We live in incredible times. It seems that Google is photographing the whole world so that we can sit on our computers (and arses) to look at it. But with so much to see I feel almost blinded as I find the amount of images too overwhelming to make a decision where to look first.
But thanks to Jon Rafman I think this decision has been made for me (and you?). He must have spend ages on Google's streetview scanning our planet for some of the most incredible captures the 9-eyed car-mounted cameras have taken in the last years.
9eyes is also the name of the project in which he collected those finds. His gallery showcases screen captures that are sometimes purely odd and funny but could sometimes as well be hard hitting documentary style photographs we know from professional photographers.
This is I believe the power of his selection. There are many webgalleries of Google Streetview images - but Rafman's images stand out because of their artitistic and compositional beauty and/or their sentiment of the content.
Google's cameras might be just machines that take photos of anything that comes in front of their lenses - regardless of being interesting or not. But Rafman makes me feel those machines actually had a heart and soul.
I just can't stop looking at them. These images touch me, make me sad, marvel - or make me laugh out loud about life on Earth.
Check out his site if you want to become addicted to our planet too.
