Perhaps it is time to return to the belief that graffiti is a political act. Maybe then we can embrace it as an agent for social change.
A 1928 cigarette card classifying an ‘Egyptian beauty’: these cards depicted women as exotic creatures, a trend that can still be seen at beauty contests today.
Author provided
Collectable cigarette cards once depicted ‘exotic’ beauties, classified by the colonial eye. And today’s beauty contests still present women as exotic representatives of their nation.
The distinctive visual style of Robert Mapplethorpe’s beautiful, oversized images seems now more classical than shocking. But he can still reveal the subconscious of an era we think we have outgrown.
Rhonda Senbergs photographed the Australian art world for over 25 years until her death in 1998. From Fred Williams to Bob Hawke to Margaret Olley, many were captured by her lens.
Ryan Kelly’s iconic photograph of the moment that James Fields’ car plowed into a crowd of protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Ryan M. Kelly/AP
Ryan Kelly’s iconic photograph from Charlottesville evokes a ‘Unite the Right’ moment from 1937 – and the anti-war masterpiece by Picasso that emerged from it.
An aerial shot of discarded life jackets on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Tasos Markou
In late 2015, 200,000 refugees a month were arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos. Tasos Markou went there to photograph their plight - and ended up joining the locals to help the new arrivals.
A photo entitled “Apprehension” is part of the Still Here project at the University of British Columbia’s Men’s Health Research Program. The project uses photos to engage gay and bisexual men who have previously struggled with suicide.
Pride Month: It’s time to talk about the shockingly high rate of suicide among gay and bisexual men. Photos and stories in the Still Here project document the complex reasons.
A scene in the Bronx curated from Google Street View.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation via Google
In the 10 years since Google Street View launched, the platform has provided ample fodder for artists, who have used it to comment on surveillance, poverty and gentrification.
A baby Hawaiian bobtail squid, measuring just 1.5cm across, is pictured using photomacrography.
Mark R Smith/Macroscopic Solutions
A better understanding of science among ordinary people validates the vast amounts of public funds spent on scientific research.
Syrian doctors treat a child following a suspected chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria.
Edlib Media Center, via AP, File
Exploring the role and limits of photography is a task that appears all the more relevant in the era of fake news.
The emotional and physical experiences of fatigue, stress, anxiety, and isolation are almost never seen in the popular images of pregnancy.
reebob/flickr
Unlike Beyoncé, a group of Australian women documenting their own pregnancies captured mundane images of track pants, barren wardrobes and self-portraits in a bathroom mirror.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition features sumptuous images: from giant cuttlefish courting to a vertigo-inducing portrait of an orangutan taken with a GoPro camera.
Activists, New York City Pride Parade (2016)
Roddy Roye/Instagram
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne