Photography
An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend
One evening in 1958, photographer Flip Schulke was covering a rally at a Black Baptist church in Miami where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking. Schulke had spent the past few years documenting the civil rights movement for publications like Life, Time, Newsweek, Jet and ...read more
How Stunning Photos Portraying Native American Life Carry a Mixed Legacy
In the early 1900s, photographer Edward S. Curtis set out on an epic mission: to capture the experiences of Native Americans throughout the American West. Over the span of 30 years, Curtis documented more than 80 tribes west of the Mississippi, from the Mexican border to northern ...read more
Photos After Death: Post-Mortem Portraits Preserved Dead Family
In the 1800s, taking a photo of a dead body wasn’t creepy—it was comforting. In an era when photos were expensive and many people didn’t have any pictures of themselves when they were alive, post-mortem photography was a way for families to remember their deceased loved ones. ...read more
The Pictures that Defined World War II
Getting the perfect shot in wartime is not only about weapons. With over 30 countries involved in World War II and the loss of over 50 million lives, war photography captured the destruction and victories of the deadliest war in history. Lead by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, over one ...read more
How Photography Defined the Great Depression
During the 1930s, America went through one of its greatest challenges: the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to relieve the dire economic situation with his New Deal programs. To justify the need for those projects, the government employed photographers ...read more
These Appalling Images Exposed Child Labor in America
The Industrial Revolution brought not only new job opportunities but new laborers to the workforce: children. By 1900, at least six percent of all American workers were under the age of 16. For employers of the era, children were seen as appealing workers since they could be ...read more
How Photos Became a Weapon in Stalin’s Great Purge
Now you see him—now you don’t. Compare a photo taken in the 1930s of five Communist Party officials in the USSR and you’ll see Avel Enukidze, photographed next to Soviet premier Vyacheslav Molotov and others. But during Josef Stalin’s Great Purge, the onetime member of the ...read more
A Visual History of Iconic Black Hairstyles
For centuries black communities around the world have created hairstyles that are uniquely their own. These hairstyles span all the way back to the ancient world and continue to weave their way through the social, political and cultural conversations surrounding black identity ...read more
Which American President Was the First to be Photographed?
The Past in Color features the work of colorist Marina Amaral, bringing to life black and white photos with color applied digitally. Farsighted but underrated, John Quincy Adams was a president of firsts. He was the first president not to have been a founding father. The first ...read more
More People Died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic Than in WWI
The Past in Color features the work of colorist Marina Amaral, bringing to life black and white photos with color applied digitally. Blue lips. Blackened skin. Blood leaking from noses and mouths. Coughing fits so intense they ripped muscles. Crippling headaches and body pains ...read more
A Look Back at the Crime Scene Photos That Changed How Murder is Documented
At first glance, the faded 1903 photograph of Mme Debeinche’s bedroom, bound in the yellowed pages of an early 20th-century album, shows what looks to be an unremarkable middle-class Parisian apartment of the time. The overstuffed room brims with floral decoration, from the ...read more
Artists of the New Deal
The New Deal was one of President Roosevelt’s efforts to end the Great Depression. Art projects were a major part of this series of federal relief programs, like the Public Works of Art Project, the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture and the Treasury Relief Art Project. ...read more
These Are the 10 Most Controversial Moments in the History of Photography
When the daguerreotype—the proto-photo—was first popularized in 1839, French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire railed against the form, calling it “deplorable.” And in the 178 years since its invention, the camera—and photographers—have courted controversy and headlines in equal ...read more
8 Crucial Innovations in the Invention of Photography
1. Camera Obscura: 5th century B.C. Long before there was the camera, there was the camera obscura. Literally translated as “dark chamber,” these devices consisted of darkened rooms or enclosed boxes with a tiny opening on one side. When sunlight passed through this “pinhole” and ...read more
The Fascinating Stories Behind 8 Famous Photos
1. “Migrant Mother,” 1936, California In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange shot this image of a destitute woman, 32-year-old Florence Owens, with an infant and two other of her seven children at a pea-pickers camp in Nipomo, California. Lange took the photo, which came to be ...read more