To explore the photography of French art director and concept designer Nicolas Bouvier is to become lost in strange new world, the inhabitants of which are dwarfed by the towering silhouettes of tree and mountains, or swallowed completely by eerie fog and haze. Though these landscapes are indeed real, shot in locations mostly in the Pacific Northwestern U.S., it may not be surprising that Bouvier’s day job is pure science fiction: he creates stunning concept art and illustrations for video games like Halo and Assassin’s Creed. While his concept art has gathered wide acclaim (he’s currently publishing a third book of his own illustrations), his photographic work has also flourished, garnering a significant following over on Flickr. We’ve featured his images several times right here on Colossal as part of our Flickr Finds series.

Currently based in Seattle, Bouvier first picked up a camera in the 1990s while in school, but it wasn’t until 2007 that he began shooting again in earnest. He has since amassed a collection of nearly two dozen cameras (he mentions he picked up a Lumix ZS40 just yesterday), all of which he experiments with as he explores locations around California, Washington, Oregon, Mexico, and France with his family who often appear as subjects in his surreal photos.

It was nearly impossible to make a selection of work for this post, so I strongly urge you to click this link, grab some coffee, and then press the right arrow on your keyboard about 1,100 times. You won’t regret it.

Andrew Myers

too tight

Xavier Casalta is a talented graphic designer from France, who is passionated by hand lettering. He is using an Isograph 0.10mm and experimenting in different styles with a stippling technique. Check out his online shop too.
 

Sculpture & installation by Henrique Oliveira.

Painting by Samantha French

The best place to be is somewhere else, Damien Di Toro

Paris-based design studio Mécanique Générale have built up an impressive portfolio of eye-catching digital advertisements. They have collaborated with the likes of Rosa Park on a series of emoticon designs to battle online predators, and have worked with Amnesty International to create melting candle artworks for an anti-death penalty campaign. Throw in a visually striking partnership with watch giant Tag Heuer, and you have a major player on the international scene.

Part lonely, dreamy girl, part Hollywood princess. This may be a rather obvious description of one of cinema’s modern visionaries, but the media love to portray Sofia Coppola as a naive young woman spoilt by her gilded LA upbringing.

Her name has become a brand; a byword for cool, understated movies about bored privileged girls set to a hip soundtrack. The cinematography is always a high point in any one of her films, and is one of my focuses of this article. Essentially I am looking for the standout moments and scenes from her exquisite movies. The best of the best.  (excerpt taken from Illusion)

Danny Quirk’s work lies somewhere between fine art and scientific illustration. His collection of anatomical body art, some of which he paints directly on his subjects, others which he depicts in traditional painting, dares the viewer to see what’s beneath the surface. You won’t see skin the same.

From onion peels to kiwi seeds or even bits of chocolate, it seems any canvas is sufficient for Turkish artistHasan Kale (previously) as long as it meets the requirement of being incredibly tiny. Kasan delights in the challenge of depicting landscapes of his native Istanbul in the most infinitesimal of brush strokes, a feat that requires the use of a magnifying glass to appreciate the details of each piece. While the longevity of each object he paints is questionable, the steadiness of his hand is impressive to witness. See much more over on Facebook. (via Illusion)

Artist Nastasja Duthois creates large installations and small-scale embroidered artworks that explore aspects of shadow and negative space. Though composed of thousands of straight sewn lines reminiscent of crosshatching, the final pieces are generally organic in form from the silhouettes of dogs and animals to more complex landscapes. You can see more of her work over on BASE and on her website. (via Lustik)

DAT HOTNESSS

Pawel Nolbert - Camouflowers

check this chocolate slideshow.  killa killa. pow pow. LUPITAAAAA!!!

Lupita Nyong’o for Vogue US  July 2014

Never quit, Ana Mercedes

Interface, SamAlive

Collections, Nuria Riaza

coolest fucking thing i’ve seen in a while? YEP. 

Freelance designer and stop-motion animator Micaël Reynaud (previously) creates animated GIFs unlike any we’ve seen. His process involves the use of video techniques like slit-scanning, time-lapse, and various forms of masking to create what he refers to as “hypnotic very short films.” Indeed many of these animations are pulled from fully realized videos which you can watch over on his Vimeo channel. Reynaud’s work has not gone unnoticed in the art world, the pigeon GIF above was a finalist in the first Saatchi Gallery Motion Photographycompetition, and he recently won the 2014 Giphoscope International Art GIF contest. You can scroll through dozens of his creations over on Google+.

Suspended stone circle by Ken Unsworth.

Daniel Arsham, Something light, 2007