The South Magazine » The Magazine

Over the span of a month, incorporating all forms of social media, thousands of Savannahians nominated and voted for their favorite locals, creating this charming list of the city’s hottest and most eligible singles in the Hostess City. Good looking and good hearted, these lovely ladies and gents are uniquely and positively Southern—meaning not only are they smart, passionate and charismatic, but they also possess a natural appreciation for sweet tea and a 5 o’clock cocktail. Whether spotted downtown or on Tybee, these singles might just be exactly what you’re looking for. Read closely as they tell you what they’re looking for and how to win their hearts. Sit back and enjoy the South’s finest … they’re dying to meet you.

For interviews and more pictures, check out the August/September issue out now!

Hipsters: To Be or Not To Be

Jim Reed — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:21:19 +0000

Anyone who’s spent time in a major metropolitan city over the past decade or so has witnessed the rise of the hipster. In fact, even a half-hearted glance around our Historic District these days suggests strongly that the amorphous vintage-y fashion movement and youth-oriented subbacultcha which took root in the late ‘90s in such urban strongholds as NYC and San Francisco and has indeed trickled down to our relatively sleepy hamlet.

Fueled by the rise of detached, blasé indie-rock and an ironic, insular sense of humor begat by the access road of absurdist snark, hipsterdom has since blossomed into a strange mash-up of aggressive individualism and blissfully unaware groupthink. A catchall term that’s bandied about as much by jaded, middle-aged pop-culture curmudgeons (present and accounted for) as twenty-and-thirty-somethings, “hipster” has managed to slip the surly bonds of rigid definition to become that rarest of labels: one which virtually none can seem to accurately define, yet which most find offensive (if applied to themselves, that is).

There are those far and wide who hold (rail, even) that hipster culture is a shallow and superficial hodgepodge – a post-modern, Cliff’s Notes fusion of incongruent stylistic references custom-made for the instant-gratification, web-surfing, sound bite generation. Yet, almost to a one, the ten locals featured on the following pages do not consider themselves to be hipsters. For them, their senses of fashion—related though they may somewhat be to the stereotypical trappings of the “hipster establishment” (if such a thing can even exist)—are direct and highly personal manifestations of their own life experiences.

Through their own words and outlooks, these sincere, dedicated followers of fashion offer an insight into the sauce of chaos and individuality that hides in plain sight behind lazy generalizations.

To read more about Savannah’s Hipsters check out South Magazine’s August September issue!

John Fulton: Photographer on Fire

Elizabeth Rushing — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:20:07 +0000

After starting his career as a strict purist, visual artist John Fulton eventually opened his mind to the digital age and discovered his true photographic forte. Using the computer as his canvas, over the last decade, his talent has allowed him to travel the world on high dollar advertising campaigns as well as contribute editorial images to publications around the world.

Things aren’t ever as they actually appear. Just ask visual artist John Fulton. Because while the word “photography” suggests a truthful representation of the subject in focus, the magic of Fulton’s work lies in his ability to seamlessly blend fact and fiction. Although specializing in conceptual advertising, Fulton’s large body of work ranges from calculated pictorial advertisements to editorial narratives that are heavy with symbolism and ambiguity. For the viewer, there is both satisfaction and guesswork in his art.

Fulton’s editorial photography has appeared in both local and international media outlets and everything in between. He’s most recognized for his portrait and landscape work, although his subject matter varies. But, as always with him, there’s another layer to the story. He started his career at the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, where he surprisingly dedicated an entire English term to writing a 30-page, anti-digital photography rant on why the traditional methods are best. “Flash forward ten years,” Fulton says, “My post work—it is so integral to my style [that] it’s almost like painting.” Now, he revels in the entire process of digitally enhancing photographs. “It’s not to be underrated,” he says. “The retouching is almost like painting, like photography and painting together.”

On average, Fulton spends a minimum of 10 hours on each image. “It’s definitely a lot of hours,” he says. “I’ve been shooting creative stuff, non-architectural stuff, for South for probably a year, year-and-a-half, and each image easily takes 10 to 12 hours.” But that’s nothing. For major advertising campaigns such as Golf Pride and Georgia Power, Fulton spends an average of 80 to 100 hours on each individual image. He says, “That’s like 700 layers,” or stacks of different stylistic adjustments, composited on top of each other to create a single, final image in Adobe Photoshop. While on-site and in-studio photo shoots are the foundation of his work, the majority of Fulton’s efforts are spent digitally, shifting and blending and layering images to complete his final artistic vision.

A single, finished photograph can include hundreds of different photographs combined. For Fiddler Over Paris (See right), he says most of the image “was captured in camera while working [in Paris] about five years ago. The fiddler, fiddle case, music stand, music book and the concrete roof that they’re sitting on were all separate and photographed in Savannah.” Though it isn’t obvious, Fulton reveals, “The book actually shows the music for the iconic song Aux Champs Elysees.” Fulton borrowed the props from his friends at The Paris Market, above which his downtown Savannah studio is located. He photographed the images “on the fly,” he says, “as I was retouching.”

Fiddler Over Paris, like much of Fulton’s personal work, is retouched here and there over the course of a few years until he feels the image is complete. “I began retouching on this image about three years ago and then sculpted it little by little into the final image which was completed two weeks ago. I’d guess in total it would have taken about 20 hours of retouching—not including the photography,” he says.

The outcome is an enigmatic narrative. Unable to determine where the story begins and where it ends, viewers are left to discover the details—the fiddle’s whine, the smoky presence in the air, the push of clouds overhead—piece by piece.

RUNNING A GOOD CAMPAIGN

“Mystery is not always good for advertising,” Fulton says of the difference between his editorial and advertising styles. And it’s true—mystery, ambiguity—these are not adjectives befitting a successful advertising campaign, but Fulton manages to wield both clarity—a lucid image to attract our eyes—and just enough mystery to keep us lingering there. His final images for the Golf Pride campaign (See LEFT) give viewers definite direction; their mystery is in the making. To create the crowds of people at the top of the image, alongside the green, Fulton photographed and re-photographed a dozen or so actors. Countless costume changes and repositionings were required for the shoot. The final image narrates the excitement of spectating at the 18^th hole but reveals nothing of the laborious twelve-person shoot.

The Georgia Power project is a four-image advertising campaign—only two of which have been publicly revealed. “[The first two photographs] have been released all over the region,” Fulton says. “They’re really complex and complicated work. Each one of those images is 500 different pieces—that’s not even layers, that is images assembled.” The campaign, which promotes the idea of a cleaner, more sustainable energy via nuclear power, focuses on the new nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia. The location hosts the first reactors to be active in 30 years.

“The agency worked for three weeks to even get permission to get to the site,” Fulton says. “They’re still building. It’s a really, really fun experience to bring my whole crew onto an active nuclear power site. The stuff is so big—I’m on a twenty-foot ladder—moving equipment,” he says. “[And] it all needs to be shown in soft light.” With the weather in Fulton’s favor, the team spent three days shooting on site. He spent one additional day inside the studio, shooting the objects themselves. The layers are copious, but gone are images of smoke stacks with fumes billowing into the sky. There is no mention of the word “nuclear,” only the image of a light switch under construction on ruddy Georgia soil. The end result is clean and friendly.

Like the Georgia Power account, many of Fulton’s major campaigns come from outside Savannah, as expected when he first moved here five or six years ago. “We came here having no expectation for local clients, only national, international,” he says. He relocated with business partner Eric Prine from Denver, Colorado, where they photographed hospitality projects for the “superrich,” while traveling the world. “Eric wanted a cool place to live,” Fulton says. After relocating, they met Jeremiah Hull and formed Attic Fire Photography. They knew Savannah wasn’t fully equipped to meet the demands of a major advertising production studio, but still they followed their creative gut.

Attic Fire continues to shoot all over the world, and the guys have interviewed with the New York Times and MSNBC, but all the while, Fulton continues to develop his personal work. He has five times been included in the prestigious Communication Arts. “Less than two percent of entries are selected from approximately 14K submissions received each year from all over the world,” he says. “This year Communication Arts selected an image shot for South magazine.”

BEHIND THE SCENES

Fulton works with a rep, Blake Pearson with Visu Arts out of Miami. Interested in both the Attic Fire and John Fulton brands, Pearson travels the country shopping both portfolios. “He’s been getting tons of interest,” Futon says of his incoming work. “Most [projects] have been national. These jobs are such a big step and I’ve been working for a while to get to this point.”

Fulton also works closely with his producer, Emily Harrell of Stir Productions. “She’s produced all of my advertising projects to date and is already playing a key role in making Savannah a legitimate location to handle an advertising production,” Fulton says. Meddin Studios has become another invaluable Savannah resource, thanks to their “super high-end production capabilities,” says Fulton. “I fully expect to do the whole production here now and, of course, everyone wants to be in Savannah. They all want to come to Savannah—they’re looking for a getaway.” Previously, special equipment wasn’t available for use in Savannah and would have to be shipped in from other cities. “There’s starting to be a community that can operate on a level that an advertising project needs to be at,” Fulton says. Though the romance and relaxed Savannah atmosphere may not allude to the setting of a fast-paced, international advertising campaign, appearances are often deceiving. Johnfultonphotography.com.

South’s Guide to: Breaking a Sweat

Jessica Leigh Lebos — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:19:21 +0000

Savannah’s newest yoga studio is burning up

At 9:30 in the morning in Midtown, it’s already hot enough to make the trees wilt. The sentient beings who aren’t scurrying from air-conditioned cars to climate-controlled buildings appear to be moving in slow motion. Even the usually-industrious squirrels laze torpidly in the shade.

Yet I am strolling through the doors of Bikram Yoga Savannah in Habersham Village, psyching myself up to get even hotter. In fact, when I come back outside, it’s going to feel downright comfortable compared to where I spent the last 90 minutes.

I once thought yoga class was gentle and kind, a peaceful place where they piped in Indian flute music and everyone smiled like the Mona Lisa. That was before I found Bikram. Named for its charismatic founder, Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury of India, this extremely physical form of yoga consists of 26 challenging postures practiced in a room that’s kept at a sizzling 105 degrees. Unlike other yoga classes I’ve attended, here the instructor shouts things like “Lock your knees! Lock your knees!” the entire time, people are sweating all around you and rather than peaceful feelings, what often arises is something more akin to murderous rage.

“Bikram calls it the ‘torture chamber,’” laughs Bikram Yoga Savannah owner/director Leslie Tucker Carey. “He also says the body is like steel — you have to get it hot to bend and reshape it.”

The method to such madness is this: The heat helps warms the muscles, which allows the body to go deeper into the Hatha postures, which in turn help the body correct its misalignments and burn unnecessary weight. Using a principle called the “tourniquet effect” that occurs when certain muscle groups are compressed, Bikram yoga has a positive effect on the body’s metabolic, circulatory and endocrine systems by stimulating blood flow to tissues and internal organs. It also helps the body flush out toxins, because if you’re in a room that hot for that long, you’re going to sweat more than a BP exec stranded on a Gulf Coast beach.

And by golly, it works. Bikram’s website overflows with testimonials from people all over the world for whom the practice has helped every condition from back pain to heart disease to tinnitus to PMS. Carey’s studio opened in March to instant popularity and the number of disciples swearing that it’s helping them improve their health, build strength and lose weight grows by the week.

Cynthia Barnes, a mediator and paralegal in Savannah, recently completed sixty classes in as many days, and has been amazed in the changes in her body — and mind. “I was ready for a change in my life, so I jumped right into the sixty challenge,” she says. “At first, I thought I’d never make it through a class, sweating like that! But within a few classes, I got used to the heat more, my flexibility improved and I got stronger really fast. I’ve lost nine inches off my hips, but the biggest change is how centered and calm I feel in my daily life.”

Carey says this type of yoga tends to attract “Type-A” personalities, or simply people who want to challenge themselves. Originally from Alabama, Carey came to Bikram yoga six years ago after attending a class in Colorado with a friend who’d become an enthusiastic follower. “I was miserable! I hated her for bringing me. Then about an hour after I left, I realized I felt amazing.”

A former marathon runner, she began practicing Bikram in the hopes it would heal her aching knees and chronic low back pain and was so impressed with the benefits that she decided to take Bikram’s intense nine-week teacher training in Hawaii. She had lived in Savannah while earning her Masters’ in Historic Preservation at SCAD, and after a stint in Washington, DC at the National Trust, she and her husband, Daniel, returned to town a year and half ago when he took the helm as director of the Historic Savannah Foundation. “I knew the Southeast was lacking in studios and I knew the folks in Savannah would love it — and that they needed it.”

Clearly, selling hot yoga to Savannahians is a calculated risk. What kind of yahoo steps outside into 95% humidity and wants to sweat more? Apparently, plenty of us. Usually there’s ten to twenty people in class, women and men, old and young, fit and fat and everyone in between.

“I’ve always been drawn to yoga and its philosophy but this is my first experience in a class setting,” says Lizzie Summerell, who works in special education in Chatham County public schools. “I feel like I’m cleaning myself from the inside out, mentally and physically. I plan to do this for the rest of my life.”

As for me, I must disclaim here that I’m hooked on Bikram as well. After three months of going three times a week, I’ve experienced more relief from a decade-old hip injury than all the physical therapy, chiropractors, surgery and massage combined. My sleep has improved. Also, my husband says I look smokin’ in a bikini, which even the most evolved woman over 35 loves to hear. So even though sometimes during class I would like to run out of the room screaming and afterwards my face is purple for an hour, I keep on going back.

“Students always ask me ‘Does it get any easier?’” muses Carey. “Your body will acclimate to the heat after about ten classes, but this was designed to be hard. Bikram says you have to go through hell to get to heaven. So you suffer in here for ninety minutes so you don’t have to suffer for ninety years!”

A few things to note before you try Bikram Yoga: Other studios may offer “hot yoga” classes, but it’s only Bikram if it’s taught by a certified instructor. Also, try not to wear lotions to class – you get slick! And always, always, always, drink a ton of water before and after class. See you there!

Bikram Yoga Savannah offers classes seven days a week at 4505 Habersham Street, Savannah.

Island Estate

j. charlotte jarrett — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:18:06 +0000

Right before entering a museum there’s a specific feeling: an anticipation of beauty, a preparation for quiet, a sense of the unknown and untouchable. It’s no mistake that standing at the entrance of Dr. Richard and Robin Greco’s house on Whitmarsh Island feels just the same. The manicured lawn and the languid sprawl of the house are immaculate and breathtaking—and a bit intimidating.

Intimidating for just a moment: the moment before the owners welcome visitors inside, allowing them to cross the travertine floor from Turkey (shoes still on!), offer them a drink, and invite them to not only touch but also sit on the 1930’s restoration chairs. Here, visitors are treated like old friends entering not a museum, not a mansion, but a home

South magazine was there to not only capture the amazing features of the outside of this amazing home but also an exclusive tour of the inside!

To read the full article on this amazing home, pick up the latest issue on stand now! Click here for a list of where to buy a copy

Thanks to Chris Maddox and Tim Arnold for all the footage and sound for the video!