Photography

A daguerreotype portrait of Samuel Morse by his student, Mathew Brady, circa 1844-1860.

The Inventor of the Telegraph Was Also America’s First Photographer

The daguerreotype craze took over New York in the mid-nineteenth century

House and Cedar-Lined Walk in Mist, October 2003

Get Lost in the Landscape that Inspired William Faulkner’s Greatest Novels

A new book of photography brings the late author's Mississippi homestead to life

The Titanic leaving Belfast on April 2, 1912. The black streak can be seen just above the water line.

A Coal Fire May Have Helped Sink the 'Titanic'

A new documentary claims the <i>Titanic</i>’s hull was weakened before it struck an iceberg

Kiyoshi Katsumoto at his home in El Cerrito, California, 2015

The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day

During WWII, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into camps, a government action that still haunts victims and their descendants

From left to right: Ricky Jackson is finally a free man; Japanese Americans head into internment in 1942; a Maryland boy (in red) has an inmate mom.

The Far-Reaching Effects of American Incarceration

Three photo essays explore the history and modern-day consequences of the world's highest incarceration rate

The first-known photograph of the White House, by John Plumbe, Jr.

The First-Known Photograph of the White House Was Taken by an Immigrant

John Plumbe, Jr. was one of America’s first rockstar photographers

Marsh Ponds; Mavilette, Nova Scotia, 2014

A Photographer Captures Emptiness and Longing in Longfellow's Nova Scotia

Photographer Mark Marchesi spent four years tracing images from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, "Evangeline"

Decoder glasses help visitors view both utopian and dystopian angles to the exhibition

This Art Show Looks at 500 Years of Failed Utopias

So far, the ideal has yet to work out

Dendrite Star snowflake

This Historical Figure Wore the Label "Snowflake" With Pride

Wilson Bentley became the first person to photograph a single snowflake in 1885

Iron-thiocyanate complex, droplet on surface

Time-Lapse Photos Reveal the Beauty of Metal Crystals Growing

Photographer Emanuele Fornasier spends hours capturing the intricacy of chemical reactions

Andreas Velten and his lab at the University of Wisconsin use this setup, complete with a fog chamber, to test their camera.

This Camera Can See Around Corners

How a superfast, supersensitive camera could shake up automotive and exploration industries, as well as photography as we know it

This colorful pattern is actually the cells inside a zebrafish embryo.

Prize-Winning Videos Capture Mesmerizing, Microscopic World

Everything looks cooler when it's viewed through the lens of a microscope

Two supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment demonstrate in August 1980.

These Photos Bring the Women’s Movement to Life

<i>Catching the Wave</i> dramatizes the large and small moments of second-wave feminism

The Best "Art Meets Science" Books of 2016

Eight sumptuous books from the past year that meet at the intersection of science and art

Carl Kress, performer of "Heat Wave" on Volume I, focuses absolutely on his guitar-playing.

How Countless Hours of Live Jazz Were Saved from Obscurity

The Savory Collection breathes fresh life into jazz

Left to right: Newton Poolaw (Kiowa), Jerry Poolaw (Kiowa), Elmer Thomas Buddy Saunkeah (Kiowa). Mountain View, Oklahoma, ca. 1928

A Rare Insider's View of Native American Life in Mid-20th-Century Oklahoma

Horace Poolaw's photography is unearthed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian

Activists picketing at a demonstration for housing equality while uniformed American Nazi Party members counterprotest in the background with signs displaying anti-integration slogans and racist epithets.

This Photo Book Is a Reminder That the Civil Rights Movement Extended Far Beyond the Deep South

Public historian Mark Speltz's new book is full of images that aren't typically part of the 1960s narrative

"Ginzer" Kiki Smith, 2000 Aquatint, drypoint, and burnishing etching on paper. Smith placed the corpse of her cat on the plate and traced the outline to produce the image of the etching before burying him to create the etching.

A Massive Collection of Cat Art Is up for Auction

The results of an art teacher’s passion project are for sale

A Photojournalist Captures Dramatic Portraits of Dancers in the Streets of Cuba

For Gabriel Davalos, photography is about storytelling

National Geographic’s Iconic “Afghan Girl” Arrested in Pakistan

Sharbat Gula was recently detained on charges of having a fake I.D.

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