Intensely Vivid Photographs Iran’s Mosques By Mohammad Domiri

Mohammad Domiri, a remarkably talented Iranian photographer, has amassed this startlingly gorgeous portfolio of the interiors of Middle Eastern mosques.

Eerily Beautiful Monkey Portraits by Hiroshi Watanabe

From US-based photographer Hiroshi Watanabe's exhibit titled Suo Sarumawashi.

via The Fox Is Black

Thumbs In Place of Guns

Thumbs and Ammo posits the idea: would it be funny to replace guns with thumbs up in stills from movies?  

YES! 

A Dream Treehouse Built by a Road Trip Photographer

Photographer Foster Huntington built this treehouse in Washington State near Oregon and called it 'The Cinder Cone'.

"[I was] inspired by the people and places I’d seen during my time on the road".

His kickstarter campaign is for the gorgeous book of photos documenting the whole process and end result.

Flying Over Jordan

Photographer Scott Sporleder and founder of travel site Matador Network, Ross Borden, have captured a varied and gorgeous landscapes, ruins and monuments of Jordan with an aerial done.

Flying Kinetic Sculptures with Blowdriers

French magician and juggler Antoine Terrieux, uses hair dryers in his performances, created these series of kinetic sculptures that seem to defy gravity.

Insane 4k Calbuco Eruption Footage

After nearly 40 years of being dormant, Calbuco in Chile erupted last spring. Here is jaw-dropping 4k footage.  

Kite Aerial Photography - Intimate and Amazing Shots from Above

Kite Aerial Photography is a surprisingly powerful way to capture intimate aerial photography.

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via Kuriositas

Zebras: Nude Photos from Francis Giacobetti (Slightly NSFW)

Giacobetti:

"Naked bodies dressed in shadow. Sunbathed photos undressed by light."

"Nudes that do not seem to be nudes."

"The famous encounter between desire and an object, and waves.”

See also One Thousand and One Dreams »

via MashKulture

The Art of Making - Flamenco Guitar

The Art of Making is an ongoing series, each film focusing on the process and materials. The carpenter and the red dress are fantastic too, but this, the making of a flamenco guitar is out of this world great. ​

via Core 77

Gravity Illusions on the Hills of San Francisco

Without using any green screen, these optical illusions are simpler than they appear. Really, just titling the camera to level with the sidewalk creates what seem like gravity defying feats.

This from the mind of filmmaker Ross Ching and star dancer Karen Cheng.

Stars Wars Gone Medieval

As part of a design assignment, Thai art student Chawakarn Khongprasert made these illustrated scenes.
​

via Visual News

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Video Games If They Were Medieval Religious Paintings

The imaginative work of Dan Hernandez (in his exhibition at New York's Kim Foster Gallery) takes the structure and narrative of Sega-era video games and redoes them visually and symbolically with religious imagery. 

Titled Genesis 2014 (for the Sega Genesis console) includes side scrolling fighting games to top-down shooters. I want to see a kickstarter project to turn these into actual videos games soon.

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Remarkably Sharp Photos of Snowflakes Shot with a DIY Camera

Russian photographer Alexey Kijatov connected an old and cheap 44M-5 Helios lens to his Canon Powershot A650 with a wooden plank, tape screw, and a piece of glass. Details of his build on his blog.

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via Beautiful Decay

Life with Gypsies in Europe and India

German photographer Joakim Eskildsen lived with Roma people in several European countries and in India. These are some of the amazing photos from his book: The Roma Journeys

via Cracked Two

5 Wikipedia Links - An Lushan Rebellion, Tang Dynasty, The Battle of Talas, Nanzhao & Man'yōgana

You know the feeling. There's mention of something you only have a dim idea of, which sends you to wikipedia. An hour or two later and you are 5 layers deep in a part of the world, history or ideas you'd never heard of. 

So it was for me today. Here are my 5 new wikipedia links:

1. An Lushan Rebellion An year long rebellion against the Tang that led to the largest proportional loss of life in history.
2. Tang Dynasty The dynasty most often considered to be the most cosmopolitan, rivaling the height of the Roman Empire in grandeur and influence.
3. The Battle of Talas A  between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate along with their ally the Tibetan Empire and the Chinese Tang Dynasty, then under Emperor Xuanzong, in July 751 C.E. Perhaps the origin of paper's move to the West.
4. Nanzhao A distinct people in what is now Southern China.
5. Man'yōgana The old Japanese use of Chinese characters to phonetically write their our language.

Tang Dynasty

Man'yogana

General An Lushan

Nanzho

Mesmerizing Self-Drawing Sand Drawing Machine

The Sisyphus Machine uses moving magnets under the sand tray to roll the steel balls, etching out these Zen-inspired patterns. Created by Bruce Shapiro, a former physician who has working on computerized motion as an artist for the last 25 years.

Smooth Handed Hand-Lettering Master Glen Weisgerber

Glen Weisgerber taught himself how to pinstripe in the early 1970s painting: truck lettering, race cars, logo designs, guitars and bike customizations.

Airbrush Action Magazine captured him demonstrating a bunch of different hand lettering techniques including single stroke lettering, and chrome lettering. 

via Colossal

Rock Climbing Light Painting With Long Exposure and Glow Sticks

The set is a lot like the Glowstick Trails in NightWaterfalls we saw a couple of days ago. ​

 

via PetaPixel

Stunning Paper Birds from Diana Beltrán Herrera

Colombian artist, Diana Beltran Herrera makes these bright and beautiful birds out of paper. Her work is exhibited around the world.  

See also Unbelievable Papercraft Birds

via Flickr