TIME’s Behind the Picture recently dove into the fascinating story behind how some of the most iconic photographs of World War II almost never were. Narrated by John Morris, Editor of LIFE magazine during WWII, Morris tells the story behind the photographs captured by Robert Capa on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.
In 1938, after many prototypes, the first 8x11mm subminiature camera was brought to market by German inventor Walter Zapp. It was called the Minox Riga, and the tiny camera actually saw espionage action in both WWII and the Cold War.
Ever since photography was invented in the 1800s, there have been people willing to risk life and limb to bring images to the public eye. Among the craziest examples are prisoners of war during World War II -- people who built makeshift cameras out of smuggled parts in order to capture what life was like inside their prison camps.
In honor of Memorial Day, a couple of months ago, the folks behind the Sundance Film Festival decided to dig up a short honorable mention winner from 2007 and put it up on YouTube. Called Spitfire 944, the film show WWII Photo Reconnaissance pilot Lt Col. John S. Blyth telling his story and reacting to footage of a crash landing he made all the way back in 1944 that he had never seen before.
In October of 2012, LA-based photographer Sabine Pearlman found herself ensconced in a Swiss WWII bunker photographing 900 different "specimens" of cross sectioned ammunition. Her resulting photo series, AMMO, shows the beauty and craftsmanship that went into creating these destructive little pieces of engineering.
Last Wednesday, at the age of 94, former Magnum president and photographer Wayne Miller passed away at his home in California. For decades, Miller had photographed the human condition at its best and worst, with a stated goal to "photograph mankind and explain man to man."
The above video, posted by photographer Theo Rigby a couple of years ago, serves as a reminder of the life and work of this phenomenal photographer.
Redditor Steven Withey's grandfather Derek is an 87-year-old WWII veteran who served in the Royal Navy, and a little while back he showed his grandson a badly damaged Navy photo (of a photo) of himself as a 20-year-old.
He had showed him the photo in the hopes that his technologically savvy grandson could maybe touch it up a bit, but given the massive creases and tears he didn't have much hope. It turns out he needn't have worried, because in this particular case, Reddit came to the rescue.
Originally produced for the US military in WW2, the Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm f/2.5 is a large-format monster of a lens. Mounted in bombers, facing down at Europe, this lens was sold to the US government for the price of a family car. It found its way into military surplus after the war, and was widely used in journalism and by professional photographers.
In the past, we've shared several online archives that give you access to a huge number of historical and historically significant photos online.
PhotosNormandie offered up 3,000+ CC photos from WWII, the NYC Department of Records compiled a database of over 870,000 photos of "the greatest city on earth," and now the Finnish Defense Forces have put up an online archive of their own, showcasing almost 160,000 wartime photos from Finland during WWII.
A recent article in the New York Times tells the story of one Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple -- better known as Cal -- to whom photojournalists in particular owe a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Whipple passed away last month at the age of 94, but his quest to get one particular photo published in 1943 has left a legacy that will last for many years to come.
One of the benefits of the digital age is widespread access to archives that might otherwise never be seen by more than a few people. A good example is The New York Department of Records' database of over 870,000 photos of NYC, and a new case in point is PhotosNormandie.
To fill the time during slow winter months, photographer Jonathan Andrew decided to follow through on an idea that he had a few years back: he started photographing old WWII bunkers. Based out of Amsterdam, he already had several to work with close-by, but as the project has received more and more media attention, he's taken the time to travel all over Europe, adding more beautiful, haunting bunker images to his portfolio.
Here's a cool video from the mind of videographer Devin Graham where he takes the standard, dramatic WWII scene and replaces the guns with cameras. No worries, there are still plenty of explosions -- in fact Camera Warfare is downright epic at times -- but instead of SMGs and massive rockets you get SLRs and massive lenses.
Nikon found themselves at the center of a controversy this last weekend after they decided to cancel a sensitive photography exhibit without giving a reason why. The exhibit, a photographic documentary on the theme of "Comfort Women" (Korean women used as sex slaves during WWII in Japan), was put together by Korean photographer Ahn Sehong and set to start on June 26th at the Nikon Salon in Tokyo -- until Nikon cancelled it.