From abandoned car plants to poisoned and dried-out lakes, Travis Fox’s bird’s eye views of the US capture the nation’s terrifying pace of change
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A little girl climbing the tree of life: Luis Tato’s best photograph
‘She climbed to the top unaided, to collect leaves for her family’s dinner. The tastiest ones are usually higher up’
The vast Zinder region in Niger, west Africa, is the most populated part of the country. Its people live mostly in traditional villages, their lives relatively unchanged for decades. Yet they are now being profoundly affected by climate change. I was there in 2019, working on stories about the crisis, reforestation and resilience projects. Most of the region’s inhabitants make their living through cattle. Global warming isn’t just causing droughts that affect crops and cause food shortages – it also means the cattle can’t graze. So people are being forced to travel ever further to find water and food for themselves and their livestock. This creates conflicts over land and access to water.
This girl, who was 10 or 11, lived in the village of Malawama. She is at the top of a massive baobab tree, collecting leaves for the family dinner – the tastiest are usually higher up. Baobab leaves are a popular meal in the region. They’re similar to spinach and eaten as a side dish or added to soups and stews. I saw her from a distance and the image quickly caught my eye. I was surprised to see her climbing this huge tree unaided, but she moved so confidently that I soon stopped worrying. She was completely used to it – as most local people are.
Continue reading...Holy rabbits and a dinosaur at the dentist: Friday’s best photos
The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world
Continue reading...The ‘doctor’ keeps watch: Assad posters loom over shattered Syria – in pictures
On cars, restaurant walls and buildings reduced to rubble, Bashar al-Assad’s face is plastered across the country, a decade after he crushed the first protests against his rule. By photographer Rami al-Bustan
Continue reading...Volcanic ash covers St Vincent – in pictures
Three days after La Soufrière volcano began to erupt on St Vincent, the eastern Caribbean island remains under a shower of ash and subject to water restrictions as authorities grow concerned for the safety of those who did not evacuate.
Continue reading...Subway to Studio 54: a bygone New York – in pictures
Skaters, dancers, hustlers, boxers … Swiss photographer Willy Spiller prowled the streets of the Big Apple from 1977 to 1985, capturing characters from all walks of life
Continue reading...A cartoon before first communion: Susan Kandel’s best photograph
‘Left to her own devices, she’d be in a T-shirt and out in the dirt. But she’s been told to be good, stand still and not mess up her dress’
This photo was easy because this is my niece, who’s getting ready for her first communion. Her normal state was to be very active, never stationary for more than a minute. Left to her own devices, she’d be wearing a T-shirt and probably out there in the dirt. What I see in this picture is that she’s been told to be good, stand still and not mess up her dress.
It was 1987 and the family lived in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It’s a blue-collar area, not particularly fancy. There were always kids playing outside, which you didn’t see so much in more prosperous neighbourhoods. There was a lot of excitement. First communion is a very big deal. The rationale is that the girls are becoming brides of Christ, so their outfits are like a wedding dress, and the boys wear white suits, white shirts, white ties. They’re seven years old, considered old enough to have a notion of sin. My niece must have just turned 40 now.
Continue reading...‘They are living maps’: how Richard Mosse captured environmental damage in the Amazon
In a new set of photos, environmental degradation in the Amazon is explored to shine light on ‘a hideously complex story’
In his 20s, Irish photographer Richard Mosse made his first foray into photojournalism by capturing postwar Balkan nations. This experience led to a realisation that the medium was inadequately suited to capture complex, layered narratives. “You have to put the thing in front of the camera, and when that thing is an abstraction, far bigger than a human figure, it’s very difficult to do,” he explained in a recent podcast with Monocle.
The subjects he found himself covering over the next two decades were equally abstract and complex as the first, ranging from conflict in DR Congo to the refugee crisis in Europe. However, in his search for ways to subvert the medium and bend it to his will, he eventually managed to create his own unique brand of photography, characterised by the use of infra-red film and other technology rooted in military reconnaissance.
Continue reading...After the deluge: NSW’s flood disaster victims begin cleanup – in pictures
More than a week after torrential rain hit New South Wales, communities are working to clean up what is left behind
Continue reading...‘The Yanomami could disappear’ – photographer Claudia Andujar on a people under threat in Brazil
Andujar lived with the tribe and fights for them. A timely show of her images comes to London soon
It is more than 50 years since Claudia Andujar began photographing the Yanomami, the people of the Amazon rainforest near Brazil’s border with Venezuela. Now 89, she is using her archive to increase their visibility, at a time when their survival is under renewed threat.
“The question of indigenous people should be more respected, more widely known. This is very important as it’s the only way the present [Brazilian] government will come to recognise their rights as human beings to occupy their land,” says Andujar, speaking from São Paulo. “This government isn’t interested in their rights.”
Continue reading...The beluga whale who became famous: Aleksander Nordahl’s best photograph
‘He was called Hvaldimir and he would play in front of crowds at Hammerfest harbour in Norway. One woman dropped her phone and he fetched it for her’
In April 2019, a beluga whale appeared alongside fishing boats off the coast of Norway. He was wearing a harness. A fisherman called Joar Hesten freed him, and saw the harness had stamped on it “equipment of St Petersburg”. The media went crazy, with talk of a “spy whale”, and the creature was named Hvaldimir, a combination of hval, the Norwegian word for whale, and Vladimir, a nod to Russia’s President Putin.
The whale became famous. There were Instagram videos of him playing in Hammerfest harbour in front of crowds. One woman dropped her phone in the water and the whale fetched it for her. He would bring up bones from the depths to show people, almost like little gifts. It became this huge moment on social media: everyone in the country fell in love with the whale. Even the hardcore fishing villages melted for Hvaldimir.
Continue reading...Coming of age in a pandemic: 24 photography exhibition 2021 – in pictures
Eighteen years ago, 24 photographers agreed to document New Year’s Day for 24 years. Each was allocated one hour of the day to record what was going on around them and each moves forward one hour every year. Here is a selection of their work, which will be displayed in Soho Square, London, from 24 March until 16 April at one of the first exhibitions to reopen in the UK after a series of coronavirus lockdowns
Continue reading...‘The fakery is all part of the fun’: the hoax of the mirror selfie
An influencer has claimed that the popular social media pose is a form of visual trickery. But why would you bother, when it’s so easy to do by yourself? And does it matter if it’s fake or not?
Even if the phrase “mirror selfies” isn’t in your daily lexicon, you likely know what it means: a selfie which, rather than being taken directly – camera-phone to face – is taken using a mirror, giving you a photograph of your own reflection.
Last week the internet trope - a mainstay of influencers such a Kendall Jenner, recognisable for the placement of a phone in front of the face - became freshly controversial.
Continue reading...Metro life in post-Soviet countries – in pictures
Photographer Tomer Ifrah travelled between six post-Soviet countries, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia, documenting city life on the metro, beginning in Moscow in 2012 and continuing until 2019. The images reveal personal stories of everyday life, intimate portraits, and a background of grandiose architecture
Continue reading...Miraculous moment at a pagan festival: Alexey Vasilyev’s best photograph
‘Yakutia is five times the size of France with a population of just 1 million. Snow lasts from October to April and there are practically no railways or roads. At these festivals, we become whole’
I grew up in Yakutia. It’s the largest region of Russia, five times the size of France, but with a population of only one million spread over three million square kilometres. The climate is severe and contrasting. In summer, it’s 40C; in winter -60C, with snow from October until mid-April. To go anywhere takes a long time – several hours in the car. There are practically no railways and few roads. It’s easier to fly from the far east to Moscow than it is to travel around. Half of the people are ethnic Sakha from Yakutia, half are Russians. The two communities don’t socialise much. The Russians mostly live in the Aldansky district, but their number is shrinking. Many are moving away to less harsh parts of the country.
As a documentary photographer, I want to record how people live here, what they do, what their problems are, what makes them happy. Each solstice we have a holiday called Ysyakh. It’s a pagan festival, an important part of our national identity and a moment when we become an organic whole. Because we are so spread out it’s often hard to feel any kind of unity. Yakutia’s brand is winter; I wanted to show summer. Participants dress up in national costume. Women wear long, flowing dresses decorated with flowers. It’s a moment when people are relaxed about being photographed. There’s still some paranoia in Russia about posing for a camera. It’s a bit of a Soviet hangover.
Continue reading...Eve Arnold images released as posters – in pictures
A set of 15 images are being released by the Eve Arnold estate as posters to help fulfil Arnold’s wishes for her work to be affordable, accessible folk art. Prints would normally cost more than £1,000. The images include two unseen images of Marilyn Monroe on the set of the Misfits
- Unseen Eve Arnold photos of Marilyn Monroe sold as posters for £30
- Images are available for £30 from www.evearnold.com/posters
Visualising gender during the pandemic – in pictures
From transgender sex workers living in a mass shelter whose health relies on back-street clinics, to community leaders who are making changes from the ground up despite a system that is stacked against them, This Is Gender 2021 is the world’s largest photography competition looking specifically at gender and health. The collection offers an insight into our gendered world during the time of pandemic.
- This Is Gender is run by Global Health 50/50 in parallel with the Global Health 5050 2021 Report, Flying Blind in a time of Crisis
Tourists flock to Kazakh glaciers – in pictures
Prevented from travelling abroad by the Covid pandemic, locals are instead visiting the magnificent glaciers of the Tian Shan mountain range near Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty
Continue reading...Women: an exhibition of British press photography
To mark International Women’s Day 2021, the British Press Photographers’ Association has curated a new photographic exhibition, Women, telling the stories and highlighting the achievements of women and girls as recorded through the eyes of its visual storytellers.
Organisers Vickie Flores and Isabel Infantes took the decision to include pictures taken by any of the association’s members rather than just focusing on the views of women.
‘One of the aims of the project was to make photographers of all genders think about how we portray women and to achieve equality and gender parity, we need the support of each other’
Continue reading...Protests in Myanmar – in satellite pictures
Satellite photographs of protesters, demonstrations, troops, and street art show the extent of the resistance to the military coup
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