Life Inside One of the Largest Favela in Rio de Janeiro
“A favela is the term for a slum in Brazil, most often within urban areas. The first favelas appeared in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live. Some of the first settlements were called bairros africanos (African neighbourhoods). This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many former black slaves moved in.
Even before the first favela came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs. However, most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Unable to find a place to live, many people ended up in a favela. Census data released in December 2011 by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) shows that in 2010, about 6 percent of the population lived in slums in Brazil. This means that 11.4 million of the 190 million people that lived in the country resided in areas of irregular occupation definable by lack of public services or urbanization, referred to by the IBGE as “subnormal agglomerations”. – Wikipedia
Residents (R to L) Luiza, Janubie, Leiticia and Lucas sit beneath an overpass near their houses in an impoverished area in the unpacified Complexo da Mare slum complex, one of the largest “favela” complexes in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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Inside Iceland’s Crystal Ice Cave
Shimmering clearest blue and stretching as far as the eye can see, this is one of Iceland’s famed crystal ice caves. The giant solid waves look frozen in time but they are slowly moving along as part of the Vatnajokull Glacier – which stretches across eight per cent of the island. The images were captured in February 2014 by British photographer Rob Lott.
A view of Rob Lott standing in the crystal ice cave in the Vatnajokull Glacier, Iceland. (Photo by Rob Lott/Barcroft Media) Continue reading »
Stars Strike a Pose for Oxfam’s Lift Lives for Good Campaign
Celebrities including singer Nicole Scherzinger and actor Simon Pegg have been snapped by top photographer Rankin for an Oxfam campaign. All in all, a dozen well-known faces have been captured in various poses to highlight the charity’s Lift Lives for Good campaign. The fundraising drive, launched at the start of the year, aims to shine a light on the work done by the charity to help poor people around the world. Paisley-born Rankin, known around the world for his portrait work, said: “This uplifting photo-shoot was great fun to do but it has a serious message: giving people the power to lift their lives can transform entire families and communities”.
Undated handout photo issued by Oxfam of Nicole Scherzinger who took part in a photo shoot with top photographer Rankin for Oxfam’s Lift Lives for Good campaign. The fundraising drive, launched at the start of the year, aims to shine a light on the work done by the charity to help poor people around the world. (Photo by Rankin/PA Wire) Continue reading »
Stunning Portraits Of The Ukraine’s Maidan Protesters
This man patrols the main front beside the access point to Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, an area where the barricades are weak. For months now, he has slept very little. He is a carpenter. Continue reading »
Moon Photography By Adrian Limani
They were taken by Adrian Limani, 21, who got his brother to leap for the sake of his art a few weeks ago in Raince, Serbia. Continue reading »
Couple Poses With Gas Masks For Their Wedding Photos To Protest Heavy Pollution In China
A couple of Chinese newlyweds decided to take their wedding photos in a dark and striking direction to protest their country’s out-of-control pollution. The two lovebirds took their wedding photos wearing gas masks to shield themselves from Beijing’s clouds of toxic smog.
The smog in Beijing is now so thick that it is blocking sunlight despite recent announced closures or production cuts at 147 of the city’s industrial plants. He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, has even compared its effects to that of a nuclear winter. Continue reading »
Cosmic Speculation Garden
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a 30-acre private garden in Jencks’ own home in Portrack House, near Dumfries, Scotland. Inspired by the contemplative tradition of Japanese zen gardens, Persian paradise gardens, and French renaissance gardens, Charles Jencks and his late wife Maggie built the garden to explore the fundamental principles of the universe in their ultimate search for meaning. Enormous spiraling mounds rising several stories high portray the ‘science of complexity.’ The Universe Cascade is a series of steps ascending from a large pond which signifies the unfolding of the universe across billions of years. Continue reading »
The Surfing Trooper
The Surfing Trooper is taking a vacation from the Empire to surf around our world. Last time he was seen in the waves of Morocco but what will be his next destination? Have you seen him? Continue reading »
Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
“The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spanish: Carnaval de Santa Cruz de Tenerife) is held each February in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the largest of the Canary Islands, and attracts people from all over the world. It is considered the second-most popular and internationally-known carnival, after the one held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Partially for this reason, the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is twinned with the city of Rio de Janeiro.
The festivities on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife start on the Friday before Carnival with an opening parade, which reaches its height during the night when thousands of people in fancy dresses dance until the early hours of the next day. The party continues night after night until Ash Wednesday. That day, people of Santa Cruz de Tenerife celebrate the “entierro de la sardina” (burial of the sardine), and with this event the carnival is officially over. However, the party starts up again the following weekend, known as the weekend of the piñata.
The festival has two parts: the official Carnival, and the Carnival on the street. The official carnival has more than a hundred groups, including murgas, comparsas, rondallas and other musical groups. The street carnival is more loosely organized, and comprises the people celebrating on the streets. Thousands of people come each day to the streets to participate, most of whom wear a disguise in accordance with Carnival tradition”. – Wikipedia
Nominee Amanda Perdomo (L) prepares at backstage for her performance before she was elected as Queen of the 2013 Santa Cruz carnival on February 26, 2014 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the Canary island of Tenerife, Spain. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Beijing Pants Run
This picture taken on February 23, 2014 shows participants wearing dresses running half-naked in the annual 3.5 km Undie Run held in the Olympic Forest Park smog-covered Beijing. Some 200 participants took part in this event, many of them with gas masks, as dangerous smog blighted swathes of northern China in recent days. (Photo by AFP Photo/STR) Continue reading »
Survival Game Fashion Snap
Make yourself look neat even when you are in the combat. A tactical, armanent and military fashion inspired blog by the airsoft lovers from Singapore. Continue reading »
Daredevil Photographer Escapes Security Guards To Climb Up The World’s Most Famous Buildings
Adventure photographer Lucinda Grange surveys the Manhattan skyline – perched hundreds of feet up on the edge of the Chrysler Building. (Photo: Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA) Continue reading »
Model-Turned-Photographer Shoots Subjects Under UV Light To Reveal Shocking Sun Damage
The hidden imperfections strewn across peoples’ faces due to sun exposure have been revealed in an illuminating photo series.
New York-based model-turned-photographer, Cara Phillips used ultraviolet light to show the age spots that would otherwise go unnoticed under the guise of a healthy tan. Inspired by medical photos from doctors’ offices and websites, Ms Phillips invited her subjects to keep their eyes closed for her somewhat sobering black and white portraits. Continue reading »
Elephant Rose by Jean-Baptiste Courtier
If someone tells you not to think of a pink elephant, you immediately see a pink elephant in your mind’s eye, right? Photographer Jean-Baptiste Courtier took this little perceptional trick to create his series ‘Elephant Rose’. We see a humongous, inflatable pink elephant following a young woman on her heels. Not sure if it’s just a dream or a surreal scene, we get confused by the pink animal that won’t really fit into the surrounding. The woman doesn’t even seem to apperceive the elephant which might be the embodiment of a constant thought that’s haunting her. Continue reading »
Chocolate Fashion Show in Brussels
Chocolate-lovers have gathered for the first Salon du Chocolat fashion show and festival in Brussels. The festival takes place in 19 cities worldwide, but this year marks the first Salon du Chocolat in Brussels. The main feature of the festival was a fashion show, where chefs and designers collaborated to create chocolate outfits. Salon du Chocolat describes itself as “the world’s biggest event dedicated to chocolate”. More than 90 chocolatiers, including international chocolate powerhouses Godiva and Neuhaus, each have booths at Brussels’s Tour et Taxis. (Photos by Farrukh Younus/Implausibleblog.com) Continue reading »
Babies Recreate Famous Books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and many more children’s classics are recreated by these book based babies. The gorgeous photos come via Venture Photography for National Storytelling Week. Continue reading »
The 2014 Vanity Fair Hollywood Portfolio by Chuck Close
Working with a rare and impressive 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera, world-renowned American artist Chuck Close captured remarkably raw portraits of 20 bold talents, from Brad Pitt to Oprah Winfrey, for V.F.’s 20th Hollywood Issue. Below, sample the results—and take a look behind the scenes.
BRAD PITT, ACTOR
45 films, including World War Z and 12 Years a Slave (2013), Voyage of Time and Fury (2014); producer of 18 films. Continue reading »
The Most Polluted River in the World
Heavy pollution of river water by household and industrial waste in the Indonesian province of West Java is threatening the health of at least five million people living on the riverbanks, say government officials and water experts.
Poor sanitation and hygiene cause 50,000 deaths annually in Indonesia, with untreated sewage resulting in over six million tons of human waste being released into inland water bodies, according to an ongoing study by the World Bank. Continue reading »
Snow Rollers
Snowrolls file the frozemn Scioto River near Greenlawn Ave. in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday, January 28, 2014. (Photo by Eric Albrecht/AP Photo/The Columbus Dispatch) Continue reading »
Uluru / Ayers Rock
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock and officially gazetted as Uluru / Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs, 450 km (280 mi) by road. Uluru is sacred to the Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to a plethora of springs, waterholes, rock caves, and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Uluru is one of Australia’s most recognisable natural landmarks. The sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high, rising 863 m (2,831 ft) above sea level, with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 9.4 km (5.8 mi). Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset.
Uluru is an inselberg, literally “island mountain”. An inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region. Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists. The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil. These characteristics led to its survival, while the surrounding rocks were eroded
Uluru is seen at as the sun sets on November 27, 2013 in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia. Uluru/ Ayers Rock is a large sandstone formation situated in central Australia approximately 335km from Alice Springs. The site and its surrounding area is scared to the Anangu people, the Indigenous people of this area and is visited by over 250,000 people each year. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Colourful Campus Of Thailand’s Rangsit University
Thailand`s Rangsit University is a private institution of higher education with the primary aim of creating graduates in different areas of study, focusing mainly on science, technology, design and management. But what makes this university renowned around the world is its colorful campus, with trees and bushes painted to beautify the campus.
Though in 2011 the plants were significantly damaged in one of Thailand’s worst floods in five decades, they continue to enliven the atmosphere at the university. Continue reading »
Modern Actors and Celebrities in Retro Style
Anna Kendrick poses for a tintype (wet collodion) portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG, during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Victoria Will/AP Photo/Invision) Continue reading »
Nursing Home Dresses Senior Citizens Up in Famous Classic Movie Roles for Calendar
The Contilia Retirement Group in Essen, Germany made what is probably the best calendar ever with a few of their seniors.
“James Bond”: Wilhelm Buiting, 89 Continue reading »
Stunning Photographs Taken by Surfer Who Lost His Leg in Shark Attack
As a 17-year-old boy, Mike Coots lost his right leg in a shark attack while surfing off the coast of Hawaii. But the 1997 tragedy has done nothing to diminish Coots’ love for the ocean, as seen in a series of stunning photographs he has been posting on his Instagram page. Not only has Coots, now 32 years old, continued surfing after the tragedy using a prosthetic limb, but he has become an activist campaigning for the conservation of sharks. Continue reading »
Pentagon Shaped Iyokan Citrus Fruits
Pentagon shaped iyokan citrus fruits are seen on January 15, 2014 in Yawatahama, Ehime, Japan. Farmers wish to promote these pentagon-shaped citrus fruits or “Gokaku no Iyokan”, which can also mean “sweet smell of success in exams”, as a good luck charm for students in the upcoming entrance exam season, and to revive the popularity of iyokan fruits. (Photos by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images) Continue reading »
