photograph by Mireille de la Lez

Vanity Fair has a 9 image sampling of Mirelle de la Lez’s pictures from the Arctic, which are visually stunning and full of impact. These pictures are part of the book described below.

An extraordinary visual summary of the landscape, wildlife, and beauty of the Far North, photographer and naturalist Mireille de la Lez’sVanishing World:The Endangered Arctic shows the Arctic as a place of surprising color and quickly fluctuating form. Accompanied by text from Fredrik Granath, the photos also function as an arresting reminder of what we stand to lose if climate change goes unchecked. In 30 years, according to Dr. Neil T. M. Hamilton, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Initiative, in his foreword to the book, the warmer periods of the year may produce a contradiction in terms: an iceless Arctic.

Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., Apollo 16 Lunar Module pilot, is photographed collecting lunar samples at Station No. 1 during the mission’s first extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site. This picture, looking eastward, was taken by Commander John W. Young. Duke is standing at the rim of Plum crater, which is 40 meters (131 feet) in diameter and 10 meters (about 33 feet) deep. The lunar rover can be seen in the background.

Apollo 16, the fifth mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface, launched 35 years ago today on April 16, 1972.

Denis Darzacq has a very interesting portfolio of pictures, entitled ‘Le Chute‘ featuring people suspended in mid-air.

via swissmiss

Pop over here for a wild collection of images of the tunnels and systems that lie beneath some Russian streets.

(c) mizue hirano
via design milk

The two images show above are a part of this collection of pictures entitled ‘Only in Japan’.

Georg Wendt is a German photographer (and has nothing to do with the actor George Wendt who played Norm Peterson on Cheers) who produced an interesting collection of images where miniature people are painting faces.

via growabrain

Pop over to this site, Corsham Underground Depot, to learn about, and see pictures of, ’secret underground cities’ of England. The ‘cities’ generally were large underground bunkers used for military purposes.

via Look-At-This

Now this is an interesting photo project:

The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can.

View the flickr photset and the project’s blog.

via Bibi’s Box

Photo of the Year in the 2006 Photobloggies

Time lapse movie of a parking lot, shot by Sam Javanrouh with a Canon Rebel DSLR

Naomi Harris’s ‘Haddon’

The many flickr photo sets of LeoL30, including squared circles, numbers, letters, photomosaics, signs and plaques, much more. (From Swiss Miss)

All symbols contains on Imallfake are carefully selected to provoke thought through association. (From Surfez Avec Moi)

‘Little Bits of Spring’ by Chris Glass

‘Stranded’ – The isolation of Amy Stein

Vintage camera manuals (Warning – it is one 650mb file)

Philip Greenspun’s Guide to Digital SLR cameras: what to look for, what you want and what they are

Start the day with a year of mornings

An old Kodak commercial with Bill Cosby

Bill Sullivan’s photos of people going through a subway turnstile in New York

The portfolio of Nick Koudis

A gallery of walls with stuff written on them

Trish CupcakeMomma’s archive of cupcake pictures

The Narrative – Mark O’Sullivan’s Toronto photography

Shannon Richardson’s Black & White “Electrolite”

13 Photographs that Changed the World

Today’s postings take on a different format, as I am “co-posting” with Hanan Levin, who blogs at Grow-a-Brain. Grow-a-Brain is a wonderful blog that has, on a daily basis, a smart and eclectic mix of links that are typically grouped together thematically. Hanan is also the co-owner of ‘The Champion’ Real Estate Company in Riverside, California.