To celebrate Earth Day 2024, earlier this month we put out an open call on Instagram for images that distil the sublime beauty of our natural world. After receiving hundreds of submissions from applicants around the globe, we have selected 12 photographs, each with a joyful and unique perspective on the world. Amsterdam-based photographer Sophie Hemels’ submission depicts lovers entwined in nature, carefree amid the Dutch grasslands; London-based visual artist Will Bruce captures an idyllic landscape at the Accursed Mountains in Albania; while Annabel Holden ventured to Antarctica, capturing a magical photograph on film of a lonely penguin atop a melting bergy bit. Together, these works exist as a testament to the magic of the natural world, raising awareness of all that could be lost if climate issues continue to be neglected.

Take a look at our favourite submissions in the gallery below.

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Macro photography presents a unique challenge: finding compelling subjects in a world often overlooked. While dedicated macro photographers might cultivate specific environments for tiny creatures or invest in specialized equipment, the reality is that macro opportunities exist everywhere, from your backyard to local parks. The key lies in training your eye to see the miniature landscapes and intricate details that most people miss.

Coming to you from Andrew Lanxon Photography, this insightful video takes you on a journey through the Blair Adam Country Park in Scotland. Lanxon, an experienced macro photographer, demonstrates his approach to finding macro subjects in a vast and diverse environment. He emphasizes the importance of slowing down and observing your surroundings with a keen eye, highlighting the potential of seemingly mundane elements like decaying wood, moss-covered stones, and even fallen leaves. 

Lanxon’s exploration reveals the abundance of macro subjects hidden in plain sight. He captures the delicate textures of tree bark and lichen, the vibrant colors of mushrooms and moss, and the intricate patterns formed by fallen leaves and pine cones. His approach emphasizes experimentation with composition, angles, and camera settings, showcasing how different lenses and techniques can transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary macro photographs.

Beyond the technical aspects, Lanxon’s video underscores the importance of patience and a curious mind. He encourages viewers to explore their surroundings with a fresh perspective, reminding us that the most captivating macro subjects often reside in the most unexpected places. By embracing a slower pace and a willingness to experiment, you can unlock the hidden world of macro photography and discover the beauty in the miniature details of our world. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Lanxon.

If you would like to continue learning about macro photography, be sure to check out “Mastering Macro Photography: The Complete Shooting and Editing Tutorial With Andres Moline!”

The group of photographs was assembled in the 1990s by John Szarkowski, a photographer, curator, and former director of the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The gift adds important photographs made by a diverse group of artists who worked throughout the United States and in Latin America. It will allow the National Gallery to tell fuller, more varied, and inclusive stories about how Americans have conceived of, used, and celebrated the richness and variety of the land from the 1860s to the 1990s.

“This wonderful, wide-ranging gift from UBS adds key works to the National Gallery’s photography holdings by a wide range of artists, many of whom were not previously represented in our collection,” said Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art.

The gift from the UBS Art Collection includes several photographs by western American photographers—F. Jay Haynes, John K. Hillers, Darius Kinsey, Frederick Monsen, and Isaiah West Taber—who recorded the impact of railroads, mining, and logging on the land in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other pictures made in the late 19th century, such as those by Henry Hamilton Bennett of the scenic Wisconsin Dells, show how photography was used to transform nature into a tourist commodity. Early 20th-century works by Laura Adams Armer, Jean Bernard, John G. Bullock, Nancy Ford Cones, Martha Hale Harvey, Gertrude Käsebier, William B. Post, Robert S. Redfield, and Edward Steichen evocatively reveal how pictorialist artists presented the landscape in a very different manner from their predecessors. Depicting nature’s quiet corners and intimate vistas, they domesticated and aestheticized the land, transforming it from a symbol of power and awe into one of manicured beauty and peaceful harmony.

A collection of social documentary work from the 1930s and 1940s includes key examples by celebrated Farm Security Administration photographers, such as Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, and Marion Post Wolcott. Many of their pictures poignantly demonstrate how the depleted land could no longer support the inhabitants who depended on it. Two of the most iconic photographs include Lange’s Power farming displaces tenants from the land in the western dry cotton area, Childress County, Texas (1935) and Rothstein’s Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936).

Works by photographers such as Robert Adams, Edward Burtynsky, Stephen Callis, Robert Dawson, Terry Evans, Emmet Gowin, Mark Klett, and David Maisel cast a critical eye on the impact of humans on the landscape. Often making aerial photographs, they depict vast stretches of land that have been utterly transformed by human habitation.

The gift also includes work by Latin American photographers such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Valdir Cruz, Agustín Estrada, Flor Garduño, Graciela Iturbide, and Sebastião Salgado. Active in Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala from the 1940s through the 1990s, the photographers made pictures commemorating the earth’s bounties—fruits, vegetables, birds, and fish that help sustain and enrich human life—as well as the people who lived and worked on the land.

Main Image Arthur Rothstein, Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936 gelatin silver print ,National Gallery of Art, Washington Gift of the UBS Art Collection

In the late nineteenth century, astronomers shifted from visual observations to using specialized telescopes with photographic plates. These plates revealed previously unknown celestial objects, including nebulae, asteroids, and stars. Initially, some astronomers resisted this shift, considering cameras an “obscene” instrument that would render the “sport” of astronomy obsolete.

ESO 422-41. (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, C Kilpatrick).

New Delhi: The image above is a galaxy designated as ESO 422-41, at a distance of about 34 million lightyears in the direction of the constellation of Columba. This image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy was originally spotted in the 1970s by a brand new telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla facility in Chile, which was used to perform a survey of the southern sky.

The astronomical instrument was used to produce a collection of photographic plates that became the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Sky. Humans know the skies of the northern hemisphere much more intimately than the southern skies. ESO 422-41 is just one of the many galaxies, star clusters and nebulae spotted by the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Sky.

How photography killed the sport of astronomy

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, astronomers began using specialised telescopes which were essentially large, modified cameras to capture images of celestial objects on photographic plates. These photographic plates revealed hundreds of nebulae, asteroids and stars that were previously unknown.

An image from 1883 of the Orion Nebula. (Image Credit: Andrew Ainslie Common).

Those astronomers who laboriously scanned the skies for fleeting glimpses of transient objects considered cameras as an obscene instrument that would render the ‘sport’ of astronomy obsolete. At this time, astronomers did not even have the concept of galaxies, and did not understand that there were isolated islands of stars suspended in space.

The importance of photographic sky surveys

The equipment necessary for astrophotography steadily improved, and astronomers began to conduct systematic photographic surveys, imaging portions of the skies. The Carte du Ciel and the Astrographic Catalogue that was initiated in 1887 was a massive international scientific collaboration, using 20 observatories around the world to produce 22,000 photographic plates of the night sky. This ambitious project was only completed in 1962,

The development of the Schmidt telescope in the 1930s allowed for wide field imaging, producing deep sky maps. It was used for the Palomar Observatory Sky Surveys that resulted in a database of 20 million galaxies and over 100 million stars, significantly advancing our understanding of the cosmos.

The 18 inch Schmidt telescope during assembly. (Image Credit: Palomar/Caltech/Caltech Archives).

In the 1970s, the best available technology for recording the images for archival purposes was to use glass plates, treated with chemicals. This was the technology used to preserve the images captured by the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Skies, in the 1970s.

Automated sky surveys

Modern sky surveys do pretty much the same thing, but use automation to periodically scan the entire skies. Examples include ESA’s Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Transient Optical Sky Survey Automated Telescope System (TOSS) and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN).

The Gaia telescope. (Image Credit: ESA).

The modern automated sky surveys also benefit from using space telescopes. The atmosphere of the Earth absorbs most of the frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, except those in optical frequencies, and those in the radio spectrum. The objects in the astronomical catalogues are prefixed by the names of the surveys for reference, allowing astronomers to easily track and identify objects such as ESO 422-41.

The universe is still vast, but going dark

When astronomers started using cameras to hunt down asteroids, people believed that all the asteroids would be found within a few decades. We continue to discover new objects within our own Solar System, let alone the entire galaxy and the universe. Despite the advent of astrophotography and automation, we have not discovered all the objects in the universe that we have seen. Humans have gathered so much data that scientists are seeking the help of the general public to classify objects, and even machine learning. Then there are objects that have been forever hidden from view because of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.

Japan / A Love Story by acclaimed landscape photographer Michael Kenna is presently on display at the Daikanyama Hillside Forum in Daikanyama, Shibuya ward until May 5. The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same name. After finishing its run in Tokyo, the exhibition will relocate to Los Angeles (May 11–July 20), and then London (September 24–October 20).

Kenna (70) is one of the world’s most preeminent landscape photographers. His work has been shown in hundreds of exhibitions in over 40 countries. A self-proclaimed “dinosaur,” he maintains the analog photographic traditions of his upbringing. He works solely in black and white, spending countless hours alone in the darkroom personally developing every print. A dedicated assistant of long-standing, Mark Silva, spends an equally voluminous amount of time retouching each print by hand. 

Analog ‘Till I Die’

The analog option is an “extremely slow, patient, unpredictable, uncontrollable, process” he concludes, which is “all of the reasons why I love it.” The digital option is “too fast, too easy, too intense, too saturated, too everything — for my personal, very slow taste.”

His prints are predominantly 7 ¾ inches square (19.69 cm square) with some larger alternatives of 15 inches square. The small size is chosen to establish an intimacy with the viewer. The square shape of the prints is a function of his choice of camera, a prism viewfinder Hasselblad. 

Industrial Roots 

Kenna grew up in the industrial north of England within a working-class Catholic family. He attended a seminary school from the age of 10 in preparation for becoming a priest. Priorities changed at the age of 17, however, when — as stated in the press preview — he “discovered girls.” Art school followed, before a relocation to California in 1977. 

His love affair with Japan began a decade later, in 1987. “On my first visit to Japan” the exhibition flyer states, “I was blown away by the aesthetics, the spiritual and religious aspects.” He has been back innumerable times since. To celebrate his 50th birthday, in 2003, he completed the Shikoku pilgrimage. Japan was the last country he visited before the COVID-19 lockdown, and the first that he returned to after the lockdown was lifted. 

The Dark and Light of Black and White 

The exhibition is loosely divided into two sections. In the initial gallery, the black-and-white images are generally dark. In the following two galleries, there is an abundance of white. The latter shots were largely taken in Hokkaido during the winter months. 

“I went up to Northern Hokkaido in the middle of winter, and it looked to me like a stark sumi-e ink painting, a white canvas with Kanji characters marked on it” Kenna states. “I’ve been in love with the place ever since.”

Kenna is naturally drawn to mountains, coastlines, and lakes, but maintains a fascination for how humans relate to the land and what they place upon it. Within the Japanese countryside, a distinctive feature is the torii gate, which to Kenna symbolizes “respect and reverence” for the landscape. He finds common cause with the Japanese concept of gods inhabiting every object, no matter how humble — the notion that “everything is sacred” pervades his work. He feels the need to “ask permission” from whatever he is photographing. 

Pathways 

The human-made structures that he prefers are those that do not dominate the landscape. Boardwalks, jetties, fences, and posts, invariable attract his attention. They represent “pathways,” he states. They lead the viewer into the photographs, but their depiction within broad landscapes “leaves space for the viewer, to interpret, to imagine, to exist, to be themselves, to think.” 

The Hokkaido-based shots are typically minimalist. They can have the feel of a Japanese rock garden, with snow substituting for raked gravel. They have been described by noted art critic, Kotaro Izawa, as “pictures written in short poem form,” of being “visual haiku.” It is a characterization that Kenna finds appealing. 

A Love for Japan That Is Real

There is an infectiousness about Kenna that reminds one of the English north in the days before the internet and cable television, of nights at the pub, a knees up, singalongs around the piano — of a basic sense of faith founded in community and family. In a video presentation of his Hokkaido travels that concludes the exhibition, Kenna is shown completing a commendable rendition of a Japanese tune on the karaoke machine of a local bar. He looks right at home. 

Kenna is far from ungrateful for the hospitality he has received. The exhibition flyer declares a deep gratitude for “the curiosity” of the Japanese people, “their friendliness and generosity.” Through this exhibition, Kenna hopes to move towards squaring the ledger — to pay some of that generosity back. In Japan, however, the act of reciprocation can be a harder task than one might think. 

Deep Gratitude

I recounted to Kenna a personal anecdote of a night out with a group of younger coworkers during my third year in Japan. Here, at last, was my opportunity to pick up the lion’s share of the tab after years of having been treated by company workers of senior age — to be the host rather than guest. 

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When the young ones resisted my generosity, I became more than a little agitated. Had Kenna experienced something similar, I enquired. He had not, but with true northern English wit, he had a solution to my ongoing guestist dilemma: “You could always pay Japan back by writing nice comments about me” he joked — a task, in truth, that would be hard not to do. 

Astutely, Kenna has opted to repay the kindness he has received. Not in kind, but with what he does uniquely well — with an exhibition and book that symbolize his “immense ongoing appreciation and deep gratitude” for the “alluring and mysterious country” of Japan.  

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Author: Paul de Vries

Find other reviews and articles by the author on JAPAN Forward.

The public is invited to a hosted walk-through Los Alamos Photography Club’s current exhibit at the Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library on Tuesday, April 23 between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Photographers who have photos in the exhibit will be present to discuss their work and take questions and/or comments from the audience.

I love looking through my parent’s photo albums. My dad, like a lot of dads, looks absolutely absent from my childhood, but, in reality, he was always the one behind his Olympus 0M30 rather than in front of it. He wouldn’t call himself the most accomplished photographer, but what shines through in these 1980s era photos is the feeling of depth and narrative. 

There’s a strong chance that I’m just being nostalgic and sentimental, but I’m fairly sure a lot of the feeling has to do with the colors. A lot of my childhood photos are either black and white or what I would describe as caramel looking. There’s a fair amount of chromatic aberration and halatian, and the black colors are over crushed. Looking at them fills me with that feeling of optimism and hope, almost like the world was a better place. I know that isn’t true, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling it.

In many ways, we’ve lost this. With copious numbers of photos snapped on our mobile phones every single day and very few of them ever making it into printed form, we’re becoming satisfied with below standard photos. They might communicate the facts, but they rarely move us. I have three children, and I’m forever taking snaps of them. The photos document their lives, but they don’t move me in the way traditional film does. I wanted to get this feeling back, and I’ve managed it, armed with a gorgeous little app called mood.camera.

It’s new to the App Store and is, at the time of writing, only available for Apple users. The core of the creator’s vision is to recreate the look and feel of film, achieved by using a custom ProRAW (iPhone Pro 12 or newer) image processing pipeline that allows for a greater level of color grading than is ordinarily possible.

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The app itself is incredibly simple. In fact, that’s one of the biggest selling points. The camera feed is restricted to a smaller part of the screen, which gives space for and clarity to all the buttons that provide functionality. This feed even has curved corners to give a feeling of film, and the interface colors are black and orange to make it feel retro.

Most of the nostalgia is created through the use of color emulations. You could call them filters, although the option to adjust the quality and tone of each gives a welcome level of customization that is absent on apps like Instagram. 

With 15 to choose from, you’ll be sure to find a style that you just can’t put down. I have been transfixed by the Noir emulation with quality 400 and tone crush. My children have loved seeing themselves in black and white, and for me, it adds a depth of story to the photo. Maybe you’re shouting at the screen, “That’s all possible already. Just use a photo editing app.” I get that, but there’s something about having it in the app and it certainly helps that these emulations are so ridiculously gorgeous.

Another way that the app replicates the camera film experience is by not applying the emulation until after the photo has been taken. Depending on your age, you’ll remember the days of having to go to a shop to get your film developed. Between taking the photos and getting them developed, it might have been days or weeks. You had no idea whether you’d forgotten to take the lens cap off or not, and you just hoped the photos would turn out alright. The experience is not quite the same; you do, after all, only have to wait a matter of seconds to see the color adjusted result. But not being able to see it live in the camera feed creates a pleasing level of drama and anticipation. 

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This app has genuinely brought joy back into the process of taking photos on my phone. When I want to take a photo, I’m now engaging my creative juices to think about what look and feel I’m after rather than just capturing events so I have a record. I’m also taking fewer photos, but with more thought and a far better end quality. If you’ve lost your joie de vivre when it comes to capturing those special moments around you, why not give mood.camera a try?

Download mood.camera on only.

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