Photography

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Photography

Strong Winds Sculpt Frozen Sand into Otherworldly Pillars on a Lake Michigan Beach

All images © Joshua Nowicki, shared with permission

Last weekend in St. Joseph, Michigan, tall layered pedestals and sloping tables sprung up from the otherwise calm Tiscornia Park Beach, turning the lakeside vista into a strange, otherworldly environment. Photographer Joshua Nowicki (previously) captured the ice-laden phenomenon, which is caused by powerful winds eroding frozen sand and carving dozens of towering shapes haphazardly placed along the shore.

The unearthly constructions, which look like miniature hoodoos, arise periodically during Great Lakes winters, although Nowicki says these 15-inch formations are some of the tallest he’s stumbled upon. “They do not last very long (usually only a couple of days). The wind completely erodes them or knocks them down. If the temperature goes up above freezing they crumble, and often in the winter, they soon get covered by drifting snow,” he shares.

Find more of Nowicki’s photos documenting the sights of the Midwest’s infamously frigid season on Instagram.

Photography Science

Rare Footage Captures the Luminous Tentacles of the Psychedelic Jellyfish as It Floats Through the Pacific Ocean

The findings coming out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Insitute continue to amaze us: new footage from a recent ROV dive into the midnight zone of Monterey Canyon in the Pacific Ocean captures the incredibly rare psychedelic jellyfish and its vibrant body. First discovered in 2018, the elusive creature has luminous, spindly tentacles that, when drifting in the water, appear like colorful light trails rather than gelatinous appendages. The footage shares glimpses of both male and female specimens and their distinct body parts, and you also might want to watch this phantom jellyfish and its 33-foot limbs. (via Laughing Squid)

History Photography

Exquisite Architectural Photos by Andrew Moore Glimpse Life in Late '90s Cuba

All images © Andrew Moore, shared with permission

Between September 1998 and January 2001, Andrew Moore traveled around Cuba meeting residents and photographing them among their built environments. He snapped more than 700 8 x 10 color negatives during that period, producing a staggering visual record of a particular moment in the country’s history primarily shown through its architecture.

Through Moore’s lens, Cuba’s palatial residences and generally lavish interiors with marble and gilded details are shown tinged with decay: Paint peels from a ceiling to reveal structural wooden slats, broken windows are left in disrepair, and mismatched outdoor seating and modern appliances become out-of-place furnishings in once opulent rooms.

Shot mostly in urban metropolises, the alluring images are evidence of architecture’s power to both respond to and produce a community’s way of life. Havana, Moore shares with Colossal, is built vertically, with tile roofs, high ceilings, and tall windows that encircle central courtyards and offer relief from the fierce heat and sun. “The daylight is generally hard and creates deep shadows, while by night, which falls quickly, the city is quite dark with little by way of street lighting,” he says. Outdoor walls bleach over time from the sun, and verdant foliage and plant life grow in lush tufts from window boxes and landscaped villas.

Many of the buildings Moore photographed were constructed before air-conditioning was ubiquitous and at the time, hadn’t undergone significant updates. During his visit—Cuba and its residents were notably experiencing the effects of U.S. embargos between 1998 and 2001—this resulted in dozens of residents living together in a structure designed for single families. He explains:

These domestic clusters are known as solars. Given these crowded living conditions, and the tropical climate, Havana can seem like a city inside out: in their extraordinary activity, the overflowing streets remind one of a vast living room. Thus it became of particular importance to me to depict the architectural fabric of this unique city and country within the context of its people.

Residents, while often seen in the distance of the frame, add intimacy and humanity to the series. Along with assistants Ondrej Kubicek, Laurence Dutton, Kevin Fletcher, and Bart Michels, Moore interacted with locals and heard stories about their lives, which were translated by his friend Paquito Vives, while producing the collection. “All of us learned about the city by walking its streets, by knocking on doors, and through talking with the residents about the history of their city,” he shares. “People would frequently complain about the condition of their houses, but they were always friendly and most freely invited us into their homes for a small coffee and long conversations.”

Professionally for Moore, this staggering body of work was his first chance to gather “color harmony, natural light, deep and shallow space, narrative detail, cultural history, and the human figure” within a single image. It was inspired by Julius Schulman’s photos of Mid-Century Modern architecture and the way people configure within a space, a concern that’s visible throughout his extensive archive of locales in Russia and Ukraine, New York, and Detroit.

Currently based in Kingston, New York, Moore has published six volumes of his photos, and you can find two of the most recent, Blue Alabama and Dirt Meridian, on Bookshop. He’s currently preparing for a solo show featuring Hudson Valley landscapes, which will be on view in 2023 at Yancey Richardson. Until then, see more of his work on his site and Instagram. (via swissmiss)

Design Food Photography

Everyday Objects Are Organized into Perfect Geometric Shapes in Kristen Meyer's Flat Lays

All images © Kristen Meyer, shared with permission

Kristen Meyer (previously) pinpoints the unique crossroads of organization and art in her meticulous flat lays. Influenced by interior decorating, prop styling, and floristry, the New Haven-based designer constructs precise geometric shapes and network-esque compositions from humble materials like eggshell shards, office supplies, candy, and disassembled bouquets. At once streamlined in material and rich in depth and texture, the dazzling works use implied outlines and negative space to construct interesting categorizations within squares and perfectly round circles.

Each work is a product of collaboration with Meyer’s husband Colin, who shoots all of the final images. You can explore an archive of her work on Instagram, and browse prints in her shop.

Art Photography

Explore Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' in Astounding Detail in an Interactive 717-Gigapixel Photo

All images courtesy of Rijksmuseum

Totaling a whopping 717 gigapixels, a new photo of Rembrandt’s 1642 painting “The Night Watch” unveils an astounding array of minuscule details and precise artistic choices behind the Dutch Golden Age masterpiece. A team at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which is currently housing the art historical work, captured 8,439 individual images to create the gigantic composite that leaves just 0.0002 inches between each pixel, which themselves are smaller than a red blood cell.

One of Rembrandt’s most iconic works, “The Night Watch”—its formal titles include “Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq” and “The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch”—stretches 11.91 x 14.34 feet and is evidence of the artist’s famed use of light and shadow and ability to imbue movement into the cast of nearly life-size characters. Rijksmuseum’s composite now shows the cracked texture of the paint, brushstrokes, and slight pigment variations that wouldn’t be visible even if you were standing in front of the work itself. Zoom in on hard-to-see spots like the blurred fur of a reactive dog, the gleaming light that bounces off guns and the figures’ ornamental clothing, and the gray-blue tones underlying the captain’s facial features. The magnifiable image also retains evidence of the damage done by a knife gash in 1975.

In addition to this project, the team used artificial intelligence to restore pieces that had been cut off the original painting in 1715, including two shooters on the left side and part of a soldier’s helmet on the right. You also might enjoy this 10 billion pixel panorama of Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” (via New Atlas)

Photography

A Stunning Photo Documents the Colorful Comet Leonard Streaking Through the Nighttime Sky

Image © Andrew McCarthy, shared with permission

Set against a star-studded backdrop, Comet Leonard, aka the Chrismas Comet, blazed overhead on December 26, emitting a colorful stream of light that illuminated the dark skies. Andrew McCarthy (previously) documented the celestial body as it hurtled over the Arizona horizon and created this striking, magnified composite of 25 separate shots. The image, along with a wider photo shown below, captures the brilliant colors surrounding the nucleus as it flies 150,000 miles per hour through space. Comet Leonard was first spotted about 466 million miles away on January 3, 2021, and is making its closest pass to the sun exactly one year later, before it’s expelled from our solar system entirely.

McCarthy details his 12-minute process for documenting the body on PetaPixel—watch this clip to see how far the comet moved during that period—and explore his wide range of astrophotography on Instagram and his site, where he also sells prints.