Photography

This grand-prize-winning image captures a touching moment between a parent gentoo penguin and its and chick.

Diverse Splendor of Birds on Display in Audubon Photo Competition

100 of the top submissions can now be viewed online

A horseshoe crab.

Forget Dinos: Horseshoe Crabs Are Stranger, More Ancient—And Still Alive Today

But now evolution’s ultimate survivors may be in danger

Triple-Face Portrait by Sylvia Plath, c. 1950-1951

The Whimsical, Chameleon-Like Figure Behind the Myth of Sylvia Plath

Today, visions of a life marked by mental illness endure, but the author had a light side—and a knack for savvy image control

Marlene Dietrich by Paul Cwojdzinski on the SS Europa, 1933, Cherbourg, France, 1933

The Pioneering Androgyny of Classic Hollywood Star Marlene Dietrich

The film icon embraced bisexuality, glamorous mystique and provocation

Vodou adherents, or Vodouisants, also call their faith sevis lwa, or “service to the spirits.”

Explore the Timeless World of Vodou, Deep Within the Caves of Haiti

Photographer Troi Anderson captures the religion that has been misunderstood for centuries

A skull believed to have belonged to a companion of St. Ursula. The bones of other saints are said to lie under the gemstones and gold fabric.

A Pittsburgh Church Holds the Greatest Collection of Relics Outside of the Vatican

Behold the treasures of this tiny neighborhood church

Portraits of Faith

In a world changing faster than ever, the enduring appeal of religious tradition shines in these photographs

It is not uncommon for highlands churches to be situated within caves. Mekina Medhane Alem, built of wood and layered stone, contains 800-year-old paintings but is believed to be centuries older.

A Legendary Photographer Visits an Isolated Christian Community in Ethiopia

High in the mountains of eastern Africa, an ancient way of life continues apace

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See Yerevan Through a Local's Lens

Eduard Kankanyan's visual journals offer a view into Armenia's capital that most travelers don't see

Abraham Lincoln by Mathew B. Brady, Feb. 27, 1860

How One Mathew Brady Photograph May Have Helped Elect Abraham Lincoln

Before chronicling the Civil War, the nation's first photojournalist took these portraits

Image of Mount St. Helens plume found in a thrift store camera

Camera Film Reveals Images of the Mount St. Helens Eruption

A photographer developed the film found at a Goodwill, revealing images of the ash plume from the 1980 eruption that killed 57

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna shot her own mirror selfie in 1913. The picture,taken five years before she was killed, shows a young woman of 13 looking herself in the eye, stabilizing the camera on a chair in front of a mirror.

Take a Peep at This Gallery of Historic Selfies

People have been photographing themselves almost since the dawn of the technology

Don't even bothering searching for snaps like this.

Tourists Are Now Banned from Photographing This Swiss Village

It's a blatant—if somewhat brilliant—press play

A cyanotype photogram from "Photographs of British Algae."

How the First Female Photographer Changed the Way the World Sees Algae

The groundbreaking photo book by Anna Atkins, a 19th-century British botanist, is going on display in the Netherlands

Where to Go if You Want to See Manhattanhenge in 2017

It's the most anticipated sunset of the year

DISCOVR captured a glint over South America. Scientists now think that horizontal ice crystals in the troposphere account for the phenomenon, which can be viewed from deep space.

Scientists Finally Figured Out Why Earth Twinkles From Space

Horizontal ice makes the planet sparkle and shine

New App Makes It Easier to Colorize Old Photos

The software combines human input and a sophisticated neural network to make historical images pop

Amanda Lawrence, lead technician, collections program. With a green sea turtle Chelonia mydas

Why These Humans Are Museum Treasures, Too

A portrait photographer captured 24 staffers from the National Museum of Natural History posing with their favorite artifacts from the collections

An infantry unit with bayonets marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in May 1865. They are followed by three ambulances.

See the Civil War Through the Lens of Its First Photographer

Mathew Brady and the photographers he hired were the first to photograph a war zone

The First Couple head to the inauguration ceremony, Washington, DC, January 20, 1961

JFK's Presidency Was Custom Made for the Golden Age of Photojournalism

A new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum concentrates on the White House's most photogenic couple

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