It seems I've been doing a terrible job of undercover stealth blogging behind the scenes, and my site has been showing up in other people's referrer logs. I knew it would, but was hoping they wouldn't notice (Thanks for being nice about it, Kurt!) So if you've just recently made your way here, a warm welcome to my new readers. Bonus photolinks today, just for you. Expect many changes over the next few months before esthet.org is ready for its grand unveiling.

A newly discovered photoblog that I really like, Tokyo_Boy is Canadian Jean Snow's daily journal of life in this giant sprawling metropolis.

In 1998, photographer Stevie Scheidemantel came to Japan to teach English, and documented an extended series of a local family in rural Japan.

Las Vegas: Made by Man, a v-1 photo project by Scandinavian photographer, Peter Funch, opens next week (via k10k).

Faile has a novel interface for navigating from the home page using rollovers in flash. Check out the Tokyo section of Street Projects with stills of graffiti, sticker/poster art and xeroxgraphica from across the city.

Erik Refner, a photojournalist from Denmark, won 1st Prize last year in the World Press Photo of the Year 2001 with his compassionate image of the body of a small Afghan boy being prepared for burial. The 2002 Award will be announced on 14 February.

Thymann uses the horizontal scrolling style of navigation that anti-style/usability geeks like Jakob Nielsen completely adhore so much. Personally, I think it's a very striking statement for a powerful visual portfolio that makes bold usage of colour and light.