Who doesn’t love Lego?

I know on the surface this seems like kids’ play, but Mike Stimpson has been recreating classic images with lego for years now and what makes them kind of eerie is the hours spent perfecting them, down to focus, lighting and colour balance.

So on the one hand they’re kind of serious, but mainly they’re a lot of fun.

Viewing them on his website is a lovely experience, but there’s lots more on Flickr.

pic: Power house mechanic working on steam pump by Lewis Hine (available big at Wikimedia Commons if you’re looking for something for your wall)

Vroeger droomde ik van Lego land. Het leek me machtig mooi en betoverend een land van Lego.

Mike Stimpson “Photographer of Plastic” ziet echter veel overeenkomsten!

Mike Stimpson - Lunch Atop a Skyscraper

From Bear: British photographer Mike Stimpson playfully reimagines iconic images from Alfred Eisenstadt, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Eddie Adams, and other 20th-century masters.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, V.J. Day in Times Square, and Lunch Atop a Skyscraper are some of the most iconic images of our time, but now they’re rendered as you’ve never seen them before: in Lego. Mike Stimpson, a 35-year-old British photographer, has spent his career recreating some of the world’s most famous photographs using his favorite childhood toy. His photographs have been published widely in the U.K., and he’s established a large following online.

Afghan Girl by Mike Stimpson

Steve McCurry / Magnum

Viet Cong by Mike Stimpson

Eddie Adams / AP Photo

“British photographer Mike Stimpson playfully reimagines iconic images from Alfred Eisenstadt, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Eddie Adams, and other 20th-century masters.” – Isabel Wilkinson, The Daily Beast

I habitually leave a lot of browser tabs open non-stop, closing them only when I’m quite finished with that page.  This leads to a lot of build-up, an accumulation of Firefox clutter.  So I’m doing some cleaning, and along the way I figured I’d share some highlights with you, the possibly tens of readers who follow this blog.

Roger Ebert, the dominant film reviewer on the planet, discusses something deeply personal.  Alcoholics Anonymous gets criticized both by people who don’t like the notion of God, and those who don’t like like the notion of expanding God to include just about anything.  Ebert, who doesn’t believe in God but does believe in AA, offers an interesting perspective on this.  My main thought: I suspect the religion of the early Church may have had a lot more in common with what goes on among those desperate and hurting people in the church basement that with what we do in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings.

And now for something completely different:

What if Judith Martin were thoroughly goth?

It might look something like the Lady of the Manners, which is pretty awesome.

Mike Stimpson specializes in recreating iconic photographs in Lego form.

Shawn was nice enough to comment on my blog, so I guess I might as well get around to plugging his webcomic, Clockworks.  Steampunk!  Action!  Intrigue!  Magic!  Trenchcoats!  Goggles!  Punches to the face!  It’s good stuff.

It’s probably because I’m married to a Lego nut, but I’ve already written about hip-hop albums rendered in Legos, Beijing Olympic venues rendered in Legos, and President Barack Obama’s inauguration rendered in Legos. Now The Daily Beast compiles a slide show of British photographer Mike Stimpson’s renderings of classic photographs in Legos along with the original photographs that inspired them.

Mike Stimpson's incredible Lego Star Wars macro-photography

I’ve seen this around for a few months and finally managed to check it out. I love the elaborate strobist setups Mike uses to get his Stormtroopers into interesting positions.

Warhol Troopers by Mike Stimpson, fuses two of pop culture’s most known names, Star Wars and Andy Warhol. Mike Stimpson has also linked us up with an enlarged view, so check it out here.

I ran across this earlier today and instantly had to post it on here. Though I am not a Star Wars groupie, I do love Andy Warhol and his art. Thoughts?

Encore plus fort que Perez Hilton qui fait buzzer Sliimy sur Twitter voici Mike Stimpson.

Cet anglais de 35 ans a quatre passions dans la vie : la photo, les LEGO, Star Wars et les films de Gérard Pirès. Son dernier centre d’intérêt étant relativement discutable, il a décidé de s’attarder sur les trois premiers, de les combiner et de les mettre en scène en s’inspirant de clichés historiquement célèbres.  Ca va de la fameuse photo de Joe Rosenthal prise sur l’île d’Iwo Jima (la plus publiée de l’histoire) à celle des Ouvriers de Charles Ebbets (qu’on trouve dans tous les bons Ikea), en passant par  la “Main de Dieu” de Maradona pendant la Coupe du Monde 86…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/

Quando era criança, um dos brinquedos que mais me divertia era o sensacional Lego! As possibilidades criativas eram inúmeras e sempre me deixava levar pela imaginação para inventar carros, casas, naves e tudo mais que pudesse render algumas horas de brincadeiras. Mas quando achei as imagens abaixo, na internet, fiquei muito surpreso! Confesso que mesmo hoje, não teria a capacidade imaginativa para conseguir tão belos resultados.

O fotógrafo Mike Stimpson pegou um bocado de LEGO e montou cuidadosas reproduções de famosas e belas imagens de grandes nomes mundiais da fotografia. O resultado é muito divertido e mostra a grande habilidade do cara com lentes macros, usadas para registrar as mini-montagens. Claro que as originais, são muito mais carregadas de emoções e significados, mas isso não tira o mérito e o encanto de suas versões lúdicas!

Divirtam-se!

A famosa foto do beijo.

E a sua reprodução LEG(o)ALl de Mike Stimpsom!

Agora, um pouco do instante decisivo de Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Muito bom!

O profundo olhar da garota afegã na capa da National Geographic.

Faltaram os olhos verdes...

W. Eugene Smith, The Walk to Paradise Garden, 1946.

A luz está bem parecida.

A impressionante foto de Robert Capa que registra a morte de um soldado.

Excelente!

Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper, de Charles C. Ebbets.

Marmitão nas alturas!

Para conhecer mais do trabalho do cara e se divertir com outras reproduções, basta clicar aqui.

Un de mes précédents articles “Stop motion pour Olympus” soulevait la question de  l’utilité de l’art dans la création publicitaire. La recherche de nouvelles idées, des tendances actuelles sont en effet au cœur du métier des publicitaires afin d’orchestrer des campagnes en adéquation avec la cible, retentissantes, originales… Leurs idées proviennent alors le plus souvent soit de publicités préexistantes (oui, ils s’aiment beaucoup et donc se rendent souvent hommage en se pastichant !) ou bien des tendances nouvelles en terme de design, mode, création artistique et s’imprègnent donc d’œuvres de nombreux artistes dont les travaux pullulent sur la toile. Il n’est pas question ici de juger ces procédés “créatifs” mais d’essayer d’analyser comment utiliser les artistes comme un relais pour l’identité et l’image d’une marque.

Contre-illustration par la campagne pour les 50 ans de Lego :

Pour les 50 ans de Lego le 28 juillet 2008, l’agence hambourgeoise Jung von Matt a recréé les moments fort de l’Histoire de ses 50 dernières années à partir des célèbres briques : manifestations de la place Tian’anmen à Pékin en 1989, chute du mur de Berlin,…

Le mur de Berlin, 1989

Manifestation de la place Tian’anmen à Pékin

par Mike Stimpson

Cette campagne me laisse perplexe dans le sens ou elle ne met pas en avant le principe fondateur des Legos : créer et imaginer de nouvelles histoires. Néanmoins elle focalise sur un autre principe de ses briques : elles sont un moyen de création à l’instar de la peinture pour les peintres. Dans ce sens, cette communication s’appuie sur la nostalgie des adultes qui ont passé des heures durant leur enfance à assembler des briques ( la sortie de “Town plan “: sur le thème de l’Amérique des fifties va, je le pense, dans ce sens ), avec un mot d’ordre : l’imagination et la création ne se limite pas à l’enfance, alors continuer de créer et de rêver en Lego ! Et ce, à l’instar de nombreux artistes qui utilisent ces petites briques dans la création de leurs œuvres. On pourra ainsi citer la réalisation à partir de Lego, du clip de The White Stripes, “Fell in love with a girl” de Michel Gondry; l’œuvre très controversé   par le  plasticien tchèque David Černý du projet artistique Entropa, où il représente le Danemark par une petite montagne de Lego montrant une caricature du prophète Mahomet; ou bien encore la série de photos “Classics in Lego” par le photographe Mike Stimpson, qui a recréé en Lego de célèbre photographie, comme par exemple… la photographie par un anonyme de la manifestation de la place Tian’anmen (et oui )

Et tant d’autres artistes encore :

Lukas Helmbrecht : stop motion “l’histoire du monde en Lego”;

Nathan Sawaya un artiste qui joue au Légo;

Jeux d’arcade classique en Lego et stop motion

…

Bref une pléthore d’artistes avec qui selon moi Lego aurait dû collaborer pour célébrer 50 ans de création Lego, à travers par exemple une exposition tournante à travers les plus grands musées et présentant ces différents artistes. L’avantage d’un tel dispositif aurait permis selon moi un bien plus grand retentissement qui aurait touché à la fois les petits et les grands pour une marque inter-générationnelle.  Et d’un coût a priori faible voir nul en fonction des retombées de l’exposition.

Lego  réalise déjà de nombreuses expositions à travers le monde  (on peut en retrouver ici) qui mettent en scène de grandes réalisations entièrement en Lego par des professionnelles de Lego ou des amateurs (Fana’Briques), mais les 50 ans de cette marque aurait nécessité à mon avis d’une communication plus importante et dans une optique plus culturelle au vu du nombre d’artistes utilisant les célèbres briques, plutôt que de reprendre les créations  de Mike Stimpson pour des visuels sans, alors, de véritable originalité.

A mon sens, les marques doivent être plus qu’à l’écoute de leurs client mais doivent collaborer avec eux, notamment lorsqu’elle inspirent autant de générations et d’artistes que Lego, et se demander ce que culturellement et collectivement elles inspirent, plutôt que de s’inspirer des autres, dans des campagnes de communication souvent en décalage avec leur image de marque.

Another week — another Star Wars x LEGO post.

This weeks installment is brought to you by: Mike Stimpson. 

Mike (aka Balakov) captures everything from the sensitive side of the Stormtrooper to Vader riding a motorcycle with this amazing series of photographs. You can find Mike aka Balakov on Flickr. Aside from his work with the Star Wars gang, Mike is also known for recreating some famous moments in history – LEGO style.

Prints available for sale on RedBubble.

Source

"Raising the flag on Iwo Jima", do fotógrafo Joe Rosenthal, em 1945

por Bárbara Bom Angelo

Depois da abertura dos Simpsons em versão Lego, chegou a vez de fotos emblemáticas da história mundial serem encenadas pelos simpáticos bonequinhos amarelos de cabeça redonda. Momentos como o hasteamento da bandeira americana no campo de batalha de Iwo Jima, o solitário chinês que enfrentou quatro tanques de guerra nas ruas de Beijing e os manifestos contra os conflitos no Vietnã que tomaram a cidade de Washington em 1967 foram recriados pelo fotógrafo, e criança nas horas vagas, Mike Stimpson. Na galeria dele no Flickr, além das 31 montagens, dá para ver como foi o processo de producão das imagens e saber como comprá-las.

"The Unknown Rebel", de Jeff Widener, em 1989

Os manifestos contra a Guerra do Vietnã, por Marc Riboud, em 1967

"V.J. Day Times Square", de Alfred Eisenstaedt, em 1945

"Behind the Gare Saint Lazare", do lendário Henri Cartier-Bresson, em 1932

Hoy descubrí el flickr de Mike Stimpson, un fotógrafo con una peculiar debilidad: los muñecos de Lego. En su álbum Classics in Lego retoma varias fotografías históricas y hace que estos personajes de plástico las protagonicen.  Si no reconocéis las instantaneas en el mismo flickr se incluyen las originales.

Miquel Cornellà de la Cruz

Tem gente que é apaixonada por Lego. É o caso do britânico Mike Stimpson, que gosta de reproduzir fotografias clássicas em Lego. Mostro aqui alguns exemplos, mas tem muito mais no Flickr dele.

Derrière la Gare Saint-Lazare, de Henri Cartier-Bresson

Os trabalhadores de Charles Ebbets

V.J. Day Times Square, de Alfred Eisenstaedt

Raising the flag on Iwo Jima, de Joe Rosenthal

A afegã Sharbat Gula por Steve McCurry

El británico Mike Stimpson, se ha encargado de recrear fotografías famosas que han hecho historia, bien sea por su calidad como fotografía o por el momento histórico que logró captar el fotógrafo.

Estoy seguro que ya han visto por ahí el trabajo de Mike, por los menos yo me divertía mucho identificando las fotos originales… las primeras que les pondré es para ayudarlos a identificarlas, las otras se las dejo para que se diviertan, no dejen de ver su trabajo…

Recreación en Lego de la fotografía de Jeff Widener’s 1989  “El Rebelde Desconocido”

Recreación en Lego de la fotografía de Joe Rosenthal’s 1945 “Izando bandera en Iwo Jima”

Recreación en Lego de la fotografía de Steve McCurry’s 1985 de Sharbat Gula (anteriormente conocida simplemente como “Chica Afgana” antes de ser formalmente reconocida en el 2002) para la portada de la revista TIMES.

Recreación en Lego del gol de Diego Maradona mejor conocido como “La Mano de Dios” durante el juego entre Argentina e Inglaterra en los cuartos de final del mundial de fútbol de 1986.

Bueno, ahora les toca a uds identificarlas…

I was reading the latest article on the Strobist Blog, and found a link to flickr photos by UK shooter Mike Stimpson’s “Classics in Legos” and I thought it was so cool. Its lego recreations of famous photographs published in history. This was my favorite Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, he even has the setup he used to create the shot with a link below the photo on flickr.

Check out the rest of his photos @ Mike Stimpson Classic Photos

It’s been a looong time since I’ve done one of these. But here we go:

Here is a fanastic lego star wars photo set on Flickr by Mike Stimpson. I really like the portraiture and strange nobility of the images. What I really mean is, “it really made me smile.” The image on the right is called: “Imperial cutbacks.”

Dark Roasted Blend featured some fabulous robots made of recycled parts. Rich Miller made the cuteness that is pictured on the right. I really like Cosmo (the one on the far left) whose description is as follows: “Cosmo is enjoying his teenage years to the fullest, attending raves and dancing to techno (he does a great “robot”). Cosmo’s mom and dad have high hopes for him and believe he can accomplish whatever he sets his mind to — they’d just like to know what that might be. For now, outside of coasting through his studies, Cosmo busies himself with vegan cooking and competitive origami.” People are so creative.

The candle pictured on the right is sold by a fun store called “Cool Stuff Sold Cheap.” It is a 144 hour candle. Uber-cool. Of course it’s back-ordered. Fun stuff like this is never available. Apparently you feed about an hours worth of candle through (the wax is flexible or something) and then it burns for that time and extinguishes. I just think it’s fun.

I really like pottery and ceramics. There is something about the variety of designs and glazes, plus the fact that they are useful that makes me just feel good about them. Baily Doesn’t Bark sells these very fun “post cups“, where you can have a message written on the side and they are sent to your beloved. (They are created by NY artist Re Jin Lee.) Aww. Sweet.

My intent is totally not to sell other people’s stuff on this weekly (ahem) feature, *but* here’s one more fun thing that I saw this week… Glasses with little swimmers on the sides. I just like ‘em. The whimsy of them makes me smile.

Finally, Color Me Katie did the most fun and quirky thing. She bought little colorful butterflies and spread their happy joy around town. Please do check out her blog for all of the photos, because they are lovely. I need to think of stuff like that. It is too awesome.

Hope that you have a wonderful weekend and that life inspires you in an unexpected way. (And excuse the cheese of that last sentence. Some stuff is going on and I find myself grasping at happy, needfully.)

I’ll leave you with a happy dance video. (I love his reaction at the end.)

Visto en, Yatzer.

Más fotos, Balakov Flickr.

[DATO IL TEMA, QUESTO POST SI LEGGE ASCOLTANDO: LEGO WORLD dei Quist]

Non parliamo di viaggi oggi. Ma di fotografia.

Forse si è capito ma, nel caso, lo ribadisco: sono un enorme fan di Robert Capa. Un genio assoluto della fotografia. Punto. Ebbene, curiosando in giro per la Rete alla ricerca di sue fotografie ancora poco conosciute, mi sono imbattuto in un tale Mike Stimpson.

Britannico, programmatore di videogiochi, e fotografo per passione. Ho avuto l’interessante idea di ricreare alcuni degli scatti più famosi della storia del fotogiornalismo usando i Lego! Certo, a qualcuno la cosa farà sicuramente storcere il naso (non nascondo che io stesso ho avuto questa iniziale reazione) ma, in fondo, perchè no?

Mi ha dato l’occasione di rivedere alcuni capolavori e di scoprirne altri. Un modo simpatico di rivedere i grandi eventi della storia, spersonalizzandoli.

In questa maniera, forse, uno scatto di Stimpson estrae solo il contenuto informativo della foto, abbandonando tutto il contorno estetico.

Comunque, tanto di cappello.

Antonio

For all those Veterans past and present I would like to thank you for all the service you do in protecting our country.

In honor of the day I thought that I would also honor Mike Stimpson and his amazing LEGO photos. Here is his “Raising the flag on Iwo Jima”

Thank you Veterans, and all those that continue to serve our country.

O britânico Mike Stimpson (Balakov) já teve o seu trabalho publicado pelo site do F/508 quando recriou cenas clássicas da fotografia do século 20 com peças de Lego. Dessa vez, Stimpson, além de recriar clássicos do cinema como a série Starwars,  apresenta o mini-estúdio onde produz suas fotos.

Foto: Lewis Hine

Foto: Mike Stimpson