Take some of your holiday time off to enter our 12th annual photo contest. Show us what you love about living in the D.C. area. And now, enjoy our last Friday Links of the year. See you in 2018!

• Every publication is pushing out their end-of-year lists, so get your fill of 2017’s best photography at the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, TIME magazine, and Getty photographers.
• Annie Leibovitz is offering her first-ever online photography course.
• The Museum of Selfies opens in Los Angeles this January, but at least the organizers seem to have a sense of humor about it.
• Engineers at Dartmouth claim to have made a breakthrough in imaging sensor technology for high-quality, low-light photography.
• The late actor Anton Yelchin turned out to be quite the secret photographer. See his work in W Magazine or in a new exhibit in Chelsea through January 20.
• In Houston Aristocracy v. Instagrammers, the score is currently 0-1.
• ICYMI: This look into the life of renowned art bookmaker Gerhard Steidl from May made Longreads’ best profiles of the year list. Steidl “summons the world’s most influential artists and photographers to his workshop for days of emotional terrorism in service of books that are, in the words of photographer Edward Burtynsky, ‘the haute couture of printing.’ Depending on how you read [the profile], it’s an artistic fairy tale, a psychological horror movie, or some kind of thrilling fusion of the two.”

From cooler temperatures and our first snow of the season to a bunch of Santa Clauses roaming around town, it’s starting to feel like winter is actually here. You know what that means. It’s time to enter our annual photography contest! Now on to Friday Links…

• The Atlantic is asking photographers what they think is the most influential photograph in history.
• Peek-a-boo orangutans, fluffy flamingo babies, and stunning canyons make up the winning images in National Geographic’s 2017 nature photography contest.
• Oh thank goodness? There’s a photography element to the Cat Person story.
• The critic for the Guardian shares his top ten photography exhibitions of the year.
• Head to Blind Whino on Saturday for the closing party for the Best of IGDC competition.
• We are so grateful that the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards comes through at just the right time to close the year.
• Travel photographer Daniele Cagnazzo captures stunning images of the Middle East at night.
• View the finalists for this year’s Art of Building architectural photography competition.
• Sign up for an upcoming class or special event from the Capital Photography Center. There are holiday-related ones if you’re looking to get in the spirit. Or you might try one of these at Glen Echo Park.
• Google launched three new photography apps this week.
• Smartphones designed to take more flattering selfies along with beautifying apps installed on over a billion phones. More on China’s selfie obsession in this long read.

Our annual photo contest is open! You don’t want to miss this chance to be part of our celebration of life in D.C. with our spring exhibit. This is our 12th year, so get ready for some surprises. Find all the information here, and show us your best shots.

• Today, Glen Echo Photoworks Gallery opens its third annual exhibit from their regular Coffee & Critique members. Join them for a reception this Sunday, 4 to 6 p.m. They’re also offering holiday portraits with your family this Saturday for a donation to the gallery.
• Berlin-based photography team Billy and Hells created the emotional portraits that accompany Time magazine’s Person of the Year issue, featuring “The Silence Breakers” who spoke out about sexual harassment this year.
• Los Angeles Times staff photographer Marcus Yam captured the devastation of the Southern California wildfires this week in one iconic image.
• Let’s get the end-of-year lists started with The Atlantic’s top 25 news photos of 2017.
• Photographer Amy Davis shows how Baltimore’s theaters have changed over the decades.
• Norwich University of the Arts looks to reinvent the traditional photography degree with a focus on individuality and creating a visual voice.
• Photographer provides rural Cambodian villagers with first portraits of themselves through the charity, My First Selfie.
• Émile Zola, best known as an author, also spent the last eight years of his life obsessed with photography and was taking his own selfies back around 1900.

• FotoWeekDC is coming to a close this weekend, but there’s still some time to catch events and exhibits happening all over the city. View their calendar for more information.
• Panda dolphins, gentoo penguin babies, and aurora australis are on display in this photo gallery from Antarctica.
• The photo exhibit “Remembering Vietnam” opened last Friday at the National Archives.
• Teju Cole writes for the New York Times Magazine that “The History of Photography is a History of Shattered Glass.”
• Eirini Vourloumis’ documentary photography series, In Waiting, explores the impact of financial crisis on Greece.
• Latif Al Ani is considered the “founding father of Iraqi photography.” The British Journal of Photography highlights his life and work, and if you’re lucky, you can see his images on display in London next month.
• The editor-in-chief of National Geographic Magazine talks about how the publication is adapting in a digital world.
• A 1982 documentary, Dave Burnett / On Assignment, from PBS appeared online this week.
• Mike Kelley, the photographer behind the viral composite photograph of planes at LAX, presents another unique perspective on planes…from directly above in a hired helicopter.
• Smithsonian.com puts Pete Souza’s work into the context of presidential photography.
• From the 1800s through today, photographers can’t seem to get enough of trees.
• Have you considered the ethics of landscape photography lately?
• Kimiko Nishimoto may have had a late start in photography, but the 89-year-old is making up for lost time and having lots of fun with it.