All images courtesy of NASA.

The core of the spectacular globular cluster Omega Centauri glitters with the combined light of 2 million stars. The entire cluster contains 10 million stars, and is among the biggest and most massive of some two hundred globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters are ancient swarms of stars united by gravity.

This image and caption, and those that follow, are from the recently released Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time by Edward J. Weiler, published by Abrams in collaboration with NASA to mark the 20th anniversary of the April 24, 1990, launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. (more…)

All photographs © Joel Sartore. Mexican Gray Wolf, Canis lupus baileyi; population 392; Wild Candid Center, Eureka, Missouri.

National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore began photographing North America’s endangered animal and plant species as a personal project. It grew into a decades-long endeavor. His new book, RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species (National Geographic Focal Point, hardcover, $24), which was released today, gathers 80 of his photographs with text profiles that introduce readers to each species and detail the reasons for their endangerment. Sartore also includes personal anecdotes about the animals and how he made many of the photographs. Sartore’s book visually celebrates the biodiversity of the American continent and gives readers a sense of the forces—man-made and otherwise—influencing the survival of these species. The book also includes several species that coming back from the precipice of extinction. Below are a selection of images from Sartore’s book, along with his anecdotes. (more…)

All photographs © Richard Misrach

PDN readers voted Richard Misrach’s 2007 book On The Beach one of the most influential books of the decade in a survey conducted for our January 30th Visions of the Decade issue. Taken from hotel room windows in Hawaii over the course of three years from 2002–2005, Misrach’s large-format photographs of beach scenes were published by Aperture in a beautiful oversize book. (more…)

All Photographs © Josef Koudelka. Behind the CKD Praha factory, looking towards the Hloubetin district.

In a recent survey leading up to the release of the 30th anniversary issue of PDN, readers voted Josef Koudelka’s Invasion 68: Prague (Aperture, 2008) one of the most influential books of the decade. The book (which has been published in in ten countries, most recently in Russia) gathers more than 250 of the photographs Koudelka took in August 1968 during the Prague Spring, when Warsaw Pact tanks invaded Prague and Soviet soldiers clashed with citizens and protesters. (more…)

All photographs © Gary Cialdella. Two Houses, Steiber Street Whiting, IN 1999.

Once a major crossroads for American industry, the Calumet Region sits on the south shore of Lake Michigan, just east of Chicago, straddling the border between Illinois and northern Indiana. Like so many American post-industrial regions, the Calumet is a mixture of rail yards, refineries, abandoned or underused plants, once-prosperous Main Streets, modest homes, changing neighborhoods and signs of urban renewal.

Photographer Gary Cialdella grew up on the Eastern edge of the Calumet in Blue Island, Illinois. When he left for college, he had no thoughts of returning, but as an adult he moved to nearby Michigan. More than 20 years ago, he reacquainted himself with the area and began photographing it. He recently released his book of black-and-white landscapes, The Calumet Region: An American Place (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago/Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University). The work is also on display at the Brauer Museum of Art through March 21, 2010.

For more on Gary Cialdella’s project The Calumet Region, see our article, “Ain’t That America” (Exposures, January 2010). (more…)