Christopher Doyle: In The Mood...

Another plea for recommendations here. After posting about the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg a few weeks ago, I've rewatched a bunch of bootleg Wong Kar Wai DVDs I picked up in Hong Kong last year. The director has worked with cinematographer Christopher Doyle on most of his features so far and between them they've established a very distinctive style, taking their cue from vintage noir and retro-futurism, with plenty of slo-mo camera work and unusual viewpoints.

It is the over-saturated colours and heavy contrasts that I'm particularly interested in, especially on 2046 and In The Mood For Love. I've seen it called "Vanguard colour grading" but can't find a good explanation of this on the 'net. I'm guessing it's an expensive post-production filter of some sort but I'm sure there must be an easy way of getting similar effects in Photoshop - a few things I've tried look far too processed or heavy. If anybody can advise on a neat way to replicate this or maybe point me to an online tutorial somewhere, that'd be much appreciated. Here is the kind of thing I mean...

2046, (Dir.) Wong Kar Wai and (Cine.) Christopher Doyle

Chungking Express, (Dir.) Wong Kar Wai and (Cine.) Christopher Doyle

In The Mood For Love, (Dir.) Wong Kar Wai and (Cine.) Christopher Doyle

Rut Blees Luxemburg: In Need Of Exposure

The fantastic thing about blogging is that you can start a new blog entirely unsure as to the exact purpose of why you are doing it, only to then land on an answer maybe 30, 50 or several hundred posts in. I began Hip Walk as an outlet for my enthusiasm for mid-20th century art and photography, before it gradually mutated into a place to post up imagery from any period that has inspired my own photographs, over at Art Of The City. 

While this much is true, and I'll still post things that I've discovered, however late or after the fact I am, I've also really realised that more than anything I want to find some like-minded people who can say: "You like this? Try this then..." It happened when Owen from Magic Lantern Show turned me on to the Vancouver photographer Fred Herzog. It also reaffirms subconscious steals or influences too, like when Bill Guy mentioned the obscure Jim Jarmusch film Stranger Than Paradise on this photo - for the record, I've had the poster of that film on my wall for about 5 years now, so Bill is either a) psychic, b) stalking me, or c) even more astute and visually perceptive than I first thought.

I've slowly discovered that such mutual tips and nods are the real reason I'm doing this second blog - it's obvious really, even if I've maybe not encouraged it the same. So for the few of you who check in here regularly, I really want to pick your brains as I go. If I post on a theme or a style that reminds you of something else, please leave me a comment and hopefully we can all turn each other on to something new, something enlightening or just something that looks pretty damn cool.

Anyways, today I've posted up the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg, a Berlin-born, LCC graduate who has taken some wonderful long exposure shots of East London over the past few years. Her work is suitably atmospheric and edgy enough for it to have graced the covers of two major UK albums - The Streets' Original Pirate Material and Bloc Party's A Weekend In The City - but I've returned to it purely for the skill of the rendering. I've been trying some long exposure night shots myself recently (I'll post them on AOTC when I finally take a good one) and have begun to appreciate how good these really are. In Luxemburg's photography there are no lens flares or other glossy Photoshop cliches, just grit, texture and glowing sodium colours.

So with my new spirit and purpose, can anyone recommend any other good long-exposure night photographers in a similar vein?!