© Vincent J Musi.

National Geographic photographer Vince J Musi is an award winning photographer whose unique take on animal photography was recognized in the 2011 PDN Photo Annual. The early deadline for the 2012 Photo Annual is TODAY at midnight PST. The image above  is from a story on wild things bred for their aggressive behavior. Scientists in Novosibirsk, Russia, are comparing these rats to those bred for friendliness to understand the connection between genetics and behavior.

All photos © Erika Larsen.
Erika Larsen’s long term project ‘Sami: The People Who Walk With Reindeer’ will be on exhibit at The Half King Gallery in NYC with an opening reception on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 7:30pm. Shot from 2007-2011, the project is an intimate look at one of the oldest nomadic herding cultures in the world. Larsen says, “I came here to understand the primal drive of the modern hunter and to find a people who, when the land spoke, could interpret its language. I also came in search of silence so I could begin to hear again.”

The reception will feature a film screening and slide-show with a discussion moderated by Erika and Sarah Leen, senior photo editor at National Geographic Magazine. The exhibit will run until March 13th. To see a more intimate glimpse of Larsen’s project, watch this short video.

-courtesy Redux.

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All photos © LUCEO.

On Friday, January 13th, from 6-10PM the LUCEO cooperative is hosting their third annual exhibition at 25CPW in New York City. Titled “Greater Than The Sum”, the exhibition highlights the group’s ability to connect, collaborate and create. LUCEO seeks to engage the audience, making them the final arbiter in the work. Breaking from tradition, their new exhibition “Greater Than The Sum” combines a broad curation of each photographers work into one 163′ run that spans the entire gallery. Rather than selling individual prints, LUCEO is selling CUTS which give guests the opportunity to hand-cut a 24×24″ section of the print they most want. The show also consists of an interactive installation and a soundscape scored by composer Tyler Strickland.

For those that can’t attend in person, you can still reserve a CUT and LUCEO will have a stand-in make the cut for you, or you can purchase a limited edition catalogue from the LUCEO store. The catalogue also includes a download score for the unique soundscape.

-courtesy LUCEO.

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All photos © Michael Hanson. Above: Paul Glowaski, the director of the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, CA, stands in a field at sunset.

People have always grown food in urban spaces—on windowsills and sidewalks, and in backyards and neighborhood parks—but today, urban farmers are leading an environmental and social movement with intent to transform our national food system. To explore this agricultural renaissance, brothers David and Michael Hanson and urban farmer Edwin Marty document twelve successful urban farm programs, from an alternative school for girls in Detroit, to a backyard food swap in New Orleans, to a restaurant supply garden on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Each essay offers practical advice for budding farmers, such as composting and keeping livestock in the city, decontaminating toxic soil, even changing zoning laws.

For seven weeks, David, Michael, and videographer, Charlie Hoxie, traveled the country in a short school bus powered by veggie grease (and a minivan after too many breakdowns delayed the production). The trio slept in empty lots overlooking the Pacific Ocean, mall parking lots, and alongside the very farms they were documenting.The images and stories to come out of these farms show that America’s urban landscape is rich with opportunity for fresh local food. Hanson’s book, Breaking Through Concrete : Building an Urban Farm Revival, published by University of California Press, was recently released.

-courtesy Michael Hanson.

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All photos © Sharon Harper/Courtesy of Galerie Roepke, Cologne and Rick Wester Fine Art, New York City. Above: Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 2. November 8, 2003. Greensboro, North Carolina.

NASA says that its twin probes are scheduled to arrive on the moon New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The data they collect may solve some of the mystery that remains about the lunar surface. The mission’s chief scientist, Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the AP: ”We actually know more about Mars … than we do about our own moon.”

For her series Moon Studies and Star Scratches,  Sharon Harper photographed the moon over a period of days, weeks and months on a single sheet of film.  Harper says the camera is “a metaphor for the pervasive presence of technology within the landscape, a presence that often interrupts our experience of the natural world. The camera here, however, creates possibilities for re-interpreting contemporary experience as it mediates and records, generating images that cannot be seen without it. In the images from the series…the moon links our understanding of time in terms of a monthly calendar with a celestial realm where time is measured in light years.” Moon Studies and Star Scratches is featured in Daylight Magazine’s current issue, Cosmos. Harper’s newer series, Sun/Moon (Trying to See through a Telescope), is currently on view at Galerie Roepke in Cologne through January 21st.

Wishing you all new perspectives for 2012.

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