“I knew that with a mouth like mine, I just had to be a star or something.”Barbra Joan Streisand | April 24, 1942.
HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY BARBRA STREISAND!
In Focus: Winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards
The winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards have just been announced. Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang was announced as the Photographer of the Year, for her series of portraits of children and youths who survived the July 2011 massacre on the island of Utoeya, outside Oslo. This year’s contest attracted more than 122,000 entries from 170 countries. The photographs were judged in six different competition categories, including Professional, Open, and Student Focus. The organizers have been kind enough to share some of their winning images with In Focus, gathered below. See also the shortlist of winners, earlier on In Focus.
See more. [Image: 2013 Sony World Photography Awards]
I visited Japan in November 2011 for the exclusive purpose of urban exploration on Hashima Island. The island, completely abandoned since 1974, sits in the southwest coast of Japan in the East China Sea. Only a few people have been able to access the island for the purposes of urban exploration photography. We were fortunate to be the only people to ever get 8 hours of uninterrupted access to the island.
“Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima or Gunkanshima (軍艦島; meaning Battleship Island), is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself.
The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it.” ~wikipedia
Chernobyl, 27 Years Later
For more photos from Chernobyl, check out the Chernobyl and Pripyat (Припять) location pages, or search for photos tagged with #Pripyat, #Припять, #Chernobyl and #Чернобыль.
On this day 27 years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, killed dozens of people and released a plume of radioactive fallout that would eventually require the relocation of more than 350,000 people.
The event ranks as the worst nuclear disaster in history. The area immediately surrounding Chernobyl is still too radioactive for habitation and will remain so for another 20,000 years. Until recently, an exclusion zone of 19 miles (30 km) extended in all directions from the power plant, which is now entombed in concrete. In 2011, however, Ukraine opened up this area to tourists, giving the world a peek into a town abandoned and untouched for nearly three decades.
1920’s Hairstyles
A collection of 1920’s photographs, depicting some of the hairstyles of the time, like the kiss curl, the orchid bob, the charleston cut, coconut bob, earphones hairstyle, cottage loaf (bun) and popular styles you’ll probably never see in a period drama like extreme windblown style, the frizzy hairstyle and the Poodle cut.Victorian Hairstyles Here [x] | Edwardian Hairstyles Here [x] | 1930’s Hairstyles Here [x]
Emily P. Reynolds Historic Costume Collection:
Around The World Doll Collection
The Around the World Doll Collection was donated by Frances B. Herbst. From 1930s to the 1970s, she collected approximately 300 dolls from 78 different countries. She donated the collection on December 4, 1972.
The collection expanded with a donation from Don Larew in 2004. Don Larew was a Professor of Theater Arts at North Dakota State University for 40 years. The collection grew with gifts and purchases, and soon reached over 250 dolls.
With the addition of a few smaller collections, the Around the World Doll Collection now includes over 500 dolls from over 123 countries.See more of the collection here.
![fotojournalismus:
A farmer tends his ducks on April 25, 2013 in Quzhou, China.
[Credit : ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/cac14009434c4e708860e3a14f865afa/tumblr_mltjhcrLJ81r44q44o1_500.jpg)
A farmer tends his ducks on April 25, 2013 in Quzhou, China.
[Credit : ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images]
A Glimpse of Hell - Stunning Shots of an Active Volcano
Two Kyrgyzstan-based photographers, Andrew and Luda, trekked to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia where the volcano complex known as Tolbachik was in active eruption. Among the numerous hellish vistas photographed by the team was this deep volcanic cave that offered a glimpse of what it might look like below the Earth’s crust.
Famous architects dressed as their buildings, 1931
L-R: A. Stewart Walker (Fuller Building), Leonard Schultze (Waldorf-Astoria), Ely Jacques Kahn (Squibb Building), William Van Alen (Chrysler Building), Ralph Walker (1 Wall Street), D.E.Ward (Metropolitan Tower), Joseph H. Freelander (Museum of New York) (via Retronaut)
