society

Why Street Photography Matters in 2017

“Street photography is dead”, declare forum threads and thinkpieces far and wide. The Internet and phone cameras have watered the quality down. The uniformity of the modern world means nothing is interesting anymore. Privacy and security issues make it immoral and dangerous. From a lot of angles, it seems, the photographic discipline I love is under attack.

Watch as Children Describe What They See in Luxury Fashion Photos

Artist Yolanda Dominguez believes that there is something wrong with the way women are portrayed in fashion photographs. For her recent project titled Ninos vs Moda ("Children vs Fashion"), she asked a group of 8-year-old children to look at an assortment of fashion shots and to describe what they see in them. The reactions can be seen in the 4.5-minute video above.

Opinion: Lomography, an Alternative Perspective on Traditional Photo Standards

Lomography began as an art movement in the early 1990s after a group of Viennese students discovered the LC-A, a camera manufactured by Russian imaging company LOMO. The fixed lens 32mm f/2.8 compact camera produced unique images that were off-color, vibrant, and soft. On a mission to advocate the use of these creative cameras and experimental film, photographers quickly formed the Lomographic Society International in 1992.

Despite the movement producing wonderfully interesting images that have been exhibited in both Moscow and New York City, it has received substantial criticism from self-dubbed “real photographers.” This opinion piece aims at breaking down the wall of prejudice, and opening minds to the possibility of creative photography outside of normal standards.

Beautiful Portraits of Black Dogs Help these Oft-Overlooked Pets Find a Home

As the owner of an extremely cute rescue puppy from my local humane society, I can attest to how wonderful it is to be able to rescue a pet whose life was previously in danger for some reason or another.

However, it's not a happy ending for many of the dogs in shelters. To help with that, Massachusetts-based photographer Fred Levy has started the "Black Dogs Project," a series that focuses on capturing portraits of black dogs against a black background.

Don’t Let Photographers Look Down On You Because You Are Young

Since the moment I walked into Milford Photo looking to buy a professional camera in the winter of 2011, I have been exposed to constant judgment for being a rich, stupid and spoiled 13-year-old who wanted an expensive camera to take “artsy” pictures that I didn’t know how to take.

Contrary to society’s beliefs, I do not fit into that stereotype in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, I am associated with this stereotype because that is the view society chooses to observe and overplay.

How Wearable “Sousveillance” Cameras Will Transform Our Society

Have you heard of the term sousveillance? It's the inverse of surveillance: instead of a camera pointed at individuals, individuals wear their own cameras on themselves to document their activities. Wearable-camera pioneer Steve Mann has written a fascinating piece for Time, titled "Eye Am a Camera: Surveillance and Sousveillance in the Glassage", in which he offers his vision of what the future will look like once wearable cameras such as Google Glass (seen above) become ubiquitous.

Is the World Ready for Wearable Cameras (Or Cyborgs)?

Professor and self-proclaimed cyborg Steve Mann created an eye and memory-aid device he calls the EyeTap Digital Glass. The EyeTap, worn by Mann above on the left, is a wearable device that is similar to Google Eye, pictured right, but he's been making them at home since the 1980s. The goal of his project is to use images to aid memory, or even to augment the memories of people with Alzheimer's Disease or who simply want to preserve their memories more permanently. However, a recent misunderstanding over Mann's technology allegedly caused a confrontation between Mann and several employees at a Paris McDonald's restaurant.

Nadia Camera Rates Photos As You Shoot

We've already got plenty of gadgets designed to facilitate photography: there's auto-focus, face detection, and some crazy features in Photoshop that can effortlessly add and remove entire elements (and people) in photographs. So now why not have a camera that tells you whether you're taking an aesthetically pleasing photograph?