stories

Instagram Stories Have a New Look on Desktop

Instagram is rolling out a new design for Stories on desktop to make the feature more immersive and easier to navigate. Users will be able to view stories in full-screen with a carousel containing previews of already-played and upcoming Stories.

The Photo That Got Me Into Brown University

Around the time I was applying to college in 1980, Time magazine ran a short piece about the college application process (coincidentally, at Brown); in it, they described an applicant who had soaked her application in water, then let it dry completely, so it got warped.

Portraits of Federal Workers Affected by the Longest Government Shutdown

The following is a photographic essay of 21 real people – 21 of 800,000 workers – affected by the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Federal workers have become unwilling pawns in the shutdown. Perhaps most dehumanizing, the media and certain politicians relegate these great individuals to being part of a blind number -- “800,000 federal workers.”

Telling Stories Through Photos: A Visual Journey into Argentina’s Food Politics

In May of 2016, I had the opportunity to travel to Argentina through my university for the purpose of researching food politics with our anthropology department. I jumped on the opportunity when it was offered, and had the experience of a lifetime learning about conducting anthropological work.

Meet The Man Who Photographed the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6th, 1945 Russell Gackenbach captured a historic, horrifying event on his personal camera. From the bowels of an Air Force bomber, he snapped two pictures of the first atomic bombing when a 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb named 'Little Boy' obliterated the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

50 Nifty Reasons to Love Photography in 2016

Today nearly everyone has a camera in their pocket. Photography is one of the most democratic forms of expression. It can be precious, but need not be. It can be shared instantaneously with a dozen friends or followers. Or a few thousand. Or with millions of people instantaneously through platforms like Instagram.

How Photographers Should Use Instagram Stories

Well it’s here, and whether you like it or not, Instagram’s new Stories feature is taking direct aim at Snapchat and the minutia of our daily lives. I, for one, am loving it. Stories allows us to share things with our followers that we might never post, humanizing our digital personas and connecting with the community in a totally new way.

Building a Story Through Composite Photography

The majority of the work I create is fiction. In my personal imagery, I pull from my loose short stories and abstract them down to core ideas. This is the beginning to a process that translates into a world of make believe or absurd interpretations of reality.

Timeless Wisdom from Magnum’s David Hurn: Wear Good Shoes

Magnum photographer David Hurn has had the type of career one dreams of. He photographed stars like the Beatles and Sean Connery, and worked during what he describes as one of the friendliest eras in professional photography. But can you guess what one piece of advice he always gives his students? "Wear good shoes."

This One Teen Was Behind Two Major Drone Stories

Austin Haughwout has a knack for getting drones featured in news stories... and usually not in a positive light. The 18-year-old's name first appeared here back in 2014 when he captured viral video of himself getting attacked by a woman on a beach. She claimed that he was being a "pervert" and was using his camera drone to photograph girls in bikinis.

Getty Teams Up with Instagram to Offer $30,000 to Mobile Photographers

Smartphone photography is becoming one of the main ways people share visual stories with the world, and Getty Images wants to help bankroll powerful mobile photo projects. The company is teaming up with Instagram to launch a new photography grant that will hand out $30,000 to help Instagram users tell important stories.

Analog Stories: Brooks Sterling on Shooting Surfing with a Nikonos Film Camera

Photographer and filmmaker Matt Mangham has launched "Analog: Stories of Film Photography," a series of short videos that explore the current state of film photography. "Ever since getting into film photography, I've been so passionate about learning from others using film in one way or another," he writes. "It's a dying medium and yet in a lot of ways a thriving one."

The first video (above) is a profile of surf photographer Brooks Sterling, who talks about how he uses film cameras (including the 35mm Nikonos underwater camera) for his images.

The Stories Behind the Shots: An Interview with White House Photographer Pete Souza

Official White House photographer Pete Souza was recently interviewed by journalist Al Hunt for his "On the Story" program. In the 17-minute interview (shown above), Souza offers a glimpse into what his life is like on the front lines of world history.

We also hear the stories behind a number of Souza's most famous photographs of President Obama and President Reagan (whom he also served as official White House photographer).

Snapchat Debutes Stories, a Disappearing Recap of Snaps from the Last 24 Hours

Since it first burst onto the scene, Snapchat has become a major player in the social fabric of today. Once, the self-destructing photo messaging model was considered a fad, but no more. As Snapchat surges towards the possibility of a billion dollar valuation and usage statistics continue to climb, that "fad" is clearly more than just that.

But that doesn't mean the Snapchat team has been sitting in the office twiddling their thumbs, they've been hard at work creating an exciting update that was finally announced today called Stories.

Life After Steel

“Don’t forget, Eric: there is a story in your backyard.” This is the advice David Alan Harvey gave me while reviewing my portfolio of travel images during a 2011 Magnum Photos Workshop I attended in Toronto.

Using a Gigantic Wet Plate Van Camera to Tell the Stories of People in America

Earlier this year, we shared a beautiful short documentary, titled "Silver & Light", which featured Los Angeles-based photographer Ian Ruhter and the gigantic wet plate photographs he shoots using a van that he converted into a massive camera. Since then, Ruhter's work has received a good deal of attention; the video now has nearly 1 million views, and Ruhter has been traveling around the country and using his special photography to tell the stories of people he meets.

He has just released the new video above, titled "American Dream." It's an inspiring look at some of Ruhter's first shoots for the project (note: it contains some strong language).

Looking at the Land: Landscape Photogs Explain the “Why” Behind Their Shots

Andy Adams of FlakPhoto has an interesting new digital exhibition titled Looking at the Land — 21st Century American Views that features 88 landscape photographs captured around the United States since 2000. What's neat is that each of the images is accompanied by an explanation of "why" it exists. Adams asked each of the photographers the same questions, with the main one being, "Why did you photograph this place?"

Photographs of Fictitious Dishes Found in Famous Novels

Photographer Dinah Fried has a series of photographs titled Fictitious Dishes that features the the meals described in five famous novels: The Catcher in the Rye, Oliver Twist, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Moby Dick. Working off a few lines of text in the books describing what the characters ate, Fried cooks up the food herself and then photographs the meals from above (the perspective reminds us of IKEA's recipe book photos).

The Best Photography Course I Ever Took

I often ask myself, “When and how it is it that I decided to become a commercial photographer?” The answer to this question is usually a long drawn out tale that goes back to when I was a junior in high school back in Miami. I’ll save you the long story and only share the story of my favorite photography class and assignment and why it was so great.