The Sifter’s favourite underwater photographer, Alexander Semenov, is back with another amazing gallery. Entitled Living Stones, Semenov explores the different patterns and textures of stony corals in the Red Sea. Captured at high magnification, you can really appreciate the intricate detail and colour on the surfaces of these living creatures. Corals are marine invertebrates…
GEOMETRIC ELEGANCE Photograph by Thomas Hawk Captured wonderfully by Thomas Hawk is this elegant spiral staircase located at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco’s financial district. Spanning four city blocks, the Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers with over 3 million square feet of office and retail space.…
THE ROCKY WAVE Photograph by G.A. KOUT | gakout.tumblr.com The Wave is located on the Colorado Plateau, near the Utah and Arizona border. The area is a gallery of twisted sandstone, resembling deformed pillars, cones, mushrooms and other odd creations. Deposits of iron claim some of the responsibility for the unique blending…
Eric Standley is an artist and educator currently living and working in Virginia. In his incredible series of 3D laser cut paper art, Standley’s work is found at the intersection of art, technology, history and mathematics. His vector drawings were initially inspired by the geometry in Gothic and Islamic architectural ornamentation. The pieces are…
DESICCATION CRACKS Photograph by Hannes Grobe Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. In biology and ecology, desiccation refers to…
Simon Beck is an artist from Southern England that uses snowshoes to create giant land art in the snow. Most of his work takes place in the ski resort of Les Arcs in the French Alps where Beck has a chalet and spends most of his winters. After planning the initial design on paper…
Back in 2010, The Big Picture did a fascinating series entitled, Human Landscapes in SW Florida. Using satellite photography from Google Maps, a variety of examples of human development were found. From artificial lakes and densely populated sprawls, to circular developments and incomplete projects (abandoned due to lack of funding), this gallery of aerial…
Paul Bourke is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia. He is also a Director at iVEC, an organization dedicated to providing supercomputing capacity and eResearch services to Western Australian researchers. Since October 2010, Bourke has been documenting fractal patterns in nature as found on Google Earth. On his site, he…
Artwork by MOTOI YAMAMOTO Born in 1966 in Hiroshima, Japan, artist and sculptor Motoi Yamamoto used salt to bring his artistic vision to life. His colossal works can take weeks to complete, and the intricacy and sheer scale requires incredible patience and a slow, steady hand. When asked why he uses salt, Yamamoto…
Artwork and Photography by Andres Amador @ AndresAmadorArts.com San Francisco native Andres Amador is an artist that specializes in temporary land art on sandy beaches. Armed with several different sized rakes and his imagination, Andres typically spends a few hours on each piece. He first sketches the pattern before doing any work on the…