About oladios / Ola Bell  

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oladios' favorite photos from other Flickr members (8,315)

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Testimonials (11)

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  Genergrohl says:

  "Your works are an extraordinary downtown science... i adore your ingenious skills, techniques, mastering of color and above all, your mysterious aura. You are so good... :)"

  21st September, 2009

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  Daniel Colvin (Taking a break) says:

  "Are you ready to step into a world of strange warm magic? Then you've come to the right place. Ola Bell gives us a world of surreal humor, classic beauty and a vintage style made new , all twisted up in a original melange of quality photography. Her love of animals and there sense of relationship to humans is a big component of excellent and I've never seen anything quite like it. In addition, she has a captivating beauty and grace in her own presence within the frame. I'm always smiling and noding my head 'yes' when I visit!"

  13th November, 2008

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  Extra Medium says:

  "Ola was throwing away food I would only dream about eating. Then again after being homeless for 3 years, just about anything that was uneaten was lobster in my book. I just happened to be pushing my cart past this bistro in the south of france when I noticed her fork down on a half-eaten plate of goulash and a side of Jimmy Dean sausage. She barely ate anything at all. So instead of asking her if I could eat her scraps, I asked her why she was sitting alone in such a beautiful place such as this. She explained to me her pet dog Pepe just ran away, and she decided to feast on this Hungarian dish as a way to remorse. Intrigued, I sat down in the chair opposite her and let her speak. I ordered an espresso, which was bold since I hadn't had any money since the war, but ordered anyway. She told me of her love for Pepe and how they went on all these trips to photograph the beautiful world around her. Her voice was trembly but passionate as she described how all the world changes and single photographs capture just moments in time. She kept talking about something else, but I don't remember since I must have passed out with my head on the table from all these pills I found in a bag behind the clinic. When I came to, I got her name, Ola before the police took me away. It was a great 10 or 30 minutes or whatever I was conscious for, and I was lucky to find her once again on here."

  8th May, 2008

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  Lady Orlando says:

  "The first time I saw her photos I thought "this is the kind of world I'd like to live in".
  Now when I see her work I feel like I'm already there."

  7th April, 2008

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  Sabina R. says:

  "Its hard to describe what I felt when I saw oladios photos for the first time. Strange nostalgic feeling as when I look at old photos taken 50 years ago. Its another world in there. Also I feel curiosity to inspect every detail and become overwhelmed and saturated by just looking at few of her pictures. Its true, inspiring and complex art.
  
  I cant wait to see more from the magic tale about the blond girl and her cats."

  11th March, 2008

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  Miss Aniela says:

  "I came across Ola's weird and wonderful work one day through the Female Self Portrait Artists' group and was immediately struck by how well she photographs her cats. What's more, she captures them perfectly within the difficult feat of self portraiture! She becomes her own character within the quaint comic strip world of her images; a mysterious girl interacting with the animals who are placed as if by a paintbrush. This play between human and cat Oladios tells us is very much in the style of Balthus' paintings, but Ola takes his nubile nude and replaces it with her clothed - and masked - self.
  
  Ola is one of the very few people on Flickr for whom I feel art is a special vocation, almost a divine power that comes from above, rather than from the influence of her peers such as on Flickr. Artists like Ola don't worry about fitting in, they don't try to master a certain level of photography in order to be accepted. They just get on with creating magic through what they are naturally good at - employing their superior sense of the visual.
  
  Whilst she may take inspiration from other artists, artists like Ola never seem to be copying an image or rendering photographic cliches as if there were a limited supply of ideas in self-portraiture. Instead, they take inspiration from selected diverse and obscure sources, in Ola's case, those inspirations go from Balthus' paintings to Nirvana lyrics.
  
  She is definitely the most original Flickr artist I have seen - and one who deserves lots of success in the future.
  
  A very Merry Christmas to you Oladios!"

  24th December, 2007

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  laurence.winram says:

  "I'm new to Flickr and was rather skeptical about it, thinking it was full of 'night's out in the pub' and pet photographs, which of course it is. Little did I know it's also got some of the finest work I've ever seen, something as a working photographer I'm always looking out for.
  
  Well it was Oladios that that helped to change all that, her work is so inspirational and after my many nights of surfing since joining I now reckon her photography is the finest I have come across. It's kept me awake at night, my mind racing with new ideas for photographs and got me out shooting more personal work again. Long may she continue to inspire."

  18th December, 2007

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  Demis Courquet-Lesaulnier says:

  "Anyone of us could have seen good stuff on Flickr, but if you didn't take the time to get on Oladios page, you can't say you have already seen astonishing stuff. She can create real and complex compositions like a painter could do, and on the other hand, a simple still thing can be a wonderwall through her lenses. When one on her kitten get on the picture, the photo belongs to intemporal and surreal. There's a rare and great control of color, light and composition in her work. Never give up photography!!!"

  14th November, 2007

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  Pequena Suricata says:

  "I haven't words to describe oladios. Her world is so sweet, funny, romantic and intense at the same time. I can't say somethig more, i only can say that i love her work,...her world."

  13th November, 2007

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  cyan pixel says:

  "What makes Oladios work unique is the way she expresses her emotions in her photography. Her artistic and creative approach to her photography with a combination of fun and seriousness makes a definite impression to want to see more of her work!"

  7th November, 2007

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  Rebecca Parker says:

  "Inspirational! One of my favorite streams on Flickr."

  31st October, 2007

Joined:

April 2005

Currently:

near London, UK

I am:

Female