project

Michael Zhang

Polaroid Project: The People I’ve Met

"The People I've Met" is a project by photographer Krista Langley that involves one Polaroid camera and one question. Langley shoots portraits of her friends and family and asks them to write down the answer to the question "what would you do if you knew you could not fail?".

Michael Zhang

Wet Plate Photography with a Giant Van Camera

Los Angeles-based photographer Ian Ruhter creates amazing photographs using a van that he turned into a gigantic camera. He uses the collodion process (AKA wet plate photography) to turn large sheets of metal into photographs, and spends upwards of $500 making each giant one-of-a-kind print.

Michael Zhang

DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer Made On the Cheap

Physics guru David Prutchi recently came across a line of professional grade gyroscopic camera stabilizers by Kenyon Laboratories. They cost thousands of dollars each, but Prutchi noticed that the designs hadn't changed much since they were first patented in the 1950s. He then set out to create his own DIY version using low-cost gyroscopes from Gyroscope.com. His finished device (shown above) actually helps stabilize his DSLR when shooting video or when photographing with non-image-stabilized lenses.

Michael Zhang

Still Life Photos of Desserts Spinning on Vinyl Records

"33 RPM" is a project by Stockholm-based photographer Philip Karlberg that consists of still life photographs of various desserts spinning on various vinyl records. The combo above shows "'Don’t look back into the sun' by The Libertines: Sundae surprise."

Michael Zhang

Bizarre Photos of Stuffed Animals Turned Inside-Out

Zurich-based designers Atelier Volvox have a project titled "Outsiders" that consists of various stuffed animals turned inside-out. The toys were purchased from second-hand shops, cut open, turned inside out, re-stuffed, and sewed back up.

Michael Zhang

Photos of Terrible Explosions Frozen Serenely in Mid-Air

New Zealand-based photographer Geoffrey H. Short has an ongoing series titled Towards Another (Big Bang) Theory that explores "the relationship between terror and the sublime" with images of large explosions frozen in midair. Short hired film industry special effects technicians to create the "big bangs" using fossil fuel mixed with gunpowder.

Michael Zhang

Famous Photographers Holding Their Iconic Photographs

San Diego-based photographer Tim Mantoani has an awesome project and book titled "Behind Photographs" that consists of 20x24-inch Polaroid portraits of famous photographers posing with their most iconic photographs. The film costs $200 per shot, and Mantoani has created over 150 of the portraits already since starting the project five years ago.

Michael Zhang

A 35-Foot-Long Camera That Exposes 6-Foot-Tall Negatives

For his project Vanishing Cultures, photographer Dennis Manarchy is traveling around the country documenting various cultures with a one-of-a-kind, 35-foot-long camera called "Eye of America". Styled like an old fashioned large format camera, it's so large that a person can work comfortably inside it. The negatives measure 6x4.5 feet, and are so large that windows must be used as lightboxes to examine them. The detail in a portrait subjects' eyeball alone is a thousand times greater than what you get with the average negative. Resulting portraits will be featured on prints 2 stories tall.

Michael Zhang

Classic Album Covers With Dead Band Members Removed

Reminiscent of the Fatescapes series we featured recently, LIVE ! is an ongoing project by Hatim el Hihi and Jean-Marie Delbes in which they post classic album covers that have had deceased band members carefully Photoshopped out of them.

Michael Zhang

Bathtub Self-Portraits in Bizarre Locations

Japanese photographer Mariko Sakaguchi has a curious self-portrait series in which she photographs herself sitting in a bathtub in all kinds of random locations, which range from business offices to lecture halls.

Michael Zhang

Diptychs of Clouds and Cloud Watchers

Before We Begin is a project by photographer Christopher Jonassen (whose frying pan photos we featured here) that consists of diptychs showing clouds and cloud watchers. The images capture peaceful "moments of reflection between thought and action."

Michael Zhang

Photographer Collects Photographs of Identical Twins

Diane Arbus might have one iconic photograph of identical twins, but Spanish photographer Maria Zarazua has devoted much of her career to finding and photographing them. Her goal is to show the intimate relationship between them, and their individualities despite being genetic carbon copies.

Michael Zhang

Leg Hair Font: A Bizarre Typeface Created with Photos of Leg Hair

Mayuko Kanazawa of Tama Art University in Japan was recently given the assignment of creating a typeface without the aid of a computer. She decided to use a camera, but instead of doing a more ordinary alphabet photo project, she decided to photograph leg hair manipulated into different characters.

Michael Zhang

Display a Giant Photo on Your Wall Using Wooden Boards

Inspired by Caleb Ungewitter's giant poster project, Andy Beckmann decided to try his hand at making a nicer version. Instead of attaching prints to the wall directly, Beckmann purchased 36 210x297mm wooden boards to mount the prints on (the photo was split into smaller prints using PosteRazor). The result is a more durable and professional looking display that can be easily reused in a different location.

Michael Zhang

Image Fulgurator Adds Graffiti to Other People’s Photographs

The Image Fulgurator is a brilliant device created -- and patented -- by Berlin-based artist Julius von Bismarck. It's an optically triggered slave flash that fires through the back of a camera, projecting a message or image on the film through the lens -- basically, it's an optically triggered projector. What this allows von Bismarck to do is prank unsuspecting photographers by adding random pictures or words into their photographs whenever they use their camera's flash.

Michael Zhang

Man Disguises Digital Camera as 70-Year-Old Vintage Camera to Troll Strangers

John (AKA knife141) loves turning junk into unusual creations, and one day came up with idea of building a camera for the sole purpose of confusing strangers. He took a $15 digicam and transformed it into a Argus C3 from the mid-1900s:

My goal was to install a modern digital camera inside the housing of an old, obsolete camera. I thought it might be fun to pull this camera out in a crowd of people and make them wonder why in the world an old man would continue to use a camera that was obviously as old as he was, as opposed to something more modern.

[...] I've had a lot of fun with this camera, taking it places and watching people's puzzled looks as I appear to be using an old beat-up camera that was made about the time I was born! I have even had people approach me and ask if I can still get film developed -- with no idea that the heart of my camera is actually digital! I have also had people ask me how many pictures I can take with the camera, and they always look puzzled when I tell them, "Oh, around 4,000 or so."

Michael Zhang

Bizarre Portraits Showing Parents and Kids with Swapped Heads

Advertising photographer Paul Ripke's project "Man Babies" features portraits of parents with their children... with their heads swapped. Ripke enlisted the help of two professional Photoshoppin' friends, and says that the photographs were purely for fun and to test the limits of Photoshop.

Michael Zhang

Famous Places Photographed in Bubbles

While on vacation in Ireland five years ago and browsing a street fair, photographer Tom Storm captured a few shots of bubbles floating past. After reviewing the photos and discovering that a whole world was captured in the bubbles, he began to intentionally photograph bubbles while visiting landmarks around the world.