There’s a beautiful nothingness waiting at the core of an especially demanding crossfit workout. As soon as you become aware of it, it begins to cloud. But the few short minutes your mind stays unruffled are blissful. There’s only movement – lift, pull, squat, jump, carry or run.

The inspiration for this film came from watching a girl at the Lab finish her workout. I could see she was in that state of abstraction. There was a hypnotic rhythm to her movements, and grace too. That was what we tried to capture.

#butcher's lab #Copenhagen #crossfit #film

Our most recent film, and the one we’re most proud of. A lot of people have told us that this feels like a trailer. That wasn’t the intention but it definitely could be. We’d love to go back and tell the longer story of this super chef and his loyal band of happy acolytes.

#film #first XI #henne kirkeby kro #paul cunningham

The only shots worth posting from the last roll of film but I’m really happy with these. The bottom image I took in a beautiful, postcard-worthy village called Ayot St Lawrence, not so far from where I grew up. I wanted to show Sofie something English so we drove around the Hertfordshire countryside until we came upon a ruined church. A few steps round the corner was the telephone box.

If you’re interested, I’ve gathered all my favourite film images in a Flickr set.

I benefited from a lovely incidence of synchronicity this morning when two discrete sources led me to the work of the American artist Ellsworth Kelly. The image above is one of his ‘Plant Drawings’ – an exhibition of which is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

While I can only view them on screen, these seem like exquisite, delicate nature studies.

Tablet, a signed, limited edition book featuring many of Kelly’s sketches, collages, studies and unfinished illustrations is available here for 1,000USD. The regular edition for plebs like me can be found here for 50USD (shown below). It receives a glowing recommendation from the illustrator Rosemarie Auberson.

#ellsworth kelly #rosemarie auberson

Got my third roll of film back from the printers last week. Still a lot of issues with under exposure but enough worked out well enough to justify the extortionate price to get them transferred to CD.

More on Flickr.

I’m happy to report that ‘Winter’ is now available via PayPal over at CPH Meal. Our friends at Tres Bien in Malmo have also agreed to stock it in the store, which we’re really chuffed about. Here’s some more pics:

#cph meal #winter

We made a publication. It folds out into a lovely poster and includes a veal heart recipe from a Noma chef, a terrific cocktail from one of the city’s best bartenders, and a personal essay from Relæ‘s Christian Puglisi detailing the challenges of his restaurant’s first winter.

It also features several exquisite illustrations from Sine Jensen. Sine works from photographic source material and has a delicate, almost ethereal line. She’s picking up regular commissions now and she deserves all the success that is sure to come her way.

I should also mention that we were hugely inspired by Simon Roche’s publication The Radio Post. So inspired in fact that when it came to layout and folding technique, there was only one man we wanted to work with. Thankfully he agreed and we’re so happy he did.

We printed 500 of these. I doubt we’ll sell more than a few dozen but that doesn’t worry us unduly. It’s a social object, I guess. We’ll sell some, give some away, and see where it leads us next.

If you’d like a copy and you’re in Copenhagen, you can pick it up at Ved Stranden 10. If you’re outside Denmark, we’ll be setting up PayPal over the weekend so please check in over at cphmeal.com over the next few days.

#cph meal #print #simon roche #sine jensen #winter

A recent post on the excellent Covenger and Kester has made me aware of the work of Edward Gorey, an American writer and illustrator who almost never left his Cape Cod home, was an avid consumer of pop culture (he was a big fan of Cheers), and rarely missed a performance of the New York City Ballet.

A choice quote from his Wikipedia entry:

“Because of the settings and style of Gorey’s work, many people have assumed he was British; in fact, he only left the U.S. once, for a visit to the Scottish Hebrides.”

#edward gorey #illustration

Tres Bien Shop is one of the world’s foremost independent menswear shops. Their brand list is one of the most select in the industry, from cult Japanese labels like Beams, Post O’Alls and Neighborhood to some of the leading lights of the American workwear revival, including Engineered Garments, Woolrich and Gitman.

The guys do a great job with social media. They’ve got good followings on both Twitter and Facebook and use both channels to keep their customers in the loop about when new collections arrive, occasional promotions, and to push out new blog content. For a while, they’ve also been running a video series called In Motion on their Vimeo channel. The idea is to showcase handpicked outfits in a more dynamic way – to give people a chance to see what certain garments look like ‘in motion’ – a smart, simple idea for a company that does most of its business online.

The videos themselves do a solid job in showing off the clothes but Chris and I felt that we could help them lift the aesthetic to a higher level. We sent them our CPH Meal videos and they agreed. The one-minute film below is the result. We wanted to inject a little narrative intrigue while still keeping the clothes central. Hope you like it.

(Incidentally, this is our first ‘official’ project as First XI. More details on that soon.)

#first XI #In Motion #tres bien shop

I shot a roll of colour film on a lovely trip to the West coast last month. My dad gave me an old Canon FTb earlier this year and this was the first time using it.

For me, the texture of film is ineffably more lovely than digital but I was surprised by how much more pleasure I got from shooting with this camera. Knowing that you have so few exposures gives you pause, slows you down, makes you more decisive. My favourite moment was staring out at the sea in a quiet cove just outside Gualala waiting for the breakers to foam. The result is the first picture above.

Not all the shots were successful but those that were can be found here.

#canon ftb #gualala #kodak #san francisco