A traffic accident, men in masks and a naked woman: The split second moments Google Street View cars never meant to capture



From the crowd gathered moments after an accident in Mexico to the camper van blazing in a Brazilian street, they are a series of images that capture a few seconds of the lives of people across the globe.

Add in the group getting into a pick-up that appears to be carrying a body in the back and a lone woman posing naked at the edge of the sea they also show moments that those involved may wish had not been captured.

Complete with four Mexicans posing in animal masks, a young man sitting next to a lamppost and a man celebrating wildly as the car goes past they also capture some more bizarre moments.

And while these images may not appear to have anything in common due to their varied subject matter and mixture of locations they do… because they were all captured during Google’s mission to map the world for Street View.

Caught in a moment: A crowd gathers around the injured victim of an accident in a picture from Jon Rafman's Nine Eyes of Google Street views, which collates images caught by the company's cars as they mapped the world

Smoke billows into the air and flames lick from the rear of a camper van as it burns on a residential street in Rio de Janeiro, captured from one of the nine cameras mounted to the car

Hide and seek: A young boy attempts to use a bin stop himself being seen as the car drives past in Blaru, northern France

Double take: An elderly gentleman can be seen twice on the Rue Valette, a street in the town of Pompertuzat, near Toulouse. The effect can happen because of the nine cameras mounted on the car all taking an image at the same time

Captured: A man from the Canadian city of Toronto hides behind a lamppost as this man in New York appears triumphant as the car passes

Bizarre: A group of men wear masks and appear to pose for the camera as the car photographs the outskirts of Nacozari De Garcia in Mexico

In hiding: A man is seen among woodland close to Nacozari de Garcia

Running away: A group of men flee down the Victoria Highway near Gregory in Northern Australia after the Victoria River burst its banks

All the images here, and countless more, have been collated by Canadian artist Jon Rafman for a project called the Nine Eyes of Google.

Rafman named the project because of the nine cameras mounted on a single pole atop the vehicles that navigated the globe photographing the landscape.

Each car captured a frame every 10 to 20 metres, with every picture here captures just a split second as the vehicle went past.

So in one photo an elderly gentleman is shown twice in the same still because of the camera passing him as he walks down the street.

Crash: A boy falls from his bicycle as he rides in the Wujie Township, in the Yilan area of Taiwan

Cheeky: A woman appears to be naked at the edge of the sea at this Italian beach while a man in Ireland has an interesting way to welcome the car to this estate in Ireland



Bad timing? What could be a body is seen in the rear of this pick-up truck as the car goes by in Winnipeg, Canada

Seedy: What appears to be a prostitute touts for work among Spanish lorry drivers in the town of Santa Perpétua de Mogoda

On the loose: A wild reindeer runs down the road ahead of the car in a remote area of northern Norway

In flight: A kit of pigeons takes to the air as the vehicles passes the Herois de Franca, in Matosinhos, Portugal

In an essay on his project, published on art blog Art Fag City, Rafman has written of how he attempts to seek out ‘postcard-perfect shots that capture “the decisive moment” in the same way a photojournalist responds to an event’.

He adds: ‘Within the panoramas, I can locate images of gritty urban life reminiscent of hard-boiled American street photography. Or, if I prefer, I can find images of rural Americana that recall photography during the depression.’