A Palestinian protester throws stone at Israeli soldiers during the protest in Ramallah, West Bank to mark the 96th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on November 1, 2013. The 1917 declaration was a formal statement of policy by the British government regarding the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. By Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. Ugh.
Pinar is impressed:
Bleeding is an incredibly eye-catching sand sculpture by Québec City-based artist Guy-Olivier Deveau that features a resting head boasting undeniably surreal elements. Rather than depicting a calming, serene scene of a giant, slumbering head, the piece focuses on an open-mouthed man’s head, seemingly screaming, lying on its side with one half of his face eerily distorted. The piece is all at once surreal and realistic, striking and dramatic, scary and intriguing.
You can find more of Deveau’s work at DeviantArt.
U.S. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, speaks during a conference at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC on October 30, 2013 . General Alexander spoke about cybersecurity at a conference hosted by Bloomberg Government. By Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
Somewhere Mark McKinney is smiling.
Katie Hosmer praises photographer Todd Bretl:
From sharks and marine mammals to critters, and corals, Bretl is not afraid to get right in there and swim alongside the rare and stunning animals. As a result of his adventurous spirit, he is able to capture the playful essence of daily activities that generally take place in an underwater world. Bretl captures such incredible details in crystal clear waters that viewers will feel like they are nose to nose with a toothy, grinning shark or staring into the glowing orange eyes of a rare little fish.
(Photo by Todd Bretl)
A customer undertakes a massage using pythons at Bali Heritage Reflexology and Spa in Jakarta, Indonesia. The snake spa offers a unique massage treatment which involves having several pythons placed on the customers body. The movement of the snakes and the adrenaline triggered by fear is said to have a positive impact on the customers metabolism. By Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.
WISH, pictured above, is artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada‘s 11-acre portrait of an anonymous Belfast girl:
Several years in the making, WISH was first plotted on a grid using state-of-the-art Topcon GPS technology and 30,000 manually placed wooden stakes in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The portrait was then “drawn” with aid of volunteers who helped place nearly 8 million pounds of natural materials including soil, sand, and rock over a period of four weeks. Rodríguez-Gerada says of the endeavor:
Working at very large scales becomes a personal challenge but it also allows me to bring attention to important social issues, the size of the piece is intrinsic to the value of its message. Creativity is always applied in order to define an intervention made only with local materials, with no environmental impact, that works in harmony with the location.
(Image by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, who is currently exhibiting “Texture Urbaine” at Mathgoth Gallery in Paris until November 9th, 2013)
Doug Beirend explains the “hauntingly distressed images from Dutch photographer Rohn Meijer“:
The idea for the project came after Meijer discovered a batch of slides in his basement that had been exposed to moisture for 15 years. Most people might have tossed them, but Meijer saw that the moisture had created a pleasing crystallized effect, so he decided to experiment. He began developing a cocktail of water and other chemicals — a formula he prefers to keep secret — that would interact with the silver nitrate on the back of the negative and enhance the crystallization. To keep the negatives as saturated as possible, he built a homemade, hermetically sealed container for them to stew in.
Details on Meijer’s upcoming exhibition here.
A giraffe looks to visitors on October 25, 2013 at the zoo in Duisburg, western Germany. By Roland Weihrauch/AFP/Getty Images.
Jordan G. Teicher spotlights a subway series:
On assignment in New York in 2008, [Dutch photographer Janus van den Eijnden] started photographing underground, following in the tradition of Bruce Davidson, whose photographs of the subway in the 1980s he admired. Van den Eijnden spent hours underground day after day, waiting for the moment when the conductors didn’t notice him or their surroundings, looking lost in thought. “In almost every photo, the conductors are unaware they are being photographed,” he said. “Most of them noticed me a couple of seconds later, but those photos are much less interesting.
More of his work can be seen here. Update from a reader:
This has no chance in hell, but what the hell. I saw your “Face of the Day” and thought of my brother, who is an amateur photographer from Denver and gaining some notice for his work. He too has sometimes focused on commuting – also waiting patiently for the door to open:
Pakistani Christian minority leader Julius Salik shouts slogans as he sits in front of portraits of Nobel peace prize winners and a photograph of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a protest against US drone attacks in the federally controlled tribal areas of Pakistan, on October 23, 2013 in Islamabad. A report presented by Amnesty International asks US to stop drone attacks in Pakistan asks justification for the 900 innocents’ killing by these attacks in the 9 year tenure declaring these attacks unlawful. Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is visiting the United States for talks with American high officials, peace in the Afghan-Pak region and drone attacks are likely to be the top agenda of the meetings. By Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The Dish 