Whether behind the lens or in front of a screen, Greg Williams has always loved film. On assignment from London’s Sunday Times Magazine in 1997, the British photographer began what he’s become best known for: behind-the-scenes and on-set cinema photography. In 2001, he published “Greg Williams On Set,” a look at the underpinnings of the British film industry and he has since been tasked as a “special photographer” on the sets of more than 120 films including “King Kong,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Atonement.”

His experience on the “Bourne Ultimatum” shoot likely lent Williams the spy-credentials necessary to be booked to stalk the set of both of the recent Daniel Craig-led Bond epics “Casino Royale” and last year’s “Quantum of Solace.”

Williams’ black-and-white images of Craig are revealing and often cheeky, showing a chiseled and tuxedoed agent being measured and manhandled by grips and lighting techs, training for fight sequences or goofing between shoots.

Craig’s sly smirk provides wonderful contrast to Williams’ stark and masterfully composed photos– and the shots of Bond girl Olga Kurylenko are appropriately gorgeous. [via iconology]

(see the full gallery after the jump)

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To promote its bubbly Aero confection, Nestlé tapped skateboarding legend Bob Burnquist and skate filmmaker Ty Evans, set up a ton of cameras, filled a concrete skate park with chocolate-colored balloons and started rolling. Boxes upon boxes upon bags and bags of the balloons were used and barely managed by the commercial crew. The resulting TV commercial is dreamy and delicious, but since there was money to be made — both Burnquist and Evans have to be admonished and chastised by angsty skate-dorks. [via fubiz]

Getty entertainment photographer Dan Kitwood used the 2008 Venice Film Festival as an excuse to get airborne. Taking a break from taking shots of celebrities, filmmakers and movie stars, Kitwood snapped a series of stunning aerial photographs of Italy’s “City of Water.” The northeastern Italian city was largely built on more than 100 small islands. Building and home foundations were constructed on wooden piles driven into the muddy sand under the Venetian lagoon. [via denverpost, photos by Dan Kitwood for Getty]

San Diego photographer Lou Mora has a simple approach to his work: “Less is more,” he writes on his Web site. But the deeply personal portraits and personalities his lens captures are deceptively layered and beautiful. Using available, natural light, Mora doesn’t stretch with subject or angle, instead the relying on technique, composition and focus to recreate a feeling. It’s an aesthetic gallery owners have drawn upon along with companies like Pfizer, Intel, Qualcomm and Taylor Guitars. People are the focus of his shots, which are masterfully framed with blur, haze and background. With so much modern imagery centered around attitude, it’s refreshing to see photography that inspires a mood. [via fubiz]

With a tiny amount of abstract, ounces of creativity and a special photography technique, Alexandre Duret-Lutz manages to create an amazing new world that certainly yanks at our curiosity.  While the technique is not new, Duret-Lutz has perfected it.  The French artist  (known as gadl on Flickr) focuses on stereographic projection panoramas and each of his photographs captures a miniature “wee planet“. It’s like a journey into a 360-degree universe that we’re taking right from our screen. We salute Alexandre, Duret-Lutz– enjoy the gallery of his selected works below… [via Fubiz]

French photographer Gilles Alonso has thrown his expert eye towards urban life and taken to the streets of Paris with a cadre of beautiful women. Shot on the street, inside parking garages, rooftops and select interior spaces, Alonso’s gritty photographs blend setting and pose to present a distinct personality from each of the models, who are each stunning, but appealingly non-bombshell. [via fubiz]

Opened yesterday in the lively Manhattan, the Lomography Gallery Store in New York is quickly becoming the Mecca for all those trying to satisfy a desire for analog photography. Other than being a retail store for all your lomo needs, the space serves as a gallery and meeting point that gathers everyone who appreciates the little mistakes of the lomo way. Considered the masterpiece of the gallery, there’s a giant LomoWall comprised of over 35,000 hand-picked and hand-mounted lomographs – a real eye-catcher. Don’t miss it on 41 West 8th Street, while in New York … [via Core77]

The style of photographer Kazuhiko Kawahara is one of symmetry, of spiraling fractals and cubic concrete.  With careful digital manipulation, his cityscape subjects take on a mathematic character as streets and structures, buildings and beamwork interweave into themselves.  Let your eyes lose focus for a second, and Kawahara’s work becomes reminiscent of Rorschach– allowing your mind to see what it wants in the merging metropolis.  In an age where architecture is man’s most monolithic form of sculpture, Kawahara brings a chisel of his own.  [pallalink via db]

While art is always open to interpretation, it’s often the most apparent emotions that can be the most striking. Same goes for Mikel Uribetxeberria’s Animalia, a composite collection of fabulous photographs that creatively portrays wild animals in hollow, empty human settlements. Is the gorilla pondering how to escape extinction or the reindeer how to get on a first flight to the North Pole? Though calm and peaceful, none of the beautiful beasts seem to enjoy a day in the wild world of humans, but the stunning outcome is synonym with art. The art of domesticating the wild? [via Mikel Uribetxeberria]