© Chen Haiwen

China may be a single-party nation, and the Hans may be the cradle of her population, but she is also home to 56 ethnic groups, a land of concealed diversity.

Chen Haiwen, 54, and 14 other photographers embarked on a project to document this in 2009, and a book “Harmonious China – Features of China’s 56 Ethnic Groups” was published as the result. Follow the jump to see snapshots of the book, which is now available on the iTunes App Store as a $1.99 iPhone App — China 56 Ethnic HD.

One year in making, the book was compiled from over 57,000 captures by the traveling 15-crew production team.

(via Adi Harsono)

©Dave Wallace/Innovate Imageworks

Dave was approached by a photo printing company Clickpixx and tasked to come up with a commercial of some sort, so he came up with the idea to create photographs and film the actual prints from Clickpixx and turn it to a stop motion short.

Obviously, when you spend enough time to create 2,335 photographs, put some chirping birds and nervous giggles to it, things can hardly go wrong.

Check out the how the video was made.

© Gavin Hammond

Spontaneity means surprises, and the Lomo was born for it.

Read his interview in Escape into Life.

© Nicholas Vreeland

Nicholas is a Buddhist monk who carries a Leica around.

© Rhie Hyi Joong & Lee Sang Hwa

Great, but somewhat unnecessary.

What’s better than this?

A camera lens that doesn’t need a hood or a cap.

© Christoph

Shot with a Hoya IR Filter R72.

© Mike Mitchell

Unpublished and almost unknown, Christie’s is auctioning the then-eighteen-years-old Mike Mitchell’s select work from the British band’s first visits to the U.S. in 1964:

I had heard their music and just knew I had to be at that concert. I asked one of the magazines I worked for if they would get me a press pass but I was really “shooting for myself.” The pictures were taken by an 18 year old kid who had led a very sheltered life and had just come to realize photography could take him anywhere. I wasn’t approaching it as documenting an event ; I saw it as an opportunity to do great portraits.

57 years later, his sheer will turned fifty of his select prints at Christie’s with a starting bid of $100,000.

Update The entire catalogue was sold for a total of $361,983 ($68,500 for the photo above), and TOP has a great scoop on the story.

© arockalypse

The photo was taken at the Columbia Shuttle Flight Launch on April 1981.

Thirty years, three months later, the same father-and-son team attempted to recreate the memorable shot at NASA’s historic Atlantis Space Shuttle launch on July 8, 2011.

The Atlantis is the last active Space Shuttle orbiter, and the July 8 launch is the last flight before NASA shuts down their Shuttle program. As Wikipedia has it: “Atlantis launched successfully for the final time on the 8 July 2011 at 1629 GMT.”

What a moment. (via reddit)