Culture

Identity At Play: Basketball Culture In the Sierra Norte Villages of Mexico

I grew up in Guelatao de Juárez, a Mexican village of approximately 500 people in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte. Guelatao is famous not only as the birthplace of Mexican president Benito Juárez, but also as the site of the annual Copa Benito Juárez, in which more than 200 teams of indigenous Zapotec, Mixe, and Chinantec players compete at basketball over a period of three days.

Re: If You Don’t Want Your Photos Stolen, Don’t Post Them on the Internet

“If you don’t want your photos stolen, don’t post them on the Internet.”

This is an argument I have heard over and over again, mostly from people who have never had their work borrowed. Which of course is like saying, “I know you were home, but if you didn’t want your belongings stolen, you shouldn’t have left your door unlocked.”

Photographer Creates Grids Showing How People on City Streets Look the Same

Fashion street photographers usually look for styles that are one of a kind. Hans Eijkelboom doesn't. For over twenty years, the Dutch 'anti-sartorial' photographer has roamed the streets of major cities around the world in search for the common -- people showing similar tastes in clothing, accessories, or behavior.

The result is a monumental project called "Photo Notes", which comprises grids of photos grouped together by a common theme.

Megatron is Not a Fan of Selfies

Universal Studios in Hollywood recently offered guests a photo op with a performer dressed very impressively as Megatron, one of the main baddies in Transformers. It turns out Megatron is not a fan of selfies.

When Alexandra Trew walked up and tried to snap one, she ended up capturing this video of the villain ranting about selfies and arguing how people need to learn to live in the moment.

Concealed: Portraits of Women Who Arm Themselves

Photographer Shelley Calton grew up in Houston, Texas and was raised by a father who owned guns for both hunting and self-defense. She and her two sisters all learned to shoot firearms from a young age.

This background is something Calton shares with the subjects of her project "Concealed". It's a series of portraits that looks into the lives of women who arm themselves.

The Guardian: Photos Don’t Belong in Art Galleries

Does photography deserve a place in art galleries? Jonathan Jones doesn't think so. The Guardian art columnist has caused quite a stir after writing a piece titled, "Flat, soulless and stupid: why photographs don’t work in art galleries."

While Jones acknowledges that photographs can be "powerful, beautiful, and capture the immediacy of a moment like nothing else," he argues that they are, "poor art when hung on a wall like paintings."

Street Photographs that Show How the Rise of Smartphones Means the Death of Conversation

Reminiscent of the Tumblr Blog We Never Look Up, London street photographer Babycakes Romero's series The Death of Conversation focuses on our obsession connection with our smartphones.

But where the anonymous photographer behind We Never Look Up focused on anyone and everyone with their eyes glued to that little screen, Romero's series is all about highlighting the digital wall that smartphones have created between people often sitting so close to each other they're touching.

Biracial Woman Asks Photoshop Artists From 18 Countries to ‘Make Her Beautiful’

Two months ago we shared with you the interesting experiment by journalist Esther Honing that involved taking one photograph and having people from 27 countries Photoshop it to end up with what they considered to be their countries definition of beautiful.

Fellow journalist and friend of Honig's Priscilla Yuki Wilson wanted to try the same thing, and see how her biracial ethnicity would affect the outcome.

Lightomatic is a Photo Booth That Lets Subjects Paint Light Into Their Portraits

As light painting photography is becoming more popular and common, photographers are coming up with better and better ways of bringing the technique to events. The Lightomatic is a fancy solution by Dazler, a collective of light painters based out of Lyon, France.

From the outside it looks like your average high-end photo booth, but it's one that allows users to make a creative light painting self-portrait print on the spot.

Amy Toensing Shares the Story Behind Her Photographs of the Oldest Culture On Earth

At an estimated 60,000 years old, the indigenous culture of Australia, the Aboriginals, are estimated to be the oldest still-surviving culture on the planet. And in the above video world-renown photographer Amy Toensing shares her experience photographing this incredibly unique culture for National Geographic, delivering an extremely heartfelt talk about the hardships the Aboriginal culture has continually faced since their land was colonized in 1788.

Deep in the Delta: Interview with Brandon Thibodeaux

Brandon Thibodeaux (b.1981) is a photographer based in Dallas, Texas who creates portraits in the documentary tradition. In addition to his assignment work and creative commissions, he explores life in the American south. He is a member of the photography collective MJR, based in New York City.

Photog Travels the World and Photographs Ancient Cultures that May Soon Disappear

A few days ago, we shared photographer Sasha Leahovcenco's inspirational project in which he photographed people in Siberia who had never had their photo taken. Photographer Jimmy Nelson's series/book Before They Pass Away is similar in that he, too, is probably photographing people who have never seen a camera.

But the project takes on a deeper, more tragic meaning as well. You see, as the name suggests, Before They Pass Away is about capturing photographs of ancient tribes and cultures that, before long, may no longer exist to be photographed.