This video will brighten your day. Watch Snowball groove to the beat (and put all the other animals to shame). Learn more about this story here!

This video is neat. It was made by an organization called Playing for Change, a "multimedia movement created to inspire, connect and bring peace to the world through music." The song begins with one Roger Ridley in Santa Monica, Calif. Producers then bring the headphones to Grandpa Elliott, a blind singer in New Orleans. From there, they travel the world, recording musicians and layering the sound into one musical mosaic.

How does it work? Watch:

By Claire O'Neill

If you're not already hungry for lunch, you're about to be. We came across this great food article in The Washington Post about the art of sandwich-making -- or 'wichcraft, a surefire way to your Top Chef-loving heart.

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The article introduces Jon Chonko, a New York graphic designer who has been scouring the local deli scene. He has a scanwich blog for his findings, replete with delectable cross sections to satisfy your every sandwich desire. (Although this blog claims to be the first to have done so, "established 2007 years before the other scanned sandwich blog," it says.)

The images bear a slightly uncomfortable resemblance to those in a high school anatomy book. But with the mesmerizing floating-in-space effect, they also resemble the sandwiches of dreams, and they will keep you browsing for longer than you'd like to admit. Yum!

By Claire O'Neill

Today we look back and assess President Obama's effectiveness in his first 100 days in office. But one Japanese magazine is providing a look back at the very first day -- when no one knew what to expect. On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, COURRiER Japon assigned 132 noted photographers around the globe to capture the worldwide reaction. Here's a small selection of what was documented for the project, "This Day of Change." To learn more, visit the project Web site.

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By Claire O'Neill

Over the past 100 days, as Obama has made his first impressions on America as president, NPR's David Greene has spoken with Americans about those impressions. To document how this country is faring not only under a new administration, but also in this troubled economic climate, he traveled through 16 states, equipped with an audio recorder and a camera. Here are some of the people he encountered.

As the project wraps up on Obama's 100th day in office, Greene says that he is surprised, in a sense, by the general climate: That, yes, times are tough, but that people aren't complaining as he had anticipated. Social workers feel emboldened by the ever-increasing importance of their work. There's a sense of fear, but also a sense of unity catalyzed by urgency. Most importantly, there are faces to the statistics -- happy, sad, scared and serious. A budding photographer, Greene has brought those faces to us. Learn more about the 100 Days project. Tell us your story in the comments section below, and be sure to join David Greene for a live Q&A.

By Claire O'Neill

Ever wonder about the origin of that photo on your book cover? Karl Baden, the man behind the Covering Photography project, has an exhaustive online index and could probably tell you. He writes:

I had fallen into the habit of haunting secondhand bookstores... While prowling the stacks, I began to notice familiar images from the history of photography on the covers of novels, textbooks and volumes of poetry; books whose nominal subject matter didn't necessarily have a literal correspondence with the often iconic photographs that graced their jackets.

Dorothea Lange's famous image Tractored Out, Texas Panhandle, June 1938 is used for both books, although the second image is an illustration of the photograph.

 

Baden continues:

In some cases, the image has been re-staged by another photographer or even copied into another medium. All this manipulation prompts the question: How is a photograph, initially conceived as an independent aesthetic object, re-used as a visual cipher for a book's subject or as an attention-getting sales device; i.e., how does a shift in context affect a photograph's meaning?

Famed photographer Henri Cartier Bresson was a contemporary and friend of Jean-Paul Sartre.

 

Tears, 1930-3, by avant-garde photographer Man Ray, appears on two covers.

 

To learn more about the photo on your book cover, check out the Web site, where you can browse or search by author, photographer, publisher, publication date or designer. This project was discovered through Flak Photo.

Images courtesy Covering Photography.

In just the past few decades, women have taken strides not only in the medium of photography, but also in the world of art. But "women artists still struggle to be on the same level as male artists," writes Jane Tam, a 22-year-old photographer in New York. Women outnumber men in MFA programs throughout the country, yet women are less represented in galleries. "Where are they in the current art world?" Tam asks.

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Tam is a member of Nymphoto, a women's photography organization based in New York City. Through online exhibitions, group shows and collective publications, it has established a support group and a photographic community. In their words, they hope to "mobilize the art world through good old-fashioned girl power."

Next week, it will launch its first book, a collection of interviews and photographs with various female photographers, including Emily Shur and Michal Chelbin. The book release corresponds with a group exhibition at Sasha Wolf Gallery on May 6. To learn more, check out Nymphoto's Web site.

The onslaught of an influenza pandemic is not unfamiliar news. Between 1918 and 1919, nearly 30 million people died from what became known as the Spanish flu. As mysterious then as it is now, the flu had unknown origins, but its impact was worldwide. Here's a historical look at the breadth of this indifferent and unpredictable virus.

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The flu has been running its unpredictable course for ages.

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From the Spanish flu to the avian flu to, yes, the pig flu, the virus continues to elude us, and the timeless solutions of praying, gargling and mask-wearing are still probably our best bets. To learn more, read about the 1918 pandemic here.

By Claire O'Neill

Skid Row, set in the heart of downtown Los Angeles -- not far from high-rise lofts and hipster-filled bars -- is a place most city-dwellers avoid. At night, dozens of tents occupy the sidewalks, and lawlessness reigns supreme. It's not a place that engenders trust, so photographer Justin Maxon encountered some difficulties when documenting the place. NPR sent Maxon to Skid Row for two days to produce this project to accompany an on-air series on Skid Row.

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Justin Maxon has photographed a day of life on L.A.'s Skid Row.

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At 25, Maxon is a young but acclaimed photographer. Just this year, he took won first prize in domestic news in the National Press Photographers Association contest.

Although he is familiar with photographing impoverished places, Maxon said he'd rarely been yelled at so much. People didn't want to be photographed, and who can blame them? It's a reminder that photojournalism is a tough job. On one hand, the goal is to illustrate realities that the public would otherwise never see. But on the other hand, the photographer runs the risk of being too invasive -- of exploiting people, to put it plainly. Maxon says the way around that double-edged sword is simple: Get to know the people and the place.

But how do you really get to know a place in just one day, or, in this case, two? It's a challenge that many photographers face these days as publication budgets shrink and, consequently, so do turnaround times. Is it worthwhile to photograph places that could really use a month of coverage -- if there's only money for half a week? The Picture Show thinks so ... but we're interested in your thoughts. You can leave them in the comments field below.

Find a young band you like, and grow old with them.

This is Robert M. Knight's advice to aspiring rock photographers. Back when he was getting his start, Knight says, his camera was a "crowbar, [a] pass code for getting and fitting into the music world." Nowadays, at least in the music world, a camera is more incriminating than it is empowering.

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Robert M. Knight has chronicled 40 years of rock 'n' roll with his camera.

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Knight lived in an era when, as long as you looked important, you could sneak in anywhere. He was the only photographer at a 1968 Jimi Hendrix show, and was gutsy enough to bring just one roll of film. That's 36 total frames, which, at the time, seemed like more than enough. Today, some photographers are shooting 20 frames per second.

He was the only photographer at Stevie Ray Vaughan's last performance in 1989. And he practically discovered Led Zeppelin. Needless to say, he's seen it all. Born in Hawaii to a Baptist minister, rock photography was an unlikely path. But Knight knew two things: He loved rock 'n' roll, and he couldn't play the guitar. Photography was his way in.

He continues his work today, much in the same way -- keeping an eye out for promising musicians, and following them as they grow. It's the focus of a recent documentary, Rock Prophecies, currently circulating through the indie movie scene. Knight says he can't help but feel nostalgic for both the heyday of rock 'n' roll, as well as the nascent, freewheeling form of rock photography. Fortunately for him, and us, he has an enormous collection of images to keep the memories alive.

Photography excerpted from Rock Gods: Forty Years of Rock Photography by Robert M. Knight (c) 2008. Published by Insight Editions. All rights reserved. Used with permission. www.InsightEditions.com

By Claire O'Neill

Lyle Owerko is a New York-based photographer, but he's also a historian. A boom box historian.

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Boom boxes.

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In this digitally dominated music culture, NPR Music producer Frannie Kelley reported on boombox nostalgia. She interviewed Owerko about his impressive collection, most of which remains delicately swathed in bubble wrap. Fortunately for us, he has photographed his beloved boxes of boom. Take a look at Owerko's photos, and be sure to hear Kelley's story on All Things Considered for a bigger boombox picture ... and sound.

For an exhaustive (and amazing) illustrated boombox history, check out this Web site.

By Claire O'Neill

Today marks the annual celebration of Earth Day that started in 1970. Here's an interesting look at our planet: aerials taken by GeoEye satellites. Headquartered in Dulles, Va., GeoEye is commissioned by various defense, intelligence, urban planning and environmental monitoring groups to keep an eye on Earthly developments. Take a look at some of the things this satellite has seen, from millions of swarming people on Inauguration Day to Ayers Rock to Versailles.

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View the world from above on Earth Day.

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By Claire O'Neill

National Geographic has a project called Infinite Photograph. It's a mosaic of user-submitted images and it's, well, infinite. Watch and learn!

By Claire O'Neill

The first Pulitzer Prize for photography was awarded to Milton Brooks for his photograph of a strike at Ford Motor Co. in 1943. In 1968, the award was split into two categories: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. This year's winners were announced yesterday.

The respective recipients were Damon Winter of The New York Times,for his series on the Obama campaign, and Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald, for his coverage of the destruction in Haiti caused by Hurricane Ike. Take a look at some of Winter's photos below.

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Damon Winter won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

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Images (c) Damon Winter, 2008, The New York Times.

View a gallery of Patrick Farrell's Haiti photos on the Pulitzer site. Other notable finalists include Carol Guzy of The Washington Post for her coverage of child birth in Sierra Leone, Sonya Hebert of The Dallas Morning News for her portrait of hospital care for the terminally ill, and Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times for her coverage of political violence in Kenya.

And check out more photos by past Pulitzer winners on the Newseum's Web site.

By Claire O'Neill

This may be old news by now, but it's still neat. It took 1,300 prints, which the user arranged and re-photographed, to tell the little story in this stop motion flick.

Your first reaction to this footage may be something like: "Huh?"
And your second reaction: "Anyone can string bananas to a tree!"
But let's be honest. Have you ever thought to do it? That's William Lamson's strength -- creating unlikely pairs in simple but surprising ways. He's a Brooklyn based artist, interested in photography, sculpture and performance. Using inexpensive materials and simple structures, he creates visuals that are mesmerizing and, in one word, playful.

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William Lamson is interested in photography, sculpture... and balloons.

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Lamson is interested in dueling forces, in movement and material, in how people interact with space. The photo series above, called "Intervention," emerged as a side project. He had been working with black balloons in a white studio and wanted to play with color and public space. He was also running low on materials, and wanted to experiment with things that anyone can use.

When I asked him about this first video, called "Emerge," I was expecting a fairly simple explanation like, "Oh, I just had scuba-diving friends holding balloons beneath the surface." But the response I received was far more technical, with an understanding of force and mechanics -- and an obvious fascination with how things work, and a knack for experimentation.

Lamson is currently preparing for an upcoming solo show at Pierogi, an exhibition space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which opens in May. Until then, check out his Web site for more video and photos.

by Claire O'Neill

"... Amy tried not to become a photographer. In fact, she was determined to be a musician."

So begins A.M. Homes' introduction to On The Street, a recently published body of Amy Arbus' street photography. Arbus is known for her 1980s photo series in a Village Voice newspaper style column called "On The Street." She was a documentarian of the most courageous downtown Manhattan trendsetters and scenesters.

Nearly 25 years later, Arbus has taken photos of many of her original subjects. In an NPR exclusive, the "now and then" photos can be seen together for the first time on our Picture Show blog.

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Amy Arbus was a street photographer in the 1980s. Many years later, she's photographed the same people.

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The 1980s images run the gamut; there's The Clash and Madonna as well as random passersby, who simply caught Arbus' eye. In the new photo series, the subjects are still on the street. Their attitudes are equally bold, but their wardrobe choices are decidedly different (gone is the fur bikini) -- with the exception of one subject who is still sporting a key-covered dress.

The daughter of two photographers, Amy wanted to do something different. She had inherited an eye for photography, and an eye for the unconventional from her mother, Diane Arbus. But she took a different focus, exploring how people used fashion as an expression of creativity. These fashion statements, and perhaps even the style of photography, may not be for everyone. But Arbus has made an undeniable impression on the world of street portraiture, and has left a lasting image of a distinct 1980s culture. An upcoming biographical documentary by John Spellos will give a more detailed look at how New York and the iconic subjects of On The Street have changed.

Photos (c) copyright Amy Arbus from "On The Street" (Welcome Books)

By Claire O'Neill

The Appalachian Photographers Project is a showcase for both established and emerging photographers from the Southeast. There are currently 14 featured artists, from a region that consists of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

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The Appalachian Photographers Project features established an emerging photographers from the South.

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At first glance, they may seem like ordinary photographs of ordinary people and things. And that's because they are. What's truly remarkable about this collection is the command of light, composition and mood that these photographers have mastered. It's a sense of slowness, endurance and simplicty -- and humor -- that comes across in these images.

A car drives behind a mobile home on the interstate, antique fiddles decorate a wall, underwear hangs to dry on a backyard clothesline: Each photo is a self-contained story, but this entire project will also preserve Appalachia in America's memory for years to come.

It's definitely worth checking out the Web site to learn more about the photographers, read their statements and view their full galleries. Each photographer has a collection of 20 images, which gives a much better idea of what this project is all about. Be sure to check out the Midwest counterpart, too.

By Claire O'Neill

The Hasselblad Foundation, founded in 1979, announced Tuesday that its annual award for outstanding achievement in photography will go to American Robert Adams.

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Robert Adams named 2009 Hasselblad Award winner.

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Adams, born in Orange, N.J., in 1937, has photographed almost exclusively the American West. His highly influential book The New West, published in 1974, was an exploration of new housing developments, of suburban sprawl, and the people who went West in search of new life. He also gained attention in 1975 when he participated in "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape," an exhibition that altered the course of both landscape and documentary photography.

Robert Adams, Photo by Kerstin Adams

"Over four decades, Robert Adams' work has carefully and systematically documented the impact of human activity on the land, not simply to condemn it but to find in its often tragic overtones something of what he has called the 'persistent beauty' in the way the earth adapts and heals itself," says the prize announcement.

"As much as it surveys broad vistas and wide open spaces, bathed in pristine light, Adams' everyday world has equally been one of supermarkets, motels, parking lots and tract housing, the physical parameters of an ordinary life that he consistently reveals to be extraordinary."

Past Hasselblad winners include Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon and Cindy Sherman. An exhibition of Adams' photographs will open on Nov. 6, at the foundation's exhibition hall, Hasselblad Center in Sweden.

Images (c) Robert Adams, courtesy The Hasselblad Foundation.

By Claire O'Neill

A photographer's job is to document life -- both the big moments and the small. Tim Mantoani has taken it a step further: He's photographing photographers with their photographs! His series, "Behind Photographs," is currently on exhibit at the ongoing Month of Photography Los Angeles event.

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Tim Mantoani is photographing photographers with their famous photographs.

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Although the photos are recognizable, the people hiding behind the lens usually aren't. Mantoani wanted to pay homage to the creators of some of the most iconic, timeless images. It was a mammoth endeavor, not only because of his subjects -- all photographic giants -- but also because of his equipment choice. There are only six of these 235-pound, five-foot-tall, 20-by-24 Polaroid cameras in the world, and Mantoani used one of them to take his portraits. It's an homage, then, to the photographers, to their photographs, and also to a dwindling photographic medium.

Check out the Month of Photography Los Angeles Web site to learn more about the event, which runs until the end of April. The month-long celebration of photography is definitely worth exploring.

By Claire O'Neill

Photographer Scott Strazzante spent nearly a decade on his story "Common Ground." It begins in 2002 as Jean and Harlow Cagwin of Lockport, Ill., say goodbye to their 118-acre cattle farm. A few years later, the Grabenhofer family moves into what has become a housing development, their house just yards from where the Cagwins once lived. Watch it here.

Strazzante met the Cagwins in 1994 while doing a story on family farming for a suburban newspaper. He developed a relationship with the Cagwins and continued to visit them through the years. What began as a documentary on a family farm evolved into a bigger-picture story on suburban sprawl.

It's a simple but powerful vignette about the unforgiving forces of change. But it's also about those things that are enduring, that connect one generation to another, that render a farming couple and a suburban family not so different after all. In Strazzante's words, it's a story about land, but it's also about those who live on it. "People are people," he says. "It doesn't matter if you're a cattle farmer or a 5-year-old triplet. ... We all want the same things out of life."

MediaStorm is a multimedia production studio based in New York City. With a formidable team of producers, writers and designers, they have put together some of the most compelling multimedia projects in the industry, from investigative stories on poaching to documentaries on Mexican tequila. Check out their site here.

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Common Ground: photographer Scott Strazzante followed this lot of land from farm to suburb..

By Claire O'Neill

Camilo Jose Vergara has been photographing America's urban neighborhoods for more than 30 years. He's often compared to Jacob Riis, one of the first and most famous social documentarians of the last century. Riis published the groundbreaking work of photojournalism How The Other Half Lives in 1890. And just a few years ago, Vergara published his How The Other Half Worships. Listen to the radio story here.

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Vergara is interested in how places change -- how storefronts become churches, and how churches change identity from one religion to another. In going through his archives, something else caught his eye: images of Jesus from all over the country. Although not a religious person, Vergara has found great significance in the diversity of these images, and in the commonalities. He wanted to tell a story, but decided to let the Bible do the work. Arranged in the order of the Passion of Christ, these images also tell the story of, as Vergara puts it, "an American passion." Put your headphones on and listen to his commentary.

On his site, you can explore places like Harlem, N.Y., and Camden, N.J., which he has painstakingly documented building by building, block by block, year after year. And an upcoming exhibit at the National Building Museum in D.C. will feature his photos of Storefront Churches.

By Claire O'Neill

"For the first seven years of her life, Danielle never saw the sun, felt the wind or tasted solid food. She was kept in a closet in a Plant City apartment, cloistered in darkness, left in a dirty diaper, fed only with a bottle. 'She was a feral child,' said Carolyn Eastman of the Heart Gallery of Tampa Bay. 'We'd never seen a case like that.' "

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Photographer Melissa Lyttle of the St. Petersburg Times submitted this story in the Best of Photojournalism contest hosted by the National Press Photographers Association.

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Photographer Melissa Lyttle of the St. Petersburg Times, founder of aphotoaday, submitted this story in the Best of Photojournalism contest hosted by the National Press Photographers Association. She was awarded Best Published Picture Story for her piece on Danielle's growth and development. View the winning photo series here. And be sure to check out the full report, which includes audio and video.

Images (c) Melissa Lyttle.

Connecticut's undefeated women's basketball team won last night's NCAA National Championship against the Louisville Cardinals. Learn more about their impressive season here. And check out this photo gallery of last night's game, and more.

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Curated by British photographer Stuart Pilkington, The 50 States Project is the collaborative endeavor of 50 photographers in, you guessed it, 50 American states.

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Every two months, the photographers are given an assignment; within two months, they must produce one image. "People" was the first of four assignments that will be doled out this year. It resulted in 50 different images that, at least conceptually, represent both the state and the photographer's style. Here's a selection of images from the first assignment. Read more about the project here.

Each year, the National Press Photographers Association hosts its prestigious Best of Photojournalism contest. Visual journalists from all over the world submit their content for review, and this year's winners were announced a few days ago. Here's a selection of some of the winning still images.

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Natural Environment:
David Slater, ZUMA Press
The Road to Office:
David Burnett, Contact Press Images for People
Best of Show:
Walter Astrada, AFP
Nontraditional Photojournalism Publishing:
Jenn Ackerman, freelancer
Photojournalist of the Year (large markets):
Walter Astrada, Time Magazine
Photojournalist of the Year (small markets):
James Gregg, Arizona Daily Star
Natural Disaster 2008:
Zou Sen, ZUMA Press
International News:
Paul Hansen, Dagens Nyheter
Enterprise Picture Story, smaller markets:
Ramin Rahimian, freelancer
News Portrait and Personality:
Jay L. Clendenin, Los Angeles Times
Best Published Picture Story, large markets:
Melissa Lyttle, St. Petersburg Times

Images courtesy of the National Press Photographers Association. View all NPPA winners here.

Gregg Gillis, commonly known by his stage moniker Girl Talk, specializes in mashup remixes in which he combines the likes of Ace of Base, Queen and Radiohead into one song. Kutiman, YouTube afficionado, has a new take on the mashup. He mixes various homegrown YouTube videos into one funky montage of sound and video:

In 1912, The mayor of Tokyo gave 3,000 cherry trees to the city of Washington, D.C. in a diplomatic gesture of goodwill. The U.S. government then returned the favor in 1915, giving Japan a gift of flowering dogwood trees. For only a few weeks each spring, the nation's capital blushes white and pink with flowering cherry blossom trees.

The exchange is commemorated each year with a two-week Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C., attracting more than a million tourists. The festival continues until April 12 this year. From sunrise to sundown, NPR video producer John Poole gathered footage of this transient, vernal beauty. Check out the video accompanied by a traditional Japanese folk song "Sakura" (or "flowering cherry tree"). Make sure your surroundings are padded, as you may slip into deep relaxation.

"Sakura"
Arranged by Kozaburo Y. Hirai
performed by Kyoko Okamoto
from "Sakura: A Musical Celebration of the Cherry Blossoms" / Smithsonian
Folkways Recordings
Used with permission.

Those who lament the price of cameras really have no excuse. Pinhole cameras can be made for practically nothing. They're the simplest of cameras, usually consisting of a box with a single minuscule hole, photographic paper and no lens. Former Rocky Mountain News photographer Wes Pope, for example, made his out of used soda cans.

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This collection, which can be found on his website, has been in progress since 1998. It takes us across historic Route 66, on a tour of sundry roadside Americana. There's even a portrait of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Pope told me, "Roy looked at my soda can cameras and declared, 'I ain't never hear that one before.' Dale hit him in the arm and said, 'He's probably telling you the truth.' And the couple agreed to meet me in the parking lot to sit for a portrait. Roy passed away a few weeks later and Dale a year after that."

"I like the distortion created by the curved film inside the can," Pope says. Perhaps this is the best way to photograph a road trip. The images are blurry and distorted, just like memories, and the sequence conveys something like the America of our dreams.

Learn how to make your own pinhole camera here.

 

Images (c) copyright Wes Pope.

By Claire O'Neill