I took these while in the American Museum of Natural History Museum NYC. Somehow it looks like the stuffed animals are examining the viewer. The humans are the subject of scrutiny. And so we should be!

Art Vs Science, for Best Independent Release. Loved your performance too. I recognize those goggles from our shoot! I have a suspicion Angela Cheung helped style your Aria costumes.

My award for Art Vs Science is ‘Funniest Photoshoot Ever’ I lost my voice for a week after laughing so hard when you were pretending to fear seagulls.

Claire Collins, you get ‘Best Manager Ever Award.’

Boy and Bear. Awesome work on 6 awards!!! Let’s go back down to Bronte and take some victory photos.

You guys get my Aria award for ‘Sweetest Band Ever Award.’ Sergent Callahan, it appears you have been promoted to Aria Callahan.

AND Gotye and Kimbra. Beautiful Wally and Kimbra. You guys have created something so quintessentially singular. Wally, I have shot you many a time, and generally half naked! You are incredible. I can’t wait till our next shoot. You come in with so many great ideas, it’s like spring break for the surrealists when we shoot.

You guys win my Aria for ‘Nakedness.’ And no, I am not referring to your video. I’m referring to your ability to strip down any listener to their rawest emotions. You tapped that shit!

Ok, now off to the Aria party!

Me and Lanie went for a cruise and stroll in Centennial Park to snap these pics for Drum Media. I love this girl. I first met her over a bowl of Pad Thai on my couch after Daniel had done a shoot with her. We ordered thai for dinner, and she just stayed on after everyone had left and ate and watched tv with us.

I knew I wanted to do something outdoors, to somehow focus less on her rockerbilly sensibility, which has been overshadowed by her country blues vibe of recent (I am speaking dress sense more than anything else by the way people). So, we decided on Centennial Park, found some beautiful locations that I haven’t used in previous shoots- can you imagine there are untouched places still in Centennial Park! and borrowed Lanie’s record label manager Andy Kelly’s wheels for the second part of the shoot. The shoot went so smoothly, Lanie is just such a natural in front of the camera, we were done and dusted in 40 minutes. Yee-haw!

I just love this shot. Her hand covering her face. It’s just so cute.

Yelle was one of 87 portraits I shot backstage at Splendour this year for Triple J Mag. This is the 3rd year I have shot these backstage portraits, and, with Art Director Ben Jarvis by my side, my sneeky collaborator, it was so much fun.

Each year we do a new little gag, this year we got each musician to stand for a mug shot. They wrote their charge on the letter board and gave me their most guilty face possible.

Heaps more pics to come. Including Florence Welch, Tricky, Foster the People, Mogwai, Hot Chip, Foals, Scissor Sisters, The Kills and loads more.

photography, styling, production : Cybele Malinowski
hair and makeup: Julia Green
model: Imogen Stuart

Group Love is coming back to Australia in January! Twitter is a-buzz with excitement. It reminded me I still have these awesome shots of them backstage at Splendour this year for Triple J Mag. We had over 60 subjects come into our make-shift studio in the Triple J broadcast tent, each writing out a conviction and standing for a mug shot.

These guys were so much fun, I was in love with each and every one of them. If you read this Group Love, lets do another shoot when you come back!

Many many more backstage pics to come, from the past 3 years of Splendour. Quite a catalog. Including Florence Welch, Laura Marling, Tricky, Sigor Ros, The Kills, Foster the People.

The day after Gotye’s song ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ made major ripples through the twittersphere the charming Wally aka Gotye was standing in front of me, topless, with shards of disco ball glass contouring his face. We were doing a shoot for Triple J magazine, and believe it or not, this is not the first time Gotye has been standing in front of me and my lens (semi) naked- that’s a whole nother story for next time.

Anyway, what with the success of his video, featuring Gotye and the beautiful Kimbra, we thought we would reference it somewhat, at least the ‘naked’ part, and focus on the title of his latest album release ‘Making Mirrors.’ Gotye brought the disco ball stickers, and was a champion. Sitting in the make-up chair, watching his reflection in the mirror as his face was slowly becoming a mirror itself.

Thanks to everyone involved, it was such a fun shoot!

Before and After- spot the difference

Client: Triple J Mag
Photographer: Cybele Malinowski
Art Director: Ben Jarvis
Retoucher: Justin Malinowski
Hair and Makup: Felicia Yong
Assistant: Ash Holdsworth
Special thanks to Sam Clode for the lollies, and the wine, and setting this shoot up!

This was such a fun shoot! Catherine, my client, and mind behind Isson, came to me with a new range called Bauhaus. I was instantly excited. While studying architecture in uni, Bauhaus was a constant source of inspiration for me in my designs. We chatted on handsfree for over an hour while I drove down Parramatta Rd in peak hour. We were both on the same page and pumped. Catherine wanted to give me creative freedom, and see what I came up with. I was able to explore and delve into areas normally restricted by a tight brief. To help the creative process, I decided to fictionalize 4 kooky geniuses who studied at Bauhaus in 1934. Loosely based on a few of my 20th Century design heroes, and a few of stylist Mikey Ayoubi’s muses, firstly I came up with some funny German names, and then wrote a small character summary for each. I decided to add quirky pets to the mix, like in a classic portrait sitting. The fictitious characters were a way for the stylist, hair and makeup artists to understand and then visually create these characters, and it helped the models get into character on the shoot. The team was amazing, it was such a fun day. My house was turned into a menagerie, and Pushkin has still not forgiven me for letting Fluffy the cat in the studio.

Below each portrait I have included the little character study of each. Since then I have used character studies for other briefs. As I am not so fabulous at drawing, it’s a great way to get ideas across to clients.

Client: Isson
Photographer: Cybele Malinowski
Post Production: Justin Malinowski
Stylist: Mikey Ayoubi
Hair: Verity Griffiths
Makeup: Rachel Montgomery
Models extraordinaire: Daniel @ 6wolves, Lauren Moody @ Chaddys
Pets: Thanks Morten, owner of Fluffy the hairless cat, Raoul Tackelberg, owner of the parrot Nevill, Rachel, owner of the cute little pug Audrey, and Dorrie, owner of our 2 guinea pigs.

Alberta is a jewelery designer at Bauhaus. She is stunningly beautiful, a muse of many of the other Bauhausians. Her image is reinterpreted in world famous works of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She wears a turban at all times. No one has ever seem it off. What lies beneath- no on will ever know. She carries her dog ‘Gunther’ with her. He eats and sleeps with Alberta and her numerous lovers. This woman is the pinnacle of chic- women want to be her, men want to fuck her. Woman go out and buy pugs just to be like her. Alberta eats like a bird, and is constantly talking about giving up food entirely. She listens to jazz while she works. She is a collector of tribal art and a lover of all things African.

Victor is head of the architecture faculty at Bauhaus, and one of the founders of the institution. He will go down in history as the father of modernism. A severe man, people revere and fear him. He is the sort of person you cannot imagine ever being a child. Born a man. Always in control, he runs and swims every morning, even in the bitter winter. Sadly he dies of a heart attack at the age of 54. Married to his work, he never falls in love, though frequently has affairs with his students. They never last. During WWII he exiles to New York, and never returns to Germany. While in New York he builds 3 of the most famous skyscrapers in the world. He is loved by the yanks. Politicians, movie stars, they all want to be his friend. But he is uninterested in the glitz and glamour. This just makes them love VeeVee (as the press calls him) even more. He hates that name.

Henriette is Alberta’s best friend, and rumoured lover. She is everything that Alberta isn’t. Shy, introverted and understated. An architect by training, she lives in a world of order and logic. In her later years she wins the Nobel Prize for literature- she writes groundbreaking works on sexual liberation through design and art. The book is later shunned for being right-wing. She is a conundrum. Shy and meek on the outside, her mind is a force of sexual and creative power. She is rarely seen without a cigarette in her hand. She has a raw beauty, a fire burns within. Men fall in love with her from afar. Attracted to her physical fragility (she has the appearance of a rare bird), they fear her mind. Throughout her life she has 4 hamsters. All called Rathaus.

Tierry is an industrial designer at Bauhaus. He loves to work with wood, smoothing it down to a modernist perfection. Only ever using natural materials, he turns them into an object of unnatural perfection. Every year he travels to Mongolia to hike the summer alps. He has to travel by boat rather than plane, so he can take is beloved parrot Heinrich along. He has had Heinrich since he was a little boy. Tierry is a true romantic. When he falls in love, he falls hard. With rugged good looks, the ladies love him, but being such an intrepid lover of life, he can’t be pinned down. He leaves a trail of lovers behind him. He always remains in contact with them, writing heart filled letters to them into his old age.

Client: Nookie
Photographer: Cybele Malinowski
Hair and Makeup: Rachel Montgomery
Model:Celine