Liz Caruana

For fashion photographer Liz Caruana, it's not all about the image. Sure, she's captured models posing in designer duds for the pages of Vogue, but she sees beyond the clothes. Her most recent project has focused on fashion designers themselves, rather than their garments. In a series of portraits of local designers, she hoped to capture the personalities of the people behind the clothes -- and the results may surprise you. Some designers are new moms, some are college kids, and some just don't seem like fashion folks at all.

This weekend, Caruana presents her photographs in her new book, The Bay: Creators of Style, at Carte Blanche Gallery. Accompanying the portraits of the designers are stories of how they got into the fashion industry, their ethical and environmental concerns, and their ties to the San Francisco community.

As part of Art Beat, an ongoing interview series with local artists, SF Weekly spoke with Caruana about her current project, the San Francisco fashion scene, and the art of photography.

Well, we hoped it wouldn't happen but we knew deep down that it would -- Facebook appears to be ruining Instagram. When the popular photo editing and sharing service was sold to Facebook for a whopping $1 billion earlier this year, we worried that their privacy policy might change for the worse. Sure enough, Instagram announced their new Terms of Service this week, and it included the unfortunate news that the company can now sell your photos, name, and other personal data to advertisers, without notifying you. There's no way to opt out of the policy, which goes into effect on January 16, 2013, except to delete your account. If you haven't done so by the January deadline, all your photos and personal information will become fair game.

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Did you miss Flugtag aka "flying day," the great tradition of building human-powered flying machines and launching them off of a 30-foot ramp into McCovey Cove? Nonetheless, if you missed the genius, the innovation, and most importantly, the fashion, we're here to help.

Photos by Christopher Victorio for SF Weekly.

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Video of the Day: Flugtag, Human-Powered Flying Machines

See the whole glorious slideshow

Gil Riego Junior

The city's newest photo collective, SFstop, formed entirely of current or former SF State photographers, is holding its first gallery show Sunday at Akiba Cafe. The free show will include works from 10 S.F. State students/alumni, and showcases moments stolen from some of the city's brightest characters, like "Bush Man," but also some of its unsung heroes through the power of some good ol' San Francisco street photography.

See also: 

Renegade Mannequin Installation at the de Young Asks: What Is Art?

Video of the Day: Flugtag, Human-Powered Flying Machines

Lee Miller died of cancer, overweight, alcoholic, ravaged by depression, and tortured by her husband's affair with a trapeze artist. Anyone meeting Lee Miller then would have been surprised to know that she was once considered the most beautiful woman in the world, second only to Greta Garbo. A former Vogue model and muse/lover to Man Ray, Miller was also famous for cavorting in Hitler's bathtub.

Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

These tragic details are not in evidence at the "Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism" exhibit currently at the Legion of Honor. What is discussed is her struggle to be an artist in her own right. As a photographer she helped discover the Sabatier Effect, a process of development that edges out the lines of the subject in ethereal shadows. According to her, it was an accidental discovery caused by a mouse running over her foot in the dark room. She was an artist and also a photo journalist. She was the only woman allowed to be a combat photographer during WWII. She is quoted as saying to a reporter, "It seems to me that women have a bigger chance at success in photography than men ... Women are quicker and more adaptable than men. And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men."

Hanna Quevedo

Ride a...something.

Last Friday the Red Hots Burlesque group put on a spectacular performance at El Rio Nightclub in the Mission. Red Hots Burlesque offers a different show every Wednesday and Friday at this venue.

See more photos here.

We recently shared a few of our drunken last-train-of-the-night experiences. Had BART existed, what would we have heard on the last train of the night in 1958?

Here at the Exhibitionist, we're hardly subtle about our devotion to our city's dogs. Where else can our sexy pups draw professional athletes to their charity events, out-catwalk the kitties, and disco dressed as Lady Gaga?

Which is probably why Facebook's favorite eligible bachelor, the undeniably adorable Boo the Dog and his best friend Buddy chose to take a little vacay to San Francisco and publish their fabulous photos in a book called Boo: Little Dog in the Big City.

Shannon Cottrell

They say that behind every great man there's a great woman. A couple weeks ago, In preparation for the release of The Dark Knight Rises we set out to find the great heroines and lady villains of Gotham City.

Check out our slideshow to see the best cosplays of Harley Quinn, Zatanna, Batgirl, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and more at Comic-Con 2012.

Jessica Christian

Last Saturday, The Precita Eyes Mural Center put on the 16th annual Urban Youth Arts Festival. This free festival, located at Precita Park, included 2,000 square feet of wall space as well as 200 provided aerosol cans for anyone to make their own graffiti masterpiece.

See who else is making our wall space more interesting in our slideshow of the event.