I think that the title of Lucas Foglia’s Re-Wilding project is so perfect. Lucas spent time photographing a group of people who left (most of) the comforts of typical American life to go back to the basics of human survival. It’s a little disappointing, though, that the subjects aren’t super purist about their lifestyle (reminds me of the NY Times article on a family that moved to Alaska to live in a yurt – no toilet, but they did have broadband internet!) – many apparently have laptops, internet and cell phones. I guess that no matter how disconnected one wants to be from modern life, there is still a deep desire to be connected to the larger world and community in some way. In Lucas Foglia’s own words:

Since 2006 I have traveled throughout the southeastern United States, befriending, photographing, and interviewing a network of people who left cities and suburbs to live off the grid. Motivated by environmental concerns, religious beliefs, or predictions of economic collapse, my subjects build their homes from local materials, obtain their water from nearby springs, and hunt, gather, or grow their own food.

All the people in my photographs are working to maintain a self-sufficient lifestyle, but no one I found lives in complete isolation from the mainstream. Many of my subjects have websites that they update using laptop computers, and cell phones that they charge on car batteries or solar panels. They do not wholly reject the modern world. Instead, they step away from it and choose the parts that they want to bring with them.

Via Jia Za Zhi.

A nice board series from Zoo York featuring photographs of the icons of the city by Sean Cronan. In 100 years, I wonder what icons would be on a set of boards like this?

I really want this Fuji X100 camera. I thought it was a micro 4/3 at first, but it is actually a non-interchangeable lens camera. But it is stylish and from the features description, it meets a lot of requirements. The retro styling doesn’t hurt either. I just hope it doesn’t cost $1,000.

I am super excited to launch Flying Geese by Sharon Montrose over at The Working Proof. I have been a huge fan of Sharon’s photography ever since I first saw it a couple of years ago. Sharon’s work is really about the animals she shoots – she lets them direct her, with the aim of featuring animals outside of their environments and “capturing a moment that will last as long as the viewer needs to absorb their charms.” In this case, two geese caught simultaneously flapping their wings. Sharon said she was “totally shocked at how loud geese are. They actually beat out the bass of the hip hop music in the studio next door.”

Flying Geese is an open edition, signed by Sharon. It was printed on super thick Fine Art 285 gsm luster finish paper with archival inks. Sharon chose to pair her print with the Pablove Foundation, a charity dedicated to funding pediatric cancer research and advances in treatment, educating and empowering cancer families, and improving the quality of life for children living with cancer through hospital play, music and arts programs. The Pablove Foundation was created to honor Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz, the son of the founders. Pablo was six years old when he lost his battle with bilateral Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of childhood cancer. Imbued with his spirit and inspired by his strength, Pablove is dedicated to the daily, global fight against childhood cancer and the suffering that comes in its wake.

Buy the print here, and read our interview with Sharon here. Sharon also has an awesome new shop – check it out here!

Some of the most surreal photos I have ever seen of a natural disaster are in the Big Picture’s gallery of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The indescrimenate shockwave that blew through the forests surrounding the volcano is incredible. The photographs show just how huge and powerful the blast really was. In the photo above, those are trees, not grass. And in the photo below, the dot in the middle of the lake is a boat taking water samples.

Some great images over at The Big Picture of Preparing for The World Cup 2010. If you are not living under a rock, I hope you are excited about the world coming together under a universal passion for the world’s game. Above is FNB Stadium, aka Soccer City, the main stadium that evokes the calabash (melting pot) that is South Africa. I’m excited for this month and wish I could be there in person. And where does one acquire a vuvuzela in NYC?

I’ve been reading a lot of spy novels lately. I recently checked out Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytech’s from Communism to Al Qaeda from the library and am excited to dig into it. It got me thinking about one of the classic spy gadgets that is actually commercially available: the Minox. The CLX is the special edition of the TLX. So if you ever want to snap some incriminating documents, best do it with some James Bond steez and use the CLX instead of a crappy digicam.

An amazing photo by Rocky Norton of Monico Candelaria over at the Fresh Crops section of The Skateboard Mag. Sometimes the simplest tricks make for the best images.

I really never get tired of looking at the NASA Image of The Day galleries. There is something awe inspiring about the scale and complexity of the machines that men have dreamt and built to explore the unknown. It must be an amazing job to be one of their staff photographers and have access to all these incredible views.

As always, The Big Picture has compiled an amazing group of photos from Volcano Eyjafjaawhat?…The earth never ceases to amaze me. These photos somehow make me think of The Lord of the Rings…I half expect an Orc army to emerge from the smoke.