“What do I see in Picasso that makes him Picasso?” wondered Edward Quinn, who took a large number of pictures of the Andalusian artist. Besides Quinn, many other photographers – some of whom were great names in the history of photography – Man Ray, Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, Dora Maar, Irving Penn, Edward Quinn, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Michel Sima, Richard Avedon and André Villers – also shot portraits of the famous artist, offering their own angle on his work and personality. The result is a profusion of portraits of Pablo Picasso that have become part of our collective imagery and which have contributed to building up a myth around the artist, his life and his work. MemyselfandI, Photographic Portraits of Picasso has been jointly organized by Museo Picasso Málaga and Museum Ludwig, Cologne and will be on view until May 10. After its run at MPM, it will travel to Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, where it will be on display from 2nd August to 28th October 2012.

Love Land Invaders is brought to you by the ingeniously creative minds of Cologne, Germany based artists Lagoi & Lace. Inspired by “entertainment and pop/music culture, Japanese culture, nudity and porn, fashion, design and art,” Ralph Lagoi and Kate Lace create surreal worlds with vibrant, luxuriously psychedelic palettes that contain a certain pop art poetry that is half cartoonish and half brilliantly absurd, but that collectively represents a broader philosophy of freedom, love and art. Love Land Invaders, one of their latest, wildly inventive photographic stories, was shot in Japan’s stunningly decorated love hotel rooms and includes specially designed masks, jewelry, clothing and ribbons. Even the artists themselves posed for the photographs – transforming themselves into elaborate characters with names like ”Miss Takehito Quadruple,” “Mister Hyde Dobuita Speertraeger,” “Mr. Seiuchi Sivuch,” “Shika Shika Chan” and “Miss Ayanami Oenshi” who each represent different ideals of beauty – like the the beauty of dark elegance, the beauty of a gentleman, the beauty of play, the beauty of wilderness, and the beauty of pink. Its the kind of blatant campiness that can make one overlook its originality, but if you see if for what its worth you’ll notice its extremely original artistic merit as a bold statement on the glossy, hyper-surreal, absurdity of post-modern contemporary art. It brings to mind the the balloon statues and installations of Jeff Koons and art of Murakami as larger than life statements of a philosophy that Lagoi and Lace call Luxurious Pop. See more from Love Land Invaders after the jump.  [CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE....]

Photograph by Kurt Prinz

How they drink, how they fuck, how they love – UK Uncensored is Peter Dench’s Matin Parr-esque type of seaside freak show and penultimate survey of British culture. Even if Peter Dench’s biography is an unrelenting reminder of his Britishness, his photographs are a reminder of a certain unrelenting brilliance.  Painterly, yet journalistic, Dench’s photographs capture a society  and a country with the power to take over the world or shrink backwards and digress into infants too drunk to stand or be appropriate in public. “England has never exactly been glamorous. Many of the English still insist on embarrassing themselves, wearing laughable clothing, eating terrible food and behaving inappropriately.” See more photos after the jump. [SEE MORE...]

The Rose Gallery in Los Angeles is currently presenting two exhibitions of photographs by Paris based Lise Sarfati.  On view now until March 26, a series of photographs, entitled On Hollywood, is a unique and intimate survey of women in and around Hollywood and starting March 31, another series that explores the identity of women in a post-modern suburban landscape, entitled She, will be on view until May 8, 2012. Visit the Rose Gallery to learn more.

This amazing image was sent to us from photographer Destiny Mata who says, “I take pictures with whatever camera I can get my hands on.  I’ve never owned a camera of my own and I like it that way.  It pushes me to take advantage of having a camera that a friend has lent me to shoot with for a couple of weeks and document and capture a piece of my life or anything else that tell a story.  I grew up in New York City the city was my playground.  I grew up homeless with my single mother sleeping in shelter homes and subways.” The above photograph is of her friend Eatso who is heading to jail for a graffiti charge – “I took photos of him naked on a couch….we set fire in the woods expressing his emotion and life obstacles to come.” To see more of Destiny Mata’s la vida loca and photography visit her blog Clan of Monkeys.

Matt Fry has been taking pictures for only a few years, but his photographs already have a stunning amount of depth and poetic introspection. Like angels trapped languidly in celluloid, Fry’s subjects are idols of film’s beautiful imperfection – overexposed, underexposed, light flares, polaroid tears and all. Fry, who is based in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, has perhaps found his calling with photography and, like an analog junkie holding on to a fading, beautiful dream, spends all his money on film.  However, it might soon all be worth it. With fashion brands knocking on his door, Fry is a photographer on the rise.  Pas Un Autre caught up with Fry for a very interesting tete-a-tete about his inspirations, aspirations and how he got into the photography racket in the first place. Read interview and see more photos after the jump.  [SEE MORE....]

Photograph by Hedi Slimane

Photograph by Christopher Lusher, West Virginia

An image from Terry Richardson’s new show Terrywood, which opens tomorrow at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles.