Jumpout photos – for real

Well before the Common Era, we kvetched impotently about the abysmal use of photography online. We remarked that computer monitors are essentially lightboxes and have the potential to provide jewel-like photographic reproduction.

Well, we have finally found a site that takes photography seriously: Eziba, a very-well-funded E-commerce site selling arts and crafts from what could be described as the Third World. Product photos are almost entirely shot in Eziba’s New York studios and, according to reports, are actually better online than in printed catalogues due to the cost of reproducing photos on paper.

Eziba is, in general, an attractive and intelligently-designed site (though accessibility needs work); the icing on the cake is the photography, which almost is jewel-like. What were people saying about consumers’ unwillingness to buy online because they aren’t sure what they’re getting? Beautiful documentation of this sort blows that worry out of the water.

The acid test: It’s one thing to make a mask from Burkina Faso beautiful. Now do that to an Ethernet hub or a set of Allen keys. We dare you.

Posted on 2001-09-20