Some sightings deliver exactly what you hoped for. Others deliver something even better: a bit of bushveld comedy wrapped around a spectacular moment. My recent encounter with the Tortoise Pan Male was very much the latter.
The Short Wheel Base Leopard
We found him in the northern stretches of Londolozi, draped across the branches of a marula in that calm, heavy-bodied way big male leopards do when they know they rule the place. Stocky, powerful and built like the leopard equivalent of a pitbull, he’s been a remarkably successful male across the Sabi Sands. And on this afternoon, he looked every bit the part. A big, confident cat in his prime framed perfectly for two of the guests who happened to be avid photographers (Rudi and Marion shoutout). In that sense, the sighting felt like a gift.
Born 2016 to Ndzanzeni Female, royal descendant of Mother Leopard. Now a dominant force in the north.
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The Doldrums
Most guides will admit that, after years of working here, you start to quietly “manifest” specific sightings. Not out of entitlement but out of pure love for the place and its possibilities. We daydream about seeing certain leopards in certain trees because every now and then, the bush lines things up so perfectly it almost feels orchestrated. Rain over the past few days had made tracking tricky, add to this that male leopards roam vast territories, and you start to realise that the odds weren’t exactly in our favour! Still, off we went, bouncing between roads he might patrol, reading the landscape for movement, sound, anything. An hour and a half later or so we hit what I can only describe as the doldrums. No tracks. No alarm calls. Nothing. Just the creeping feeling that maybe today wasn’t our day.
Imagination Regurgitation
Which is precisely when I started talking up my favourite marula in the area. The “perfect leopard tree”. Every guide has a few. Height, angles, background, clean branches… the whole checklist. So there I was, painting this grand picture for my guests, fully leaning into the fantasy of finding the Tortoise Pan Male draped over that exact tree, even though I knew the bush rarely listens to our plans.
A Not So Eloquent Moment of Discovery
We continued up a rise, and in mid-sentence, I spotted a shape in the branches ahead. A leopard. I momentarily forgot my own name and yelled something along the lines of “S**t“! So loud I shouted, I nearly sent my guests and Euce into cardiac arrest. As I sped up towards the sighting, the punchline hit. The Tortoise Pan male wasn’t in THE marula. He was in a far less photogenic marula about 40 metres to the east. Quite literally the closest tree to THAT tree.
The Tortoise Pan Male rests peacefully in a marula.
Bushveld Humour, Never Take Yourself to Seriously
There he lay close enough to feel like he’d heard every word of my enthusiastic build-up but far enough away to remind me that the bushveld has a dry sense of humour. We burst out laughing. The perfect tree stood empty, glowing in the afternoon light like a missed stage cue, while the Tortoise Pan Male himself lounged smugly nearby, clearly unbothered by my grand plans. And honestly? It was perfect anyway. A big male leopard in a marula is a privilege no matter which tree he chooses. That much will forever remain true – a reason this job never gets old!
Moments like these are a reminder to just get out there, enjoy the unpredictability and soak up the magic for whatever it is. Londolozi has a way of meeting you halfway… often with a grin.
The Tortoise Pan male, once again, delivered. Just not quite in the way I’d scripted.
One cannot deny the value that the young Shingi Male has provided us with over the past two years in terms of some incredible sightings. Although sightings of him and his mother have become less frequent, he still roams safely within her territory.
The impressive size of the Shingi Male next to his mother
The last surviving cub of a litter of three, he is on the cusp of independence.
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Londolozi’s most viewed leopard and prolific mother. This gorgeous female has raised multiple cubs to independence.
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Young leopards are often agile, enthusiastic and playful, frequently running to climb trees and termite mounds as they navigate their environment, and the Shingi Male is no exception.
The enthusiastic change of direction as the Shingi Male quickly climbed this marula tree
One afternoon, after unsuccessfully trying to find his mother, the Nkoveni Female, another vehicle found the Shingi Male not too far away, lying in a marula tree. My guests and I had been hoping throughout their stay to capture a sighting of a leopard in a tree, and this seemed like it might be our moment.
Unfortunately, it was not. As we made our way there, we could see him resting in the tree from a distance, but just as we came into full view, he descended into the long grass below. A minor moment of disappointment as the sun began to set, we realised we had missed the opportunity.
We continued to follow him as the sky shifted from yellow and orange hues to soft pinks and blues. Suddenly, he ran off, stopped abruptly, and leapt into the long grass. Two Harlequin Quails (small ground birds) flushed as he pounced in their direction. It seemed that his rest in the tree had given him renewed energy, as he continued to hunt several of these birds—unsuccessfully, but very entertaining to watch.
With the grasses being lush and long this time of year, the leopards can stalk effectively by getting down low.
As the light continued to fade, he walked through the clearings ahead of us. A fallen marula tree in the distance appeared to guide his path, and with the long grass surrounding him, we looped ahead and waited. Soon, we were delighted as he came bounding onto the fallen marula tree.
He then continued to climb way up to the upper reaches of this tree.
He climbed way up to the upper parts of this fallen Marula and appeared to have picked up the scent of something.
As we watched him, something incredible was brewing behind us, and with that we spun around, and to be honest, I could not quite believe my eyes…
It looks almost too good to be true, but with all the moisture and clouds around this time of year and the glimmers of the fading sun, this is a sighting I will always remember.
He then rubbed his face on the end of the branch before turning back and climbing back down.
Combing his whiskers on the branch beneath him, he then spun around and climbed down the marula tree.
He walked through the long grass once more before settling on a termite mound, scanning the nearby herd of impala as the last of the sun set faded behind him. We left him here and journeyed home with an exceptionally memorable moment that we were fortunate enough to share together.
The last light of a spectacular afternoon spent with this young male leopard.
For much of photography’s history, male portraiture preserved a degree of emotional distance, presenting men as stoic, authoritative and restrained. Dean Majd has spent the better part of a decade pursuing a more nuanced portrayal of masculinity in photographs that capture men in moments of profound vulnerability and mutual dependence, chronicling friendship and conflict with great candor and empathy. His subjects are his peers and friends, and his images carry the immediacy of lived experience, unfolding in bedrooms, bathrooms, skateparks and other spaces where genuine moments of revelry and collapse unfold.
Born in Queens to Palestinian immigrant parents, Majd is self-taught, and his practice has been deeply shaped by the city that continues to anchor his work. His photographs have appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Magazine, GQ Middle East, Aperture and Dazed, and he has exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of the City of New York. Editorial commissions—from photographing Zohran Mamdani for Vogue to Kareem Rahma for the New Yorker—signal a growing recognition of his distinct visual sensibility.
Most recently, his debut solo exhibition, “Hard Feelings,” opened at BAXTER ST at the Camera Club of New York—a stunning series of portraits of intimacy, grief, tenderness and pain among young men. Majd’s use of light and shadow recalls the dramatic chiaroscuro of Baroque painting, isolating gestures and faces with theatrical precision while also heightening the humanity of his subjects.
Prompted in part by the sudden death of a childhood friend, the series traces the lives of a tight-knit group of young men as they navigate the full emotional continuum of human existence. Majd allows affection, confusion and fragility to occupy the frame without restraint, expanding the emotional register available to male portraiture, particularly for men of color whose interior lives have historically been flattened or erased. If the exhibition’s photographs feel unusually intimate, it is because they are not constructed from observation alone but from proximity, trust and shared history. In this conversation, Majd reflects on the emotional stakes of that closeness and the visual language he built to contain it.
Your work resists the flattening gaze often directed at men, and men of color in particular. What visual or ethical principles guide your representation of these subjects?
I began making this work with the goal of creating a record of truth, images that would only exist for my friends and me. I had not seen anyone who looked like us in popular media, or even social media, really. I felt like we were outcasts in a way. We built our own world, this special world that no one else had access to. We were everything, so I felt the need to document it in the most authentic manner. Just for us and nobody else. I respect my subjects, and the images were borne out of love. The only way they can be made is if there is trust between us.
I never went in with ideas of what images should be made. I just photographed what I saw and who I spent all my time with. Everything needed to be candid or impromptu. I wanted to photograph the good, the bad, the happiness, the pain and everything in between. I rarely held back, even in the hardest times. And I did the same with myself, too. I documented myself in my hardest times, putting myself on the line as well. It was my life and my story to tell. And the images I did not take are the ones I remember the most; they genuinely haunt me. It’s better to take the photo and discuss if it should go out in the world than to never make it at all.
I never want to present people as perfect. These principles, over time, created a natural, authentic range of the masculine experience, especially that of men of color.
Dean Majd, suba (sunshower), 2020. Archival pigment print, mounted to dibond, framed 46.25 in. x 31.25 in. x 1.75 in. Copyright and courtesy Dean Majd
Has your own identity informed your image-making? Or do you prefer to approach your practice more broadly?
I allow my feelings and my interests to lead my image-making. My work is oftentimes driven directly by what is occurring in my life at the moment. I’m concerned with understanding people, specifically those who have been subjected to violence, state-sponsored or otherwise, because my community and I have been subjected to so much of it.
Being Palestinian, I experienced grief at a very young age and learned that empathy and grief go hand-in-hand. That grief helped me develop an infinite well of empathy, and that empathy has become the foundation of my practice. I resist the notion that I have to make work about my identity because I’m Palestinian-American and Muslim, but being Palestinian is the reason why I can make the work I make, regardless of the subject matter.
What inspired “Hard Feelings”?
I didn’t actively pursue this body of work at its inception. Even the title of the series was named on a whim very early on, and somehow has manifested so much truth in our experiences. There was no real inspiration for the project itself, other than my friends and the people around me. In many ways, it feels like it was given to me. My mother gave me a camera when I was seven, and I still haven’t stopped taking photos. I grew up without parental supervision, so I ended up in the graffiti and skate scene in Queens in middle school and high school, and stepped away from the world to pursue a degree in International Relations. I never believed I could succeed as a photographer, so I began taking it seriously for myself as a teenager, and in 2015, I began seriously attempting to make art out of making images in my life.
In 2016, I reconnected with a childhood friend, James, at our local skatepark in Astoria. I took his portrait, and a week later, he tragically passed away in a subway accident. Through his passing, I became close to his predominantly male friend group who were part of Queens, New York’s graffiti and skate scene. We became close through the grief, and I instantly was thrust back into the world I grew up in. They were the first people to encourage me to take photos and pursue photography, and by the end of the year, they gave me full access to their lives.
In my pursuit of a record of truth for my friends and myself, I would take thousands of photos and reflect on them afterward. I realized I was documenting brotherhood, masculinity, male-female relationships, but really, violence, substance misuse, loneliness and self-destruction, including my own. I created a space of vulnerability for men who are often told they need to be invulnerable to survive, a space for my friends and me to face our own shadows. When the work became more public and attracted more attention from strangers, I realized it had the same effect on viewers. It became a mirror for all of our experiences.
Dean Majd, ivan crying in my bedroom, 2021. Archival Pigment Print, Mounted to Dibond, 31.25 in. x 46.25 in. x 1.75 in. Edition 1 of 3 + 1 AP. Copyright and courtesy Dean Majd
There’s a striking use of light and shadow throughout the series. Can you speak to that—do you feel that builds intimacy from the point of view of the viewer?
The aesthetic nature of the work is defined by the subject matter, specifically the lifestyle of my friends and me. The world of graffiti (and skating) largely takes place at night, and can be very violent, toxic and fueled by drugs and alcohol. I’ve always loved the tableaus of Baroque painters, specifically Caravaggio, and filmmakers who work in a kinetic, raw style like Andrea Arnold and John Cassavetes, as well as surrealists and extremists like David Lynch, Gaspar Noé and Lars von Trier. In many ways that seeped into the images themselves, but really, it was serendipitous. My interests and the lives we were living blended perfectly.
At night, my friends are more free and open with themselves. It was almost as if our emotions and actions reached their highest and lowest points when the sun went down. It was most certainly magnified by our collective grief and the substances we were consuming. I was very non-technical at the time; I only really knew how to make images with point-and-shoot cameras.
I had to learn to take photos with very little light, and only used the on-camera flash in small, specific instances. Because of my constant image-making, the nature of candid, impromptu image-making and our trust, the boundaries between us and the camera melted away. My friends could be the most honest and vulnerable within the images. I find that vulnerability cuts through the viewers, allowing them to be vulnerable as well.
The work is an honest representation of my friends’ lives, but I needed the images to be truer than true. The visual language—the intense shadow and illuminating light—created a surreal nature to the images, which would form “representational truths.” The “representational truth” of the images speaks to something greater; allegories, mirrors, that can connect to viewers to grander subject matters around masculinity, violence and hopefully allow them to face their own shadows, face complicated repressed emotions that my friends were facing through the lens. I studied Flannery O’Connor’s Southern Gothic style and her use of allegory in relation to violence and faith. It deeply influenced how I sequenced and presented my images. At the same time, I really frame “Hard Feelings” around the idea of an odyssey: these masculine rites of passage. I wanted to elevate these unseen, unregarded lives to the place of mythology, biblical stories and high art. I wanted to create a legacy for those who are told their lives don’t matter. If the photos were made in a more hard photojournalism style, they’d be more difficult to connect to and overall less universal.
You’ve described your friends as both subjects and collaborators. How do you navigate trust and authorship when photographing people so close to you?
I rarely call my friends subjects. It’s hard to even consider them that; I really see them as family. I often say that these images were given to me as gifts by the people in them. There is an awareness that I’m the recordkeeper, archiving and constructing the narrative of our lives. In a way, they co-author the images, but also release them to me to do what I want with them, to tell their story accurately and respectfully. It requires immense trust.
That trust exists because of my complete openness with the people who end up in front of the camera. After I make the images, I sit and show them the images, oftentimes in person. There would be many times when I would invite them over to my apartment, and I showed them the work like a slideshow. We have constant conversations about whether and when the images will be shared way before they’re put out into the world. My friends bare their souls to me; it’s the least I can do. Because of my openness, I’ve never been denied making images. Whenever someone is uncomfortable with me sharing an image, I respect that decision, and it’s always the right choice. There have been times in which people told me they weren’t comfortable being photographed anymore, and it made our friendship stronger.
Photography is inherently voyeuristic, but I attempt to have a practice that is anti-voyeurism. This is my story and my people. We have gone through so much together. There’s so much pain, so much happiness and everything in between. We share everything with each other. I’m also photographing myself at the best and worst moments of my life, putting it all on the line just like them. We’re very much in this together.
Dean Majd, bohemian rhapsody, 2017. Archival pigment print, mounted to sintra, framed 37 in. x 25 in. x 1.5 in. Copyright and courtesy Dean Majd
Have you dealt with similar issues when photographing subjects you’re less close to in other series?
For years, I had crippling anxiety around photographing strangers, or even people whom I wouldn’t consider loved ones. When I began to make special editorial projects or be commissioned for editorial work, I forced myself to fight through that anxiety. I have learned to build trust with strangers pretty quickly, even if some people resist opening up. I used to think I could only make good images because I was photographing my friends, and because they’re so special. I realized, through my deeply empathetic nature, that I can connect with strangers on that level as well.
The downside is that I absorb people’s pain. It’s the alchemic exchange I have to make; I get to create these intimate images, but I hold onto their emotions for months, oftentimes years. I’ve learned that I need a lot of time to decompress; a lot of alone time of intense exercise, journaling and meditation, just to release the pain. Even with strangers, it all stays with me. The closer I am to the person, the longer the hurt lingers.
There are images in “Hard Feelings” taken before the pandemic—looking at those now, what feelings do they evoke?
Overall, those images feel way more free, way more uninhibited. Intense, but not burdensome. I yearn for that time when things were simpler. Less complicated and more authentic. I’ve inadvertently documented the change of the city and how men of color have been affected by it. In the spectrum of things, it wasn’t that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime. I was also much younger, still in my 20s. The images after the pandemic began are so much more serious and way more melancholy.
Finally, we have to ask. What was it like to photograph Mamdani?
An absolute pleasure. He’s a consummate gentleman and a real-deal New Yorker.
The reality of professional nature photos often includes harsh light, deep shadows, haze, mixed colour temperatures, and extreme dynamic range. Even perfectly taken pictures often need careful refinement to bring back detail in skies, shadows, foliage, and distant mountains. That’s why it’s important to know how to edit landscape photos and find a proper tool that will make it possible.
The ideal professional landscape photo editor should offer batch work, RAW processing, colour accuracy, local adjustments, and print-ready output. In this article, we compare some of these tools from the perspective of nature photography and common post-processing challenges this genre presents.
1. Luminar Neo
This landscape photo editor offers foliage-oriented enhancements, sky replacement/relighting, and local masking on rocks, water, and clouds. It works on Windows and Mac desktops. More expensive cross-device and Max tiers also include dedicated apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Pros
Cons
Fast AI-driven global base edits are combined with manual controls like curves, HSL, and masking for polished yet realistic results.
If you seek catalog-heavy DAM solutions with complex metadata needs, Luminar Neo might be insufficient for you.
Atmosphere and relighting tools help recreate depth and weather conditions.
An AI-heavy approach requires capable hardware for smooth performance.
Subtle colour grading enhancements help photographers create and maintain the mood of dawn, golden, or blue hour.
It’s not the cheapest option, especially if you want a cross-device workflow with a photo gallery and generative tools.
2. DxO PhotoLab
DxO’s approach to editing landscape photos is based on its lens/camera profiles, DeepPRIME XD noise reduction, and local adjustments to clean high-ISO shots. Local tools (U-Point) are ideal for shaping light in valleys, clouds, and water. The app works on Windows and macOS. It’s also strongly integrated with DxO’s own RAW pre-processor. The official shop pricing shows PhotoLab 9 Essential at $149.99 and PhotoLab 9 Elite at $239.99. Double-check the official website before purchasing; discounts are common.
Pros
Cons
The software is renowned for industry-leading lens corrections and excellent noise reduction for high-ISO dawn/dusk work.
A smaller ecosystem of plugins and presets compared to some rivals.
Excellent tools for dynamic range optimisation, including intelligent exposure.
Catalogue and organisational features are less sophisticated than pure DAM tools.
The app works as a file browser, allowing immediate editing of folders.
The interface may seem overwhelming for newbies and users who transition from simpler editors.
3. ON1 Photo RAW
If you’re wondering how to edit nature photos with a traditional, layer-based approach, RAW file support, and robust cataloging, ON1 might be exactly what you need. It offers dodge and burn-style tools, sky and atmosphere effects, focus stacking, and HDR for scenes with difficult contrast. The editor costs $99.99 for a perpetual licence. Subscription plans start from $7.99/month. The program works on Mac and Windows, and there are also dedicated mobile apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad.
Pros
Cons
Instant viewing of images without a formal importing process.
There may be performance lags on older devices, especially when working with heavy, multilayered composites.
A preset-driven workflow speeds up delivering consistent looks across large shoots.
The interface and tool overlap require time and effort to navigate properly.
Advanced selective masking and noise reduction for pictures taken in unpredictable conditions.
The community support and plugin ecosystems are limited compared to industry giants like Photoshop or Lightroom.
4. Topaz Photo AI
This software is focused on sharpening, noise reduction, and upscaling for mission-critical visuals. Use it as a standalone app (Mac, Windows) or a plugin for rescuing slightly blurred bird-in-flight shots, cleaning high-ISO astro landscapes, or upscaling files for large prints without losing texture. Pricing options vary significantly, but the cheapest one costs $17/month.
Pros
Cons
The app is perfect for sharpening fine details like feathers, fur, bark, and distant ridgelines.
Topaz Photos AI is a complementary tool rather than a full editor. Its toolkit is limited, and you will still need a broader photo editing software for colour correction, unwanted object removal, etc.
Noise models handle very dark skies and high-ISO forest scenes.
AI-based sharpening and upscaling can look unnatural without human control.
You don’t have to change your current post-processing workflow to enjoy Topaz Photo AU benefits because it works as a plugin.
The system requirements are hard to match (check the official website for details), especially if you edit multiple heavy files simultaneously.
Conclusion
Selecting the best photo editor for professional nature photography hinges on understanding the specific editing needs and challenges posed by the genre. Whether you prioritise advanced features like AI-driven enhancements in Luminar Neo, industry-leading noise reduction in DxO PhotoLab, or a traditional layer-based approach in ON1 Photo RAW, the right tool can significantly elevate your landscape images and help you achieve stunning results.
Dozens of local middle and high school students are being honored in the state 2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for their artistic and literary work.
The annual awards celebrate artists, photographers and writers in grades 7-12 across the nation. This year alone, more than 12,000 entries were submitted to the Massachusetts contest.
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Fans of Robert Duvall are mourning his passing on Sunday February 15 at age 95. The star of films including 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird (he played Boo Radley), Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, and Network began his career on stage, then working alongside fellow icons Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. In the 1970s and ’80s, Robert Duvall was a big-screen mainstay, even winning the Academy Award in 1983 for his role as a down-on-his-luck country singer in Tender Mercies.
Below, find 28 images that barely scratch the surface of his epic career.
Every four years, we all get a reminder about why still photography is an urgently important art form that must be preserved at any cost: the high-effort Olympic figure skater face, which is always best enjoyed by clicking around the Getty Images site.
You, the person reading this, are a slob who cannot do what these athletes are doing or even conceive of how they use their feeble, breakable human bodies to do it. Just as inconceivable is the idea of doing this in front of an audience, a table of judges, and an army of photographers capturing your grace or clumsiness, success or failure, and everything beautiful or—as the case may be—hideous about your face and body engaged in this famously most competitive of competitive sports.
But look at them ahahahahaha! They’re like “Yergh!!” “Hunnhhh!” Hahahahaha.
And look, we in the U.S. were all shocked by the dramatic poor performance of Ilia Malinin, and there’s nothing to laugh at there. Fortunately, thanks to the quick reflexes and finely honed professional instincts of international sports photographers, there’s no shortage of comedy coming from these Winter Olympics. Just when you think you’ve seen the last funny one, there are hundreds more, often hilarious and astonishing at the same time.
Getty photos, of course, cost money to use without a watermark, but the site itself gives the casual internet user unfettered access to its compulsively scroll-able watermarked library. Searching “figure skating” (I use quotation marks for the search, personally), hitting “EDITORIAL,” and sorting by “Newest” rather than “Best match” gets you the unfiltered feed of photos for sale to media organizations.
You may have to click past a few results pages of unrelated speed skating photos (Ugh!), but you’ll know when you’ve struck a vein of the good stuff, and then the joy begins. The internet used to just be like this, remember?
Getty Images could probably paywall access to the figure skating photos if it liked money, but fortunately it hasn’t done that which means you get to enjoy the fruits of the Men’s solo events, which have already happened, and watch the photos roll in from the pairs competition today and the women’s events all this coming week, all for free.
And if you see a sports photographer today, don’t forget to thank them for their service.
This is America, dammit. When political tensions are white hot, and the stakes are just about the highest they can possibly be, it’s time to pause for a little consumerism break.
Or at least that was my response to this incredible photo credited to Pierre Lavie posted online by a photographer named John Abernathy.
Abernathy says on Instagram that it’s him in the photo during Thursday’s protests at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is basing its current high profile operations in Minneapolis. Having been tackled, he claims, by ICE agents backed up by “50 border police,” Abernathy apparently chucked his Leica camera in the direction of another photographer to “make sure it wouldn’t be confiscated.”
On Bluesky, Abernathy provides a slightly more detailed review for camera shoppers, writing that his Leica “landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch.” That’s before he also claims that he was held down, that a tear gas canister went off near his face, and that pepper spray went “directly into the eye.” A photo published by ABC News does appear to show Abernathy face down on the ground with orange-ish liquid visible around his eye.
What should we buy exactly if we want to replicate this incredible tableau? Posters on the Leica subreddit were immediately on the case (although the initial post has already been deleted), noting that it appears to be the all-black version of the Leica M10. Comparable cameras in the U.S. retail for about $4,595.00 if you’re in the market for one that you’d also like to stress test by throwing it onto some rough concrete like Abernathy.
And just how did it handle such abuse without being obliterated? Probably only through the intervention of the journalism gods in all honesty, but according to the Leica website, “Thanks to components machined from solid brass, the high strength of the M-10’s full-metal, magnesium alloy chassis and scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass, is built to effortlessly resist the adversities of everyday life guaranteeing enduring pleasure to the photographers.” So there’s also that.
For what it’s worth, ICE has complained on X that “anti-ICE agitators” at the event “threw objects.” ICE’s post doesn’t mention expensive cameras being among the objects. ICE claims they also “shouted profanities, and endangered the public by pouring water on the roads to create icy, hazardous conditions.”
Yesterday, law enforcement at Whipple Federal Building faced violent anti-ICE agitators who threw objects, shouted profanities, and endangered the public by pouring water on the roads to create icy, hazardous conditions.
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) January 16, 2026
Leica cameras are priced at absolutely breathtaking levels, and often come with unique features that appeal to serious photographers. As my one-time colleague Lucas Ropek noted in 2023, a step up from the M10 is the $9,500 M11, designed with digital authenticity tools specifically for combating AI misinformation.
Leica ownership is also the best way to access the Leica subculture, where some pretty amazing discourse takes place. “Oof. Not sure I’d bring my M body there for that,” notes one Lieca enthusiast on the Leica subreddit, adding, “Not because of danger to the camera, but because I prefer something like a 24-105 with autofocus in that environment.”
“The opportunity to celebrate the excellence of student photojournalists and offer encouragement to them as they pursue their passion is a privilege and an honor,” said Rana Cash, executive editor of The Charlotte Observer.
“Even greater is the chance for them to see and hear from our staff photographers who produce some of the best work in the country. Even though I see their work every day, I remain in awe of their talent and the empathy they bring to our community on a daily basis.”
Three students received top honors in the second annual photo contest. The overall first place winner was Lydia Riley, a student at East Mecklenburg High School, for her portrait of a ballerina, “Dancer in Bloom.”
Lydia Riley, center, a student at East Mecklenburg High School, is honored as the overall winner of the student photo contest for her portrait, “Dancer in Bloom”, during The Charlotte Observer’s third annual Captured Memories event at ImaginON: The Joe and Joan Martin Theater in Charlotte on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Emily Broyles ebroyles@charlotteobserver.com
“Dancer in Bloom” Lydia Riley
Second place went to Henry Yingling, a student at Myers Park High School, for his black and white portrait of Charlotte FC player Alfred Zaha, “Thank You, CLT.”
Henry Yingling, center, a student at Myers Park High School, is honored as the second place winner of the student photo contest for his photo, “Thank You CLT”, during The Charlotte Observer’s third annual Captured Memories event at ImaginON: The Joe and Joan Martin Theater in Charlotte on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Emily Broyles ebroyles@charlotteobserver.com
Alfred Zaha blows a kiss to the crowd after scoring a goal in the first half of Charlotte FC’s match vs. Montreal at Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 27, 2025. Henry Yingling henryyingling@outlook.com
Third place went to Nahun Paz Puerto, a student at East Mecklenburg High School, for a black and white, night portrait of Charlotte’s skyline, “Queen City Never Sleeps.”
Nahun Paz Puerto, center, a student at East Mecklenburg High School, is honored as the third place winner of the student photo contest for his night landscape, “Queen City Never Sleeps”, during The Charlotte Observer’s third annual Captured Memories event at ImaginON: The Joe and Joan Martin Theater in Charlotte on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Emily Broyles ebroyles@charlotteobserver.com
“Queen City Never Sleeps.” A skyline shot of Charlotte from Matheson Bridge on Oct. 12, 2025. Nahun Paz Puerto
The top winners received a plaque and cash prize. The top three winning photos will be featured on The Observer’s social media platforms. Additionally, the top winner, Lydia Riley, will get to spend a day shadowing a staff photographer of her choice.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 4:48 PM.
The White House isn’t just the home of the sitting president of the United States—it’s also known as the people’s house, a symbol of democracy at work. Vanity Fair‘s Chris Whipple took readers inside the building and the inner workings of a half-dozen of Donald Trump‘s closest advisors, interviewing chief of staff Susie Wiles several times throughout the first months of Trump’s second term, and speaking to Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Karoline Leavitt, JD Vance, and others in a bombshell two-part feature.
Whipple has discussed his reporting process for the story, and now, here’s Anderson in conversation with VF, taking us behind the scenes of the assignment that he almost turned down. And, to answer the question on everyone’s mind right away, Anderson says of those ultra-tight shots, “No, they’re not cropped versions. I’m standing very, very close.”
Vanity Fair: What compelled you to take this assignment for Vanity Fair? Christopher Anderson: I wasn’t eager to accept the assignment at first. My roots are in journalism, I have done a lot of political work over the years and photographed a lot of politicians from the last administrations, from George Bush to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, even Bill Clinton. But a lot of what I do now is photograph celebrities. And I assumed incorrectly that the ask was for me to show up and be a celebrity photographer for this administration. And my journalistic DNA would not sit comfortably with this idea. So I thought, at first, I’m not gonna accept. Jennifer Pastore, the global creative director of Vanity Fair, and I had a long discussion about this, and she persuaded me that wearing my celebrity photographer hat was not why they were coming to me. That the qualification for this job was to come as a journalist, to bring a certain sense of clear-eyed observation and even skepticism. And that would come with a certain challenge and in my opinion, I felt an enormous responsibility in doing that. So that very much aligned with what my history is, what my roots have been in, it’s an historical moment, so I want to be there.
Corporate AI slop feels inescapable in 2025. From website banner ads to outdoor billboards, images generated by businesses using AI tools surround me. Hell, even the bar down the street posts happy hour flyers with that distinctly hazy, amber glow of some AI graphics.
On Thursday, Google launched Nano Banana Pro, the company’s latest image-generating model. Many of the updates in this release are targeted at corporate adoption, from putting Nano Banana Pro in Google Slides for business presentations to integrating the new model with Google Ads for advertisers globally.
This “Pro” release is an iteration on its Nano Banana model that dropped earlier this year. Nano Banana became a viral sensation after users started posting personalized action figures and other meme-able creations on social media.
Nano Banana Pro builds out the AI tool with a bevy of new abilities, like generating images in 4K resolution. It’s free to try out inside Google’s Gemini app, with paid Google One subscribers getting access to additional generations.
One specific improvement is going to be catnip for corporations in this release: text rendering. From my initial tests generating outputs with text, Nano Banana Pro improves on the wonky lettering and strange misspellings common in many image models, including Google’s past releases.
Google wants the images generated by this new model—text and all—to be more polished and production-ready for business use cases. “Even if you have one letter off it’s very obvious,” says Nicole Brichtova, a product lead for image and video at Google DeepMind. “It’s kind of like having hands with six fingers; it’s the first thing you see.” She says part of the reason Nano Banana Pro is able to generate text more cleanly is the switch to a more powerful underlying model, Gemini 3 Pro.
An example of how the tool can create a composite from multiple images.
Monday evening brought spectacles of something that resembled scenes straight from the theatre. With hundreds of fans adorned in flowing skirts, corsets, and lace, a kaleidoscope of city lights and the cold embrace of Scottish winter, they looked straight From The Pyre.
The Last Dinner Party took us on a journey of theatrics and bold storytelling at Edinburgh Corn Exchange. Warming up the stage for the group was Newcastle-formed band Imogen and The Knife. Fronted by Imogen Williams, the five-piece entranced us with deeply evocative lyricism and haunting melodies. This is following their debut EP ‘Some Kind of Love’ released in 2024. They have proven that there is no doubt that a promising future lies ahead.
Image Source: Cara Maclean for The Honey POP
Image Source: Cara Maclean for The Honey POP
From the grand opening to the spirited conclusion, The Last Dinner Party had us completely immersed in a world of fantasy, gothic prose, and mythology. Opening with track one on their album, ‘Angus Dei,’ it was evident from the start that the night would be one to remember.
As the band continued their way through the set, reaching memorable moments such as the magical crescendo of ‘Women is a Tree,’ whereby front woman, Abigail Morris, stated to her fellow band mates, “Let’s get choral,” and they gathered to create an ensemble which felt like you walked straight into the thriller series, ‘Yellow Jackets.’
As well as playing through the entirety of their latest album, the band also made time for some of their older music and fan favourites. ‘Gjuha,’ led and written by keyboardist and vocalist, Aurora Nishevci, stated that she has come to realise she wrote the song about “the importance of language” and “yearning for connections, place, culture, and people you’ve been removed from.” And that “language is a beautiful thing.”
Image Source: Cara Maclean for The Honey POP
Image Source: Cara Maclean for The Honey POP
Moving forward, we flowed into some more emotionally deep cuts, such as album single ‘The Scythe,’ to ‘Sail Away,’ which had many in the crowd feeling moved. However, the pace was swiftly picked back up with the rage of ‘My Lady of Mercy.’
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, though. Following an evening packed with striking guitar solos courtesy of Emily Roberts, killer baselines by Georgia Davies, and captivating vocals by Lizzie Mayland, Aurora began to play the distinct notes of lead single ‘This is The Killer Speaking’ and Abigail encouraged the crowd to dance, swearing that she would stop singing if she didn’t see everyone dancing.
Check out our photos from the show below!
The group was met with endless praise from the crowd and left everyone feeling uplifted with memories to last a lifetime. It is sufficient to say The Last Dinner Party will always be welcomed back to Scotland with open arms.
Have you seen The Last Dinner Party live? Let us know your favorite song of theirs on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!
Works from “Afrotopias” in Freedom Park Lagos. Courtesy of the AAF. Photo: Ariwodola Ifeoluwa Ayomide
On the rails of a structure in Freedom Park Lagos—situated on what was Nigeria’s first colonial prison—hang several images. Titled “Afrotopias,” the body of work is part of the 15th edition of the international LagosPhoto Festival. The public park is one of the landmark spaces being activated for the event, which marks its inaugural edition as a biennial this year under the theme “Incarceration.” The recently opened Nahous Gallery—located inside the historic Federal Palace complex, where Nigeria’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1960 and a key venue for the international festival FESTAC77—is also hosting the biennial. But this year, LagosPhoto Festival expands beyond Lagos to Ibadan, with work at New Culture Studios, built in 1970 and designed by renowned architect, painter and sculptor Demas Nwoko, a pioneering figure in Nigeria’s modern art movement.
“There were some specific locations that were quite important to the theme but the spaces had their own charged histories, and so the works showing in them had to be in dialogue with that,” lead curator Courage Dzidula Kpodo told Observer at the offices of organizers African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) in Lagos, which was recently reopened after two years of closure. “That was a very conscious decision, and I think largely comes from my training as an architect and how I think about space and its histories. The works that are exhibited are an activation of the space. People experience it in a very different way than they would if there were no work there. It gave us a very charged canvas for this show.”
César Dezfuli, Amadou S. From the Passengers series. Cesar Dezfuli, Courtesy of the artist and AAF Large
The AAF offices, Alliance Française de Lagos and Didi Museum—founded in 1983 and said to be Nigeria’s first private museum—are also showing work as part of the biennial. The 2025 curatorial team, which includes Robin Riskin, Maria Pia Bernadoni, Vetum Gima Galadima and Kadara Enyeasi under the artistic direction of Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of AAF, presented the work of around 100 artists speaking to various types and meanings of the “incarceration” theme—be it self-imposed or by others, spiritual, ideological, psychological or political—through solo projects, collaborations, institutional exhibitions and screenings.
The work in the biennial spans photography, film, sound, installation and archives by a wide range of artists—from those who have been practicing professionally for about three decades to emerging artists and those still in school. These include the likes of Shirin Neshat, Ayobami Ogungbe, Cesar Dezfuli, Stefan Ruiz, Nuotama Bodomo, Yagazie Emezi, Fibi Afloe, Jesse Weaver Shipley and Gerald Annan-Forson. The New Culture Studios is activated to examine what the organizers call the urban and architectural dimensions of incarceration. The work on view in the studios also includes commissioned pieces by students at the University of Ibadan.
Gerald Annan-Forson’s photo of Lt. Jerry John Rawlings handing over power to the civilian regime led by Hilla Limann in 1979. Photo: Gameli Hamelo for Observer, courtesy the Didi Museum
The artists whose work is featured in the biennial were selected following an open call, which was “quite successful because we had a very diverse group of work,” shared Kpodo. Previously, the team chose artists primarily through an internal nomination process based on their networks and research, which could be limiting. The open call filled that gap, and they received applications on “projects that we would otherwise not find. [Artists] were able to come to us.”
The 2025 edition of the LagosPhoto extends to the Didi Museum. Courtesy of the AAF. Photo: Ariwodola Ifeoluwa Ayomide
What did they look for in selecting the artists whose work is presented in the biennial? “I think we were looking for works that were layered and not very simple to read or to understand. We were looking for works that were also quite bold in the topics that they chose to examine. I think another big thing we were looking for was experimentation with the medium, and for us it was important to identify it in both established artists or even young and upcoming artists,” Kpodo explained.
The “cross-generational juxtaposition” of work presented in the biennial will be seen as speaking to shifts in perceptions and to the questioning of societies across generations, he added. “I hope people will pay attention to the fact that there’s more to what they are seeing. There’s usually a whole web of stories that gets summed up into what we end up presenting. What you are seeing is actually just a portal into something that’s much more.”
Getting asked to shoot the Pirelli Calendar is a career milestone for any photographer. But unlike, say, winning an Academy Award, the honor doesn’t celebrate the success of a creative project; it marks the beginning. “You win a prize, but then you have to go and earn it afterwards,” says Sølve Sundsbø, the Norwegian photographer tasked with creating the 2026 edition of the cultural touchstone known as The Cal. “It’s very flattering, but it’s also quite intimidating.”
With his appointment, Sundsbø joins a list of photographers that includes Tim Walker, Peter Lindbergh, and Nick Knight, all of whom have contributed their visions throughout the publication’s 60-plus-year history. Initially launched by the Italian tire manufacturer in 1964 as a trade gift, The Cal has evolved into an annual touchstone of culture’s current ideation of beauty and artistry. For the 2026 iteration, Sundsbø tackled the broad concept of nature, enlisting a diverse group of women to bring his vision to life.
Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø
Pirelli gave Sundsbø an impressive amount of free rein for the project, though they did have two requests. “They were very liberal with the brief, but they said they wanted women and they wanted it to be about nature,” he told W. In 2025, Ethan James Green included some rare men in his take, but Pirelli wanted this year to be solely focused on women.
Sundsbø’s calendar features names from a variety of different industries, including Tilda Swinton, FKA Twigs, Isabella Rossellini, Susie Cave, and Gwendoline Christie, many of whom have worked with Sundsbø in the past. “I wanted to work with women I knew because there’s a huge element of trust,” he says. “I’m 55, so I didn’t want to shoot 19-year-old girls. That doesn’t feel natural for me.” Venus Williams, Irina Shayk, Eva Herzigová, Adria Arjona, Du Juan, and Luisa Ranieri round out the cast of models.
Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø
Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø
Sundsbø was able to put his own spin on the nature element as well. While the photographer did head out into the wild—or, more specifically, the beaches of Norfolk and Essex—to capture content, all the images were taken in studio. “It was important to not shoot in nature, because that has been done so many times, and so well, for Pirelli,” he says, calling the decision to shoot a nature-themed editorial solely in studio “a bit twisted.”
Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø
The calendar features 11 women representing a range of different elements: water, earth, fire, and wind. Christie took on the challenge of embodying ether. For the most part, the women got to choose which they would represent. Twigs was supposed to take on water until she expressed her utter distaste for the element ahead of the shoot. “She told me, ‘I want to be earth. I want it to be naked, rolling in sand,’” so Sundsbø made it happen.
Clouds originally shot in Norfolk are projected onto Chinese actress Juan for a Magritte-like effect. Swinton poses among whimsical greenery, while Christie is bathed with light. “Sølve uses modern technology to enhance the creative process rather than replace it,” says Christie, who has worked with Sundsbø many times over the years, but is only now making her debut in The Cal. She reflects on her studio experience, calling it “almost ritualistic.” To create the eerie ether effect, Sundsbø used a long exposure as he dragged a fiber-optic light over Christie. “It was so homemade,” Sundsbø says with a laugh. The results are anything but.
Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø
In addition to representing the elements, Sundsbø also hoped to capture human emotion with the 24 images displayed in the calendar, an admittedly Herculean task. “It is impossible,” he admits. “But it is important to be ambitious and set your targets high. You might not achieve them, but you can move towards them. And then sometimes you might hit it.”
So, did Sundsbø reach his goal with the 2026 Pirelli Calendar?” I can only see the things I could do better,” he says, before pausing for a moment. “But I am very, very happy with it.”
Beard was introduced to Neamatalla, the museum’s founder, by the famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the former minister of antiquities for Egypt, and a friend of Nejma’s parents (Hawass is attending the museum’s inauguration). In 2001, Peter, Nejma, and Zara made a trip to Siwa, as well as Luxor, Cairo, and Aswan, and he returned several times.
As Zara writes in her text for the catalogue, “He did not arrive with conquest in his eyes. He came instead as a witness. As someone who believed that beauty, when glimpsed on the verge of disappearance, becomes a kind of moral imperative. We travelled to Egypt as a family. My father was fascinated by everything: the palimpsest of civilizations, the carved stones still half-buried in sand, the exquisite ruins, the legend of the Oracle, the movement of salt across centuries. To him, beauty was inseparable from time. It was not ornamental but geological, shaped by erosion, intention, and the passage of centuries. Every artifact spoke in echoes.”
Like the hotel, the museum was hand-built from Siwa mud and is entirely off-grid. Its collection includes Beard’s iconic large-scale photographs, embellished with hand-painted borders by the Hog Ranch Art Department, a collective of Kenyan friends and artists, which was born in Beard’s property near the Ngong Hills. One gallery displays pages from Beard’s famous diaries, each a small collage artwork in itself. Another is filled with his personal family photos.
Ultimately, the museum is intended to be a “permanent tribute to Peter Beard’s life, his time in Siwa, his work, and as a living testament to the belief that beauty and responsibility to the earth can and must coexist,” as the opening announcement reads. Peter Beard’s legacy may be complex, but there is no doubt of his farsightedness, of his profound understanding of the ways of the world, both natural and human, and of his position as one of the great artists of the 20th century.
Below, “For the Record of the Living,” a poem by Zara Beard.
A group of tourists in Iceland came perilously close to losing their lives while posing for a photo on a dangerous area of beach land.
Photographer Gabriel Antal shared heartstopping footage to Instagram, under the handle hybaj_na_island, of the moment the group stopped to take pictures on the rocks at Reynisfjara, a famous black sand beach located in southern Iceland, near the town of Vík í Mýrdal.
“We were filming from a safe distance and saw these tourists taking turns and climbing on basalt rocks even though the waves were smashing them,” Antal told Newsweek. “So it was very predictable that one of them would be washed down sooner or later.”
A popular tourist spot, due to its distinctive basalt columns, the Reynisdrangar sea stacks, and volcanic black sand, visitors to Reynisfjara must exercise caution due to the powerful and often unpredictable “sneaker” waves that can appear with little warning and are capable of dragging people out to sea.
On August 2, a 9-year-old German girl who was visiting the beach with her father and sister died after being swept away by one of these dangerous waves.
As a precaution, visitors are advised to never turn their back on the ocean and keep a safe distance from the water’s edge. Unfortunately the tourists who feature in Antal’s video failed to heed those warnings, much to his obvious frustration.
In the video, an individual in an orange jacket can be seen sitting on the rocks, close to the water, at the side of the beach, posing for a photo while another tourist in a red jacket and another in a white one stand close by taking pictures.
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Everything changes a moment later, however, when a series of waves begin the crash against the rocks. The photographers in the red and white jackets run for cover, but the individual in the orange jacket is not so fortunate.
Instead, they are engulfed in the waves and, as the video ends, are nowhere to be seen. “Crazy that some people risk their lives for a photo,” Antal wrote alongside the video.
Filmed on October 7, Antal confirmed that, despite the dramatic nature of what he captured in the video, everyone was fine, if a little wet.
He was nevertheless shocked by what he witnessed that day, particularly as someone had died so recently there. “I have not seen such crazy behavior at this beach before,” he said. People should be definitely more cautious. Not long ago a little girl died at this beach.”
If nothing else, Antal hopes that by posting the video on social media he can alert any future visitors to the potential dangers posed. “Hopefully they will realize how dangerous nature can be,” he said.
Right before kicking off their European shows, Nxdia made a stop in London. Not only was London sold out, every single show on the tour has been, which is an incredible feat for any artist, especially as a first-ever headline tour!
I Promise I’m Watching is a direct nod to their debut EP, I Promise No One’s Watching. The tour manages to create such an open, comfortable, and safe space. Curating a tour – and music, around coming out and the life experience of being queer, non-binary, and androgynous naturally draws in other people who are experiencing the same things and feeling the same feelings.
Image Source: Toyah Ann for The Honey POP
The setlist was everything from emotional hard-hitters like ‘Ambulance,’ and ‘Tin Man,’ to their biggest hits ‘She Likes A Boy,’ and ‘Feel Anything.’ Nxdia performed a cover of Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and all we have to say about that is bring back those pop-goes-punk albums. That was incredible – and such a fitting song, it sat perfectly in the setlist, and is obviously an LGBTQ+ anthem!
Every once in a while, a show will just hit the spot and make you feel like you’re floating. The Garage is such an iconic London venue and Nxdia themselves said they were nervous when it was being suggested to them. This show really was something else, and there aren’t enough words in any dictionary to explain the absolute euphoria that was felt.
Image Source: Toyah Ann for The Honey POP
The perfect pop-punk vibes, emotions were flowing left, right, and center, and the feeling of community was so intense it may or may not have reduced us to tears. They honour their heritage by writing lyrics in Egyptian, merging them seamlessly with the rest. Not only is it a beautifully unique characteristic to have in music, but it even encourages people to learn a new language – or at least some phrases in a new language, only creating a more open and diverse fanbase!
Being so loud and proud about your background, your journey, and your life is not something every artist can achieve. Nxdia has consistently grown over the years, from beautiful lyricism to this headline tour. The in-betweens consisted of performing at Bludfest, going viral many… many times, and perfectly curating such a memorable, admirable group of fans.
We could go on and on about Nxdia, how proud we are to have seen them grow. But we are aware that we came with unseen photos for everyone to admire so… we’ll leave it here, for now! You will be hearing from us again very soon…
In capturing joy, Mickalene Thomas stayed close to home. Zach Hilty/BFA.com
Those who enjoy photography have had a hard time in recent years. Because it is associated with the apps through which people of all ages communicate, it is taken for background—as that thing that distracts you from your DMs. The art boom caused the medium to be neglected at galleries (because you can’t really see the same ROI on photography that you can with painting), and now that the market is down, the only answer seems to be smaller paintings. It’s always been a little surprising that Apple, which is occasionally the most valuable company in the world, would commission a photography exhibition alongside the launch of its new iPhones. But they’ve done exhibitions for the past two releases, and the latest iteration staged in Chelsea, London and Shanghai simultaneously felt like it could have passed for your average gallery show.
Held at the old Petzel space on 18th Street, “Joy, in 3 Parts” was curated by Kathy Ryan, longtime director of photography at the New York Times Magazine. The show brought together works by Inez & Vinoodh, Mickalene Thomas and Trunk Xu, each tasked with interpreting joy. The result was three bodies of work that were handsome and strange, a credit to Ryan’s flexibility.
Inez & Vinoodh used the prompt to tell a love story about their son and his partner over five images. “They saw joy as their son’s love story,” Ryan told Observer, in part because it reminded them of their own meeting at art school. The artists were inspired by Zabriskie Point (1970) and its desert landscape, and so took the opportunity to travel to Marfa, Texas, for their shoot.
There are shades of Badlands (1973), too. In Marfa, the besotted couple is accompanied by a red fabric that becomes its own character—a veil, a flag, a cocoon. Sure, the fabric basically symbolizes the love between the two kids, but in no way does this come off as corny. “Whenever their work goes into the surreal, something magical always happens,” Ryan said. “That red cloth became almost like a character.”
The sequence flanks three vivid color images with black-and-white portraits. One key frame—Charles and Natalie running with the red fabric behind them—was transformed when the sun broke through clouds. “You plan and plan, and then you hope serendipity kicks in,” Ryan said. “Just before the sun went down, we got that terrific rainbow flare.”
Where Inez & Vinoodh looked outward, Mickalene Thomas stayed close to home. She chose Fort Greene Park, her local Brooklyn greenspace, and captured neighborhood life in seemingly candid encounters: dancers, rope jumpers, a couple in a hammock. Initially shot in color, the series turned during editing. “After the first morning, she said, ‘You know what: I’m seeing this in black and white,’” Ryan said. “It strips away unnecessary noise and lets you lean into rhythm, form and emotion.”
It’s a bold move for someone associated with her use of color. According to Ryan, Thomas said politics were behind the choice. She wanted to represent Black people outside of the context of labor. “This work counters that narrative,” Ryan said, “exploring rest as a form of resistance, power, and self-reclamation.” They feel documentary, cinematic and natural all at once.
How Trunk Xu visualizes joy. Zach Hilty/BFA.com
Meanwhile, Beijing-born, Los Angeles-based Trunk Xu staged his contributions in a more obvious way and chose to confront the omnipresence of cameras in daily life. “The whole idea was fine art, not ads,” she said. But he was adamant, in a good way. To him, joy is wrapped up in the process of documenting. “The picture itself and the making of the picture is part of that dance with life.” His tableaux show skaters, beachgoers and couples photographing one another on their phones, but in subtle and unorthodox ways, with tight composition.
Ryan closed our conversation by situating the phone within photography’s long arc: from 8×10 plates to 35mm reportage, Polaroid experiments and now pocket devices with multiple 48MP sensors. My favorite of Xu’s images involved a pool shot that seemed to be captured by several people, but ironically, you can’t see any of their phones.
Young people dominated the hospital crowd, which makes sense, since Kirk’s major accomplishment was to promote his brand of rightwing politics to a cohort that has historically been uninterested in it. Kirk was many things: charismatic, politically canny, polemical, ruthless. His organization, Turning Point USA—with its mission to “win America’s culture war”—was arguably the right’s most successful new political group. A talented demagogue, he attacked trans people, LGBTQ people, Black people, Muslims, and women, and his arguments were often misleading, ahistorical, or rankly hypocritical. But because his public appearances so often took the shape of a seemingly fair debate—two citizens squaring off at microphones—they could feel honest and democratic to his fans.
Joshua Williams, 18 and Bryce Harding, 19.
“I really have to thank my Instagram algorithm for introducing me to him,” said Elder Joseph Trunnel, an 18-year-old donning the starched white-shirt and tie typical of the Latter-Day Saints. “Part of me wanted to be like him, because of how much of a genius he was.” Trunnel added that Kirk inspired him to go to trade school instead of college. “I got my barber license, and it’s been working out really good,” he told me. “It’s really made a difference in my life.” His friend and fellow LDS Elder Bryce Harding, 19, agreed: “He spoke the truth, he never tried to cause contention.”
Ethan Mendenhall, 20, and Emma Hasson, 19, wave to cars near the hospital.
That, of course, is untrue. Kirk’s career was built on contention. He went toe-to-toe with college students in public debates, and also against older opponents, like California Governor Gavin Newsom and the sharp liberal commentator Sam Seder. On his podcast, he called for “a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor,” and endorsed the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. His social media clips helped Kirk dominate the political sphere, and positioned him as a crusader for far-right values—particularly among a rising conservative youth movement.
