“SMOKING KIDS” BY FRIEKE JANSSENS

After seeing that infamous video of a chain-smoking Indonesian toddler, Frieke Janssens created a photography series entitled ‘Smoking Kids,’ which displays tobacco-puffing kids of various backgrounds. 

Since smoking is a societal norm among adults, she decided to use children as her subjects to create a powerful imagery that has the viewer focus on the act of smoking itself rather than make assumptions about who’s doing it. Check out the rest of the series here.

p.s. Don’t fret! The cigarettes and smoke are from props! 

FUTURE FOSSILS BY BUGHOUSE

Can you imagine?! What cool historic gadgets future humans will be finding a thousand years from now? Well artists Jeff Klarin and Rebecca Johnson from Los Angeles design studio Bughouse thought about just that and created these fun sculptures individually handcasted in cement and then stained for effect of fossilized camera’s, turntables, and more. Want one? They are now on sale and retail between $65 to $495 over at www.bughouse.com

A MONTH WITH BRYANT ESLAVA - WEEK 2

Name: Bryant Eslava / Age: 19 / City: NYC / Occupation: Photographer

For WeTheUrban’s first “A Month With” series, we will be joining fashion photographer Bryant Eslava throughout the month of December as he so kindly gives us a glimpse into his fast-paced city life where he’ll check back in each week. So join in as we chronicle the much desired and inspirational life of a kid in a big city with a dream. This week -

I shot CFDA finalist and menswear designer Carlos Campos. Looking through his pieces, I found myself falling in love with them all. I’m more of a jacket, sweater type of person, so it was refreshing seeing some of the newest pieces Carlos is currently working on.

Now that finals are over for the majority of college students, I had a fun guys night out with two of my good friends, David Urbanke and Jesse Jacobs who are also both fashion photographers. We went to see a movie that had a rating of less than 3 stars and it was hilarious for having such bad effects and scene transitions. I also attended the Oliver Palermo styling event at Topshop.

 Next week I’ll be flying to California to visit my family and friends. Stay tuned for next weeks post!

A MONTH WITH BRYANT ESLAVA

Name: Bryant Eslava / Age: 19 / City: NYC / Occupation: Photographer

For WeTheUrban’s first “A Month With” series, we will be joining fashion photographer Bryant Eslava throughout the month of December as he so kindly gives us a glimpse into his fast-paced city life where he’ll check back in each week. So join in as we chronicle the much desired and inspirational life of a kid in a big city with a dream. This week - Bryant’s first exhibition:

It’s a pleasure to be apart of WeTheUrban’s: “A Month With”

Last weekend I had my first group show “Take Me Into The Night” in New York City at Trumbull Studio in Brooklyn. It was one of the best moments and one that I will certainly never forget. Not only did the exhibition feature some of my favorite photographers, but the fact that the highly-esteemed Jimmy Fontaine congratulated me, made me feel really accomplished.

Living alone in New York City has been a tough adjustment, but I’m here to live my dreams and make the best out of my work. Every window is a golden opportunity.

LIMITED EDITION MARILYN MONROE BY NORMAL MAILER

Decades after her sad death, blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe is still making headlines!  We’ll never tire of coffee table tomes featuring the legendary Miss Monroe, but this collector’s volume book “Norman Mailer, Marilyn Monroe, Bert Stern” looks like it could possibly be the best yet. With an asking from of $1,000, The limited edition book, published by Taschen, features some of the most intimate photographs of the Hollywood star, taken by Bert Stern over a period of three days at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles for Vogue. Six weeks after they were shot, Monroe was mysteriously found dead. 

A coffee table book sure to trump all others / Available from The Book Depository.