children's & YA recommendations on the go
“Dream big, Little Mole, be brilliant, be YOU …” Join one little mole as she follows her dream of building the biggest hole ever, and learns along the way that everyone has something special to give the world – it just sometimes takes a little time (and a few mishaps!) to discover what that special something is.
A powerful celebration of embracing who you are and finding your own unique talent from Tom Percival, the creator of Ruby’s Worry. With charming illustrations by Christine Pym.
Wanting to recognize some of the most talented young photographers in its community, Flickr has announced 20under20, an annual award that honors 20 of the “world’s most extraordinary young photographers on Flickr.”
To select the winner’s of this year’s award, the photo sharing service enlisted the help of four Flickr photographers: Lou Nobel, Cuba Gallery, and Rosie Hardy and Bernardo Hernandez(Flickr’s head honcho). The judges evaluated 1000 photographers over four months for creativity, technical talent, and overall portfolio strength.
Evan James Atwood currently lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, and took an interest in photography exploring self-portraiture through a 365 project in 2012. This experience nurtured a passion for the visual arts and a fascination with expressing the darker range of human emotions. His work, however, often contains a strong element of hope and depicts simple moments with a cinematic quality.
Rachel Baran is a fine art photographer whose work centers around conceptual self-portraits. Even though Baran has received no formal training in photography or graphic design, her work has been recognized internationally on blogs such as My Modern Metropolis and on multiple book covers, and even taken her overseas under commission, displaying her photographic techniques at the Festival Week-end Au Bord D’Leau music festival in Sierre, Switzerland this past summer.
Olivia Bee is a 20-year-old photographer and director from Portland, Oregon, who is based in Brooklyn, New York. She is intrigued by the beauty of everyday life and how the beauty of memories (real or imagined) touches us. Her portfolio includes portraits (The New York Times Magazine, TeenNick), lifestyle (Converse, Adidas, Nike), and fashion (Hermès, Harper’s Bazaar, Numero, Vogue.com, Roger Vivier).
Alex is from Sydney, Australia, and became interested in photography after taking a visual design course. She has since been published in Russia’s Harper’s Bazaar, showcased her work in Sydney, and has been fortunate enough to travel, meet and collaborate with other artists. Alex’s work captures mysterious yet dreamlike worlds, filled with oddities that encompass aspects of reality.
Oliver Charles’ interest in photography began at a young age, and he has since built a collection of work which expresses the surreal and often dark stages of human emotion. Oliver juxtaposes dreaming and reality by capturing people in dreamlike scenarios but located in natural environments. Oliver is currently based in London, where he is studying digital photography at Ravensbourne College.
Alex Currie is a photographer and filmmaker from Buffalo, New York. His photographs focus on conveying a story in a single frame and evoking a strong emotional connection with the viewer.
Silvia Grav was born in Basque Country. She started in fine arts, but was frustrated and left during her second year to devote herself to improving her photography on her own. Since then, she has appeared in several major magazines and blogs, continuously working on artwork for various musicians and has been involved in various new projects.
Zev Hoover is a 15-year-old lad with a camera. He tries to capture the beauty in loneliness, the beauty of being a very small person in a very big place. In addition to exhibits, there have been blogs, books, newspaper and magazines articles, and a BBC documentary on his work. When not taking pictures, he likes designing, building, flying and oftentimes crashing large foam-board remote-controlled airplanes equipped with cameras.
Katharina is a fine-art and portrait photographer from Hermeskeil, Germany. Since February 2013, she converts her daydreams into images. After finishing her diploma as a media designer in June 2014 she will go to Bali and travel thorugh New Zealand with her camera.
Lissy (Elle) Laricchia is a 20-year-old photographer from Ontario, Canada (but currently resides in New York City), with a large online presence of over 80,000 followers. Her work predominantly centers around feelings of nostalgia and feeding her inner child. Her photos have appeared in fashion, photography, and literary magazines, on book and album covers, in stores, and have inspired a music video. They have also been exhibited internationally.
Brian Oldham is a freelance fine-art photographer, specializing in the surreal and conceptual realms. Brian grew up, and still lives and works, near Los Angeles.
Laurence Philomene is a Montreal-based freelance photographer. She started taking pictures and posting them online when she was 14 and hasn’t stopped since, developing her own dreamy, pastel-hued aesthetic. Nowadays, you can find her at home playing with dolls, taking care of her birds, napping and taking pictures that explore themes of gender identity, femininity, girlhood, and color.
Greg Ponthus is a photographer who grew in the countryside of Lyon, where he lived in golden light and grassy hills. He moved from France two years ago to attend an art school in Brussels. He stole his first camera from his dad when he was 15 or so and immediately started shooting people he lived with.
Berta Vicente is a Spanish photographer who started taking pictures of her friends at the age of 14. She continues to learn and explore, and currently exhibits her work in art galleries in Barcelona, London and Paris.
Nicholas Scarpinato is a photographer based out of Richmond, VA. From an early age he was trained in classical painting, sculpture, and drawing but later found photography and filmmaking to be his passion. He currently studies photography and filmmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Alex Stoddard was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and spent his childhood in the deep south. He began taking self-portraits at the age of 16 in the woods behind his home in Georgia, and this stirred in him the need to create and express himself through the craft of photography. Through his work, Alex creates dark and fantastical tales that capture the drama and fragility of the human experience.
![[Week 49] Listening to voids tales. by David Uzochukwu](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3795/9443283620_f16b3a9a98_m.jpg)
David Uzochukwu was born in December 1998 in Innsbruck, Austria. He delved into photography at the age of 10, and focused on self-portraiture and fine art photography after having fallen in love with the craft.
Chrissie White is a photographer from Seattle who is always searching for magic in the nature that surrounds us all. Her childhood was spent exploring snow covered mountains and sailing through the glittering sea, which has greatly influenced her passion for adventure. When she isn’t seeing new places, she likes to dream of faraway worlds where anything is possible.
Lauren Withrow was born in Texas and began photographing at the age of 15. Growing up in a small southern town, Withrow finds inspiration in the vast landscapes and dirt roads within the Texas countryside. Withrow’s focus is on cinematic portraiture and is currently in development of her first film.
Talent shows such as The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing are educational because they teach people that perseverance and hard work can get you to the top, one of the nation’s best-known children’s authors has said.
Dame Jacqueline Wilson said that prime-time reality programmes highlight how anyone can succeed regardless of background and praised their ability to bring families together.
The former Children’s Laureate poured scorn on people who turned their noses up at such shows, saying that they represented one of the few areas in television where older and younger entertainers could enjoy equal billing.
Her comments are in stark contrast to a number made recently by school heads who have suggested that pop stars such as Miley Cyrus and the celebrity culture more widely are leading girls astray.
Dame Jacqueline, best known for her Tracy Beaker books, chronicled her appreciation of talent shows in an article for yesterday’s Mail on Sunday.
via X-Factor and Strictly set good example, says children’s author – Telegraph.
