Smolder and Shoot: Photographer Tasya Van Ree & Her Muse, Amber Heard

By Anne B. Kelly

If Ellen von Unwerth and Helmut Newton had a love child, the result could be photographer and rising art star Tasya Van Ree.  With heart and soul laid bare and often decorated in inky poetry, Van Ree’s high contrast portraits manage to appear both fashionably staged and caught in-the-moment, documenting her very personal relationships with her subjects. Stir in a bit of the occasional circus-like atmosphere of Los Angeles celebrity and the photos are sexy and striking.

She attributes photojournalists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Weegee as her main source of inspiration: “There is this undying interest with the traditional seduction of black and white film. It captures the internal dialogue of whatever it is that you’re shooting, and exhibits it in a revealing way. I think there’s something quite alluring about it. Something genuine.”

Van Ree herself, willowy and exotic, was born and raised in Hawaii, and with her long dark hair and trademark black hat (she won’t reveal the origins of her style), knows the power of her own image in self-portraits. But it is actress Amber Heard (Zombieland, Pineapple Express) who is most frequently the subject of her photographs.

Dumbest Traffic Safety Idea Ever?

File this under ‘might potentially backfire’. A new Canadian campaign is using 3D road decals that depict children playing on roads, making drivers all the more careful. Or it could just make them swerve at the last moment.