We hope you all enjoy some down time during the holidays, and use some of it to enter our 11th annual photography contest before the deadline on January 11. We’re already getting the big show together for March, and you don’t want to miss it.

And now it’s time for some eggnog, latkes, and Friday Links:

• This week we were immersed in the powerful images by AP photographer Burhan Ozbilici, who was on the scene when the Russian ambassador was shot in Turkey on Monday, getting this incredible image of the gunman as it went down. Vulture has a surprisingly interesting discussion comparing the series of photos to classical paintings of violence.
• A new documentary explores famed Scottish photographer Harry Benson’s life’s work (limited release outside the D.C. area; also for purchase on iTunes and elsewhere), which The Atlantic is previewing with a slideshow of his greatest hits.
• A photo op for those staying in town this weekend: Santa waterskiing on the Potomac.
• Karim Bouchetata captured gorgeous images of the first Sahara desert snow in 40 years.
• NASA released this 10-frame composite image of the International Space Station crossing the sun.
• “This image has magnificent little details.”
• The New York Times’ Year in Pictures is rough but necessary. The Washington Post picks their 87 best photos of the year. This might be a good time to think about subscribing to your favorite newspaper of record to support photojournalism: Washington Post; New York Times.
• Adding to the end of year links, here are National Geographic’s Best Photos of 2016.
• We missed this spectacular vampire cat back in November.
• Photographer Platon talks about taking images of 44 immigrants for the latest New York magazine cover story.
• Smithsonian has a list of 10 exhibits you should see over the holidays, with plenty of photography.
• Buzzfeed collected a set of photos that illustrate how climate change is affecting terrain around the world.
• “I have captured moments of grief and suffering, but mostly I found dignity and often joy.” Twenty-two-year-old photojournalist Alice Aedy shares the stories behind her encounters with refugee children.
• Parklife DC picks its 10 favorite local concert photos of 2016, including several by Exposed alum Paivi Solonen.
• Burger Days has their picks for Best Burgers of the Year but we vote them best mouthwatering burger photography of the year.

 

Did you enter our 11th annual photo contest yet? You’ve got until January 11, but don’t dilly dally! Submit your photos that show the D.C. metro area through the eyes of people who live, work, and love here. Winning images will go on display in our spring exhibit–always a terrific community celebration.

Now, get your link on:

• Fantastic job alert: The National Museum of African American History and Culture is hiring a conservator for its photo department.
• Who knew we’d have a reason to link to that incredible New York Times report on Russian hacking and its influence on the presidential election in Friday Links? Turns out there was a little misunderstanding between what qualifies as news photography versus portraiture with poetic license when Justin T. Gellerson photographed the infamous file cabinet at the center of the Watergate scandal.
• As hacking becomes more prevalent, photojournalists demand encrypted cameras.
• National Geographic announced the winners of its 2016 contest. The Atlantic has plucked its favorites for a must-see gallery.
• Check out these super pics of @tinyfellas, “an ongoing micro-installation series based in DC.”
• PDN interviews photographer Josué Rivas, who’s been documenting Standing Rock since the summer.
• Stunning noir photos of actors and actresses by Jack Davison in the New York Times Magazine.
• Nick Ulivieri’s gorgeous photos of sea smoke rising over Lake Michigan.
• Local food photographer Rey Lopez created a true Americana slideshow as he followed Eater DC’s Tim Ebner on a sober jumbo slice crawl.
• Switching to British Christmas food, the world’s largest mince pie factory in Barnsley, Yorkshire, produces 720 pies a minute.
• WIRED followed around the “obsessive mushroom hunters” of New York City.
• Photographer Paul Bannick documents “the hardships and resilience of the 19 regular North American owl species” in his new book.
• Lion cubs, sprinting giraffes, and curious jackals: Click over immediately to this slideshow from wildlife photographer Anup Shah’s visit to a Kenyan National Reserve.
• 45 photos of Corgis in an ugly Christmas sweater parade in Seattle. Arf arf.

Enter our 11th annual photo contest! We want to see images that show us the D.C. metro area through the eyes of people who live, work, and love here. Get your photos in by January 11 for a chance to be in our spring exhibit–always a fantastic celebration of our community.

Now on to Friday Links:

• Astronaut, aviator, Senator, and American legend John Glenn died Thursday at 95. See photo tributes at Air & Space Magazine, New York Times, and Buzzfeed.
• The New Republic published an incredible photo essay on the impending future of native Alaskan villages called “The End of Ice,” with images by Katie Orlinsky and text by environmentalist Bill McKibbon.
• “Why is narrative such a difficult concept for young photographers to master?”
• This is a strangely fascinating look inside the world of Instagram “influencers.”
• NASA’s Cassini mission is nearing its end, but before it plunges into Saturn next year, the spacecraft changed orbits to dive in and out of the ring system, getting some of the closest looks at the planet yet.
• It hasn’t been the best year to reflect on, but hopefully you took lots of cat pictures. Plug in your Instagram name to see your “best nine” photos from 2016.
• Earlier this week at the Miami Street Photography Festival, photography greats Martin Parr, Richard Kavlar, and Tomasz Lezar got together to live-critique some images.
• Flickr announced the top photos, cameras, and tags in the Flickr community for 2016. Perhaps most interesting is the top ten camera types used – the top seven is comprised of various iPhone models, with the first DSLR coming in at number eight.
• New settings on Instagram allow you to ‘like’ comments, and turn them off completely.
• Adobe Lightroom’s latest update to its iPhone app includes some great new features, like one-handed editing.
• Thanks, science! Researchers at Stanford made tiny adorable safety goggles for this bird so they could study it in flight with lasers.

 

Roll up, roll up! Sign up now for one of our free photography classes with Knowledge Commons DC. While Sarah Hodzic’s terrific Holga photography class is full, there’s still space to learn how to photograph airplanes at Gravelly Point with Chris Williams this Saturday, and registration opened this morning for our street photography class with Mukul Ranjan next weekend!

Meanwhile, next Wednesday is kind of a big deal. December 7 marks the launch of our 11th annual photography contest! So please join us from 6 to 8 p.m., upstairs at 801 Restaurant & Bar for a special happy hour to celebrate!! Check back around lunchtime on the 7th for the rules and how to submit.

Now back to your regularly scheduled linkage:

• William Christenberry, the former Corcoran painting teacher best known for his photographs of buildings in rural Alabama, has died aged 80.
• Local photographer and Exposed alum Joe Newman has launched a new website, Focus on the Story. Browse through two of the latest photo stories: The Hairdressers by Chris Suspect and Trumpland by Dimitrios Manis.
• And there’s a brand new collective in town that counts several past Exposed winners among its members. Albert Ting, Amanda Archibald, Andrew Golda, Brooke Linkow, Emily Long, Genna Byrd and Quynh Tonnu are The Rooftop Collective. Their debut photography show DCxRTC opens Wednesday, December 14 at Black Whiskey.
• Go see the new exhibit “I See! I See!” at the Washington Printmakers Gallery with photographs by Danny Schweers, opening November 30. Attend a reception Dec. 3, 1 to 5.p.m, and a slideshow and artist lecture Dec. 4, 3 p.m.
• Artomatic has announced they’ll be returning to Crystal City in 2017, the first time since 2012. Artists are sure to appreciate the closer and more metro-accessible location, after two events farther out in Maryland. You can still catch the current show in Park Potomac through December 9.
• Security firm Check Point has identified a new threat, dubbed ImageGate, which embeds malware in JPG files on social networks.
• Time Magazine publishes what they deem the 100 most influential photographs of all time. Curbed is pretty happy about Julius Shulman’s iconic Los Angeles architecture image making the list. They also picked their favorite photo books of 2016.
• In his new photobook Burn Zone, veteran photographer Danny Lyon takes on climate change, sharing names and phone numbers of “climate criminals” including Vice President-elect Mike Pence and the Koch brothers.The book is available on his site as a free PDF, and in print for $25.
• The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter — say that ten times quickly — sent back its first high resolution images of the red planet last week.
• Two elephants that were kept in captivity for 80 years were freed from their owners and released into Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park.
• “The beaver was apprehended at a dollar store in Charlotte Hall, Md., the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, apparently after browsing the selection of artificial Christmas trees and trashing the place.” The Washington Post, still doing local news right.

Be sure to head down to our Crystal City FotoWalk exhibit to enjoy the work of 12 local photographers.

• FotoweekDC is nearing its end, so catch what you can soon. At least stop by headquarters at National Geographic to see winners from the annual contest, a fantastic WPOW show, and an exhibit of NatGeo’s most popular Instagrams.
• DISTRICT II, an exhibition by the Historical Society of Washington D.C. of three local photographers from the mid- to late-20th century, opens Saturday at the National Building Museum.
• It’s officially last minute, but you can still get tickets to the 13th annual Transformer Silent Auction, one of the biggest art supporting events of the year, for Saturday night.
• “Video-art pioneer Bill Viola believes that cameras are the keepers of souls.” An exhibit of Viola’s work, “The Moving Portrait,” opens at the National Portrait Gallery today.
• “All Cameras are Good Cameras,” says this A+ headline for a story about a photo taken by Devon Allen during Baltimore’s Freddie Gray protests that shows how social media can further social change.
• A gallery of the “Beaver” Supermoon from around the world.
• The Guardian has some incredible before and after pictures of a ridiculously huge sinkhole in Japan that was fixed in two days.
• The deadline for the Los Angeles Times summer photo/video journalist internship is December 1.
• Need holiday gifts that show your love for D.C.? Get a framed print of one of the many wonderful past Exposed winners.
• Watch this polar bear pet a dog, as one does.