Culture

Photography is about far more than capturing an image. How photos are shared and what social issues are impacting the profession are just as important. PetaPixel regularly covers the stories around the culture of photography, how it affects society, and what cultural changes affect the art.
A collage of three photos: a young man wearing large sunglasses, a blurry black-and-white self-portrait with a camera, and a close-up of two young men with serious expressions in black and white.

Paul McCartney’s Photos Show Beatlemania From the Inside

The Frist Art Museum is set to exhibit Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, a newly discovered collection of images taken by McCartney during the early surge of Beatlemania, offering a personal glimpse into the band’s rapid rise to global fame through nearly 300 intimate photographs.

Two women in neon swimsuits and futuristic glasses pose on a beach at sunset. Beside them, a woman with glowing red eyes and metallic arms stands topless, with a black bar covering her chest, against a dark, glowing background.

xAI’s Grok AI Lets Users Create ‘Spicy’ NSFW Images and Videos

Long before Elon Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, the platform was known for allowing users to post a wide range of explicit content. Under Musk's anti-censorship stewardship, the social media platform has only become more of a Wild West. xAI's new Grok Imagine AI image and video generator is poised to take that reputation even further, and the alarm bells are already sounding.

A white instant camera with rainbow stripes is shown next to a developed instant photo of a baseball game on a stadium field. The camera and photo are on a plain white background.

AP Photographer’s Polaroids Perfectly Capture Baseball’s Nostalgic Spirit

No sport is wrapped up in as much history in the U.S. as baseball. What better way to capture baseball's nostalgic spirit than with Polaroid pictures? That's precisely what Associated Press photographer Erin Hooley did for the recent "Crosstown Classic" in Chicago, a clash between the city's two MLB teams, the Cubs and the White Sox.

The image shows the Flickr logo with the word "flickr" in lowercase letters; "flick" is in blue and the "r" is in pink on a white background.

You Must Now Be 18 Years Old To Create a New Flickr Account

Flickr has made some rather dramatic changes to the photo-sharing site in response to new safety standards put in place by the United Kingdom. While some of the new rules only affect citizens of the UK, the website is now acting like an adult website: in order to create an account, new users must be 18 years of age or older.

A young person wearing a cap and camouflage jacket looks down while holding a toy or replica rifle, standing in a dimly lit area with blurred lights in the background.

A Photojournalist Took a Fujifilm Instax Camera to a Mexican Cartel Wedding

Mexican-born American photojournalist Henry Craver recently traveled to Michoacán, Mexico, a region controlled by organized crime, to document life with his film cameras. However, after running out of film, he boldly took a Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 camera to a wedding and photographed gun-toting cartel members. A bizarre juxtaposition -- instant film and organized crime -- Craver returned home to New Jersey with spectacular photos and an even more exciting story.

A young boy with blue eyes sits under a blanket, illuminated by the light from a smartphone or tablet he is holding, staring intently at the screen in a dark environment.

Scientists Call for Ban on Social Media and Smartphones Before Age 13

A global, wide-reaching study has revealed that receiving a smartphone, and then using it to access social media, before the age of 13 is directly associated with poor mental health outcomes in young adulthood, specifically among young women. The results are so alarming that the researchers are calling for a global ban on them before a person reaches the age of 13.