Historical

The untimely passing of Robin Williams at the still-young age of 63 sent shock waves around the world last week. Based on the outpouring of love for "Mork" on social media, it was evident that no matter your age, Robin was most likely a fixture in your upbringing. His acting brilliance ranged from the side splitting comedy "Mrs. Doubtfire" to the chillingly dramatic roles in "Good Will Hunting" and "Dead Poets Society." Robin could do it all on screen, but could be even more entertaining off screen, when he wasn't tied down to a script. He would often explode into comedic rants that would include character after character, all seemingly without stopping to take a breath. There was no doubt that the man was brilliant.

Note: This is Part One. For Part Two: Beyond the Basics, click here.

Composition – it’s perhaps one of the most important elements of photography. And with today’s technological marvels in lenses, it’s an even easier thing to forget – especially when bokehliciousis is so much more fun to talk about. Your composition is how you see – and that makes it infinitely more important than how out of focus the background is.

Every one of us, in some way, has had our lives impacted by George Eastman. Founding Eastman Kodak in 1888, he set out to change how people photographed. He began by creating the first roll of film in 1884 - a departure from the traditional method of using glass plates and a sink. One year later, he put that roll of film into the first Eastman camera. These were the first steps of a 20-year quest that would lead him to his most iconic camera...the Brownie.

This spectacular series of postcards are from a private collection owned by graphic designer and photographer, Marc Walter. Walter specializes in vintage travel photographs and has one of the largest collections in the world. This collection has been compiled into a new book entitled, An American Odyssey. The photochroms started out as glass negatives such as this: Mississippi Landing, Vicksburg

thinkTank's ongoing series, "About A Photo," is a tremendous peek into the process of some amazing photographers. The series has the featured photographer narrate the story of one of their images. In this episode, William Albert Allard speaks about his photograph of a cowboy named Stan and why he doesn't take a photo of someone - but into them.

In this episode of National Geographic Live! Peter Essick talks about the journey of creating his new book, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, and what it's like to pay tribute to (and follow in the tripod holes of) perhaps the greatest nature photographer to walk the planet. The work interprets the influence of Adams' work for a digital age, capturing the Sierra Nevada wilderness in a manner that can only be described as timeless.

The 1985 Amiga computer launch conference, demonstrated its graphics software by having Andy Warhol photoshop Blondie's lead singer, live, on his first ever computer.

The iconic Windows XP wallpaper "Bliss" is widely considered to be the world's most viewed image. Though most of us are familiar with the beautiful image that has graced our computers at one point or another, not many are familiar with the story of how it came to be, and fewer yet that it is in fact a real image captured on film! Photographer Charles O'Rear shares with us the story behind how he created the image with nothing more than his Mamiya RZ67 and a roll of Fuji Film.

In 1991, NASA sent out a hacked Nikon F3 with a Kodak digital back out into space. The camera was called the Kodak Hawkeye II. I was born in 1993 and even in that time, this kind of technology was almost unheard of.

At 60,000 years old, the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest, longest-running culture on Earth. Amy Toensing photographed them for National Geographic, lending her intimately deep sense of storytelling to the sad and tragic history of their culture and the bond they share with their land.

"All good things must come to an end." It's a common theme throughout this special by National Geographic in which we follow Steve McCurry on his quest of shooting the last roll of Kodak Kodachrome film ever made. It's a pretty daunting and heavy assignment to be sure - one McCurry is no stranger to. That fact is even more apparent when we learn that it was McCurry who asked for the final roll.

Polish photographer Emil Stankiewicz’s has created a unique, handmade Talbotype camera nicknamed Idlozi, which means “window to your heritage soul.” Each unique image captured by the wooden camera starts as a paper negative which is then rephotographed with the same box camera to yield a positive print. The camera also known as a “street camera” or “á la minute camera” are inspired by Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype, the British inventor who was able to create a paper negative from which positive prints could be contact printed.

In 1985 there were approximately 40 recorded felonies on the New York City subway system. Every single day. It's a wonder how young photographer Chris Morris mustered the courage to set off on to the mean (subterranean) streets and begin months of personal project work documenting the New York subway.

A while ago we wrote about the Kickstarter project aimed at bringing the historic Petzval Lens to modern day 35mm DSLRs. Shortly after another Kickstarter was launched to bring this Petzval to the medium format crowd. While off the shelf options such as these can appeal to the masses there remain a few inventive photographers such as Dr. Dirk HR Spennemann who prefer to mix their passion for photography and history with some good old ingenuity to bring us a project simply called "The Antique Camera Simulator".

Some four thousand custom tintype portraits, countless Polaroids and more than 30 gallery shows but after four years in business, Photobooth San Francisco is closing its doors at the end of March 2014. One of the few commercial studios selling custom hand-made tintypes, Photo Booth, located on Valencia Street, has been a favorite and easy place to have a one-of-a-kind metal portrait made.

A group of conservators restoring one of the century old supply depots established by Robert Falcon Scott during his expedition to the South Pole found more than they bargained for. In the corner of one of the huts lay a solid block of ice containing 22 negatives that have been quite well preserved for an entire century.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Capa, the iconic war photographer and Magnum Photos co-founder whose life, documented in the autobiography Slightly Out of Focus, is the stuff of legend. Capa's centenary has brought with it a number of undiscovered treasures from his life including his only surviving audio interview from October 1947 but also a rich collection of slide film taken on assignment from 1938 until his death in 1954.

The swirly bokeh of fast lenses designed by Joseph Petzval in the mid-19th century is no longer solely available to fine art photographers using view cameras. In July, we profiled a Kickstarter campaign by Lomography to fund the creation of a brass Petzval for Nikon and Canon mounts. Now, a new campaign is hoping to fund the production of an F3.8 120mm lens for medium format cameras with a Pentacon Six and Hasselblad compatible mount.

You don’t have to be into photojournalism or documentary photography to know that Robert Capa was one of the seminal names in 20th century photography. The last few years however, have seen various accusations surface that his iconic photo “Falling Soldier” - apparently showing the moment of death of a Spanish solider - was set up. This week new evidence came to light that might once and for all confirm the true story behind one of the most debated images of all time.

In this interview, Port Magazine sits down with Swiss photojournalist René Burri, to discuss the unbelievable stories behind six iconic photographs from his career including a very casual portrait Pablo Picasso in Cannes, and the reopening of the Suez Canal.

"Set up in 1936, Life magazine believed that pictures could change the world."

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine is a fantastic documentary from the BBC about the life of one of the most important magazines in American history. Narrated by acclaimed photographer Rankin, it follows the people who told the 'story of America' through its most dynamic decades - the 40s, 50s and 60s - and documented its growth into a world superpower.

The greatest 20th Century photographer you've never heard of is about to become a household name. Vivian Maier, the reclusive, very private Chicago nanny whose 150,000-image archive proves her to be one of the most talented street photographers of the past century, is about to be immortalized in two separate films.