Skip to main content

Nat Geo magazine dedicates 125th anniversary to the photography that shaped its history

nat geo magazine dedicates 125th anniversary to the photography thats shaped its history proof
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Photography plays a major role in National Geographic magazine. While its main goal is to further education and exploration around nature, geography, history, and culture, it’s the stunning photography accompanying the articles that many people associate with the magazine. As the publication prepares to celebrate its 125th anniversary next month, it’s doing so by making it all about the imagery.

nat-geo-october-photography-issueThe October issue of Nat Geo is simply titled, “The Photography Issue.” According to the magazine, the issue will highlight the medium that it “has helped to shape, looking at how photography has the power to impact our lives by bearing witness, helping to prove fact, giving us insight into each other, revealing unknown places, celebrating wonder and inspiring us to protect our natural world.” Some of the featured photographers include Marcus Bleasdale, James Balog, Martin Schoeller, David Guttenfelder, Abelardo Morell, and Joel Sartore.

Nat Geo has achieved a long list of photography firsts, including documenting the first American ascent of Mount Everest and Jane Goodall’s work with primates, capturing the undersea in color and the first photographic survey of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere. The work also exemplified uses of the latest photographic technologies from that time.

Nat Geo sponsors several photography-related competitions and events as well. To complement the October issue, it will launch a new photo-sharing campaign beginning October 1 through its “community engagement platform” called Your Shot. All photographers are invited to submit photos based on the themes of the October issue. 

In addition, the magazine this week launched a new photo blog called Proof. The site, edited by NationalGeographic.com’s photo director Keith Jenkins, takes a closer look at the magazine’s photography efforts, along with what’s happening in the medium. The site has already posted some must-read pieces, including interviews with various Nat Geo photographers about photography from their POV.

“Proof will offer a real-time look at our storytelling process – everything from how to edit down 60,000 photographs to 12, to which single item a photographer on a four-month assignment can’t live without,” Jenkins wrote in a post describing the new site. “Equally important to us is finding more incredible stories that you, our members, have created, and then spreading them around the globe. We want to celebrate, with you, all the possibilities for visual storytelling that this new century offers.”

Les Shu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…
DJI Mini Pro 4 leak appears to reveal the drone’s specs
A retail box apparently showing DJI's upcoming Mini Pro 4 drone.

DJI appears close to unveiling the Mini 4 Pro, the successor to the Mini 3 Pro that launched in May last year.

First, as a reminder, DJI’s smallest and lightest “Pro” drone tips the scales at just 249 grams, a carefully considered move as it’s just 1 gram below the drone weight category that involves having to register it with the authorities. Sure, that’s no great hardship for most folks, but the fewer hoops you have to jump through to get your bird in the sky, the better.

Read more
GoPro unveils its latest action camera, the Hero 12 Black
GoPro's Hero 12 Black action camera.

GoPro is back with the latest iteration of its popular action camera. The new GoPro Hero 12 Black is the kind of solid piece of kit we’ve come to expect from a company that’s been in the game for years. That’s actually created a bit of a problem for GoPro, with many customers happy to hang onto their current model rather than upgrade. So it'll be hoping the latest version will be attractive enough to prompt a wave of purchases among current owners, while at the same time attracting a bunch of first-time buyers, too.

Notable with the new device is the battery life (using the supplied Enduro battery), which GoPro claims gets you up to double that of the Hero 11 Black, depending on the mode that's used.

Read more
How to hide photos on your Android phone or tablet
Google Photos

While modern smartphones are quite secure as long as they remain locked with a passcode or biometrics like a fingerprint, by default those features only protect the front door. If someone picks up your phone while it's unlocked, there aren't typically any barriers that will keep them out of exploring everything from your contacts and emails to your photos.

This can be particularly challenging when it comes to photos, since those are the things we like to show off the most from our phones. We've likely all had those moments when we want to show a friend or co-worker a funny cat meme, so we hand over our phone and trust that they won't swipe right and see the photo of the hairy mole that we sent to our doctor that morning.

Read more