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In 1997, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky had an epiphany: "It occurred to me that the vast, human-altered landscapes that I pursued and photographed for over twenty years were only made possible by the discovery of oil and the mechanical advantage of the internal combustion engine. It was then that I began the oil project." For the next decade Burtynsky set himself to......read more
In three short years, the Prix Pictet has become the global prize for excellence in environmental photography, assembling some of the most powerful images of sustainability (or lack thereof) from around the world. The theme for this year's competition is Growth, which organizers call "one of the great conundrums facing humanity in the early decades of the 21st century." True enough. The winner......read more
The past year was an explosive one for Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, the Los Angeles ten-piece outfit whose 2009 debut album 'Up From Below' was a runaway hit. The band has been touring pretty much constantly since the record hit the streets, and they're getting a taste of success. At the same time, they're seeing first hand the kind of waste that accompanies a road tour if no steps are......read more
The video for "40 Day Dream" is the third instalment in SALVO!, the 12-part video opera that Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are creating to go along with their hit album Up From Below. And it's a beauty. Director Matt Amato follows frontman Alex Ebert -- in the role of his messianic alter ego, Edward Sharpe -- and his band of merry hippies as they dance and tromp through the desert in......read more
Thank you, Internet. Sometime in March, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros piled into their biofuel powered converted school bus and headed south to Mexico. A month later, we're presented with this video of Alex Ebert's 11-member ensemble of merry hippies performing an acoustic rendition of "Up From Below," live from a Yucatan jungle. Such is the speed of the web, and one of the......read more
Alex Ebert has a thing for the desert. Earlier, you saw him traipsing around the Mojave Desert with the rest of the happy hippies in Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Here we find him back the sand dunes as part of his new solo project, Alexander, with director Benjamin Kutsko behind the camera. The vast, arid landscape nicely fits the earthy vibes of "A Million Years." Soulful......read more
Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe spent five years exploring the Grand Canyon to create Reconstructing the View, a series of landscape images combining the artists' own photos with old postcards, anonymous Flickr images, and 19th century images shot by photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. For the project, spotted on Faith Is Torment, the pair mined the wealth of images of the canyon then......read more
There's a gorgeous quality captured by Stefan Bleekrode in the mundane moments of travel. Most of my paintings can best be described as snapshots of things I’ve seen when travelling or just going through my everyday routine, small bits of beauty in familiar settings. Often they come in through the backdoor, and after a while I turn these ideas, combined with a good......read more
No stranger to the pages of SHFT, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky returns with what may be his most ambitious project to date. The result of over five years of work, Water investigates humanity’s complex relationship with the world’s most vital natural resource. The project includes a series of photo exhibitions, a book, and a film. Shot in ten different countries, Water......read more