Too often, photographs of life in a rural village in a distant country revolve around sadness, hunger and depravity, but rural village life can also be playful, full of joy, and beautiful in its simplicity. It's the latter of the two that Indonesian photographer Herman Damarher set out to capture.
Polish husband and father-of-two Sebastian Łuczywo is a business advisor for his day job. But when he's not at work, he's capturing incredibly heartwarming portraits of his family and their animals.
With his rural home in Poland serving as a backdrop for these images, his photographs of his family -- including his two four-legged children -- seem to be a conglomeration of many styles, from surrealism to straight up candid. And it’s this unique blend of styles, along with the intimate touch, that takes his photographs to the next level.
It started as a chance encounter on a train. Photographer Lindsay Morris was on her way back from a photo festival where she had been inspired by a seminar on photo essays, when she happened to sit next to Janice Di Joseph and her daughter, Ricchina.
After having a close friend lose a one-year-old to cancer years ago, and watching her stepfather battle this all-too-prevalent beast today, Oklahoma–based photographer Lora Scantling was inspired.
Inspired to create an image, or a series of images, that show the strength of and give encouragement to those who are battling the disease, as well as those who are watching someone go through it.
Everybody takes photos of their family, trying their best to keep a chronicle of their children as they grow up. They capture moments both mundane and momentous and store them away in what later becomes the family album (although it seems that might soon be a thing of the past).
But while everybody might make an effort to capture these memories, photographer Alain Laboile does so with an expertise behind the lens that has turned his own personal family album, a series called La Famille, into a heartwarming viral sensation.
If you don't want to cry today, we suggest you skip this one. That being said, for the love of all that is holy, please don't skip this one! The tears are more than worth it when you hear the story behind these touching and at times heart-wrenching daddy/daughter photos.
A portrait is a powerful thing. Programs like Help Portrait -- which is dedicated to spreading joy, inspiration and hope by taking portraits of people who have never had one taken before -- are easy proof of this. But just in case you find yourself in need of more proof, the If Only for a Second portrait project is here to provide it.
Each year, UK retailer John Lewis releases a touching, moving and otherwise awesome Christmas advertisement that manages to moisten our eyes and get us in the Holiday spirit like none other.
Doing this requires that they constantly re-evaluate their approach and come up with new and creative ways to inspire and endear viewers to their message, and this year, that meant taking a step back and using animation techniques that'll hit you right in the nostalgia bone: hand drawing and stop-motion.
Veterans Day is right around the corner, so it's nice to see that one of the time-lapses making the most impact online over the past couple of days is one showing a homeless US Army veteran being given a makeover and, in some ways, a new lease on life.
Back in July, we told you about a heartwarming Skype campaign called "Stay Together." Inspired by photographer John Clang's viral photo series Being Together, the company got in touch with Clang to see if he would help them create a campaign/contest, the winner of which would be reunited with their distant friend or relative.
The many-award-winning short film Paper Memories by filmmaker and photographer Theo Putzu came out three years ago, but we only stumbled across this brilliant piece recently. Put together from some 4,000 photos, this short stop-motion experience captures loneliness, hope and lost love in a beautifully sad and ultimately heart-warming way.
As a veteran wedding photographer, Sarah Roshan knows how tough it is to make everything come together and how devastating it can be when plans fall apart at the last minute -- even if the culprit is something as seemingly intractable as the worst flooding your state has experienced in recent history.
Here's something that could very well be the "next big thing" in wedding photography: slow motion photo booths. Check out the hilarious video above for an example of what one such booth recently produced.
Photography can be a wonderful source of growth, healing and hope. Programs like this one at the VA in Palo Alto have helped PTSD-afflicted veterans cope with their condition, while the EYE AM program was trying to have children tell their stories on an international level.
EYE AM never raised the funding it needed, but another program devoted to helping children through photography has been going strong for a couple of years now, making a difference for children in need all over the United States. This program is called Pictures of Hope.
When a huge meteor exploded over Russia back in February, the incident was captured by a large number of drivers who drive around with dashcams pointed out the front of their windshield. The story put a spotlight on the fact that dashcams are widely used in Russia due to the prevalence of insurance fraud.
Footage from Russian dashcams found online is often quite dark (figuratively, not literally), showing horrible accidents and tragedies. Not so with the video above -- it's a compilation of random acts of kindness captured by ordinary drivers.
Need a pick-me-up? Check out the project "Your Pet and You" by photographer Tobias Lang of Hamburg, Germany. The series is composed of beautiful portraits of all kinds of pets and their loving owners.
Andy Prokh of Saint Petersburg, Russia spends his days working as an economist, but its his passion for photography that has garnered him international attention on the Internet as of late. Prokh has been shooting photographs of his four year old daughter Catherine spending time with his six-year-old British shorthaired tomcat Lilu. The photographs capture the friendship the two family members have after having spent most of their lives together under one roof.
Nancy Rose is a guidance counselor who lives on Canada's east coast. When she's not meeting up with people who need counseling, Rose enjoys spending time with a very special group of furry friends: squirrels that call Rose's backyard their home.
In recent times, one particularly dear friend and photo subject has been Mr. Peanuts, a friendly squirrel that lives to the left of Rose's yard, on a neighbor's land. Rose has Mr. Peanuts pose for all kinds of cute scenes by creating scenes with tiny props, and then convincing the little guy to pose using peanuts.
A couple of weeks ago, Florida-based photographer Kelli Higgins shared the newborn photos above on her Facebook page.
Emio Tomeoni often plays with his toddler son Xavier while his wife Stephanie is at work, due to her often irregular hours. Recently, he decided that instead of simply telling his wife what transpired over the course of a day, he would show her through pictures -- many, many pictures.
Tomeoni set up a camera in the corner of his living room and created a time-lapse video of a day of their play, showing himself and Xavier moving about the room, tinkering with different toys and structures, and enjoying hours of loving merrymaking.
Soccer, known as football around the world, is played by hundreds of millions of people in hundreds of countries, making it the world's most popular sport. However, a large percentage of its enthusiasts are unable to afford actual soccer balls to play with. Instead, they fashion their own makeshift balls out of things they have on hand -- things like socks, rubber bands, plastic bags, strips of cloth, and string. The DIY balls may be difficult to use and ugly in appearance, but each one is a treasured possession of its owner.
Belgian photographer Jessica Hilltout decided to turn her attention and her camera lens on these one-of-a-kind creations, documenting "football in its purest form" in Africa. The project is titled AMEN.
In addition to being used for art and documentation, photographs have long been a medium of communication. This is even more true in this social networking age in which photographs can easily be used to tear people down or build people up. This heartwarming video published over at Facebook Stories is a great example of the power of socially shared photos.
For the past year, Washington, D.C.-based photographer Dave Engledow has been shooting a humorous series of photographs titled World's Best Father. With help from his wife Jen, he comes up with all kinds of random (and creative) photo shoot ideas to do with his young daughter Alice Bee. The photographs generally portray him as a distracted, incompetent father who lacks basic life skills and who lets his daughter get into all kinds of mischief. Thankfully, the photos aren't candid snapshots of what his life is actually like.
Photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson of Stonehouse Photography made a splash on the Internet this past week after sharing a heartwarming dog photograph through Facebook.
The photograph shows Wisconsin resident John Unger in a tender moment with his dog Schoep in Lake Superior.
Heartwarming video alert: soccer fans snapping photos inside a London Olympics 2012 photo booth were given a surprise of a lifetime when soccer legend David Beckham randomly poked his head in. The video above -- created by Adidas -- captures the priceless reactions of the shocked fans. See if you can spot the die-hard Beckham fan (hint: he's young).
Security camera clips that make the news usually show bad things, but Coke decided to “look at the world …
Photography enthusiast and retired physicist Milo Shott of Oxford, England has found a way use his love for cameras to raise boatloads of money for the poverty-fighting charity Oxfam: camera repair. 11 years ago, Shott noticed some workers at an Oxfam store throwing out an old piece of camera equipment. After saving it from the trash, he fixed it up and helped the store sell it for £270.
Photographer Carli Davidson -- now Internet-famous for her portraits of dogs shaking off water -- has a heartwarming project titled Pets with Disabilities in which she uses portraits to tell the stories of happy dogs that have various handicaps. For the photo above:
(Corgi) Duncan has a spinal disorder that many corgis are prone to. Even though he can't use his hind legs he is still extremely active. He throws toys across the room for himself to fetch, and his favorite treat is whipped cream.
A photographer was recently reunited with his lost photographs after another photographer happened to stumble upon them at a flea market. Photographer-turned-filmmaker Alexi Tan lost his entire photographic archive some time ago while shooting his first feature film in China. He had accidentally let his credit card expire, leading his New York-based storage company to auction off his archive.
Real estate agents make it a point to have homes look attractive in photographs, knowing that good photography can make a huge difference, but the people at animal rescue shelters often settle for second-rate photographs of the dogs they're trying to find homes for. Professional pet photographer Teresa Berg of Dallas, Texas realized that countless dogs are likely euthanized each year simply due to bad photography, and decided to make a difference. Several years ago she started doing shoots for a pet shelter free of charge, and helped increase the adoption rates there by 100%
Teenage photographers Vanessa Hollander and Wilson Philippe embarked on …
The power of the Internet is awesome when it helps reunite people with lost photos, but it’s …
A little boy named Miles was documenting a sledding adventure with his little sister when his new camera slipped …
Here’s a fun story that might convince you to snap all the photos you can of your kids: Alex and …