Photographer Takes Poignant Pictures Of Abandoned Urban Places

If you need tips and tricks on being an urban explorer, just ask Florian Seidel.



In “Abandoned Kansai”, the German expat based in Osaka, Japan, writes about and posts photographs from his numerous urban adventures.



You can find photographs taken from destitute and forgotten destinations like abandoned theme parks, creepy sex museums, and run-down hospitals on Seidel’s website.



For Seidel, he strictly follows the unwritten rule “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints”. His work often evokes a spectrum of emotions from the viewer—while his black and white photographs of the Tokushima Countryside Clinic induces goosebumps, the ones taken at the Wakayama Beach Hotel instantly transports you back to the 1970s.



Using Google maps, blogs and local news as his guide, Seidel often does his research and background checks before heading to these deserted places.



Check out some of his photographs below, and be prepared to be amazed—or creeped out.





Nara Dreamland





Wakayama Beach Hotel





Japanese Sex Museum





Tokushima Countryside Clinic





Amano Clinic





Chernobyl/ Pripyat



[via Yahoo! News, images from Florian Seidel]

Stylish Photographs Of Parisians Taken From Behind

Paris-based photographer David Luraschi documents the stylish denizens of the French city on his Instagram.



Instead of shooting frontal portraits, he captures them from behind, adding a sense of mystery to his portraits.



Check out his photographs below and follow him on Instagram to keep up.

































[via Refinery29, images via David Luraschi]

If Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Iconic ‘Star Wars’ Characters Were Women

Estela Villas has depicted some iconic Star Wars characters as women.



This gender bending experiment draws attention to the fact that this beloved film franchise is dominated by male characters, and lets us reimagine what an all-female cast would look like in the film.



Each woman has a slimmer silhouette and still retains the trademark look of each character—it seems like a female Darth Vader is as menacing as the original.



View this series below.















[via Cargo Collective and Trendhunter]

A Playful Font Based On The Strange Addictions That People Have

Hungarian graphic student Fanny Papay has created a font depicting the strange addictions people have.



The project aptly titled “Addiction Font”, is made up of letters featuring images that represent the various addictions. For instance, a pair of breast forms the letter “W”, corresponding to the addiction to plastic surgery.



Find out more about the project here.































[via Typography Served]

Beautifully Fluid Calligraphy Paired With Inspiring Quotes

Qatar-based calligrapher and typographer Khawar Bilal has hand-painted a series of Arabic calligraphy that is placed alongside inspiring quotes by 13th-century Persian poet Rumi.



The calligrapher's fluid and consistent Arabic brush strokes were juxtaposed against colored, stained glass-like backgrounds, which makes his works look more distinctive.



Find more of his lovely artworks here.























[via Khawar Bilal]

Infographic: Women Directors And Hollywood Feature Films

In an infographic released by Women and Hollywood, the figures showed dismal statistics for women-directed feature films.



For example, in the last five years from 2009 to 2013, a female director helmed less than 5% of major studio-released feature films.



Scroll down to find out more.



Click to view full enlarged version







[via Indiewire]

A Creative Chart That Uses Pixels To Illustrate The Calories In Different Foods

Click to enlarge image



Based in London, designer Severino R creatively uses pixels to visualize the number of calories in different types of foods.



Each pixel represents 1 kilocalorie and is creatively arranged to resemble each food—this is a refreshing way of looking at facts about nutrition instead of reading off a label.



Check out this neat and clever way of representing information here.





Click to enlarge image



[via Food Beast and Visual.ly]