The week gets underway with our weekly three-pack on whimsical and offbeat news.

Abstract Art in Soap Bubbles

For the ultimate in Abstract Art by way of Photography, look no further than soap bubbles in your wash.  Actually, creating the Abstract Art may be another matter entirely, for you’ll need specialized skills as well as specialized gear.

You need high-speed flashes and reflective panels and a whole lot of experience to capture a bubble at the precise nano-second that it’s bursting.  However, the charm and attraction of this gallery are in the vivid, saturated hues and arresting globular designs on display.

Read Michael Zhang’s write-up on photographer Fabian Oefner’s newest obsession on PetaPixel.

Exotic Animals on Gurneys

Exotic Animals Far from Home by Jordan G. Teicher features the photographs of Linda Kuo.  This is a gallery that will appeal to animal lovers and those interested in veterinary sciences because they document a veterinary hospital for exotic animals.

The value of these photographs is in their straightforward portrayals of (exotic) small animals and birds in a hospital setting, far removed from their natural habitat.  This leads to two outcomes.  First, the focus is squarely on the bird or animal and nothing else.  Second, it seems to lend a vulnerable and frightened air to the subject, which would exude no such air in its native habitat, especially when it is at the mercy of some human.

Women in Intriguing Situations

Upon reading Peter Imbong’s intro, in which he talks about breaking stereotypes and “women in traditional roles gone bad,” for Anti-stereotypes in ‘Blame it on the Heat’ you may prep yourself to view something edgy, dark, disturbing.  What a surprise, then, to run into images that are colourful, pleasing, and even gorgeous.

The article is about an exhibition of photographs by Francesca Balaguer-Mercado in which women are posed in non-traditional situations to break supposed stereotypes.

However, the photography of a hostess serving up a handgun, ostensibly to unwelcome guests, is simultaneously fashionable, sexy and humourous!  Which housewife, at some point or another, hasn’t wanted to take a gun to uninvited guests who just won’t leave?

How about a young lass who, harried by old-fashioned telephones all over the place, has broken out in spots?  And against a Roy Lichtenstein-type of colour-explosion background!  Nothing iconoclastic or ‘bad girl’ here; indeed, gals going bananas with phones is actually a classic stereotype! 

Balaguer-Mercado’s photographs have amazing breadth and variety.  You’ll find an atmospheric image of a ‘bad girl’ in some dive reminiscent of film noir (a wonderful contrast to the ‘Lichtenstein Girl’) while a gorgeous, pastel-tints image of an East Asian beauty with a parasol is reminiscent of Japanese camera-makers’ ad campaigns from back in the 1980s!

Compliments to VASK Gallery in Bonifacio Global City for giving this very talented photographer a solo exhibition.