If I’m dreaming, please don’t wake me up. I absolutely love the beautiful, slightly odd, dream-like work of Paris based photographer Maia Flore. Masked twins, backwards updos, and sleeping girls floating through France. Ah oui, je suis très jaloux.

{The images above are from these beautiful series: Maia och Flore // Big Head Poetry // Sleep Elevations}

I loved these pieces, by American artist Catherine Ulitsky, when I thought they were just geometric gouache paintings on photographic skies… and then I looked a little closer and realized that the tiny black dots connecting all of the candy-hued lines were huge flocks of starlings in flight. Now I really love them.

Ok, that’s it… the first chance I get I’m going to Bar Harbor, Maine. I will then track down American artist Jennifer Booher and beg her to take me on one of her beach walks! Glass, china fragments, and tiny bits of colorful rope… she finds the most amazing little artifacts, and if that’s not enough to make you insanely jealous, she then organizes them into perfectly composed groupings, and photographs them for your viewing pleasure. Sigh.

I have to admit, trying to understand exactly how and why camera obscura works makes my head hurt just a little bit… thankfully these stunning photographs, by Cuban-born artist Abelardo Morell, make the pain totally worth it!  Apparently all it takes is a darkened room, a pin-hole with a fabulous view on the other side of it, and voila…  a vertigo-inducing marriage of the outside & inside like you’ve never seen before. But how? How?! It’s just a pin hole? There’s no mirror?! Ok, I still totally don’t get it.

{via Yellowtrace}

Now this brings a whole new twist to landscape photography… a yellow & hot pink cotton candy kind o’ twist! I would love to be up in the mountains watching one of Italian artist Filippo Minelli‘s brightly-hued clouds float by, wouldn’t you? Sigh… gorgeous.

{My “curated collection” at sfgirlbybay today is all about landscapes… also with a bit of a twist! Pop over and have a look!}

See those euphoric gals directly above this copy? That’s how I looked when I found the work of California based scientist Arian Behzadi. Um, yes, I said scientist. He is a Biological Sciences major with an emphasis in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at UC Davis who, in between classes, just happens to make some kick-ass art. Insanely jealous? Yep, me too… in a euphoric kind of way, of course!

Cindy Sherman meets Diane Arbus… with just a hint of ‘The Sixth Sense’. I have to admit, I saw these stunning black and white self-portraits, by Toronto based photographer Rebecca Cairns, last night right before bed. I was pretty sure they’d give me some kind ghost-themed nightmares, but  thankfully I made it through til morning without any sightings. Phew.

Well, I’m back from Washington DC, and it was amazing {I’ll give you all of the details later this week}. I met so many wonderful people… including a fantastic Vietnamese-American artist named Khánh Lê. We started chatting at the opening night of Ben Skinner’s show. He was warm and funny, oh, and also an incredible artist! He was telling me about his work – collage pieces that combined photos from his own family albums and images from the Vietnam war, with beautiful glossy “American” interiors {that as a child he wished were his reality}, from magazines like GQ and Better Homes & Gardens. Oh boy. That sounded like something I just might love – so the second I was close to a computer, I googled him. Yep, I was right. LOVE!

{Khánh is currently part of the artist-in-residence program run by ARCH, and the Honfleur Gallery in Washington DC.}

Ahhh, the milky blue pools and mossy hills of a far off land. If you can’t afford a trip to Iceland, no problem… pop on a woolly sweater, crumble up some chocolate cake, and just pretend you’re visiting Iceland. Granted, Vancouver based artist Eszter Burghardt actually went there to do a series of artist residencies, but thanks to her craftiness with a bit of Icelandic wool {top three}, a few ingredients from her baking pantry {bottom three}, and of course her trusty camera, she has brought the landscape of Iceland to us. Gor.ge.ous.

{If you would like to whip yourself up a little bit of Iceland’s barren highlands this weekend, here’s what Eszter uses: poppy seeds, coco powder, coffee, milk, and chocolate cake crumbs… mmmm! Oh, and thanks so much to my friend Michelle for sending me a link to Eszter’s work! xo}

What do I love more than vintage photography? THIS! I love this more than vintage photography! Yep, vintage photography reenacted decades later {right down to the bubble bath, grass skirt, and raised eyebrows} by Buenos Aires based photographer Irina Werning. Here is her description of this insanely hilarious series titled Back to the Future:

‘I love old photos. I admit being a nosy photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.’

{…thanks to Jeff of Liberia 77 for pointing me to Irina’s work.}