Culture

Street Photography Is Not a Crime. Let’s Keep it That Way.

The New York Daily News recently published an opinion piece by a writer named Jean Son titled “When your photograph harms me: New York should look to curb unconsensual photography of women” and I would like to address it here.

Documenting the Life and Culture of Traditional Shepherds in Hungary

Photographer Zsolt Repasy describes himself as a photographer of "folklore, traditions & forgotten values," and nowhere is that passion more obvious than in his images of Hungarian shepherds. After discovering that traditional shepherds are still alive and well in Hungary, he set out to immortalize their lives in a spirit of curiosity and openness.

Passenger Pigeon Manifesto

A call to public galleries, libraries, archives, and museums to liberate our cultural heritage. Illustrated with the cautionary tales of extinct species and our lack of access to what remains of them.

Officials Say Smoke Bomb at Gender Reveal Sparked Major CA Wildfire

Officials in California have revealed that a "smoke-generating pyrotechnic device" (i.e. a colored smoke grenade or 'smoke bomb') was the cause of the El Dorado Fire that has already burned some 8,600 acres across San Bernadino County. The grenade was apparently part of a gender reveal party.

Tourist Breaks 200-Year-OId Sculpture by Sitting on It to Take a Picture

Earlier this month, an Austrian tourist learned a tough (if obvious) lesson at the Antonio Canova Museum in Possagno, Italy: don't sit on the sculptures. While posing for a photo with a 200-year-old plaster cast of a famous statue, the tourist leaned on and broke off several of the sculpture's toes.

When a NYC Fashion Photographer Becomes a Whiskey Maker

Michael Myers spent years as a fashion and beauty photographer in New York City. Then 9/11 happened, and the event was so life-altering that Myers left NYC and the photo industry. He then decided to blend his two passions: photography and whiskey.

Sangoma: Photos of Traditional Healers in South Africa

Traditional healers are, even in today’s modern times, still highly respected and frequently consulted members of South African communities. Instead of referring to Western, mainstream health, and healing practices, they practice traditional African medicine.

Why I’m Hanging Up My Cameras to Become a Conceptual Artist

After 14 years as a professional photographer, I've decided to become a real artist. The pieces above, which I’ve birthed over the past 72 hours, show what I’m evolving into as a creator. I present to you my Suspended Sustenance, Part 1 (foodstuffs, wood, paint, tape, 2019).

Four Reasons the Camera Market is Shrinking that Aren’t ‘Smartphones’

Photographer and occasional PetaPixel guest author Robin Wong recently published a very interesting take on a question that most people thought was settled: why is the camera market shrinking? While most people would just blame the rise of smartphones and call it a day, Wong shares a more nuanced, and possibly more accurate, list of reasons.

Layers of Being Human: A Tribute to Mexican Culture and Día de Muertos

A month ago I had the opportunity to visit my friends and colleagues in beautiful Mexico. After two colorful and unforgettable weeks touring Mexico, I swore that I would create a “tribute” image when I got home, trying to instill some of the visuals and feelings of the Mexican culture into it.

This Iranian Music Streaming Site is Photoshopping Women Out of Their Own Album Covers

Iranian music streaming website Melovaz is under fire today after it was discovered that, in accordance with the country's strict censorship policies, the site is forced to Photoshop out women out of album cover art. The policy means that women are being scrubbed—often very poorly—out of their own cover art, resulting in some very strange, almost comical album covers.

Photos of Manggarai Warrior Caci Whip Fights in Flores, Indonesia

Indonesia is an incredible archipelago containing thousands of islands, hundreds of volcanoes, tribes, dialects, and cultures. After exploring Java, Bali, and Lombok, I traveled to Flores where I witnessed something truly unexpected.

Photographers, Instagrammers: Stop Being So D*mn Selfish and Disrespectful

What does it take to push a farmer to this point? The point where, fed up of thousands of disrespectful photographers, wannabe “influencers” and narcissistic tourists, they feel the only way to get them to stop damaging their business and property, is to damage those people’s photographs?

Photographers Are to Blame: A Case of Native Cultural Appropriation

Appropriating Indigenous cultures has been going on for a very long time. Anytime something appropriating Indigenous cultures or racist comes up, it doesn’t matter what Natives might say in protest -- most often the person doing the wrong thing claims it’s to “honor” us. Much the same way people think that Native mascots honor us. It doesn’t.

The Chinese Instagram Village

In today’s social media game, simple selfies just don’t cut it anymore. The competition for attention is fierce and in order to keep eyeballs locked, some are stepping up their game. This is what I learned when I accidentally stumbled upon an area just outside Dali, China and found myself in the middle of a selfie wonderland.

Are You an Ethical Photographer?

A group of boys in Baraboo, WI assembled for a junior prom photo and posed with a Nazi salute. One of the boys posted the image to Twitter with the caption “We even got the black kid to throw it up.” In the midst of public outrage, it was revealed that a professional photographer not only took the image but directed them to “wave goodbye.”

Portraits of Tribal Cultures in Myanmar

The diverse culture of Myanmar is part of the country’s unique identity. I was honored to visit different tribes that amazed me by the variety of their traditions, beliefs, and practices. What I witnessed in Myanmar exceeded my expectations even though I had done my research before I traveled.

Shooting Street Photos in Ethiopia

My first time in a Sub-Saharan African country was in Ethiopia, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well, yes I know, I was expecting to get ‘in the zone’ at all times and take hundreds of great pictures like I expect from all my photography trips. Not too much to ask, is it?

Three Seconds of Pleasant Geometry

Back in the day, a compelling photograph could be taken in a fraction of a second and considered for years, even decades. The small world of street photography was dominated by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who said, “Photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”

Why is Street Photography So Contentious?

As a street photographer, I accept that I have a bias towards the kind of work and criticisms I prefer to seek out as an audience to the work of others - although there are examples of landscape or portraiture that I do enjoy it is street photography and photojournalism that take up the majority of my interest. 

5 Reasons to Stop Hating on ‘The Instagram Girl’

I’m going to start you off with a little honest story. Once upon a time I, maybe like you, only walked around in hiking pants and jeans for days on end during my travels (except if I was shooting for our photography project @followmeaway or traveling somewhere hot like Italy).

The High Cost of Perfection

Walking past booth after booth at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York, I often heard camera company presenters explaining to their uncomfortably-seated, yet nonetheless-enraptured, audiences how they shot the “perfect” photo.

Photography is the Bastard Art

Photography is the bastard art. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that everyone owns a smartphone and many of those people are under the mistaken impression that they are “excellent” photographers.

There’s Now a Museum of Selfies in Hollywood

The word "selfie" has exploded into mainstream culture over the past decade as more and more people around the world shoot and share self-portraits using their smartphone's front-facing camera. And now the selfie has just unlocked a new achievement: it has its own museum.

Social Media is Ruining Photography

In the U.S. and most industrialized nations, we have a collective infatuation with technology but a poor understanding of its effects – both intended and unintended. We love asking Siri to play our favorite song, but don’t fully consider the privacy implications of allowing the device to persistently listen to us.

Photographers, Let’s Make Peace Over Our Cameras

With the release of Nikon’s new mirrorless camera and the impending release of Canon’s competitor, we are seeing the future of photography as we know it. However, in the response of some we are also seeing the demise of the community as a whole.

Female Iranian Photographer Banned from Stadium Shoots Match from Roof

Parisa Pourtaherian is a 26-year-old photographer in Iran who has a passion for shooting sports. The problem is, women are banned from entering soccer stadiums in her country for men's matches. But Pourtaherian recently became the first female photographer to shoot a national league match, and she did it by climbing on top of a nearby roof.

Portraits of the Konyak ‘Headhunter’ Tribe in India

When we think of tribes, the first thing that comes to our mind is, “what did those tribesmen and women believe in?” “What were their customs and beliefs?” That’s what I asked about the Konyak tribe that was nestled in Nagaland, India, in regard to the famous headhunters.

Sunflower Farms Are Being Trampled by Instagram ‘Zombie Apocalypse’

The Instagram generation has been bad news for beauty spots around the world as people flock to the same picturesque locations and shoot similar-looking photos to boost their social media status, often leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Now you can add sunflower farms to the list of places affected.

Wim Wenders: Phones Have Made Photography ‘More Dead Than Ever’

Renowned German photographer and filmmaker Wim Wenders thinks that photography "is more dead than ever" and that smartphones are to blame for the art form's demise. In this 1.5-minute video produced by BBC News, Wenders stops at an exhibition of his Polaroid photos to share some of his thoughts on the current landscape of photography.