PicoCool

"Stunning Flickr set of interchanges in Japan” by Ken Ohyama. [via jordanclaire on twitter]

Network: flickr

Photo of a sign by Artist General taken by Andrew Mager in San Francisco.

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Marilia Destot’s photography series, ”Portrait of a lonely girl in New York, fall 2006” has an everyday simplicity with a touch of the abstract. {Image copyright Marilia Destot

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Hunto’s Sonny Angel toys like hiding in the couch.

Network: flickr

Photo by C HAD, Creative Commons

Stunning photos from the Japan HDR group on Flickr. From Wikipedia, “in computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.” (via Miyagawa on Twitter)

Network: twitter

"An unprecedented combination of computer history and striking images, Core Memory, A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers reveals modern technology’s evolution through the world’s most renowned computer collection, the Computer History Museum in the Silicon Valley.” Visit photographer Mark Richard’s website to learn more and to buy the book. (via laughingsquid)

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Photo of a woman aircraft worker by David Bransby, June 1942

Today Flickr launches The Commons, starting with a pilot program with The Library of Congress. According to The Library of Congress blog, “out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist. The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves.” The hope is that this “is a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.” Read Flickr’s blog post.

Network: flickr

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio is a photo book showing families around the world in their homes surrounded by the food they consume in a week, the cost of their food expenditure for one week, and their favorite foods. You can see the slideshow at Time.com. It’s an astonishing comparison of our food habits, economies and cultural differences and similarities. (via Kottke)

Network: blogs

Gorgeous sunset tonight in San Francisco captured by Dav Yaginuma. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful 2008. (via elatable)

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I love the colors and abstraction of this photo taken in a plane between San Juan and Florida by Esther Dyson.

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”La Chute” is a series by French photographer Denis Darzacq. Writes Natacha Wolinkski of the work: “"When the social elevator is broken you have to know how to bounce. Between the take off and the fall, the man parachuted in the city learns to control his trajectory.” It’s an interesting counterpoint to the photographs by William Hundley that we posted about earlier.

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Jonathan Harris is one of my favorite artists. His latest project to launch is The Whale Hunt, in which he shares his visual experience - literally, the sequential view through his eyes. “Last May I spent ten days with a family of Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, during their annual spring whale hunt. I documented the entire experience with a plodding sequence of 3,214 photographs, beginning with the taxi ride to Newark airport, and ending with the butchering of the second whale, seven days later. The photographs were taken at five-minute intervals, even while sleeping (using a chronometer), establishing a constant ‘photographic heartbeat’. In moments of high adrenaline, this photographic heartbeat would quicken (to a maximum rate of 37 pictures in five minutes while the first whale was being cut up), mimicking the changing pace of my own heartbeat.”

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William Lamson is an American artist whose work includes photography, video, sculpture and performance. In a recent interview, he writes: “My work addresses issues of masculinity, amateurism, science, play and the quixotic quest for personal heroism that accompanies these subjects. I am interested in the character of the amateur, the person who is motivated by love for the activity and a desire to achieve, but is limited by a lack of physical and technical expertise. Through the exploration of this character my work deals with human struggle and how we create meaning through it.”

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Found in the ”What is it?” pool at Flickr is this otherworldly photo by seabird1 of the glowing skins of a lemon and lime, lit from within with an LED flashlight.

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Photo copyright diastema

I’ve pointed out Diastema‘s unusual photography before. She’s at it again. Her photo set, ”creamy middle” is something else. See for yourself.

Network: flickr

Site Specific is the latest series by Italian artist, Olivo Barbieri. In it, he photographs national monuments, cities and natural landmarks in a style that makes them look like models and miniatures. In an interview with Nicole Pasulka at The Morning News, he explains that “the concept is to see the cities like a model. [To see them] like an architect who decides if they work or if it is better to change something.”

Network: blogs

Left photo copyright m.paoletti. Right photo by xxgigi.

I love seeing the contents of people’s bags. I never knew so many people carried hand cream and chapstick. Cameras, yes. And mints, me too! Join the Flickr group ”What’s In Your Bag?” and post your own.

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Fascinating photos of snow taken with a microscope. (via Evgeny Kiselev)

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Touching Surface is a photographic series by Geoffrey Cottenceau and Romain Rousset done for the magazine Form N°203. Visit their site at gneborg.org to see all their unusual photography.

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Photo by jurvetson, Creative Commons 2.0

An aptly titled photo taken in Provence, France by jurvetson at Flickr.

Network: flickr