I’m addicted to the work of various photographers that capture amazing imagery of urban life. But what about imagery of completely created spaces that don’t actually exist? Artist Lori Nix photographs spaces however the twist is that they are spaces completely created by her as dioramas and not a single thing has been edited in the computer. She even chooses to work with film. Her work, like the image above, because it creates this magical world somewhere between reality and fiction through her lens. Her scenes from “The City” bring to reality the question of what might happen when people no longer inhabit our cities and nature has taken over – the ruins of modern day life.

Other projects like “Accidentally Kansas” create images from her own memories of the bizarreness surrounding reality and “Unnatural History” is based around the 1940′s when science was a bit fuzzy.

In Lori’s words, she describes her inspiration:

I am fascinated, maybe even a little obsessed, with the idea of the apocalypse. In addition to my childhood experiences with natural disasters, I also grew up watching 1970s films known as “disaster flicks”. I remember watching Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Planet of Apes and sitting in awe in the dark. Here was the same type of dangers I had experienced day to day being magnified and played out on the big screen in a typical Hollywood way. Each of these experiences has greatly influenced my photographic work. The series Accidentally Kansas explored my personal experience with the natural disasters of my childhood. The City postulates what it would be like to live in a city that is post man-kind, where man has left his mark by the architecture, but mother nature is taking back these spaces. Flora, fauna and insects mix with the detris of high and low culture.

images via Lori Nix

The world as it is today is in many ways an alien landscape from what it once was many years ago. Industry has cut right angles and sharp edges into the earth and new materials and technologies have created unnatural forms. The spaces that are leftover are often unwordly, even disturbing. And yet the very same spaces can be intriguing and even beautiful.

After going through some old photographs recently of an area which has been greatly transformed to the point that it doesn’t even resemble nature anymore, I’m reminded of a photographer that I particularly enjoy, Edward Burtynksy. The Canadian photographer has built a career based on examining these very spaces – the landscape which has been transformed by industry. In Burtynksy’s own words:

I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.

These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire – a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

There is also a great audio interview with Edward Burtynsky from LensCulture about his work in China. And of course, definitely check out the 2006 feature-length documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, on the work of Burtynsky and as well as his travels through China while shooting the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution.

images via Edward Burtynsky

Perhaps inspired by the most recent holiday and the fireworks show I witnessed down on Lake Union, as seen in the above photo I took from the new South Lake Union Park, I have been looking at a lot of imagery related to displays of light and the actions of electricity. However, it’s not the overall display that has caught my attention but rather the details.

Some of the most intriguing imagery is that of Hiroshi Sugimoto in his project titled Lighting Fields. The artists description of this project:

The word electricity is thought to derive from the ancient Greek elektron, meaning “amber.” When subject to friction, materials such as amber and fur produce an effect that we now know as static electricity. Related phenomena were studied in the eighteenth century, most notably by Benjamin Franklin. To test his theory that lightning is electricity, in 1752 Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm. He conducted the experiment at great danger to himself; in fact, other researchers were electrocuted while conducting similar experiments. He not only proved his hypothesis, but also that electricity has positive and negative charges.

In 1831, Michael Faraday’s formulation of the law of electromagnetic induction led to the invention of electric generators and transformers, which dramatically changed the quality of human life. Far less well-known is that Faraday’s colleague, William Fox Talbot, was the father of calotype photography. Fox Talbot’s momentous discovery of the photosensitive properties of silver alloys led to the development of positive-negative photographic imaging. The idea of observing the effects of electrical discharges on photographic dry plates reflects my desire to re-create the major discoveries of these scientific pioneers in the darkroom and verify them with my own eyes.

The images take on an interesting quality that exhibit the characteristsics of such things as water, land and vegetation – painted with brushes of light. The intricacies are amazing with softer areas that look like hair or grassy hills with bright points of light sprouting into trees. Simply stunning.

images via Hiroshi Sugimoto

Amsterdam-based photographer Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk has created a series titled The Andromeda Strain that focuses more on the notion of discovery than the place itself. The images conjure up thoughts of a space or time perhaps untouched or undiscovered by humans. I personally found some of the imagery, shapes, patterns and colors to be incredibly intriguing and thought provoking. Words from the artist about this series, via featureshoot:

After making many landscape photographs I realized the search for special places is more important than the place itself. The notion of discovery has been always intimately linked to photography. The cliche of the photographer as an explorer of unknown and rough places became a starting point to construct images. I played with the “National Geographic:-language essentially without leaving my hometown. I searched for locations that, after small interventions, can fit in an imaginary travelogue. Using low-budget special effects and lighting I staged natural phenomena and imagery. To this work made on location I added still-lives constructed in the studio. Referring to nature and scientific photography, the tabletop landscapes create confusion on the overall status of the series. I often choose material that has a perishable or unpredictable quality, like foam or spaghetti. No Photoshop is used to achieve the effects. The artificial and the real, and the different sources the image is based on, should be present simultaneously.

images via Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

Spotted while enjoying a day at the beach last weekend on the Oregon Coast.

There’s no doubt, water should not look like that. In the Chaohu Lake in Heifei, China, it does. At least for now. But with the country putting the cleanup of it’s waterways on in it’s sights, having invested over $7 billion towards the treatment of eight rivers and lakes in 2009, hopefully things like this algae filled lake will soon be an image of the past.

Despite the unnatural state of this water, there is an amazing amount of beauty in the image. The fisherman can be seen instead as a painter, his oar the brush and the water the canvas that supplies it’s own paint. He stirs the water, skimming across the canvas in his boat and with simple strokes applies the color. He paints his movements through this somewhat surreal landscape.

image via boston globe

Gullies in Northern Hemisphere Crater

South Polar Carbon Dioxide Ice Cap

“Because Mars is so much colder, however, the seasonal ice that gets deposited at high latitudes in the winter and is removed in the spring (generally analogous to winter-time snow on Earth) is actually carbon dioxide ice. Around the south pole there are areas of this carbon dioxide ice that do not disappear every spring, but rather survive winter after winter. This persistent carbon dioxide ice is called the south polar residual cap, and is what we are looking at in this HiRISE image.”

USGS Dune Database Entry

Exposure of Polar Layered Deposits (PLD) with Unconformities

“The PLD holds clues to past climate regimes similar to ice cores on Earth. Several of the layers occur in fairly regular sequences, as seen in this image, suggesting that Mars underwent cyclic climate changes in the past.”

USGS Dune Database Entry

Monitoring of South Polar Residual Ice Cap Erosion

Edge Along Gale Crater Interior Mound

Bouncing Boulders

“Most debris on crater walls slides straight downhill. In this HiRISE image we see examples of boulders that have bounced downhill, not necessarily vertically. A prominent example looks like a dotted line from the top of the crater wall where the boulder took off to the crater floor where it finally came to rest. Numerous boulders have slid partway down toward the crater floor, which is covered by sand dunes. This is actually a small crater (approximately 1 kilometer wide) within an unnamed but much larger approximately 30 kilometer crater.”

It has been divided into two parts, both of which are below…

Helen Levitt, a New York photographer known for her amazing work in documenting the urban experience within the streets of New York City, passed away this year at the age of 95. She truly had a way of seeing and through those eyes she saw a vibrant place, bursting with life. She had a way of capturing the culture through film. Her photos will live on and continue to inspire.

images via stephen daiter gallery,masters of photography and ground glass

I absolutely love graffiti but not only spray can kind, the momentary kind as well. More and more graffiti artists are using light to express themselves and creating amazing works of art in a matter of seconds. Artists Michael Bosanko has made some that I think are really fun and they use light to bring life to otherwise uninhabited spaces under the light of the moon.

images via michael bosanko

Environmental Graffiti had a great post awhile back on America’s Rivers From Above that I really enjoyed. Rivers are nature’s artist…carving away stone, creating sensual curves and creating amazing scultpural landscapes. Just like the structure of a tree, I have a great fascination with rivers and often love to study them and draw them, practicing various curving forms and branch-like patterns. Once I found myself scribbling such curves on a restaurant napkin with a children’s crayon left behind from someone previously at the table. These photos are beautiful.

images via Environmental Graffiti