// pixelimpact

“What if your photo collection was an entry point into the world, like a wormhole that you could jump through and explore… ”

Sounds like something you’d be interested in? Microsoft thinks so (and after watching the video so do I).

Being able to recreate a scene with a series of photos is nothing new, “photo-stitching” software has been around for some time. But Photosynth takes this to a whole new level.

Just watch the video and drool…

Did you know at the age of 18 in Israel you are placed in a “national guard” like program for two years (boys and girls both)? I didn’t:

The life of an eighteen-year-old girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism. “I solemnly swear…to devote all of my strength and to sacrifice my life to protect the land and the liberty of Israel,” repeats the newly recruited soldier during her swearing-in ceremony. She enters the two-year period in which she will change from a girl to a woman, a teenager to an adult, all under a militaristic, masculine environment, and in the confines of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict.

This is a great photo-essay of a little-known (at least in the US) part of Israeli life.

Visit: http://www.serialno3817131.com/

No, not another street racing game for your Playstation, but a photographic essay on the underground of Japan. From the book “Deep Inside” photographer Joe Nishizawa takes you under with nothing but a 35mm Canon and comes back up with some amazing photos.

pingmag has a great interview with Joe, check it out!

Out of the millions (billions?) of photographs taken over the years, which would you pick for the top 100 photographs that changed the world?

LIFE magazine did just that, and the collection covers movie stars, war and hope - all in a great collection of journalistic photos from all over the world (and space). Above you’ll see the first photo ever taken - that’s one that definitely deserves to makes the list…

visit: 100 Photographs that Changed the World

Tired of those $1000 lenses? Why not make your own? Matthew Wheeler is using ice to create his own lenses - with some chilling (sorry…) effects.

While I try not to get water anywhere near my camera, this is definitely a great way to take some creative photos with a twist.

Take a look: Make fire with the power of ice!

It’s about time someone decided to update the photobooth in a creative way and artist Keetra Dean Dixon did just that:

The booth is presented in semi-public spaces as a typical photobooth holding no denotation of it’s unique qualities. Users enter the booth, pose for 2 shots & exit as usual. During the developing process, the photos are “analyzed” & customized with forecasts consisting of patterns, symbols & messages.

She has a large collection of photostrips collected from this photobooth. It’s part art, part reality TV, and part great design.

Take a look: http://www.fromktoj.com/photobooth/

This site is not in English so I’m not really 100% sure what’s going on, but I like how they have this guy’s photo (is it his site?) on every page. It’s oversized and in black & white and brings a stark contrast to the large amounts of whitespace. Each page has a different pose, and depending on your monitor resolution sometimes floats behind the text on the screen. This is a great idea for a personal site (if that’s what this is…).

visit: http://www.arne-berggren.no

Taylor James photographic retouchers has some amazing advertising photography. But what makes the website for Taylor James truly interesting are the a couple of step-by-step case studies that show the process. I’d say it more photo creating then photo retouching!

Visit: Taylor James photographic retouchers

Not exactly sure what’s going on here, but when you combine photography with aliens and cavemen, you have a winner. Artist Stephen Berkman has a very interesting collection of Ambrotypes containing strange men, creatures and other oddities.

Worth a look: http://www.stephenberkman.com/

This past week I traveled from Dallas to Austin for SXSW Interactive. While photography is not a big part of the conference, everyone has a camera. I’ve never seen so many DSLRs in one place.

It’s a great place to get excited about new technologies and hear from some of the smartest people in the industry. Flickr was there in force (with other Yahoo properties) and checking out some flickr tags like: sxsw06, sxsw2006, sxswi, sxswi06, sxswi2006 you can get a picture (many of them) of what it’s like.