Ever since Karl Lagerfeld gave him his first digital camera, Olivier Zahm – the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the critically-acclaimed magazine Purple Fashion - has been taking pictures that he regularly publishes in the Night section of his magazine as well as on his website, Purple Diary. This book largely features Zahm’s personal pictures from the past seven years including images of nightlife and parties, friends, girlfriends, sex, celebrities, landscape and architecture. His mostly black-and-white photos combine his favourite erotic references, such as the work of Nobuyoshi Araki, Helmut Newton, and Richard Kern with a typically nineties snapshot aesthetic which gives a feeling of intimacy and reality to his pictures. All images are credited and often commented on by Zahm, lending a direct, personal edge to this story. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, and releasing on September 15th.

We may have found the next rising talent in photography, a chimpanzee named Mikki who’s Polaroids are expected to fetch $100,000 at Sotheby’s Auction. 18 photographs are part of the “Changing Focus — A Collection of Russian and Eastern European Contemporary Photography” auction in London and depict blurry visions of Moscow’s Red Square and other city sights, as well as documenting Mikki learning to use a polaroid, analogue, and antique large-format camera. Mikki was taught photography by Russian-born American conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid as part of a larger project in which they collaborated with animals. So much for all your styling and perfect framing. What you could of done, aspiring Avedon is got piss drunk and wave your camera any which way with your finger on the shutter. Maybe then you might be at Sotheby’s too. Check the gallery for a special kind of photography skill.

After 277 cat-related posts, we are retiring The Daily Meow. But you can still follow @thedailymeow on Instagram for daily cat content. It’s been fun!

Levine’s new retrospective Light 3.142 at Fine Art Society Contemporary (now through June 15th) is the artist’s first major London solo show, and will showcase perhaps his most famous work, Lightness of Being, his 2007 portrait of the Queen. Center stage though goes to another famous Brit gal, model Kate Moss, turned into a hologram entitled She’s Light. To realize the portraits, Levine makes his subjects sit before a special camera that creates a hologram-like, eerily realistic effect by shooting multiple images to form the final 3D lenticular-light work. See more from the artist here.

I really have a thing for accents — don’t we all? — British, French and South African…they’re all so alluring and interesting. Heather Quinlan seems to think so too, making a documentary on the New York accent. Writer Pete Hamill, director Amy Heckerling, and screenwriter James McBride all appear in the documentary, discussing how a toilet becomes a terlet, and why New Yorkers eat chawclate and drink cawfee. Also, there’s no such thing as a Brooklyn accent (sorry guys). The New York accent is as much a part of this country as those spacious skies and majestic purple mountains. It’s the voice of the melting pot, a lingua franca that united immigrants from all over the world, and became the vibrant soundtrack of a charming, unforgiving and enduring city.” If These Knishes Could Talk is premiering tonight at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and will also be showing at the Hoboken Film Festival and Midtown’s Quad Cinema later this year.

Calling all tea lovers! German-based Haelssen & Lyon has created a tea calendar,  the first calendar in the world to feature calendar days made from tea leaves. Finely flavored and pressed until wafer-thin, the 365 calendar days can be individually detached and brewed directly in the cup with hot water. Wondering who will make one for coffee lovers. Enjoy a different flavor of tea every day of the year.

For the ‘Haunted Love’ video Shia LeBeouf was inspired by working with Lars von Trier on his latest film, Nymphomaniac. The song really stuck with him and for good reason: while on location in Germany, the song was on repeat for hours, helping Shia get into the character of a sex addict. The video shows a fragile, trapped woman, played by his current girlfriend Mia Goth, and references the Venus de Milo statue. A little bit creepy and beautifully haunting, he describes the aesthetic as “Barry Lyndon meets David Lynch.”

via oyster

Cats. Ugh, sometimes we can’t stand them. They go around thinking they are so awesome and can do whatever they like (which, by the way, they are and they can, so deal with it.)  As seen in this slo-mo video, Peaches the cat takes on a dog named ‘Lucky’, who is double his size, and hilarity ensues. Watch the clip for a fight that’s worthy of a replay.

L.A. based Arnelle Lozada directed this video for vaporizer company Vape Supreme. Good friends of the brand, Arnelle lends her creativity and attention to detail, beautifully executing a series of slow motion smoke exhalations against living walls, courtesy of Kidkanevil “Minjo”, while music by Renholder – “Now I Know” Tokimonsta – “Darkest (Dim)” sets a perfectly trippy tone. Supreme Beings was incepted an attempt to create an ”off the wall”  visual, and we think Arnelle and her team hit it spot on.

Directed by Arnelle

Assistant Directors:
Andrew Rose & Aris Jerome

STARRING:
Preston Alan Denunzio
Leanne (Leedialani) Ortega
Roxy Ferrari
Jessica Gonzales

Styling: Sam Desalu

Makeup: Leanne Ortega

MUSIC:
Renholder – “Now I Know”
Tokimonsta – “Darkest (Dim)”

Projector images:
Kidkanevil “Minjo”

Happy #humpday everyone! This book is a few years old, sure, but nonetheless relevant, especially on a day as sexy as Wednesday. Little Bear Press and Visionaire present Bruce Weber ‘Sex and Words’ (First Edition edition 2006). I love this book for its variation of photography, both of naked men and naked nature, the white pages interspersed with filmy tissue with delicate black-line illustrations. Bruce Weber’s images are accompanied and inspired by the writings of D.H. Lawrence. Secretly this is the type of book that I hope to someday publish — maybe inspire a photographer with my poems? and also hopefully before I die, though I guess there is something more romantic about a modern day artist being inspired by the writings of ghosts. It’s such a beautiful read and it’s something you keep next to your bed on the side table, to look at and discover something new each time you pick it up. This morning it was The Mess of Love. The book is slender, elegant and smouldering — sort of how I hope I look in bed… Available for about $140.

music: Sholhmo “The Way You Do”