• Head to American University Museum for an opening reception tomorrow night, 6-9 p.m. The six new exhibitions include one featuring Volkmar Wentzel’s photography that spanned 48 years working with National Geographic.
• PBS looks into how Polaroid pioneered the instant photography revolution.
• Join Capital Photography Center for a class on real estate and architectural photography tomorrow, 2-5 p.m., $99 or check out their full schedule to see all the classes coming up soon.
• Food photographer Sunny Frantz shares tips for taking better food shots and photography trends she’s watching on The Corner Table podcast.
• Photographers Jim Hollander and Rina Castelnuovo have spent two years finding Holocaust survivors and professional photographers to take their portraits all around the world.
• JoAnn Lord Koff’s “Camera Eyes: On Poetry” exhibit at Center for the Arts at the Candy Factory blends her photography and poetry; the exhibit runs through February 5.
• Lenne Chai’s fictional retro photo series “A Singaporean 377A Wedding” challenges Singapore’s resistance to same-sex marriage.
• The National Archives altered a photo of the 2017 Women’s March that was used in an exhibit about the 19th Amendment by blurring some anti-Trump signs and ones that referred to female anatomy. The archives issued an apology for doing so and will replace the image used with the original, unaltered image.
• Aleksey Myakishev documents everyday life in Russia through monochromatic images.

As 2020 gets underway, we’re hard at work preparing another great annual photography show for you all! Make sure to save the date for our big opening reception on Wednesday, February 19 from 6-9 p.m. at Touchstone Gallery. Now on to some Friday Links…

• Present Tense: DC Punk and DIY Right Now, featuring the work of Farrah Skeiky, opens on Friday, January 18 at Transformer with a reception from 6-8 p.m. 
• Initial reports indicate photography trends for 2020 will include more “real and raw” images, bold colors, and use of photography to support more causes. 
• 202Creates is accepting applications for The Creative Affairs Office Residency Program: Session 5, Winter 2020. Applications are due by the end of the month.
• A photographer visiting Qatar in late December captured an annular eclipse at sunrise that took on a more sinister look given the conditions of the day.
• In need of a new headshot? The Vibe Room is offering free headshots at WeWork Chinatown on January 23 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
• Join Washington DC History & Culture for a guided tour of the Rosa Parks exhibition and Library of Congress next Saturday, January 18 from 9:15-11:15 a.m., $10.
• A traffic camera in Montreal captured footage of a snowy owl looking for a spot to perch.
• The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is hosting a talk on how social media is changing the social conditions for women in Iran and the role of the camera in art and daily life, this Sunday from 4-5 p.m.

Earlier this week, we announced the winning images of our 14th annual photo contest. We can’t wait to see all of the photos on display at Touchstone Gallery when our show opens on Wednesday, February 19. Save the date! We are also excited to announce that the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has awarded Exposed DC (Ten Miles Square) a grant to support our annual exhibition. We’ll have more updates soon, so stay tuned. 

• Join Geoff Livingston for a Capital Photography Center class on night photography at Georgetown GLOW on December 28, 4:30-6:00 p.m., $99.
• On January 8, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is hosting an evening with artist Janaina Tschäpe who will be discussing her “100 Little Deaths” series, $20-30 to reserve a spot.
• Focus on the Story is accepting proposals for presenting at their 2020 Visual Storytelling Summit slated for May 28-31. Submit your proposal by January 17 to share your idea for an engaging, inspirational, and thought-provoking talk.
• Editors at The New York Times cull down 500,000 photos to 116 for their annual visual review highlighting the biggest news events and strongest images. And we all thought curating the Exposed DC annual show was a challenge; that’s a lot of culling!
• St. Louis native Adrian Octavius Walker was selected by The National Portrait Gallery as one of seven artists around the country to win the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. His portrait “Black Virgin Mary” is currently on display and will tour galleries across the U.S. starting in 2021.  
• Elsa Bleda moved around a lot ever since she was a child, and she was inspired to capture what she saw in the various places she lived, which eventually turned into a full-time passion as seen in her project “Fragments of Nightscapes: Johannesburg.”
• The New Yorker shares their favorite photographs from 2019, from photojournalism to creative imagery accompanying short fiction pieces.