Amazing photographs by David Maisel.

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The ground is bleeding. A red river cuts a path through a bleached valley, winding toward a lake that is no longer there. Seen from the air, the river and its dry terminus appear otherworldly. In actuality, this terrain is located in Owens Valley, an arid stretch of land in southeastern California, between the Sierra Mountains and the White-Inyo Range. The history of this region is the stuff of California legend: a story of engineers, politicians, and big land owners working together to divert water to the rapidly growing desert city of Los Angeles, generating a thriving agricultural industry and an environmental disaster in the process. Beginning in 1913, the now infamous Los Angeles reclamation project effectively diverted water from Owens Valley to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, providing a substantial amount of the city’s water supply. By 1926, the lower Owens River and Owens Lake were essentially depleted of water, leaving a vast exposed salt flat with unusually concentrated mineral levels and extremely vulnerable topsoil. The situation has been exacerbated by fierce winds that sweep through the valley and dislodge carcinogenic particles from the lakebed, creating a pervasive dust cloud known as the Keeler fog (named for the town on the east side of the lake). The Owens Lake region, the largest source of particulate matter pollution in the United States, is now undergoing an EPA approved, state implemented plan to control the spread of this hazardous matter. After decades of accelerated destruction, the ground is once again flooded, this time by EPA officials in an effort to diminish the toxic dust that settles in the soil, vegetation, and lungs of nearby inhabitants. From the air, high above this damaged wasteland, the ground assembles itself into something spectacular and horrifying. This is what David Maisel sees through his camera, a contemporary version of the sublime.

I like how this lookbook is shot, great work.

- GQ

Undercover with a single store (called Nowhere, in the trendy Tokyo shopping district Harajuku), he's kept the retail outlets opening across his native country (more than 30, at last count). To Takahashi, though, it's just one interest of many—he also counts animation, photography, and doll-making among his passions.

- NYtimes interview

A few months ago, you relaunched Nowhere — your first retail experience from about 15 years ago, in collaboration with Nigo — at Dover Street Market in London. It seems that everyone is doing collaborations these days, including Rei Kawakubo with her almost simultaneous teaming with Louis Vuitton & H&M, and now Jil Sander for Uniqlo. What do you think of those?

I find their collaborations far too business-oriented. In the early ’90s, when there was no such thing as a category called collaboration in the fashion industry, I worked with Nigo just because we were very good friends and wanted to create something purely out of interest. We just enjoyed working together without thinking of our activity as business. Under the current difficult economic situation, such collaborations between the big maisons have impact. But to me, they seem to lack a pure intention to pursue something for fun or creativity. In other words, their collaborations are productive only in terms of business. If you ask me whether or not I’m interested in such kind of collaboration, my answer would have to be “no.”

His mens line AW09

Jonathan Waiter is a photographer, now based in New York.

- website

When I was younger and in school(like say elementary), I would stare at the pretty girls. Girls with pretty faces. I would try not to be creepy or get caught. I think I was always very passionate about the features that make a pretty face. I'm still passionate. Whenever I see pretty girls on the train, on the street, or anywhere, I'm still susceptible to that urge to stare. It's not a sexual thing. It's just that I find certain features so unbelievably striking. It's like good art. You just want to take a good look at it. I dont think it is hard for anyone to relate to that. I only mention it now because that passion is intense, and I like to express it.