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Photography

Category winner, Behavior: A school of tropical clupeid fish swim in sync, keeping a healthy distance from a teenage black-tip reef shark in the Rasdhoo Atoll, Republic of Maldives. Though the sharks cruise placidly for hours without so much as a glance at the fish, they strike suddenly, gobbling up a mouthful of fish.

Trending Today

A Tadpole’s Perspective and More “Life Through a Lens” Images

Ogle the images from winners of the Royal Society’s photography contest

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Spectacular High Fashion Rises From a Landscape of Trash

Photographer Fabrice Monteiro conjures the specter of environmental ruin

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

The Beauty of Venice’s Everyday

Instagram photographer Alvise Giovannini discovers Venice beyond its iconic symbols and places

Cool Finds

How Tourism Shaped Photography in 19th Century Japan

Westerners were obsessed with geisha, samurai and cherry blossoms

A Rabari tribal elder, Rajasthan, 2010.

Steve McCurry’s New Photography Book on India Has Been Decades in the Making

A conversation with the renowned photographer about his latest book of photographs

HyperCam

This Camera Sees What Your Eyes Can’t

HyperCam, an affordable hyperspectral imaging camera, can tell if your food’s gone bad, among other things

A spaghetti squash explodes with color. Maciek Jasik does not reveal his technique for making produce expel colorful smoke.

These Fruits Explode With Color. Literally.

Artist Maciek Jasik won’t share the secrets behind his work, but the mystery is part of the fun

Lee Harvey Oswald stands in his backyard with Marxist newspapers and a rifle. This photo has been looked on with suspicion ever since Oswald called it a fake after John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

New Research

3D Model Showed Controversial Photo of John F. Kennedy’s Assassin Is Not a Fake

Doubts surrounded the incriminating photo since Kennedy was assassinated in 1963

Cameras captured snowy craters scattered across the moon's north side.

Cool Finds

Stunning New Views of Enceladus, Saturn’s 6th-Largest Moon

A new flyby has revealed a spidery network of cracks crisscrossing its northern pole

A honey bee’s eye dusted with pollen from a dandelion pollen magnified 120 times won 1st prize in the 2015 Nikon Small World competition.

Cool Finds

See at a Bee’s Eye Level With 9 Award-Winning Microscopic Photos

The winners of Nikon’s annual photomicrography competition have an eye for detail

Shaving was something of a job on all the Apollo missions because in Zero-G, water doesn't just run off the face.

New Photos From Apollo Mission Depict the Mundane Daily Tasks of Astronauts at Work

From the original film rolls that the astronauts took into space, a work-a-day routine emerges of Apollo mission voyages

The title of Gardner's photograph (taken with Timothy O'Sullivan) Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg, July 1863 was added later to capitalize on the famous general's heroism.

Alexander Gardner Saw Himself as an Artist, Crafting the Image of War in All Its Brutality

The National Portrait Gallery’s new show on the Civil War photographer rediscovers the full significance of Gardner’s career

Demonstrators express support for The Perfect Moment, an exhibition by Robert Mapplethrope that included nude and sexually graphic photos.

When Art Fought the Law and the Art Won

The Mapplethorpe obscenity trial changed perceptions of public funding of art and shaped the city of Cincinnati

A domed building serves as the village center and is visible from everywhere in Matavenero, Spain

Cool Finds

Spain Has Turned a Ghost Town Into an Off-Grid Eco-Village

A photographer documents the remote, self-sufficient lifestyle

A dry farm field.

The Deep South, As Seen Through the Eyes of Renowned Photographer Steve McCurry

A new book written by travel writer Paul Theroux features images that chronicle life in this part of the country

"What About Grandma"

Awkward Family Photos Is Playing in Peoria

Like a long family road trip, the hilarious exhibition of awkward photos featuring kith and kin makes a stop in Illinois

Two gray wolves—Jesse and her partner, Shilo—play in the evening sun.

PHOTOS: A Sanctuary for Wolves

The Washington State refuge presents an arresting lesson in survival and what it means to be wild

Mouth (for L’Oréal), New York, 1986; printed 1992.

How Irving Penn Turned Fashion Photography Into a Fine Art

A new show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum looks back at a photo giant who blurred the lines

Audience members in the VIP section, including Miss Indian New Mexico Nicole Johnny, 25, center, look on during the butchering competition.

Inside This Year’s Miss Navajo Pageant

Rest assured, this competition is far from just a beauty contest

Martha McDonald performs in the 2014 work The Lost Garden at The Woodlands in Philadelphia.

What Artist Martha McDonald Might Teach Us About a Nation Divided

This fall, a one-woman show staged in one of Washington, D.C.’s most historic buildings will recall the sorrow of the Civil War

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