Features

PetaPixel's Features are in-depth, heavily researched stories designed to answer the most important questions on a topic. Where we flex our journalistic muscle, expect to find the best storytelling and original reporting the photo industry offers.
Ted Kritsonis
A close-up of an iron gate with the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” and a view through the gate showing a watchtower and trees in the background at a historical site.

My Visit to Dachau: Through the Lens and the Gates

Nazi concentration camps have long been documented in all forms of media, but stepping through the gates of one on foot makes for a very different experience. Dachau was where it all began, setting off an industrialized machine of death and depravity that would later consume all of Europe during World War II.

Jeremy Gray
A woman wearing a dark shirt and sunglasses on her head stands on a wide, sandy road holding a camera. The background is blurred with people and buildings visible in the distance.

Lynsey Addario: ‘There Was Never a World in Which I Would Not Do This Work’

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario has risked life and limb and been kidnapped multiple times to perform a photojournalist's most crucial and valuable mission: powerfully capturing and telling the world's most meaningful stories. Addario's incredible career, which spans more than two decades, is the focus of the brand-new National Geographic documentary, Love+War.

Sarah Teng
A hand holds an orange underwater camera above the ocean; next to it is an underwater photo of a whale swimming in blue water.

Nikon’s 40-Year-Old Underwater Film Camera Still Offers a Unique Experience

On my recent trip to French Polynesia, I decided to do something new that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time: I brought along the Nikonos V, Nikon’s legendary amphibious 35mm camera from the 1980s. That meant no live preview, no autofocus, and no confirmation that anything I was shooting would actually turn out; just 36 frames of film, a light meter, and the quiet peace that comes with freediving and taking photos.

Matt Growcoot
A split-screen image shows the same elderly woman. On the left, she smiles cheerfully with tidy hair and clean face; on the right, she appears distressed, with messy hair and a dark, dirty face, both in black and white.

The Camera Trick Behind an Iconic 1937 Film Visual Effect

Sh! The Octopus may not be remembered as a great film of the 1930s like King Kong or The Awful Truth, in fact it was named as one of the greatest bad movies of all time. But there is one scene, involving some very clever camera work, that continues to get talked about today.

Matt Growcoot
A person's hands hold a smartphone, taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The landmark is blurred in the background but clearly visible on the phone screen.

How One Professor Revolutionized Smartphone Photography

Smartphones have fundamentally changed photography, enabling people with no camera skill to shoot acceptable images. And that is largely down to something called computational photography that smartly manipulates the sensor so that shadows and highlights are visible in the same shot.

Matt Growcoot
Split image: On the left, two astronauts in space suits perform an EVA tethered outside a spacecraft above Earth. On the right, a close-up of an astronaut inside a helmet with reflections on his visor.

Some of the First-Ever Photos Taken in Space Have Been Lovingly Restored

After the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into orbit and followed it up by sending the first person into space, the U.S government responded by forming NASA, and later President John F. Kennedy declared, "We choose to go to the Moon." The Apollo missions are famous, but they were preceded by Mercury and Gemini.

Jeremy Gray
A wide-angle view of an empty football stadium at night, with bright lights and a large buffalo logo at midfield. A few people stand on the turf near the center. Blue seats fill the stands in the background.

How 6,500 People Lit an Incredible 360° Nighttime Panorama of an NFL Stadium

RIT Big Shot 37 at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo, New York, was the biggest light painting photo in the series yet, attracting approximately 6,500 Buffalo Bills fans, RIT alumni, and Western New York locals to the historic stadium during its final season. The incredible 360° Big Shot was the result meticulous planning, two dozen Nikon Z9 cameras, and thousands of people armed with flashlights joining forces to bathe a massive football stadium in light.

Jeremy Gray
A triptych showing: a smiling man working with tools, the Canon logo on a tall building, and a man in a suit holding a camera and smiling.

The People Who Make Your Photography Dreams a Reality

I recently returned from an incredible trip to Canon's Tokyo headquarters and Utsunomiya lens factory. While the sights and sounds of Tokyo and Utsunomiya are undoubtedly spectacular, and I will carry these memories with me for the rest of my life, it was the exceptionally rare peek behind the curtain of Canon -- one of the most popular and celebrated camera companies -- that made the most powerful impression.

Jeremy Gray
On the left, a hand holds a smartphone with a glowing abstract design on the screen. On the right, four young women smile and pose for a selfie on a sunny beach with cliffs and a pink-striped towel behind them.

How and Why Apple Built Its New Square Center Stage Front iPhone Camera

While each of Apple's latest iPhone models has a different rear camera system, they all feature the same brand-new Center Stage front-facing, or "selfie," camera. The base iPhone 17, ultra-thin iPhone Air, and flagship iPhone 17 Pro all have the same Center Stage camera, complete with its groundbreaking square image sensor and sophisticated new features. We sat down with key minds at Apple to learn more about the new camera and how it empowers mobile photography.

Shane Balkowitsch with Kelli Swenson
A photographer uses a large-format camera covered in a cloth to take a portrait of a serious man in a martial arts uniform sitting outdoors; the resulting close-up black-and-white portrait is shown beside the scene.

The Father of MMA Captured in Wet Plate Collodion Photography

Most mixed martial arts (MMA) fans can recall the first event, held on November 12, 1993, at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. It was the dawn of a new era in combat sports. Born from Vale-Tudo (“Anything Goes” in English), UFC 1 was an event that would change the world forever. What was at stake was the determination of which martial art discipline would be most effective if they all came together to fight.