James and Other Apes is a photography project by James Mollison:

While watching a nature program on primates I was struck by their facial similarity to our own. Humans are clearly different to animals, but the great apes inhabit that grey area between man and animal. I thought it would be interesting to try to photograph gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans using the aesthetic of the passport photograph- its ubiquitous style inferring the idea of identity.

I decided against photographing in zoos or using ‘animal actors’ but traveled to Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia to meet orphans of the bush meat trade and live pet trade.

via Petapixel

There is a lot of hype surrounding the Lady Gaga-inspired Polaroid video glasses/goggles, but I am more interested in the new GL30 camera , a digital camera plus a Zink printer in a semi-retro semi-modern but still true to Polaroid roots form factor.

via Fast Company

I have always loved looking at photos of poison dart frogs. Their vibrant colors and high contrast color-on-black patterning always make me think of them as other-worldly. More pics at Nat Geo.

First off, I don’t know how Jon Rafman finds these particular instances on Google Streetview. It must take a tremendous amount of patience.

Secondly, Google Streetview has caught some interesting moments, huh? I know that there are ways to stage the streetviews, but the most interesting ones are the obviously spontaneous images.

Via Jia Za Zhi.

Surreal photographs/prints by Jim Kazanjian.

via Best Bookmarks

Nat Geo Photo Contest 2010 is on again. The Big Picture has a few of this year’s contenders on display. I always love seeing photos of huge storms and the raw power of nature. Photographers for the above are Sean Heavy and Jay Fine.

Edward Burtynsky’s photos from his Railcuts series are amazing.

His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions. The natural landscapes appear so strong and solid, yet humans have left their mark through railroad and quarry cuts.

The body of work is beautiful – check it out here. The Big Think recently conducted an interview with Edward, too, which you can watch here.

Via Rachel Hulin.

Jonas Bendiksen’s “Satellites” book is a compilation of some amazing photos. My favorites are the photos of the spacecraft crash zones. So cool.

The Soviet collapse spawned 15 new countries that are now established members of the international community. However, economic, political and ethnic disparities also gave birth to a series of far less known unrecognized republics, national aspirations and legacies. “Satellites” is the culmination of Jonas Bendiksen’s fascinating seven-year photographic journey through unrecognized countries, enclaves, and isolated communities on the periphery of the former Soviet Union. The itinerary goes through places such as Transdniester, a breakaway republic in Eastern Europe, Abkhazia, an unrecognized country on the Black Sea, the religiously conservative Ferghana Valley in Central Asia, the spacecraft crash zones between Russia and Kazakhstan, and the Jewish Autonomous Region of Far Eastern Russia.

15 years after the fall of the USSR, Bendiksen’s haunting photographs and text explore these restless territories’ search for historical, religious and ideological identity, and forms a timely look into unfinished chapters of Soviet history.

Via The Middle Ground…

Back in July, I posted about the NIF. It got the Big Picture Treatment last week.

This time you can see the change in scale – 1st one of the laser bays where electricity is converted to photons. 2nd the target chamber, where 192 lasers all focus their beams. 3rd – inside the target chamber. 4th – the target hohlraum, which itself holds a miniscule 2mm diameter capsule where the focused laser energy can recreate conditions of the sun to start a small fusion event.

It’s pretty incredible that all that equipment to nuke something the size of a mustard seed. Makes you appreciate how much energy the sun actually generates: The NIF generates about 1,000,000 joules. In one second, the sun generates 380,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules.

The NYTimes has an interesting photo feature of the last 100 years of the subway system. It shows an era that I am glad I missed – the sketchiness of the subway back in the late 70′s to 80′s. But the 40′s to 50′s would have been cool to see.