An aesthetic that lets the viewer go deeper

By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences

“The idea of photographing shade and shadows is irresistible to a photographer and photo editor,” wrote Samantha Clark when asked about July's National Geographic cover story on widely varying heat and shade in Los Angeles, which she produced with photographer Elliot Ross.

Sam and Elliot share an appreciation for the New Topographics movement in photography in the 1970s. Though the style is a bit banal and dispassionate aesthetically, Sam tells me that it’s these photographers’ ability to find beauty in man-made landscapes, in the everyday, that resonated with her.

For the pictures showing the creative ways Angelenos create their own shade in a warming world, Sam looked to Henry Wessel’s series of average, unassuming houses. “I can’t afford a Wessel print, so I have a small gallery flyer with this project hanging on my fridge,” Sam says. (Pictured above, many Angelenos cobble together what is around to create vibrant and functional shady outdoor spaces.)

My favorite part of this story–a series of stitched sequences of Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles (above)–was inspired by Ed Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip, which Ruscha made by driving a pickup truck down a mile and a half of the famous boulevard with an automated camera. Our four images of different neighborhoods on Vermont Avenue are published in the magazine as a double gatefold, which means two facing pages have flaps that fold out, letting you see the images four pages across.

“I love that Ruscha’s book is an accordion foldout, 25 feet long,” writes Sam, who immediately saw the possibility in such an approach for our magazine. “Digital may reign, but print is still such a tactile treat!”

But this isn’t just art.

Visualizing the legacy of discriminatory housing policies is a challenge, and this approach solves for that. Redlined neighborhoods have fewer trees due to underfunding over decades, explained Sam. Trees are sparser in neighborhoods that had long been considered less suitable for investment. The shift is subtle, but the stitched sequences allow us to see leafy “Grade A” neighborhoods (at top in the stitched-together photos above) adjacent to hotter, baked-concrete, lower-grade neighborhoods (also pictured below). The temperature difference in just a few miles can be more than a dozen degrees, which has become even more searing in a warming world.

In the images, the contrast between the haves and the have nots becomes starkly visible. (Below, the northern end of Vermont Avenue, with its century-old fig trees, in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood, where ownership of some homes was once restricted to Caucasians.) That contrast was the intention, Elliot says: “Some of the most significant threats and issues we as a society face today—among them institutional racism and climate change—are also some of the hardest to visualize in a way that is impactful and tells a story.”

Looking back at the yearlong process, Sam recalls: “I initially imagined the photographs as black and white and high contrast, but the research and reporting took us in another direction.”

She quickly adds: “Where we landed is so much stronger and richer.” (Below, a lone tree in Vernon, an industrial area much hotter than the leafy neighborhoods.) See our examination of unequal temperatures—and comfort—in one American city.

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TODAY IN A MINUTE

When Dad has COVID: Christian Rodriguez, a photographer from New York, found his relationship with his father strengthen after he began taking photos of him in 2013. So when the pandemic first hit and Rodriguez’s father became critically ill with COVID, he decided to document what that period was like for their family and its effects on their relationship, BuzzFeed News reports.

Behind the photos: For Vogue 100: A Century of Style, chief curator Robin Muir pored over more than 1,500 magazine issues of the magazine. Tracking down original prints took his team from Costa Rica to Qatar by way of Paris, Ottawa, New York and Los Angeles. For Vogue, he tells the remarkable stories behind some of the iconic photographs.

The parties are back … and so are the photos: New York’s prominent social scene is ramping up again. What’s a New York event without photographs? “Seeing everyone so excited to be out and getting that documented is gonna tell such a bigger story about New York as they write it in the history books. I don’t think we even realize how big this moment is because we’re in it,” Stephanie Ketty of photo agency BFA tells Town & Country.

Photo pioneers: British brothers Richard Keaton and Cherry Keaton are among the earliest wildlife photographers. To get great shots in the 1890s, they tied ladders to treetops and hid inside fake sheep and ox to capture images of animals. Check out photographs of their creative inventions on PetaPixel.

INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

The legacy of coast-to-coast rail: Thousands of Chinese laborers once worked on the western portion of North America’s first transcontinental railroad. Photographer Philip Cheung, documenting that history, took this image from the mining and agricultural town of Golconda, Nevada, which was bolstered when the Central Pacific Railroad arrived in 1868. These old vehicles are scattered near the route of the railroad, which also brought a large population of Chinese workers to town.

See: What a transcontinental railroad can teach us about anti-Asian racism in America

OVERHEARD AT NAT GEO

Last hurrah: She’s an Olympic high jumper. She’s also dealing with the aftereffects of long-haul COVID-19. And despite warnings from doctors, Priscilla Frederick-Loomis is training for the Summer Games, her last international event before she retires. No way is she missing it, Frederick-Loomis tells us in the latest episode of Overheard, the Nat Geo podcast. “I'll be on oxygen if I need to in between jumps at the Olympics. I don't care,” she says. (Pictured above, Frederick-Loomis competing for Antigua and Barbuda in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.)

HEAR THE PODCAST 

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

The last vaqueros? Climate change, economics, and modern conveniences are endangering the livelihood of Mexican cowboys who photographer Balazs Gardi and writer Jason Motlagh recently followed in southern Baja California. It’s been a year and a half since the last substantial rainfall, cattle are growing weaker, and goats are wandering astray. Fewer young people want to take up the work of rancher Eleonary "Nary" Arce Aguilar (pictured above getting a hug from his daughter). He has to rustle up water from a faraway PVC pipe many days, and deal with the animal illnesses. “All these forces seem to be piling up against” the vaqueros, says Trudi Angell, a guide and backcountry outfitter in Loreto, Mexico.

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 

IN A FEW WORDS

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On Monday, Debra Adams Simmons covers the latest in history. If you don't get the daily newsletter, sign up here for Robert Kunzig on the environment, Victoria Jaggard on science, George Stone on travel, Rachael Bale on animal and wildlife news, and Rachel Buchholz on families and kids.

THE LAST GLIMPSE

I'm here to listen: Yes, that is cat therapist Carole Wilborn in the background of this image by Karen Kuehn. The photograph was part of the “Evolution of Cats,” published in National Geographic’s June 1997 edition. Wilborn works with felines and their humans to address common behavioral issues, notes Sara Manco, the National Geographic Society’s senior photo archivist. What was it that struck Sara about the photo? “The design of the room is especially surreal,” she says, “and aims to emulate the dreams and fears of the animal.”