Since 2007, Google Street View has taken panoramic shots of 5 million miles of roads around the world, covering 45 countries and about 3,000 cities.
Canadian artist and filmmaker Jon Rafman spends many hours culling through these images. He displays the best ones (though never gives their location) on his blog. Called 9-Eyes, his Tumblr is named after the nine cameras that Google’s Street View cars use.
The photos portray how weird and beautiful the world looks. Take a look at some of our favorites.
Rafman searches through Google Street View’s archives for hours, he told The New York Times.
Source: The New York Times
In order to find the most interesting ones, he's been mining through Google's photos for years. He says he enjoys being a "virtual explorer."
The photos are from all over the world.
He finds beautiful, serene landscapes ...
... action-packed scenes ...
... and some slightly eerie photos.
Remarkably composed, the photos look like they were taken by a human photographer rather than Google's robots.
The tape dangling behind the truck pictured below, for example, is perfectly aligned with the edge of the road:
The Street View images feature many interesting characters. Here's a superhero who needed a nap:
And a man popping a sideways wheelie:
Wayne and Garth even make a sly appearance in the photo below:
And here's Pluto having a grand time:
Animals appear in many of the photos as well.
Here's one in which a bunch of monkeys are hanging out.
And another with a lone monkey sitting on a stone wall:
Rafman never reveals where on the map the images come from.
It's a mystery where this cop arrested the man pictured below ...
... or where we'd find this home that got TPed:
We're left with a lot of unanswered questions. Like, is this driver okay?
What about the one behind the wheel of this turned over car?
Why was this dock flooded?
Why was this girl sitting in the middle of the road ...
... and this pair at the edge of the ocean?
And why do these kids look so pleased with themselves?
Many of the images look surreal ...
... and not from real streets.
The building pictured below looks like it's from the future.
The images Rafman uncovers show just how strange ...
... yet breathtaking the world can be.
Check out all of the images and Rafman's other work here.