A collection of photo portraits of burn
A collection of photo portraits of burn survivors by John Brownlow.
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kottke.org posts about photography
Excellent photos of giant flocks of European
Excellent photos of giant flocks of European starlings, which can comprise more than a million birds. In 1866, a passenger pigeon flock was observed in southern Ontario that was a mile wide, 300 miles long, took 14 hours to pass, and was comprised of some 3.5 billion birds. That would have been a fantastic sight.
In advance of the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese
In advance of the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese are destroying the hutongs of Beijing, the tiny alleyways that connect the city. Includes a photo slideshow of the destruction.
Great photo of the surf in Puerto
Great photo of the surf in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. (Reminds me of the work of another photographer, very large prints of waves taken head on, the ocean very dark and the crashing waves a bright, vibrant white. Beautiful stuff. Can anyone help me out?)
Update: The photographer I was thinking of is Clifford Ross. He uses a camera that he built himself to take 2.6 gigabyte images. His Mountain IV is currently on display at MoMA. (thx, david, barbara, and john)
Interview with photographer Chip Simons about inspiration
Interview with photographer Chip Simons about inspiration and originality. “You can get work for fancy magazines with just a big ego.”
A group of photographers are planning to
A group of photographers are planning to turn a giant abandoned airplane hangar into the world’s largest camera (a pinhole camera to be precise). Reminds me of the Cameratruck.
Michael Bierut recalls a phone conversation with
Michael Bierut recalls a phone conversation with photographer Arnold Newman. “Er…yes, I do portraits.”
Khoi has some thoughtful notes (+photos) about
Khoi has some thoughtful notes (+photos) about his experience with a digital photography class he’s taking. “The more I learn about photography, the less interested I am in close-ups that fetishize surface textures, and the less impressed I am by well composed but basically inert subjects that don’t communicate a narrative of any particular stripe.”
The Oxford Project
Peter Feldstein has returned to Oxford, Iowa, to photograph the residents of the small town, just as he did back in 1984. More information on The Oxford Project + photos here. (via tmn)
This news isn’t new, but it’s still
This news isn’t new, but it’s still irritating. Companies that do photo prints (Target, in this case) refuse to print certain photographs because they look too professional. Digital cameras are so good and cheap these days that everyone’s taking professional-looking photos…Flickr is full of pro-looking stuff shot by complete amateurs. This stupid policy needs to change or these places aren’t going to have any business left.
Press Photographers Year awards for the outstanding
Press Photographers Year awards for the outstanding press photography of 2005. (thx joshua)
myDaVinci takes your photo and pastes your
myDaVinci takes your photo and pastes your face onto the Mona Lisa. Not a fan of Leonardo? Try being the Girl with a Pearl Earring or American Gothic. (via ais)
Satellite imagery used to spot human rights abuses
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is exploring the use of satellite imagery to detect and prove human rights abuses. It’s difficult to deny the communication potential of these images:
Larger versions of the images are available (before and after).
The images, analyzed by the AAAS staff, show two views of the settlement of Porta Farm, located just west of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. The first, an archived image from June 2002, shows an intact settlement with more than 850 homes and other buildings; an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people lived in Porta Farm at the time. The second photo, taken by satellite on 6 April this year, shows that the settlement has been leveled.
International rights groups allege that the forced relocations in Zimbabwe — which affected over 700,000 people over the course of six weeks in 2005 — are an attempt by the Mugabe government to supress opposition to the current regime.
The AAAS and other organizations hope to use satellite imagery in the future as a tool in addressing the human rights abuses in Darfur, Burma, and other areas. (via rw)
The top ten stock photography cliches. “The
The top ten stock photography cliches. “The Handshake of Synergy: You’ve made the sale and closed the deal. They can’t back out now—you shook on it!” Also, have you met Alicia or this girl?
Update: The same pigtailed girl uses Vagisil and helps teach people about Java Design Patterns for O’Reilly. (via joe, thx michael)
The Photography Channel has more than a
The Photography Channel has more than a dozen videos of photographers dicussing their craft, techniques, and experiences. A fine resource for photographers.
Quite a few photographic homages to Rene
Quite a few photographic homages to Rene Magritte. I love this updated classic.
Infinitely zoomable photographic mosaic. Very cool.
Infinitely zoomable photographic mosaic. Very cool.
Flickr photos tagged with “last day of
Flickr photos tagged with “last day of high school”. You’ve never seen so many smiles.
Plan is a photographic project by Aneta
Plan is a photographic project by Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga consisting of overhead views of apartments. “Such an unusual effect was achieved through the use of a special technique: the overall picture of a room is an aggregate of dozens fragmentary photographs taken from above, and then merged using a computer.” More here. A bit NSFW.
Interview with photographer Jay Parkinson about his
Interview with photographer Jay Parkinson about his aspiring model project. “I feel that it’s a photographic cop-out to take photos of strictly beautiful people because it’s hard to take a bad photo of a beautiful person, especially a very scripted portrait.”
Browsing recent interestingness on Flickr, I ran
Browsing recent interestingness on Flickr, I ran across these photos of women photoshopped to include glass eyes, prostheses, eyepatches, and to look like amputees. This is a practice of devotees of amputee fetishism called Electronic Surgery. More examples here, here, and here. Probably a bit NSFW.
Update: Flickr has removed the users who posted those photos. Sorry.
Photographer Michael Wolf, he of the Architecture
Photographer Michael Wolf, he of the Architecture of Density photos of Hong Kong, has a new project called 100x100, which is a series of photographs “of residents in their flats in hong kong’s oldest public housing estate”. Each of the apartments is only 100 square feet in size so the photos show a wide variety of dense living spaces.
Yet more advertising….a paparazzi photo of
Yet more advertising….a paparazzi photo of Lindsey Lohan made its way onto a movie poster promoting a film that starred Lohan.
John Gruber has more information on what’s
John Gruber has more information on what’s going on with Aperture at Apple. Bottom line: by throwing too many engineers at the problem, they made a late project later (see The Mythical Man Month, one of my favorite business books), and after it shipped, all those extra engineers were redispersed within the company and the managers responsible for the debacle got the boot. Good stuff.
Interview with photographer Alec Soth. “I feel
Interview with photographer Alec Soth. “I feel like a large part of photography is like a performance. And the photograph is like a document of this performance, of this encounter with the world.” Many interviews with photographers often end up sounding very similar, but I enjoy reading them anyway. (via eyeteeth)
Nabokov on Lewis Carroll and his photography: “
Nabokov on Lewis Carroll and his photography: “I always call him Lewis Carroll Carroll, because he was the first Humbert Humbert. Have you seen those photographs of him with little girls?” Nabokov aside, there’s no real evidence that Carroll did anything untoward with any of his photographic subjects. View some of Carroll’s photos here, here, and here. (via tmn)
Make your own x-rays: buy a dental
Make your own x-rays: buy a dental x-ray machine on eBay and use it with Polaroid film. Mit photos.
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