Culture

Photography is about far more than capturing an image. How photos are shared and what social issues are impacting the profession are just as important. PetaPixel regularly covers the stories around the culture of photography, how it affects society, and what cultural changes affect the art.
Two images of a Piranha Plant lamp, styled like the Super Mario character. The plant emerges from a green pipe base labeled "NINTENDO SWITCH." One image shows the plant with its mouth closed, and the other with its mouth open.

The Piranha Plant, Frequent Mario Foe, Is Now a USB-C Camera for Switch 2

During this week's Nintendo Direct, the popular video game company unveiled many new features of its upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 gaming console, including that it will use the maligned SD Express memory card format and work with many USB-C cameras, not just the official Nintendo one the company will sell as an optional accessory. This has opened the gates for some fun new USB-C cameras, including Hori's adorable licensed Piranha Plant one.

A person digitizes old photo slides. On the left, hands hold a slide over a backlit surface showing multiple slides. On the right, a camera is mounted above, aligned to capture the images.

Magnum is Digitizing Its Color Photo Archive with the Fujifilm GFX 100 II

Magnum Photos is working closely with Fujifilm and MPP (Heritage and Photography Library of Paris / Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie) to digitize Magnum's massive color library archive in Paris. The collection contains approximately 650,000 color slides that have remained mostly untouched and unseen for over 20 years.

A woman in a long, dark gown stands with one foot on a table, holding a gun. A man lies face down on the floor with another gun beside him. A bottle and glass are on the table. The image has a vintage, noir style.

This 1940s Photo Was Made to Defy Hollywood Self-Censorship Rules

The Motion Picture Production Code, more commonly referred to as the Hays Code, was one of the most influential forces shaping Hollywood’s Golden Age. Created to uphold moral standards in cinema, the Code governed what could and could not be shown on screen for over three decades. Yet, as restrictive as it was, resistance to its rules surfaced even from within the industry itself.