Thank you to everyone who submitted to our annual photography contest! This past year or so has been like none other and is sure to make for a unique show. We look forward to seeing how you documented everything that transpired as well as captured your own personal experience through photography. We’ll be announcing the winners of this year’s contest next week and hope you’ll join us for a virtual happy hour on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. as we mark 15 years of celebrating local photography! 

• Gemina Garland-Lewis shares how she learned to love bird photography, thanks to a “competitive collaboration.” 
• Leica asserts that the world needs witnesses in their first global brand ad campaign in 10 years. The video features images from photographers all around the world, including Exposed alum Chris Suspect.
• ARTnews shares a list of books on photography to inspire, inform, and entertain.
• Exposed alum Michael Ryan spent over two years walking and biking in every neighborhood of D.C. to document the murals of the city. He compiled the results into a print, with each mural in the quadrant where it is located, which is available for purchase in various formats. All of the proceeds are donated to Artolution, a nonprofit that works with children displaced by conflicts around the world to create murals in the refugee camps and cities in which they live.
• Cornell Watson was laid off from his day job in human resources midway through 2020 and is now a full time photographer shooting for publications like The New York Times and Washington Post and pursuing personal projects with grant funding.
• Charles McQuillan’s panoramic photographs show Belfast in lockdown, as Northern Ireland’s coronavirus lockdown is to be extended to March 5.
• A forgotten pinhole camera made from a beer can captured what is thought to be the longest exposure ever made–eight years and one month.
• Focus on the Story extended the deadline for entries for their new book, “Transition: The End of an UnPresidented Four Years” to this Sunday night at 11:59 p.m.

It’s the last weekend before our 2021 photography contest closes. Be sure to submit your best images of the D.C. metro area by Wednesday, January 27 at 11:59 p.m.! We look forward to reviewing all of the submissions and announcing the winners in early February.

• Winning images from the Life in Another Light photo contest explore how things look from a different perspective and how light can expand our imagination and creative potential. 
• Sign up for the Center for Photographic Art’s online artist talk with David Freese where he’ll discuss getting a photography book published on Friday, January 29–free for members and $10 for others. Note that times listed may be in a different time zone.
• Focus on the Story invites you to submit images that tell the story of the end of the Trump presidency and the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration for their book, “Transition: The End of an UnPresidented Four Years,” which is being funded through a Kickstarter campaign.
• Photojournalists documented the inauguration of Joe Biden on Wednesday as well as the related events around the city.
• Join Leica Store DC today at 4 p.m. on Zoom for Cameras, Coffee & Conversation with D.C. based freelance photojournalist, David Butow.
• Buffalo-based photographer Doug Levere takes viewers up close and personal with incredibly detailed shots of snowflakes.
• The 15th Annual Washington Gardener Magazine Photo Contest closes today at midnight. 
• Actor Jason Lee discusses his new photo book “In The Gold Dust Rush,” a collection of black and white images shot throughout the midwest from 2008-2020.
• Flickr announced the winners of “Your Best Shot 2020” earlier this week. Ten finalists were selected from over 18,000 submissions.

There is so much more to Washington, D.C. than the federal government, but there are times when we can’t escape having history go down in our own backyard. When rioters broke into the Capitol building on Wednesday, photographers put their lives at risk to report out what was really happening on the ground. We know many of you were out this week and will continue to be through the Presidential Inauguration, and we want you to know how much we appreciate your documentation of these unprecedented times. Stay safe and keep pressing on, D.C.

• Our annual Exposed DC Photography Show contest deadline is coming up on Wednesday, January 27. Send in your images that highlight life in D.C. over the last, very strange year.
• Four years ago, Focus on the Story documented the Trump inauguration in a photo project that resulted in the book, “UnPresidented.” This week, they launched the follow-up project “Transition,” which will document the final days of the Trump presidency and the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
• Join the Library of Congress on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. for an online exploration of the work and accomplishments of John Wood, the first United States’ federal government photographer.
• The 15th Annual Washington Gardener Magazine Photo Contest is accepting entries through January 22 in four categories: garden views, garden vignettes, small wonders, and garden creatures. The fee to enter is $20, or $15 for magazine subscribers, and includes up to 10 images per entrant. 
• Join the Analog Photography Fireside Chat this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EST for a free 1-hour webinar where participants can also ask questions of panelists. 
• Richard Silver captures space in unique and unexpected ways, as seen through the work in his upcoming “Vertical Churches” book which he talks about on My Modern Met’s Top Artist Podcast this week.
• Paul Cupido’s Japan photo series finds beauty in emptiness.
• Award-winning aerial photographer Brad Walls’ new series “Ballerine de l’air” was inspired by Olive Cotton’s 1935 photograph, “Tea cup ballet.”

Happy New Year! As we kick off 2021, we invite you to share your favorite images that showcase what it’s like to live, love, and work in the D.C. metro area by entering our 15th annual photography contest! The deadline for entries is January 27 so you still have time to look over the images you’ve already taken or get inspired to create new ones that capture the beginning of this new year. Either way, we can’t wait to see this place we call home through your eyes!

• The New York Times recaps the strangeness and surreality of 2020 through images.
• Photographer Polly Irungu wanted to find a way to spotlight and support Black women photographers, so she created a community and database to do just that.
• A photo of two widowed penguins appearing to comfort one another in Australia was selected as one of the winners in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards.
• New Atlas gathered their favorite images from the top photography competitions of the last 12 months.
• In the December 1955 issue, Popular Mechanics hopped in the cockpit with photographers of a growing profession called “jetography.”
• Video games have incorporated virtual photography, and Cyberpunk 2077 is even holding a photo contest for players: Shutterpunk 2077. 
• Earlier this month, Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer together in the sky than they have in centuries; Jason De Freitas photographed the Great Conjunction event, capturing the International Space Station appearing to fly between the glowing planets.
• The Phillips Collection’s Community in Focus photography project is now available in an online exhibition format.