Stunning Large Format Tintype Portraits of the Stars at Sundance ~ by Victoria Will

Portrait photographer Victoria Will brought along her large format tintype camera to Sundance to capture celebrities' sometimes melancholy and always expressive faces. The Tintype process was popular in the 1860's and has grown in popularity amongst many current fine art portrait photographers.



Philip Seymour Hoffman.


Mark Ruffalo.


Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers


Jason Schwartzman.


Anna Kendrick.


Dane Dehaan. ( The Place Beyond the Pines )


Elle Fanning.


Elijah Wood.


Anne Hathaway.


Michael Shannon.


Kristen Stewart.


William H. Macy.


Brit Marling.


Jesse Eisenberg.


Scott McNairy. (12 Years a Slave)


Elizabeth Banks.


Sam Rockwell.


Photographer Anton Corbijn.


Jacob Lofland.


Maggie Gyllenhaal.


Emmanuelle Chriqui.


Glenn Close.


Don Jonson.


Diane Kruger and Britt Marling.


Bill Hader.



Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe.


Sam Shepard.


Astrid Berges-Frisbey. (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides )


Tim Daly


Steve Coogan.



Billy Crudup.


Boyd Holbrook.


Jason Momoa. (Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones)


Katie Couric.

Marisa Tomei.

Nick Cave.


Michael Pitt.


That dude from 30 Rock ( aka Jack McBrayer.)


Elle Fanning and Glenn Close.


Diane Kruger.


Kurt Russell.


Michael C. Hall.

Making a Tintype photograph:

The Simpsons Meets Helmut Newton by AleXsandro Palombo

100-Year-Old Box of Negatives Discovered in Antarctica

CENTURY OLD ANTARCTIC IMAGES DISCOVERED IN CAPTAIN SCOTT’S HUT Photographic negatives left a century ago in Captain Scott’s last expedition base at Cape Evans have been discovered and conserved by New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust. The negatives were found in expedition photographer Herbert Ponting’s darkroom and have been painstakingly conserved revealing never before seen Antarctic images.

 The Trust’s conservation specialists discovered the clumped together cellulose nitrate negatives in a small box as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project which has seen more than 10,000 objects conserved at Scott’s Cape Evans hut. The negatives were removed from Antarctica by the Trust earlier this year. Detailed conservation treatment back in New Zealand separating the negatives has revealed twenty-two images. The photographs are from Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party, which spent time living in Scott’s hut after being stranded on Ross Island when their ship blew out to sea. [via nzaht.org]

*Click on images for larger view*

Alexander Stevens on the deck of the Aurora, McMurdoSound, Antarctica. All images via the Antarctic Heritage Trust.



The cellulose nitrate negatives. found blocked together. The 22 cellulose nitrate negatives were, the Trust believes, left there by Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party, which became stranded on Ross Island when their ship blew out to sea during a blizzard.  


Iceberg and land, Ross Island., Antarctica.

Photo of Alexander Stevens, chief scientist and geologist on-board the Aurora. Shell Benzine cases on the left. Cellulose nitrate processed sheet film negative, found in Captain Scott's 1911 expedition base, Cape Evans, Antarctica, by Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) conservators. Photo taken by Ernest Shackleton's Ross Sea Party 1914-1917. 

Video about New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust.


Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results.
~ Ernest Shackleton 
Find out more about Shackleton's truly epic adventure:

IF ONLY FOR A SECOND ~ Unique and Wonderful Portraits of Cancer Patients

20 cancer patients participated in a unique makeover experience. They were invited to a studio. Their hair and makeup were completely redone. During the transformation, they were asked to keep their eyes shut. A photographer then immortalized the moment they opened their eyes. This discovery allowed them to forget their illness, IF ONLY FOR A SECOND.

"Within a second, smiling faces were seen all over the room. At that very moment, cancer did not exist for the family members either."

You can order the book and learn more about the campaign, launched today, at the "If Only for a Second" website.

Fantastic Forced Perspective Photographs by Michael Paul Smith

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."~ John Wooden 

Michael Paul Smith has an eye for detail that's for sure. These wonderful images are made using highly detailed models, a $250 point-and-shoot camera and a great eye for perspective.

For over 25 years Michael has been building delightfully detailed scenes of mid-20th century America using 1/24 models.

'I’m creating a mood, something familiar in the viewer’s mind,' Smith told the New York Times.
The reason a cheap and cheery point-and-shoot works well for forced perspective photography is because of the very small sensors cheaper compact cameras tend to have. The small sensor facilitates a much greater depth of field, much greater than that of a full frame sensor. The smaller the sensor the easier to get everything in sharp focus.  So dust off your old point and shoot and give it a try!

 To see the photographs and purchase prints, visit Michael's site at SmugMug.



























Michael Paul Smith on set.

Michael Paul Smith's childhood home in 1/24th scale

Fascinating Images of Northern Tanzanian Petrified Animals by Photographer Nick Brandt

Medusa's favourite lake would no doubt be the one located in Northern Tanzania. A rare phenomenon caused by the chemical makeup of the lake petrifies creatures creating macabre but fascinating statues.

Nick Brandt's new book, Across the Ravaged Land, features the images of petrified creatures that were found in areas around  Lake Natron which due to its constant pH of 9 to 10.5 (an extremely basic alkalinity ) preserves these creatures for eternity. [via Gizmodo]

"I unexpectedly found the creatures - all manner of birds and bats - washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No-one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake. The water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds. The soda and salt causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry. I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were. Reanimated, alive again in death."  ~ Nick Brandt

© Nick Brandt

 Calcified Fish Eagle© Nick Brandt

 © Nick Brandt

 © Nick Brandt

Calcified swallow © Nick Brandt

 Calcified Bat© Nick Brandt

© Nick Brandt