Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
It’s tough at the top! Engineers with a head for heights are seen carrying out safety checks on the rides at Thorpe Park in Surrey. Photograph: Mikael Buck/Rex Features
Just this one photo reminds me just how scared of heights I actually am.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Stacked chairs sit in St Peter’s Square ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s last public audience on Tuesday morning in Vatican City, Rome. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
There’s something weirdly melancholy and old-fashioned about this picture that I love.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Buddhist monks hold candles as they walk around a Pagoda on Makha Bhucha Day at the Dhammakaya Temple in Pathumthani,Thailand. Makha Bhucha day is observed on the full moon of the third lunar month and commemorates the day when 1,250 monks gathered to be ordained by the Buddha. Photograph: Porchnai Kittiwogsakul/AFP/Getty Images
This looks like the world’s grooviest alien invasion movie ever, with the pagoda looking the way it does…
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A flash of lighting is seen in Piraeus, near Athens during a rainstorm. Hours of heavy rainfall in Athens caused extensive flooding, inundating basements and forcing authorities to close major roads and a central subway station. Photograph: Elina Liberta/AP
Mother Nature, ladies and gentlemen.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Pedestrians walk along a gloomy street in central Pyongyang, North Korea. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/AP
Between the blue and yellow streetlights and that sad star, this is a completely beautiful, melancholy picture to me.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
That’s hard: a US marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a jungle survival exercise with the Thai navy as part of the “Cobra Gold 2013” joint military exercise, at a military base in Chon Buri province. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Yes, I feel so much better knowing that the U.S. military are engaging in ridiculous dares as part of official training exercises. Not shown: Another U.S. marine sticking his hand in a bowl of warm water and trying not to pee.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Body parts of dolls are seen hanging to dry after painting at Sydney’s Original Doll Hospital. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
As someone creeped out by the misfit toys in Toy Story, this is the stuff nightmares are made of.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A gallery worker poses with pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s “Whaam!” during a media viewing of the Lichtenstein: A Retrospective exhibition, at Tate Modern in London. The exhibition which opens on February 21 runs until May 27. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters
It’s the extra-level of metaness in this image – The person taking the picture of the person looking at the painting that’s stolen from another source – that appeals to me, here.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A white contrail left by the meteor over Chelyabinsk in Russia. Read and see more here. Photograph: Pustovaya Marina/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
The world (and space, and nature, and the Universe) is such an incredible place, sometimes.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A woman shelters from heavy rain under an umbrella while selling Valentine’s Day roses in central Singapore. Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA
There’s something about that caption in particular that feels… I don’t know. Poetic, I guess? But melancholy, too. It feels like the start of a short story or something, which I appreciate.