LAPD Crime Scene Photos from the Mid-1900s
A new exhibition in Los Angeles will feature crime scene photos captured by police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department from between 1925 and the 1970s.
Read Hasselblad’s Moon Landing Press Release from 1969
This month, Hasselblad is celebrating the 50th anniversary of becoming "the first camera on the moon." And in addition to sharing some beautiful photos taken of and with the iconic Hasselblad Data Camera (HDC) and Hasselblad Electric Camera (HEC) used on the moon, they also shared a bit of fascinating history: their original moon landing press release from 1969.
These Photos Ended Child Labor in the US
Photographs have the power to bring issues to the forefront of public consciousness and spark change in society. Here's a 6.5-minute video by Vox that tells the story of how photographer Lewis Wickes Hine helped end child labor in the United States.
These Unseen 9/11 Photos Were Found at an Estate Sale
A giant archive of 2,400 never-before-seen 9/11 photos have been discovered on a set of CDs purchased at an estate sale. The images show workers in the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers after the September 11th, 2001, attacks in New York City.
Street Photography Through Time: A Photo Per Year from 1838 to 2019
YouTuber Guy Jones created this 20-minute video that offers a brief history of street photography. It's a slideshow of 182 photos -- one photo for every year between 1838 and 2019.
Rare Photos of Hitler from Glass Plates by His Personal Photographer
Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, was one of the infamous dictator's primary propagandists, and tens of thousands of the photographer's photos exist on glass plate negatives. Now a large number of those rare photos are being revealed with a new level of clarity through a digitization effort by the National Archives.
Recreating the First Color Photo Ever Made
In the "Olden Days," professional science was still in its infancy. People who trained in science and practiced science were using every ounce of creativity and imagination at their disposal to discover the nature of the world. They were scrappy and inventive. In this article, I will outline a modern replication of the experiment that produced the first color photograph ever made.
The Completely Bonafide and Entirely Unfalsified History of the Camera
Here's a 6-minute short animation by The Royal Ocean Film Society that offers a cynical and tongue-and-cheek account of how the camera came to be.
The First Great Photography Craze: Cartes de Visites
Before Instagram, selfie sticks, disposable cameras, Polaroids, and box brownies, there were carte de visites -- small photographic albumen prints, mounted on card, which were wildly popular during the Victorian era.
We Are Known By What We Leave Behind
100 years from now, no one is going to care who I am. I know this. I don’t mean that in a bad way and I don’t say it in the hopes someone will contradict me and shower me with praise; this is not said as compliment bait.
Debunking the Myths of Robert Capa on D-Day
I want to give you a brief overview of an investigation that began almost five years ago, led by me but involving the efforts of photojournalist J. Ross Baughman, photo historian Rob McElroy, and ex-infantryman and amateur military historian Charles Herrick.
A History of the Yosemite Firefall and Tips for Photographing It
Each year from summer of 1872, the owners of Glacier Point hotel started the event of Yosemite Firefall. For seven nights a week, they would spill hot embers from Glacier Point down to the valley 3000 feet below. The event ended in 1968 when the National Park Service ordered it to stop because the overwhelming number of visitors that it attracted overwhelmed the meadows, and because it was not a natural event. NPS wanted to preserve the Valley, returning it to its natural state.
How a Photographer Included Himself in a Family Photo a Century Ago
Before the self timer and remote shutter release appeared in the world of cameras, photographers had a much trickier time getting themselves into group photos if they didn't have an assistant to help expose the shot. But a vintage photo has surfaced showing one photographer's clever solution to this problem.
Why Kodak Willingly Ignored the Future of Photography
Once a juggernaut of the photography industry, Kodak missed the boat when cameras shifted to digital. Cheddar published this interesting 7.5-minute video that looks at how the company that created the first digital camera in 1975 went bankrupt in 2012.
How the Iconic Photo ‘Migrant Mother’ Came to Be
Dorothea Lange's 1936 photo Migrant Mother is an iconic photo of the Great Depression. The Nerdwriter made this fantastic 6-minute video that tells the behind-the-scenes "story of how Dorothea Lange created perhaps the most iconic photograph in American history."
‘Jihad By Camera’: How U.S.-Trained Afghans Photographed the Soviet Invasion
U.S.-trained Afghans photographed the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. These rare color photos bring the U.S.S.R.'s "hidden war" to light.
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.
The Terrible History of Photographs, Sesame Street-Style
It has never been easier to shoot and share photos than in our modern Instagram age. The YouTube puppet web series Glove and Boots made this tongue-in-cheek 5-minute video on the "terrible history of photographs" to explain how much time and effort it took to do photography in past eras.
A Brief History of B&H, The Largest Non-Chain Camera Store in the US
The camera superstore B&H Photo Video is the largest non-chain camera store in the United States and one of the (if not the) largest in the world. The store made this 1.5-minute video that tells the story of how the juggernaut of the industry came to be.
The Story of How Top Photographers Posed for Baseball Cards in 1974
In the mid-1970s, 134 of the top photographers and curators in the world of photography posed for an unusual set of baseball cards that now sell for thousands of dollars as a complete set. The SF Museum of Modern Art just released this 4-minute video in which photographer Mike Mandel shares the story of how these cards came to be.
Take a Trip Through Paris in the Late 1890s
Want to see what life in the streets of Paris was like over a century ago in the late 1890s? Film restorer Guy Jones collected old footage shot between 1896 and 1900, slowed it down to a natural speed, and added sound for ambiance. This beautiful 6-minute experience is what resulted.
That Iconic ‘Migrant Mother’ Photo Was ‘Photoshopped’
"Migrant Mother" by photographer Dorothea Lange is an iconic image of the Great Depression and one of the most famous photos in US history. But did you know that the photo was "Photoshopped"?
Why Kodak Died and Fujifilm Thrived: A Tale of Two Film Companies
The Kodak moment is gone, but today Fujifilm thrives after a massive reorganization. Here is a detailed analysis based on firsthand accounts from top executives and factual financial data to understand how and why the destinies of two similar companies went in opposite directions.
The Remains Of Stalin’s Dead Road
In Russia’s arctic wilderness, the remnants of one of the Soviet Union’s most tragic gulag projects now lies largely forgotten.
The First Photo from the Asteroid Japan Just Landed Rovers On
Japan just made history by landing two small rovers on the surface of an asteroid hurtling through space 174 million miles (280 million km) from Earth, and here's the first published photo from the rovers shot from the surface of 162173 Ryugu.
This Was the World’s Largest Camera Back in 1900
Check out this monster of a camera. It was the world's largest camera back in 1900, built for the specific purpose of shooting the largest photo in the world of the "handsomest train in the world."
How Still Life Came to the World of Photography
A while back, I had another roundtable discussion at the Film Photographers Association. This time the subject was Still Life Photography. It is a genre we all take for granted and include in it a great variety of photographs. I would like to explore the origins of still life in painting, how it came to photography, and eventually expanded in coverage and scope.
How These Former Kodak Engineers Helped Prevent World War III
During the Cold War, the US enlisted the help of Kodak to create a satellite camera for spying on the Soviet Union. This 4-minute video by CNN is a look at the program and the former Kodak employees who "helped prevent World War III."
Dear Sony: Thank You For the Mirrorless Camera Revolution
The mirrorless camera industry is about to blow up and we have Sony mirrorless to thank for this. This is how they achieved their massive success.
These Are the First Vogue Cover Photos Shot by a Black Photographer
Last month it was reported that 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell would become the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue in the iconic fashion magazine's 125-year history, thanks to him being hand-picked by Beyonce for the job. It's now official, as his photos were just published.