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Photography

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The Swimsuit Series, Part 2: Beauty Pageants and the Inevitable Swimsuit Competition

In the latest chapter of the series, we look at how bathing suits came to be an integral part of the Miss America competition

Microoptics of the AWARE2 camera

Gigapixel Camera Takes 11-Foot Wide Photos in 0.01 Seconds

Stunning View of Arctic Could Be Last of its Kind

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Picture of the Week: Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity

The renowned physicist enjoyed the sensation of weightlessness while 24,000 feet over the Atlantic

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Celebrating Motherhood in Pictures

Here are some of our favorite photos recognizing moms of all kinds submitted by readers over the last nine years

Gripping Photos of Fallen Soldiers’ Bedrooms

A photographer’s images of domestic tranquility pay tribute to U.S. service members

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The Camera That Can See Around Walls

A new device uses laser pulses to create 3-D images of areas beyond its line of sight

GRAND PRIZE WINNER Sunset clamming Xiapu, Fujian, China • Photographed January 2009 Xiapu, China “is famous for photo ops because it has lots of small hills along the coasts,” says Dong. “I zoomed in with my Nikon so that the reflection filled the whole frame. I waited till those fishermen walked into the right position and took the shot.” Jia Han Dong, a shipping company manager from New Jersey, was vacationing in a small fishing community in southern China when he climbed a hill, intending to photograph the setting sun above the East China Sea. He walked around for hours trying to find the best spot to set up his equipment, but the conditions weren’t ideal. “It was kind of cloudy,” recalls Dong. Then the sun appeared and lent the shoreline a golden cast. “I saw those fishermen going out for low tide clamming with their tools on their shoulders. I loved the color, the pattern of the posts in the foreground, the texture of the water.

9th Annual Photo Contest Winners and Finalists

See the winning photos from our 2011 contest

Antarctic penguins, by Chris Linder, 2009.

Shooting Stars: Steve Winter presents Chris Linder

Linder’s science photography is a throwback to the age of expeditions and adventure

Lauren, by Keith Coleman, 2010.

Shooting Stars: Albert Watson presents Keith Coleman

Coleman’s photographs unveil the fruits that come from being obsessed with one’s work

Artists such as David Hockney were inspired by the SX-70.

How the Polaroid Stormed the Photographic World

Edwin Land’s camera, the SX-70, perfected the art of instant gratification

Imogen + Hermiane Pembroke Studios, London 30th July 1982

Seven Famous Photographers Who Used Polaroids

For artists such as Andy Warhol and Ansel Adams, the Polaroid SX-70 was the digital camera of its day

To go backward in time, start at the far right side of this Cosmic Web poster, which represents the universe as it is today, scattered with galaxies. As you move to the left, you see earlier stages of the universe in which dark matter—a mysterious substance astronomers can detect only indirectly—was structured as webs and filaments. Before that, closer to the Big Bang, dark matter was dominated by tides and voids.

The Best Science Visualizations of the Year

Browse through the winning images that turn scientific exploration into art

"Luminescent and, unlike me, very tall" is how photographer Ruth Orkin described her friend, then know as Jinx Allen.

An Image of Innocence Abroad

Neither photographer Ruth Orkin nor her subject Jinx Allen realized the stir the collaboration would make

The photographs of the Empress Dowager Cixi taken by Xunling are more Western than Eastern in style.

Presenting China’s Last Empress Dowager

The early 20th-century photograph of Empress Dowager Cixi captures political spin, Qing dynasty-style

Charles M. Conlon was a proofreader at the New York Telegram when he began shooting pictures as a hobby. Shown here is one of his iconic photographs of Ty Cobb sliding into third base.

Charles Conlon: The Unheralded Baseball Photographer

Stalwarts of early 20th-century sports pages, Conlon’s photos of the national pastime have their second chance at the plate

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A New Look at the Men of Baseball’s Past

Charles Conlon’s classic photographs of baseball players from the early 20th century offer a glimpse into a familiar sport at an otherworldly time

Historypin is a website that allows users to "pin" old photographs, video or audio clips to Google Maps at the very locations they were snapped and recorded. Shown here is the Wisconsin State Capitol from 1939.

Q & A with Nick Stanhope, Creator of Historypin

By merging old photographs with new mapping technology, this site fuses new connections between the generations

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Dazzling Displays: 8th Annual Photo Contest Winners

Out of more than 50,000 photographs submitted, editors – and readers – picked seven showstoppers

"The most hated show of the year" is how a critic described Eggleston's landmark 1976 exhibition.

William Eggleston’s Big Wheels

This enigmatic 1970 portrait of a tricycle took photography down a whole new road

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