Martin Kaninsky 9/30/25 Martin Kaninsky 9/30/25

Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America Stephen Shames

In 1985, photographer Stephen Shames was documenting the quiet crisis of child poverty in the United States. This photograph was made in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, where an informal encampment of unhoused families had gathered along the beach. Story Behind The Photograph

Martin Kaninsky 8/31/25 Martin Kaninsky 8/31/25

A Week with the Universe: Photographing Stephen Hawking

In the mid-1980s, photographer Stephen Shames traveled from Philadelphia to Cambridge, England. He wasn’t chasing fame or breaking news. He wanted to spend time with a man who had already changed the way we understand the universe: Stephen Hawking. Story Behind The Photograph

Martin Kaninsky 7/31/25 Martin Kaninsky 7/31/25

The Life Behind the Lens: How Stephen Shames Photographed Power, Pain, and Revolution

A cheap pawn shop camera launched one of America’s most powerful photographic archives. Stephen Shames didn’t plan to become a photographer. He just wanted a way to express himself. Interviews

Martin Kaninsky 3/25/25 Martin Kaninsky 3/25/25

The Story Has to Be Based on Reality: How Stephen Shames Captures Truth Without the Tourist’s Lens

Most people with a camera stay on the surface, capturing what they see but never stepping inside the story. Stephen Shames believes that if you want to document reality, you have to stop looking at the world like a visitor. Photography Book Spotlight

Mac Stone Spent 20 Years Photographing the American Southeast. His Book Shows Why It May Be America’s Most Overlooked Wilderness

The American Southeast is not empty swamp. For Mac Stone, it is a place of ancient forests, living waters, orchids, alligators, salamanders, turtles, springs, rivers, and species many people never hear about. Photography Book Spotlight

Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj’s Pasqyra e Lëndësh Shows How Exile Turns Home Into A Fragmented Memory

What happens when home becomes inherited memory? For Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj, this question began with Albania, a place she left very young and later returned to as both familiar and foreign. Interviews

In Plain Sight: How Jens Krauer Photographed The Quiet Human Stories Hidden Inside Crowded Cities

Street photography begins when most people stop looking. For Jens Krauer, the street is not only a place of movement, noise, and strangers passing each other. Photography Book Spotlight