Pieter Hugo: Man's Other Best Friends

Man's relationship with nature has always been a complicated one, but that isn't to say that men haven't formed meaningful relationships with Earth's other creatures. From Yann Arthus-Bertrand's majestic portraits of farm animals to Joel Sartore's portraits of endangered species to Amelia's world of wonderful animals, there have been numerous documented occasions of man and animals co-existing. It's a slightly more complicated story with man's other best friends as illustrated in Pieter Hugo's "Hyenas & Other Men".

Kristin and Kayla: A Tale of Two Sisters

The new year is a good occasion to make promises and look towards better times ahead. It's an even a better occasion to look back at the past and see how much you've accomplished since then. Photographer Jason Lee won't have a problem with the latter as he's recorded almost every moment of his two proudest achievements, his two daughters Kristin and Kayla, through an ingenious photoblog, the tale of these two happy sisters.

Martin Schoeller: Up Close and Personal

Mole and Thomas' larger-than-life recreations of famous US icons may be awe-inspiring from afar, but there's nothing like looking into the eyes of a real person. In portrait photographer Martin Schoeller's appropriately titled "Close Up", viewers get up close and personal with Hollywood stars and celebrities in a refreshing and almost overly in-depth manner.

Arthur Mole and John Thomas: A Picture Worth A Thousand Men

How many men does it take to create the perfect portrait? This blog has on occasion featured group portraits, but nothing on this magnitude. Assembling a cast of several officers and enlisted men, Arthur Mole and John Thomas used their knowledge of perspective and photography in order to create a series of images that would inspire America. Almost a hundred years from that time, their pictures of a thousand men are worth more than tenfold in words.

Sleeve Face: The Portrait within A Portrait

The money shot or banknote face featured previously was a nice diversion from the more serious portraits of this blog. If you tried to make your own money shot at home, you probably encountered some difficulty because of the small size of the bill. Not so with Sleevefaces or LP Portraits. If you happen to have any old vinyl record covers, simply put them up to your face, pose appropriately, and click the shutter. You now have yourself a sleeveface, the instant portrait within a portrait.

The Money Shot: The Half-Bill Face

There's playing with money, and there's really playing with money. You may have spotted a few of these half-money, half face pictures over the last few weeks. All that's needed is half a banknote held up to your face in front of your webcam. The moment you click the shutter, you've just created your money shot.

Karl Blossfeldt: Majestic Plant Portraits

In line with Nick Brandt's majestic animal portraits, it's only fair that this blog should also feature plant portraits of the same quality. As with animals, plants have also been featured on the blog, from Fong Qi Wei's exploded flowers to Carl Werner's amazing foodscapes to Michel Tcherevkoff's flowery shoes and bags. As with Nick Brandt, these previous flowery creations are no match for the simple yet majestic plant portraits created by artist and photographer Karl Blossfeldt.

Nick Brandt: Majestic Animal Portraits

This blog is no stranger to photographs featuring animals, from Joel Sartore's intimate look at North America's endangered animals to Yann Arthus-Bertrand's formal portraits of farm animals to Tim Flach's adorable images of dogs. These photographers have rightly earned their place in the field of animal portraits, but in the area of majestic wild animal portraits, only photographer Nick Brandt reigns king.

Marco Grob: Celebrity Photographer of the 21st Century

What will people think of celebrity photographs of the 21st century? Will they think that they were beautiful? Revolutionary? Boring? In the previous post featuring Nadar's portraits of the 1800, one reader commented how the celebrities of the day are now lost in the pages of history. Will today's portraits be forgotten in the world of tomorrow? At the very least, photographer Marco Grob is making sure that his portraits will stand out in the world of today.

Félix Nadar: Celebrity Photographer of the 19th Century

It's not hard to come by good portrait photography these days. From the movie-like photographs of Annie Leibovitz's to the impressive close-ups of Platon to the somber images of Dan Winters, viewers are spoiled for choice when it comes to celebrity photographers. It was a different story some 200 years ago, when pioneering portrait photographer Félix Nadar took it upon himself to change the face of portrait photography with his unorthodox approach to the medium, effectively becoming the most famous celebrity photographer of the 19th century.

Fong Qi Wei: Creating Flowers from Flowers

Fruits, vegetables and other flora have been featured on this blog as intricate portrait recreations and impressive mini-landscapes. It was only a matter of time until somebody else took the idea into a different direction. Here, the photographer Photographer Fong Qi Wei creates flowers out flowers, crafting something simple and beautiful out of something that's already simple and beautiful. In his series Exploded Flowers these natural constructions are given a clever and enchanting man-made touch.

Nazee Abbassi: Self-Portraits of the East and West

Yes, you're seeing double, but that's because that's what the photographer intended. With the week's theme on self-portraits, it would be a nice touch to end it with a more personal look at the method and process. In this case, photographer Nazee Abbassi shows her take on her own identity as she photographs herself for a self-study, in effect giving viewers a glimpse of her self-portraits of the East and West.

Cindy Sherman: Self-Portraits of Others

Dressing up as someone or something else has been a popular Halloween tradition ever since people found it fun just to do so. There is no apparent reason or rationale behind most people's costumes, which makes sense given it's only done one night every year. One person however has found that dressing up can conjure up different accounts from different people at any time of the year. In these images, photographer and artist Cindy Sherman redefines dressing up by presenting self-portraits of other people through herself.

Tim Flach: Equus or the Beauty of the Horse

The last two posts have been focused on the horsemen of the Americas, but not enough has been said about the horses themselves. Portrait photographer Tim Flach is no stranger to photographing pets and animals, but in his series Equus, he not only captures images of different breed and colors of these domesticated mounts, he shows the beauty of the horse in all its wild and noble ways.

Luis Fabini: Horsemen of the Americas

Over the weekend, photographer Luis Fabini contacted me to share a new video he made celebrating the Horsemen of the Americas. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with his name as he was featured a few months ago over here with his evocative photographs of cowboys, llaneros, vaqueiros and gauchos from all over North and South America.

Philippe Halsman: Just Jump!

If you happen to be a bride or groom at a wedding, chances are that your photographer will try to take a "jump shot", for lack of a better term. This has been a popular wedding shot for a while now, but who started it all? And why bother with jumping in the first place? To find the answers, you'll have to travel back almost 50 years ago when portrait photographer Philippe Halsman captured Hollywood stars and A-listers in mid-air for his series, Jumpology.

Dan Winters: A Different Kind Of Portrait

Modern portrait photography is as diverse as the number of professionals in the field, from the fantastical and ultra modern fashion photographs of Nick Knight to the stark and striking close-ups of Platon to the lavish movie-set production images of Annie Leibovitz. Creating a different kind of portrait look in this day can be a daunting task, but Dan Winters has managed to do that, and then some.

Celebrity Mash-ups: Iconatomy by George Chamoun

Is beauty subjective? Is it timeless? Within the last 100 years, the ideal beauty has changed when it comes to fashion and physical desirability, but does that mean someone from 20, 30 or 50 years ago wouldn't be able to appreciate the celebrities of today? With artist George Chamoun's Iconatomy, the answer is presented in a simple yet beautiful celebrity mash-up.

Damien Blottière: The Face As Template

Most of the feedback on the previous post leaned towards the creepier side of Ken Kitano's merged portraits, maybe due to the shadowy figures or the somewhat unsettling expression. If you're not comfortable with the idea of the human face being used as a template, then stop reading. If the idea intrigues you however, this post might make you sit up and think. While Kitano simply blurred his subjects into one portrait, fashion photographer Damien Blottière focuses on only one subject, but draws on different angles to create a multi-faceted view of the portrait.

Ken Kitano: The Face Of Every Man

Last week's focus on outer space raised many questions with regards to the future of space exploration, but does anybody wonder what extraterrestrials think about Earth? How would humans look like to another species? Would faces and nations be distinct from one another, or would every face from every man look the same? Ken Kitano, takes an interesting approach to this question through his project "Our Face".