Category: Photography

From swimming guillemots and sun-dappled Scots pines to a coy seal and ravenous pigeons, the winners of this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards celebrate the diversity of animal life across Great Britain.

Jurors considered more than 13,000 images submitted by amateurs and professionals alike, with the top award going to Simon Withyman, who captured a striking portrait of a female fox in his hometown of Bristol.

“I had been photographing this vixen for three years,” Withyman says. “This streetwise fox was a successful mother and had a family of young mouths to feed. I was instantly drawn to the interesting perspective effect of these railings and wanted to showcase some beauty in this everyday urban scene.”

Additional impressive images include Drew Buckley’s dramatic view of Scotland’s Monadhliath Mountains with a white hare in the foreground and a troupe of ravenous pigeons headed for a bag of chips, captured on a GoPro by teenager Ben Lucas. See even more in the BWPA 2025 winners gallery.

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Between 1966 and 1970, a San Francisco-area photographer captured thousands of images documenting civil rights demonstrations, protests against the Vietnam War, Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park, and so much more. Their archive is a veritable treasure trove of the era’s counter-culture and evidence of their willingness to put themself in the middle of the action to get the perfect shot.

The problem, though, is that no one knows who the photographer is.

Bill Delzell, of the nonprofit SpeakLocal, encountered the archive in 2022 after a friend introduced him to its then-owner, who was looking for a buyer. A commercial photographer and collector, Delzell found himself enamored by the images and compelled to become their new custodian. “I have no interest in owning the work,” he told Colossal. “I just have an interest in discovering who the photographer is.”

In total, the collection contains 2,042 processed 35-millimeter color slides and 102 rolls of black-and-white film, meaning there are around 8,400 images in all. Alongside moments of angst, outrage, and joy, there are glimpses of critical happenings, like the seconds before Muhammad Ali burned a draft card while speaking at an anti-war rally.

More than half of the film is unprocessed, meaning the photographer never even saw much of the collection. Delzell thinks this suggests the person was a student or hobbyist, rather than a journalist or artist who might be motivated to develop the images to sell or utilize in their work.

This is the second unidentified photographic archive to come out of San Francisco in recent years after a similar Kodachrome collection was discovered in 2023. Anonymous works like these inspire questions about worth and merit when so often, we ascribe value based, in part, on the creator. “This work really forces us to look at all of that and question what is the value of the work. Is the value the expression of the photographer? Or is the value the amalgam of all parts and pieces?” Delzell asks.

Although many questions about the archive remain, a few clues have surfaced. Early in the discovery process, Delzell texted a handful of images to his friend Katy. She responded saying she could see herself in one of the photos. “She was five years old, wide-eyed, and walking with her family while holding onto her sister’s stroller. She was crossing in front of people marching against the unjust treatment of migrant farmworkers,” Delzell writes. “It was 1968 on Dolores Street.”

When he shared a different selection of photos with another friend named Amanda, he was similarly surprised. “She was on her way to visit her friend Stanley Mouse,” he says. Amanda called him quickly to say that Mouse, who designed the Grateful Dead’s iconic skeleton and roses poster, was in the background of the image of people sporting blue and green body paint in Golden Gate Park. “It’s fun that these little coincidences that remind us of how history continues to touch us,” Delzell adds.

The project, which is now called Who Shot Me—Stories Unprocessed, surpassed its goal on Kickstarter, although there are still opportunities to access some of the rewards. This funding will allow Delzell and the SpeakLocal team to develop the rest of the film and establish a broad platform for disseminating the images.

Plans include a database, book, immersive exhibition in San Francisco, and a documentary. If they act quickly, sharing the archive will hopefully bring more people forward who can help identify the photographer and offer insights into its creation. “People’s living memories might still be able to help us,” he notes.

Several theories have emerged, but one of the most compelling is that the images belong to French filmmaker Agnès Varda. A black-and-white image of a storefront captures a reflection in the glass windows, and the person behind the lens appears to be a woman with her signature bowl cut. “Varda was a wonderful collaborator,” Delzell says. “She’s pretty much grabbing every neighbor, every friend she’s got to help her tell her stories. She’s inspired me to think of this as a community project.”

Even if Varda isn’t behind the shots—her daughter claims she isn’t—Delzell says it’s possible these images were taken by a group of people or as visual notes for a potentially larger project. Perhaps they were part of a research process for a film or a novel that we have yet to connect. Or maybe, he speculates, the photographer utilized their camera to immerse themself in a variety of situations and be introduced to communities they might not otherwise.

Whatever the answers, the focus at the moment is on garnering interest from those who might have a connection to people featured in the images or be able to offer context. SpeakLocal intern Amari Kiburi is hosting a short exhibition of the project this week at Natomas Charter School in Sacramento, and Delzell is looking for curators and enthusiasts interested in doing the same. “We get to try to imagine what inspired this person to spend five years (amassing this archive) and then to have lost it, which is what really baffles me,” he says.

There are many more images from Who Shot Me—Stories Unprocessed in the video below. If you’re interested in getting involved with the project, reach out to SpeakLocal. (via Smithsonian Magazine)

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Nearly half a million images were submitted to this year’s Sony World Photography Awards, organized by the World Photography Organisation, marking another highly competitive, awe-inspiring selection of moments captured across the globe. Now in its 18th year, more than 419,000 contributions rolled in from more than 200 countries.

The photos shown here are all entries in the Open competition, which invites amateur image-makers from around the world to submit their best compositions. Additional contest streams, for which many of these images are also considered, highlight the work of professionals, students, specific regions, women, and youth.

From dramatic landscapes to cultural customs to one-of-a-kind travel experiences, the winning and shortlisted photos capture beautiful and diverse ecosystems, locations, and traditions. The contest “celebrates the ability of an individual photograph to capture and distill a singular moment, and to evoke a broader narrative,” says a statement.

The overall winner of the Open Photographer of the Year will be announced on April 16 in London, where the 2025 exhibition opens at Somerset House and runs from April 17 to May 5. Explore all of the top shots on the awards’ website.

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In the Jordanian desert, Syrian families displaced by war huddle atop stacks of boxes like stalwart islands in a dry and unforgiving landscape. Photographer Nick Brandt captures children, siblings, and entire families who stand together and climb skyward like monuments or promontories—what the artist describes as “pedestals for those that in our society are typically unseen and unheard.”

The series marks the fourth chapter in an ongoing series called The Day May Break, which has taken Brandt around the world in search of visual stories illuminating the effects of the climate crisis.

Brandt began the series in 2020, reflecting on myriad experiences of “limbo,” both in the midst of the pandemic and relating to the tenuous ecological balance of our planet. In an essay accompanying Chapter One of The Day May Break, Brandt writes:

Nearly twenty years ago, I started photographing the wild animals of Africa as an elegy to a disappearing world. After some (too many) years seeing the escalating environmental destruction, I felt an urgent need to move away from that kind of work and address the destruction in a much more direct way.

Brandt began the series in Zimbabwe and Kenya, focusing the first chapter on portrayals of both people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. Every person he documented was deeply affected by the changing climate. “Some were displaced by cyclones that destroyed their homes,” Brandt says. “For some, like Kuda in Zimbabwe, or Robert and Nyaguthii in Kenya, it was more tragic: both of them lost two young children, swept away by the floods.”

For Chapter Two, Brandt traveled to the Senda Verde Animal Sanctuary in Bolivia, where wildlife affected by trafficking and habitat destruction are cared for. And for Chapter Three, subtitled SINK/RISE, he took his camera into the ocean off the coast of Fiji, focusing on individuals whose livelihoods have been impacted by rising sea levels. Plunging decrepit furniture onto the sea floor, individuals and families interact with one another entirely underwater.

For the series’ newest addition, Chapter Four, subtitled The Echo of Our Voices, Brandt traveled to arid Jordan, one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The dramatic black-and-white photos feature refugee families who fled the war in Syria. Perched on stacks of cubes, they transform into living monoliths, symbolic of resilience, surrounded by the rugged, sandy expanse.

The photographer says, “Living lives of continuous displacement largely due to climate change, they are forced to move their homes up to several times a year, moving to where there is available agricultural work—to wherever there has been sufficient rainfall to enable crops to grow.” Parents stand alongside their children; siblings embrace; and families are shown alternately gazing into the distance, turning to one another for comfort, or taking time to rest.

“This chapter is different from the first three chapters, both visually and emotionally: a show of connection and strength in the face of adversity; that when all else is lost, you still have each other,” Brandt says. Explore much more work on his website.

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From the glowing Milky Way above a Montana lake to firework-like flowers in the Brazilian savannah at sunset, the winners of the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards highlight the endless wonders of our planet. In categories running the gamut of animal portraits, landscapes, urban wildlife, and more, photographers around the globe captured incredible views of creature behaviors, terrestrial vistas, and astronomical phenomena.

“The World Nature Photography Awards were founded in the belief that we can all make small efforts to shape the future of our planet in a positive way,” says a statement, “and that photography can influence people to see the world from a different perspective and change their own habits for the good of the planet.”

The 2025 edition of the contest saw thousands of entries submitted from 48 countries. The grand prize went to Maruša Puhek’s bold image of two deer leaping through a vineyard.

Many of the winning photos highlight the vulnerability of the earth’s inhabitants and juxtapositions between nature and the human-built environment. In Daniel Flormann’s “Lenuk Tasi,” for example, a baby sea turtle glides just beneath the surface of the boundless sea, and in Ael Kermarec’s “Reclaim,” a lava flow from an Icelandic volcano completely engulfs a road.

Some of our other favorites include Marcio Esteves Cabral’s vista full of rare Paepalanthus flowers illuminated by the sun in the Veadeiros Tablelands, Brazil, and Mohammad Murad’s capture of two backlit White-cheeked terns battling over territory on Kubbar Island, Kuwait.

See many more winning photos and purchase prints—including top picks from previous years’ competitions—in the WNPA store.

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Entering its 60th year, the Underwater Photographer of the Year Contest continues to be one of the most noteworthy international photography competitions. Surpassing last year’s numbers, the 2025 edition received more than 6,750 entries with winners from around 30 different countries.

From the depths of the Red Sea to the swamps of the Everglades, the notable images take viewers on a journey across the world, highlighting the diversity of ocean wildlife and emphasizing the importance of conservation. Diver and photographer Alvaro Herrero, a.k.a. Mekan, snagged the top honor this cycle with “Radiant Bond.” Off the coast of Mo’orea, a young whale still learning to breathe travels to the surface with its mother.

Among the other winning snapshots are scenes of two Asian sheepshead wrasse fighting in Japan, teeming coral reefs in Indonesia, a distorted portrait of camels hydrating in Kuwait, and a Florida gar circling its swampy habitat.

Read the context behind each photo and see more on UPY’s website.

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On daily walks around New York City, Eric Kogan has a knack for finding unexpected moments of humor and happenstance. His playful photographs (previously) capture visual coincidences and interactions between his urban surroundings and nature.

From clouds seemingly cradled by electrical wires to the moon balanced precariously on the corner of a building, Kogan’s scenes highlight how perspective, light, and excellent timing can capture a lighthearted, even mischievous view of the city. Find more on his website and Instagram.

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Since the 1970s, Charles Gaines (previously) has been charting the sprawling, unpredictable forms of trees onto numbered grids. He began with walnut trees in 1975, which he photographed while barren and then plotted onto hand-drawn graph paper.

A leader in the Conceptual Art movement, Gaines’ works ask viewers to explore the relationships between what something appears to be and what it means as it shifts from one context to the next. He also argues for a greater divide between subjectivity and aesthetics, instead emphasizing culture’s immense role in shaping our experiences.

In his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, Gaines continues to chart differences. During a 2023 visit to Tanzania, the artist photographed majestic baobabs, which form the basis for a collection of triptychs that entwine the magnificent specimens with colorfully numbered grids. Gnarled trunks and spindly offshoots both layer atop and are masked by Gaines’ sequences, all viewed through sheets of plexiglass.

The baobab is known as “the tree of life” for its longevity, myriad roles in preserving the savanna ecosystem, and ability to host entire habitats within its canopies. The specimens are often associated with folklore and myth and in the era of climate disaster, are some of the casualties of unrelenting drought. Depending on location, epoch, and community, the trees can serve a wide array of purposes and hold a multitude of symbolism.

Icons of the African continent, baobabs also connect to histories of colonialism and slavery. In this context, they’re distorted and mediated by both Gaines’ organizing principles and the acrylic panes. “What you bring to the image, adds to the image,” the artist says.

Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs is on view from February 19 to May 24 at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood.

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In the dreamy installations of Lachlan Turczan, natural and perceptual phenomena combine in otherworldly installations merging technology with aquatic landscapes. Water is central to the Los Angeles-based artist’s work and helps shape an ongoing series of immersive projects incorporating light and sonic phenomena.

Turczan is influenced by the Light and Space movement, which originated in Southern California in the 1960s and is characterized by the work of John McLaughlin, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Lita Albuquerque, and more. The movement focused on perception, employing materials like glass, neon, resin, acrylic, and fluorescent lights to emphasize light, volume, and scale.

Many Light and Space artists created installations and immersive spaces conditioned by naturally occurring elements like Turrell’s ever-changing glimpse of the sky through a ceiling aperture for “Space that Sees.” Not only does the view change as clouds roll by or the weather shifts, but the light continuously transforms the entire room.

“While my work shares this lineage,” Turczan tells Colossal, “it diverges in several key ways: rather than exploring the ‘nature of experience,’ I create experiences of nature that challenge our understanding of light, water, and space.” He describes his approach as “complicating” these elements, emphasizing the ever-changing fluidity of the environment.

In Turczan’s ongoing Veil series, light installations unfold organically in locations ranging from Death Valley’s Badwater Basin to a flooded park near the Rhine River. Lasers and beams of light are projected and submerged, capturing the movement of wind, mist, and the water’s surface.

Additional pieces also merge light and water, like “Aldwa Alsael,” which translates to “liquid light,” and was commissioned for the 2024 Noor Riyadh Light Art Festival.

“For the most part, these installations unfold organically,” Turczan says. “I may discover a location in nature that seems perfect for a new Veil sculpture, but when I return, the conditions have inevitably changed.” Evolving circumstances require the artist to proceed with an openness to chance encounters that strike a balance between preparation and intuition.

Find more on Turczan’s website, and follow updates on Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

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In a 1906 essay, psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch coined the term “uncanny,” or unheimlich, meaning “unhomely” or “not home-like” in German. He defined the psychological phenomenon as the experience of something new or unknown that might initially be interpreted negatively.

Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud popularized the word with the publication of his book The Uncanny in 1919, which elaborated on the idea as not just the sensation of the unknown but also something capable of bringing out hidden or repressed elements, going so far as to describe the uncanny as frightening.

During the 20th century, the Surrealists often turned to the concept to build a sense of mystery or tension in their works. Meret Oppenheim, for instance, famously created a teacup lined with fur, simply titled “Object” (1936), widely regarded as an iconic example of the movement.

Oppenheim is one of more than two dozen artists whose work will appear in the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ forthcoming exhibition, Uncanny, featuring recent acquisitions and rarely shown pieces in NMWA’s collection, plus special loans.

More than 60 works by renowned figures of modern art history like Louise Bourgeois, Remedios Varo, and Leonora Carrington will be shown alongside the likes of contemporary artists like Shahzia Sikander, Laurie Simmons, and Gillian Wearing. The large-scale presentation is the first to approach the concept through a feminist lens and is organized around themes of safety and surreal imaginings.

The show also plumbs the phenomenon of the “uncanny valley,” a term coined by robotics engineer Masahiro Mori in 1970 to describe the apprehension or discomfort one feels when confronted with something that is almost human but not quite, like video game characters that appear realistic yet still somehow seem “off.”

In Laurie Simmons’ “The Music of Regret IV” (1994), a female ventriloquist dummy sits in the center of a circle of six male dummy dolls, whose gazes are trained on her as she looked out into the distance. Tapping into a medium that has been used in the horror genre to instill a sense of creepiness or dread, Simmons’ central character is dramatically spotlit, her smile belying the reality that she is unsettlingly hemmed in.

Along the theme of safety, or specifically unsafe spaces, Fabiola Jean-Louis’s elaborately staged photographs tell two stories at once. The artist portrays “seemingly innocuous portraits of close acquaintances wearing elaborate period costumes typical of upper-class European women, while disturbing images of racial and sexual violence are hidden within the background or details of a dress, reminding the viewer of the lineage of violence,” says an exhibition statement.

Many works in the show address physical trauma or the body’s relationship to the unknown. Frida Orupabo’s photographic collages, for example, portray Black figures that evoke colonial histories, critiquing historical violence and injustices through a process of fragmenting, distorting, and multiplying body parts.

Orupabo’s compositions echo the surrealist collaborative practice of cadavre exquis, or exquisite corpse, in which participants add to elements others have drawn without being able to see their work, producing intuitive and peculiar drawings.

“The enigmatic, darkly humorous and psychologically tense artworks in Uncanny give form to women artists’ powerful expressions of existential unease,” said NMWA Associate Curator Orin Zahra, who organized the exhibition. She continues:

Rather than comfort and soothe, these ghostly and fantastical figures haunt the unconscious. Instead of picturesque images, artists offer disquieting spaces that unsettle the viewer. In focusing on the ambiguity between reality and fiction, artists explore increasingly blurred lines between the artificial and eerily human.

Uncanny opens February 28 and continues through August 10 in Washington, D.C., highlighting painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, and video made between 1954 and 2022. Learn more and plan your visit on the museum’s website.

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