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kottke.org posts about photography

Gallery of the winners of the World

Gallery of the winners of the World Press Photos of the Year for 2005.


De-Touch lets you step through how photos

De-Touch lets you step through how photos of models are retouched for publication. Announcement here. Made with Processing, source code is available.


Interview with photographer Ryan McGinley about his work.

Interview with photographer Ryan McGinley about his work.


Alternative photography (pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, gum bichromate

Alternative photography (pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, gum bichromate prints) is making a small comeback in the midst of the digital photography revolution. Here’s some of Adam Lubroth’s work and an exhibition in Austin, TX of “historical photographic approaches in the digital age”.


This Flickr user really likes photos of

This Flickr user really likes photos of people at the dentist. This one’s my favorite. (via janelle)


Cool composite photo of playing in the

Cool composite photo of playing in the snow. Take a look at the large size for the full effect.


“Preliminary construction” will begin on the High

“Preliminary construction” will begin on the High Line Park in mid-February. Protective fences will be put up south of 20th Street, so it might be your last chance to see the High Line as it is and once was. Here are some photos I took of the High Line from a February 2004 excursion. (via gmist)


A big dog on the subway with

A big dog on the subway with a fur-coated owner and a brick in its mouth. And I believe it’s a “pit bull-type” dog.


Judith lost her camera (and most of

Judith lost her camera (and most of her pictures) on her trip to Hawaii, so she’s using other people’s photos from Flickr to produce a trip journal.


The Folk Typography Pool contains photos of

The Folk Typography Pool contains photos of type made by people who are not designers, typographers, or calligraphers. (thx, paul)


Photos of the Shipbreaking Yards in Bangladesh

Photos of the Bangladesh shipbreaking yards by Brendan Corr. Strict environmental laws in the Europe and the US make “recycling” these ships there difficult, so US and European companies outsource the salvage to Bangladesh, where laws are looser. Compare with Edward Burtynsky’s photos of the same. (thx, malatron)

Update: Article from The Atlantic about shipbreaking (thx, john) and a soon-to-be released book called Breaking Ships (thx, john #2).


Some interesting photomosaics. This one of Steve

Some interesting photomosaics. This one of Steve Jobs is made of OS X icons and this woman is a collage of Macs and other Apple products.


Recolored is a software program that helps

Recolored is a software program that helps colorize black & white photos. Just specify some borders and colors and it does the rest.


Olivo Barbieri’s tilt-shift aerial photography

Aerial photos of cities taken by Olivo Barbieri with a tilt-shift lens look like scale models. I’m familiar with the tilt-shift (Jake noodled around with one awhile back), but didn’t imagine you could use it to achieve such a convincing optical illusion. (via bldgblog via waxy)


Giant jellyfish invade Japan STOP Creatures 2 meters

Giant jellyfish invade Japan STOP Creatures 2 meters wide and 450 pounds STOP Killing fish, fishing industry, and even humans STOP Run for your lives STOP


Photos of pool hustlers in NYC. (via

Photos of pool hustlers in NYC. (via coolfer by way of the actual janelle)


A pair of photoessays from Time magazine:

A pair of photoessays from Time magazine: Martin Luther King in His Own Words and The Last Days of Martin Luther King.


In 1998, six newspapers profiled the streets named

In 1998, six newspapers profiled the streets named after Martin Luther King in their respective cities. Along Martin Luther King is a collection of essays and photographs documenting life along the nearly 500 streets named for MLK. In 2003, Rob Walker took some photos along MLK Blvd in New Orleans).


“no sampling, please”, a photoset depicting binge-sampling

“no sampling, please”, a photoset depicting binge-sampling of nearly everything in sight, contrary to posted signage.


Pareidolia: “The erroneous or fanciful perception of

Pareidolia: “The erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random.” Here are hundreds of examples on Flickr…light sockets that look like faces, etc.


Some fans of The Matrix films went

Some fans of The Matrix films went to Sydney and photographed various locations that were in the first film. Photoset on Flickr.


Edward Burtynsky at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

I can’t remember where I first ran across Edward Burtynsky’s photography, but I’ve been developing into a full-fledged fan of work over the past few months. From a Washington Post article on Burtynsky:

Burtynsky calls his images “a second look at the scale of what we call progress,” and hopes that at minimum, the images acquaint viewers with the ramifications โ€” he avoids the word price โ€” of our lifestyle. But what if viewers just see, you know, some dudes and a ship?

“Another photographer might focus on the loss of life or pollution,” acknowledges Kennel of the National Gallery. “He uses beauty as a way to draw attention to something. It’s a very particular strategy.”

The Brooklyn Museum of Art is displaying an exhibition of Burtynsky’s photos until January 15. Well worth the effort to try and check it out. The scale of modernity, particularly in his recent photos of China, is astounding. In Three Gorges Dam Project, Dam #4, this huge dam seems to stretch on forever and you don’t know whether to goggle in wonder or shrink in horror from looking at it.


Adobe has released the beta version of

Adobe has released the beta version of a program called Lightroom (OS X only), a competitor to Apple’s Aperture. Both are pro-level apps for manipulating and organizing digital photos. Here’s the story of Lightroom’s development from one of its developers. (via df)


Skiing at Mad River

Over the holidays, Meg and I went up to Vermont skiing. I skied quite a bit when I was in middle/high school (on the small hills of northwestern WI and east central MN), but I’d only strapped on the boards a couple times since graduating from college. Meg’s family has skied at Mad River Glen for years, so that’s where we went. After three straight days of hitting the slopes, my back got a little wonky, so on the 4th day I brought the camera along to document a run down the mountain:

Mad River

There are a few photos of Waitsfield (the town closest to Mad River) and the surrouding area at the beginning of the set, but most are from the mountain, including some of the best winter views I’ve ever witnessed. The snow covering the trees, the fog at the top of the hill…it looked almost magical. At one point, I was alone on the mountain with my camera, engulfed in fog, no one within 200 yards. With no wind and all the snow & fog muffling the sound, when I stopped breathing, I couldn’t hear anything at all.


Saigon photos

A selection of photos from our week in Saigon:

Photos of Saigon

Here are my posts from the rest of the Asia trip, my photos from Hong Kong, and my photos from Bangkok.


Satugo is a fun little camera that

Satugo is a fun little camera that you can throw in the air or bounce to get some unusual photos. Love the pull-string for the quick but steady shots.


Bangkok photos

Where does the time go? It’s been more than a month since we got back from Asia, but I haven’t posted my photos from Bangkok or Saigon yet. Time for amends, so with my apologies, here are a collection of photos I took in Bangkok.

Statue at the Grand Palace

Here’s my posts from the rest of the Asia trip and my photos from Hong Kong. Saigon photos tomorrow (hopefully).


Retrievr is a simple, amazing use of

Retrievr is a simple, amazing use of the Flickr API. You draw a little drawing and Retrievr fetches similar photos from Flickr. Photodisc, the stock photo site, used to have a feature like this back in 1997-98, but then they discontinued it (I have no idea why…it was insanely useful). One feature request…instead of a drawing, let me pick a starting Flickr photo and find me similar ones. (via mh)


Pictures of the Year 2005 from Reuters and

Pictures of the Year 2005 from Reuters and best photos of the year 2005 from Time. (thx, indrek)


USASODA.com has tons of images of

USASODA.com has tons of images of old soda cans. They’re a little hard to find, but there’s good stuff if you dig around a little bit.