stories

Michael Zhang

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).

DL Cade

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.

Eric Kruszewski

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.

Michael Zhang

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).

Michael Zhang

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?"

Michael Zhang

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).

Steve Giralt

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.