Celebrations of Earth
Photo Essay by Stuart Franklin

From mist-wreathed Chinese mountains to the wind-scoured Saudi desert, a gallery of photographs captures some of the most striking vistas of our planet as we begin the year 2000.

Life Beyond Earth
By Joel Achenbach
Photographs by Peter Essick

What’s out there? Astronomers have searched for signs of extraterrestrial life for centuries. They have yet to find an alien microbe, much less intelligent life, but the eyes of science are seeing further than ever before.

* Read excerpts from the article and an additional essay by Joel Achenbach. Then share your thoughts in our forum.

Rediscovering America
By Tim Brookes
Photographs by Tomasz Tomaszewski

A British-born author and a Polish photographer travel across the United States—each for a second time—in search of hope, harmony, and their own American dream.

Tibet Embraces the New Year
By Ian Baker
Photographs by Maria Stenzel

In a sacred and festive celebration each winter, Tibetan Buddhists perform rituals to secure prosperity for the months ahead.

The Enigma of Beauty
By Cathy Newman
Photographs by Jodi Cobb

We humans care passionately about how we look. Throughout history and in every part of the world we have primped, preened, posed, and sometimes put our health on the line—all for an ideal no one can truly define.

Light in the Deep
Photographs by David Doubilet

For a quarter of a century David Doubilet has delved beneath the ocean’s surface to astonish us with illuminating images of this dark realm.

Black Dragon River; The Rise of Life on Earth; Albanians; A People Undone; Eyewitness Kosovo; Central Africa’s Orphan Gorillas; Selma to Montgomery; Ancient Greece