Category / Photography

The Floating Temple: How to Lift a Seven Million Pound, 112-year-old Building

The Floating Temple: How to Lift a Seven Million Pound, 112 year old Building history churches architecture

Something’s up in Provo, Utah and it weighs around seven million pounds. It’s the 112-year-old exterior of the Provo Tabernacle that was severely damaged in a 2010 fire but has since been saved by the LDS church so it can be converted into a temple. Engineers first gutted the damaged interior and then supported the exterior walls with special scaffolding as they dug down to create space for a two story basement, so in actuality the building hasn’t even moved. The entire structure is now on stilts some 40 feet in the air and from some angles appears to be floating above ground, such as in the first photograph above provided by Brian Hansen. Additional photos courtesy the LDS Newsroom.

Put Down the iPhone and Pickup an ONDU Wooden Pinhole Camera

Put Down the iPhone and Pickup an ONDU Wooden Pinhole Camera wood cameras

Through his brand ONDU, woodworker Elvis Halilović has been making lensless pinhole cameras for over seven years along with a wide variety of ceramic and structural objects, including kits for geodesic domes. This week the Slovenian designer unveiled a beautifully designed series of pinhole cameras made from wood and held together in part by strong magnets. Forget your camera phone, filters, and “likes,” these tough little lensless film cameras are old school and completely manual, relying on direct exposure of light to film. The cameras come in six different dimensions and film sizes, from the more common Leica 135 format to a 4″ x 5″ film holder camera, and looking at the examples above they really do seem capable of making some beautiful photos. You can learn more over on Kickstarter. (via THEmag)

By Christopher on May 16, 2013 • cameras wood

Black and White Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Black and White Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro underwater ocean Indonesia black and white

Underwater photography of scuba divers, coral, or wildlife can sometimes seem commonplace regardless of the remote destination or subject, but Indonesian photographer Hengki Koentjoro (previously here and here) bucks the trend with his desaturated, dark, and often brooding images taken in and around Jakarta, Indonesia. While his landscape photography above ground is often dreamlike and mysterious, as soon as the blue is removed from the ocean it introduces a slightly menacing tone that while deeply beautiful, sets the viewer a little on edge. Oh and also the sharks. Koentjoro is one of my favorite photographers right now and you should get lost in his photos for a bit. Find him on 500px, Flickr, and Art Limited. (via my amp goes to 11)

By Christopher on May 15, 2013 • black and white Indonesia ocean underwater

The Art of Being in the Right Place at the Right Time: Street Photographs by Lesley Ann Ercolano

The Art of Being in the Right Place at the Right Time: Street Photographs by Lesley Ann Ercolano street photography

Looking at the varied situations, locations and subjects in Lesley Ann Ercolano’s Flickr photostream it becomes clear she must rarely, if ever, be without a camera. Without use of particularly fancy equipment or intensive post-processing, the Scottish/Italian photographer instead relies on the uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time to capture brilliant shots that exist for just a split second in her viewfinder. Ercolano shoots almost exclusively in locations around her native Edinburgh, revealing a quirky, occasionally mysterious side of a city she describes as generally more reserved and private. She tells SPNC:

I live and work in the city centre so this is where I mainly take my photos but at weekends with more free time I tend to venture further out of town and weather permitting Portobello beach is one of the places I like to go to hunt for some nice shadows. People here in Edinburgh are often very reserved/private and I respect that. Perhaps this is not a difficulty but it certainly influences what I decide to shoot. The advantages of living in such a fantastic city like Edinburgh are the mix of old and new. History, mystery and a little madness come together to create some magic which is what I love the most.

Ercolano’s work has appeared three times as part of Colossal’s Flickr Finds series, and you can read an interview with her over on SPNC. (via booooooom)

By Christopher on May 13, 2013 • street photography

Photographer Imagines What the Models of Famous Paintings Looked Like

Photographer Imagines What the Models of Famous Paintings Looked Like painting humor art history

In her Real Life Models series 19-year-old Hungarian photographer Flora Borsi imagines what the models of contorted and skewed paintings must have looked like if they were distorted in real life. Through some pretty hilarious photo manipulation Borsi examines the models for paintings by Kees van Dongen, Rudolf Hausner, and Picasso among others. The series is somewhat similar to photographer Eugenio Recuenco who re-imagined Picasso’s paintings as modern day fashion models. Several of Borsi’s works are now available as prints over on Saatchi Online.

By Christopher on May 13, 2013 • art history humor painting

Composite Image of the Moon Taken from 47 Photos Reveals Solar Corona During a Total Solar Eclipse

Composite Image of the Moon Taken from 47 Photos Reveals Solar Corona During a Total Solar Eclipse moon astronomy

Shot by Czech photographer Miloslav Druckmüller from the Brno University of Technology, these amazing composite images capture the moon during a total solar eclipse revealing a vast solar corona. To achieve the crystal clear effect the shots are comprised from some 40+ photos taken with two different lenses. Additional clarity was achieved due to the incredibly remote location chosen to view the eclipse from, a pier just outside the Enewetak Radiological Observatory on the Marshall Islands, smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You can see several more images from the project at Druckmüller’s website and don’t miss this much higher resolution version including some 209 stars. All images courtesy the photographer. (via this isn’t happiness)

By Christopher on May 9, 2013 • astronomy moon

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Bicycle, 1980s; Raleigh; Component count: 893. Photo reproduced with the permission of Thames & Hudson.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Chainsaw, 1990s; Homelite; Component count: 286. Photo reproduced with the permission of Thames & Hudson.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Laptop Computer, 2006; Apple; Component count: 639. Photo reproduced with the permission of Thames & Hudson.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Children’s Wagon, 2011; Schwinn; Component count: 296. Photo reproduced with the permission of Thames & Hudson.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Smartphone, 2007; BlackBerry; Component count: 120. Photo reproduced with the permission of Thames & Hudson.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books
Swiss Army Knife, 2000s; Victorinox; Component count: 38.

Things Come Apart, 50 Disassembled Objects in 21,959 Individual Parts by Todd McLellan objects books

I’ll never forget the excitement I felt the first time I disassembled a telephone. I was eight years old, on our back porch with just an old screwdriver and a pair of pliers, but seeing what was inside this everyday object was a discovery akin to unearthing a dinosaur. The sudden knowledge that the speaker part was magnetic and contained a mile of thin copper wiring was practically miraculous. When the day was over, I was surrounded by pieces of am/fm radio, an old handheld video game, and a toy car, none of which would ever be assembled again, but that really wasn’t the point. Master disassembler Todd McLellan remarks on a similar childhood discovery in his latest book, Things Come Apart from Thames & Hudson, but for him, it wasn’t fleeting like it was with me. It was the beginning of his life-long career in documenting the technological methods of modern mass production in reverse.

In Things Come Apart, McLellan exposes the inner working of 50 objects and 21,959 individual components as he reflects on the permanence of vintage machines built several decades ago—sturdy gadgets meant to be broken and repaired—versus today’s manufacturing trend of limited use followed by quick obsolescence. Captured in his photography are myriad parts laid flat and organized by function, creating recontextualized images of wagons, chainsaws, computers, and phones. He also shoots high-speed photos of carefully orchestrated drops where pieces are shot in midair as they come crashing down, creating impressive visual explosions. Also appearing in the book is his pièce de résistance: a Zenith CH 650 aircraft photographed as individual components.

The book is officially published tomorrow, but you can order it now on Amazon and Thames & Hudson. All images copyright Todd McLellan courtesy of the publisher.

Update: If you’re in Chicago, McLellan currently has an exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry through May 19th.

By Christopher on May 6, 2013 • books objects

Liquid Sculptures: Powerful Waves Photographed by Pierre Carreau Seem Frozen in Time

Liquid Sculptures: Powerful Waves Photographed by Pierre Carreau Seem Frozen in Time waves water ocean high speed

Photographer Pierre Carreau was born in 1972 near Paris surrounded by a family of artists including a photographer, painter and sculptor, all of which would influence his creative upbringing as well as his artistic output. As a child he was always fascinated by the manifestation of waves and the diversity of color, shape, and size found in each of them. Some of his first photography projects involved work for surfing magazines and water sport equipment manufacturers.

Carreau’s work has now moved into fine art as he shoots waves with a variety of high speed cameras using various macro and wide angle lenses, capturing water shapes that appear more sculptural than liquid. These are truly some of the most remarkable wave photos I’ve ever seen and you can see many, many more over on his website. He also has a number of fine art prints available over at Clic Gallery.