urban taster

Andrew Zuckerman shoots birds.

Wonderful. This image echos Michelangelo’s David.

Michelangelo’s David

Hauntingly beautiful photography by photographer Ian Baguskas.

Amazing photos by Matthieu Paley of the Siberian Lake Baikal.

Serko tells the true story of Dmitri Peshkov and his horse, Serko, who rode a staggering 9,000 kilometers across Russia in the winter of 1889-1890. Based on the film Serko, by Joel Farges, Mattie takes his own photographic journey through the frozen landscape.

This series of images by Chris Jordan is so poignant and powerful it makes me turn my stomach. Read more about the Great Garbage Patch on Wikipedia. What the hell have we done.

Quoted from the site
“These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.”

For the 35th time, Nikon is sponsoring the Small World photography competition. See all 20 winning entries at cnet, although my personal favourite is number 3 below.

I don’t think I recognise even half the pumkins here but doesn’t this image look simply scrumptious?

Via random inspiration.

“Form is all we have to help us cope with fundamentally chaotic facts and assaults”

hmmm…yeah, ok, not so sure about that, but I DO like something about these painted photographs by Gerhard Richter.

via but does it float.

Martin Wilson is brilliant. Simply. He uses 35mm film as pixels and creates typographic masterpieces. See more at his website.

My favouritest photographer of all time is having an exhibition at Alison Jacques Gallery of new work, under the name Moonmilk. What it actually is, is a series of rough rocks with smooth bodies, strange magical colours, lighting and smoke. Go over to Ryan McGinley.com to take a closer look.

I am completely in love with this series of images, a result of a stunning collaboration between Ujin Lee and Tom Edwards. I now just wish for a second series with coloured powder.

Is this not simply stunning? See more at Justin Maller.

Toy camera Superheadz has managed to do the impossible, digital lomography. Thank you Digital Harinezumi.

Via Biased Cut.

A stark reminder of pollution and how close we are to the tipping point. Alex Hofford made an important and powerful point. Now all we need is for someone to do the same for Singapore.

“20070917AHKG02 HONG KONG CHINA : (COMPOSITE) A composite photo showing two views of the Hong Kong skyline taken from the same viewpoint in Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon; the top image taken at 6pm on 20 June 2007, when Hong Kong`s `Air Pollution Index` reading was `Low`; the lower image taken at 6pm on 17 September 2007 when Hong Kong`s `Air Pollution Index` reached `High to Very High`, 17 September 2007, Hong Kong, China. A new study released Monday by Hong Kong think tank `Civic Exchange` stated that drastic action needs to be taken to reduce air pollution in the city to attract and retain foreign investment, as well as protect public health.”

The one reason I love photography is how they could take something that you see every other day and make it so amazingly beautiful and out of the world that you try to pay more attention to whats around you. Take how Marcin Sacha takes Teletubby-like landscape and makes it a tapestry of colours and textures and dreams. Follow the jump for even more images.

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Aaron Ruell is one of those photographers who manages to capture quirky images in beautiful, delicious colours, yet at the same time technically great with an amazing attention to detail.

An abandoned fortress of a city made solely on concrete and built on the wealth of coal.

Photographer Saiga Yuji took a series of pictures before and after its demise.

From wikipedia:

“Hashima Island (端島; meaning “Border Island”), commonly called Gunkanjima (軍艦島; meaning “Battleship Island“) is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it. It has been administered as part of Nagasaki, Nagasaki since 2005; it had previously been administered by the former town of Takashima.

“Battleship Island” is an English translation of the Japanese nickname for Hashima Island, Gunkanjima (gunkan meaning “battleship”, jima being the rendaku form of shima). The island’s nickname came from its apparent resemblance to the Japanese battleship Tosa due to its high seawalls. It also is known as the Ghost Island. It is known for its coal mines and their operation during the industrialization of Japan. Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began the project, the aim of which was retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. They built Japan’s first largeconcrete building, a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers (many of whom were forcibly recruited labourers from other parts of Asia), and to protect against typhoon destruction.

In 1959, its population density was 835 people per hectare (83,500 people/km²) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/km²) for the residential district, the highest population density ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009 after more than 20 years of closure.”

Rock of Ages.

Markus George recreates 8 iconic images and prints them on postcards.

A beautiful and touching journal on a father by a son. See all of it here.

A devilish photoblog on hospital food, and its hilarious implications. Crm of chicken anyone?

Simply stunning! See more here.

Mike Balakov reconstructs photography classics using Lego. The recreation of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare” is my particular favorite! Well done Mike! See how many more you recognize here!

“Danish photographer Peter Funch stakes New York City street corners out for two weeks at a time, taking pictures of passersby from the very same spot. He then uses Photoshop to composite the results into single images.”

V1 Gallery via Boing boing.

If you have not yet been introduced to the genius of Ryan McGinley, its never too late. Head over to his website to see more of the pictorial wonders.

The co-founder of Save Polariod, Sean Tubridy has published a book! Toys on Roids feature a number of old school and modern toys shot with a Polaroid SX-70. You can view part of the collection here on flicker. This one made me laugh, “This is NOT my battle cat!”

Whoever said iPhones take lousy photos obviously have not seen these…

The results for the world press photo has just been announced. Head over to CR Blog to see all the pictures and get a brief writeup. Although the image below did not win the coveted premier award, it was my favourite of the lot.

French vogue recently did an interesting article on Eniko Mihalik by transforming her from 10 to 60. Quite an amazing feat.

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photomicrography.. my favourite kind of photography!

See more here.