The Gowanus Canal is a 1.8-mile-long waterway connecting Upper New York Bay (the bay in between Brooklyn, Manhattan, New Jersey, and Staten Island) with the formerly industrial interior of Brooklyn. Originally it was fed by the marshland and freshwater springs in Brooklyn and drained into the Atlantic Ocean in Upper New York Bay.
Because of the way it was created, though, it has become stagnant and polluted by decades of runoff and dumping from local neighborhoods and businesses. In the summer, you can smell it from blocks away. It's not a good smell, but that doesn't deter photographer Steven Hirsch, who finds all kinds of beauty in what floats upon the surface.
Steven Hirsch grew up in Brooklyn in the late 1940s and 50s when Brooklyn was filled with a new middle class. Brooklyn was a paradise and he knew practically the whole borough, except for the Gowanus Canal. It was not until 2010 when a friend took him Hirsch there for the first time that he witnessed the famously polluted and now EPA Superfund waterway.
When one thinks of canals they usually picture tree-lined waterways bustling with commercial activity. Not so with the present-day Gowanus. Built in the middle-to-late 19th century, the canal was to benefit the ever-expanding industrial revolution that arose in Brooklyn and to drain the surrounding marshes for land reclamation. Its creation accomplished those goals, but once it was no longer helpful it was left to decay, and decay it did. Today, the Gowanus Canal is lined by fuel oil depots and bus and scrap metal yards and is recognized as one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States. In 2010 it was declared a Superfund site.
The day Hirsch first visited the acrid and vile smell made him nauseous. While standing on the bank he noticed a large eruption of oil start pulsating on the surface. He photographed it for about 15 minutes and it disappeared as quickly as it started. So was born a fascination with the way two centuries-worth of chemicals and detritus mixed with the water. Hirsch has shot the canal surface dozens of times since that unforgettable day and the result is a series of eerily beautiful abstract photos, telling the visual story of what pollution and indifference hath wrought. The combination of the inky blacks and varied specks and sheens all appear to be galaxy-like, but the viewer must not forget that they are looking at heavily polluted water here on Earth and nestled in one of the nations most populous and affluent cities. Today, efforts are being made to clean up the canal and will need to continue to for years to come, and it is important documentation like Hirsch's work which should help spur action.
Lee Friedlander: Life Still is a landmark monograph that brings together mostly unpublished photographs from one of America’s most influential photographers.
Spanning nearly seventy years, Friedlander’s career has been defined by a unique vision that finds poetry in the everyday. Life Still offers readers a rare glimpse into his expansive archive while introducing new work that underscores his continued relevance and insight. The book creates a compelling dialogue between past and present, showing how Friedlander’s eye consistently discovers humor, irony, and subtle complexity in the ordinary landscapes, urban spaces, and domestic environments he photographs.
Known for his compositional inventiveness and his ability to transform mundane scenes into layered visual narratives, Friedlander captures America in all its contradictions. Streets, signage, storefronts, fences, trees, and reflections become more than background—they become actors in his ongoing exploration of how we inhabit space and interact with culture. Often witty, occasionally surreal, and always meticulously observed, his photographs invite viewers to reconsider what they notice in the world around them.
Life Still features an insightful essay by Pulitzer Prize–winning critic and New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, which contextualizes Friedlander’s work within both historical and contemporary photographic practice. This combination of visual and written perspective illuminates the ways Friedlander’s images continue to challenge conventions and inspire new generations of photographers.
More than a retrospective, Life Still is both a summation of Friedlander’s decades-long career and a testament to his ongoing creative vitality. It is a celebration of observation, a meditation on American life, and a masterclass in seeing with clarity, humor, and empathy. For anyone interested in the art of photography, this monograph offers an intimate and expansive view into the work of a photographer whose vision remains as compelling and relevant today as ever.
Newsha Tavakolian: And They Laughed at Me is a bold and disarming return to the fragile beginnings of a photographer who would later gain international recognition. Instead of assembling a volume of celebrated images, Newsha Tavakolian turns to what she once dismissed as her “eyesores”—photographs made in her teenage years when she began working as a photojournalist in Tehran. Taken at sixteen, in the charged atmosphere of a country shaped by political tension and social constraint, these early frames carry the urgency and uncertainty of youth.
Revisiting these photographs decades later, Tavakolian confronts not only her technical inexperience but also the emotional terrain of growing up under scrutiny. The images reveal crowded streets, intimate domestic moments, and fleeting expressions that hover between defiance and vulnerability. What once felt flawed now reads as raw testimony. Through this act of excavation, she reframes imperfection as evidence of persistence, tracing the arc from youthful aspiration to the sobering awareness of reality’s weight.
The book unfolds as a rite of passage. Tavakolian reflects on the tension between hope and disillusionment, between the instinct to withdraw into darkness and the determination to move toward light. Her career, later marked by international exhibitions and major honors, including the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and the Prince Claus Award, began in these formative encounters with the camera. The photographs capture the seeds of a voice that would grow increasingly nuanced, attentive to identity, censorship, and the quiet resilience of everyday life in Iran.
And They Laughed at Me becomes more than an archival project; it is a meditation on self-doubt and endurance. By embracing images she once rejected, Tavakolian asserts the value of vulnerability in artistic growth. The result is an honest and reflective volume that invites readers to reconsider failure, to see in missteps the contours of becoming, and to recognize that the path toward clarity often begins in uncertainty.
This volume offers a compelling visual record of the people, organizations, and coalitions that shaped the civil rights movement in Los Angeles, presenting a first-of-its-kind photographic history of activism on the American West Coast.
In 1963, during a landmark speech at Wrigley Field before nearly forty thousand people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged Angelenos to confront inequality at home, stating that meaningful change required action within their own city: “The most important thing that you can do is to set Los Angeles free, because you have segregation and discrimination here, and police brutality.”
Marching West traces this urgent call through the lens of photography, revealing how images not only documented the struggle for Black equality but also actively participated in shaping its visibility and momentum. The book brings together more than one hundred photographs, including previously unpublished works, that connect local activism in Los Angeles to broader national movements.
Spanning churches, street demonstrations, cultural gatherings, and political organizing, these images highlight the role of a diverse network of participants—community leaders, religious figures, Hollywood personalities, and everyday citizens—who collectively advanced the fight for civil rights in the American West.
Drawn from significant archives such as the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge, the Getty Research Institute, and other Southern California collections, the volume features work by photographers including Harry Adams, Howard Bingham, Charles Brittin, Joe Flowers, Vera Jackson, and Charles Williams.
Together, these photographs offer more than documentation. They form a layered narrative of resistance and solidarity, expanding the historical understanding of the civil rights era by foregrounding voices and events often overlooked in mainstream accounts of American social progress.
Albert Watson: Kaos is a masterful survey of one of photography’s most influential voices, spanning five decades of work that oscillates between intimacy and spectacle. Watson’s photographs are at once meticulously composed and viscerally immediate, capturing both the iconic and the unexpected with equal authority.
KAOS charts Watson’s journey from his breakthrough Alfred Hitchcock portrait in 1973 to the present, revealing the astonishing range of his vision. Across its pages, readers encounter a kaleidoscope of subjects: celebrities in revealing vulnerability, strangers in fleeting urban moments, wildlife in arresting stillness, and landscapes that shimmer with elemental power. Each frame is a study in light, shadow, and narrative tension, embodying Watson’s extraordinary ability to render the familiar as extraordinary.
The book moves fluidly between worlds. Supermodels and pop icons—David Bowie, Kate Moss, Jay Z, Jennifer Lopez, Mick Jagger—sit alongside anonymous figures in neon-lit cities and remote Scottish landscapes, their presence amplified by Watson’s uncanny sense of timing and composition. From sensuous nudes to stark urban street photography, his work explores surface beauty while hinting at the emotional and psychological depth beneath. Watson’s camera captures not only what is seen, but the subtle textures of human experience: desire, humor, solitude, and magnetism.
Accompanied by an essay from Philippe Garner and enriched with Watson’s own reflections, as well as previously unpublished Polaroids from his personal archive, KAOS is both an authoritative career retrospective and a deeply personal document. The photographs pulse with cinematic allure, formal precision, and the irrepressible vitality of a life spent observing the world in its most dynamic and intimate moments.
Presented in a sumptuous hardcover, with optional signed Art Editions including exclusive prints, Albert Watson: Kaos is a definitive celebration of an artist whose work continues to inspire photographers, collectors, and enthusiasts around the globe, capturing a universe simultaneously chaotic, poetic, and utterly compelling.
For this interview, we wanted to focus specifically on The Face of the Mundari and the wider Pastoral Peoples and Practices series. We spoke with Trevor about his long-term work among the Mundari, what continues to draw him back to their cattle camps, and the experience of documenting a culture whose identity remains deeply connected to livestock, tradition, and the natural environment.
In our latest exclusive feature for All About Photo, I speak with veteran photography representative Frank Meo about what it truly takes to build a sustainable creative career today. Frank brings decades of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, major agencies, and documentary photographers to the table. We dive into the critical business skills often left out of art school curriculums, the power of mentorship, and the inspiring evolution of PROJECTIONS—his international salon platform for visual storytellers. It’s an essential read for anyone navigating the commercial or editorial photography landscape today.
American photographer Carolyn Moore explores the inner landscape of emotion, memory, and personal transformation through a deeply intuitive photographic practice. Her work unfolds as a quiet dialogue between artist and viewer, where images become a space for reflection, vulnerability, and connection.
For over seven years, Of Lilies and Remains has explored the depths of the goth and darkwave underground, unfolding in Leipzig—a city long associated with a vibrant and enduring subcultural scene. Moving between iconic gatherings such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen and more intimate moments on the fringes, the project offers a rare and immersive glimpse into a world often misunderstood, yet rich in expression and community.
Created by Luca in collaboration with Laura Estelle Barmwoldt, the work embraces a cinematic and deeply personal approach. Rather than documenting from a distance, it moves within the scene itself, capturing its atmosphere, its codes, and its quiet contradictions. The title Of Lilies and Remains hints at this duality—where beauty and darkness, fragility and strength coexist.
As the book prepares for its release, we spoke with both artists about the origins of the project, their process, and what it means to document a subculture that continues to evolve while remaining true to its spirit.
American photographer Matthew Finley turns inward, using photography as a way to explore identity, memory, and emotional truth. Based in Los Angeles, his practice moves between performance, gesture, and found imagery, creating a visual language that is both intimate and deeply personal
Dutch photographer Jan Janssen explores universal human experiences through his long-term project It Matters, winner of the May 2025 Solo Exhibition. Begun in 2016, the series captures intimate moments of everyday life—love, loss, connection, and belonging—across Central and Eastern Europe.
Working in countries such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, Janssen spends extended time within communities, building relationships based on trust and respect. His approach allows him to move beyond observation, revealing deeply human and authentic moments.
Rooted in travel and personal discovery, It Matters reflects Janssen’s search for what connects us all in an increasingly divided world. The project is ongoing and will culminate in a photobook scheduled for publication in 2026.
German photographer Henk Kosche turns his lens toward the streets of Halle an der Saale, capturing everyday life in the late years of the former German Democratic Republic. At the time, Kosche was studying design and exploring the city with his camera, drawn to the atmosphere of its industrial landscape and the quiet rhythms of daily life.
His series Street Photography at the End of the 80s, selected as the Solo Exhibition for July 2025, revisits a body of work created just before a period of profound change. Rediscovered decades later in a small box of 35mm negatives, these photographs offer glimpses of a city and its people at a moment suspended between the familiar and the unknown.
Anastasia Samoylova is an American artist whose photographic practice is shaped by close observation and a deep attentiveness to place. Working between documentary and formal exploration, she photographs landscapes, architecture, and everyday scenes with a sensitivity to light, structure, and atmosphere. Since relocating to Miami in 2016, her work has increasingly focused on how environments—both natural and built—carry social, cultural, and emotional traces. We asked her a few questions about her practice and her way of seeing, to better understand the thoughts and experiences that shape her work—while allowing the images themselves to remain open and speak in their own time.
Marijn Fidder is a Dutch documentary photographer whose work powerfully engages with current affairs and contemporary social issues. Driven by a deep sense of social justice, she uses photography to speak on behalf of the voiceless and to advocate for the rights of those who are most vulnerable. Her images have been widely published in major international outlets including National Geographic, CNN Style, NRC Handelsblad, Volkskrant, GUP New Talent, and ZEIT Magazin.
Her long-term commitment to disability rights—particularly through years of work in Uganda—culminated in her acclaimed project Inclusive Nation, which earned her the title of Photographer of the Year 2025 at the All About Photo Awards. She is also the recipient of multiple prestigious honors, including awards from World Press Photo and the Global Peace Photo Award.
We asked her a few questions about her life and work.
