award winning photo essays

• Photojournalism Links

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Tomas Munita ‘s photographs from Gaza and Israel, made on assignment for the New York Times . The work, coinciding with the first anniversary of last year’s 50 day war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, consists of eight innovative stop-motion-sequences which take us to the streets, hospitals, and homes on both sides of the conflict, and provide an immersive glimpse of how the two groups of communities are coping, one year after.

Tomas Munita: Walking in War’s Path (The New York Times )

Brent Stirton: Tracking Ivory: Terror in Africa | Ivory’s Human Toll (National Geographic) Two strong sets of images for National Geographic magazine’s latest cover story.

Lynsey Addario: Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Diamond Mines (TIME LightBox) Terrific set of images looking at Congo’s diamond mining communities.

Andres Kudacki: Spain’s Housing Crisis (TIME LightBox) Powerful three-year project on the country’s home evictions, now on show at Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival.

Mary Ellen Mark: New Orleans (CNN Money) The legendary photographer’s final assignment, done ahead of Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary.

Daniel Etter: Hands Across Water (Al Jazeera America) Moving series on a small Sea-Watch ship, with a rotating crew of just eight volunteers, trying to save refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.

Sergey Ponomarev: On Island of Lesbos, a Microcosm of Greece’s Other Crisis: Migrants (The New York Times ) Dramatic photographs of refugees and migrants arriving to the Greek island.

Allison Joyce: Child Marriage Bangladesh (International Business Times) Heartbreaking pictures of a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl’s wedding | See also Joyce’s other Bangladeshi child marriage series at Mashable .

Andrea Bruce: Romania’s Disappearing Girls (Al Jazeera America) The Noor photographer’s work shows how poverty and desperation drive Romanian girls into the arms of sex traffickers.

Matt Black: Geography of Poverty: Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 (MSNBC) Second and third chapters of the Magnum photographer’s ambitious project mapping poverty around the U.S.

Mikko Takkunen is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism .

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• Photo Stories

10 Powerful Documentary Photo Essays From The Masters

Have you ever wondered where inspiration comes from? This is the question that journalists like to ask people of different professions in different variations. Artists get inspiration from anything, starting to create, they initially describe that around them to create something great, you need to fantasize, make letters or figures in your imagination. Similarly, in writing an essay or article, the author appeals to the imagination.

Probably everyone, studying in primary school, faced the problem of writing work by speaking and scrolling letters, words, and sentences. Sometimes it is difficult to cope on your own but instead, turn to specialists by writing write my essay cheap. Simple words that will help you find inspiration for other things.

Documenting people and the stories beyond the ordinary is one of the fascinating and daunting task in terms of Photojournalism. The Lives of those affected, the way they come into terms into reality & the very source for the ultimate word – Survival. Documentary photography shows us exactly what our world looks like at any given moment in time.

Whether the pictures are bleak, playful, angering or astounding, they all serve a historically significant purpose. A complete photo story is something which makes one understand the main objective for what it needs to be done, to bring a change to the masses, to show them light.

Here we have listed out some massive powerful stories for one to understand the severity of any situation. Less said, it would be more than a tribute to the sincere effort from these photojournalists. For a change, this time we wanted to outline the great works of our masters to understand and to estimate their role in bringing these powerful stories to the world.

Please check the below stories, a fine example of above statement. These photographers are captured their souls not photos. You have any photography story with you? please share with us, we will feature your work in this blog. Thanks in advance.

Click on the image to view the Full Story.

#1 Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith

“Country Doctor” is undoubtedly one of the commanding works by Eugene Smith and was an instant classic when first published, making him establish as a master. Plus an unique and influential photojournalists of 2oth century.

#2 A Photo Essay on the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange

This is a sneak peek into some of the powerful pictures produced by Dorothea Lange on the eve of the great depression during the 1930’s. Every picture here symbolizes the pain and agony people went through and Dorothea has registered a version of her in the books of history.

#3 Bhopal Gas Tragedy by Raghu Rai

One of the saddest industrial disaster which occured in Bhopal, India 1984. Numerous innocent lives were lost and more than that even after years of the tragedy many were indirectly affected through mutation and deconstructed DNA even today. Raghu rai’s pictures on this tragedy is immensely powerful and shows the mass graveyard and deadly scenes post the catastrophe.

#4 Vietnam War by Philip Jones Griffiths

His goal was to capture photographs in a digestible way, which could then appear to be witnessed by the world. The effects of war and post calamity and to show what really was happening in Vietnam with more profound importance.

#5 Gypsies by Josef Koudelka

Lives of people who kept wandering in search of their survival and the hope. These pictures show us their daily routine, beautiful music and some starvation for food.

#6 Nurse Midwife by W.Eugene Smith

Again a scintillating story on a Nurse midwife by Eugene Smith. Story of a lady who served as everything for thousands of poor people across 400 sq miles in the wild south.

#7 The Korean War by Werner Bischof

How brutal could war be and how cruelly brutal could the children affected by it, Werner Bischof produces more evidence and documentation in war front on this topic. Yet another powerful story on the lives lost.

#8 Struggle to Live – the fight against TB by James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey has documented the resurgence of tuberculosis and its varying strains MDR and XDR in seven countries around the world. One of the dreadful diseases to have consumed numerous lives of humanity.

#9 Gordon Parks’s Harlem Family Revisited

The Harlem Family is one of the haunting photo stories ever made by any photojournalist. Brutality of hunger and effect of poverty, the distance it drove a family towards disaster and eventually death.

#10 Stars Behind Bars – Life with the Prisonaires by Robert W. Kelley

A Photo narrative from the inside. the story unknown for most of the people was shown in pictures by Robert Kelley. These Pictures demonstrate prisoners way of living and provides more light on the stages they passed on.

Please check our previous documentary photography stories here:

• Most Influential Documentary Photography Stories
• Inspiring Documentary Photography Stories
• 15 Powerful Documentary Photography Stories
• 15 Heart Touching Documentary Photo Stories
• 10 Soulful Documentary Photography Stories
• 15 Unseen Powerful Documentary Photography Stories
• Documentary & Photojournalism
• Documentary Photo Essays
• Documentary Photography
• Documentary Photography Stories
• Heart Touching Photographs
• Photo Essay
• Photo Essays
• Photo Story
• Photojournalism
• Powerful Photographs
• Powerful Photos

the importance of documentary photography is immense for human history

Photo essays in black and white: http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger

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18 Immersive Photo Essay Examples & Tips

By Tata Rossi 13 days ago, Professional photography

A photo essay tells a story or evokes emotion through a series of photographs. The essays allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. Such essays exist in a variety of forms – from photos only to images with brief comments or written essays accompanied by shots. Choose a photo essay example that you can easily do based on your professional level and the equipment you use.

1. Protests

• View the “Resistance” photo essay by David Moore .

A great idea for photo essays for students is to shoot the protest to show its power. You can capture people with signs and banners to demonstrate what they are standing for. Besides, you can learn how to capture moving subjects. Use the best example of photo essay and don’t forget about angles, composition, and framing.

To create a photo essay , go up to the front and photograph the leader of the protesters walking forward. After that, go back to the end of the group to take pictures of families joining the protest. As a result, you will gain experience shooting big groups of people in motion.

2. Transformation

• View the “A Self-Portrait Every Day” photo essay by Noah Kalina .

This idea is all about capturing the way a person changes. You may take photos of a pregnant woman and then capture the same model with a child. By documenting the development of the child for several years, you can tell a great story in the form of a photo essay.

However, you can also create a photo essay about the transformation of different objects. For instance, you can create a time-lapse series to capture the history of a renovated building. While you will have to take a lot of similar photos to bring this idea to life, it will allow you to achieve an impressive result.

3. Local Event

• View the “Monday Marathon” photo essay by Quinn G. Perini .

Whether you are a resident of a large city or a small town, you can find an opportunity to visit a local event, like a marathon or a festival. This is a nice chance to follow modern photography trends and bring photo essay ideas to life.

You can capture the before-and-after stages of the event. Arrive earlier and take pictures of the preparation activities, then shoot the actual event starting with the official beginning.

Keep photographing even when the event is over and capture the cleaning up and disassembling processes.

4. Photowalk

• View the “Empty Campus” photo essay by Elise Trissel .

Explore the location where you live and find interesting objects to capture in the vicinity. Using the most interesting photo essay examples, you can decide how to make the best decisions. Don’t hurry and try to discover which angles you can use to capture the unique atmosphere of each place.

If you live in the city, you may capture architectural details, wide shots of busy streets, or just take photos of passersby and street signs. Think about the details that make every location unique. For instance, you can try capturing reflections to see how they allow you to see the city from an unusual angle. You can find reflections everywhere, so be sure to pay attention to mirrored buildings, puddles, and fountains.

5. Place Over Time

• View the “At Home in the Ozarks” photo essay by Kylee Cole .

If you want to document changes and show how the streets, buildings, and parks in your city change over time, select your favorite locations and start to visit them regularly to capture the way they look during different seasons.

• View the “Last Moments” photo essay by Ross Taylor .

You don’t necessarily have to focus on profound photo essay topics to evoke emotions. Capturing pets enjoying their worry-free and untroubled life seems like an easy but interesting activity.

Choose any animal – from a domestic bird to a dog, cat, or horse. For more emotional images, use such pet photography ideas when your pet is still a baby and recreate these shots when it is older or is in its final days.

7. Street Style

• View the Tribal Street Photography photo essay by Hans Eijkelboom .

People often express themselves with the help of clothes. The way passers-by on the streets are dressed may reflect the clothing style of a whole society. That’s why you can travel around the world and capture people’s outfits in various areas. When taking portrait photos in the streets, you can also include some of the surroundings to put them in the context.

You can ask people in the streets to pose for you or try to capture them in movement. Select a suitable location for taking photos and create a photo essay to document what kinds of people one can meet in this location. When doing urban photography , you should ask people for permission before taking photos of them. You can ask their contacts and send them your photos later.

8. Abandoned Building

• View the “Lost Collective” photo essay by Bret Pattman .

Old buildings are excellent architecture photography essay topics for students since you can capture a large number of elements. They allow you to imagine what a particular street looked like in the past. You may use a photo essay example for students as references.

Get approval before going in, but mind that such places are far from being totally safe. Bring various lenses: the macro lenses – for details and the wide-angle one – when you want to include many elements in one shot.

9. Alternative Lifestyles

• View the “Last Nomad Hippies” photo essay by Roberto Palomo .

Some people decide to lead a lifestyle that differs from the one generally accepted by society. Explore different areas and look for people with an unusual way of living. You can capture candid photos of regular people or take pictures of a person with an unusual hobby.

Take pictures of those, who reside in extraordinary conditions, representatives of various subcultures, or the LBGTQ community. These photo essay topics show other people that it is okay to go out of their comfort zone and run against the wind.

10. Social Issues

• View the “Juveniles in Prison” photo essay by Isadora Kosofsky .

The best photo essay examples for students are related to social issues, like unemployment, domestic violence, gender discrimination, and more. Address the topic carefully and look for a proper perspective.

Your shots may draw the people’s attention to a truly burning and relevant matter and have a stronger effect than any text.

11. Behind the Scenes

• View the “Follow Me” photo essay by Marius Masalar .

If you are going to visit an event, get ready to take some behind-the-scenes photos. For instance, you can document the preparations for a festival. Capture the work of the lead event planner and other professionals to tell the story of the festival from an unusual angle.

Alternatively, you can capture the events happening backstage during a drama production. Take pictures of actors and actresses when they are getting ready for the performance. Try capturing the emotions of the main lead and show how stage workers make final preparations. You can also document the work of designers and makeup professionals.

12. Landmarks

• View the “Volte-Face” photo essay by Oliver Curtis .

The pictures of landmarks are typically taken from a certain spot. One of the best photo essay ideas is to try shooting sights from various angles. You will also have an opportunity to improve your composition and your framing skills.

If you take a look at any pictorial essay example, you will see that the variety of perspectives is endless: through the streets, in the morning, afternoon, and evening, with a drone or including reflections.

    • View the “Family” photo essay by Olivia Moore .

You can capture the way family members interact with each other and demonstrate the strong connection they share. In some cases, it makes sense to focus on capturing candid photos when doing family photography .

However, you may also opt for a different approach and focus on more difficult social topics. For instance, if you want to examine the issue of immigration, you can take pictures of a family from another country. In addition, you may show how families cope with other social issues, including poverty or unequal access to healthcare.

14. A Day in the Life

• View the “A Day in the Life of Carlos Gaytan” photo essay by Sandy Noto .

One of the best photo essays concepts is related to a day in a person’s life. The main character can be any person – a relative, family member, teacher, writer, or policeman.

People are generally interested in finding out facts about the lives and daily routines of others. The life of every human is incredible, especially if you learn it in more detail. This idea is especially suitable for taking documentary photos. For instance, you can select any photo essay sample you like and then capture a portrait of a person with the tools they use for their work.

15. Education

• View the “School Day” photo essay by Nancy Borowick .

You can also take great photos in the classroom capturing the interactions of teachers and their students. Avoid distracting them, as it will be easier for you to take natural shots. Using a variety of settings, you can make your photo essay more engaging. For instance, you may visit chemistry labs, capture teachers during a break, and take photos in other locations.

• View the “Meals From the Motherland” photo essay by James Tran .

You can also focus on specific meals to create a professional photo essay about food. To make it more attention-grabbing, try using different food photography ideas .

For instance, you can take photos of popular meals, capture the meals made by a specific person, or document cooking traditions in different countries. When taking photos in a restaurant, pay attention to the surroundings as well to capture the unique atmosphere of a place.

17. Capture the Neighbors

• View the “Our Neighbors” photo essay by Jeanne Martin .

Regardless of the place where you live, you have to establish good relationships with your neighbors. People who live nearby can also be great models for professionals who specialize in portrait photography. To implement this idea, make sure to capture people at home or in front of their houses to include some of the surroundings in your photo essay.

You will discover many interesting facts about people who live nearby. Shooting a photo essay will allow you to learn them better and establish a strong connection with them. This way, you can create a sense of community and discover what holds its members together.

18. Climate Change

• View the “Effects of Climate Change” photo essay by Sanya Gupta .

It is possible to a variety of photo story ideas bring to life examining the impact of climate change. Travel to places most affected by climate change, for instance, glaciers or famous resorts.

Capture the way the continuous drought has influenced the environment, animals, and the inhabitants. As an alternative, take pictures of environmentalist protests or inexhaustible energy sources.

Photo Essay Tips for Students

Explore your topic . An in-depth exploration of the main topic of your photo essay will help you find the best ideas for conveying your message. You can also find some sources for inspiration and useful materials. This stage allows you to learn more about your subject and select the best way of organizing your photo essay.

Create a storyboard . Using a storyboard, you can better understand what shots you need to take and what order can help you to tell a story in the best way. It will also allow you to create the right mood.

Take as many pictures as you can . To create a compelling story, make sure to take a lot of photos. It will allow you to choose the best pictures for your photo essay. Besides, you will always have backup photos if some of your pictures get damaged.

Experiment with different techniques . By changing the angle and using a variety of editing techniques, you can transform the way your photos look. When taking photos, try using different angles to capture the subject in the best way. You can also try changing the distance from the model, using black-and-white film, or employing a range of developing methods.

Add text . While some photographers create photo essays without text, it can still help you bring your point across more clearly and make it easier for a viewer to understand what you imply. By providing extra information, such as some facts, you can change the perception of your image. If you don’t know how to write descriptions, you can hire a professional writer to perform this task.

Enhance your photos . To edit your pictures, make sure to use professional photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Using the available tools, you can improve and change your photos. They allow you to fix issues with lighting, adjust WB, make colors richer, crop your pics to improve the composition, and perform other tasks. In case you need to edit your photos in a consistent style, you can use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets.

In some cases, your pictures may require more advanced editing. If you see that your skills are insufficient or if you don’t have enough time, you can outsource the task of enhancing your photos to the FixThePhoto team. They will professionally enhance your pictures for a budget price. Their prices start from $1.50 per photo.

Want to Get a Professionally-Retouched Photo Essay?

The editing team at FixThePhoto specializes in delivering personalized and artistically enhanced photo essay, making sure to meet all your preferences. They can assist with different tasks, whether it's selecting the best shots or doing detailed retouching work.

Bonus Tools

To streamline your workflow and quickly edit your essay photos like a pro, make sure to apply these actions to your photos. Even if you use a photo essay example when taking pictures, you can utilize these actions to give your images a professional feel, tweak colors, edit lighting, and improve the overall look of your pics.

In this bundle, you will find actions created by experienced professionals who used recent photo enhancement trends to create convenient editing tools. Here, you will find a collection of brushes, patterns, overlays, and other effects for editing your photos in a realistic way.

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PHOTO ESSAY WINNERS | 11TH ANNUAL MPA

1st PLACE WINNER

Free from Panic by Vince Keresnyei

I met Adrienn who is also suffering from panic disorder like me. She took down the medicine after 2 years and tries to stand on the ground and establish her panic attack free world without pills.

Living with mental health problem is a constant fight. Sometimes you are strong enough to go to battle with yourself and sometimes not. Pills can help when you don’t have solid ground under your feet but there is always a will to live without medicine.

She lets me photograph this whole process with the ups and downs.

We would like to show that panic disorder is a very serious illness and not just an easy thing but hope is always there to live a panic free life.

2nd PLACE WINNER

The Mass Ave Project by Jeff Larason

Mass Ave sees every part of life in Boston – and it has for centuries.

The street starts in a hardscrabble, industrial section of Dorchester. It quickly passes through Mass and Cass, a part of the city now considered a public health crisis, with encampments of homeless and drug-addicted.

Quickly, the street moves through the South End and Back Bay, two of the wealthiest areas of Boston and Massachusetts and in the USA.

Mass Ave passes Symphony Hall, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the world-renowned Harvard University. It is serviced by three subway lines, four commuter rail lines, dozens of bus lines, and three different city halls. Tens of thousands of people live and work in its proximity.

3rd PLACE WINNER

The Olive Harvest by Alessandra Manzotti

Olive harvest has ended. It was a hard year as the lack of rain has affected the proper growth of the olives, leaving many trees completely fruitless.

Olive harvesting is very hard work and very time consuming.

Olive harvesting is very Different from grape harvesting, which is now becoming more and more automated. Olive picking is still done by hand and it is quite laborious.

VIEW THE 2023 WINNERS

ENTER THE 14TH ANNUAL MPA

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About the mpa.

The Mobile Photography Awards were founded in 2011 to recognize and celebrate the talent and imagery of the mobile photo & art communities. Alongside our annual competition (October-December), we produce themed exhibits with international open calls throughout the year.

If it’s true what Henri Cartier-Bresson says, that our first 10,000 photos will be our worst, then mobile photography has given people an historic opportunity to quickly get past 10,001. The MPA is a showcase for photographers and artists who have embraced this decisive moment.

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Platon was born in London in 1968, but raised in the Greek Isles, until his family returned to England in the 1970s. He is currently based in New York. He attended St. Martin’ s School of Art in London, and after receiving his BA with honors in graphic design, went on to an MA in photography and fine art at the Royal College of Art. After working for British Vogue for several years, he was invited to New York to work for the late John Kennedy Jr., at his political magazine, George . After shooting portraits for a range of international publications, including Rolling Stone , the New York Times Magazine , Vanity Fair , Esquire , GQ , and The Sunday Times Magazine , Platon developed a special relationship with Time magazine, producing over 20 covers. In 2007, Platon photographed Russian premier Vladimir Putin for Time ’s Person of the Year cover. This image won a World Press Photo first prize. In 2008, Platon signed a multiyear contract with The New Yorker . As staff photographer, he has produced a series of large-scale photo essays, two of which won ASME awards, in 2009 and 2010. Platon’s New Yorker portfolios have focused on many themes, including President Obama’s inauguration, the US military, portraits of world leaders, and the civil rights movement. In 2009, Platon teamed up with the Human Rights Watch in projects that have highlighted human-rights defenders from Burma, Russia, and Egypt. Following his coverage of Burma, Platon photographed Aung San Suu Kyi for the cover of Time , days after her release from house arrest. Subsequently, Platon won a Peabody Award for his coverage of Russian civil society. In 2012, he became Newsweek ’s only contract photographer, and also joined the Council for Global Agenda at the World Economic Forum. Platon’s first monograph Platon’s Republic , published in 2004, includes a broad range of celebrities, politicians, athletes and cultural events. To coincide with its publication, the work was exhibited internationally, in London at the Saatchi Gallery as well as at the Milk Gallery in New York. His second book, Power —a collection of portraits of over 100 world leaders—was also released as an app, winning a Gold Cube Award at the Art Director’s Club in New York City. The book showcases portraits of world leaders from Barack Obama to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and Robert Mugabe to Silvio Berlusconi. The project has been exhibited at the WestLicht Museum of Photography in Vienna, and at the Florida Museum for Photographic Art in Tampa. The Washington Speakers Bureau has chosen Platon as an inspirational representative for communicating issues of cultural responsibility and human rights.  Similarly, he has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Yale, the London School of Economics, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the International Center of Photography in NYC.   In 2011, his work was exhibited in New York at the Matthew Marks Gallery and the Howard Greenberg Gallery. The New York Historical Society also held a solo show of Platon’s civil rights photographs, which remain as part of the museum’s permanent collection. His advertising credits include Credit Suisse Bank, Exxon Mobil, Diesel, the Wall Street Journal, Motorola, Nike, Rolex, and Issey Miyake, among many others.

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Stephen Shames creates award winning photo essays on social issues for foundations, advocacy organizations, the media, and museums.

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New Scientist Photography Awards 2021

Celebrating the images that illustrate how science and technology impact our lives and the world around us.

The competition and category winner voting is now over. You can see the results here

Photo credit vmenshov . A green skipper butterfly from the Dominican Republic photographed through a microscope. Astraptes habana .

The Competition

Hello and welcome to the New Scientist Photography Awards 2021.

Photography plays a crucial role in our journalism, from illustrating our stories to documenting and helping us to better understand the world.

We wish to celebrate photography's extraordinary ability to do this by welcoming varied and diverse entries to the competition across three categories: The Natural World, Modern Life and Our Changing Environment.

These categories aren’t intended to be too prescriptive but hopefully they will encourage and inspire. You will find full details on what they include further down this page.

For each category, the judges will shortlist four images and from those pick a winner and a runner-up. The category winners will then go to a public vote to determine the overall winner of the New Scientist Photography Awards 2021.

The prizes are as follows:

• £1000 for the overall winner as chosen by the public vote
• £500 for the two other category winners
• £150 for the runners-up
• £50 for the other shortlisted entries

All shortlisted entries will be published on the New Scientist website and feature in a calendar for 2022. Category winners will also be published in the New Scientist print magazine.

Our judging panel consists of naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham , award-winning photographer Sue Flood , and three members of the New Scientist team: Helen Benians , Timothy Revell and Penny Sarchet .

The judges will be looking for images that satisfy a range of criteria including originality and narrative, and will decide the shortlisted entries, category winners and category runners-up. The overall competition winner will then be decided from the category winners by a public vote.

NB: You must be over 18 years old to enter and a resident of the UK. There is no fee to enter the awards.

This year’s competition has three categories spanning the entirety of science and technology photography. The borders of these categories are blurry, so please pick the one you think best reflects your image. Don’t worry if you are unsure as the judges will interpret the categories broadly. When you submit your entry, there will be an opportunity to explain how your image fits the brief. Entrants can only enter one category. Any double entries will be disqualified.

The Natural World

The natural world never fails to amaze. Every week, new discoveries reveal just how rich the world around us is. Entries to this category should celebrate some form of nature, but in its broadest sense. Here is a short, non-exhaustive list of things that could feature: animals, rocks, plants, landscapes, the night sky. If your image includes something natural, this category could be for you.

Modern Life

What does it mean to be alive in 2021? Every year is unique for its own reasons, so what makes this one so? Entries can capture any element of this, from the local to the global, from the very big to the very small. This category is about life as we know it today. Images can portray any aspect of modern life, including architecture, engineering, people, technology and more.

Our Changing Environment

This year is one of the most important for our environment. At a UN conference in November, countries will have to set the most ambitious binding international targets yet to tackle anthropogenic climate change. We are living through a time when the environment around us is changing at incredible speed and photography plays a crucial part in both documenting and exposing it. Entries to this category should highlight environmental and/or ecological issues in some form.

Our shortlisted entries

The 12 shortlisted entries from the competition as chosen by our judges.

Smothered Coral

Photographer: Jack Pokoj

Even though using certain fishing nets is illegal over coral reefs in the Philippines, unfortunately they sometimes still end up there. This image shows a range of corals, sponges and feather Stars, as well as fishing equipment.

Hoverfly Hoovering Up Daylily Pollen

Photographer: Martin Brazill

Munching on a Hemerocallis 'Frans Hals' daylily, this hoverfly was photographed in Suffolk, UK earlier this year. It is using its proboscis to get to pollen.

Weeds & Grasses

Photographer: Emma Friedlander-Collins

These plants were collected from the edge of a building site in Sussex, UK and then scanned using a printer to show them in a unique way.

Photographer: Rachel Bigsby

Razorbills pair for life and two can be seen here huddling together on Skomer Island in Wales. The image was taken after a spell of heavy sea fog that hung around on the island for days.

When Nature Calls

Photographer: Kate MacRae MacRae

During the UK lockdown in May 2020, the photographer developed a strong relationship with "Colin" the robin. After the phone was propped up displaying a selfie, Colin quickly did his part, hopping up onto the phone ready to be photographed.

Life in Lockdown

Photographer: Kieran Doherty

The photographer’s father Hugh can be seen in this image, celebrating his 82nd birthday. The three grandchildren outside are singing Happy Birthday. It is part of a larger photo essay documenting 17 months of lockdown during the covid-19 pandemic.

Woodlouse Feasting On Slime Mould

Photographer: Barry Webb

This image shows a common rough woodlouse (Porcellio scaber) stretching up to feed on a gelatinous, immature Stemonitis sp. slime mould. It was taken in an ancient woodland in the south of Buckinghamshire, UK and is comprised of 19 pictures combined together.

All Mixed Up Together Like Bees in a Hive

Photographer: Alexander Turner

This photo was taken on a rooftop in central London and is part of a photo essay that explores the impact of beekeeping on native pollinators.

Chemical Corn Circle

Photographer: Nigel Ferris

Taken using a drone, this image shows a corn circle in Wiltshire, UK representing the symbol used to denote the presence of chemicals, a potential environmental and health biohazard.

A Kestrel Family Portrait

Photographer: Nick Lancaster

Kestrels have been nesting in this old iron pipe at an old railway station in Yorkshire, UK, for years. The image was taken a few days before the birds left the nest. The youngsters often wait at the edge of the pipe for the adults to return with food.

Photographer: Georgie Bull

This blenny was found in Chesil Cove on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK. It was interested in the photographer's torch and so peered over a small pebble to see what was going on.

Watch the Birdie!

Photographer: Rachel Piper

Did someone say chips? This gull has spotted a tasty treat on a summer’s day in the coastal town of Bridlington in Yorkshire, UK. The man holding the meal was oblivious to the gull but luckily escaped unscathed.

Judging process

Images will be judged according to judging criteria comprising composition, technical ability, originality, narrative and ethical practice. As Sue Flood says: "What’s going to catch my eye? It could simply be an extraordinary capture of a very ordinary event. Or, on the other hand, it could be an incredible event captured at just the right fraction of a second. Either way, it will be a shot that has something that stops me in my tracks and stands out from the crowd."

All entries will be assessed in the first instance by the New Scientist photo competition team. For each category, the judges will decide a shortlist of four images, as well as a winner and a runner-up.

Each of the shortlisted entrants will be contacted after the competition closing date. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and no feedback will be provided.

Important dates:

• Entries will be accepted until 31 July 2021.
• The shortlist, runners-up and category winners will be announced in by 2 September 2021.
• The category winners will then be announced and put to a public vote in September 2021, with the overall winner announced in October 2021.

See our terms and conditions for full details.

Chris Packham

Chris Packham has gained recognition as a naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and film-maker. He has enjoyed notable success as a photographer, winning international competitions and illustrating books that have seen him recognised as one of the world’s most inventive wildlife photographers. Throughout his work, Chris shares his love of the natural world and continuously campaigns to raise awareness of environmental issues affecting nature and wildlife.

Sue Flood is an award-winning photographer, film-maker, zoologist, adventure travel leader and public speaker. Earlier this year, she was one of the winners of the Royal Photographic Society Science Photographer of the Year competition for her image North Pole Under Water. She has taken photographs all over the world and has a special passion for the wildlife and icy beauty of the polar regions. In 2019, she became a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and an honorary fellow of the North American Nature Photography Association.

Helen Benians

Helen Benians is the picture editor at New Scientist where she manages the picture desk and is responsible for commissioning and sourcing images for use across the magazine.

With a background in professional photography, she has a strong understanding of the technical and artistic aspects of photography. She is always on the lookout for new photography talent.

Timothy Revell

Timothy Revell is culture and comment editor at New Scientist , which includes editing the magazine’s Aperture spread that highlights amazing images from the world of science each week.

He loves photography that draws you in immediately and then makes you think.

Penny Sarchet

Penny Sarchet is New Scientist 's news editor. A lifelong birdwatcher and trained plant biologist, she writes Wild Wild Life , New Scientist's newsletter that celebrates the biodiversity of Earth's animals, plants and other organisms.

You can hear her talk about the science and culture of birds and the people who love them on her podcast Bird Curious .

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12-25-2017 DESIGN

The Best Photo Essays Of 2017

Genetically modified creatures. Torturous beauty devices. The vaults that will save us from the apocalypse.

BY  Katharine Schwab 5 minute read

Photography gives us a window into another world. Sometimes it’s one far from home—like refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, or even images captured and curated through Google Street View. Other times, it shows us the rituals of daily life and the interior worlds we thought we knew, from how people get to work to how they eat dinner every night. At its best, photography forces viewers to consider something they hadn’t before, even if it’s something as mundane as how people get to work each day. Here are the most inspiring, thought-provoking photo essays of 2017. 

What People Do On Their Way To Work

What do you do on your commute? Over the course of nearly a decade, the photographer Peter Funch captured the lives of dozens of New Yorkers as they exited Grand Central Station. The images in Funch’s new book 42nd and Vanderbilt shows people doing exactly the same things on their commute—smoking a cigarette, sipping a Starbucks, listening to music—over months, and sometimes years.

The Dreary Monotony Of Hotel Rooms

Hotel rooms the world over look depressingly similar. While traveling to 32 different countries, the photographer Roger Eberhard documented the monotonous interiors of his Hilton hotel rooms , pairing them with an image of the view out the window for a new book called Standard . “I wanted to explore the question of why do we travel the world and stay in a place that looks same everywhere we go?” he says. “What does that say about us as creatures of habit?”

Peeking Inside Famous A rchitects’ Offices

What better way to get a sense of architects than to see the spaces they work in? The photographer Marc Goodwin let us snoop around the offices of firms like MAD Architects, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Zaha Hadid Associates, and Foster + Partners, and more,  revealing some intriguing similarities and differences. 

The Photos Instagram Won’t Let You See

Instagram is the world’s biggest photo gallery, and it’s easy to forget that there are censor algorithms monitoring everything you post. The book  Pics or It Didn’t Happen captures the photographs Instagram won’t let you see .

Inside America’s Most Beautiful Libraries

The first public library in the U.S. opened in 1790, and in the centuries that followed, the library has become a cornerstone of American public life. A photo series by Thomas R. Schiff documents libraries from across the country, from the stately old libraries on the East Coast to more modern, contemporary buildings by famous architects. 

The Refugee Crisis, Told Through Camera Phones

Professional photographers aren’t always the best ones to document the changing world. That’s something photographer Alex John Beck recognized when he traveled to refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan to photograph the Syrian refugee crisis. Instead, he realized that the images refugees had on their phones were much more powerful. For his series Syrian Refugees in Lebanon & Jordan , Beck places these images side by side with his own portrait of the person who took them .

When Museumgoers Match The Art

The photographer Stefan Draschan didn’t go to museums to look at the art. He went to look at people looking at art—and take pictures of those who somehow match the works they’re looking at . 

The Desks Of Top Creative People

The definition of work has changed—but one photographer found that the desks of top creatives are strikingly t raditional. In a photography installation called DeskTop , photographer Anton Rodriguez and editor Jonathan Openshaw displayed images of designers and architects’ desks, which are often populated with tools of the trade and meaningful knickknacks.

2017’s Torturous Beautification Devices

In a photo series called Beauty Warriors by Evija Laivina, beautification devices are depicted as they truly are:  instruments of torture . Laivina’s stoic models wear  eyelid trainers, face-slimming masks, and suction lip plumpers—all in the name of beauty.

Inside The World’s Richest Company Suburb

In Dhahran, children join the Boy Scouts, play baseball, and wear blue jeans to school. But this isn’t just any suburb. It’s the world’s richest company town, a planned community for the employees of the Saudi Arabia oil company Aramco. A photo series by one of its residents displays a town that could be right out to 1950s America.

Illustrating The Most Unusual Laws

The U.S. has some wacky laws: in Michigan for instance, it is illegal to paint a sparrow in the colors of a parakeet and then sell the bird for profit. In her book I Fought the Law,  photographer Olivia Locher illustrated bizarre laws  from all 50 states.

Documenting Dinner In The U.S.

Do you eat dinner at a dining table, or in front of the TV? The photographer Lois Bielefield’s series documents people’s typical weeknight dining habits in about 80 homes, inviting herself over for dinner to catch a glimpse people’s daily rituals. She found that the supposed American ideal, of a family sitting down at a table, all eating the same thing, is usually far from the truth.

How The Agoraphobic Traveler Sees The World

Jacqui Kenny has agoraphobia—she suffers severe anxiety in unfamiliar environments. So she “travels” via Google Street View and publishes her adventures on  Instagram.

California’s Ghost City

Seventy miles east of Bakersfield, California, is a veritable ghost town. Called California City, the place’s physical size make it the third largest city in the state—but only 14,000 people live there. The rest of the place was planned but never developed. Photographer Noritaka Minami’s aerial images of California City reveal the ghost of a metropolis that might have been .

The Biohackers Who Walk Among Us

Cyborgs—beings who are mixes of human and machine—already walk among us. The photographer David Vintiner  documents people who’ve replaced lost limbs  with prosthetics or who are looking for other ways to enhance their abilities in his series Transhuman .

Inside The World’s Seed Vaults

When the apocalypse comes, humanity has a backup plan: seed vaults. These fortress-like institutions hidden away in remote places around the world house vast numbers of seeds within their walls, like insurance for a day when all of the world’s biodiversity might need to be replanted. Photographer Dornith Doherty’s book Archiving Eden documents 16 seed banks that hold what might one day be humans’ best hope for survival.

An Atlas Of Genetically Modified Creatures

Did you know that goldfish were man-made? They’re just one of a host of genetically modified creatures that humans have concocted. A series by Robert Zhao Renhui documents this artificial engineering , from the Rainbow Star Warrior fish which was dyed bright colors to make it more appealing to customers, to artificial grapes made of gelatin, grape flavor, and food coloring. 

The Disappearing Arctic

When photographer Diana Tuft visited the Arctic in 2015, the place was completely different from when she’d been eight years before, the melting ice a symptom of climate change. In her book Arctic Melt , Tuft documents this shifting landscape , capturing images of a place that may no longer exist in its current from decades from now.  

Revisiting Le Corbusier’s Indian Utopia

The Le Corbusier-designed Indian city of Chandigarh was meant to be a modernist utopia. Commissioned in 1950 by the country’s first prime minister, the city was designed to be a monument to India’s new independence and represent its vision for the future. Fast forward to 2017, and photographer Shaun Flynn documents the city as it stands today—a far cry from its designers’ hope.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katharine Schwab is the deputy editor of Fast Company's technology section. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @kschwabable   More

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Advice for an Unforgettable Photo Essay

Six steps for turning your images into a memorable photo essay, from curating your best work to crafting a title.

A man sits alone on a chair on the side of the road. We see him from above, surrounded by grey cobblestones neatly placed, a broken plastic chair, and some pylons scattered along the curb. A street cat wanders out of the frame and away from the man. He appears lonely, the only person inhabiting the place in which he seems so comfortably seated. As the eye wanders throughout the frame, however, the viewer discovers more: a vast city cast beyond the street and behind the man’s chair. This image closes Sarah Pannell’s photo essay Sehir , a quiet study of urban life.

Possibilities, discovery, and stories: these are some of the most effective elements of a photo essay. Collections of images can help produce a narrative, evoke emotion, and guide the viewer through one or more perspectives. A well-executed photo essay doesn’t rely on a title or any prior knowledge of its creator; it narrates on its own, moving viewers through sensations, lessons, and reactions.

Famous photo essays like Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith or Gordon Parks’ The Harlem Family are acclaimed for showing a glimpse into the lives of the sick and impoverished. Other well-made photo essays offer a new way to look at the everyday, such as Peter Funch’s much-reposted photo series 42nd and Vanderbilt , for which Funch photographed the same street corner for nine years. As shown by these photographers’ experiences with the medium, a collection of photos can enliven spaces and attitudes. Strong photo essays can give voice to marginalized individuals and shine a spotlight on previously overlooked experiences.

You don’t necessarily need to be a documentary photographer to create a powerful photo essay. Photo essays can showcase any topic, from nature photography to portraiture to wedding shots. We spoke to a few photographers to get their perspectives on what makes a good photo essay, and their tips for how any photographer can get started in this medium. Here are six steps to follow to create a photo essay that tells a memorable story.

Choose a specific topic or theme for your photo essay.

There are two types of photo essays: the narrative and the thematic. Narrative photo essays focus on a story you’re telling the viewer, while thematic photo essays speak to a specific subject.

The most natural method for choosing a topic or theme for your photo essay is to go with what you know. Photograph what you experience. Whether that includes people, objects, or the things you think about throughout the day, accessibility is key here. Common topics or concepts to start with are emotions (depicting sadness or happiness) or experiences (everyday life, city living).

For photographer Sharon Pannen , planning a photo essay is as simple as “picking out a subject you find interesting or you want to make a statement about.”

From Paper & Stories , a photo series by Sharon Pannen for Schön! Magazine.

Consider your photo subjects.

The subjects of your photographs, whether human or not, will fill the space of your photos and influence the mood or idea you’re trying to depict. The subject can determine whether or not your photos are considered interesting. “I always try to find someone that catches my eye. I especially like to see how the light falls on their face and how a certain aesthetic might add to their persona,” says photographer Victoria Wojtan .

While subjects and their interest factor are, well, subjective, when considering your subjects, you should ask yourself about your audience. Do other people want to see this? Is my subject representative of the larger idea my photo essay is trying to convey? Your projects can involve people you know or people you’ve only just met.

“Most projects I work on involve shooting portraits of strangers, so there’s always a tension in approaching someone for a portrait,” says photographer Taylor Dorrell . For Wojtan, that tension can help build trust with a subject and actually leads to more natural images “If there’s tension it’s usually because the person’s new to being photographed by someone for something that’s outside of a candid moment or selfie, and they need guidance for posing. This gives me the opportunity to make them feel more comfortable and let them be themselves. I tend to have a certain idea in mind, but try to allow for organic moments to happen.”

Aim for a variety of images.

Depending on your theme, there are a few types of photos you’ll want to use to anchor your essay. One or two lead photos should slowly introduce the viewer to your topic. These initial photos will function in a similar way to the introductory paragraph in a written essay or news article.

From there, you should consider further developing your narrative by introducing elements like portraiture, close ups, detail shots, and a carefully selected final photo to leave the viewer with the feeling you set out to produce in your photos. Consider your opening and closing images to be the most important elements of your photo essay, and choose them accordingly. You want your first images to hook the viewer, and you also want your final images to leave a lasting impression and perhaps offer a conclusion to the narrative you’ve developed.

Including different types of photos, shot at different ranges, angles, and perspectives, can help engage your viewer and add more texture to your series.

Says photographer Taylor Dorrell: “After I have a group of images, I tend to think about color, composition, the order the images were taken, the subject material, and relevance to the concept.”

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay White Fences : “White Fences is an ongoing photo series that explores the theme of suburban youth in the United States, specifically in the midwest suburb New Albany, Ohio.”

Put your emotions aside.

Self-doubt can easily come into play when working with your own photography. The adage that we are our own worst critics is often true. It can be difficult to objectively select your strongest images when creating a photo essay. This is why putting together photo essays is such a useful practice for developing your curatorial skills.

“The most important part for me is getting outside opinions. I don’t do that enough, and have a bias in selecting images that might not be the most powerful images or the most effective sequence of images,” says Dorrell. Your own perception of a photograph can cloud your ability to judge whether or not it adds to your photo essay. This is especially true when your essay deals with personal subjects. For example, a photo essay about your family may be hard to evaluate, as your own feelings about family members will impact how you take and view the photos. This is where getting feedback from peers can be invaluable to producing a strong series.

Collecting feedback while putting your photo essay together can help you determine the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps within the collection of photos you’ve produced. Ask your friends to tell you their favorites, why they like them, and what they think you’re going for in the work you’ve created. Their opinions can be your guide, not just your own emotions.

Edit your photo selection.

Beyond post-production, the series of photos you select as your essay will determine whether you’ve executed your theme or narrative effectively. Can the photos stand alone, without written words, and tell the story you set out to? Do they make sense together, in a logical sequence? The perfect photo essay will give your audience a full picture of the narrative, theme, or essence you’re looking to capture.

A good method to use to cull your images down is to remove as many as half of your images straight away to see if your narrative is still as strong with fewer photos. Or, perhaps, deciding on a small number you’d like to aim for (maybe just five to ten images) and using this as a method to narrow down to the images that tell your story best.

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay Over the Rhine , featured in Vice.

Give your photo essay a title, and add a concise written statement.

Finally, you’ll want to create a title and written statement for your photo essay. This will help position your work and can enable the viewer to fully understand your intention, or at least guide their perspective.

A solid written statement and title will be relevant to your topic, detail your primary objective, and introduce your point of view. It’s an opportunity to clarify your intentions to the viewer and ensure they walk away with a clear interpretation of your work. Depending on your photo essay, you may want to include several paragraphs of text, but even just one or two sentences of background can be enough to expand the viewer’s understanding of your work.

Consider if you’d like to add the written statement at the beginning of your essay to introduce it, or at the end as a conclusion. Either one can be impactful, and it depends how you’d like people to experience your work.

For his photo essay White Fences, excerpted above, Taylor Dorrell wrote only one sentence of introduction. But for his series Over the Rhine, Dorell included a longer written statement to accompany the work, which is “an ongoing photo series that seeks to explore the Cincinnati neighborhood of the same name and its surroundings. The series was started in response to the shooting of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man, by officer Ray Tensing of the University of Cincinnati Police, which happened July 19th, 2015.” Dorell’s text goes on to offer more background on the project, setting up the viewer with all the information they need to understand the context of the photo essay.

Depending on the motivations behind your photo essay and what sort of subject it depicts, a longer text may be necessary—or just a few words might be enough.

Looking for a place to share your photo essays with the world? Take a look at our guide to creating a photography website for tips on showcasing your photos online.

Cover image by Taylor Dorrell, from his photo essay Hurricane Over Sugar .

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How To Craft the Perfect Travel Photo Essay (from the Pros)

Published/Updated: Nov 16, 2021 · Laura Kiniry · 4 minute read

A picture is worth a thousand words, so imagine what a series of images can convey.

Photographic storytelling—or what we know as photo essays—can say so much about a subject. It might be the visual narrative of a Berlin neighborhood undergoing gentrification through a minimalist café or capturing the delight of a Midwest summer carnival through a couple riding the carousel (or the close-up decadence of deep-fried Oreos).

There’s no need to be a professional photographer to lay out a captivating tale. Whether it’s using an iPhone camera to snap pics or exploring drone imagery , these tips from award-winning, renowned travel National Geographic and New York Times photographers will help you capture great photos and the story behind them.

It’s not only about telling a story that’s eye-catching, but also buzz-worthy. Mark Edward Harris , a photographer who has led workshops for Nikon and B&H, points out, “Look for stories that you relate to or have some personal interest in before looking outwards. Many of the best stories are in our own backyards.”

Remember, a location is not a story.

(Courtesy of Mark Edward Harris)

“There’s no real equation or instruction manual for photographic storytelling,” says editorial photographer James Wasserman , whose work has graced The New York Times, Forbes and Fortune.

He does say, don’t be afraid to let loose.

Think about the story you’re interested in sharing. Perhaps it is about documenting the history of a place like Philadelphia's Old City, or telling the story of a popular Parisian restaurant from start-to-finish on a busy night.

Remember, a location is not necessarily a story. This is the mantra that travel and documentary photographer Mark Edward Harris , author of The Travel Photo Essay Describing a Journey Through Images  and whose work has appeared in Condé Nast Traveler and National Geographic, follows.

Its meaning: Dig deeper into a place for a story rather simply skimming the surface.

For instance, Harris recently visited Lubbock, Texas, and while there, discovered it was the birthplace of rock and roll legend Buddy Holly. So, in tandem, he created a photo essay on how the city was memorializing Holly. In doing so, Harris captured the spirit of Lubbock (click to see contact sheet).

For other examples, see below.

Choosing and establishing a sense of place.

When it comes to connecting with a subject, Wasserman is a pro.

Take Old City, Philadelphia , a neighborhood where he’s lived on and off for years. “I was walking past the buildings here multiple times a day,” he says, “and watching them change. I developed a relationship to them.”

Start getting to know the places and people around you. Pay attention. Ask questions.

Take note of things, like the way a local bodega owner might leave a bowl of water out for the neighborhood cat each evening. Or how a parking lot transforms into an impromptu concert venue on Thursday nights.

Windows of time. (James Wasserman / Old City)

Businesses come and go; places change, notes Wasserman. “But often, the most compelling images are ones that become windows into another time.”

They also capture a sense of place. A good example is Wasserman's Chengdu Eats , which features the story of Chengdu, China, recently designated as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.

To do this, Wasserman looked at what makes Chengdu’s culinary scene so great. He visited a local cooking school, explored the energy of its farmers’ markets, and familiarized himself with the dishes themselves. Like everywhere from Mexico to Morocco, Chengdu's food and its culture are undeniably linked.

Conveying this kind of connection will make your images that much more powerful.

Other examples could be kimchi-making parties in South Korea, or a typical workday of Japanese Ama, the female deep-sea divers who search for sea cucumbers and abalone. Telling these stories through different viewpoints will help them become more whole.

It's always helpful to have a shot list so that you know beforehand what types of images you'd like to include. But leave room for spontaneity: Some photos can occur spur-of-the-moment. Other photos might be arranged shots.

It's OK to include both.

Harris tries to go into new situations with what he calls an “empty cup,” filling it up with interesting ideas and asides as he goes. “That said, I do some basic research before I head out to a location,” he says.

Contemplating the range of images.

Cooking school. (James Wasserman / Chengdu Eats)

Once you have an idea in your mind of the overall theme, start looking at it from a range of different angles.

For example, says Wasserman, “If it's a person whose story you want to convey, ask yourself: Where does that person reside? Where do they work? What are the environments that are important to them?”

If something interests you, snap a pic. Snap more than several pictures, and do so from multiple angles and distances. Shoot wide angles from above (this is a time where that drone could come in handy), and zoom in close.

Take action shots and portraits. In particular, Harris loves the camera’s ability to freeze a moment in time, using a fast-enough shutter speed “to capture a bear catching a salmon at Brooks Falls, Alaska, ” he says, “or an officer directing traffic in Pyongyang, North Korea .”

Basic images should include a strong establishing shot , some detail shots , and a closing shot , says Harris.

If it’s a story about food, this might mean capturing images of chefs cooking it, people eating it, and close-ups of the dishes themselves.

Chicken feet. A great example of a close-up shot. (James Wasserman / Chengdu Eats)

In the case of the Buddy Holly story, one of Harris’s detail shots is a photo of Holly’s famous eyeglasses. “[It was also the same] pair of glasses Holly was wearing when his plane crashed on that freezing, wintery night in 1959,” he says. (Holly died in the plane crash.)

Environmental portraits, or a portrait of a person in a place they’re connected with [ like this image of Bruce Springsteen in Asbury Park, NJ ], are also a key element to photographic storytelling.

Curating, and presenting, the story.

Though it’s both expected and encouraged that different angles, varying subjects, and a range of foci will be included in the story’s universal theme, fight the urge to include everything .

Seriously. As much as you might be dying to feature all 150 photos from a visit to Alcatraz Island, don’t. An onslaught of images is boring, and the story gets lost within them.

“The viewers are always creating their own stories,” says Wasserman. Allow them the chance.

“If you study the classic LIFE magazine photo essays by photographers such as W. Gene Smith, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, and Gordon Parks,” Harris points out, “a strong story should be able to be told in a dozen photos or so.”

Once you decide on the images you’re going to use, arrange them in an order that makes sense. Begin with a strong establishing shot, such as the cooking school from Wasserman’s Chengdu Eats story.

Then end with a closing shot: One like the pile of rubble in Harris’s Vanity Fair photo essay on the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. Use the in-between to fill in the blanks.

After all, that is where the magic happens.

(Backroads / Mark Edward Harris)

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The Winners of the 11th Annual Mobile Photography Awards

The Mobile Photography Awards have announced its 11th annual selections for the best works of international photography captured with smartphones.

The Mobile Photography Awards, founded in 2011, is the longest-running international competition for photos shot and edited exclusively on smartphones and tablets. The judging panel selected winners from over 5,500 submissions from over 90 countries across 12 themes including Landscapes, Portraits, Black & White, Visual FX, and Street Photography. Each category winner will receive a cash prize of $500, with the Grand Prize winner taking home $3,000.

“The 11th Annual Mobile Photography Awards stand as a testament to another year in the ongoing story and evolution of mobile phone cameras,” says The Mobile Photography Awards founder Daniel Berman, a photographer, and filmmaker based near Toronto, Canada.

“The iPhone is still the most widely used by our entrants but this year we’ve seen a huge variety of camera phones used for our winning photos. The work we see each year always gets better.”

Grand Prize Winner Liu KunKun

This year’s grand prize winner has been awarded to Shanghai-based amateur photographer Liu KunKun using an Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.

“I try to dismantle the original order of the landscape, and then restack and reorganize, with a simple visual language to express new abstract imagery and explore the boundaries of photography,” KunKun says of his work.

“He has a great mastery of geometry and perspective and taken together with color and minimalism he transmits a photographic, personal style into his own voice,” Mobile Photography Awards jury member Rodrigo Rivas said about KunKun’s work.

Category Winners

Below are the winners of each of the other categories as well as the Photo Essay Category.

Winning Photo Essays

The Mobile Photography Awards says that over its eleven-year history, it has evolved into the world’s premiere photography competition for mobile phones and tablets boasting more than 35 gallery shows produced around the world since 2011. The Mobile Photography Awards says it offers photographers and artists opportunities for exhibits, fine art sales, and annual cash prizes.

To see all the winners and runners-up from this and the previous year’s competitions, visit the Mobile Photography Awards’ website .

Image credits: All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of the Mobile Photography Awards competition.

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11 Of The Most Interesting Photo Essays

The photo editors of BuzzFeed take a look at all of the best photo collections from this week.

1. "23 Super-Creepy Pictures of Forgotten Olympic Villages" —BuzzFeed

“Olympics time is here! Hosting cities pour tons of money into building massive structures in order to host the games . But what happens to them once all the hubbub dies down? This essay is such an interesting look at these spaces when left to the wild.” —Dennis Huynh, design director, BuzzFeed News

2. "These Women Are Using Photography to Cope With the Aftermath of an ISIS Massacre" —BuzzFeed

"Oh, how truly powerful photographs can be, and this photo series proves just that. UNICEF gave cameras and tutorials to 25 young Yazidi women so they can photograph their community as they learned to cope with the aftermath of an ISIS massacre. With this medium, they weren’t just given the voice to tell the world their story, but also empowered them to have personal goals and aspirations. After all, they were allowed to keep their cameras." —Anna Mendoza, photo editor, BuzzFeed Australia

3. "At the Front in a Scarred Fallujah" — New York Times

"It is important to see what war looks like in some ways. For all the rhetoric about the war on terrorism that is thrown about in the US, there is relatively little visual coverage about the frontlines in the Middle East. Denton's photographs show that the war in Iraq, which has waxed and waned in popularity and our consciousness for the past 13 years, is still ongoing, still brutal, and still very relevant to our stated goals even as the enemy has changed." —Kate Bubacz, senior photo editor for BuzzFeed News

4. "Learning Life Lessons by Faking One's Own Funeral" — The Atlantic

"There’s probably nothing more natural to living than contemplating your own death. In South Korea, a trend has emerged called 'Happy Dying' in which participants are invited to write their own eulogies and wills, crawl into their very own coffin and essentially, well, die. After 30 minutes of 'death', they crawl out of the coffin and apparently feel much better about their lives. Neat." —Gabriel H. Sanchez, photo essay editor, BuzzFeed

5. "These Beautiful Photos of Subway Stations Will Transport You From Your Daily Commute" — Atlas Obscura

“I love subways/metros like Oprah loves bread! Chris Forsyth images of metro stations in Canada and around Europe show how cool and mod the architecture of those massive spaces can be make make me want to book some tickets.” —DH

6. "A Death in Manila" —Reuters

"Of the 300 suspected drug dealers found dead since Rodrigo Duterte assumed presidency in the Philippines, this photo of Jennelyn Olaires cradling the body of her husband stood out among the rest. The new president, notoriously known as 'the punisher', called this 'melodramatic', with the media hyping it up as if it was Michelangelo’s Pieta. 'War on Drugs' was his campaign battle cry and this photo perfectly summed up what he has done, directly or indirectly, in his first 30 days." —AM

7. "The Trans Community of Christopher Street" — The New Yorker

"These portraits have a dignity and an intimacy about them , each face strikingly beautiful in its individuality. I was so moved reading stories and seeing the variety of faces that all turn to Christopher Street for a sense of community." —KB

8. "International Garden Photographer of the Year Macro Art Winners" — The Telegraph

"These extreme close-up shots of plant life highlight just how alien planet earth can look. Out of context, these seed pods and surfaces of leaves appear like the aerial terrain of a remote exotic planet. The competition is in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK, and will be touring in exhibitions all over the world. The overall winner was ‘Embryo’ (above) by George Pantazis with a photo taken in his garden in Limassol, Cyprus." —Matthew Tucker, picture editor, BuzzFeed UK

9. "People Really Open Up in the Summer’: the North Korean Seasons" — The Guardian

"Could it be true? Is this possibly the most secluded beach vacation getaway in the world? No one thinks of North Korea as a summer holiday destination. But with a brand-new airport recently completed near the resort town of Wonsan (apparently, it’s popular with locals), it may just be the next hot ticket among foreign travellers." —AM

10. "Photographing the Mirage of the American Dream in Las Vegas" — Time Lightbox

"The party’s been raging strong in Las Vegas for decades — but if you look closely, as Swiss photographer Christian Lutz does in his new photo book Insert Coins , you’ll see the cracks and faults of a city with a reputation for sin. Here, Time shares a comically distressing look at Las Vegas when the party is over." —GHS

11. "Aging Inmates: Photographer Shines Light on Loneliness and Isolation" — National Geographic Proof

" Jessica Earnshaw's work on aging in prison is breathtaking in its scope and its ceaseless attention to the humanity of the inmates. This is a very different look at prisons that is worth giving attention to." —KB

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At the Black Lives Matter Protests in NYC: A Photo Essay

Rachel cobb documents 10 days in the streets of new york.

In the days following the killing of George Floyd by white policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on May 25, protests erupted across the US and many parts of the world. After weeks of Covid-19 confinement, hundreds of thousands poured into the streets to express their outrage, to demand police reforms, and to fight for social justice. I’ve been documenting this moment.

–text and photos by Rachel Cobb

Ibrahim Diop, 20, at a rally in Washington Square Park, June 6, 2020 “The principles of how this country was founded—the stolen land, the people who were stolen from Africa—this country is rooted in racism. I would like everyone to be aware of the skeletons they’re walking on.”

Jada Cooper, 20, at the Memorial Prayer for George Floyd, Cadman Plaza, June 4, 2020: “We’re tired of our youth being afraid of cops—our people dying, our youth dying. Our boys need to be able to make mistakes.”

Protestor arrested in Lower Manhattan, May 29, 2020

Minutes before 8 pm curfew begins, police watch protestors at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, June 6, 2020.

Marie Blanchard, 34, at the Memorial Prayer for George Floyd: “The whole world is screaming and crying for the same things we’ve been saying for generations.”

March past Trump Tower, Columbus Circle, Manhattan, May 30, 2020.

Justin Maffett, 26, says “the 1033 program is probably the most significant vehicle for fueling the militarization of police in America that you have never heard of. It is directly responsible for putting weapons, machinery, equipment and technology made for the war zone on American streets. Write to your congressman and demand that they defund and eliminate the 1033 program.”

A protestor faces the police at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge in Lower Manhattan. May 29, 2020.

Diana Rose, 48, says “a badge does not give you the right to murder. Any cop that has a history of abuse should be put in a database of priors.”

Times Square, May 30, 2020.

Jibrill Morris, 26, at the Memorial Prayer for George Floyd: “I have five younger siblings and I promise they will not have to face the injustices I have. Not one more.”

Heidi G., 31, would like to see “police reform [that] would include the repeal of article 50-A that makes it so that police misconduct records are confidential unless you go through court order. If that’s repealed, the public would have access to the records. And more support for the police—mental health checks.”

On the first weekend after George Floyd’s murder, New Yorkers protested throughout the city. Some demonstrations turned violent and dozens of police vehicles were burned. May 30, 2020.

Anthony, a retired policeman hired as a security guard at the Soho Louis Vuitton store calls for police backup. May 31, 2020.

Outside Louis Vuitton store, Soho, Manhattan May 31, 2020.

Union Square, Manhattan May 30, 2020.

Police arrive late to the scene in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan. In New York City, as elsewhere, the majority of protests have been peaceful, however, in the first few days, rage sometimes gave way to destruction. Soho, May 31, 2020.

Bobby C., 37: “I would like to see police reform nationwide, accountability for police who use excessive force. I believe the arrest of four officers in the George Floyd case was the beginning. Systematic reform is needed nationwide.”

Andrew Akinmola, 16: “Any time a black person steps outside of their house, they’re immediately accused whereas a white person is free to do anything they want.”

At 10:33, two and a half hours after curfew was imposed on New York City, a white man jogs past a dozen police cars on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. June 4, 2020

Michael Thomas, 53, hopes that “white America hears our voice. You don’t have to dehumanize a person to lock them up. You can still do it with their dignity intact.”

Nysheva-Starr, 43, at a protest at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, would like to see “the implementation of a policy that will hold officers accountable whenever they take a life.” June 6, 2020.

Rebecca Oginni, 32, at the Memorial Prayer for George Floyd: “I realize how powerful the police unions are. I want people to absolutely demand transparency in their local communities from their local police department.”

Isaiah D., 25, the Memorial Prayer for George Floyd, hopes “that we can imagine a better world is possible and we can collectively manifest that world.”

Paulette P., 82, waits for a bus to take her to lower Manhattan, so she can join a protest, 10:05 PM, June 7, 2020. “After the 60s we saw some change. I was in Paris in 1968 on the Left Bank when they were protesting and throwing paving stones. My wish is that this will never happen again.”

__________________________________________

All photos ©2020RachelCobb; @rachelcobbphoto .

Rachel Cobb

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Creating Photo Essays About Community: A Guide to Our Where We Are Contest

Step-by-step directions for depicting what’s memorable and meaningful about groups and the places where they gather.

By Katherine Schulten

It’s hard not to be inspired by the immersive 2023 photo-essay series Where We Are .

As you scroll through and are introduced to young female wrestlers in India , rappers in Spain , band kids in Ohio and Black debutantes in Detroit , you can’t help but think about the communities you have been a part of — or have noticed in your own neighborhood or school.

That’s why we hope you’ll participate in our contest , which invites teenagers to use these photo essays as mentor texts to document the local, offline communities that most interest them.

How do you go about that? The steps are outlined below.

How to Create Your Photo Essay

Step 1: read the where we are series closely..

• Step 2: Decide what local community will be the subject of your photo essay.
• Step 3: Take photos that show both the big picture and the small details.
• Step 4: Interview members of the community about why it is special.
• Step 5: Give your photo essay context via a short written introduction.
• Step 6: Write captions for your photos that give new information or add depth or color.
• Step 7: Edit all the pieces together and submit.

Immerse yourself in several of these photo essays, using our related activity sheet to help you start to notice and name some of the things that make this series special. You can do the same with our winner and runners-up from last year’s contest.

When you’re done, we’ll help you use those same strategies to document the community you have chosen.

Here are free links to the entire series:

1. The Magic of Your First Car 2. At This Mexican Restaurant, Everyone is Family 3. Where the Band Kids Are 4. In This Nigerian Market, Young Women Find a Place of Their Own 5. At Camp Naru, Nobody Is ‘an Outlier’ 6. For Black Debutantes in Detroit, Cotillion Is More Than a Ball 7. At This Wrestling Academy, Indian Girls Are ‘Set Free’ 8. In Seville, Spain, These Young Rappers Come Together to Turn ‘Tears Into Rhymes’ 9. For a Queer Community in Los Angeles, This Public Park Is a Lifeline 10. In Guatemala, a Collective of Young Artists Finds Family Through Film 11. On a Caribbean Island, Young People Find Freedom in ‘Bike Life’ 12. At This Texas Campus Ministry, ‘Inclusive Love’ Is the Mission 13. For Young Arab Americans in Michigan, the Hookah Lounge Feels like Home

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