James Balog's photocollages evoke David Hockney's distinctive work from the mid-1980s.

A short essay on photocollages and photomontages.

Gallery of photomontage works by German Dada artist, Hannah Hoch.

Raoul Hausmann, Am Anfang war Dada (1971) [Translation, Tim Benson from Raoul Hausmann and Berlin DADA (1987)] on photomontage:

Seeing is a social process--we banalize things through visual allegory which takes from them their multiplicity of meaning...Our perception appears to be blind to the background, the space between things--and it is precisely this that the photomonteur lets us perceive and recognize. He creates his photomontage out of the insignificant inbetween-parts and uses the unperceived optics.

Musarium has several new stories online: Marvi Lacar searches for peace in the Philippines and Claudio Edinger, a Brazilian photographer, documents Rio de Janeiro in a dynamic and vibrant manner, using a selective focusing style.

Head scans from across the globe. Moscow, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Milan and Melbourne all got in on the act. The folks on Brushstroke have done the same (via MeFi).

Composographs or faked news pictures were utilised by the New York Evening Graphic from the 1920s onwards as a way of increasing circulation:

...often startling front page images created in the art department by cutting and pasting the faces of celebrities onto the bodies of often scantily-clad models posed to illustrate some real-life scene where a camera simply couldn't go (especially with the flash powder cameramen used in those days)...into someone's bedroom, to bathtub-ringside at a wild Broadway party, to a hanging, into a closed courtroom at a steamy divorce trial, into a hospital operating room or beyond the grave.

Peter Murphy photographs Sydney, 360 degree panorama-style. He captured one of the Canberra telescopes destroyed in the bush fires in QTVR (via boingboing).

PixelPress hosts a small gallery of images of global war protests held earlier this month in New York, London, Seoul, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Edinburgh and Melbourne.

Interesting article on falsified wildlife photography and controversies over digital manipulation (Thanks, Robert!)

Tokyo Bloggers are having a social gathering this Friday night at 7:30pm at the Pink Cow in Harajuku.

Everyday Life with Lomo on Medusa, a site by Yokohama photographer, Miyuki Meguro.

Peter Brune, a freelance German photographer based in Tokyo, has an interesting portfolio site (Thanks, Kurt!)

Armenian-American photographer Eric Grigorian's moving black and white image of a boy grieving at his father's graveside following a massive earthquake in Iran was recently announced as the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2003.

This month ZoneZero features a fascinating article on the history and ethics of "directed" photojournalism in photography dating back almost 150 years through to the present day.

Former Tokyo resident, Erin Knowles, has launched her new site Ptoingmedia to showcase her photography and web design portfolios.

Hunkabutta from Tokyo won Best Travel Photoblog (congratulations, Mike!), Chicago Uncommon won Best City Photoblog, Quarlo won Best Non-digital Photoblog and A Life Uncommon won Best Photoblog of the Year in the 2003 Photobloggies.

Zoltan Vancso's flash portfolio site Photovancso contains a beautiful collection of mainly black and white images from across Europe.

Great collection of Lomo images and interviews with Lomo photographers on 120 seconds (via 28mm.org).

Unfortunately my posts from 19 and 20 February are gone. My web host had an unrecoverable error on their disk array just prior to undergoing server maintenance, and they only had a back-up for 18 February. I suppose two days lost isn't so bad, but it's still disappointing nonetheless.

The Lomographic Society is now distributing the Russian Horizon 202 swing-lens panorama camera.

My last two days of posts seem to have disappeared...looking into recovering them...hmmm?

A new flash photography site from Portugal, Photo Mondo features the work of Tomasz Jankowski, and documents the last two years of his travels. The main image on the home page allows you to view different sections close up with a single mouse click.

Black and white photos by Japanese photographer Tatsuya Sato.

In a new downloadable eBook, On a Small Bridge in Iraq, Seiichi Motohashi has photographed the daily life of Iraqi people (via Joi Ito Web).

Pallalink in Osaka has been having fun with architectural symmetry this month.

While I was bedridden with the flu, i-S@ko joined 5000 participants at Tokyo's peace rally in Shibuya on Saturday night, and has posted a short photo essay and summary on his site.

Two Japan stock photography companies: Photo Japan and iKjeld.com. The latter features a regular photo essays.

I love shopping! Today I just added the new Epson PM970C Photo Printer to my slowly expanding collection of digital peripherals. Fast and outstanding quality!

Two interesting photography sites via Design is Kinky:

Well-executed photography portfolio from Kuwait. It's a little frustrating that each image generates a new pop-up window though.

Spotting contains a nice selection of images from across the world in the 'Men' (Des Hommes du Monde) section.

Winter lomography from Japan.

Anatomy of a wild flower on Noah Grey's new photoblog (via photojunkie).

Issue 2 of Lonely Planet Image's newsletter is just out. The 'Festive' gallery contains especially striking images.

NYT's Executive Editor Howell Raines is interviewed on PDN Online about the changes he has been making to the photography department at the newspaper in order to "feel the pulse of the city in [its] pages".

The White House New Photographers Association has just awarded its Best of 2003 prizes.

This month, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London plays host to Snap Happy Days, where lomos, toy cameras, and photobooths are made available to visitors to document their wanderings through the museum.

Philip Buehler has spent twenty years photographing the ruins of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair.

Robert Moses, President, New York World's Fair 1964/1965:

What is it you want? Vast forces dormant in nuggets of imprisioned sunlight? Machines that fly, think, transport, fashion and do man's work? Spices, perfumes, ivory, apes and peacocks? Dead Sea Scrolls? Images divine and graven? Painted lillies and refined gold? The products of philosophy, which is the guide of life, and knowledge, which is power? We have them all.

Interesting collection of images on sadee, using a grid structure for navigation and display (via k10k).

Paul Anton uses a lightbox metaphor to view his work. Currently he is working on a book of timelapse photography of the London Docks.

ZoneZero hosts Photos of You by Ines Ulanovsky, images of people who have disappeared without a trace in Argentina (via consumptive).

The January issue of the Cross Atlantic Report is now online. The Paris photos are particularly interesting this issue.

Geisha 5 from Tokyo_Boy focuses on street graphics.

Photo-i reviews and comments on the UK & US equivalent (Epson Perfection 3200) of my new flatbed scanner, the Epson Colorio GT-9800F.

Tim Flach's flash site features beautiful close ups of animals and human forms.

Richard Prescott favours a depth of field of infinity in his images.

The finalists in the 2003 Photobloggies have been announced. Categories include best photomeme, best travel photoblog, best city photoblog, and best digital photoblog. Voting ends 21 February.

TomatoCow, a site featuring the work of Koichi Morita, has some great new images up of Shibuya at night.

Photo'n'roll has extensive portrait studies by Tominari Tetsu.

Keitai Addiction, Japan's favourite pasttime.

Atsushi Kamikobe photographs Tokyo sunny, after cloudy.

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.

This month the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography features an exhibition by Dutch post-war photographer, Ed van der Elsken, notable for his photographs of Japanese yakuza in the 1960s. Until 23 February.

Beautiful black and white photos of blues music played at home and in clubs within African-American culture on SteberPhoto. I particularly like this image (via coudal).

Light of Speed by David Crawford has a series of Stop Motion Studies "exploring movement, gesture, and algorithmic montage".

The Lomography Society has launched the "new" old Russian Fed 5 fully manual camera.

A futuristic all-mechanical wonder. Gone is the past of clunky batteries, autofocus, and power film advance. Say goodbye to on-board camera computers, built-in flashes, and "megapixels."

Eric Jervaise takes panoramas of the 21st century with a 19th century camera, a Panoram-Kodak No. 4.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is holding a major retrospective of works by exemplary photographer Thomas Struth (and one of my personal favourites), focusing on his Museum series. Until 18 May.

Photographer and photoblogger, Marc North, has a photoessay on sleeping homeless people in the February issue of 28mm.

Eiji Ohda's newly launched site has series of new medium-format portraits, Say a Little Prayer, from Tokyo.

Beautiful portfolio of Daniela Borner's work. The train series (Photos>Special>Train) is particularly vibrant, capturing the retro aesthetic of the train interior perfectly.

Rachel James' site Mood Indigo has a feature section on her lomography.

Heimo Photography (beautiful portraits from Iceland) and Nikolas Koenig Photography (urban landscapes, interiors and exteriors) are both finalists in this year's SXSW Website Competition.

Polar Inertia features a photographic study of WWI airplane hangers.

Recently redesigned, Sharpe Online showcases eight photographers' portfolios. Search by artist, category (people, places, things), or theme (via netdiver).

Pete McArthur does colourful, intensely saturated still lifes.

Christine Selleck photographs her local environs, Houston, Texas, on Pixelog.

This month's edition of Digital Journalist features the work of Vietnam War photographer, Larry Burrows.

Momo Shinzawa photographs everyday objects, out of focus (via consumptive).

Travel photography by Keith Philpott.

Beautiful collection of stills taken of urban life in Cuba.