The Beautification Engine

Some computer scientists from Israel created a computer program that uses a mathematical formula to alter photos of the human body into a theoretically more attractive version. Click here to see some more shots of celebrities they ran through the 'engine.'

Dubai Before and Afters

Dubai has gone through some radical transformations over the last 15 years and these pictures illustrate its metamorphosis very well. Click here to see more photos from dubai-architecture.info. There are lots of interesting facts about Dubai on this page including shots of an underwater hotel soon to be built in 2009.

New York City Before and After

Here are two shots of New York, one was taken in 1930 and the other 1850. Click here to see a larger more detailed image. I would suggest reading the excerpt once you click through to the larger image. It tells a little bit about what's changed over the years.

Life Before Death at the Wellcome Collection

This sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died. It is the work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying - and living.
Here is the heartbreaking excepts that accompany these photos:

Gerda Strech, 68
First portrait:January 5 2003
Gerda couldn’t believe that cancer was cheating her of her hard-earned retirement. “My whole life was nothing but work, work, work,” she told me. She had worked on the assembly line in a soap factory, and had brought up her children single-handedly. “Does it really have to happen now? Can’t death wait?” she sobbed.

Second portrait:January 14 2003
On one visit Gerda said, “It won’t be long now”, and was panic-stricken. Her daughter tried to console her, saying: “Mummy, we’ll all be together again one day.” “That’s impossible,’ Gerda replied. “Either you’re eaten by worms or burned to ashes.” “But what about your soul?” her daughter pleaded. “Oh, don’t talk to me about souls”, said her mother in an accusing tone. “Where is God now?”



Click here to see the whole collection.

Hitchcock Revisited

I just bought the latest issue of Vanity Fair and they had this really cool spread where they recreated some memorable shots from Alfred Hitchcock films. The originals are still the best but these are also really well done. Here is a shot from Rear Window with Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart and the modern version with Scarlet Johansen and Javier Bardem. Grace Kelly was wearing the most beautiful dress in this scene of the movie. I love it. Check out the rest of the shots here.

Celebrities After Photoshop

Here is a great collection of celebrity portraits collected by Hemmy.net retouched with Photoshop. I have seen this done many times before but I was kind of shocked with these ones because I noticed they actually added makeup to some of the women. I guess I knew that had been done before but I've never seen comparisons that hit it home quite like these ones.

Bert Stern Pin Ups

In 1962 Bert Stern asked Marilyn Monroe to pose nude for a photo shoot at the Hotel Bel-Air. The series of photographs has become know as 'The Last Sitting.' Forty-six years later Stern asked the same of Lindsay Lohan. Here is the result. The pictures are available in New York magazine.

This is your face on drugs - Before and After Meth Addicts

If this isn't impetus enough to stay away from drugs, check out this book I saw recently at Pages, "A Time Before Crack" by Jamel Shabazz - From the abstract:

"Once upon a time before crack, inner city communities were blighted by poverty and unemployment—but not by the drug wars that tore families apart, destroying lives with needless violence and mindless addiction. Once upon a time before crack, pride and style were as inseparable as a beatbox and mixtape, or as a pair of shoes and matching purse. Once upon a time before crack, Jamel Shabazz was on the scene, working the streets of New York City, capturing the faces and places of an era that have long since disappeared."

Photo Retouching

A Dove commercial watched over a quarter of million times on youtube. It's a video that documents the process of making the average girl look like a supermodel through time-lapse photography.

The arrow of time.

On June 17th each year this family takes photographs of themselves.
They've posted the photos here.

Receding Glaciers

If you're on an island and haven't heard of Global warming, check out these pictures. If you have heard of it, check out these pictures.



View the rest of the images at Greenpeace.

Before and After Sunrise - The kind that doesn't involve Ethan Hawke. Well, not directly anyhow