here are two things we didn’t know up until just a second ago: 1) that musician and longtime New Yorker, Moby, is now living in Los Angeles (apparently we must’ve missed this NY Times profile on the castle he bought in the Hollywood Hills), and 2) that, as of last week, he’s recently started a new architecture blog, the perhaps over-aptly named Moby Los Angeles Architecture Blog. Thus far, it isn’t the sort of site that you’ll glean a lot of factual information from, not even such info as who the architect was who built the building he’s profiling on that day. Instead, his very well-made photos are accompanied by leisurely thoughts on Los Angeles’ architecture (all residential thus far) and where that building-of-the-day seems to fit within the city. It’s certainly an interesting, somewhat meditative departure from our usual architectural reads, but we’ve already bookmarked it and are already awaiting more. Here’s a bit of the description of his new site from his first post:

a daily (or weekly) collection of some of the random and strange and banal and beautiful architecture i see in l.a. most cities have beautiful architecture. but most cities have beautiful architecture that is prominently displayed and relatively easy to find (think: chrysler building, sacre couer, st peters, sydney opera house, etc). one of the very odd things about l.a is that the most beautiful architecture in l.a is hidden on tiny streets that very few people will ever see. and the architecture in l.a is, generally, of a very domestic and modest scale (probably facilitating it’s strangeness).

The design whizzes over at C&G Partners have many talents, but among the most mind-blowing is their ability to transform grayish-yellowish mountains of historical documents and artifacts into visually stunning, user-friendly exhibits and displays. Feast your eyes (and your web browser) on their latest archival triumph: a website for The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. A C&G team led by partner Maya Kopytman (working in collaboration with Chicago-based web development firm Palantir) created a site that builds on the graphic identity established for a related traveling exhibition that the firm completed last year. At the core of the site, which launched yesterday, is a new digital archive for The King Center Imaging Project, a JPMorgan Chase & Co.-backed initiative to “bring the works and papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. to a digital generation.” Browse the archive to pore over King’s handwritten notecards and telegrams or zoom in on a Flip Schulke photo of MLK enjoying lunch with his family in 1964, under the watchful gaze of Ghandi, whose image hangs on a wall above them. Next up: more meticulously scanned and eminently searchable letters, speeches, drafts, notes, and photos. The King Center Imaging Project digital archive will eventually contain about a million documents.

New year, new masthead additions! Over at Fortune, Emily Kehe (pictured) has been doing the heavy lifting on the art side since August, when creative director John Korpics left the Time Inc. title to get sporty, as vice president and creative director for print and digital media for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com. Kehe jumped into designing Fortune covers and layouts, overseeing the iPad edition, and managing the department, according to managing editor Andy Serwer. “So much so that when it came time to find a permanent replacement for John, and while we did consider other candidates, I really needed to look no further than a few doors down to Emily’s office,” he wrote in an e-mail announcing Kehe’s appointment as design director. A native of Colorado, she studied publication design and photography at the University of Miami School of Communication before working at publications including The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe. Kehe began her career at Fortune as a freelancer in 2008 and later returned to help Korpics with the magazine’s 2010 redesign.

And over at New York, editor-in-chief Adam Moss and photography director Jody Quon have tapped Christoper Anderson as the magazine’s first photographer-in-residence, a position created both to showcase his work and deepen New York’s commitment to original photography. “We thought that we could be the ideal outlet for Chris to explore his painter’s palette of image-making,” said Quon in a statement issued Monday by the magazine. “Chris’s commitment to journalism combined with his range of artistry makes him the perfect partner for the magazine.” Anderson, an acclaimed photographer and member of Magnum Photos, will shoot editorial work exclusively for New York on an array of subjects in a full range of styles, from photojournalism to portraiture to conceptual work. His photography will appear regularly beginning with this week’s issue, which features Anderson’s surveillance-style photos in its “Classifieds” cover story.

Eastman Kodak has been trying to stave off bankruptcy for some time, but the floundering photo company now looks bound for Chapter 11. Late last month, Kodak elected a new president—former general counsel Laura Quatela—and inked a deal to sell its Eastman Gelatine subsidiary, moves that were touted as part of the company’s focus on its intellectual property business and “digital growth initiatives,” respectively. But it might be too little, too late. A bankruptcy filing could come as soon as this month or early February if the company is unsuccessful in selling off some of its patent portfolio, according to a report published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. “That Kodak is even contemplating a bankruptcy filing represents a final reversal of fortune for a company that once dominated its industry, drawing engineering talent from around the country to its Rochester, N.Y., headquarters and plowing money into research that produced thousands of breakthroughs in imaging and other technologies,” write Mike Spector and Dana Mattioli, who also note Kodak’s failure to capitalize on the digital camera invented by the company—in 1975. Meanwhile, Moody’s has just downgraded Kodak’s debt due to the bankruptcy buzz.

In a year studded with beautiful new volumes by and about artists and designers ranging from Alexander McQueen to Andrea Zittel, these are the five that we found most inspiring.

Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci (Bauer and Dean) by Ralph Rucci, with photographs by Baldomero Fernandez
Fashion designer and artist Ralph Rucci has been betrayed by key members of the fashion press, who should have made him a household name years ago, but critics, curators, and connoisseurs have picked up the slack. This just-published volume is a fascinating follow-up to Ralph Rucci: The Art of Weightlessness (Yale University Press), published in 2007 to accompany the Museum at FIT’s exhibition of the designer’s work. Like Rucci’s exquisite creations, Autobiography of a Fashion Designer rewards patience and close-looking, with pages of lush color photos and descriptions of the couture techniques used (and in some cases pioneered) in the Chado Ralph Rucci atelier. Inspired by Sol LeWitt’s Autobiography (1980), a kind of exhaustive visual index of the artist’s life, this book also tells the stories behind 20 objects Rucci has collected in his lifetime. It’s a fitting tribute to an uncompromising designer with the soul of artist.

Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee (Ammo Books)
Treat yourself to the amazing Alexander Girard mega-monograph by designer Todd Oldham and writer Kiera Coffee. The product of nearly four years of research and, at 672 pages, an innovative scheme of printing and binding, this book is a must for any design lover. Oldham was granted exclusive permission to sift through the fastidiously kept archives of Girard (1907-1993), who is best known for his folk art-infused textiles for Herman Miller but also designed everything from buildings to typography. “I’d estimate that 90 percent of the work in the book hasn’t been seen,” Oldham told us earlier this year. “Wait ‘til you see the stuff from his early design career, in the ‘20s.” And take a closer look at the image credits: many of the archival photos were taken by frequent Girard collaborator Charles Eames.
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