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Photography

Girls, Barbies, Harlem, 1970.

Harlem Transformed: the Photos of Camilo José Vergara

For decades, the photographer has documented the physical and cultural changes in Harlem and other American urban communities

Weegee danced and screamed to get the beach crowd's attention. The masked man called himself the Spider.

Weegee’s Day at the Beach

For the noir photographer Weegee, bathers at Coney Island had another kind of gritty reality

Jonathan Singer's Botanica Magnifica has earned a spot in the National Museum of Natural History's rare book room.

Flowers Writ Large

With his Botanica Magnifica, podiatrist-turned-photographer Jonathan Singer captures flowers on the grandest of scales

Herman Leonard photographed jazz icons such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie.

Herman Leonard’s Eye for Jazz

In the 1940s and 50s, photographer Herman Leonard captured icons of the jazz world, including Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington

The "loyalty dance" was a fixture of China's Cultural Revolution, and Kang Wenjie's performance at a giant Maoist teach-in was boffo.

Dancing for Mao

A photograph of a 5-year-old girl made her famous in China—and haunted the man who took it

A Steichen photograph of two gowns by Madeleine Vionnet reflects the ease of movement for which Vionnet was known. The name of the model in white is unrecorded; Marion Morehouse, in black, was one of the photographer's favorite models.

Edward Steichen: In Vogue

A painter by training, Edward Steichen changed fashion photography forever

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The Best Photographs From Obama’s First Inauguration

Owen Edwards is a freelance writer who writes the "Object at Hand" column in Smithsonian magazine.

Owen Edwards on “In Vogue”

Gerard Malanga, c. 1970s.

Celebrity Portraitist Gerard Malanga

An associate of Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga reflects on his subjects and his career as a photographer

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Reinventing the Toucan in the Smithsonian Photo Contest

GRAND PRIZE WINNER In the early morning, fishermen clean their nets by Erhai Lake Yunnan, China • Photographed October 2008 Ensing and the Chinese fishermen he shot that day did not share a common tongue, but that didn't matter. The language of photography proved universal. "I asked the fishermen if it was OK to take some shots. (In other words, I held up my camera and showed them my most friendly grin.) For more than a half-hour, I made my pictures."

6th Annual Photo Contest Winners and Finalists

See the winning photos from our 2008 contest

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Beyond the Photos with Neal Slavin

Photographer Neal Slavin discusses his group portraits and his career as a whole

"Very seldom do a bunch of Santas get together," says Jerry Clarke, the right-most Santa, who manages apartments by day.

The More the Merrier

Photographer Neal Slavin captures the night some Santas bent the rules

Seen from the aircraft that Steinmetz calls his "flying lawn chair," a salt-making site at the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt in arid northern Niger appears to be a vast work of abstract art. The clay-lined pools hold briny water that slowly evaporates, yielding salt solids that workers truck to southern Niger and Nigeria, where the minerals are given to livestock. The bluish pools bear a salty crust that reflects the sky.

Africa on the Fly

Dangling from a paraglider with a propeller on his back, photographer George Steinmetz gets a new perspective on Africa

Photograph of Alec Soth taken in his studio

At the Portrait Gallery, Alec Soth Likes Looking at Women

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Picture of the Week—Diatoms or Modern Art?

As James Chaney's family awaited the drive to his burial, 12-year-old Ben gazed outward. "There were a dozen questions in that look," says photographer Bill Eppridge.

The Lasting Impact of a Civil Rights Icon’s Murder

One of three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964 was James Chaney. His younger brother would never be the same

"Years later, in the Kremlin," Karsh would recall, "[Leonid] Brezhnev agreed to sit for me only if I made him as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn."

From Castro to Warhol to Mother Teresa, He Photographed Them All

Yousuf Karsh took a singular approach to fame and the famous

Author of Karsh Reality, Mathew Gurewitsch.

Matthew Gurewitsch on “Karsh Reality”

Frank sought to compile "a spontaneous record of a man seeing this country for the first time." Indianapolis, 1956 is typically short on particulars but laden with symbols.

Robert Frank’s Curious Perspective

In his book The Americans, Robert Frank changed photography. Fifty years on, it still unsettles

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