Culture

Back in February, the AP's David Guttenfelder and Jean Lee were some of the first to begin uploading Instagram photos from inside the closed off country of North Korea. A rare look inside a normally very mysterious country, both of their Instagram accounts became the subject of many a headline.

Now, a few months later, the same two photographers are taking advantage of Instagram's new video capabilities to give us rare, unfiltered, 15-second glimpses of life inside Kim Jong-un's isolated country.

Camera-toting birders are flocking to a remote area of New Mexico to capitalize on what's being described as "the best photobomb in history." At least for people who are really into birds.

Some unlucky fellow was minding his own business in Disney World recently when he happened to accidentally walk in front of a couple as the man was proposing to his girlfriend. The moment wasn't just captured on camera (shown above) -- it has spawned a quirky new Internet photo meme.

You're looking for an image to illustrate your ad promoting child-care services and find a portrait of an adorable tot, obviously free for the taking because it's on the Internet. What could wrong?

More than you could dream up in your worst nightmares, as promoters of the Montreux Jazz Festival have learned after misappropriating an image of a child who turned out to be the victim in one France's most notorious murder cases of recent times.

The western world was sent into a brief paranoid frenzy when whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked government information about the surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA). I say brief, because it seems to have been forgotten by a large number of people; it seemed like it was just more news. The revelations, and more that followed, showed how the NSA record phone calls and data and more controversially; that they use information from emails and social networking sites.

Singer Kanye West is being investigated by Los Angeles police for allegedly assaulting a photographer. Again.

The latest incident happened Friday at Los Angeles International Airport, when videographer Daniel Ramos approached the star, already well-established as no fan of celebrity journalism.

In the past, we've had occasion to share some great color film footage that showed London and the UK as a whole all the way back in the 1920s. We've even shown you some stateside footage shot by a French tourist in the 1930s.

The latest bit of historical footage we've come across isn't in color (unfortunately), but it does show a New York City staple right after it was first built: The New York City Subway System.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros are due on stage in 15 minutes and I walk up to the doorstaff ticket in hand. They tear the ticket and ask to look in the camera bag for deodorants and liquids. I'm not too sure why. This is the Trinity Centre in Bristol with a capacity of 650 and normally holds community events.

The doorman tuts and says “Interchangeable lens.” I'm a bit confused. “Tour manager has said no interchangeable lens cameras, sorry.” I returned to my car, out the equipment in the boot and went back to the gig.

Let me say this right at the outset. This is not another high and mighty rant against cell phone cameras, Instagram, "art" filters, Lightroom presets, etc. You’re not about to read another gripe about everything that photography has become in the twenty-first century, even though I was afraid that’s what it would sound like when I started writing this.

An Australian photographer has succeeded in having her work reinstated to a prominent exhibit, after authorities initially pulled the graphic image of a baby seconds after birth for being "too confronting."

In response to the highly controversial Rolling Stone cover of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev revealed earlier this week, tactical photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy of the Mass. Police Department released a set of haunting images showing what Boston Magazine is calling "the real face of terror."

The jarring images were taken during Tsarnaev's manhunt and arrest, and have resulted in Sgt. Murphy's being relieved of duty as he awaits a status hearing to determine his professional fate.

Thou shalt not steal.

It's one of the first things we learn as kids: don't take something that doesn't belong to you. And it's a hard lesson to learn, for as children, we feel the entire world belongs to us. I learned this lesson the hard way. No, I didn't shoplift...I stole little metal ashtrays from a Burger King in Panama City, Florida. I did it. I admit it.

Musician Beyoncé has a love/hate relationship with the camera; or maybe it's a hate/hate relationship. Regardless, her views on the subject came out at a recent show in Atlanta where the singer -- who has gone so far as to ban pro photography entirely -- told a fan to "Put that D**n Camera Down."

Rolling Stone magazine unveiled the cover of their August 1st issue yesterday, and immediately felt the Internet's wrath. That's because the cover -- often reserved for celebrities, rock stars, etc. -- features a photo of the infamous Boston Bomber #2 in the white hat: suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

I'm photographing a wedding in a couple of weeks. During one of our meetings, I asked the bride whether she and her fiancé had made a decision regarding their guests being allowed to photograph during the ceremony and reception. She started shaking her head, saying that it hadn't even occurred to her.

I could tell she was getting a little agitated thinking about whether they would offend their guests if they told them they couldn't take pictures. So we talked about the pros and cons of it. They haven't made their decision yet.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters angry over the verdict in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial swarmed San Francisco streets this weekend in numbers huge enough to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge.

At least that's what happened in the world of social media, where a photo (above) of a pedestrian-filled 1987 celebration of the iconic bridge's 50th anniversary circulated on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and their ilk posing as evidence of mass San Francisco reaction to Zimmerman's acquittal.

Can you trust camera reviews submitted by customers of online retailers? Not entirely, suggests a new academic study, and not for the reasons you might think.

They say you shouldn't laugh at one's misfortune, but a prank pulled off by BlackBoxTV shows just how silly we look when we're terrified -- and it's pretty funny. That's because these mean geniuses pulled off a prank that absolutely terrifies some innocent folks just trying to get their picture snapped by a photo booth.

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.

Mark Kologi is known by many simply as "The Photo Man," and over the years he has bought, sorted and sold over three million forgotten personal photos. It's his passion, and the connection he has forged with his photos and the people who buy them shows in this short documentary by Ben Kitnick.

We recently published an article about She & Him enacting an anti-photo policy at a gig. Signs were posted saying “At the request of Matt [Ward] and Zooey [Deschanel], we ask that people not use their cell phones to take pictures and video, but instead enjoy the show they have put together in 3D”.

It reminded me of a story my Father told me about a Frank Zappa concert. Apparently, people were given opaque-lens glasses at the request of Zappa and the band so that, audience-members could more fully experience the music without any visual distractions.

A trove of 3,700 unpublished photos of iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe, each with full copyright included, will go up for sale at a Los Angeles auction late this month.

A federal court judge has ordered celebrity/fashion photographer Terry Richardson to surrender 142,000 shots of Lady Gaga as evidence in a lawsuit against the pop star.

His name is Onafujiri Remet and he is a street photographer from Lagos, Nigeria. His work was just featured in his very first photographic exhibition. He is handsome, he shoots Sony and... he is 3 years old. That's right, 3 years old.

If you ever get a chance to visit the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, be sure to check out the Kodak history area, which contains various Kodak cameras that appeared in the history of photography. One of the exhibits is the "Queen Mary's Doll's House Camera," an amazing 1/8th-scale replica of an old Kodak 2C Brownie. As if the detail of the camera weren't enough, here's the kicker: the model is actually a fully functional camera!

If you've ever questioned the wisdom of insuring your camera gear, witness the methodical fury of basketball star and Kardashian spouse Lamar Odom wrecking a photographer's equipment.

In her seminal essay On Photography, Susan Sontag writes that “Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.”

This has never been truer than now as the ubiquity of camera phones has turned everyone into a photographer.

As baby photographers will tell you, there are a lot of props out there on the market for photographing infants. And, as is the nature of portrait photography, many of these props have a life cycle of a couple years and then, it's on to the next Big Thing. Or, since it's babies, Little Thing.

"Please film in landscape mode, turn your phone please turn your phone..." sings musician Jonathan Mann in his most recent video extolling the virtues of shooting videos in landscape. It's a humorous short PSA music video in which Mann takes on the dreaded problem of Vertical Video Syndrome (or VVS) by taking to the streets.

A photographer for an Egyptian newspaper, shot while covering political protests Monday, appears to have captured his own death on camera.

I recently had an unusual experience. I was standing in a department store aimlessly browsing some shiny shelving that held many glittery bottles with promises of youth and perfect beauty. In the process of being pseudo hypnotized by the lovely array of bright colors, I heard a small feminine voice pipe up in the aisle behind me.

She was fawning over the stunning portraits of celebrity beauties that held small spaces, conveniently placed right above eye level. She kept saying how perfect and beautiful they all were, and you could hear a kind of wistful tone to her phrases. The kind of tone that says “I wish that were me”. After a few moments of hearing her adoration, I couldn’t keep quiet.

Zooey Deschanel is the latest performer to weigh in on concert etiquette, with signs posted at concerts by the actress/singer's indie pop act She & Him asking fans to ditch their cameraphones and refrain from snapping photos.

Sad news from the Whistler ski resort in Canada, where a weekend search for a missing GoPro camera with priceless images for a newly widowed skier turned up nothing.

Australian couple Matt Lorraway and Rebecca Ware had a great vacation at Whistler last February, with Ware trying out skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and ziplining, all captured on Lorraway's helmet-mounted GoPro. Sadly, the camera fell off and got lost in the snow on one of their last ski runs.

My seventh grade teacher was Mrs. Reynolds. She ran a tight ship and was very particular with whom she decided to grant the blessing of her smile. She wore frosted lipstick and polyester pantsuits and had a habit of swinging the charm on her necklace back and forth when she talked. She had a lot of rules for her classroom, most of which I've forgotten, but the one rule that still sticks in my head is this: "One person can spoil it for everyone."

Back in 2011, the BBC show The Real Hustle shared how easy it is for thieves to quickly and quietly steal an expensive lens off your camera -- even when your gear is hanging around your neck. If you didn't believe it then, check out the video above. It reportedly shows a photographer having his lens stolen by a group of robbers over in Russia.

Take away the visual element from photography and what have you got?

Quite a lot, according to Partho Bhowmick, founder of the Blind With Camera project in Mumbai, India, which to date has taught more than 500 blind people how to express themselves through photography (you can find a gallery here).

During a recent engagement shoot at Wissahickon Creek in Pennsylvania, photographer Ken Beerger had the genre of his images unexpectedly change from love and romance to danger and documentary. In the end, Beerger captured some intense photographs, a young boy's life was saved, and one of his subjects is now being called a hero.

The media has been dominated by coverage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214's crash landing in San Francisco this past weekend. What's interesting is that some of the most powerful photographs showing the aftermath were not captured by professional photojournalists, but rather those with the most access to the site: US government employees.

You might remember the photo above from last year. For a while, it circulated the web like mad, claiming to show Hurricane Sandy bearing down menacingly on the Statue of Liberty. But if you've read our previous coverage on the photo, you'll know that it is, in fact, a fake -- a composite of a Statue of Liberty picture and a well-known photo by weather photographer Mike Hollingshead.

Photo fakes like this wind up going viral online all the time, often helped along by Twitter where retweet upon retweet puts it in front of thousands of unsuspecting people. Having had enough, a group of researchers from the University of Maryland, IBM Research Labs and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology are trying to do something about it.

Skype recently embarked on a touching ad campaign called Stay Together in which they use photography and the magic of the Internet to reunite families that live on opposite sides of the world by creating "impossible family portraits."

Most years around this time we take a road trip to visit my family in New Jersey. There are always a couple of camera bags in the back seat, as there will be tomorrow night when we saddle up and head south once again. And most years around this time I think back to something that happened on another hot summer night less than two months before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

For photographers, a lot has changed since then, but we have to remember that most of it started changing well before 9/11. When my students complain about the hassles of trying to make photographs in public places, I tell them that it’s something they’re just going to have to get used to. And then sometimes I tell them this story.

A Miami man has been arrested after allegedly posing as a photographer on Craigslist to lure two women to a remote spot and then assault them.

Anthony Molina-Iglesias, 30, faces charges of sexual battery, armed sexual battery, kidnapping and carjacking.

Back in 1992, photojournalist Hyungwon Kang was the only Korean-speaking photographer employed with the LA Times. So when the riots broke out after the infamous Rodney King verdict, he was sent to cover things in Koreatown.

In this short Reuters TV interview, he tells us what it was like to go in with only a camera, photographing looters and firefights and trying to stay safe in the meantime.

What can we learn about a city or event using Instagram photos? More than you might think. This interesting chart takes a look at what we can learn about Hurricane Sandy, simply by looking at an organized visualization of the Instagram photos taken during the storm.

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong was taking a tour of Nikon Professional Services facilities recently when he had an idea: with so much Nikon gear around, why not try making music with the cameras? After all, it's not often that you have tens of thousands of dollars in gear at your disposal to create something fun. The video above is what resulted.

Want to watch a non-fiction film about photography? Here's a list of documentaries (and some other stuff) concerning photography that I've collected over the years.

In the most recent James Bond movie, Daniel Craig spent some time in the eerie emptiness of an abandoned island that the villain Silva had claimed as his lair. What many don't realize is that this setting was actually based on a real place.

It's called Hashima, but it's better known by its nickname Gunkanjima (or "Battleship Island"), and thanks to Google Street View we can now tour the deserted, crumbling island as well.

Photographer Karl Baden (a part time faculty member in Boston College's Fine Arts Department) tells us of a brief and humorous encounter he recently had while shooting on the street.

At this year's NBA Draft, the Orlando Magic used the second overall pick to select former Indiana University guard Victor Oladipo. For Oladipo, this day at the draft represented the fulfillment of a life-long dream. And thanks to Google Glass, we get to experience a lot of that special day for ourselves.

Full disclosure: I've never done commercial photography and don't exactly know what goes into making a picture for an advertisement. The only knowledge I have on this subject is the hours of behind the scenes work I’ve watched, the hundreds of magazines, blogs and tutorials I’ve read and, obviously, the billions of ads that have bombarded my field of view since the first moment I began to comprehend visual information.

When you’re in the process of building a photographic portfolio, you think long and hard about what type of photographer you'd like to be. I’ve read over and over that it's important to choose a specific area of the business in order to obtain the type of clients you're looking for. Before I began this research, I was under the impression that I wanted to be a commercial photographer.