January 2012

Michael Zhang

Steve Jobs Was Considering Lytro In His Quest to Reinvent Photography

In November of last year, Steve Jobs' official biographer Walter Isaacson revealed that Jobs had wanted to reinvent three things: television, textbooks, and photography. Last week Apple announced that it was reinventing textbooks with iBooks 2, which is intended to start a digital textbook revolution. The company is also rumored to be working on a Siri-enabled TV. Now, hints about what Steve Jobs wanted to do with photography are starting to emerge, and the murmuring is centered around one company: Lytro.

Michael Zhang

Canon 5D Mark III Spotted in Kenya?

Photographer Stephen Oachs over at Aperture Academy caused quite a stir yesterday after sharing some photographs he took of a Japanese photographer he spotted in Kenya. The photographer revealed that he was field testing a new Canon 200-400mm with a built-in teleconverter, but what caught Oachs attention was the camera body the man was using -- a Canon DSLR that he didn't recognize. He writes,

You can see it in the photos I took... I see the "Q" button located by the big wheel on the right, which on the 7D is currently located on the top left. The battery grip seems to have a joystick. I also noticed a "Rate" button...hrm, any ideas?

Is this the new 5D Mark III, or maybe the 7D Mark II? This info I was not able to determine.

Michael Zhang

Haunting Portraits of the Homeless

Photographer Lee Jeffries worked as a sports photographer before having a chance encounter one day with a young homeless girl on a London street. After stealthily photographing the girl huddled in her sleeping bag, Jeffries decided to approach and talk with her rather than disappear with the photograph. That day changed his perception about the homeless, and he then decided to make them the subject of his photography. Jeffries makes portraits of homeless people he meets in Europe and in the US, and makes it a point to get to know them before asking to create the portraits. His photographs are gritty, honest, and haunting.

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

Beautiful Photos of IKEA Kitchen Items Neatly Arranged

IKEA scored a viral advertising hit in 2010 when it released a cookbook with photographs by Carl Kleiner showing the ingredients of each recipe neatly arranged on a table. Now, the Swedish furniture company has teamed up with the photographer and stylist Evelina Kleiner again for a series of photographs showing kitchen items in beautiful arrangements.

Michael Zhang

A Photographer Who Throws Herself at Men, Literally

Photographer Lilly McElroy has a unique series of photos titled I Throw Myself At Men that consists of self-portraits showing her launching herself into the arms of strangers.

For this project I went to a lot of bars and I literally threw myself at men who I didn't know. I used my body as a projectile, hurling myself toward strong, vulnerable men who were waiting to catch me. Poised in a perpetual state of social awkwardness and in full possession of the ability to subvert stereotypical gender roles, the photographs pose questions concerning relationships, social connection, sex, gender, and the desire to form relationships quickly that are both intense and long lasting.

The project got started after McElroy placed ads on Craigslist asking for men who'd be willing to meet blind date-style in bars and have McElroy throw herself at them.

Michael Zhang

Double: A Blue Sky and White Vapor Trail

Upon first glance, the photograph Double by photographer Katsuhiro Saiki might look like some sort of abstract modern painting of a blue canvas divided by a thin white line. Look a little closer, and you'll find that it's actually a photograph of the sky divided neatly in half by an airplane vapor trail.

Michael Zhang

Kodak Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Well, the rumors were true: today the iconic photography company Kodak announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What this means is that the company is given permission to continue its normal operations as it struggles to restructure and transform into a sustainable business.

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.