Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

This is off-topic for the blog, but it’s just so beautiful, interesting and relevant that I couldn’t help but post about it. You may recognize the photo above, as it’s one of the most famous and celebrated photographs in recent times, captured by Steve McCurry in June 1984. The Afghan Girl was only identified almost twenty years later and photographed again as Sharbat Gula, already a 30 year-old woman.

Only thing is, this is not just a retouched version of the original photograph, it’s a recreation done with computer graphics. Artist Hyun Kyung Up used Z-Brush, 3D Max and Photoshop to “express [McCurry’s] exquisite pieces of art work”.

Below, screenshots from the modelling process:

This recreation is beautiful, but I especially admired the partial frontal view of her face. As it turns out, Sharbat Gula was only photographed three times in her life: first by McCurry in 1984, and then in 2002 two times, as part of the search for her and then finally, the third photo again by McCurry. She only saw her famous portrait in 2003.

Hyun Kyung Up may have recreated another view of a youthful and haunting beauty that was forever lost.

26 years later so much have changed, and yet, so little. In the west, where a piercing beauty called attention for the plight of refugees during Soviet occupation, now another magazine has published a shocking cover portrait of another pretty young woman, but horribly disfigured. The intended message was very different.

This is not a political blog and I will not defend any simplistic position on such complex issues. I just had to share this fascinating reinterpretation of beauty with the aid of technology, and couldn’t help but mention some of the many thoughts that this art may inspire.

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[Suggested by Paulo Dias on Ciencialist. Also discussed on ZBrushCentral]

Has finally been found. [Akermarks, via Elton!]

Ronald Reagan speaking in Spanish is just the beginning of this piece of perfection, by Alberto González Vázquez. [via Nerdcore]

Behold! Such a simple and cool illusion, you can impress your friends by printing it and presenting first the man, hiding the dark patch “below” him. Try it yourself. He seems grounded.

Then say he will levitate, and present the whole picture. We can’t help but have the impression he’s levitating. Click for the whole picture.

This reminded of another similar illusion:

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“Nuit Blanche, City of Paris
Mirror ball, 1000 mirrors, 7.5 meters in diameter.
The spectacular view of the starry sky has long been a source of delight and curiosity, but the abundance of artificial light in urban areas produces a glow that covers the stars in the firmament. The largest mirror ball ever made was suspended from a construction crane 50 meters above the ground to render the starry sky to the citizens of Paris for one night in the Jardin du Luxembourg during the Nuit Blanche event.”

It’s a work by artist Michel de Broin, and if you’re a hardcore UFO buff, you may have had an instant association with the “Battle of Los Angeles”:

There are more images on LifeLounge, including this one which is a photomontage with the classic UFO photo:

Why didn’t Broin mention the Battle of LA when there is this image clearly referencing it, I don’t know, but it’s definitely a fun piece of art.

As for the Battle of LA in itself, the famous photo does seem to show at first glance a classic flying saucer profile while the searchlights seem to be stopped by something we would assume was solid, but that may be misleading as the photo is certainly taken with a long exposure, as can be seen by the many shell explosions recorded on it.

Was there actually something solid there? Bruce Maccabee thinks so. But then, don’t you think it’s quite a coincidence that the object would have approximately the same width that all the searchlights combined seem to wrap around exactly?

I suspect the famous photo and the apparent solid object could actually be the result of the movement of the searchlights, explosions and smoke from the explosions captured in a relatively long exposure at night. Maccabee considers the idea, but discard it with quite reasonable arguments.

Then again, they are not that conclusive. It’s an unsolved, intriguing case, that could be smoke, could be an alien spaceship, could be… something else.

And now it’s art. [via MAKE]